What More Can I Say?

Insert any number of Jay-Z references here. I will not be coming back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5. My kingdom will not be coming. You cannot get an encore and I don’t think you want more anyway. Etc., etc., etc.

But I’m being melodramatic. As you may have guessed, I’m shutting down HaterPlayer (or is it Hater Player? Hah, I’ve confused plenty of people. Branding FAIL). There are a number of reasons I’m closing up shop. The most tangible one being that I’ve started up a new blog, SDRaps.com, dedicated to rap and hip-hop music from San Diego. On top of that, my job is turning into like a career or some shit. And I think I fucked around and managed to find some semblance of a life now. I barely have enough energy for all that as it is. I just don’t have it in me to keep HaterPlayer alive.

But really, as I see it, this blog has very little business being up anyway. For the past 2 or so years that I’ve been blogging, lots of things have changed, both in the nature of the wider blogging world and the nature of this blog. I first started HaterPlayer as a means to talk mad shit about rap music thinking that I was 1. so goddamn hiLARious; and 2. sooooo original. Friends have been asking me why I’m not as fun or as funny in my writing anymore. To a certain extent, blogging got less fun, point blank. Bloggers started fighting more and everyone just wanted to piss on each other (a gross bastardization of what The Great R. Kelly has taught us, I’d say). At the same time, I started wanting to be a “serious” writer and tried to take my writing abilities in a direction that might get published in the local paper. Finally, I quickly discovered that there was no shortage of snark and haterationalizationics in the Internest. It just started to sound really old.

So this blog started evolving and has constantly been changing ever since. I don’t mean this in the “Oh my god, I’ve grown so much, I love my life and everything about me” wholesome sort of way either. I mean just that: it has constantly been changing. I basically could never settle on an identity for this blog, could never figure out what the purpose of this blog would be. Would it be something of a media dump for mp3s and videos? Would it be an obscure rap blog? Would it be a critical corner in which I offer thoughtful commentary on music and all the things surrounding it? Could it be a more personal blog again where I can talk about my experiences dealing with music? Who is my audience: my personal friends, my music-nerd blogger peers, or “real people” scouring the web for something of value? And that led to the big question: what real value am I adding to the already over-saturated Internet info dump?

I could never answer any of those questions with confidence. At the same time, I was over-extending myself by writing for the BS that is Examiner and an old friend’s indie music blog (of which my friend has since quit, as have I). I juggled all roles and did so pretty poorly, letting things drop off harder than the last couple seasons of The Office. I’ve gone from Kevin Malone awesomeness to like Ryan The Temp working at the bowling alley status or something.

At this point, the act of blogging does not contribute to my health anymore. Not that I need to get paid but at the very least, I need to feel like I’m contributing something valuable to the (web) conversation and the world-at-large.

Hence SDRaps.com. There is currently no working blog covering rap music from San Diego. Neither are there publications that are really willing to devote much space to rap in San Diego. Neither is there really much of a rap scene in San Diego worth writing about, hah. But as I’ve grown to appreciate small local rap pockets from all over the country, I hope that eventually this pocket will turn up some gold. So I’ll cover this niche until it does.

Obviously, none of the 3.5 regular readers of HaterPlayer could give a rat’s ass about San Diego rap. In that case, there are plenty of ways to stay connected to me, if you’re not already:

• Check out my Google Shared Items Feed. I finally learned how to read recently and I’m so joyous that I can’t stop reading. Don’t mind all the political shit, I’m still trying to holler at a girl that I blew it with way back in school. Because the Web 2.0/recession version of the nice ride and leather jacket has to be to just look mad intelligent on your Google Shared Items Feed, right?
• Still stalking hard on Facebook.
• Not as hard on Twitter these days but I’m still there.
• I started a Formspring like a jackass (I’ve only had like 3 questions so far, hah).

So y’know, it’s been cool. Thanks for reading. Special thanks to anyone who left a comment and gave me the comfort of thinking that someone was at least sorta listening to me ramble on, stretching my rhetoric to turn bad rap into good rap. I’d leave you with a gift but I’m too lazy I figure the precious memories together with me are gift enough. Peace bitches!!!!!

Bloggers are goddamn faggots*

I thought I could go through my entire blogging life without encountering any blog-related beef. But no, bloggers are such a temperamental bunch and like to act hard in a faux-intellectual way and it was only a matter of time before I got caught up in something like it. I’m really bothered because the thing is, it’s one of those where you lose for being civil and trying to mediate real discussion/conversation when the other person just wants to show you from what distance they can piss on you. I know this is pretty common in the bloggerverse, but I’d mostly steered clear of it until now and it’s just incredulous when I’m face-to-face with it.

So this is an actual conversation I had on Twitter with @sweeneykovar. My bad, I don’t know how to do that thing where I can take a pic of a Tweet. I’m just typing it back out verbatim and it’s not easy on the eyes. You can verify by visiting both @sweeneykovar and @dotquan accounts:

sweeneykovar: anyone else tired of that Weiss guy? or is it just me?

dotquan: @sweeneykovar did he throw backhand disses at lowendtheory or something?

sweeneykovar: @dotquan no, do you have a problem with me being critical of journalists?

sweeneykovar: @dotquan oh and I did read your @shafiqhusayn review, that was pretty uninformed too

dotquan: @sweeneykovar what the fuck? i actually had no sarcasm/malice in my comment

dotquan: @sweeneykovar is this just a blogger thing to think everyone’s trying to start beef?

sweeneykovar: @dotquan well the little of your stuff that i have read reads with a great deal of sarcasm/malice, thats why i asked.

dotquan: @sweeneykovar all i did was ask why you were irked/annoyed/whatever by weiss. not to defend him, just starting actual conversation

sweeneykovar: @dotquan you started a conversation, i responded saying asking if you had a problem with me taking Weiss to task and that i thought one of

dotquan: @sweeneykovar thats the thing, u assumed i had a problem with u taking weiss to task. i don’t. i’m asking, why? what did he do this time?

sweeneykovar: @dotquan your pieces was uninformed as I’m claiming him to be at times as well. don’t really see the beef.

sweeneykovar: @dotquan i didnt assume. assuming would have been me stating, not asking. reading is fundamental.

dotquan: @sweeneykovar ok, i’m trying to actually have a convo abt music journalism/criticism. ur circling the subject and dissing me pointlessly

dotquan: @sweeneykovar i still have no idea what weiss did besides writing something uninformed. no specifics abt what particularly was uninformed

sweeneykovar: @dotquan not circling the subject, i asked you a question. and not dissing you pointlessly, your shafiq review was uninformed and sucked IMO

dotquan: @sweeneykovar “not circling the subject.” and still no mention of weiss’s articles

dotquan: @sweeneykovar i mean i’m reading them now and you’re not telling me what i should be taking with a grain of salt

dotquan: @sweeneykovar obvs u kno plenty abt lowend and offer me nothing in the way of info

dotquan: @sweeneykovar basically, i’m uninformed. and you are deciding to keep me uninformed

sweeneykovar: @dotquan my criticism of Weiss stem from past articles i’ve read of his and conversations about the journalistic coverage of our culture…

sweeneykovar: @dotquan that i’ve had with friends in the past, one article that sticks in my mind is his piece on Jay Elect, I dont read his writings…

sweeneykovar: @dotquan religiously so I dont have several citations to provide you with,

sweeneykovar: @dotquan last constructive thing i have to say to you; if I’M keeping YOU uninformed then you’ve got a problem yo, you decide that not me

dotquan: @sweeneykovar omfg, u insinuate that i can’t read, say my writing sux, then pretend like ur not dissing me

dotquan: @sweeneykovar here u are an expert in a certain music scene and a writer. and i ask you for ur expertise on said scene, u tell me to fuckoff

Young Mass reveals another song from Dr. Dre’s ‘Detox’

Young Mass “Misery” (Detox reference track)
Mixtape: Young Mass – Uggly

Again, apologies for more than a week-long hiatus (though I haven’t been completely dormant).

However, for the wait, I bring what may be a much sought-after find. Here’s what looks to be another reference track for Dr. Dre’s Detox. You might remember last year when T.I., Killer Mike, and Ludacris all seemed to give up on Detox ever dropping and then leaked their own reference tracks they had submitted to Dr. Dre. Well, here’s another one to add to the collection. Maybe eventually, we can just collect all these reference tracks and build out our own rough version of Detox.

Young Mass is a rapper out of San Diego and former member of Digital Underground. “Misery” comes from Mass’s recently released Uggly mixtape, which upon first listen, is full of pretty solid lyrically lyrical rap with West Coast, Dre-inspired beats (the beats that are original anyway, as there is some beat-jacking going on). “Misery” definitely seems to fit right into Dre’s mold with its lush, clean orchestration contrasted by the dark, almost-militaristic drums. A good backdrop on which to instruct hating rappers to kneel like peasants.

LaDainian Tomlinson – LT Slide Electric Glide

For archival purposes. And yet, this is still only about half as hilarious as this very real commercial. #EndorsementFail

Devin The Dude talks ‘Doobie Ashtray’

How classically Devin is this? Devin bullshits about some old doobie for a minute and a half before talking some real ass shit for about 30 seconds …… and then wrapping it up with another joke about his weed. I remember I was driving my friend home once and “Doobie Ashtray” comes on. I start trying to explain the brilliance of Devin The Dude wrapping up all this real, gut-wrenching emotion into a shell of weed talk. And it was breaking my heart that my friend just could not get past the weed surface. “It’s about weed.” “Yeah, but it’s really about how lonely and depressed dude is.” “Yeah, but …… he’s still talking about weed.” And he used that as an excuse to kinda brush it off. Eventually, he countered that even if my point was valid, he would find it hard to believe that Devin had this same sort of deep thought process in constructing the song. To him, Devin was probably just letting the weed talk for him. But here, my friend stands corrected.

Anyways, Devin is the greatest rapper, dead or alive. Link via Maurice Garland. The full “Doobie Ashtray” after the jump.

Mr. Brady (of Deep Rooted) – Leftovers vol. 2

Mixtape: Mr. Brady – Leftovers vol. 2
Highlights: “Consciousness” ft. Sha Dula & Asia, “Focused” ft. Hardware

I know it feels like this has become almost exclusively a San Diego rap blog but don’t worry. It just happens to be a great month for SD rap. Blame One released Leaks and Gemz last week, Mitchy Slick plans to drop The Yellow Tape at the end of the month, and today, producer-emcee Mr. Brady of Deep Rooted throws Leftovers vol. 2 out to the Internest.

Mr. Brady follows in the tradition of Jaylib-era J Dilla, creating lo-fi boom bap beats with retarded amounts of bass best enjoyed with your medical marijuana card. A lot of emcees join the fray (Blame One, Moka Only, Sene, Abstract Rude), but they mostly do their best not to get in the way. I wouldn’t say the music is real progressive, but it’s a helluva Dilla impression and some of these beats made me react in the same way I do when I hear Jaylib or certain tracks off of Ruff Draft. If only more producers abused bass, the world would be better. Tracklist (and alternate cover?) after the jump:

Casual of Hieroglyphics raps in Egyptian

Casual fulfills the Hieroglyphics crew’s destiny by rapping in Egyptian and writing Egyptian. Some school friends and I have always had a dream of throwing a show with Hiero and Pharoahe Monch and billing it “The Egyptian Hip-Hop Show” (I guess I’d also add Egyptian Lover to the bill; but Army of the Pharoahes? Maybe not so much). This is kinda close though.

Via Grandgood. More Casual after the jump, from his Youtube account.