When I praised Atmosphere’s When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold as the year’s best rap album, hardly did I expect anyone to agree with me. I was simply following my conviction. If anything, I expected chants of “Emo! Emo!!” or something to that effect. Turns out 35,000 others echoed my sentiments.

According to Billboard, Lemons has set a new first-week sales record for Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Hip-hop artist Atmosphere easily scores his best sales and chart week ever as “When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Sh*t Gold” (Rhymesayers) starts at No. 5 with 36,000. His previous charting high-water mark came from 2005’s “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having,” which peaked at No. 66. “When Life…” also becomes the highest-charting album for the Rhymesayers label; the previous best was, again, Atmosphere’s stop at No. 66.

Yeah, you read that right. Billboard just addressed Atmosphere as an individual. Funny stuff.

Aww…sh*t, this is the Busta I remember from my early teenage years.

Little Vic – “Evil That Men Do” (prod. by Buckwild)
Accompanied by haunting piano loops and a thumping bassline, Vic exhibits his knack for storytelling. One of my favorite cuts on Vic’s album, Each Dawn I Die.

See also:
Little Vic – “Caked Up” (feat. Kool G Rap)
Little Vic – “The Exorcist” (prod. by DJ Premier)

Busta pandering to hipsters? Not complaining though.

In a grammatically embarrassing lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Dame Dash’s baby mama claims that he’s refused to man up for his own child, among other things.

Peep game:

“Petitioner states that the Respondent is a flight risk because he has a history of fleeing with the child. Petitioner states that On March 21, 2003 the Respondent was issued a warrant of arrest for absconded of a child (Our son Damon Dash II).Responded was arrested until he produced child.”

The suit goes on to say that Dame once took his son to the morgue to identify the body of his uncle, who committed suicide around Thanksgiving.

“Petitioner states that her son said is was very very, very traumatic and feels his father never should of taken him to see something like that…”

She also complains about not having anyone to prepare her kid’s meals. On top of that, she wants $10 million for his trust fund.

I don’t know which is more deplorable — men who bail on fail their kids or women who obviously have no shame in trying to exploit the father’s fame.

[via: TMZ]

Killah Priest has a new album on the way. Peep the official tracklist.
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Donny Goines – “Kill a Pig”
Donny’s response to the Sean Bell verdict.

I understand the angry reaction, but this is getting unnecessarily ugly.
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To be fair, much of the problem with Rising Down lies in the production. Riq, Malik B, Dice Raw and the supporting cast came lyrically correct from start to finish, a few menial missteps notwithstanding (”Birthday Girl,” anyone?). Production-wise, it lacks the bite of Things Fall Apart, or even the eccentricity of Phrenology. The music here is mostly claustrophobic, which only enhances the acerbic tone of the album. Thought’s angry phone calls serve to remind us of how hard they worked to get here. We get it. You dudes are angry. The road to rap stardom is littered with broken bottles and shrapnel. Well, so is the road to blog stardom, but you don’t hear me griping. Funny thing is, that’s what made Game Theory my favorite album of 06 — that cautiously confrontational approach. Rising Down, on the other hand, is everything Game Theory isn’t — inexorably extrusive and all over the place. Unless, of course, I’m mistaking the thread for litter.

And what’s up with Kweli only turning in a chorus on “I Will Not Apologize”? It seems to me that they failed to take advantage of his current streak of rewind-worthy execution only to turn around and miscast him on the maudlin “Lost Desire.”

For all its confrontational posturing, though, Rising Down is not devoid of magical moments. I can’t stop playing the aforementioned Fela tribute “I Will Not Apologize,” for instance. The title track ended up being one of my favorite cuts on the album. “Rising Down” should be required listening for all aspiring MCs … folks need to actually memorize all three verses. Thought’s wordplay, Def’s delivery, and P’s scathing commentary all yield a delectable plate of hip-hop gumbo rare in rap collabos these days. With the exception of a couple other joints, the only songs getting the best of my repeat button so far have been the four that leaked prior to official release: “Rising Down,” “Rising Up,” “75 Bars,” and “Get Busy.” As a collection of songs, Rising Down is a solid mix. As an album, it left me unsatisfied. Oh well, there’s always Game Theory.