Skillz’ 07 Rap Up video (director’s cut). [Via: Soveryfresh.com]

Skillz - The Rap Up 2007 - Dope lyrics, wack beat.

Skillz is a renowned ghostwriter who claims to have penned songs for Foxy Brown, Diddy, Will Smith, Jermaine Dupri, and others. He’s been putting it down on the mic since ‘92, and has three solid albums under his belt. But it’s his other accomplishment that made Skillz popular.

For the past five years, the incredibly talented Skillz (b.k.a. Mad Skillz) has been bringing us yearly reviews. Every year, around this time, Skillz takes inventory of the main events that rocked the worlds of hip-hop, R&B, and pop. He’s probably busy recapping 2007 as we speak. Maybe, he’s still waiting for one more celebrity divorce to wind things up for ‘07.

I’ve created a playlist of all the Rap-Ups for your listening pleasure. These things are like taking a history lesson on urban music. My favorites are 2002 (I still have a tape-recorded version of this one) and 2006 (too many quotables, including: “Nas said ‘hip-hop was dead’ but northern cats spit all year tryin’ to bring New York back. Y’all need to lighten up son, get a hug. The only time New York came back was on Flavor of Love“).

Check out the previous Rap-Up songs after the gap. (more…)

The Rap Up community is officially open for business. Membership is free and you’re all invited. Republicans are welcome too.

• Join The Rap Up Community

Your support has earned The Rap Up as many as 5 H!N points, which means we’re 2 points ahead of NBC.com and 1 point ahead of last.fm. Thanks for your solid support. Keep those votes coming and I just might surprise you guys with a holiday giveaway.

• Vote for The Rap Up

Fellow TRUbians, it’s with great honor and gratitude that I bring you this great news. The Rap Up has been nominated by Billboard.com and Nielsen.com as one of the Top Music Blogs in the U.S. The five blogs with the highest number of votes will emerge as finalists. Voting kicks off on Monday (November 12), but you can head on to the site and write an opinion about The Rap Up now. Yeah, all those nice things you’ve been telling me via email, here’s an opportunity to show the world why you truly dig The Rap Up. Mark your calendars and let’s make The Rap Up a winner.

Thanks for your continued support.

• Write an opinion about The Rap Up

Over the years, many of you ride-or-die T.R.U. loyalists have expressed great admiration for the site. It’s been a truly tremendous response and I can’t say I’m not flattered. Fortunately, I have some exciting news to share with you. The Rap Up is eligible for this year’s Black Weblog Awards. Let’s use this opportunity to announce to the whole world that TheRapUp.net is our daily cup of coffee.

Something powerful inspired you to join the T.R.U. movement. Maybe it’s your appreciation for fresh-off-the-oven audios and and mud-wrestling videos. Maybe it’s your desire to see which B-list rapper will be rocking bullet dentures on their cover this week. Whatever your reasons, now’s the perfect time to stand behind your favorite blog.

I don’t have federal lobbyists. I can’t promise cyber-handshakes. But I can hook you up with some tricks on how to surf TheRapUp.net and still make your boss think you’re working on a Microsoft Word document. Now through August 15th, you can vote for TheRapUp.net (please use the url www.therapup.net) in any/all of the following categories:

• Best Hip-Hop Blog
• Best Music Blog
• Best Writing in a Blog
• Blog of the Year
• Best Blog Post Series (Consider the “What’s Beef” series: 3 | 2 | 1)

We’ve built something together that’s bigger than me. So, I’m turning this drive over to you. Tell all your friends and family to go buy a computer so they can vote for The Rap Up.

One last thing, do honor the voting rules. Use a different email if you’re planning on voting more than 200 times.

VOTE AWAY!

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Enjoy!

Rizoh returns in 3 days…

P.S. Spurs…in 4…told y’all… ;-D

Anybody else disappointed by The Sopranos’ last episode?

Anyways, I’ll be holding down T.R.U. ’til big homie Rizoh comes back from his well-earned vaca’. Stay tuned…

- Ivan

Rizoh returns in 7 days…