IS BROOKLYN IN THE HOUSE???

Over the last couple of months, I have been hearing nothing except for who is gonna carry the torch for New York City. In the last issue of XXL with Officer Ricky on the cover, there is an article about the last crop of emcees from Hip Hop's capital...and how years later....they are either shelved, dropped from labels, or we don't know where the hell they are right now.

Joell Ortiz- signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath, but with the Three-Headed monster, there was no tellin' when he was going to drop so he left.

Papoose- signed to Jive for a $1.5 million dollar deal, buzz was huge from '04-06...but he left...and since then we ain't heard from him.

Saigon- signed to Atlantic, yet his album was delayed time after time after time, and the greatest story remains NEVER told.

Uncle Murda; Tru Life- signed to the Roc.....then got dropped.

Nowadays...there are two emcees that I hear on the regular from others whether online or in magazines, that in which they believe are going to bring NY back to the forefront....



From Brooklyn....Maino





From Brooklyn....Red Cafe



Now before today, I ain't heard a lot of their material, other than their singles. For Maino, he struck gold last year around this time with the block anthem, club favorite, retro-sounding, "Hi Hater" and now with the "Live Your Life-esque", Just Blaze produced (irony) "All The Above" featuring T-Pain.

For Red Cafe, I heard before on Fabolous mixtapes from like 2006. A lot of his shit were club hits/street anthems ("Bling Blaow", "Paper Touchin'") and now with "Hottest In The Hood" that just been remixed with an all star cast (Diddy, Jadakiss, Fabolous, Rick Ross, OJ Da Juiceman (why???)) and been jacked by the top lyricists in the game (Joe Budden, Royce Da 5'9", Lloyd Banks).

Now I decided to listen to tapes respectively from them, Maino's "I'm the Victim" tape featuring DJ Trigga, and Red Cafe's "Eviction Notice".

From what I heard. I ain't impressed, but I ain't disappointed either. If anything I give their tapes a 7/10 as a whole. The songs as a whole are bangin', but at the same time, their skills are average at best, but they still spit better than most of these niggas out here today (Gucci, Juiceman, Soulja Boy, any niggas wit a dance out right now).

Of course, the ultimate result is the album. Maino's "If Tomorrow Comes" is out June 24th and although Red Cafe has an album already released with DJ Envy (via Koch/E1 entertainment), his official album "The Shakedown" should be out later this year, via a joint venture with Akon's Konvict Muzik (the label Red Cafe was originally signed to) and Diddy's Bad Boy (oh lord....)

I don't really know if they are the ones I'd go to in regards to holdin' the NY down, Jadakiss is already doin' a good job wit that, surprisingly selling over 200,000 copies of his new album in three weeks, with little to no publicity. the new Jim Jones is out, Cam'Ron's about to return (especially with possible rumors of a Dipset reunion), Busta's heatin' the streets up right now ("Arab Money", "Conglomerate"), 50's plottin' his return (in midst of the Rick Ross fiasco), Fabolous of course doin' his thing, Mos Def's new album comin' this summer, Reflection Eternal's album (Kweli & Hi-Tek), as well as Blueprint 3 (Jay-Z) scheduled for this year as well.

But Maino and Red Cafe have a bright future as long as they can keep pumpin' out the hits. I just don't think they anyone I'd listen to everyday though.





the white kids caught on quick.....yall on to somethin'!!!!