After last week’s Top 10 was held down by Grammy performances from Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, and Jay Z and Beyonce, this week’s list begins to bounce back to normal with Ab-Soul’s “Titenas” leading at #1. Fans tuned into MTV’s nostalgic Cribs segment this week as the show returned to the Muddy Waters rapper’s house. Originally filmed more than a decade ago in 2001, the original episode featuring Redman quickly became one of the show’s most iconic. The Top 3 closes out with Rick Ross’ latest freestyle as the Maybach Music Group founder continues to prepare for his upcoming sixth studio album, Mastermind, which is scheduled for release early in March.
The only Grammy performance with staying power for a second week in a row is the collaboration between Rock band Imagine Dragons and the Grammy nominated Compton emcee Kendrick Lamar. The collaboration, which meshed the group’s 2013 hit “Radioactive” with Lamar’s “m.a.a.d. city,” fills up two spots on the Top 10 with the original Grammy performance falling to #9 (from #1 last week) and the artists’ appearance at Saturday Night Live climbing to #4 for its first appearance on the list. The rest of the list includes new music from Big K.R.I.T. via DJ Folk’s upcoming mixtape. YG and Drake manage to cling to the bottom of the list yet again, this time with the mastered version of their “Who Do You Love” single. Music from T.I. and a remix to Nas’ iconic “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” fill out the list.
Ab-Soul Co-opts Digable Planets For “Titenas”
Despite being release all the way back in 2010, Ab-Soul’s “Titenas” freestyle resurfaced earlier this week and quickly made its way to the #1 spot of our Top 10 this week. With a not-so-subtle nod to Digable Planets, “Titenas” finds the TDE rapper rapping over the lead single from the group’s 1993 debut. With the beat from the Planet’s “(Rebirth Of Slick) Cool Like That” in tow, Ab-Soul’s usually intellectually complex bars get traded in for a relatively crass set of verses. The title, a not-so veiled reference to the female body, leads Soul into three verses of hollering and approaching a woman. As the track fades out, the Black Lip Bastard references his fellow Black Hippy cohorts in an outro that references their then-current releases. “TDE nigga, Black Friday out, Jay Rock, killin’ the streets,” he says of the 2010 mixtape. “Get your records mixed by Ali nigga. HiiiPower, we ain’t even got to talk about Kendrick. That nigga’s not even here right now. Where is that nigga? That nigga don’t even answer my calls anymore honestly.”
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MTV Revisits Redman’s Crib
With the Wu-Tang Clan affiliated emcee’s 2001 episode of MTV Cribs measuring up as one of the series’ most memorable episodes, this week the network released an update in which the rapper tours his crib again, a pad he refers to himself as “De La Castle.” With a segment that harks back as much as it updates fans on Redman’s current digs, the rapper shows off his renovated kitchen (he’s still got his stash of $1 bills), more secure front-door (he’s installed a screen), and new studio. Check out the new episode of Cribs below.
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Redman, Retromania: Hip Hop, Full Episodes
Rick Ross Drops “Oyster Perpetual” Ahead Of Next Month’s Mastermind
As fans and media outlets await the release of Rick Ross’ newest album, which is due out in early March, the label boss dropped off a promotional freestyle to maintain the attention. “Oyster Perpetual,” which finds Ross rapping over a silky instrumental, is titled after a popular line of the Swiss watchmaker Rolex. On the track, which features two verses from Ross, the rapper name drops Drake and boasts about their collective wealth. “Pull the yachts out, Bel Air, Virginia Key / I’m on erry tackle, errywhere, Brian Urlacher / Erry dollar, underneath my girl erry mattress,” he raps near the end of the song.
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This Week’s Top 10
2. Redman – MTV Cribs Revisits [Video]
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3. Rick Ross – “Oyster Perpetual”
4. Imagine Dragons & Kendrick Lamar – “Radioactive (Remix)” (SNL Performance) [Video]
5. Big K.R.I.T. – “Meet Da Connect”
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7. ScHoolboy Q – “Break THe Bank [Prod. Alchemist]”
8. Nas – “It Ain’t Hard to Tell (Stink Mix)”
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9. Kendrick Lamar & Imagine Dragons – “m.A.A.d city” & “Radioactive” (2014 GRAMMY Performance) [Video]
10. YG f. Drake “Who Do You Love”
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