After a Drake heavy week to kick off the year, this week’s Top 10 is helmed by new music from some of Hip Hop’s biggest names. With 50 Cent’s latest single released late last week, the rapper has returned to the #1 spot for the first time in more than a month. The success of his newest song, “This Is Murder Not Music” coincides with the rapper’s appearance at the Consumer Electronic Show earlier this week where he announced a new business collaboration with NBA player Carmelo Anthony and the wildly successful Star Wars franchise. The relatively unknown French producer 20syl took two Kendrick Lamar verses from separate songs and remixed them into a new track that appears at #2 on the list. Common broke the media attention away from this week’s BSC Championship game with a Tweet releasing his new No I.D. produced single from their upcoming album, Nobody Smiling.
The rest of the list is rounded out by music that dropped in rank from last week’s list—an exclusive remix released by HipHopDX featuring Game on YG’s “Who Do You Love” and Drake’s “Trophies” slipped down—and new appearances on the list. An Apple Siri ‘cover’ of Eminem’s fast-paced “Rap God” and video of Jay Z inviting a child onto stage during a recent performance also make the the Top 10.
50 Cent Returns With “This Is Murder Not Music”
With updates on his planned upcoming mixtape, Animal Ambition, recently released, 50 Cent dropped a new bareboned single to tide fans over. After a single verse, 50 resorts to in-your-face brags and trash talk to ride the song’s final two minutes out. For his hook, 50 refers to his approach as a testament to his past. “This is murder, this is not music / I had this style ten years ago I just didn’t use it,” he raps. The emcee also takes it back to his own previous subject matter for his verses when he raps about sleeping in jail, snitches, and court-dates. “I’m on a hard bench, tryna’ sleep in the pen / Man, how the fuck did I get here again?” he raps, “First thing in a morning, it’s the fuck shit / They called the case, I got confronted by a tough snitch.”
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Earlier this week, while attending the Consumer Electronics Show representing his own line of audio products, 50 clarified the inspiration behind Animal Ambition and described his plans for release. “I’m so anxious to put out material,” he said. “It took me so long to get the business portion of music straight, because I had went through an auditing process because it was the last record required for Interscope Records. And now, I got Animal Ambition, I was inspired to write this.” 50 later told an interviewer that he plans to release Animal Ambition “in the first quarter and then it’ll lead up to Street King Immortal.”
20syl Remixes Kendrick Lamar Verses Into “Sing That Shit”
Blending verses from Kendrick Lamar’s popular feature on Game’s “The City” and an outtake from his own “Blow My High (Members Only),” 20syl, a producer and emcee from Nantes, France, released the jumbled-up “Sing That Shit” earlier in the week. Kicking off with his verse from “The City,” 20syl’s remix launches into Kendrick’s verse two lines in and has the rapper repeating lines over and over again. “Was in my home, snapback fitted on my uncle’s dome,” he raps, “And I don’t condone dickriding, I’m addicted to / Westsiding, living in a city where the skinny niggas die / And the semi bullets fly, but it turn me to a lion / Trying, and I mean that shit.”
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The remix producer took to Twitter to express his own surprise at his song’s strong performance.
Unexpected ! 200K plays on my @kendricklamar Rmx, thanx er’body for the support ! Y’Y’YSh https://t.co/nRBSNw1Fn4pic.twitter.com/K2IFypBl99
— 20syl (@mr20syl) January 7, 2014
Common Releases A New No I.D. Produced Single
Tweeting out a link to the new single during this week’s BSC National Football Championship, Common let loose the first track from a full-length collaborative album with No I.D. called Nobody Smiling. The song, which opens with heavy handed horns and a rhythm that sounds like a military march, is a criticism of violence in Common’s hometown of Chicago. Common begins with a description of the type of violence he condemns. “Lil Marcus shot at Lil Reese and ‘em / Little niggas, it’s hard to find peace in ‘em / Chiraq, they says it’s Middle Easterner / Put ya flames in the air for the deceased and the / Young soldiers, who never got to become older.”
I’m about to drop some of that RAW for yall at halftime of the BCS game. GET READY!!
— COMMON (@common) January 7, 2014
At the end of the song, an apparently excerpted interview finds Common offering an explanation behind the concept and approach to the song and his upcoming album. “We came up with this concept. Nobody Smiling was really a thought that came about because of all the violence that was going on in Chicago, or that is going on,” Common says. “I’d like to say was ‘cause we don’t bring into fruition that it’s goin’ to stop. All the violence that was going on, iIt happens in Chicago, but it’s happening around the world in many ways. It may not be to the numbers that’s happening in Chicago, but it’s happening in the inner-cities all over America. So, I was talking about the conditions of what’s happening, Nobody Smiling, but it’s really a call to action.”
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This Week’s Top 10
1. 50 Cent – “This Is Murder Not Music”
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2. Kendrick Lamar – “Sing That Shit (20syl Juicy Remix)”
3. Common – “War [Prod. No I.D.]”
4. YG f. Drake & Game – “Who Do You Love (Remix)”
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5. Eminem – “Rap God” (Apple’s Siri Cover)
6. Jay Z – Brings Child On Stage To Rap For Him
7. Drake – “Trophies (Prod. by Hit-Boy)”
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8. Kendrick Lamar – “Kurupted”
9. Future f. Drake & Juicy J – “Shit (Remix) [Prod. by Mike WiLL Made-It]”
10. Eminem – “Acapella (Freestyle)”
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