May 11, 2016

I thought I'd finally contribute something worthwhile to the Music section here, so here we are. I'll be posting a song with some interesting facts, trivia, quotes, etc. that I find about them from Wikipedia. Some facts might be well known, some might not. Feel free to request artists. For now, I'll just be doing songs I know and like. I'll also include a quick link to Youtube to listen to the songs (I won't post the video/song in the thread since I don't like when videos get taken down or can't be played outside of Youtube)

Edit: click here to join the mention list

I'll try to do a few songs a week if you guys are interested in something like this. I'll start it out with a popular one that everyone should have heard.

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Song list:
1 50 Cent - "In da Club"
2 B.o.B. - "Airplanes" feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore
3 Destiny's Child - "Soldier" feat. T.I. & Lil Wayne
4 Dr. Dre - "I Need a Doctor" feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey
5 Eminem - "White America" / "Cleanin' Out My Closet" / "Without Me" / "Sing for the Moment" / "Superman"
6 Ice Cube - "It Was a Good Day"
7 Jay-Z - "99 Problems"
8 Jay-Z & T.I. - "Swagga Like Us" feat. Kanye West & Lil Wayne
9 Kanye West - "Gold Digger" feat. Jamie Foxx
10 Kanye West - "On Sight" / "I Am a God" / "New Slaves" / "Hold My Liquor" / "Bound 2"
11 Ludacris - "Area Codes" feat. Nate Dogg
12 Makaveli - "Hail Mary" feat. The Outlawz & Prince Ital Joe
13 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "Can't Hold Us" feat. Ray Dalton
14 Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot" feat. Pharrell
15 UGK - "International Players Anthem" feat. OutKast
16 Usher - "Yeah!" feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris

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Jay-Z & T.I. - "Swagga Like Us" feat. Kanye West & Lil Wayne
From Paper Trail • Released 9/6/2008
Listen • Source

• This was the first song produced by Kanye West following his mother's death in 2007. Kanye had been wanting to work with MIA since 2005, while working on Late Registration.
• T.I. wrote 4 verses in total for this song, eventually using the last one he wrote, as it "stood out (better) than the others"
• The song was originally only supposed to be a T.I. and Kanye West collab, but T.I. decided to make it an "event" record, and sent the song to Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. He called the song a "very ambitious idea but a lovely one"
• T.I. claimed that Jay-Z liked the finished version of the song so much, he wished to include it on The Blueprint 3, but it didn't end up happening. @Michael Myers provides more info on this here.
• When the group performed the song at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, M.I.A. was supposedly 9 months pregnant, and the performance date was her due date.

 

May 12, 2016

If you guys don't wanna be tagged, lemme know. For now I'll just be doing commercial songs since those are usually the only ones that have their own wiki.

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UGK - "International Players Anthem" feat. OutKast
From Underground Kingz • Released 6/6/2007
Listen • Sources: 1 2

• "International Players Anthem" was UGK's only song as a lead artist to chart in the Billboard Top 100, at #70. However they did reach #18 as a featured artist on Jay-Z's "Big Pimpin'" in 2000.
• This was the last video appearance of p---- C before his death on December 4, 2007.
  
• The video, which takes place at Andre 3000's fictional wedding, features cameos by Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, DJ Paul and Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia, Chamillionaire, T-Pain, Fonzworth Bentley, and David Banner.
  
• At the 2007 BET Hip Hop Awards, Kanye West won the Best Hip Hop Video award for "Stronger", but during his acceptance speech he said he felt this song's video deserved it more.

@Ordinary Joel @Fazers @YDB

 

May 25, 2016

@rapwiki / [ Click here to join the mention list! ]

Kanye West - "Gold Digger" feat. Jamie Foxx
From Late Registration • Released 7/5/2005
Listen • Source

• Kanye West originally produced and recorded "Gold Digger" in Ludacris's home in Atlanta for Shawnna's 2004 debut album Worth Tha Weight and had written the chorus from a female first-person viewpoint: "I'm not sayin' I'm a gold digger, but I ain't messin' with no broke n----s..." However, for reasons unknown, Shawnna passed on using the song. Not wanting to let it go to waste, West decided to keep the beat for himself and add lyrics expressed from a male's point-of-view.
  
• The second verse of "Gold Digger" was the first to be written, as West used to rap the verse in early 2004 while on tour promoting his debut album, College Dropout. The first verse was made later in the year while West was on Usher's Evolution Tour. Lastly, the original third verse was taken from an unreleased song called "Drop Dead Gorgeous," which West had produced and rapped on for Murphy Lee of St. Lunatics. About a year later, right before "Gold Digger" was set to be released as a single, West decided to write a different third verse.
  
• The idea of employing Jamie Foxx specifically to sing an interpolation of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman" in place of its initial sample did in fact arise from West seeing the film Ray with his friend John Mayer.
  
• Approximately 80,000 digital downloads of "Gold Digger" were sold through legal music services such as iTunes and Napster in the first week, making it the most successful digital sales debut ever at the time. It was one of the first songs in history to sell over 1,000,000 downloads in the United States.
  
• By reaching number one, "Gold Digger" gave Ray Charles his first Hot 100 chart-topper as a songwriter, credited as a result of the "I Got a Woman" sample. (As an artist, Charles topped the Hot 100 three times in the 1960s, but always with other writers' songs.)
  
• TV shows that have featured "Gold Digger": The Boondocks, Glee, Family Guy, The Big b--- Theory, Black-ish.

It take too much to touch her
From what I heard she got a baby by Busta
My best friend say she use to f--- with Usher
I don't care what none of y'all say, I still love her

 

May 16, 2016

New format today, and maybe every so often - I'm gonna post some facts from several songs from one album.

@rapwiki / [ Click here to join the mention list! ]

Kanye West - "On Sight" / "I Am a God" / "New Slaves" / "Hold My Liquor" / "Bound 2"
From Yeezus • Released 6/18/2013
Sources: 1 2 3 4

• "On Sight"
  • Kanye assembled a new choir to sing the interpolated song "Sermon (He'll Give Us What We Really Need)" on this song. Listen to the original version here (starts at 1:09).
  • The lyric "We get this b---- shaking like Parkinson's" caused controversy with the American Parkinson Disease Association. They described the verse as "distasteful and the product of obvious ignorance".
• "I Am a God"
  • Kanye West's camp said the title was a reference to Psalm 82: "I said, 'You are gods, / And all of you are children of the Most High."
• "New Slaves"
  • The song, despite not having been released as a single, has charted in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
    
  • Prior to the song's release, it was played at 66 locations whilst a black-and-white video of West performing it was projected on various buildings in various countries. Two projections in Texas, however, were halted by police prior to commencing due to a lack of permit.
• "Hold My Liquor"
  • Lorde covered this song at one of her concerts in 2013.
• "Bound 2"
  • The line "Uh-huh, honey" was sampled from the song "Sweet Nothin's", written by Ronnie Self and performed by country singer Brenda Lee. Brenda Lee reacted to the sampling of her song on the track, saying:
    "As I've said, it's always nice to be recognized. It says a wonderful thing about Ronnie Self, who wrote the song. That 50 years after it was written, somebody in Kanye's camp knew the song and said, 'Let's use it.' That's a compliment to Ronnie."
  • Ricky Spicer of the Ponderosa Twins Plus One filed a lawsuit against West over the sample of the group's song, "Bound," alleging that he used Spicer's voice without permission.
    
  • In case you missed it, the "Bound 3" parody by James Franco and Seth Rogen can be viewed here.

Y'all 'bout to turn s--- up
I'm 'bout to tear s--- down
I'm 'bout to air s--- out
Now what the f--- they gon' say now?

 

May 17, 2016

Good morning my friends!

@rapwiki / [ Click here to join the mention list! ]

Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot" feat. Pharrell
From R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece • Released 9/12/2004
Listen • Sources: 1 2

• As of 2016, it is Snoop's only #1 single as a lead artist. Since then he has hit #1 as a featured artist twice: Akon's "I Wanna Love You" and Katy Perry's "California Gurls"
• Lil Wayne released a remix of the song, titled "Nah This Ain't the Remix", on his mixtape The Dedication. He takes shots at Snoop Dogg for using the line "drop it like it's hot" which he used on Juvenile's 1999 hit single "Back That Azz Up", and in his own song called "Drop It Like It's Hot" from his first album, Tha Block is Hot.
  • However, he claimed that he wasn't mad, saying in the song, "When I first heard this I got a little upset but then I thought to myself, what haven't I done yet?" and later, "Nah, I ain't hatin', don't get me wrong, I made it a hot line, you made it a hot song. Peace."
• In 2012, Snoop Dogg adapted the song to "Pocket like it's Hot" in an advertising campaign for Hot Pockets.

Oh you got a gun, so you wanna pop back?
AK-47 now, n----- stop that!

 

May 21, 2016

Eminem - "White America" / "Cleanin' Out My Closet" / "Without Me" / "Sing for the Moment" / "Superman"
From The Eminem Show • Released 5/21/2002
Sources: 1 2 3 4 5

• "White America"
  • Mother Jones magazine has stated that this song is the fourth-most used in American military prisons to disorient and cause sleep deprivation among detainees. The song "Kim" is in fifth.
• "Cleanin' Out My Closet"
  • In the introduction, Eminem says, "Where's my snare? I have no snare in my headphones. There you go." Using his verified Genius account, he explained that this was a true story: "the engineer had it muted for some reason."
• "Without Me"
  • Clips of the video for "Without Me" can also be seen playing in a number of other music videos, including 50 Cent's "In da Club", Tony Yayo's "I Know You Don't Love Me" and Dr. Dre's "I Need a Doctor".
• "Sing for the Moment"
  • Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry performed a new guitar solo at the end of this song to accompany the sampled "Dream On" by Aerosmith.
• "Superman"
  • Eminem's first choice to star in the video was Shannon Elizabeth, but they could not agree on the terms. p--- star Gina Lynn starred instead.

9 millimeter heaters stashed in 2-seaters with meat cleavers
I don't blame you, I wouldn't let Hailie listen to me neither

@rapwiki

 

May 18, 2016

I assume since there's still 26 people in the mention list that yall are interested so I'll keep posting these!

@rapwiki / [ Click here to join the mention list! ]

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B.o.B. - "Airplanes" feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore
From B.o.B Presents: The Adventures of Bobby Ray • Released 4/13/2010
Listen • Source

• The song was partially composed by Kinetics & One Love, who were 2 Cornell students who had the song on their own album. It made its way to the offices at Atlantic Records where the duo signed a publishing deal, and the song was reworked.
• The commercial song originally featured verses from Lupe Fiasco, but he gave the song to B.o.B. @Tha Story provided more info about this here.
• Hayley Williams said Paramore was on tour when she was given the song and she "liked the part too much" and accepted to appear on it. B.o.B said he has "always been a Hayley fan" and he did not expect a collaboration between them too soon. The 2 recorded their parts separately for the song and the music video, and did not actually meet each other until they performed the song live at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.
  
• B.o.B. spoke about how he got to collab with Eminem for the remix:
  "Paul Rosenberg played him the Cloud 9 mixtape and it kind of gave him an idea of what my music [sounds like]. Eventually he started playing Eminem more of my stuff and was keeping him updated on my progress and eventually he wanted to get in the studio with me, so that was a gift."

Let's pretend like they call me the greatest
Selling out arenas with big a--- stages
And everybody loved me and no one ever hated
Let's try to use imagination

 

May 14, 2016

I know this is another old one but I had these ones ready, I'll be doing some newer ones come Monday

@rapwiki

[ Click here to join the mention list! ]

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Makaveli - "Hail Mary" feat. The Outlawz & Prince Ital Joe
From The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory • Released 2/11/1997
Listen • Source

• According to Young Noble, "Hail Mary" took under 1 hour to complete. It took about 15 minutes to write it and about five minutes to lay it. Hurt-M-Badd made the beat in 20–30 minutes.
• The 2015 film Straight Outta Compton erroneously shows Shakur recording the song in a scene which takes place in 1993, three years before it was actually recorded.
• This song was played as a tribute to 2Pac two separate times by Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg: in 2000 at the Up in Smoke Tour, and in 2012, at Coachella, performed by a hologram of 2Pac.
• The song "Hail Mary" was used in the following:
  • R&B singer Monica sampled the song in her 2002 song "U Deserve"
  • 50 Cent, Eminem, and Busta Rhymes reworked it as a diss track towards Ja Rule in 2003.
  • J. Cole interpolated the chorus in his 2010 song "Enchanted"
  • Lil Wayne covered the song in his episode of MTV Unplugged in 2011.

Hail til I reach h---, I ain't scared
Mama checkin in my bedroom; I ain't there

I forgot about it til recently, def a classic.

 

May 13, 2016

Since I went to a Beyoncé show last night, here's today's song. (Also I added you all to this usergroup so I didn't have to tag you all )

@rapwiki

[ Click here to be notified when a new song is posted ]

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Destiny's Child - "Soldier" feat. T.I. & Lil Wayne
From Destiny Fulfilled • Released 12/7/2004
Listen • Sources: 1 2

• "Soldier" was Lil Wayne's first top 10 hit in the Billboard Hot 100 (as either lead or featured artist), at #3. It would stay his highest ranked song until 2008's "Lollipop" (#1)
• Beyoncé said they wanted to collaborate with Lil Wayne and T.I. because they added "rawness, realness and edge to the song"
  
• Wayne commented on the song in 2014: "That set me off. Them little eight bars right there, that got me there boy. If you ask me why, it was Beyoncé. That s--- was big."
• The music video featured cameos from Beyoncé's sister Solange Knowles, Lloyd, Bow Wow, Ginuwine, Ice Cube, WC and Young Jeezy.

Bandana tied, so mommy join my troop
Now every time she hear my name, she salute!

 

May 23, 2016

@rapwiki

Usher - "Yeah!" feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris
From Confessions • Released 1/27/2004
Listen • Source

• "Yeah!" topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for 12 consecutive weeks, before being replaced by its follow-up single "Burn".
  
• When Usher submitted his album Confessions (without the song "Yeah") to his record label Arista Records, the company's then-president L.A. Reid felt the album lacked a song that had the potential to be released as the album's lead single. Usher was told to record a few more tracks, so he enlisted American rapper-producer Lil Jon to aid in musical production. Lil Jon recalled, "He [Usher] needed a single. They had 'Burn', 'Burn' was hot, but they needed that first powerful monster. That's when I came in."
  
• An early version of "Yeah!" was recorded, mixed, and mastered using the production of the song that would eventually become Petey Pablo's "Freak-a-Leek". Without Lil Jon's knowledge, Jive Records gave what they thought was a leftover track to Petey Pablo, who recorded "Freak-a-Leek". Lil Jon commented, "With so much invested, Jive wouldn't give up the cut." Lil Jon had to rework "Yeah!" and a new instrumental was used.
  
• "Yeah!" became the most played song in the United States in 2004, with Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems reporting the song getting a total of 496,805 plays.

Let's drink, you the one to please (yeah!)
Ludacris fill cups like double D's (yeah!)
Me and Ursh' once more, and we leaves 'em dead
We want a lady in the street but a freak in the bed that say

 

May 14, 2016

Also here's a quick one-facter for Sunday since I won't be home

Ludacris - "Area Codes" feat. Nate Dogg
From Word of Mouf and Rush Hour 2 Soundtrack • Released 6/26/2001
Listen • Source

• Throughout the song, Ludacris mentions 44 area codes - covering 27 states - in which he has had sexual relations with a prostitute. (View the source above to see if your area code is mentioned.)

Read your horoscope and eat some hors d'oeuvres
Ten on pump one; these hoes is self-serve

 

Jun 1, 2016

Today's song is inspired by @Boyz N The Suburbs ' Ice Cube thread
@rapwiki

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Ice Cube - "It Was a Good Day"
From The Predator • Released 2/24/1993
Listen • Source

• Ice Cube commented on the concept behind the song:
  "The inspiration was my life at the time ... I was at the top of the rap game. It was the summer of ’92 and I was in a hotel room, really in a state of euphoria. I had all the money I had dreamed of. I was in a good frame of mind. And I remember thinking, ‘Okay, there’s been the riots, people know I will deal with that. That’s a given. But I rap all this gangsta stuff – what about all the good days I had?"
• The song appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the fictional radio station Radio Los Santos.
  
• Using clues from the lyrics, stand-up comedian Donovan Strain has deduced the day Ice Cube had a "Good Day":
  "The only day where: Yo! MTV Raps was on air, it was a clear and smogless day in Los Angeles, beepers or pagers were commercially sold, Lakers beat the SuperSonics, and Ice Cube had no filming commitments was January 20, 1992."
  
• In 2014, a crowdfunding campaign was run on the 22nd anniversary of the "good day" to raise $25,000 if Goodyear would display the lyrics from the song on the blimp. The campaign was quickly funded, and Goodyear agreed. Instead of "Ice Cube's a p----", they displayed "it's a good day", and Ice Cube also went for a ride in the blimp.

Shake 'em up, shake 'em up, shake 'em up, shake 'em
Roll 'em in a circle of n----s and watch me break 'em
With the 7, 7-11, 7-11

 

May 30, 2016

Happy Memorial Day (aka happy random day off work)!

50 Cent - "In da Club"
From Get Rich or Die Tryin' • Released 1/7/2003
Listen • Source

• It was the first of seven tracks he recorded in five days with Dr. Dre. 50 Cent described the studio sessions, saying:
  "Dre, he'll play dope beats ... [He'll say], 'These are the hits, 50. So pick one of these and make a couple of singles or something.' The very first time he heard [me rap on] 'In Da Club' he said, 'Yo, I didn't think you was going to go there with it, but, you know, it works.' He was probably thinking of going in a different direction with that song. Then he expanded it into a hit record."
• The production was originally given to D12, but was passed on to 50 Cent because the group did not know how to approach the song.
  
• Since much of the content on Get Rich or Die Tryin' was "dark", 50 Cent wanted to write material that was "the exact opposite". He called the song a "celebration of life. Every day it's relevant all over 'cause every day is someone's birthday."
  
• In March 2003, it broke a Billboard record as the "most listened-to" song in radio history within a week. It remained on the Billboard 100 chart for 30 weeks.
  
• Cameos in its music video included: Dr. Dre, Eminem, D12, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, Game, b---' Em Smurf, Young Buck, Xzibit and DJ Whoo Kid.
  
• In January 2006, 50 Cent was sued for copyright infringement by former 2 Live Crew manager Joseph Weinberger, claiming that 50 Cent plagiarized the lines "it's your birthday" from 2 Live Crew's 1994 song "It's Your Birthday". The lawsuit was dismissed as the phrase was a "common, unoriginal and noncopyrightable element of the song".

I'm that cat by the bar toasting to the good life
You the fa---- a--- n----- trying to pull me back, right?

@rapwiki

 

May 20, 2016

@rapwiki

Jay-Z - "99 Problems"
From The Black Album • Released 4/27/2004
Listen • Source

• The chorus' hook, "If you havin' girl problems, I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a b---- ain't one" is taken from the Ice-T single "99 Problems" from his 1993 album Home Invasion.
  
• The first 4 lines of the third verse are directly quoting Bun B's verse in the 1996 UGK song, "Touched".
  • Now once upon a time, not too long ago
    A n----- like myself had to strong-arm a ho
    This is not a ho in the sense of having a p----
    But a p---- having no g.d. sense, try and push me
• In 2011, Southwestern Law School Professor Caleb Mason wrote an article with a line-by-line analysis of the second verse of the song from a legal perspective, referencing the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It is cited as a useful tool for teaching law students search and seizure law involving search warrants, Terry stops, racial profiling, the exclusionary rule, and the motor vehicle exception. (Read the article here.)
  • The article notes the song lyrics are legally incorrect in indicating that a driver can refuse an order to exit the car and that police would need a warrant to search a locked glove compartment or trunk.
• According to Jay-Z in his book Decoded, the chorus "If you're having girl problems, I feel bad for you son/I've got 99 problems but a b---- ain't one" is referring to a police dog.
  
• At the end of the music video, Jay-Z being shot with multiple bullets by unseen assailants. This final scene was very controversial as music video networks normally remove any scenes with violent content. On MTV, every airing of the video featured an introduction by John Norris explaining why the network felt it was proper to air the video unedited. Get more info from @Tha Story here.

Well, I ain't passed the bar but I know a little bit
Enough that you won't illegally search my s---!

I didn't either! Lupe's flow on it is great.

 

May 12, 2016

Thanks Joel This thread got buried instantly because of Koolo's "fans of rap become lazy?" thread. New song tomorrow!

 

May 23, 2016

I didn't know that either.. glad you're enjoying the stuff ITT!

& your avy hard bro


in before someone mentions the day theme