Live From The Writer's Bench: How Illmatic Ruined Hip Hop...Yeah, It Did

Check out the newest episode of The Writer's Bench where we're chopping it up about how Nas' "Illmatic" ruined hip hop because it gave the blueprint that an artist can work with multiple producers instead of just one, why when there's a dope connection between an artist and a producer do the artist always end up leaving to work with other producers (even tho history has proven it never works), what does "maturing" in hip hop mean to you and what artist/producer combo would you wanna see reunite. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From the Writer's Bench: Straight Outta Compton

For the newest episode of the Writer's Bench, we're chopping it up about everything Compton from the movie to the soundtrack and answering a million question in between like do we give NWA too much props? How much time needs to take place before a biopic gets done? Was "the man" behind blowing NWA up to go against everything positive Public Enemy was teaching at the same time? And if so, why did Chuck D & the Bomb Squad agree to work with Cube for Amerikkka's Most Wanted? Is there really a difference between Mobb Deep's "gangster rap" & NWA's? Yeah...we chopped it up about a lot this week but you can bet money that's it's ANOTHER dope ep!

Live From The Writer's Bench: Top 5 Debut Albums NOT Named Illmatic

For this week's episode of The Writer's Bench, we're chopping it up about our top 5 debut albums NOT named Illmatic. Plus, we chop it up about why EVERYBODY and their moms LOVES A Tribe Called Quest even though they've got to duds in their discography and who's discography would you rather want, Tribe's or Gang Starr's. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From the Writer's Bench: Who's The Dopest Hip Hop Group EVER?!?!?!?!?

Last week, I posted this piece I wrote about why Outkast is the best group EVER on Twitter and cats got at me like "the best ever, EVER?" And I was like "yup...EVER!" And since who's the dopest hip hop group has always be an on going debate since the beginning of time, I decided to come up with a March Madness style bracket with 64 hip hop groups all ranked based off their discography, classic album, lyrics, beats, impact, etc. from #1 to #16 in the four "regions." Now, just like on selection sunday, there are some groups that didn't make the cut and bet money that cats will have a problem with where their favorite squad is ranked but it is what it is. Also, keep in mind that this is all about the DOPEST hip hop group ever not your FAVORITE group and ever and there's a BIG difference between the two. But download a copy of the bracket and tear it up and to see who comes out on your end and check out the newest episode of Live From the Writer's Bench with my peoples Nick and Gregg chopping it up with us to see who comes out on top with the chip. A REAL dope ep ya'll! 

Live From The Writer's Bench: 5 Favorite Hip Hop Samples with Bink!

Check out this week's episode of Live From the Writer's Bench where we're chopping it up with super producer Bink! about our 5 favorite hip hop samples and how we would've flipped them if we used them. We also chop it up with Bink about how he made some of his illest bangers like Free's "When They Remember", Kanye's "Devil In A New Dress" and Jay Z's "1-900-Hustler." ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From The Writer's Bench: Who's The Dopest MC In The Crew?

For this week's episode of The Writer's Bench we're chopping it up about a convo that started between me & my dude D up at 88.9's 25th anniversary show about who was better...Q Tip or Phife? Which spiraled into who was the better MC in every hip hop group. So check out this ep about who's better, Mos or Talib? Hav or Prodigy? Erick or Parrish? Tip or Phife? ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From The Writer's Bench: 5 Albums You Would Have Wanted To Be In The Studio For

For this week's episode of Live From The Writer's Bench we're chopping it up about 5 albums that you wished you could have been in the studio for while they were being made. And trust, you don't wanna miss Grap Luva breaking down some of the sessions from Pete & CL's "Mecca & The Soul Brother" especially the "They Reminisce Over You session. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From The Writer's Bench: Artists vs. Entertainers

For the newest episode of Live From the Writer's Bench we're chopping it up about artists vs. entertainers, is there a difference between the two, why more celebrities don't pop their heads up when tragedies like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Freddie Gibbs go down, why as fans do we want to keep artists in a box and more importantly who do we need more of in these last days, artists or entertainers? ANOTHER dope ep ya'll! 

Live From the Writer's Bench - The Writer's Bench Don't Got Love For Tupac?

For this week's episode of Live From the Writer's Bench, we're answering one of my twitter followers' question about why don't east coast dudes show more love to Tupac for being a dope MC. Which of leads into how we ourselves feel about Pac, why we did or didn't rock with him, the difference between Pac the MC, Pac the actor and Pac the man, the evolution of Pac, how some of the very things that some folk love about Pac are the same exact reasons why others don't like him, our favorite Pac songs and how I'm solely responsible for no Tupac ever getting played on the Strictly Hip Hop airwaves through the 90's while I was hosting the show. This is a long ep but mos def a dope show and discussion on one of the most misunderstood men our generation has ever seen. 

Live From the Writer's Bench: Is Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly A Top 5 Classic Already?!?!?

This week, me and the team are chopping it up about Kendrick's new album "To Pimp A Butterfly." We took a week off from the show to give us a minute to let the album marinate so we're talking about our initial reactions to hearing the album vs. how we feel about it now, when and where do we individually feel is the best time to listen to new music, this new craze of calling an album a classic 8 minutes after it drops, can an album that just dropped 72 hours ago knock Nas' "Illmatic" or Stevie's "Songs In The Key of Life" out the box and crack your top 5 albums of all time and most importantly, is To Pimp A Butterfly a 5 mic classic already? Plus my dude Nick who is one of our subscribers and long time supporters sits in with us to chop it up too. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From The Writer's Bench: Hip Hop What If's

For this week of Live From the Writer's Bench, me and the squad are chopping it up about hip hop what if's. What if...Large Pro produced the entire Illmatic, would it have been a 5 mic album? What if KRS One lost the Bridge wars to MC Shan? What if Tupac never got shot at Quad Studios and never blamed Big or Puff for the shooting, do we still have an east coast/west coast war? And what if Rakim battled Big Daddy Kane in '88, who would  have won are just some of the questions on tap. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From the Writer's Bench: What Made Illmatic & Other Albums Classics...the Beats or the Rhymes?

For this week's episode of The Writer's Bench I name over 20 classic hip hop albums for the team and cats have to pick what made them classics...the beats or the rhymes? ANOTHER dope ep ya'll! 

Live From the Writer's Bench: The Best of the West Coast

A minute ago my man Q got at me on twitter asking if I even liked west coast hip hop cause all I talk about on twitter & on the Writer's Bench is east coast hip. I told him NOTHING could be further from the truth cause I LOVE west coast hip hop! And from that convo I put together my Straight West Coastin' mix a minute ago to show love to the west coast! Now trust, Q isn't the only person who's question our love for the west coast and saying we need to do a west coast show, so since ya'll asked for it our job is to deliver. Now quiet as kept, we already did a show on west coast hip hop when we first started the Bench when we had my dude Andres (who's from Cali) on the Bench to school us on the west coast culture but we can never have enough shows saluting the west. So for this week's episode we're chopping it up about our favorite west coast album, MC, producer (not named Dre), slept on MC/group, favorite west coast memory, the new NWA trailer and who REALLY has next out west...Fashawn or Kendrick Lamar?

Live From the Writer's Bench: Man vs. Maschine

For this week's ep of The Writer's Bench, we had a whole show planned out til right before we were about to get started and I told Ev that Akai would have to pay me to use the MPC again which was straight up blasphemy to him so the old show got scrapped for a in depth convo on why I love the maschine so much, how the production game has changed since the early 90's, why cats graduate and change up equipment and most importantly, why I'm done with the MPC. Another DOPE ep ya'll!

Live From the Writer's Bench: The Evolution of Nas

Check the newest episode of Live From the Writer's Bench where we're chopping it up about why all of the sophomore albums from the Boot Camp Click were wack, the evolution of Nas and how we went from Nasty Nas to Nas to Nas Escobar to Nastradamus and was "Nas" the illest of the 4. Then we dive into is it cool that Your Old Droog sounds JUST like Nas which goes into did R. Kelly REALLY bite Aaron Hall's style and we end the show chopping it up about some of the comments that we get about the show. Yeah, I know it sounds like it's all over the place but trust me, we got another dope show under our belts!

Live From the Writer's Bench: Is Jay Z the Elvis of Hip Hop?

Every week, after we get finished recording an episode of The Writer's Bench we always end up talking for at least another 30 minutes. Sometimes it's what we were talking about for that episode or sometimes it trails off into a little bit of everything. Since we weren't able to record a show this past week, I dug in the vaults to pull out these outtakes of us chopping it up about is Jay Z hip hop's Elvis and has technology messed up the sound of hip hop. Even though it's not a full show, trust me when I say that a lot of our outtakes are just as dope (and sometimes doper) as our shows. So it's STILL another dope ep ya'll! 

Live From the Writer's Bench: Has Another Golden Era of Hip Hop Come To An End Part 2

We're back this week with part 2 of chopping it up about what artist from the beginning to mid 90's we still wanna hear from in 2015. Last week we ended off with Jay Z so this week we're starting with Jeru and gonna run through everybody down to Wu Tang. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll!

Live From The Writer's Bench: Has Another Golden Era of Hip Hop Come To An End Part 1

It's a fact that each great era of hip hop eventually comes to a close. Whether it was the '78-'85 era where groups and MC's like The Funky Four Plus One More, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Busy Bee, T La Rock, etc. eventually weren't able to make music that the masses wanted anymore. The same with the '85-'90 era where groups like Run DMC, Whodini, The Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow, etc. (and basically everyone from the movie Krush Groove...except LL) And even the greats of the late 80's/early 90's like Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, etc. now find themselves in that same boat. So does history repeat itself with the MC's/groups that stepped up from '93-'98 like Wu Tang Clan, Tribe Called Quest, The Alkaholiks, Jay Z, etc? Check the newest episode of Live From the Writer's Bench where we go through each artist from that era and vote on if we really want or need another album from them to find out. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll! 

Live From The Writer's Bench: The Whitewashing of Hip Hop

This week, me and the team chop it about Scarface & Lord Jamar's perspectives on whites in hip hop and do we agree or not. We also chop it up about "blue eyed soul" and why is it that blacks have more of a problem with whites in hip hop vs. R&B, the difference between blue eyed soul & the 70's & 80's and now, what white MC's we are feeling and at the end of the day, do we have a problem with whites in hip hop. ANOTHER dope ep ya'll! 

Live From The Writer's Bench: 5 Albums That Help Define You

For this week of Live From the Writer's Bench, we chop it up about 5 albums that helped shaped you, change the way you listen to music and help define who you are. Another dope ep ya'll!