Friday Night Flavas

FRIDAY NIGHT FLAVAS BEST-OF-2003 SHOWS (12.27.03 & 01.03.04)

If you are a Southern California hip hop head, it doesn't get much better than the last Friday Night Flavas show of the year. FNF broadcasts live from midnight to 3am on L.A.'s biggest hip hop station, Power 106, and is hosted by KPWR DJs Choc and C-Minus, along with J-Rocc and Truly OdD. For years, FNF operated in the shadows of 92.3 The Beat's Wake Up Show with Sway & Tech. FNF was the bratty, irreverent kid brother of the Wake Up Show. Occupying roughly the same time-slot as B-Real's Soul Assassins Radio on The Beat, Friday Night Flavas always capitalized on the giddy Friday night atmosphere. Whereas the Wake Up Show is always on the serious tip, J-Rocc, Mr. Choc, C-Minus, and Truly OdD keep the ball rolling with endless silly banter, catchphrases, and a regular fake caller, "Cottonmouth" (alter-ego of J-Rocc)..

When KKBT unceremoniously dropped the Wake Up Show in 2000... Friday Night Flavas was already a fully-developed show. FNF simply took over the #1 spot. Not coincidentally, when the Wake Up Show finally made it back onto the air in the summer of 2003, KPWR picked it up for syndication along with the Wake Up Show's home station in San Francisco, KMEL.

On last night's broadcast, the Fantastic "Fiddo" sounded downright jovial. J-Rocc could barely keep it together... it sounded like he was drunk and just inhaled a Whip-it. He even said, "There's been a lot of pauses", as if he had no control over what he was saying. It's gotta be a hell of a place to party. When it was announced that Gift Of Gab was going to be on the show, Truly OdD seemed more interested in the sticky greens he might bring along. In stark contrast to the sobering Wake Up Show, the Fantastic Four go with the flow. At the end Gab's freestyles, he said he heard them while he was driving to the station and, yes... he brought some green friends along. Everyone on the set cheered.

In the end, everyone agreed that it was a great year for hip hop. Just make sure you stay tuned for FNF in the "Two-thousand-Fantastic-Four"!

MCs PART ONE

KURUPT: Aggressive over sparse beats, kept on going endlessly, could have rocked it acapella. This seemed to be the favorite amongst the F4 crew, which kinda surprised me, actually. Nonetheless, Kurupt was definitely solid.
XZIBIT: decent, but not epic. his seriousness seems to inhibit his ability to switch up his rhymes.
KING TEE: nice voice, but nothing too exciting, got props from fellow guests for being an L.A. pioneer. King Tee is a cool guy.
J-RO: started off kinda lazy, sounded a little faded, but his flow started to build up in a steady progression out of a very casual intro, where he was repeating and flipping a few basic words until he found a flow. overall nice.
DEFARI: ripped it

DJs PART ONE

ROB SWIFT: Standard selections, with scratch/juggle routines.
SHORTKUT: Lots of scratching, as usual.
RAHZEL: Totally rocked it, as usual. started off with some really solid, uptempo breakbeat action. finished up by doing the doing the drums/melody/vocals from Dawn Penn's "You Don't Love Me (No, No, No)". Unbelievable, as usual. Truly OdD made a funny comment about how Rahzel was the best DJ they had up on the show all year, or something like that.
MADLIB: Exclusives by the pound! Used lots of effects, broken beats, fellow Oxnardians on many of the tracks. shifted to a reggae/dub feel. it was all over the place. dope. finished off with some Nas, Madvillain, Wildchild, and some others.
DJ PREMIER: dope, mostly standard hip hop, nothing too crazy

IN-STUDIO GUEST

GIFT OF GAB: Talked about his upcoming solo releases, produced by Vitamin D and Jake One of Seattle. Gab said he spent a lot of time in Seattle working on the album, and that he digs the vibe there. He said it is mellow there, and that Seattle hip hop heads are hungry. Gab's pick for album of the year was a tie between Jay-Z and Outkast. His favorite song was "Du Rags" by Nas, off the Lost Tapes album. When it came time for Gab to freestyle, I thought he went a little too fast. It reminded me of how Lyrics Born rhymed really fast a few weeks ago. Gab is big on rapping as fast as he can. About halfway through his rhymes, he started to connect a little more and it was easier to follow his thoughts. But there was a lot of antagonism and boasting, and at one point he even said, "I'm the best in the whole universe". At then end of his rhymes -- noticeably winded -- he said, "That was just a warm-up."

MCs PART TWO

MURS: Opened by saying he is "from the home of Double K", from People Under The Stairs who are also from Central Los Angeles. He kept saying he was drunk and that it was messing him up, but it sure didn't seem like he was messing up. He mentioned Truly OdD, DJ Quik, Talib Kweli, Michael Vick, the intersection of Pico & La Brea, The Streets, and Kobe Bryant. MURS totally killed it. Awesome.
PLANET ASIA: Mentioned Slick Rick, Al Qaeda, Al Sharpton Mr. Choc, Gary Payton. Said he was the "Illest since Big Pun". Most notably, he dissed 106 & Park freestyle sessions for being "robotic".
RAEKWON: Over Havoc's 1st Infantry "Midnight Creep" beat, which I remember from the original broadcast when Raekwon was trippin on how dope it was, and asked who it was before he started rhyming. Raekwon kicked some nice solid rhymes. He's good about not falling back on the usual cliches.
ALCHEMIST/PRODIGY/TWIN: Solid. as expected. Prodigy said he didn't mind people bootlegging his music. "As long as you spread the word... it's all peace," he said.
TONY TOUCH: I didn't know this guy could rap. He kicked some decent rhymes and definitely didn't come off wack.
KRONDON: dope
PHIL THE AGONY: dope, but his voice sounded different than on wax... not as intense.
CHACE INFINITE: good, but not exceptional
RAEKWON: dope
LARGE PROFESSOR & EXTRA P: decent
MARLEY MARL: I think he just talked
KANYE WEST: Ripped it! Kanye has serious skills on both sides of the mic.
KEITH MURRAY: Easy-going and laid back, but pretty dope actually. Truly said, "This was right before he got dropped, but then he beat somebody up."

DJs PART TWO

Jazzy Jay: I was eating dinner
Edan: I caught a little of his set, sounded like lots of retro joints and I even heard some Led Zeppelin and Grandmixer DST mixed in there.
Sureshot: Incredible set of breaks, including covers of classic breaks, representing Sharshooters (aka Con Men)
Mr. Supreme: Incredible set of breaks, including covers of classic breaks, representing Sharshooters (aka Con Men)

MCs PART THREE

Edan: dope, wordy
Rah Digga: smooth, very nice
Young Zee: kinda on the thug tip, but rugged
Krondon: dope
Phil The Agony: some of his best flows I've heard, impressive
Brother J: dope
Aceyalone: incredible and very smooth
Riddlore: dope
Tate The Great: dope
Takbir: dope
Ryu: dope

YEAR-END AWARDS (as voted by callers)

BEST LP
Defari
Mobb Deep
Gang Starr
Canibus
Aesop Rock
Jaylib

MOST UNDERRATED:
Krondon
MURS

WORST SONG:
Andre 3000 "The Way You Move" (landslide)

MOST OVERRATED ARTIST:

50 cent (rapper)
Aesop Rock (Choc agreed)
Evidence/Dilated
Atmosphere (Choc agreed, I think C-Minus disagreed. Choc said, "I'm not dissing the people who listen to the music, I'm dissing the artists".)

WORST PRODUCER:

J-Zone
9th Wonder

WORST ARTIST:

Lil Jon
Madlib
Loomy D
Ugly Duckling
Diplomats
Chingy
Dudley Perkins

WORST LP:

High & Mighty
Pigeon John
Mountain Brothers
Dudley Perkins
Jay-Z

BEST PRODUCER:

Madlib
Kanye West

WORST GUEST:

J-Zone (wouldn't rap)