At a 90059 listening party in LA over the weekend, Jay Rock revealed that the album would feature a brand new Black Hippy posse cut called "Vice City." There hasn't been such a collaboration since 2013's "U.O.E.N.O. Remix." It's hard to believe now, but once upon a time Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock, & Ab-Soul used to tag-team beats on the regular, and these songs contain some of the best bars any of them ever put out.
In anticipation of "Vice City," we put together a list of the top 5 Black Hippy posse cuts to date. Naturally, some tough decisions had to be made, shoutout out to honorable mentions "U.O.E.N.O. Remix, "I Know" (no Schoolboy Q), "TDE Roll Call," & "Say Wassup."
"Shadow of Death"
A bonus track off Jay Rock's 2010 Black Friday mixtape, "Shadow of Death" features the prodigious production talents of TDE in-house prouducer Sounwave. The song opens with 8 bars of a curious oboe & conga sample, and then Jay Rock announces his presence at the top of his verse with a simple "chyeah," cuing Sounwave to unleash the beat in full, a mighty cascade of strings, a flood of Biblical proportions. Sounwave for president.
Kendrick drops some enlightened bars in the chorus, previewing the same sort of prayerful wisdom he would share two years later on good kid m.A.A.d. city's "Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst."
"Black Lip Bastard (Black Hippy Remix)"
"Black Lip Bastard" was the first promotional single released ahead of Ab-Soul's 2012 album Control System, but somehow didn't make it onto the final tracklist. It would be reincarnated with reinforcements, an album bonus track remixed with the entire Black Hippy crew in the building.
One of the great things about Black Hippy is even though they are a team, these tracks have an intra-competitive nature. With no one wanting to get exposed as the weakest link in the chain, they all put possibly more effort into their respective verses than any of them would on a solo track. Black Hippy posse cuts bring out the best in all of them.
"Zip That Chop That"
Released almost exactly 5 years ago, "Zip That Chop That" is a true posse cut. Three 32-bar verses, with eight from each rapper. The lyrical baton handoffs are always satisfying, as each Hippy smoothly picks up the multi-syllabic rhyme the previous dude laid down.
The song is produced by Tha Bizness, who would later produce GMKC opener "Sherane (Master Splinter's Daughter)."
Watching them mob around L.A. circa 2010 in the music video is highly entertaining. Other than Jay Rock, they all much look different now. Kendrick & Ab-Soul gained hair, Schoolboy Q gained weight.
"Rolling Stone"
Another Sounwave production, "Rolling Stone" is a bonus track off Schoolboy Q's 2010 debut album Setbacks. Once again, the multi-syllabic rhyme baton handoffs are immaculate. The upright bass line gives the song an old school feel as does the ethereal "when love runs high" vocal sample punctuating every eight bars. But "Rolling Stone" isn't a song about love. It's a song about getting laid.
"On Some Other Shit"
Four of the five songs on this list are from 2010, including "On Some Other Shit." 2010 was the height of Black Hippy, a time before any of them had developed any substantial fan base outside of Los Angeles. They relied less on Black Hippy to pool their talents once they all found individual success. And indeed, even in 2010, they knew that Black Hippy would not be forever. They were simply too good. Kendrick prophesied as much in the final verse of "On Some Other Shit:"
"I freak a beat like a nympho when I speak
And so a syllable is like a sex between the sheet
And you can buy your vowel if you show 'em the receipt
To prove that my bars are a hundred grand large
My futures so bright you can see it in the dark
With the blindfold on the hindsight of a blind dude
I'm not cocky I'm just confident fucking raw
Before I knew what a condom is K. Lamar."
