DJ Blu Fire Hip Hop Blog

We all have different devices or methods of how we listen to our favorite music. It may be on a stereo or headphones. You may use streaming services or make your own playlists or just listen our entire library (try it you may find hidden jams). Since my teenage years, the way we listen to music has changed drastically with various pros and cons. Today I'm going to like back to how I listened to music the pros/cons and what music comes to mind from that era. Stereo- CDs/Radio When I was about 13 years old for Christmas my grandma gave me money and with that money I bought three things. A stereo for my room (similar to the pic above) Kanye West's album College Dropout and John Mayer's album Room for Squares. I would sit in my room and listen to the radio and the two albums I owned. Memorable song(s): No Such Thing- John Mayer Two Words-Kanye West Pros: Solid sound No headphones Cons: No remote Had to listen at a reasonable volume Had to listen to the alb

Here are the songs I'm listening to this fall. Let me know what you think and what are you jamming to? Jeremih- Paris ft. Ty Dolla $ign Jeremih is one of the most slept on artists. He constantly puts out solid music with little response. Compared to artists like Frank Ocean who put out one album every 100 years and people assume it's classic before it's even released. Check out Jeremih's Late Nights in Europe Mixtape via the link above. Pree Me- Burna Boy I heard this song while listening to OVO Sound Radio Episode 30. I don't know much about the artist but the song caught my ear. How Does It Feel- Kamaiyah This is the second time I've posted a song by Kamaiyah. With another great flow and an old school type beat this song is a jam. Clean- Ty Dolla $ign Ty Dolla $ign has his own unquie style in how he creates melodies. This is my favorite song from his new album Campaign.  Starboy- The Weeknd ft. Daft Punk The latest singl

We have all had moments were we've made ridiculous impulse purchases. Here is a look at the top 5 must ridiculous impulse purchases I have made relating to music.  5. Lil Wayne T-Shirt 2007 In 2007 I saw Lil Wayne in concert and granted this was when Lil Wayne was in his prime. I decided before the show that I was going to buy a shirt when I got there. For various reasons I had to buy the shirt after the concert. All that was left was this long sleeve red Lil Wayne shirt and the only size they had was XXL. At the time I wore a medium. I believe I wore the shirt a few times but it was way too big for me. 4. White Boxers After Usher's video for the song U Don't Have To Call came out I decided I would only wear white boxers. 3. Regrettable CD purchases Before all of the streaming options we have today you have to take leaps of faith when buying CDs. I was probably quicker to purchase CDs then I should have. My two most regrettable album purchases are Tha Joke

This post is focused on a viral video from about a year ago where a couple used Gucci Mane's song "Bricks" as their wedding intro. I know very little about weddings but I'm pretty sure the second most important song after the first dance is the intro song where the couple joins the after party. I have seen various videos weddings using fun songs like Yeah by Chris Brown and the 90s Bulls intro. Those are fun songs and are pretty family friendly. This guy came into the wedding hot with a song based on Gucci Mane talking about the copious amount of drugs he possesses. A little background about the rapper Gucci Mane for those who aren't familiar. Gucci Mane is from Atlanta and really broke onto the scene with his song "So Icy" in 2005. The rapper has had numerous other hits and has introduced to multiple artists from Atlanta. Gucci Mane also has a face tattoo of an ice cream cone. He recently was released from jail and also came out with a new album c

Earlier today I found a CD that wasn't labeled so I decided to see what music I put on this CD. I had no idea what I was about to hear... The juxtaposition from this collection of songs on the CD gave me a plethora of memories. My guess is I made this CD was made around 10 years ago probably in 2009-2007. Back in high school I made mix CDs once a week or so. This was before streaming options were available and my iPod could only hold 100 songs. (I was feeling cool in AP statistics class. Yes, that's a Public Enemy poster in the classroom.) When this CD was made I was: -16-17 -Played a ton of FIFA -Drove a green 1996 Jetta -My favorite rapper was Lil Wayne or Jay Z -Crunk Juice was my favorite album at the time -Lived by the motto any pizza can be a personal pizza if you're hungry enough Track 1- Why You Wanna- TI I totally forgot about this song until it came on. This was a single from TI and is a great song to play in the summertime. Track 2- When

I'M OUT HERE LOOKING FOR REVENGE ALL SUMMER SIXTEEN The scene from my seat at the Xcel Energy Center when Drake played Hotline Bling On Sunday July 24th I had the pleasure of going to the Summer Sixteen Tour at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The listed concert lineup featured Roy Woods, dvsn, Future and Drake. Unfortunately Roy Woods didn't preform but that was the only negative with show. Drake aka Aubrey aka October's Very Own is as popular as ever. Not only is has he been one of the hottest rappers for the past couple years but he has transcended rap and is a pop culture icon. You can hear phrases from his biggest songs on your local news. What a Time to Be Alive The name of Drake's mixtape with Future- The phrase is used anytime something unusual or when something is a sign of the current times. YOLO - An acronym that stands for You Only Live Once the phrase is featured in Drake's song The Motto. Can be used to justify ones actions w

The 2015 NBA Draft Stage Tonight is the 2016 NBA Draft and for the top prospects invited to attend the draft live they must choose what music is played when they're drafted. Other then deciding what fancy outfit to wear your music choice is an extremely important decision. These songs have gotten so popular that Drake has a song about this topic. In the 2016 NFL Draft we saw a wide range of music choices from classic rock to Future/Young Thug and country music. Walkup Song Key Factors  Songs Message/Tone The song needs to match what type of player you are/aspire to be. Are you a monster on the boards or a smooth guard? Artist Background Where is the artist from? Is he/she from your hometown? Is the Song Somewhat Family Appropriate? You may be an adult but the song needs to contain subject matter that won't make it too awkward when you shake the commissioner's hand on national TV. Originality/Cliche Factor  While Started From the Bottom by Drak

The Golden State Warriors celebrating their 2015 NBA Championship The NBA Finals are coming to a close with the Warriors up 3-2 on the Cavs. Soon we will have a new NBA Champion. With a new NBA Champion comes a locker room celebration. For the longest time in sports celebrations We Are the Champions by Queen has been the go to song for celebrating your championship while popping bottles (still is in the NHL ). In the NBA and NFL there is a new song that is starting to take spot from We Are the Champions. That song is Big Rings by Drake and Future off of their mixtape What a Time To Be Alive. The song starts off by Drake stating: Cause I got a really big team And they need some really big rings Drake's extremely relevant lyrics combined with the beat by Metro Boomin is a perfect backdrop to celebrate reaching the pinnacle of sport's greatness. We saw defensive back Aqib Talib celebrate the Broncos' Super Bowl victory by reciting Big Rings on the field

An ad lib in hip hop is anything that a rapper does between lines or during any part of the song when they're not rapping. Think of them almost as an audio signature. The most popular kind of ad lib is rapper repeating their name before the song starts. Ad libs can be anything from a grunt to a catch phrase. Here is a list of my favorite rap ad libs. Here's a cartoon picture of what looks like an alien version of Young Thug Jadakiss- Laugh Jay Z- Grunt (Uh uh) Young Thug- It's lit (Sounds like slit) Travis Scott- Straight Up Migos- Repeating the last line in a verse or Migos DMX- Barking like a dog Big Sean- Boy Trapaholics- Where'd you find this? The Empire- If you don't hear this, this is not a true exclusive Swizz Beatz- Showtime Chief Keef- Bang Bang Waka Flocka- Squad Young Jeezy- Damn Rick Ross- Grunt (Huh) 50 Cent- G Unit Ludacris- Luda Meek Mill- Meek Milly Mike Jones- Who? The Dream- Radio Killa Lil Jon- What/Ye

Racks on Racks Megamix Verses Ranked The song Racks on Racks is about who has the most money or "racks." About 5 years ago songs would have numerous artists on the remix or also know as a megamix. One of my favorite megamix is Racks on Racks with 20 different artists. Here is how I attempted to rank the verses on the Racks on Racks Megamix. Instead of going to Rap Genius and reading into all of the lyrics for each verse (the song is about large amounts of cash I don't think we need to read too deep into anything I simply listened to each verse then paused it wrote my thoughts and moved forward and attempted to rank them all afterwords. I will give each verse a score out of 10 then crown a Racks on Racks Megamix verse king at the end. Here is a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IiltYrb0mE Lil Wayne -constant metaphors (some are gross) -Trump shoutout -solid Lil Wayne 7/10 YC (his song originally) -uses autotune -nothing special 3/1

The NBA is down to it's final four teams battling for the Larry O'Brien trophy. In this preview I'm not going to try and break down the matchups. That has been down by numerous people that are a lot smarter then me when it comes to basketball. Today I am going to give a hip hop snapshot of each team and how music may be playing apart in their run. This preview will go over songs where the team or player's names were dropped, artists who are fans of each team and recent stories from hip hop relating to this year's NBA playoffs. Toronto Raptors  The Raptors will easily be the easiest team to write about for this post. Drake has shown to be a diehard Raptors fan. From holding a position with the team to cheering courtside to trying to recruit Kevin Durant. He had a song on his last album called "6 Man" which had a chorus centering around former Raptors guard Lou Williams. There has never been a team that has fully embraced an artist the way the Rap

In college as a joke a myself and a few of my friends had an ongoing joke that certain songs were so wild that various bars in Bowling Green had banned them from being played due to that they caused riots/fights. Here is my collection of songs that will cause the sudden urge to break a bottle, spin a shirt around your head like a helicopter. These are the songs that the woman in the Kanye West song Slow Jamz was talking about taking a break from. The following songs combine a level of familarity with extreme bass and a fast tempo. Raise Up- Petey Pablo I've always joked that if you ever saw Petey Pablo in concert you would need to bring an extra t-shirt. I love this chorus and the associated dance of "take your shirt off/twist it around your hand/spin it like a helicopter" Neva Eva- Trillville This song is the embodiment of what this list is. The song Neva Eva evokes chaos at every note. I've only heard this song one time while at a bar and after the

From the Macarena to the Hand Jive to the Hustle dance crazes have always been prevalent in music. However no genre is as closely linked to dance as hip hop. I have done extensive research on this topic (I know that sounds ridiculous) as I wrote an academic essay in 2009 for my Pop Culture class opposing the thought that hip hop dance music is killing the genre. I actually received an -A. See my last post to check out that paper. Recently the dab reached a fever pitch with Cam Newton reaching the Super Bowl and in result caused everyone to dab. We saw dabs from everybody including Hilary Clinton, Bill Gates and Roger Goodell. Since that dab has become a recent pop culture phenomena, I've decided look back and rank the best hip hop dance crazes since the 2000s. So you won't see any throwback dances like Humpty Dance, Cha Cha Slide or The Bird on this list. Ranking Criteria Hypeness (new word I've decided to create)- How hype does this dance make the dancer and aud

In the Fall of 2009 as a Freshman at Bowling Green State University I was enrolled in Intro to Pop Culture (you can major in Pop Culture at BGSU) and for my final paper for the class I wrote a 10 page paper that focused on the song "Your a Jerk" by the New Boyz. The paper also compared current hip hop to the past along with other issues. Side note: one year for Halloween along with a few friends I dressed up as "jerks" which included skinny jeans, backpacks (I had Cookie Monster) and constant dancing. Here is the essay in it's entirety: Matt Ostrow Instructor Brown Intro to Pop Culture 20 November 2009 I’m a Jerk If someone says to you, “You’re a jerk”, it may be considered an insult. However, in some places the word jerk has taken on a new meaning.  According to interview done by (ABC 7 2009) the New Boyz and other popular jerkin’ groups a “jerk” is some one who partakes in the new dance movement known as jerkin.  The dance was made