Alright everybody it's that time again, I'm here getting us ready for the weekend with some hot audios hot off the presses. I know last week was a bit of a letdown; especially for me since only two of you decided to give me any thoughts on my audio, but I got a feeling this week is gonna put this thing more than back on track. This is one of the matchups so far that I am most excited about. Coming up first we got Nile; the lone wild card, the dark horse x factor of the tourney. This dude might be a bit of an unknown quantity around these parts but if you've checked out his pages as I have you know he's a top seed in this. Then we've got Shakeet Lohk Em a cat who may one day change the fact that Baltimore is probably the only major city in this country without a famous MC to it's name. Shakeet is a regular on this board but by no means has his socially concious brand of beat riding gotten old. As you can see I'm hyped for this bout, but I'm guessing you guys are too so let me shut my trap and get to the tracks:

Nile:

http://web.mac.com/the144000/iWeb/Site/JukeBox.html

Loser’s Weepers****OKAYPLAYER****©2006

Verse: I

I’m back in the moment waiting on nothing/
With a tall glass of Orange Juice and A Corn Muffin/
Loving’ every moment I breathe this air/ and I really don’t care/
Yall cats saying nothing/
Bluffing let’em believe I’m soft in the waist/
I’ll soften ya face with a really hard taste/
Place me in the box put me on the surface/
You know how I get rock mics with a purpose/
Wordless matter a fact rapper are “birdfish”/
Refer to this as a lesson in the truth
Crucifix Thoughts I’m a blessing in the booth
Really fuck money is what I’m stressing to the youth
Oops I dropped it Emcees break easy like a T-mobile Sidekick
Plugs and sockets power my brain /Sanity/
Action Jackson Looking for vanity/
Don’t be mad at me I’m doing what I gotta
Flows that’s sick Nile Hardin got a Lotta
I read G.Q. but I don’t rock Prada
You lukewarm my brainstorms is much hotta/
Application not needed don’t bother
DNA test prove I’m ya father
Blaze Guns Music Love
“Something Something Something Something” with a thug?/
Follow the path live my dream/
Graffiti in the hood skipping rocks on a stream/
A little too much to drink I’m hard on the lean/
And I might just stumble mumble/
Something stupid regret it try to regress/
But fuck it I said it digress/

Verse: II

You lost it now don’t cry don’t question/
I live in the Lab every breath is a session/
Sexy ass beats intercourse verbs/
Freaky slumber thoughts busting off on sheets/
Speech like Gettysburg I carry heavy words/
A 2-ton thesaurus Explore this/
Map quest Google Nile Hardin/
“OKAYPLAYER” look what yall started/
Schuylkill punch the flow I wanna go where yall go/
It’s never been about that?/
3rd School© 215 I boast/
I flame rappers talking ‘bout dough yall toast/
Butter that Tims on my feet like rims/
I control an emcee game like The Sims™/
And I love pussy…/
And I love Cucci/
Even if I blow never catch me at a show rockin Gucci/
Thrift store chucks and a pair of old jeans…/

Loser’s Weepers©2006
Written and Produced By Nile Hardin For 3rd School Recordings
Philadelphia Penn. 19140


Shakeet Lohk Em:

This joint is called "Home Is..."

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=363581

2001, in the year of our Lord/ when Crusade victims brought fear to our door/
A young man in Boston, Matthew Dawson, was paralyzed to see these flyin coffins/
Shocked at what he seen on the t.v. screen/ a Western nightmare, Middle Eastern dream/
3,000 people dead, all races and colors/ now everybody's neighborly, embracin each other/
This tragic circumstance start shakin the system/ Racism put on hold for patriotism/
Thoughts run through, "This evil can't stand/ This America, not holy war badlands/"
“But my peoples in the dirt like Pebbles and Bam Bam/ Still, I can't be another angry black man"/
“So, I know what I'll do, I'll join the service/ the red white and blue, with a noble purpose”/
He went through the steps, and he got deployed/ first to Afghanistan, fit to bring that noise/
So convinced in his heart to stop Taliban ploys/ But as time passed he felt the guilt in his loins/
Then shipped to Baghdad where all peace devoid/ and saw first hand how the army did enjoy/
Shootin innocent Muslims with their fatal toys/ and saw the hate boilin in little Arab boys/
So Matthew prayed, for God to save, the sanity of those in Abu Ghraib/
Where he seen soldiers instigate prisoner melee/ so they can ‘have fun’ and let their A-K spray/
“Oh My God, I'm in the KKK…./ I wanna go home…. “


On the western bank of the ebony lands/ A Senegal tribe looked toward heavenly hands/
askin to be delivered from the clutch of the Dutch/ Lucifer's bunch/ in their huts huddled and hunched/
And such was the life of Olu Mbaye/ sadly one of millions on the slave trade highway/
Taken from his family, daughter and wife/ his soul, his life, his porters of light/
They were chained and shackled/ plain unnatural/ herded on a ship and trained like cattle/
Packed like cargo in 3 foot spaces/ 6 foot kings with seethin hatred/
Dreams of stabbin these criminal minds/ and whisperin "Satan has indigo eyes"/
The smell of blood, humanity theft/ the smell of feces, the smell of death/
Aboard a floatin morgue, it's a mental savage/ the essence of evil, this the Middle Passage/
Olu missed his family, hadn't seen them in weeks/ and his wife is goin crazy, his daughter never speaks/
They thought Olu dead, the hurt was gastric/ so one summer's night they kissed the Atlantic/
When he got the news, Olu refused to be to upset, he felt that he did not lose/
He rather them die than to live this lie, so dehydrated, had no tears to cry/
He’s a shell of a man, a blank look on his face now/ 1712 they arrived in Jamestown/
But he blocks it out with a rampart mind/ looks up to see his family in the vast dark sky/
A constellation drawn by Black Star Lines…../ He wants to go home

*********************************************************************

that's it for this week, but as everybody should know by now we still got two more weeks of battles coming up and thats just round 1. i was thinking about it and i realized i need to get on scheduling round 2 so nobody gets caught off guard and there's no excuses for DQ'ing. i'll be back in here later this weekend with the schedules for the rest of round one and for the beginning of round 2 so keep checking in. oh yeah, and VOTE!!!

hands down illest round. heard nile's, had to play it again, thought no way shakeet would take it. changed my mind after hearin it. both were disgusting. nile, shit was tight all around, you dropped it a few times but it still worked for some reason, made the rest seem more effortless, props for producin too. sha, illest track i heard from you, only feedback I could offer would be to EQ the vocals and bring up the higher regions a bit, give it a crisper sound, imo. so yeah, both of these were fire, I'm leanin towards shakeet based more on content, but ima still go back and play em both for the fuck of it. peace

^vote: sha

nile, I was listenin to your other shit on there, real dope. def agree with people reminded me of jay a bit, mixed with some big L

...thanks for clearing that up i was wondering why you hadnt voted

that makes it 4-3 sha as of now unless im screwing up the count again

...thanks for clearing that up i was wondering why you hadnt voted

that makes it 4-3 sha as of now unless im screwing up the count again

a couple of cats to go hard... ill presentation of skill from both...

nile:

nice beat... subject matter dance around... sound like braggadocious/battle/biggupsus... hell i dunno... appreciate you droppin somethin fresh for the tourney... the freestyle at the end was meh!!! but it takes gaul to do that... me personally, i would edit it out... no lie...

imma give it a 7 of 10, above average but the banged up freestyle at the end wasn't a good look...

shakeet:

'mr message'... i was goin in soundclick to listen thinkin, "if this is on that common track kanye did, imma shit!" but it wasn't... :(
anyway... damn... beat choice was still good tho... you delivered some heavy stuff on this one... but it was a couple times you got of beat (very unusual if i may say)... meaningful stuff as always... never slackin on that side of the fence...

imma give it a 6.5 of 10, as i've said, imo, you gotta be careful on these professionally produced beats... you either slay em or leave em alone (no diss, just my philosophy)... damn good job...

nile edges it out for my vote...

excellent round gentlemen, bra-muhfrickin-vo...

i cannot get nile's music to play. the page loads but there are no links and no music. i see the graphics. i see the lil quicktime icon thingy. i click on that and everything else and nothing happens.

You have to give the songs some time to load. I haven't figured out how to stream music on my site so all 6 songs have to load at the same time. So if you don't have dsl or higher it may take a while. Also, make sure you have the latest ver. of quicktime on you computer. free download.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mac.html

k, so the quicktime upgrade worked. and im glad cause im enjoying these tracks. hot hot stuff. now i gotta cast a vote.

alrighty.

shakeet. sometimes your lyrics/flow sets me up in a space i like to be. always on point. and this audio is really good, better than the others, altho they were good as well.

nile,im glad i finally was able to listen to your tracks. i was not disappointed and it was worth the wait, the dload and installation of software, all of that. these are tracks i can easily vibe to like i do my fav cd's.

now...for the vote.
this was hard because both of the songs were dam good. but for me, shakeet got me with the message. the story telling and the movement of thoughts and such. amazing.
HOWEVER, if nile had chosen another of his tracks to submit in this competition, it would've gotten my vote. namely 'just how im feeling' and 'where' or 'the quiet'. (dont let me find out jay z came out of retirement on these boards)

vote=shakeet

I'm ^UpPiN^ this for now -- Can't Listen -- But I'll check later ...

I feel like I've been "finger fighting" with the keyboard all damn day -- My pinky is bent, and I broke a nail -- :P


I don't feel like elaborating on my choice right now -- Tho I may come back later on -- But Shakeet gets my vote!

Hand's down I have to give Sha points for lyrics and concept. It still sounds like you're like 95% comfortable with your flow. It wasn't exactly off cadence though. The track had a solemn tone to it and I felt that. I thought Nile's lyrics were pretty good. I didn't really see too much in the way of concept. The thing that did for me was the beat selection and flow. Technically I think it's probably the best I've heard on here in that regard. I think it's a tie, but since the emphasis on audios I'm going to give the new guy the nod this time. Good job to both.

...so like i was saying up there ^ i want to get the schedules for the next round in here now even though we dont know all the winners yet since were over halfway through and we dont want people to get surprised

i figured now would be a good time to ge tthis done and posted since with all this people are probably checkign the boards a bit more regularly

so, here's the rest of the matchups for round one and the lineup for round 2:

WEEK FIVE Friday 3/10:

willi_dudat vs. Ezzsential

WEEK SIX Friday 3/17:

Miracleric vs. Prolif

********ROUND TWO********

WEEK SEVEN Friday 3/24

Zin vs. ((the winner of Shakeet Lohk Em vs. Nile))

WEEK EIGHT Friday 3/31

((the winner of willi_dudat vs. Ezzsential)) vs. blak_yukon

WEEK NINE Friday 4/7

hdub vs. ((the winner of Miracleric vs. Prolif))

******************************************************

for the third round (semis) we're going to have one match and somebody getting a bye--- the person with the highest combined margin of victory from the first two rounds will get the bye

I'mma vote for Shakeet just caught me with the lyrics/message
and the beat loving that instrumental haven't heard it in a min
soild track..




Nile--- nice you got a jay-z type sound ... nice flow and lyrically clever sounded like a freestyle Good Job! I just found it lacked content for me




http://www.myspace/dovefly

I guess I misunderstood the kind of "battle" this was. Hell, based on content I'd vote for my mans joint hands down. I'm not talking bout nothing ground breaking at all, I'm just "spittin" and talkin shit. Props due S.L.E. Very well but together.



The Symbols Of An Independent Mind. March 17th 2006

...alright i been staying out of the voting so far 'cause we haven't had anything that was too tight yet- since im hosting i thought id keep my mouth shut unless there was a situation where there was a real close call... as we're getting down to the wire i can see that this round is definitely that situation

first off props to you both for a very ill round of audios

here's how i see the vote on this- sha definitely got the tightest lyrics in this round- got to give him the edge in that category i wont even try to put down the quotables cause there are far too many- on the other hand got to give nile the edge in terms of the flow and audio aspect

that means a tie in my book, but since this is a competitive thing im gonna give the slight edge to nile

why? sha got the edge in terms of content nile got the edge in terms of overall audio steez but i feel i got to discount sha's edge a bit cause of the format i laid out for this in the original sign up post:

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=50931&mesg_id=51298

>...like i been saying up there- to me a battle track can be just giving yourself props and >strutting your rhyme skill
>
>if folks dont want directed punches dont do 'em
>
>i think it's better though if we have similar topics and not just a free for all since we're >gonna have direct comparisons going on- kind of like weight classes
>
>so....
>
>rather than having punches these verses should be focused on how ill you think you are/ >why you rhyme/ and what it means to you
>
>i think that expands on the just strutting concept while giving a lot of creative freedom >without having say a love flow up against a some props shit--- cause i know from my >own experience trying to write different things some topics bring different challenges >this'll kind of level the playing field

so yeah, im giving Nile the win on this by the closest of margins but once again many props to both of you cause this round exemplifies exactly what i was hoping we'd be seeing each week in this tournament

...if i'm counting correctly this is a 3-3 tie

tight

the polls close tomorrow at 8pm tho so get your minds made up and get your voices heard before the clock runs out

Shakeet: I swear I was rockin'to a Dead Prez track…you rode that track with heavy-handed verses. Commanding tone, stuck to the "wanting to go home" concept all the way through and great track. Yes, this would get played in the ride….mmhmm.

<--s'right--


me and the fellas would converge and heat up some Hot Pockets in preparation for Rap City.© Roc

let's talk:
http://yukonmag.com

Check the post above with the link to apple quicktime. If that doesn't work, um... well I got some shoestrings and some tin cans ...

...a yousendit link to the mp3 and i can temporarily throw it up on mysoundclick for the next 24 hours if you want

let me know i definitely want to make sure everybody gets heard

i needed to get a comp w/quicktime on it...just won't be able to till the wkd, next week...


<--s'right--


me and the fellas would converge and heat up some Hot Pockets in preparation for Rap City.© Roc

let's talk:
http://yukonmag.com

...i really appreciate all the participation of the voters

i hope this doesn't do a double post again- my shit has been going crazy and doing that lately

Double postin all over this. LOL

man i been missing these jawns. Gotta go with Nile on this son, i just felt it more, Sha had some swag but he was off at times. peece and keep building ya'll.

...and right now we definitely have a 4-4 tie

about 8 hours to go till the polls close-- although im driving back to ny for spring break tonight so i might run a little bit late on posting the next one

so there might be a little extension past 8 but once i get up the new one no matter what time it is im cutting the voting off there--- so make your decisions folks cause this is definitely looking like it could get decided by a vote or two

...and right now we definitely have a 4-4 tie

about 8 hours to go till the polls close-- although im driving back to ny for spring break tonight so i might run a little bit late on posting the next one

so there might be a little extension past 8 but once i get up the new one no matter what time it is im cutting the voting off there--- so make your decisions folks cause this is definitely looking like it could get decided by a vote or two