Saturday, March 1, 2008

Feat...




Ok, the topic of the day is features... Everyone’s song has it... its almost getting to the point where to finish a song you must have a feature, as if a good beat and a hook wasn't simple enough... I mean I guess it makes sense, You're a new artist, you want to make it big and have every one singing your song by tomorrow so what do you do? (Cause you want it fast... you been in the game for nearly a year and you think U deserve it already right? Plus you sold drugs or got a gun or something like that... anyways...)

first you find a hot beat, either your potna makes hot fire, or your manager has a black card and thinks he can get rich off of you quick, so you go find a big name producer that has made the beats to some of your favorite mixtape classics, (and sometimes they have a little radio success.) I'm thinking Nitti, The Runners (I doubt you can afford them now), Drummaboy, Mr. Lee, Kane Beatz... idk, that seems like a good start... your so happy you ride around the hood with your potnas to the beat for a few hours... you talk to everyone who calls you with the beat all loud and wait for them to tell you to cut it down, then you explain who made the beat... you try to tell that hood diva about the beat while riding up on her at the bus stop, but she doesn't know who your talking about... she just hops in because she doesn't feel like waiting on the bus... but who cares, your happy as hell, U got step one down for your next "big hit"... Next is the hook...

So now you got your beat, your so happy you almost forget to record to the track... you been happy just freestyling to it in the car. So you stroll into the studio grinning... straight cheesing when you tell the sound engineer to put the CD in and play track 1... so happy cause it sounds even better in the studio. You take out your notebook and walk into the studio to record a hook you had written a couple of months ago... you think it will do well... you lay it down, 30 mins tops... U swear its hot, all your boys in the studio say the same thing... so you turn around to lay down three of the most lyrical verses you can write for a club banger... you tell the sound engineer to put on a quick mix and you ride off with the song... you show it to your manager, or producer or whatever and he says he likes it... just one problem... its "too" lyrical... this day and age the people want a hot beat with simple lyrics and a catchy hook... he start naming examples and it gets to you... you agree, you go back home and re write a catchy simple hook, 3 new verses, simpler with a few punch lines from the original verses and your ready... you lay them down the next day and show your manager/producer again... he is much more pleased this time... he says the hook is perfect... it could go straight to ring tone... only thing missing now is a feature... you say you don't know about that, you worked so hard on your 3 verses that you don't want to take one off... but he insists and tells you how he just met this one guy that can get him any feature he needs and how that guy interns at some label or something... and then he once again brings up some other hit songs with features and how they wouldn't have been as big without the feature... so you're psyched up and ready to trash a verse for someone else... only problem is, who do you want...

Here is a list of some of the top features right now... everybody has some, and only a few have the others... From R&B to Hip hop, here they go...

-Lil Wayne - If you pick Lil Wayne, everyone will hear your song, every mixtape, every internet website, every one will want to hear that Wayne verse... but if your song and verse aren’t hot, no one will research more on you... you can't just have a Wayne verse and think your straight, everyone has a Wayne verse... you have to work extra hard if you get one...

-T Pain - Now Pain has replaced Akon, who replaced Nate Dogg on the hood hooks... but Pain has grown to so much more... Street anthem hooks, R&B songs, Club anthems and production... Pain can bring a lot to the table for you, almost everything but originality... everyone has a Pain hook...

-Kanye West - Now this dude is hard to get for just anyone, but if you can it’s always a good look... mainly saving himself for backpack rappers, R&B and UK artists, Kanye never ceases to amaze, I want to see him do remixes with american artists... on his songs and on theirs... But hey, here's another hit, Barry Bonds...

-Ludacris - This dude has his swag on point, he can switch from any type of song, and it’s always official when he touches your track... R&B, Hip Hop, Club... anything... he can kill it...

-Young Joc - Now the only dude I think coming up the same lane on features as Luda is Young Joc... Joc has that crazy word play that is still catchy enough to repeat in a club over a hot track... if only he could make better singles than "Coffee Shop"... it just wasn't my favorite to follow "Goin Down" and "I Know You See it."

-Young Jeezy - Young Jeezy is a pretty good feature for some one who is not even a rapper... he's gone platinum on both albums and is a rare feature to have, even for Khaled some times...

-Rick Ross - Rick Ross is a boss... simple as that... Rick Ross and Slim Thug are two artists that can always guarantee that extra bossy feature...

-Jim Jones - I don't know why the south loves Jim Jones so much... I don't really see his super southern appeal, but he gets down on these southern tracks... ballerific!

-Chamillionaire - Cham is also a rare feature to have, if you get Cham on the right track you can really get a lot out of him... having him on the right type of song can unlock qualities of him he wasn't really able to display on his album.

-R. Kelly - The King of R&B... this dude is consistent... whether its singing or rapping... or telling a full story, this dude is talented... after all these years, he's still the best of his world...


These are some of my favorite features, they are not as big names as the other artists, or they don’t get called upon as much (or I couldn’t just put them with the others)…but they always get the job done…

Kiotti - I don't know if many of ya’ll have heard of him, but he is one of the few to be able to freestyle off the dome... his freestyles and features are the hottest, but he needs to work on his single making abilities and an album.

Bow Wow - This guy is really starting to impress me, no matter whom, (if anyone) is writing his rhymes... I'm sure he will grow into his image; he's one of the underdogs I'm going for.

Lupe Fiasco - Super rare feature, but its always fun where ever he pops up... his song direction is so crazy, its fun to see who else can properly fit him on a song.

Bun B - Southern excellence... everyone knows when they need a true southern OG they get the big Bun B... the UnderGround King...

Andre 3000 - Who doesn't get excited when they hear a daddy fat sacks feature? Andre just comes out of nowhere with exactly what we need... Old School flow on the most current song, I'm just so surprised in the direction he takes his verse on some of the most ignorant hits...

Fabulous – This dude always know how to school other rappers when it come to featuring, whether its spelling his name out or just coming with that consistent punch line heavy slow flow...

O yeah, and Plies, TI, Max B, E-40, Sean Kingston and Big Boi all are on it too… cant wait till Rich Boy, Z-Ro, Flo Rida and Jody Breeze start getting more features… NO MORE SHAWTY LOs….

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