Remember Canibus?
Arguably The Greatest Rapper That Never Made it, Can-I-Bus headlined a loaded line up on Monday's Forever Fresh Finale show at Southpaw.
Say what you will about Bis, but the fact that he's somehow managed to drop Eight (yep, you read that right) solo albums off of little more than one magnanimous beef, something like six memorable verses, two well known songs and legendary late nineties Underground hype is more than respectable.
I was never a big fan of Canibus.
I guess I never really got the chance.
By the time he became a common name in South Carolina, he was well on his way to black-baller-status following his super beef with Ladies Love Cool James. Perhaps if he didn't follow that inevitable L to LL (inevitable since Cool J WAS the Industry in those days and anyone with that type of clout would no doubt leverage it to drown the sound of any would be rival. Especially a newbie with more promise than product) by littering his crap-tastic self-entitled debut album with odd fitting, barrel-bottom Wyclef beats that didn't come close to complimenting his didactic rhyme scheme, it would've earned The Company Man's coveted Repeated Listen status.
But he did.
And it sucked.
And when that happens, it becomes harder to trust a new artist with future monetary compensation. Thats the George Bush in me: "Fool me once...shame on...shame on you? Fool me twice...shame?...POINT IS FOOL ME ONCE CAN'T FOOL ME AGAIN."
To this day heads blame Clef for this tremendous fail. I blame Bis. He picked his beats.
But considering the fact that he's remained around the hoop a decade past that Inevitable L and Tremendous Fail one-two-punch to drop 7 additional solo albums is commendable. Hell, he even bickered with Em (on wax!) for most of that time (which is probably the reason why Canibus continues to find a label home).
If you can do what you love and earn enough money to support your family -- whether thats $30 thousand or $30 million -- why do anything else?
Clearly he still has fans. He headlined FOREVER FRESH! Cats came in rocking Canibus T-Shirts!! WHENS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW SOMEONE ROCK A CANIBUS TSHIRT????
The impact of this DJ Clue Freestyle and "Second Round KO" was enough to interest enough people long enough for him to drop 8 albums!!! That level of success is rarely reached in Hip Hop. Regardless of popular opinion, Bis deserves that credit.
FACT.
Anyway, his set was pretty dope. Old ish. New ish. Responsive crowd. Autograph seekers. He did what he was suppose to do.
Check the vids:
VIDEOS PROVIDED BY THE GOOD HOMIES OVER AT THE-QUOTABLE YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
MORE ON FOREVER FRESH COMING TOMORROW (OR LATER TODAY...OR YESTERDAY...OR A LONG TIME AGO...DEPENDING ON WHEN YOU READ THIS).
4 comments:
I was at that show... Canibus shut it down! the new album is insane... true hiphoppers need to get behind this man and support his movement if yall ever want the mainstream to go away
canibus was kinda intimidating rocking the army combat boots and all but I gotta say he would bust out with this Happy kool aid smile that really showed he appreciated all the fans that packed out southpaw. It was dope to see canibus rock for the first time.
Good job justin =)
yeah, you could tell he was having fun on stage. my personal favs were Captain Cold Crush and How We Roll. I hadn't heard those songs before, but both were live!
Canibus was cool for a second. but he always picked shitty beats and only had one monotone ass flow. if you dont like it, then you dont like him. since he fell off, i guess nobody likes it.
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