This mixtape doesn’t “start”, it begins. The music selection for this project are effective and well-placed. U’re Gonna Love Me provides a powerfully crafted introduction infused with inescapable emotion. You’d think it’s just the beat, but HollyWood won’t let the music outshine the words: He bleeds on the track. You can practically feel his pulse in his delivery. I don’t know where the beat/sample is from, but frankly, I’m not concerned. “You’re gonna love me,“ HollyWood repeats unapologetically when the sample won’t. This project was not made for music-skimmers. I’ll try not to perform too much surgery on his bars, but as we open it up to see the truth of the insides, I’m sure you, too will see the beauty of creation & understand what a surgeon must feel –genius crafted this. To ignore one line he says is somewhat disrespectful because you can tell every word matters in his delivery –its sound and message.  HollyWood left me no choice but to pay as much attention to the music as he did. From here, we go song by song. I encourage you take a listen for yourself as we go along. 

                        

           The first thing you need to know about HollyWood is that he’s from Brooklyn. -_- Secondly, East Brooklyn. Since I’m not from there, I don’t know the difference, but I understand there is one. I understand that his first duty is to big up New York City (including a shoutout to the Yankees & all) because “Brooklyn got the best of [him].” With this track, appreciated the appropriate introduction to HollyWood the person –he just wants us to know what he comes from. Not to say that Brooklyn or its streets are the entirety of who he is (“Highly educated, what you know about a tassle?” he challenges later in Failure.) but on his first track, HollyWood begins the journey with his city strapped to his back — regardless of whatever his personal reason is for letting us know, he simply needs us to know. “Streets helped in raising me, block kept embracing me,” he says explaining  his dedication & obligation. Same time, he assures us he’s his own man —“Still, I did it my way so there’s nothing you can say to me.” Immediately, though he answers how: “They hated Jesus Christ so I know they gone be hating me.“ He makes it a point to let us know he stands on his own. It’s an admirable point to have, to be honest. In a day where the labels you wear get you farther than the bars you spit and your video is more important than your flow, where black men hold themselves back  because of what the world has told them they’re incapable of accomplishing, anyone who is willing to do what they want to do – and with confidence — is rare. Scarce. A marketing mind might even call it profitable. HollyWood knows that and plans on “running rap”. With that, this first track (& perhaps this first project)  is simply us watching him lace his sneakers up.

           Apparently, the truth is back. About fuckin time. I’m fuckin excited,  especially because, in these times, well at least to me, not enough niggas out here have respect for Jay-Z. The influence is evident in HollyWood’s music. Not on the…”biting” end of it all, but the music of the original “The Ruler’s Back” rumbles with a might HollyWood refuses to let go unnoticed as he sings along with the dun dun duuunn‘s helping us immediately recognize & embrace the Brooklyn arrogance.  We forget that  a “couple cups” is actually a lot for any recipe, but this is HollyWood, and HollyWood embraces the excess: “I’m only getting better so they hate more/ plus the pockets stretch longer than the Great Wall/ Superman with the cape off.”  The Ruler’s Back rings in with a cocky vengeance, unapologetic in its delivery. When the track began, I feared it. I fear all songs on Jay-Z beats, but HollyWood proves himself a master of reinvention. This track is a prime example of how he can take something that has been done and make it his. He maintains the vibe of the original track but switches out the story completely. The song is officially his. Even in the particulars, he finds a way to say things in a way we’ve never heard it before. “Word to my great grandmother granddaughter.” *shrugs* I’m not going to argue the brilliance of that line or call it “deep” (i hate that word -_-), but I will argue the entertainment value of the clever substitution. You can only say, “mother” in a number of different ways –a low number. HollyWood took something minimal –which could have easily turned into the nothingness we usually get & made is something.  By switching up such a minute word, HollyWood trips up the listener and beckons them back to the track, as if to say “pay attention or you’ll miss something.” And so you pay attention. & so we continue on. 

            The most respectable aspect of  HollyWood’s work is he says what needs to be said. Like he’s not afraid of who’s listening. As if it’s just you and him. Or if someone happens to overhear, he doesn’t give a fuck anyway.  He speaks to you as if he has a point to make. The point is not to entertain you,  rather he has something to say. While he’s charmingly friendly, he doesn’t seem like a big talker in person (maybe more of the joke-cracking type, I’d have wrongly assumed, but the wit is certainly there), so I was surprised to hear so much to be honest. & I even questioned the mixtape’s mere 7 tracks. I didn’t quite doubt it, more so to say I’m delightfully impressed. All the songs are under 4 minutes. Most under 3. HollyWood takes great care to not waste neither his time nor ours. The movement of his bars in Veteran’s Day are steady strong. With no signs of hesitation between thoughts, he makes his points poignantly, as I said before. His unabashed delivery demands respect. If he doesn’t hesitate to say it, what could give one the right to doubt him? No matter the story, there’s nothing more substantial or valuable than trust you have for the person telling it. & that’s why I wrote so much of his songs out, he’s the best at telling us who he is and what he means:

         

          HollyWood had to? Dead Presidents is like Hip-Hop’s swimming test.  Niggas sink or swim on this one.  G’s are asked to prove themselves –especially since Jay did it twice & switched it out on distribution.  In the “Fade to Black” film, a young rapper tells Jay-Z that he can’t put out his true feelings because it wont sell. Jay recites Dead Presidents and says, “That was on my first album.” Secretly, some niggas are bitches. They need to be called out. *shrugs* To me, Dead Presidents is the bullseye rappers aim at.  It’s the song on which you’re supposed to “address all drama [&] talk to them.”  J. Cole did alright –there wasn’t enough soul for my taste, he more so complains about females &/or other rappers *shrugs* He doesn’t have enough wisdom for me. Cole’s first version does more for me than the second.  Jay-Z’s  Dead Presidents calls out imaginaery gangstas who “aside from the fast cars/ honeys that shake they ass in bars/… wouldn’t be involved/ with the underworld dealers, carriers of mack millers/ east cost bodiers, west-coast cap peelers/  little monkey niggas turned gorrilas/ stopped in the station & filled up on octane/ & now they not sane & not playing/” because not everyone is that. But some get caught in the web & pretend to be.  Not everyone can “spit that wonderama shit” and (make up a word and) get away with it. But no one can justify anyone else’s thug for them. I recommend you take the time to debate it yourself –if there is even a debate to be had, that is. It’s just, honestly, the song I fear being remixed the most, therefore I question it’s existence on anyone’s tracklist.  Very big shoes to fill.  As for HollyWood…

                Listen, like I was sayin there’s a dude from the Brook. He’s really a good look & he can hang with the best of ’em, HollyWood says & I agree.  I agree because I when I listened to his Dead Presidents I listened to the rest of them & the “best” of them –just to test him out. In few words, I was impressed. Simply put, I respect it. But HollyWood seems good for that –impressing people. I wondered why he named his version “Dead Presidents II” (either I’m missing version 1 or there’s a real reason)  so… I tweeted ’em…  but that was three hours ago   -_- lol. & since I’m tired & I can’t be counted on to update this… We’ll have to wonder for a while longer. I’ll cash on on an exclusive HollyWood interview later on when he’s too famous to make time. *shrugs* lol  Anyhow…

       There’s a particular pattern Dead Presidents follows which I expect them all to. (Because obviously, I’m the President of the Hip-Hop board, so I call the shots. Excuse me if I get ahead of myself, but you’ll see that I’m correct.) There are three rules you need to keep in mind about Money, which Jay-Z, in the original song, outlines without outlining –& you can’t get away from them due to both the inherent refrain in the music as well as the natural course of life:

           

            “Dear Rap,” HollyWood begins. This is when you realize he hasn’t been speaking to us at all this time, he’s been speaking to the music –the essence of it. HollyWood consoles the music, telling it to “no need to mourn over Hip-Hop [he’s] back. No auto-tune, just bass & high-hats….On the corner singing, in case you miss that.“ There’s a sad sincerity in his words. In this track, his emotions come out from under the mask of arrogance & show themselves in the from of disappointment in these “new boys” & “Hip-Hop Screeches”.

Hopefully, his hunger remains violent. Hopefully, he attacks the next project with the same thirst as this one: In sum, I simply hope I can always feel this way about Mr. HollyWood. I’m sure that if he continues to be true to himself, no one will have to worry about that. As I read through the reviews on the EBF site,  it’s apparent the crowd beckons for an #Encore. I was glad to read that HollyWood’s next mix-tape, HBO vol. 1: My EastSide Story is currently in the works –the first of a 3 part project. That, to me, means the first is probably practically done & the blueprint for the second is mapped out. The third will probably shift from the presupposed regiment since it’s so far out in time, but I admire it’s mere existence. Hopefully we’re just fighting perfectionism as we wait on the next dose of HollyWood. Certainly something I’m looking forward to.  I encourage HollyWood to continue the grind.  I’m a proud supporter the EFB movement *shrugs*