Emimen & Dr. Dre/ Relapse & Detox
Producers: Dr. Dre, Eminem, DJ Premier,
Leads: “Crack A Bottle” “Could Have Been You”
Quotable: It’s sorta like pourin’ Draino down a live volcano.
You never know what’ll happen next, it may blow.
Same things happen to the beats when Dre blows

Yes, I’m cheating by combining these, but am I really? Up until last year Dr. Dre’s Detox was given an improbable November ’08 release date and then got pushed for Em’s Relapse project (going clean is only fun after a weekend-long bender in Vegas, right?). At that point I had officially put Detox in the same box with my New York Knicks championship hopes and wasn’t even going to list it for ’09. But then the leak happened. “Could Have Been You” featuring R. Kelly and 50 Cent found its way onto the Internet. Dre’s anger at the premature release only gives credibility to the track and makes me think this might actually happen.

The other reason I’ve put them together is that we know that Em is writing most of Dre’s rhymes and Dre is doing most of Em’s beats so isn’t the separation of barcodes at Best Buy a mere formality?

As for the music itself I have it on very good authority that the time off since 2004′s Encore has done Eminem some good. “Lyrically, he is going somewhere else with it,” said one person who I caught rummaging through wastebaskets for crumpled up rhyme notes at Interscope records. “He’s hungry, gotta chip on his shoulder. He’s heavily influenced by what he grew up on for his first album, like The Pharcyde and Masta Ace.”

The Pharcyde and Masta Ace??  So Em is about to put a size whatever limited-edition Jordan up the ass of the rap game. Did you hear the flow on that last verse of “Crack A Bottle?” And he isn’t even finished.

“It wasn’t close to finished, and it even has me doing guide vocals for Dre as a suggestion of how he could lay his verses down,” Em told Billboard.com. “It’s like someone catches you peeping in your window before you got the Spider Man costume all zipped up! Nobody is supposed to see that. We are gonna finish it up, though, and get it out there how it’s supposed to be.”

As for Detox, just listening to the rough and ugly version of the “Could Have Been You” instrumental below lets me know the man is not playing. But after waiting this long I will accept nothing less than the most immaculately produced hip-hop album ever. No pressure, Dre.

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Number 5

Number 4

Number 3

Number 2

Andre 3000, TBD
Leads: “Green Light” “Art of Story Tellin’ 4″
Quotable: I hate to see y’all frown but I’d rather see her smiling
Wetness all around me, true, but I’m no island
Peninsula maybe, makes no sense I know, crazy…

If Lil Wayne is a Martian then what the hell is Andre 3000? Looking at what’s been popping over the last year or so it’s hard to ignore the return of Andre Benjamin to the mic. Reversing the trend of rappers wanting to sing, Outkast’s Andre Benjamin has spent the last year or so patiently reminding us that he is a damn good MC, one of the best alive right now. After taking a hiatus to serenade us on The Love Below, he started dropping guest verses in 2007 appearing on various cuts including “Walk It Out,” “Throw Some D’s,” “You,” Jay-Z’s “30 Something,” UGK’s “International Players Anthem,”and DJ Drama’s “Art of Storytelling 4.”

But what can we expect from a full length CD? Potentially, one of the best hip-hop albums since The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. With the ears of the music buying audience tenderized on Autotune vocals for most of 2008, Andre’s falsetto will be a welcome complement to his already celebrated lyrics. Very little is known about who will be producing but sonically, the multi-instrumentalist has always gone against the grain and given us some of the most lush and well-produced songs on the radio. The x-factor of course is that Andre actually WANTS to rap again, which typically makes all the difference with artists of his caliber. Maybe sitting on those acting checks and watching Lil Wayne make a killing with his whole swagger has given him the motivation to get back and give the people what they’ve been begging for.

At press time there was no working title for this project but if it comes out this year we’ll just call it a classic.

“International Playa’s Anthem”

“Everybody”

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Number 5

Number 4

Number 3

Number 1

50 Cent, Before I Self Destruct
Producers: Dr. Dre, Red Spyda, Hi-Tek, Needlz
Leads: “Get Up” “I Get It In”
Quote: “I make it rain, till the sun come out
A nigga playin, we make the guns come out”

There is nothing more entertaining than a good MC with something to prove. After the lukewarm reception to G-Unit’s Terminate On Site and his lead single “Do My Thing” (great beat, but lyrics were just practice laps compared to his previous singles), Curtis Jackson’s 2008 is best known for beefing with Taco Bell and allegedly setting his baby mom’s house on fire. That isn’t the mark you want to leave when people you poke fun of (Kanye West and Lil Wayne) sell more records than you. So I’m sure Curtis is coming with both barrels blazing on his 4th solo CD and his last for Interscope Records.

As a testament to 50′s “going all out” mantra, he jacked the beat for his latest single “I Get It In” from his labelmate Eminem. The track is definitely catered to that “1 am and I just got in the club and I’m looking for the bar” feel. (Reminds me a little of “Ouchie Wally” for some reason, but I’m sure he doesn’t want to hear that.) Not sure what Em would have done with this so Fif was right to grab it. With this smooth, video-friendly re-introduction my bet is the rest of the CD is dripping with bravado. Titles like “Need Your Hate,” “Don’t Mess With 50″ and “Bitch I’m Sorry” sound like 50 has clocked many hours playing his game Blood In The Sand.

My one hope is that 50 lives up to the title in other ways. It’s the first time in a while that he’s acknowledged that he could in fact lose it. It’s the first hint at mortality since his first CD, Get Rich Or Die Tryin. That title implied that his death was actually a possibility (however slim) and the intensity came across in the music. But for the next few CDs he rapped like the hunter instead of the hunted and ran out of targets one-by-one. Not so much because he killed them off, they (Fat Joe, Nas, Kanye, Lil Wayne, et. al) but no one really cared about a lyrical back and forth with Fat Joe or teasing Kanye about his clothes. Disinterest is a fate worse than death. So let’s hope that on this new CD 50 is selling us tickets to the biggest fight of his career, with himself.

Tentative Tracklisting for Before I Self Destruct
01. Intro
02. Came To Win (Produced by Red Spyda)
03. Get Up (Produced by Scott Storch)
04. Need Your Hate (Produced by Dr. Dre)
05. Here For A Reason (feat. Nate Dogg) (Produced by Tha Bizness)
06. Good To Be A Gangsta (Produced by Ty Fyffe & Sha Money XL)
07. Don’t Mess With 50 (Produced by Don Cannon)
08. Trust In Me (Produced by J.R. Rotem)
09. Norman Bates Motel (feat. Eminem) (Produced by Dr. Dre)
10. Bitch I’m Sorry (Produced by Needlz)
11. All For You (Produced by Hi-Tek)
12. No Time To Lose (feat. Swizz Beatz) (Produced by The Individuals)
13. Lonely At The Top (Produced by Play-N-Skillz)
14. You Need Us (feat. Lloyd Banks & Tony Yayo) (Produced by DJ Khalil)
15. Different Path (feat. Dave Young) (Produced by Havoc)
16. I Get It In (Produced by Dr.Dre)
17. Somebody Forgive Me (Produced by Jake One)
18. My Reign (Produced by Eminem)
19. Ready For War (feat. Dr.Dre) (Produced by Dr. Dre)

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