Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

damn them: two of my favorite rappers of the last year, based purely on flow and the way they sound (the way the words come out of their mouths), are fabolous and jadakiss. but there's a problem: most of their records are shit. fab's got that same mouth-full-of-marbles feel to his voice that biggie had, while jada (or 'kiss, whichever you prefer) - well, he's a ruff ryder, which these days means more about eve than dmx (which is fine with me). it also means he's able to effortlessly straddle the pop/street divide, as his fellow lox-er styles p. does as well. but 'kiss has got personality, too - have you seen his sick reebok commercial with iverson? why he isn't a huge crossover star and cam'ron is, I don't know. but don't even talk to me about most of their own records.

"you can't deny it"? "trade it all pt. 2"? c'mon, fab, you know you can do better, and so do we. his best shot all year has been his guest verse on the remix of tweet's "oops (oh my)," in which he gets as nasty as he wants to be - but he's so damned clever about it, you can't help but smile, especially at his closing line, "oops! there go my kids all over your face." the easy way out would've been to say something much more graphic, but because fabolous is cleared quite talented (his rhymes are good-ass, too), he slips you a mickey without your even knowing.

I love jadakiss' flow so much I actually downloaded his reebok commercial (the rhythm track is all samples of basketball-court sounds!). but again, most of his solo joints and guest spots are horrible - not because of him, but because of the tracks themselves. his most notable exception is "we gonna make it," which was one of my top 30 singles of '01, and is the perfect platform for both 'kiss and styles. if I had a dime for each time a coworker and I have said "ja-da-mwah! kiss you, you bitch-ass nigga" to each other - well, I'd have at least a couple bucks. but his lyrics don't do themselves justice on the page; you've gotta hear jada's cadence (not to mention "we gonna"'s perfect mafioso string loop and indestructible bassline). there is one bon mot, however: "might find your man dead in the ocean (you'll be a'ight, though)/you know dead rappers get better promotion." truer words were never spoken, right, suge? jadakiss (and styles, to a lesser extent) is what makes even jennifer lopez's new single, "jenny from the block," tolerable (and their parts, in fact, are exciting). another jada joint to flip over: "double r what," with eve and styles, from eve's disc eve-olution. simply hot shit, and the return of swizz beats as a producer who matters (juicy tech-house beats married to acoustic guitars, baby).

by the way, the two have made a record together, the remix of fabolous' "keepin' it gangsta." sadly, the track sucks. skip it. hopefully, both of 'em will spend less time on guest appearances and more time on their sophomore solo albums, both due in the next couple of months. time'll tell.