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Happy St. Patrick’s Day: Green Equals Envy

By Odeisel Intro Co-Written By shelz.

To commemorate this St. Patrick’s Day, we here at the Planet aren’t going to cast out any snakes, march in any parades or bake any potatoes. We will however celebrate green in all it’s myriad forms as reflected in the music we consume.

Instead of getting drunk and passing out in a field picking shamrocks we decided to go green. No, were not taking group showers or recycling articles (we don’t do that here.) However, we are going to take you on a sonic ride of all things emerald.

We have tunes about the green eyed monster, the root of all evil, mother earth and Devon the Dudes favorite past time.

Here, my friends is the first episode:  jealousy. They want your grill, they want your whip, they want your paper (We’ll explain later) they want your status. Jealousy is a powerful engine that has inspired some really good music over the years. Here are some we thought we really good.  As always, if we leave anything out, feel free to suggest and if we’re not stinking drunk for celebrating other”aspects” of this holiday, we’ll add them. Your world, Your way. On to the show.

Spice 1 and Tupac go in on how they put an end to all the jealousy and the haters: They stay strapped.  Apparently it’s very hard to hate with a gun in your mouth. Spice is as gangsta as they come and it’s always nice to hear ‘Pac on a track not rhyming Hennessey with enemy. If you looking to hate on someone, you’re barking up the wrong tree with this duo.

“They smile in your face, all this time they want to take your place…” Way before player haters, they O’ Jays let it be known that some of those cats in your circle ain’t exactly happy that you poppin’ so many bottles. The soft strings on the edge of the song give way to that bass the same way that those that smile in your face when it’s all good pray for your downfall. Et Tu Tyrone?

Sometimes the haters take the frontal assault approach. When you bring steak to the jungle you better  feed the wolves or bring something to back them down. The Jiggaman was feeling the mo’ problems aspect of that post Vol. 2 success and his response to cats scheming was this hard joint. His delivery has never been harder than the intro and Timbo laid the perfect ground work. Jay should have known better than to think people would be happy for him.

Leave it to Uncle L to do things differently. LL rhymes about the personification of jealousy itself and casts it as antagonist to be conquered on this jam from the incorrectly maligned Walking With A Panther. The smooth flow over the gangster beat is the perfect backdrop for Cool J’s persona of being above the petty bullshit.

The powerful Sinead O’ Conner slowly, achingly recounts to a former lover how hard it was to move on without him in her life, and let him know that she would have done anything for him if he had asked. In the end she moved on and now he’s jealous that she no longer needs him. This moving letter is gripping in execution and sucks you in to bear witness to her Phoenix like defiance. Brilliant.

Sometimes jealousy forces us out of pocket; makes us do things out of our normal range. In this song, Juelz is brutally honest about  his domestic violence situation a few years back. His openness brings out an aspect of him that you wish he would  touch on more as an artist. Things like this would elevate him about the juvenile stuff he normally does. If you’re ever making a case for him as a rapper, point to this over any of those Cam “Lite” joints they play on the radio.

[pro-player]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqkceDu3CfI[/pro-player]

This early Eminem track may sound a bit primitive (from his first album Infinite) but sometimes its good to go back to the source. There’s nothing advanced about this song but the genuine feeling conveyed in it  is refreshing. Many times people rap about things because they can but this feels a bit biographical and could represent the feelings of just about anyone adolescent having girl trouble. Never let it be said we were lazy. Besides, Benzino ain’t the only person that “hears” some of the things in this song.

MONEY

EARTH

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