Every so often an artist comes along and changes the course of things. Innovative original style. Edgy foresight. A stupid dope vision.
These are a few of the components that make up some of the best artist of the times. Imagine if Micheal Jackson had’ve fizzled out after his Motown deal in the 70s. Imagine if 50 Cent had died in that near fatal shooting that left him with an alleged 9 bullet holes. Imagine if Diddy had’ve graduated from Howard business school in the 90s and gone off to Wall Street instead of Beat Street. The songs and styles we all know them best for would have gone unheard.
Devin The Dude has never been the biggest artist in the game, he’s never had the “machine” behind him, he’s never even won an award for music as far as we know (Dr.Dre’s Chronic 2001 where Devin croons a hook doesn’t count). However he is one of the best to ever do it. Diamonds in the rough is what hip hop is ALL about. Even at hip hop’s inception the popular sound was lame and everyone wanted to know what the kids in the projects with no voice had to say. Before high powered hip hop labels existed propelling their artists to the forefront, the culture knew who was dope. “Hey man did you see Kool Herc in the park last week. Have you heard this kid from Bed Stuy freestyle? Man did you hear that song Freaky Tales?” etcetera etcetera. Finding great hip hop is like finding a great barber, a great lawyer, or a great mechanic the referral system works best. Devin The Dude has forged a 20 plus year career out of that exact system. He has recently released a new album and new singles to go along with it. But we wanted to take you all back to the beginning and the reason why this artist will always be heralded by greats like Dr.Dre.
His debut solo album cosigned by Scarface appropriately titled The Dude is a hip hop classic! Fuck the Grammys! Fuck the BET Awards! We dedicate our official SPOTLIGHT post to Devin The Dude and we thank Rap A Lot Records for continually promoting such classic hip hop. Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. Enjoy the full album stream of Devin’s debut album. If you are one of the hip hoppers constantly complaining about the state of hip hop take about an hour out of your life to make it a little bit better.
And if you need a reason other than the fact that we told you its dope to lend this legendary artist an ear maybe name dropping will help you see the light. Devin has been cosigned by Scarface, Outkast, Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg, Currensy, WIz Khalifa, and countless others who have sold more records and have way more radio spins and get no benefit, other than people knowing they know what’s hot, by saluting Devin’s music.
Tracks like Do What The Fuck You Wanna Do, Write or Wrong, Sticky Green, and I Can’t Quit make this album arguably one of the best rap albums to be released. Enjoy!