Virginia rapper and ghostwriter, Mad Skillz began his yearly Rap-Ups in 2002 and has had a monopoly on them until around 2012 or 2013,when Brooklyn born Uncle Murda decided to take a turn at it. I can’t find the exact date of Murda’s very first Rap-up, but the two had a brief beef about the year end song, and now it seems that they are both trying to co-exist peacefully. Of course, the hip-hop community will continue to pit the two against each other, because the concept is bound to have them both visit the same topics. In comparison, Skillz is the safer of the two, while Uncle Murda has proven that he doesn’t give much of a fuck about what anyone thinks. As a matter of fact, he mentions in this years Rap-up that he thinks he, himself is quite funny.
Mad Skillz decided his Rap-up should bless the beat of Lil’ Duval’s ‘Smile Bitch”, arguably some peoples favorite song of 2018. This was a safe yet obvious choice and was a bit disappointing for me as I could take or leave Duval’s breakout hit. Meanwhile, Uncle Murda decided to use a sample of Rose Royce’s “Wishing on a Star”, with breaks of Dr. Dre’s ‘Nuthin’ But A G Thang’, ‘Deep Cover’, Snoop Dogg’s ‘Gin and Juice’, and Biggie’s Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems. I’m a sucker for a sample, and still Murda’s choice came off as more original than Skillz’s. The point of the Rap-up, is to give an account of the happenings of the year from top to bottom, which both artists did, but it seems that Mad Skillz did the Rap-up as an attempt to stake his claim as the originator of the idea, and to make sure he didn’t give up without a fight. Something else that seemed a little awkward to me was his usage of ad libs. I can’t remember if Skillz utilized them before, but they were very similar to Murda’s use of ad libs, which usually makes his bars/punchlines much funnier. I went back and listened to Skillz’s 2017 Rap-Up, and he did use ad libs, but sparingly, so I stand by my previous statement that Murda influenced his usage of ad libs.
They both touched on 45’s insanity, ( just so you know, my goal is to never refer y’alls president by name); Kanye’s weird alliance with him, Bill Cosby, Drake vs Pusha T, and a slew of other things. The things that stood out to me from Mad Skillz Rap-Up were the following; Monique boycotting Netflix, Will Smith joining Instagram, the Tide pod eating epidemic, Quincy Jones wilding out in his interviews, Beychella, the Philadelphia Starbucks controversy, Fabolous and Emily B’s scandal, Roseanne being fired by ABC, Eminem vs MGK, #whobitBeyonce, Shiggy being everywhere, the popularity of the Fortnite video game, the California Camp Fires, Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ Book, Kevin Hart’s Oscar debacle, and the monstrosity of immigrant children seeking asylum being separated from their parents at the border. I’ve enjoyed Mad Skillz’s version of the song in the past, but this year, it seemed like an afterthought or that he was pressured into putting the song out.
On the flip side, Murda seemed like he had rightfully been preparing all year for this, so much so that he didn’t post the song until January 1, 2019, whereas it’s typically dropped on the last day of the previous year by both parties. As I’ve stated before, his ad libs are hilarious and pretty much make the song for me. He began the song with one of the year’s hottest topics, which is Tekashi 69 currently being in Federal prison. Tekashi 69 appeared on Uncle Murda’s ‘Get the Strap’ alongside 50 Cent and Casanova (a highly underrated song of 2018. One of my favorite songs to work out to). Some other stand-outs were the following; Suge Knights sentencing and the fact that no one cared about it, Nicki vs Cardi B; stating that Nicki raps better but Cardi puts out better music, Kanye’s liposuction admission, with Murda asking if he’s getting ass shots next. He also told Kanye we don’t want new music from him and pointed out that he fucked up Teyana Taylor’s album roll-out (I’m still quite angry about that myself Lenny). Murda touched on label boss 50 Cent’s Starz show Power, and said what everyone was thinking, that when Tariq gets killed, no one is going to miss him. He was a good sport and mentioned that 50 put him in a movie with Bruce Willis, but he got killed in 2 mins (RIP to that character). Uncle Murda brought attention to the fact that Black people didn’t care about George H.W. Bush’s death, Nipsey Hussle slapping someone at the BET awards, all while making fun of Jay-Z’s jet-ski photo. Cardi B left Offset, and Offset copped a plea that he didn’t cheat, he just entertained the idea (and Uncle Murda believes him). He, like many others reveled in the irony of gossip Maven Wendy Williams’ husband being caught cheating, allegedly expecting a baby with another woman, and Wendy leaving him, and ended that bar with “Good for you!” He brought us back to Nicki Minaj’s ex, Safaree getting robbed and crying on Angie Martinez’s show. While he doesn’t know if it actually happened, he hopes it did, because Safaree’s corny and Murda doesn’t like him because he was with Nicki. He paid quick homage to the legend Aretha Franklin and mentioned the horrible death of Junior the young kid from the Bronx. He confirmed that Jaquees is NOT the king of RnB and used Juelz Santana as a Say No to Drugs campaign cautioning kids that they could lose their teeth. Uncle Murda has very strong opinions and noted that he doesn’t think Stevie J and Faith look good together, and that Biggie would smack the shit out of Stevie J if he were still here. He sided with Katt Williams in that neither think that Tiffany Haddish is funny. Some of his final points were that Travis Scott is a coon like his brother-in law, and that Jay-Z gave Wayne money to pay his taxes, but he didn’t forget to tell Hov that he needs help too. I’d like to mention that Elliot Wilson posted a tweet from someone stating that they were going to smack an entire crew in an attempt to make Murda’s Rap-up, I’ve never seen such fervor to make it on Mad Skillz’s song.
In conclusion, Uncle Murda is the captain now. Mad Skillz can continue to do his Rap-Up, and I’ll listen, but you made it a hot line, Murda made it a hot song. Welcome to 2019! Let me know who won in the comments.
T.Nicole
