11 Years Later, I'm still Bumping This Underground Gem

"Lines tighter than a body builder's definition

with an undying will, my mother said I'd never listen"

I recite this quote (from the song PHOENIX by Napoleon Da Legend, produced by Crazy Al Cayne, off their 2011 album The Sugar Cayne Experiment Vol #1: Napoleon Da Legend) on a regular basis (especially when someone compliments my linework)...

I listen to this song in particular so much that to me, it's an unqualified underground classic.

Sometimes I forget that most of the people I know are not familiar with Napoleon or Al Cayne. Over the years, NDL has become one of my favorite emcees of all time.

I listen to people talk about the cute little rappers they like, or complain about pop rap, and a lot of the time, I just can't relate to their frustration with "rap nowadays". Emcees are out here killing it while you're complaining about mumble rap.

I love Black Thought, Mos Def, and Andre as much as y'all do... but the majority of my favorites are people you've never heard of, except when you're ignoring me talking about them.

And I'm okay with that.

"New school leader like Busta and Charlie Brown

Kiss the tarmac like the Pope when I hit solid ground..."

_______________ A M E N

Samax Amen is a professional Content Developer, Illustrator and Cartoonist. He is the artist of many great comics you never heard of like FREELANCER LIFE, Herman Heed, Champion of Children, and The World As You Know It. He even writes and draws his own comics, like Dare: The Adventures of Darius Davidson, Spontaneous, and Manchild when he gets around to it. Because making comics is hard and stuff, he started GhettoManga as a blog in 2006 and as a print magazine in 2008.
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