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Lady Luck - Money Money
Longtime readers of this site know how big a fan I am of Lady Luck, an emcee that's been holding it down for Jersey longer than just about any other rapper that's still in the game. I've been checking out her facebook updates recently as she's been posting photos and writing about the passing of her aunt, Sugar Hill Records cofounder Sylvia Robinson (aka "The Mother of Hip Hop"). Given her pedigree and how much talent she has as an emcee, it's been disappointing to see that Luck's career has never matched the success of the many lesser female rappers that have come and gone since she first came on the scene with EPMD and Redman back in '99.
In any event, I don't know who's managing Luck these days but if this Money Money video is an indication of the direction she's now heading in I feel like she's getting some really bad advice. The beat's i-ight (word to Doug E.) in that sort of generic Young Money/Maybach Music sound that every producer seems to be jocking these days, but whoever it was on her team who told her that dressing up like an 18 year old candy-coated hipster circa 2008 was a good look needs to be fired. Her flow is still as sharp as ever, and there's potential in the lyrics; given everything that's going on with Occupy Wall Street and the lingering resentment regarding the financial bailout, this could've been a particularly relevant song. It's not that it's bad, just that it could've been much better if Luck wasn't trying so hard to sound mainstream.
Lest I spend an entire post dwelling on the negative, here's a recent video from Luck that I do like, a freestyle over the classic beat from Black Sheep's The Choice Is Yours:
Lady Luck - The Choice Is Yours freestyle
And one more video off of her recent album, Are We There Yet?:
Lady Luck - Put It Down
10/16/2011 6:30:00 PM posted by Fresh