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Last night, during the time I would normally spend putting together a post for the site, I was stuck on the Turnpike coming home from the Meadowlands after watching Martin Gramatica boot the
Over the weekend I picked up the latest tape from Saigon, Return of the Yardfather. As anyone who is either up on the New York mixtape scene or a fan of HBO's Entourage knows, Saigon a.k.a. Sai Giddy has been touted as "the next big thing" for a couple of years now. After growing up in Brooklyn and New Jersey, Saigon got caught up in a gang and was eventually sent to jail at the age of 16 after being convicted of First Degree Assault, a charge stemming from his involvement in a gang-related shooting. While in prison, he read a book on the Vietnam War, which inspired him to take on the name "Saigon." His other alias, "The Yardfather," comes from the fact that he was allegedly a Godfather-like figure in the jail yards.
His time in jail has certainly had an influence on his lyrics. In his own words:
"In jail, you have the reality. You'd look stupid if you ran around with your face all screwed up, acting like a tough guy. If you're so tough, then why are you locked in when the CO says so? Having that experience is why I always make it my business to tell people the realities of the thug life. The truth is that life has two endings - dead or in jail. You might have a studio thug who can do it, but no real thug gets to kick his feet up on the beach. I feel, as artists, we're irresponsible if we don't tell people the whole truth."
While I don't think Saigon will quite live up to all of the hype that's been building up around him over the past couple of years, I do think he's a dope rapper. His flow is solid, his lyrics have a legitimate message behind them and, as an artist under Just Blaze's Fort Knocks Entertainment label, he's guaranteed to have some solid production on his album. The one problem that may trip him up is the occasional anti-gay outbursts that he's prone to (for example, "Change the Game Remix," which you can hear on his MySpace page). When you're a mixtape rapper those lyrics aren't a big deal, but once the mainstream media picks up on it, it can cause some problems. I don't think it will have a real impact on his sales, but I do expect he'll catch some flak from it when his album (now pushed back to 2007) comes out.
Here are a couple of tracks from Return of the Yardfather:
Don't Do That
International (Global Gangstas)
You can pick up Saigon's Return of the Yardfather at MixUnit. For more, check out his MySpace page.
12/4/2006 10:31:56 AM posted by Fresh