50 Cent (ft. Trey Songz) – "Smoke" (2014)

You got this club on fire

And outside I bet

All they smell is smoke

Upper Franconia, which is part of the German state of Bavaria, has more breweries per capita than any other place in the world.  

(The population of Upper Franconia is just over a million people, but there are 200 breweries in the region.  The population of my home county – Montgomery County, Maryland – is almost exactly the same, but we have only a half-dozen breweries BECAUSE OUR GOVERNMENT IS STUPID!)

Upper Franconia

One of the principal cities of Upper Franconia is Bamberg, which is home to some 75,000 souls and nine breweries that are best known for their Rauchbiers – or “smoked beers.”

Several centuries ago, brewers routinely prepared malted barley for brewing by drying it over open fires, which gave a smoky flavor to their beers.  

Beginning in the 18th century, brewers started drying their malts in kilns – not over flames.  But the breweries in Bamberg never stopped burning beechwood logs to dry their malt.

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The most famous smoked beer in the world is brewed at the Schlenkerla brewery tavern in Bamberg.

The Schlenkerla tavern

A couple of years ago, I had a Schlenkerla smoked doppelbock at Of Love & Regret, a tavern/restaurant affiliated with Stillwater Artisanal Ales, which makes some of the most provocative beers in the United States.

Of Love & Regret usually has over a dozen Stillwater beers on tap, but also serves a number of other beers.  The night I happened by, one of its guest beers was the Schlenkerla doppelbock.  

There are no words that do justice to the strangeness of that Schlenkerla smoked beer.  I usually tell people that it tasted like liquid bacon.  

You may like bacon as much as the next guy but not be eager to try a bacon-like beer.  Trust me, the Schlenkerla was delicious.  Also odd – very, very odd.

One craft beer website has this to say about smoked beer:

Smoke-flavored beer can be very polarizing.  Some find the idea of a smoked beer completely unpalatable.  Others find it to be one of the most intriguing, complex and delicious combinations of flavors out there.

I fall in the latter group.  So when I found out that Of Love & Regret’s upstairs gift shop had a few bottles of Schlenkerla for sale at $7 a pop, I grabbed three.  (I gave one away, drank another last year, and am saving the third one for a special occasion.)

Schlenkerla's smoked doppelbock

I hadn’t seen the beer for sale since then until last week, when I stopped by the Döner Bistro in Frederick, Maryland, after taking a hike on the Carroll Creek trail there.

The Döner Bistro’s menu lists both German dishes (schnitzel and several wursts) and Turkish favorites like döners and falafel.  (The combination is not as odd as you might think – there are several million ethnic Turks in Germany.)

The restaurant’s beer list includes one token Turkish beer and a couple of dozen German beers, including the Schlenkerla doppelbock.  When I saw it was available, I couldn’t resist ordering one.

The Schlenkerla was just as odd and delicious as I remembered.  It’s too overpowering to be your everyday go-to beer, but it’s just what the doctor ordered if you’re looking for a special treat.

A few American breweries have dipped their toes into the smoked-beer waters, but it’s doubtful your local bar has a smoked beer on tap.

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You probably expected today’s featured song to be Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” – the 1972 hit inspired by a fire that broke out during a Frank Zappa concert at the lakeside casino in Montreux, Switzerland.  (Deep Purple wrote and recorded the song just days after the fire.)

But 2 or 3 lines is nothing if not unpredictable.

I’ve gone a little heavy on classic rock and a little light on hip-hop the last few months.  So you’re getting “Smoke,” a 2014 hit for 50 Cent (which features Trey Songz), instead of the Deep Purple classic. 

“Smoke” wasn’t a big hit in the U.S., but did make it to #1 on Deutsche Black Charts, the most important black music chart in Germany.

I’m guessing the song was especially popular in Bamberg.

Here’s “Smoke”:

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

Clipse -- "I'm Good" (2009)

Today is a good day

Ice cubes on my chest

When you listen to "I'm Good," you just hear a song.  Maybe you like it, maybe you don't . . . either way, it's just a song to you.

When I listen to "I'm Good," I hear a virtual Christmas fruitcake, full of sonic pecans, raisins, and chunks of pineapple, dates, and cherries.

Every time I stick my thumb into "I'm Good," I pull out a plum -- metaphorically speaking, of course. 

Plums

In this case, my plums are not drupe fruits with an epicuticular wax coating that gives them a glaucous appearance, but rather are lines and phrases that pay homage to other rap lyrics.

The lines quoted above are an obvious reference to a famous rap song.  Can you name the song and the rapper who recorded it?  

No?  How about you?

Anyone?  (Bueller?  Bueller?)

Surely you've  heard of the rapper, Ice Cube?  Ice Cube (who was born O'Shea Jackson) was an original member of the greatest gangsta rap group of all time, N.W.A.  After leaving N.W.A., Ice Cube starred in movies (e.g., Boyz n the Hood, Three Kings, and Barbershop), produced and starred in the TV series Are We There Yet?, and had a successful solo career as a rapper. 

One of his big hits as a solo rapper was "It Was a Good Day," which gets a shoutout in the lines quoted above.  

Ice Cube

That's far from the only reference to a famous hiphop lyrics you'll find in "I'm Good."

The first line of today's featured song is "You can find me in the streets," while the first line of 50 Cent megabit, "In Da Club" is "You can find me in the club."  (Coincidence?  I think not?)

50 Cent

"I'm Good" mentions "yellow diamonds," which brings to mind Gucci Mane's "Lemonade," a fabulous rap song that mentions yellow diamonds several times.  (According to Rap Genius -- an authoritative source if I ever did see one -- Gucci sports yellow diamond earrings and a massive diamond pinky ring.)  

Gucci Mane

And who could hear Clipse's line, "Cruisin' on them twenty-twos got me sittin' pretty" and not think of the inimitable T.I.'s great "What You Know," which includes the line, "See me in your city, sittin' pretty."

T.I.

What does all this mean?  It means that 2 or 3 lines pretty much knows the rap oeuvre cold.

I can't tell you how pleased I am with myself that I know so much about rap that I can pull these references out of my head like others can decipher the lyrics of American Pie.  (Which is child's play . . . just sayin'.) 

You don't master a pop music genre by taking a class or reading a few books, boys and girls.  No, you can have to live the music.

Believe me, it's not easy for an old white guy to live rap music.  Believe me, the expense of going to strip clubs, popping bottles full of bub, and making it rain would discourage a less determined observer.

But if that's what it takes to speak hiphop like a native, then 2 or 3 lines is ready to make the necessary sacrifices.

The Thornton brothers

Clipse is a rap duo that features brothers Gene "No Malice" Thornton and Terrence "Pusha T" Thornton, who hail from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

"I'm Good" was released on Clipse's third studio album, Til the Casket Drops, in 2009.  It features a guest appearance by Pharrell Williams, whose single "Happy" recently became insufferable virtually overnight.

Here's "I'm Good":

Click below to order the song from Amazon:

50 Cent -- "In da Club" (2003)

If you watch how I move

You'll mistake me for a player or pimp

Been hit with a few shells 

But I don't walk with a limp

In 2000, Curtis James Jackson III -- better known as "50 Cent" -- was an up-and-coming young rapper whose career was just about to take off when he was shot nine times while he was sitting in a car outside his grandmother's house in Queens.  The assailant was allegedly Daryl "Hommo" (short for "Homicide") Baum, a Mike Tyson friend and bodyguard, who was himself killed three weeks later.

50 Cent's career did take off a couple of years later when Eminem heard one of his mixtapes.  Eminem introduced 50 Cent to Dr. Dre, who signed him to a record deal and helped produce his heavily-hyped major-label debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin'.  

That album hit the Billboard album chart at #1, and sold 872,000 copies in the first four days of its release.  Twelve million copies of Get Rich or Die Tryin' were sold by the end of 2003, which explains how 50 Cent ended up being worth $150 million (according to Forbes magazine).  

"In da Club," the first single off the album, was #1 on the Billboard "Hot 100" for nine weeks.  The lines quoted above refer to the 2000 assault on 50 Cent -- he modestly says he was "hit with a few shells."  

50 Cent, Dr. Dre, P. Diddy, Jay-Z:
a billion dollars' worth of rappers

Some people have said that 50 Cent was not shot nine times, but only three.  If you ask me, three times is still about four times more than I would ever want to be shot.  But three certainly isn't as impressive as nine, and rappers have been known to engage in a bit of hyperbole from time to time.

As some of you more studious "Hip Hop 101" students already know, 50 Cent is often referred to as "Fitty" or "Fiddy."  During an interview on CNBC's business news program, Power Lunch, 50 Cent explained that he got that nickname from the way Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy) pronounced "fifty."  (Sharon is British.)

Click here to watch Fitty's Power Lunch interview. 

50 Cent was on that program to promote one of his many business ventures.  He has a clothing company and signed endorsement deals with Reebox, Right Guard, and a condom company.  (I don't think 50 Cent's "Magic Stick" condoms are still for sale.) 

But his big killing came when he created a vitamin water for Glacéau called "Formula 50."  Coca-Cola later purchased Glacéau for over $4 billion, and the word is that 50 Cent took home $100 million (after taxes) from his ownership stake in the company.

50 Cent is quite a Renaissance man.  In addition to his business activities, he's written an autobiography, a novel, and a graphic novel.  He's appeared in several major motion pictures, and has started a production company of his own.  He made a cameo appearance on The Simpsons, had an MTV reality show, and did the voiceover for the protagonist in the 50 Cent: Bulletproof video game. 

Last but not least, Fitty got a license to be a boxing promoter in 2012, and has signed up several boxers (including a couple of Olympic medalists and the former IBF featherweight champ).

"Magic Stick" condoms

50 Cent is famous for his feuds with other rappers.  He has had so many feuds that Wikipedia has an article titled "50 Cent feuds."  Click here to read that article.

His first major feud, which began in 1999 and lasted well over a decade, was with Ja Rule.  It's better known as the "G-Unit vs. Murder Inc." feud -- G-Unit was 50 Cent's record label, and Murder Inc. Records was Ja Rule's label.  

Fitty also feuded with Fat Joe, Nas, Jadakiss, Chamillionaire, Master P, Cam'ron, The Game, Lil Wayne, Young Buck and Slim the Mobster.  Rap feuds are often fought with dueling diss songs, and 50 Cent and the rappers he has feuded with have produced dozens of diss songs over the years.  

One of 50 Cent's best feuds is his feud with Rick Ross.  Ross started it in 2009 because he said 50 Cent looked at him the wrong way at the BET Awards.  But Fitty said later that he didn't even remember seeing Ross there.  A lot of the diss songs about Ross that 50 Cent released were based on the claim that Ross had been a correctional officer -- which was somewhat inconsistent with Ross's drug dealer persona.

Rick Ross

50 Cent may have been hitting below the belt when he leaked a sex tape featuring Ross's baby mama.  (Fitty added a soundtrack of himself providing commentary during the tape.)

50 Cent also had a memorable feud with Sean Combs (a/k/a "Puff Daddy" and "P. Diddy").  Fitty's song "Hip-Hop" alleged that Combs knew more than he was telling about the Notorious B.I.G.'s murder.  The two supposedly made peace, but the feud broke out again in 2010 when 50 Cent said Diddy's music sucked.  

Their feud reignited at a 2012 awards celebration when the two were seen arguing backstage.  50 Cent was overheard calling Combs a "b*tch n*gga" over and over.  Combs reportedly said "I got too much money for this" as he walked away.

Here's the official music video of "In da Club":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: