It’s the lyrics in hiphop, they even the odds.
We gotta—come on baby, come on—
come on and keep
it alive…
These days, we need somebody like Saigon. In an age when
Fat Joe can’t seem to hop off DJ Khaled‘s speedboat, when
hiphop’s love, money, and inspiration are all in dangerously short
supply—shit, when there’s actually kids debating Soulja Boy vs. GZA—an
outspoken and combustible NYC traditionalist refusing to budge from
hiphop’s bleeding edge like it’s a pissy Bed-Stuy stoop is particularly
heartening.
When I first heard Warning Shots, 2004’s retail-ready “Best
of” collection of Saigon’s by then prodigious mixtape output, I was
most struck by how gangsta his gangster was. 50 Cent, who
just two years prior was in the same spot, was already oiling up for
the ladies, LL-style. Someone like Sai, not long out of prison for
attempted murder, was in a perfect position to out-thug the big dogs.
But instead of doing photo shoots in bullet-proof vests, Saigon gave
some infamously ill interviews, denouncing artists like Snoop and Game for glorifying gangbanging.
He spent time bigging up not his clothing line, video game, or
signature sneaker, but his nonprofit, called Abandoned Nation,
which helps kids with incarcerated parents. He went from songs like the
stunning G-as-I-wanna-be NYC neoclassic “Stocking Cap” to
shockingly sincere pleas for gang unity like “The Color Purple,” or
tortured narratives like “Pain in My Life.” Harking back to when the
most “hardcore” rappers were also often the most “conscious,” Saigon
may be a bit of a throwback, but he never went out of style.
The saga of Saigon’s beyond-the-valley-of-long-awaited debut album,
The Greatest Story Never Told, has been a roller-coaster ride.
Chiefly produced by superproducer Just Blaze, it was supposed to come
out even before Sai scored a supporting role (as himself) on
Entourage. It’s been pushed back, held up by sample clearance
issues, and even thought doomed when Saigon briefly declared himself
retired last summer. Not many records that have been on hold for
three-plus years have maintained the kind of anticipation Sai is
enjoying right now.
Lead single “Come on Baby” stomps like a raggedy pair of
construction Timbs on the toes of boutique sneakers, and although the
remix with Jay-Z is nice, Saigon’s hunger on the OG remains rawer. His
recent The Moral of the Story mixtape showed him sharper
than ever, and clearly contemptuous of the state of the art he feels so
destined to save.
In 2008, what do we do with a rapper as unapologetically NYC, as
unapologetically anti-dumbshit as Saigon? We say, THANK YOU.
Conflict of interest alert: Cancer Rising
opens for Saigon
on Wed Feb 20 at Neumo’s, with Dyme Def, 8 pm, $20, all ages.