If you really want to be depressed...

Watch this video of Pete Rock doing TROY solo. Frankly, I couldn't get through the whole thing--I can't watch Pete dis C.L. and then rock his lyrics, especially not on that track. I think TROY is one of top five hip-hop tracks ever--that rare cut that really shows hip-hop's potential as literature. I played that song over and over, over again when I was working on my book. I wanted that complicated sense of family life that CL conveys--the absentee father, the entreprenurial Aunt Joyce, the car-collecting Uncle Sterling, the departed homie you met fighting in the street. TROY isn't just a beautiful statement on the black family, but on family period. I can't watch Pete--one of the greatest producers in hip-hop (maybe Premier, Dre and Rza were better)--spit anger over that.

Anyway, when EPMD split, they broke my heart. Not the most revolutionary group in hip-hop, but one of the most consistent in their day. EPMD eventually came back together of course. I think the Pete Rock\CL Smooth split is the most depressing of all breakups in hip-hop. The amount of venom they have for each other is amazing, and no one is exactly sure why. Pete seems genuinely hurt in the intro.

But worst of all, the times that they've actually reunited have been magical. I saw these guys absolutely murder live (at the Bowery Ballroom maybe? The joint right off Union Square) back in 2004, at a show with the Roots, Jean Grae, and Little Brother. Jean did a cover of Jay-Z's "Threat" that was just sick, but I'm getting off topic. Anyway, if you want to feel better--or even worse--check out "Da Two" below the live video. Hot track. Dope lyrics. C.L.'s signature flow of one of the great greetings of our time, "Introducing C.L., then face defeat..." I know ya'll don't agree, but I'm going to say it again.C.L. is not "the best whoever did it on a Pete Rock track"--that would be Nasty Nas--but he is one of the most underrated M.C.'s of his time.