J-Banks

By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Rahman Dukes

DJ and Artists: DJ Green Lantern with Royce Da 5'9" and Grafh

Representing: Street-level lyrical tyranny

Mixtapes: The Bar Exam 2 and The Oracle 2

411: It's been awhile since we doubled up, but your boy Green Lantern has been a workhorse. Not only has he been touring the world with Nas and holding down his Sirius Satellite Radio show, he's also been producing and obviously in the lab creating mixtapes. Two scoops this week.

First off, Grafh's sequel to The Oracle. Three years ago, Green and Grafh went in for part one, and the result was definitely a creative fireball that should have gotten more recognition. The second main pick this week is The Bar Exam 2. The first Bar Exam, made by Royce Da 5'9", DJ Premier and Statik Selektah, was labeled a classic.

Green was supposed to be involved in the first B.E. but couldn't make it happen due to scheduling conflicts. The two did carve out time and created a ton of chaos for Bar Exam 2. "I will do to your momma what the KKK wants to do to Obama," Royce raps on "Heat to the Streets." As you can imagine, nothing is sacred on this disc.

Joints To Check For

» "Gun Music" (from The Bar Exam 2). "Can we talk about that song in America?" Royce asked with a grin. "That song is gonna be banned in 73 states. I'm sure that's not possible, but 73 states. I don't care. Basically what I'm doing on the song is saying whatever I wanna say. Hopefully, nobody gets offended, because most of the time, I'm just playing. I'm just a fun-loving guy. Green Lantern produced it. He sent me five records. I sent him five records back in one day. That's how I do."

» "Ignorant Sh--" freestyle (from The Bar Exam 2). "It's basically over the 'Ignorant Ish' beat," Royce said. "I had my man pull up the beat, and I rapped for the entire length of the beat. That's standard for Bar Exam projects. The first Bar Exam, I had seven-minute freestyles, five-minute freestyles. I just go off from beginning to end. The entire project, once Green came in and put his stamp on it, his pullbacks and his scratches, it made it epic. Thank you very much."

» "Reservoir Dogs Freestyle" (from The Oracle 2). "I got a joint, I spazzed on the 'Reservoir Dogs' beat," Graf bragged. "Bodied it. Nobody can rap on that again. Jay-Z, no. Say goodnight. Classic."

» "Climb Up Again" (from The Oracle 2). "That's a tribute to my dudes," the Queens MC said. "One of my guys gotta go in and do a lot of [jail] time. I really addressed that scenario on the record. It's a lot to my joints."

Don't Sleep: Other Notable ********** This Week

» DJ Diggz , DJ Rated R and Ty Nitty - The Nitty Files
» DJ Drama and Ron Artest - Kings of Queens (Gangsta Grillz)
» Evil Empire and Gucci Mane - Gucci La Flare
» DJ Lazy K - Street Treats 8
» DJ Nice , Kingpin and Max B - Slave to the Wavvve
» Lloyd Banks - Return of the PLK
» Tony Yayo - S.O.D.

'Hood's Heavy Rotation: Bubbling Below The Radar

» 112's Slim (featuring Ryan Leslie) - "Good Lovin' "
» 50 Cent - "Get Up"
» Beyoncé - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
» Cam'ron - "Come See Killa"
» M.I.A. (featuring Jay-Z) - "Boyz" remix
» Plies - "Put It on Ya"
» Statik Selektah (featuring State Property) - "All 2gether Now"

SOurce: MTV

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MRKEYS21

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