March 5th, 2009
Philadelphia Rapper Big City Gives Hipster Haters An Anthem
How To Rob An Industry Hipster from Big City Philadelphia on Vimeo.
The line drawn in the sand separating street and hipster rap (terrible name for it, but it will have to do) is as long as it is deep. To this point the war has been pretty one-sided, with street rappers casting stones at the skinny-jeans wearing new breed like Cool Kids, Spank Rock, Plastic Little et al. And now those street rappers have an anthem, “How To Rob An Industry Hipster,” courtesy of Big City of Philadelphia. City is Phillip Esposito, son of notorious South Phila mobster Richie Esposito, and his bio is colorful to say the least.
A few years back he was on the cusp of signing with Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, but the deal went sour when he was arrested for attempted murder. Released after six months due to a lack of evidence, Big City hit the streets again only to be arrested once more for, gasp, TRANSPORTING 2000 POUNDS OF KETAMINE OVER THE U.S. BORDER FROM MEXICO in what remains the largest Special K seizure in U.S. history. He was released on bail, and skirted the law for 18 months only to be found by authorities while in the throes of a month-long drug-induced coma. He woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed.
Game. Got. Real.
City spent time in five prisons in three different states for the drug bust, one of them Fairton where he was locked up with one-time associate Beanie Sigel. (He was in talks with Beanie just before his epic drug bust.) While there Beanie’s appreciation for City’s skills grew, and now he’s gone from Pennsylvania state property to Beanie’s label State Property.
“How To Rob An Industry Hipster” is making lots of waves around the net. Picked up by Nah Right and Byron Crawford, it seems as though it’s serving the same purpose of the original off which it’s based, 50 Cent’s “How To Rob An Industry Nigga”: Namely, a clever, dick-on-the-table call to arms catapulting a previously underground artist into the mainstream.
Download his entire mixtape here.
2 Responses to “Philadelphia Rapper Big City Gives Hipster Haters An Anthem”
By cee on Oct 29, 2009
the hipster song isn’t even good compared to the rest of the mixtape. 5 joints are going right on my ipod: nas joint, slick rick, and fat joe remakes definite.