Song Review-What Happened by Maino featuring Jadakiss

by Dan-O

Songs like this just need to end. I would love to be talking about how much I enjoyed Maino’s new project K.O.B. but the last bonus track is a song that’s been made a thousand times by a thousand different artists. Every time it comes off like whiny loser talk and in this case it does a disservice to an otherwise FUN mixtape.

The basic theory this song espouses is that NY hip hop has fallen off because NY radio no longer supports it. He checks all the boxes: imitating a southern friendly rap style (which is odd because Maino has always had a naturally southern rap style), asking what Biggie would do, and referencing Snoop kicking over the buildings in the New York, New York Dogg Pound video from when I was in high school.

Most of us don’t live in NY so if your career isn’t successful we don’t want to hear about your local radio problems. It’s a big internet so use it. It’s easier to move music than ever before. Does Maino think Southern Rap radio established Southern Hip Hop? A lot of the premier hip hop artists from Atlanta and Texas sold their music out of the trunk of their car. What does NY need to do to get back on top? Work harder. The last three mixtape MVP winners on this site have been Southern (Fiend, Gucci Mane, Three 6 Mafia) not because I have a Southern rap bias (I am from Maine) or because I feel pressure from readers/corporate forces (its just a blog). You put on a dominant display of great music and you win.

Part of Jada’s verse struck me as the funniest. He said “Get a beat from Mike Will get a hook and verse from Drake probably both be on my album so don’t try and call it hate…” so now everyone feels pressure to get a beat from Mike Will or a hook from Drake, hmmm. In high school the only way to know if you were popular was that people felt like they HAD to like you even if they really didn’t. The pressure was too great. That is the position people like Mike Will are in. He scratched and clawed to the top and has now earned where he is. The only way for you to change that is to earn your own way back.

P.S. NY hip hop is not in bad shape at all. Action Bronson, Troy Ave, Vado, Ka, Roc Marciano, Lloyd Banks and a slew of others are representing the big apple in a way that Biggie and Bundles would be proud of. This all seems to be more of a function of Maino not being where he wants to be.