500 Bars x $500

Written by Psalm One. Published: Thursday, June 3, 2010.

I love the idea of rapping your ass off for a ridiculous amount of time. However, we all know the pitfalls something like that can suffer. It can go bad. Real bad.

On April 15th, rapper The Game released a track entitled “400 Bars” in which he raps for, well, 400 bars. To put that into perspective, the average rap verse lasts for 16 bars. So, in minutes and seconds Game’s song clocks in at around 20 min 28 sec.

That’s a long muthaf*ckin time for one song, folks!
If you don’t recall, Game has released 400, 300, 200 and 100 bar tracks. By the time he reached 300 bars, he was deeply immersed in a battle with 50 Cent and G-Unit. That, my friends, whether you choose to acknowledge or not, is pure hip hop. Bars and Beef..

..however, in terms of minutes and seconds, coupled with the shortening attention spans of our digitally drenched reality, Game’s 400 Bars comes off as well…not sit-through-able. The first version of the song that was leaked actually did not have any changes of sound–there was only one beat playing the whole time (Jay Electronica’s “Exhibit C”)! When the song was officially released there was a varying soundscape helmed by a DJ, but for me, by that time it was too late..

That’s when Game posed the question “who would you like to hear do 400 Bars?” via his Twitter. Enter Psalm One. That’s me. My name came up in the conversation. How flattering, and just in time for “Woman at Work 2″. Whoever asked for this got ALOT more than they asked for, *enter maniacal laughter*..

Now, I consider myself a darned good *writer*. I started writing before I started rapping; I even minored in rhetoric in college. However, regardless of training, being able to hold the attention of the people for longer than 5 minutes is a feat. To boot, I decided to push the boundaries a step further and create a 500 bar song.

I put out a call around Chicago to see who was up to the task of providing the backbone for 500 Bars. Enter Jay Illa. That’s my DJ. Jay is a seasoned veteran in the Chicago scene, and he answered the fastest. So, I booked a session at Electrical Audio for me and Jay and started tackling this challenge.

The math ends up being this: I wrote 31 verses that were 16 bars apiece in one night, and it took about eight hours. Then I consulted about how to coordinate and we decided that organic was best. So Jay Illa showed up to Electrical Audio with a gang of beats and we recorded in an 8-hour marathon live session. Because I wanted the song to capture the essence of recording, I ended up writing the last 4 bars in studio.

If I’m not being too biased I can honestly say I tried to say *something* throughout this song. The topics range, and so do the beats. It is treated like a mixtape/interview. So if you got the time, I got the bars..

Stream: Psalm One – 500 Bars
Psalm One – 500 Bars by aboveGround Magazine

But wait! There’s more!

I’m all about supporting people who support me, so I’ve designed a little contest.

The first 25 contestants win a Limited Edition Prize from Psalm One, aboveGround Mag, and Rhymesayers.

One lucky contestant will receive a $500 Prize Pack, courtesy of my new sponsor, Nespresso. If you love espresso/coffee…this is crack. If you don’t love it, someone you know will absolutely love it.

How do you win the contest, you ask? Just be one of the first 25 people to comment with their favorite quote from “500 Bars” (that wasn’t previously stated in the comments–no repeats!), but in addition to that you need to provide a catalyst for further discussion. You must let me know why you like the quote, and give your thoughts on rappers doing these crazy long songs. I’m not looking for an essay. I just like reading your constructive comments/criticisms.

I definitely believe that listening to this track is a labor of love of hip-hop. I would suggest a car ride, a gym session or just playing it on repeat for hours and hours so you can hear every wonderful nuance. We went in on this track, live, and I’m proud of it. Thanks for listening. This track is also downloadable, for free, at: www.psalmone.tv.

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