There are no physical copies, no. You can buy it on iTunes for the price you'd pay for a month of Apple Music tho
There are no physical copies, no. You can buy it on iTunes for the price you'd pay for a month of Apple Music tho
Time to sign up for that free Tidal sub. Wasn't a fan of Magna Carta, but I'm hopeful for this one.
A$AP Rocky goes hard.
Hopefully this album is nothing like Cherry Bomb and more like the other three.
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Apparently Jay dropped a legit good album? No one can listen to it though since it's on Tidal...
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Thought I might as well take the free 30 day Tidal trial so I could listen to the new Jay at work today. Glad I did, it's his best album for 10 years. No I.D. killed it on production and thank God Jay isn't rapping about paintings and cars for 45 minutes. Lots of personal stuff, lots of self relfexion, lots of social commentary. Really good.
I really like it on first impression, too. No I.D. has indeed smashed it with the production. The title track is maybe my favourite beat, but it's very well produced on the whole. It feels, as it should, like one, cohesive project.
I agree regarding the lyrics too, the personal touch really works well for him and it's a welcome move away from that smug, slightly annoying, "I own art and shit" phase he seemed to be getting a bit bogged down with. Although you still get a fair serving of braggadocios, God MC-mode Jay, which obviously is great.
Case in point, "Bam", which is one of those "I'm putting you all on notice" tracks that he does so well and is definitely my early favourite. "I'll Bobby Shmurda anybody you heard of".
Also, I'm really happy with the length of it. It must, I imagine, be his shortest album to date? I want to say by quite a distance too. Brevity is never something he's been great at, but he's definitely achieved that here and it's all the better for it.
In short; Hov.
It's exactly the album a man of his age and standing should be making so cant help but applaud him for that.
Smile probably my early favourite but it's a really solid and compact project. The length is great, too many rap records recently pushing the hour mark for no reason.
This is exactly it.Originally Posted by Max Power
I think Hip-Hip is still such a relatively young genre that a lot people have a hard time getting on board with the idea of, if you will, middle-aged rap. It values things like youth and street credibility so highly that it's hard to reconcile the two things. But it's gotten to a point where it's happening now, and why wouldn't it? People don't just stop being creative when they reach a certain age.
What I like too is the really straight-forward, honest way that he talks on a lot of the subjects he's touching on. He's definitely made a big effort to strip away a lot of the ego and machismo. Not completely, which I'm glad about because you would always want Jay-Z to have that edge, but he's definitely making an effort to display that more grown-up side.
You mentioned "Smile", the bit on that track where he just really matter-of-factly mentions his Mum being a lesbian, and that he doesn't care, he's just happy that she's happy, is one of my favourite moments on the whole thing. It was actually a little bit shocking to me (in a nice way) to hear Jay-Z talk about something like that on record.
I'm already sick of Bam because the radio are rinsing it to death, but yeah that Bobby Shmurda line is ace.
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That's amazing.
It really is. The album is fucking fantastic. I think it might be the best thing he's done since The Black Album. I was going with best since American Gangster a few days ago, but I'm now thinking it may have surpassed that.
I'll add to the praise in here.
'Smile' is also an early fave of mine.
The production is really cool. Great balance of samples and original drums. The samples are really cleverly interwoven with everything else. I like the way Jay's vocals seem a separate entity to the beats, in terms of how it's recorded/mixed (not how they interact/reference each other, which is cool too.) I've nowhere near enough engineering knowledge to know what that is exactly, but for some reason it works on this album.
The lyrical content is surprising and refreshing. Good points about his age and what it should mean lyrically, Max/Alex.
Really enjoyed it so far. Just going for another listen now.
Oh, also maybe worth mentioning I'm not even a big Jay-Z fan. In fact 99 Problems and Renegade with Em are the only tracks I've listened to regularly. So this was a nice surprise.
edit- re. the vocals/beats mix thing - I think it's actually partly because on some tracks, like the title track, Jay is rapping less rigidly than someone would usually, it's a bit more like spoken word poetry than someone like (as an example) Ice Cube where his flow is more fixed to the drums.
That's definitely the best music video I've seen so far this year.
I know what you mean, Reg. On first listen it kinda felt like Jay was just coming in as he pleases, as if it were a lazy approach, but it's definitely rather complex in how he interacts with the beats. Even the production felt unpolished, but it works to create a mystique and almost historical depth. It's a great album. Anybody else thinking album of the year so far?
That OJ track always makes me want to listen to Blood On The Leaves and Be A Ni##er Too.
I agree with you lot though, it's a really good album. That song with Frank Ocean, man.
(Album of the year is Common Sense.)
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No lies detected.
Tyler The Creator's new album has leaked.
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And apparently he's all "IM GAY YA'LL" so that's interesting i guess.Tyler The Creator's new album has leaked.
Releasing an album called "Flower Boy" certainly does seem like a very Tyler-esque way of coming out of the closet. He's one guy who I have a lot of trouble separating his music from his persona, to be honest. I find him quite annoying as a person.
I love him. Full title is Scum Fuck Flower Boy.
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There's no good Odd Future content.
Does Odd Future, as a collective, even really exist anymore? I remember thinking it was really exciting at the time but it hasn't aged well at all. I think this is my issue with Tyler, too often he just comes across as this annoying fucking man-child. Not a bad producer by any means though.
I do think Earl is genuinely quite talented. I don't mind Domo Genesis either. He's not an incredible emcee or anything, but he can make pretty straight-forward, ejoyable rap music. His tape with Alchemist a few years ago was cool, and he released a new one really recently (like within the last month) that I quite enjoyed.
I really really like his Wolf album. And the Earl debut track EARL still bangs.
Frank Ocean's albums have been good too.
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Anyone heard the new Tyler then?
Going back to 4:44 - on reflection I like tracks 1-5 quite a lot more than the rest. Caught Their Eyes is probably my favourite, I love the Nina Simone. One of the best choruses too.
I've just listened to this, it's good. I'll definitely be going back for more. I like the mixture of different styles he brings to it.That OJ track always makes me want to listen to Blood On The Leaves and Be A Ni##er Too.
I agree with you lot though, it's a really good album. That song with Frank Ocean, man.
(Album of the year is Common Sense.)
Twenty years old!
http://www.thefader.com/2017/07/14/m...rview-20-years
Such a fun record. It's aged fantastically as well, Timbaland's production on it still sounds fresh as fuck.
Yeah, I really like it.
Has anyone watched The Defiant Ones? Four parter on HBO.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6958022/"The Defiant Ones" examines the partnership between Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre - one the son of a Brooklyn longshoreman, the other straight out of Compton - and their leading roles in a chain of transformative events in contemporary culture.
I've not yet, but definitely will.
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Yeah, I watched that last week Baz. It's pretty good. Iovine is quite an interesting bloke. Strange, but interesting. The way their two stories come together is pretty cool.
I can't quite believe it myself but Dizzee Rascal's album is in contention for album of the year.
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Aye, its very good. Some of the grimier tracks on there are.
This popped up on Spotify and I'm feeeeeeeeeling it.
I've been enjoying Arrested Development lately. I've loved People Everyday (and the Sly song it's based off) and Mr Wendal for a while, and it seems they've got plenty of other tracks worth listening to.
I had my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify this week and this popped up: (I think you'll recognise some of it.)
Anyone got any favourite samples/interpolations, or stories of recognising an original version / discovering an artist you didn't know?
Tyler's album actually is really good. Fair play to him, he's got to be applauded for the growth.
What else have people been enjoying recently? I've recently made the (potentially financially ruinous) decision to buy a record player. Early mid-life crisis perhaps, but as a consequence I've been listening to mostly old stuff as I've been re-buying it on vinyl, so I feel like I'm off the pace a bit.
https://open.spotify.com/track/28HIbdg5wN3tAauT6dimWi
This popped up and I liked it. Turns out it's produced by Kaytranada.
I've been liking Brockhampton - Saturation recently. Bit of an Odd Future vibe.
Yeah I've been listening to Brockhampton a bit recently. Amine's album is surprisingly good too (with a Nelly feature in 2017!)
Apathy & O.C. are dropping an album soon
It will probably be a let down like most of Ap's recent work but I live in hope. Though this was fucking great;
I thought Brockhampton was a bit shit. So much hype but it was just boring. Maybe its like Odd Future and suits a certain demographic.
Brockhampton have really grown on me. A couple of tracks pulled me back in and now I'm a fan. Some of the beats are amazing. Apart from that, I'm digging the new Action Bronson, the new Wu-Tang single is really good, Sean Price's posthumous album bangs (especially that posse cut with the Wu guys) and the Apollo Brown & Planet Asia album is nice and smooth. Its been a good hip hop day.
The Brockhampton craze reminds me so much of when OF blew up.
Who's their Earl "holy fuck have you seen this "EARL" video?" Sweatshirt, then? I'll get into him majorly and hope he doesn't become a stoner bum and goes from A-grade rapper to slow & bumbling deep voiced crapper.
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I don't know any of them individually yet. Odd Future got big off the back of Yonkers, didn't they? They were always more of a collection of individual artists than an actual rap group.
Nah there was enough buzz from Bastard (Tyler's first album) and EARL (title track from Earl's first album) that the blow-up was inevitable, which came before Yonkers. When Frank Ocean dropped Novacane not long after Yonkers came out (about a month apart, at most, I reckon), every OF fanboy (oh hai) sorta felt that track would have propelled them to the level that Yonkers did, had it not already happened.
It's depressing how it all just fizzled out.
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Okay I've downloaded all 49 BROCKHAMPTON tracks I could find. Will make a playlist and shuffle it in the car. Excited!
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Listened to a fair bit of Run The Jewels lately. How the Dickens did it take Killer Mike so long to get 'big'? I don't listen to a great deal of hip hop, but I'd have him as comfortably the best contemporary rapper.
Should have happened in 2001 after this alone
I think his verse on that is pretty crap. Flip Flop Rock, though:
Lil Wayne in hospital with his epilepsy. Get well soon, Tune.
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