G.O.O.D Fridays was a special time.
G.O.O.D Fridays was a special time.
Was listening to Kanye on shuffle the other day and The Joy came on. G.O.O.D. Fridays really was the best time. As an unapologetic Kanye fanboy (more-so at the time) defending him after the Taylor Swift debacle, it felt so good as each week passed and Kanye just slowly elevated to God status, peaking once MBDTF came out. It truly was a special time.
Glad to see there've been mentions of Isaiah Rashad in here. I only got to his album recently. I like the breezy/content/half-assed vibe but it might be better if that was one of a few different moods rather than the whole thing. Rope is a good track.
On a different note, has anyone tried to predict what Kendrick's next album will be like? I keep wondering, and would guess he'll hang around the same musicians and keep the jazz thing going, but have no idea beyond that.
Not sure if this was posted but Kendrick talked a bit about what he wanted to do going forward in his sit-down with Rick Rubin:
It's long but worth it.
The best thing about RTJ3 is its made me go back to R.A.P. Music. Better than any RTJ album.
That really was a great album. On paper the two of them seemed like such an odd paring at the time, but as soon as I heard it I had this weird, crystallising moment where it just seemed really obvious that they should always have worked together. One of those instances that made me really appreciate the collaborative nature of Hip-Hop.
El-P's Cancer 4 Cure was excellent that same year (I think?) as well. As much as I really love Run the Jewels I hope they do separate, solo stuff again in the future. I'm not sure they will though. They seem pretty inseparable nowadays, like they've got a genuine best friend's forever thing going on. Which I'm obviously not knocking.
That interview is great. If I remember right, at some point Rubin asks him if he could ever see himself releasing an album of him out-and-out singing, which he says he could. Not that I think that's what he'll do next, but I definitely think he's the kind of artist who has that in the locker.
One of my thoughts after watching that was that they should really give Rick his own series, where he interviews other artists. He obviously knows a shit load about the craft so he asks really great and relevant questions, but he's laid back and enough of a music lover himself that he doesn't drown the interviewee out, he just asks exactly the right things and then let's them speak on it.
Yeah, Cancer 4 Cure was great too, but I think Killer Mike is the better MC and it feels like he was able to be more creative doing his own thing. Plus, R.A.P. has El-P all over it, but C4C doesn't have Killer Mike all over it so I see R.A.P. as pretty much a RTJ album.
Yeah, I agree with you on that. I definitely think they finished R.A.P. Music and though "we should really just work together all the time".
Mike probably is the better emcee. Although I think El-P had a better catalogue as a rapper, prior to the town of them collaborating, than Mike. Probably anyway. El is very underrated on the mic, I always think. He's just very different. Back in the Company Flow days and his early solo stuff his flow was so dense and packed with weird, nerdy references, it was ace.
He definitely has a great personality and I do really like him on the mic. I think his voice lets him down a bit and general flow, but its not a big deal. Mike just has it all. These lines on Panther Like A Panther are fucking incredible:
And I refuse to play humble as though my dick itty bitty
I got banana dick, your bitch go apeshit if she hit it
But yeah, like I said when it came out, it feels like RTJ has been overdone. I personally want my musicians to progress more than they have. Its still great music, but we all knew that already.
Agreed. The third one is still really good, but I've come away from it a lot quicker than I did the previous two. That might have had something to do with the time it dropped as well though. Music that drops right at the end of the year always sort bothers me, for some reason. Just wait a month.
But yeah, they could always come away from it and do something else and then get back together later. I feel like they're getting more crossover buzz as RTJ than ever before though, so they'll probably just stick with it.
Yeah, they had a much bigger crowd than you'd expect at Glastonbury. Anybody that's into their music knows who they are. Even people that generally don't like hip hop, and they're pretty well liked by that demographic too. Pitchfork have given them great ratings, so I guess that's had an effect. I won't hold it against them if they carry on, and I'll always check out what they put out. They're great musicians and deserve to get paid.
Yeah, this is always a big thing. If you can make it with that "I don't normally like Hip-Hop, but......" crowd then there's money to be had.
I don't know about you, but those people always piss me off a little bit. The supposed "serious" music people who think they're being all eclectic and shit by giving their stamp of approval to a couple of rap acts but probably couldn't hold more than a 30 second conversation with you about the genre as a whole. This is partly (or perhaps largely) just my own rap snobbishness coming through though, to be fair.
Anyway, I may be imagining this, but did I see you mention the new Wiley album somewhere else on the board? I haven't checked out anything by him in quite a long time but I'm really liking his new one.
The interesting thing about Rubin doing interviews is that the artists he interviews clearly want to please him so they'll continue to elaborate until Rick nods his head and says "Yeah cool" a few times. It's like a very chill job interview.
From the moment I heard of the guy I thought I'd hate him but I'm really enjoying D.R.A.M's stuff. It's just so joyous.
I actually got turned onto D.R.A.M. over Christmas after listening to the A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal end of year awards. It was pretty fun, forgot to link to it at the time as I was abroad.
https://soundcloud.com/awasteoftime/...-music-episode
I totally understand the hip hop snobbishness. It annoys me a bit too. To quote DMX "its not a fucking game!" Personally, when I like a genre I won't stop digging until I know it inside out. Bit like with grime over the last two/three years. I used to dislike it as all I heard was the trash pop side due to the surprising lack of a grime scene in Jersey, but now I realise that was a necessary graft for artists like Wiley because the scene wasn't big enough to get by on instrumental tapes. Now I hear people say they like grime, but have Section Boys as their favourite grime act. As if everything with a London/UK accent is grime.
Anyway, yeah, Wiley's new album is amazing. This is the album new fans should be listening to so they understand what the genre is about, not Konnichiwa. That song with Skepta and Belly is terrible, though. Sounds like it's meant to be deep, but it's just shit. That Ghetts feature on Bang is mad, too, and the Flowdan track. Newham Gens and Prez T also great. So many great features.
Ghost's verse in this is something else. I don't know why but I love that little voice clip at the start so much.
Things always seem to get weird whenever Ghost decides to rap about about sex.
I haven't listened to Wu-Tang Forever in, well, forever. That album is the correct answer to any and all "best Hip-Hop double disc" debates. In my opinion, anyway.
I decided to filter in iTunes on Wu-Tang and all Wu-Tang members and its been great. I flick between that and Spotify, but its mad how many lines from songs I still know. Just all floods back in a rush of beautiful nostalgia. It is a great double disc, though I'm against double discs. Just too much.
Diplomatic Immunity a gun double disc. I'm sure there is filler on there but I don't care. One of my favourite albums.
Was chatting to my mate about which hip hop artist would be best to show to somebody that doesn't think they'd like any sort of hip hop. I reckon Brother Ali, who as time goes on I come to appreciate more and more. My mum started listening to the hip hop radio show I had and she picked out a Brother Ali track as one she really liked, then listened to loads of his tracks on YouTube and interviews with him about Islam.
Where do you lot stand on "the N word"? I realised before while I was in the car chunnering out YG's verse on "Want Her" that I'd said nigga a lot in the past few minutes, which I probably shouldn't do. I guess in the car on my own it's okay?
What about at live shows?
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Chance says unless you're black you shouldn't say it. I can't imagine most black rappers genuinely feel all that strongly about it considering it's been downgraded to no more than a filler word in most tracks.
Over many, many gigs I said it (not proudly or anything), and quite a few times I'd end up rapping along with a black guy, then in between songs I'd ask them if they mind me saying it. They'd say no, most likely 'cause they know its not hate-filled and we're having a good time. I was with a group of black people at YG at Wireless in 2012(?) and they were more than happy for me to sing My Nigga, which was quite an experience looking back.
Anyway, at Lovebox 2015 everything changed. I met a group of black guys at Skepta who were cool, then the next day saw them again and they invited us to a party. I was chatting to one guy about this topic and he said its never acceptable, from white people or black people. To him, having heard stories from his mother about being chased down the street being called the n word and other things, the word just brought back those memories. I obviously haven't adopted his stance, but it did open my eyes to the situation. As a naive white boy in Jersey I'd never heard anybody talk about it like that, so now I wouldn't say it in public or around anybody I don't know well. Although, that guy said he wouldn't go to a Kendrick gig 'cause Kenny was too liberal with the N word, so not sure anybody totally against it would even be in attendance.
I also find it quite cringe-worthy. My mate was shouting it at Kendrick during m.A.A.d city at Hyde Park and I had to ask him to stop. Pretty sure he was one of the only ones, in an almost all white crowd.
I remember a white drug dealer once asked me to refer to him only as 'my n word' from then on. I stopped buying from him.
I've always considered the n-word firmly off limits as a white guy. I don't buy the "but rappers say it all the time!" argument, either. In your own home or the car or whatever, if you really want to, then I guess go for it. But never in public. If a white person was yelling it out at a rap show and another audience member took issue and kicked the shit out of them, I wouldn't have any sympathy.
It's a pretty clear-cut issue of context. Obviously in a lot of the black community it's developed into almost a term of endearment between friends, which I think is fine because it's essentially taking ownership of a word that's been used against those people in such a negative fashion for so long and essentially removing the sting from it completely. Basically a "fuck you" to the people who would use it in a derogatory fashion.
It can't come out of a white person's mouth without being weighed down by a few centuries worth of pretty appalling history though, and there's no way to avoid that and the reaction it might provoke. Even if it's just because we've listened to a lot of rap music and totally embrace that culture. I know it's not technically "fair" (because you'll always get idiots who will make the ridiculous "if they can say it then we should be able to say it too! Equal opportunities and all that!" argument), but unfortunately slavery happened. Which was was obviously several millions times more unfair than it not being cool for white people to say the n-word.
A tweet I enjoyed back before El-P blocked me
Why did El-P block you phonics?
I started following him just after Def Jux shut down. He was pretty awesome back on the day, constantly calling out other rappers bullshit, the game itself etc.
One of the things he would always go on about was rappers retweeting compliments and good reviews etc. when people were there to find out about what you thought, not what sycophants thought of you.
Then RTJ blew the fuck up and my timeline became a retweet chain of pitchfork articles calling RTJ the greatest revolution in rap music etc.
I sent something like "I thought you were gone of the good ones with the no RT praise bs =(" and attached an image of him saying this.
He replied back saying "I thought you were blocked you frowny bitch" and I was never allowed to read his tweets again.
I laughed tbf, it's a pretty good reply. Frowny bitch became a catchphrase of mine.
You obviously struck a nerve.
At least he replied to let you know.
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Dunno if I've mentioned it, but my history tutor has really encouraged me to go down a hip hop route for my dissertation on my module looking at reforming Islam.
Anyway, obviously Mos Def/Yasiin Bey is a rather interesting figure, so just listening to Black On Both Sides as 'research' and rediscovering this ridiculous banger:
Why did you turn into a preaching twat, Mos? Why? One of the most disappointing gigs. I won't be paying £25 again.
Anyone else think Remy Ma is killing it lately?
I've not listened to her album with Fat Joe in full but the singles have been fire. That sample.
She's a tick ting too, aged 36.
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https://vid.me/itgM
Tribe grammy performance. I really need to get a job so I can see them as much as possible this summer. Hopefully they do more than Parklife and Bestival.
This is funky as hell.
Yes it is. Repped, @Bernanke.
The beat is kinda Knxwledge-y.
Interesting, I'll give that a listen. Coincidentally I've been listening to Murs quite a bit this week for the first time in a while (I have "Murs for President" on right now!) after the first album with 9th randomly popped up on shuffle a few days ago.
I've never listened to him that much. The odd album here and there and the album with Bad Man on it quite a bit.
This Murs' track always makes me laugh. Some nice Apollo Brown production behind it:
I've never heard that track before CJay, it's nice.
I bet it turned up on one of those Mello Music compilations. I would absolutely go in for a full album collaboration between those two, they fit well together.
Anyway gentlemen, a trio of interesting Hip-Hop releases seem to have appeared all at once. New Future, Jonwayne and (mostly importantly) Roc Marci albums have all dropped this weekend and I've no real plans to leave the house again until Monday morning, so I'm all set.
Went to see Hopsin last night. He was ace. Only performed the first half of most of his songs though, which was really annoying. He barely did any of Nollie Tre Flip, which is the song I was most looking forward to.
Token is A LOT better live but he literally has no good songs. He's clearly spent a lot of time mastering his style though and it is impressive. To carry it on while crowd surfing was great too.
I'm a twit
Who is this girl?!
Bad Man, what an absolute banger. I'm going to put it on right now.
Only a tangent to hip-hop, but the song of the summer just dropped.
Jonwayne's "Rap Album Two" is really good. It's a really personal, mature piece of work. It's a nice direction to see him go on, and far better than I expected it would be. I would definitely recommend it.