Rap 2016

TREE has a new album

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Lot of good stuff coming out ATM

Corpsey said:

Who does 21 Savage remind me of? That kind of rapping where it's barely even bothered enough to be rapping. Beats are grimey on this.

I need to listen to YG's album again and give Schoolboy Q a shot also.

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The answer to that first question must surely be Keef.

Still not listened to YG, Schoolboy Q, DJ Khaled, Kodak Black... Slipping, hard.

Also, why oh why haven't I listened to the new Guwop yet?!

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This beat is so hard, and Gucci's spitting. Still weird to hear him saying stuff like 'For all you junkies that's addicted please don't be offended / I'm a recovering drug addict and that's not my intention', with the same swagger as when he was all about getting high and selling to fiends, and the same goofy ad-libs.

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Wow Gucci sounds so fighting fit. Bursting with energy. Faculties freed from under an avalanche of drugs. And it's fuck drake to the death always but decent hook.

Please god stop me liveblogging this whole album.

Gucci being so witty on this 'I only feature Kanye cos we both some fuckin' narcissists', 'There's an elephant in the room and guess who the elephant is (IT'S GUCCI!)' etc.

DAVE EAST

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De La Soul have a new album out

Does anyone want to listen to a Ras Kass album in 2016? I don't even know if I do tbh but I am so here it is:

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Re: Sloane's music writers comment, I think this is true and it's cos it's easier to write about words than music.

EDIT: It's so hard for me to listen to this boom-bap stuff nowadays without judgement. I've flip reversed from my 2001 stance where I hated everything NOT boom bap.

Damn, Ras Kass's voice is fucked. He's got that Canibus Cartman voice now

Imagine (my) excitement at a RZA and Ras Kass song back in 1998 :'(

i was a *massive* ras kass fan when he made his first and second albums. soul on ice i think is prob still really good, tho im too scared to hear it again to make sure.

i heard a bit of that recent album he did with jack splash - who i absolutely hate and dont understand why anyone has ever paid to record - and was surprised that he was actually still pretty good.

but hes one of those rappers who i think is now for people who still listen to rap just for great lines, and dont really care about beats, songs, hooks, or anything else. which is a way of listening to rap i stopped using about 15 years ago.

i wish kendrick lamar would have less of a web presence after that recent video of him rapping along with lil wayne songs. its cool hes a fan, and doesnt want wayne to retire, but erm, im prob gonna sound snobby but id like kendrick to not do stuff just like every rapper (though if he didnt, i know he wouldnt still be a part of it like he is...). though maybe its good that ppl see hes not mr perfect.

I played Soul on Ice endlessly as a young thug. I even liked the production, which was seen by many as what let it down. The beats were portentous, which fit Ras Kass like a wig fits a high court judge. I also liked 'Nature of the Threat', though it shat on my entire race for nine minutes straight.

Is rap no country for old men? There's something depressing about middle-aged rappers. Not least that, due to a diet of Henny, weed and hamburgers, a lot of them have aged horribly. Then again, isn't there something depressing about middle-aged men generally? (No offence, y'all.) Perhaps that's why I don't like listening to middle-aged rappers - I'm listening to rap to ESCAPE middle-age and mediocrity, just as I used to listen to it to escape suburban drudgery and the desert wastes of my sex life.

if i want to hear rap for middle age, i just listen to more instrumentals, which is what i already do.

these days i mostly listen to rap thats larger than life (rick ross - that track with skrillex). or stuff thats angry for when im boxing (eg gunplay, though grime meets this need better). or just stuff with incredible beats (eg rae sremmerd). or someone who just has a great voice/flow (roc marci).

i dont need kendrick types in my life to educate me on anything like im still aged 16. i think 75%-85% of lyrics in rap are absolutely meaningless. its music at the end of the day. if its sounds good, its fine.

i agree with this quote from oddisee -
“Writing and producing is what made me understand the value of songs, more than just beats and rhymes. There will be no videos of me going record digging and then finding a sample and making a beat in five minutes. I don’t like to do freestyle videos. I’m very anti those things. That allows us to not see this as an art form, but as a display, a spectacle. And there’s a level of bravado and showmanship that’s in the DNA of hip-hop and I’ll never reject that. But I tend to save that for the live performance where I think its best served.”

I mean, the perspective that always paints the actual rapping as a non-musical element (because it isn't "Musical" in the traditional sense often) always annoys me. Not to say pyramids is guilty of it particularly, I find there's a weird tension to treat rapping by itself as a 'literary element' or in the Oddisee perspective 'showtime' rather than a compatible musical element. Like you wouldn't say this about drums just because drums are non-melodic or whatever.

no, hes saying that its about songwriting first and foremost for him, not just beats and rhymes. or rather, not moving from the subject matter of a song to those kinds of filler shifts you get in a lot of rap lyrics (eg the first two verses of i luv u vs the last verse). ie not beats and rhymes as separate entities. not sure how you jumped from that to the perspective that doesnt see rapping as being musical (or did you just create that to have something to argue about?). should say though that i think oddissee is a 'progressive' but the majority of rap is about disconnected writing (and i cant be positive that oddisee sticks to his method 100% either)

i do think rapping is musical, as a rhythmic element.

but for the most part, i dont care about the lyrics anymore. most raps are just chatting shit. entertaining for sure, some memorable lines (though this is often more musical, than textual), but when im listening to earl for instance, its more his facility with words that i like, how the words just slide against each other, and his tone, his voice, than anything hes really saying.

saying that, i was struck recently by how good the imagery on the takeover was, but again, its prob more just to do with the ice cold heartlessness, and that tone of disbelief and dismissiveness (as if hes saying 'how could you even think that you were better than me?') that jayz used to do so well.

Max B could be free in two years. Dame Grease has two years to cook up half a classic.

danny brown, kendrick ab soul, earl.

beat is pretty immense but its not as monumental as i was expecting. kendrick sounds a bit too controlled/ pleased with himself these days.

Was depressed to hear how easily Danny got housed by all the TDE guys on this song. Earl, ha ha, no.

I've heard, and reviewed, the new Danny Brown album. I didn't hate it, but he does THAT VOICE throughout the whole thing.

earl sounds groggy.

the best DB thing ive heard is actually not even on his own album. its that song he did on rusties second album. best beat hes ever had too IMO.

My computer has decided to stop letting me listen to audio so I can't check that Rustie track but afairemember it was one of his screechy ones?

So long as there's some range to his rapping (as on XXX) I'm interested. The squawking turns me off.








The beat for 'Really Doe' is so tough, love it.

Corpsey said:

I've heard, and reviewed, the new Danny Brown album. I didn't hate it, but he does THAT VOICE throughout the whole thing.

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man thats disappointing some of my favourite songs on XXX and even a couple songs on Old were when he turned that voice off