in with a bullet: bun b's trill is my #1 hip hop record of the year

stelfox

Beast of Burden
got this yesterday, i'd heard a few of the tracks already (leaked, promoed and when i was in the studio with bun - ooh, get me!) and i thought this was going to be good, but it's much, much better than that. most importantly i'm pretty sure it's not just that obsession everyone gets with a new record - this one has some legs and the thrill will last a while.
starts off with a real spoofy inauguration of bun as the "new president of the south" including the line "what happened in new orleans never going to happen again", so it's totally current and in touch with what's going on in the south as well as being totally flamboyantly gangsta and bouncing like a motherfucker.
there's a ugk track on it and a mddlfngz cut, too, but the best of the lot are i'm fresh feat. mannie fresh, draped up (semi-screwed like still tippin', verses in regular speed and lil keke's chorus from pimp the pen slowed and chopped as the hook, the h-town allstarz mix of this track features just about the whole of houston on it, too, with the best turns by chamillionaire and chingo bling, who's funny and raps in spanish) and trill recognize trill feat ludacris (by far the best production on the whole album).
it dips into slower, more understated territory in the middle for about four songs, but then kicks it up again with i'm a g feat. T.I., which is pretty great, too. the producers include mannie fresh, the medicine men (formerly beats by the pound), cool and dre, mr lee, lil jon, jazze pha so the instrumentals are uniformly solid but as far as i'm concerned bun has the best flow in all of hip-hop right now, definitely in the south.
i'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts, because i think this is really something else.
 
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mikemac

Member
I'm interested in hearing how this turns out... The dude has been way overexposed lately, everytime I hear another wack sippin' purple drank/ridin' candy paint guest verse I just tune out... But I got high hopes that Trill will bring back the goods.
 

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Lovely stuff.

Tthe second track 'Bun'... I'm a sucker for beats like that. The stop-start scratching in between the hi-hats doing the pushme-pullyou rhythm thing. And the bass hummmmmm! Has a different sounding mix too - emphasises the texture?
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
this is my number one hip hop record of 2005 also. i need to hear it more but i especially like the fact that the beats sound properly southern, rather than the non-regional blurred production you get on tracks like the new chamillionaire single.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
stelfox said:
isn't chamillionaire's new single produced by scott storch?

yeah, its 'turn it up' featuring lil flip and produced by scott storch. the rhyming is pretty decent but the hook sounds too much like 50 and the beat is just typical middle of the road mainstream fare. hopefully the rest of the albums better.
 
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stelfox

Beast of Burden
i actually really like that track. chamillionaire is probably one of the most distinctive voices around, flip's really good on it and the beat really works. i guess i find it difficult to see it as anything other than a houston track because i first heard it on a packed night at the roxy there and it went off. people loved it. also the good thing about houston is, contrary to what you said earlier on the dynamite thread (i think?), people have their ears to the ground there and are constantly checking music from other scenes and areas. it's a real meting pot. that's why scott storch can work with these guys, why new orleans bounce guys like klc can hook up with bun, paul wall can hook up with kanye and not sound contrived or out of place. it's nowhere near as parochial as you appear to think it is. not spoiling for an argument, just saying. that's where a lot of its strength come from for me - a solid localised identity and following, but a willingness and interest in breaking new ground.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
well i didnt say people deliberately shut themselves off from music from other regions (that's kinda implying that its some sort of backwater region packed away from civilisation or something) but the south is pretty self-reliant. when ive been to clubs in the south, i heard way more music made by southern artists than from outside the area. i dont doubt that houston artists check out whats happening all over the place (eg - the grit boys being open to working with dizzee) but artists in all regions all over the world are almost always open to new sounds/styles other than their particular genre (just look at what wiley listens to).

my point though was just that i really like chamillionaire, i think hes one of the best rappers in the US right now, but this particular song just sounds like yet more mainstream rap homogeny. part of the south's strength in the last decade has always been that it didnt sound like other regions' hip hop. obviously thats a bit tougher now as the south is pretty much dictating what hip hop should sound like to the rest of the US, but i like to hear the individuality of each region or at least something that isnt just predictable mainstream southern rap - the beat for turn it up just sounds like scott storch by the numbers. the reason houston rappers are working with storch isnt necessarily cos houston is a melting pot IMO, more that storch is the go-to guy right now, so everyone is clamouring for a beat for him in hope theyll get the next big 'candy shop'. paul wall was great on drive slow with kanye, but maybe this is just due to me being slightly puritanical or wanting to be a cultural tourist, but i dont really wanna hear an east coast record like that on a paul wall album. i'd rather have down south tracks like 'they dont know' etc. its similar to why i dont much care to hear kano or roll deep doing straight up hip-hop/R&B but would rather hear them doing grime.
 
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Melchior

Taking History Too Far
stelfox said:
i thought i'd done that!

Ah, but remember I'm out of touch. I've never heard most oft he MCs and producers that you mention. So you explain what it's like with refernce to words I'm not clear on. Get me?
 

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Its the sound of slow-motion trippy drippin' thugged-out juice squeezed out of circuitry under dark and dusted southern gangsta story-book raps as told by the crunken master Bun B and associates.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
imagine rappers with drunken slurs mixed with southern drawls, all hyped up and mad after drinking whiskey all night, yelling in unison on top of a slow but body jackin' beat. with high production value.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
I was half taking the piss with that description there... would hate to turn you off an entire sub-genre...

this shit is the most exciting thing happening in hiphop right now. period.

how does this sound:

I'll burn you some discs and send'em to you in exchange for some grime (you are in the UK and you got grime, right?)
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
this isnt really a crunk album, at least in the sense that you wont get a load of shouting like on a lil jon album... its just a southern rap album. but it definitely has some hard aggressive dirty south beats (i hoped slim thug's album would have had more production like this on it)
 
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SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
I think one important thing to mention about the 'houston sound' and a lot of southern stuff is that it gets a lot more harmonically rich and musical than a lot of other hiphop. A lot of people are focused on the elbow throwing hyped up club tracks (bka crunk) but there's a whole side of slow tempo mellow riding music, made for driving and smoking weed all day. A lot more singing, real instruments, chords, longer phrases. Some say it's the gospel influence, I find it leaves a lot of these tracks a lot more emotionally nourishing than a lot of other rap music. Check for example 'Sippin The Barre' on Paul Wall's current record or Banner's Caddilacs on 22s from his first records. 'Cadillac's' got me through last winter pretty single handedly and is a beautiful and moving tune (esp. slowed down) which is not something you can say about too much rap music.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
yeah although it doesnt sound retro in the least, and sounds quite a lot more up to date (i.e its obviously absorbed stuff thats happened to the south in the past decade), the bun b album actually reminds me in a way of early rap a lot/suave house material...

i wont comment on cadillac on 22s ;)
 
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