luka

Well-known member
Crowl or anyone else who wants to play the game, what would a DECONSTRUCTION timeline look like. I'm no so interested in anomalous precursors like Saafir, and more importantly, E40, but in its modern and mainstream incarnation. How would you SITUATE The Migos in a larger context of Innovation and how Centred/Decentred would they be in such a context?
 

luka

Well-known member
I'm not discounting him, just when you try and tell a story about history its easy to lose focus and keep going backwards to amoebas in the biotic soup. Protozoan jiggling in the swamps.

I was just giving those two (both from the Bay Area) as an example of fractured, deconstructed not-flowing flows

 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
What does mainstream mean in this context? the UK is very thin these days on actually keeping up with developments in the US. I mean, I have no idea what happened in chicago after around 2014 really.

Instead we have j hus and dave. really scraping the fucking barrel. that psychodrama album reminded me again why i hate UK hip hop so much.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I was thinking about that last night (not very deeply or for very long admittedly)


I doubt this is the first example but this is a signpost of something changing due to the south's influence, right?

Autotune was sort of perfect for rap because it allowed rappers to accentuate these slurs that were already more in vogue via the south.
 

forclosure

Well-known member
https://www.complex.com/music/2014/03/quavo-is-the-most-influential-rapper-of-2014

Here's a thing of his on quavo from 2014 you might like corpse

"The Migos, really, are the 2014 Das EFX, only the sewer's been replaced by the bando. (No, seriously—Das EFX even spit in triplets, just like the Migos.) Quavo isn't even considered the best rapper in the group—that honor typically goes to Offset, who has more dexterous raps. But part of the reason Quavo has become so influential is because his rapping isn't overly concerned with the intricacies of lyricism. Instead, he's imprinted a very specific rhythmic pattern on hip-hop's psyche. By finding a flow that stood apart and emphasizing it, he shifted the way rappers rap.

No single rap artist has so completely popularized a single, distinct flow. Even Lil Reese's "Us"—copped by everyone from Drake to Future to, um, Austin Mahone—didn't have quite this reach. When it comes to the way rap sounds right now, Quavo's impact is impossible to deny. That distinctive triplet pattern, first popularized on their smash hit "Versace," is the sound of 2014."

"The "Migos Flow" is made up of 1/8th note triplets. A "triplet" means that in the time typically given to two notes, an artist has fit three of equal length. This happens in music all the time; often in Southern rap, the hi-hats will move in three while the rapping is in standard 4/4 time. In this case, it's the reverse, which gives the feeling of moving forwards and standing still simultaneously, like spinners on a car. When most rappers are determined to make their flows seem effortless and slick, the Migos have intentionally made theirs choppier, faster, distinct."

"The Migos flow, then, has a specific effect. Whereas most rappers in Atlanta rap with a sense of swing, leaning back on the beat—Gucci would do this, as would T.I., although "swing" has been pretty consistently "in" throughout hip-hop history—the "Migos Flow" is stiff, landing squarely on beat, without a hint of swing. It gives the impression that their verses are denser, more intricate—like a kind of parodic version of "rapper's rappers." It's almost the sonic equivalent of when Gucci would name songs after multisyllabic adjectives—"Wonderful," "Gorgeous," "Ridiculous," etc. Satirizing the notion of "proper" English, or in this case, "serious" square rapper flows."

Funny thing about this is if you told people back in 2014 that Quavo would eventually go solo its just that nobody would like his album theyd be pitching a fit
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
'"Migos Flow" is stiff, landing squarely on beat, without a hint of swing. It gives the impression that their verses are denser, more intricate—like a kind of parodic version of "rapper's rappers." It's almost the sonic equivalent of when Gucci would name songs after multisyllabic adjectives—"Wonderful," "Gorgeous," "Ridiculous," etc. Satirizing the notion of "proper" English, or in this case, "serious" square rapper flows."

The satirising thing is pretty brilliant as an observation (even if its untrue).

More importantly from my POV is the identification of the stiffness of Migos, which I loathe.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
So Crowley, you're saying the Migos stuff Barty is lauding is just a bad joke? He's got it completely backwards. That's really interesting. Good to hear from an insider as well. An American with his finger on the pulse.

And corpse, you're saying you think Drakes take is much more astute and convincing than Bartys? He's not going to like that one bit but it's brave of you to say so, specially as you know Barty has a real grudge against Drake, saying he knows fuck all about music, just some weird fat nerd.

It's not either/or, there's room for both.

My sympathies taste-wise are probably more with DDrake. I'm a fan of Barty's opinions but I often find it hard to relate to them because they're usually pro-Migos and pro-Drill. (I'm more pro Drill than pro Migos but I have to sort of tighten my brown to appreiate it sometimes...) But if I didn't think he must be onto something I wouldn't even TRY.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
We'll see how the forum goes and then sadam may gas me up for my list and thats when i can unveil the stiffness vs soul dialectic.
 

luka

Well-known member
It's not either/or, there's room for both.

My sympathies taste-wise are probably more with DDrake. I'm a fan of Barty's opinions but I often find it hard to relate to them because they're usually pro-Migos and pro-Drill. (I'm more pro Drill than pro Migos but I have to sort of tighten my brown to appreiate it sometimes...) But if I didn't think he must be onto something I wouldn't even TRY.

Bartys on a hiatus but he's not going to like it when he comes back and reads you calling him a Cunt like that
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
You're right, as David Drake himself writes, moderation is boring.

Thank fuck it's not just a load of mes on here, we'd never get anywhere.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
I'm so hyped for this list and the gasing ain't even begun and i loathe egotism personally but this list will be a revelation, i can feel the spirits preparing me.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
One of the first things that turned me against the Migos was when everyone started saying 'this one's better' and 'that one's better', as if they could tell the difference. Of course, you probably CAN tell the difference, but the idea that I'd have to care enough about them to bother identifying which one's which irked me.

The second thing that really turned me against them was them putting out 35 track mixtapes when all their songs sound exactly the same.

The third thing was that 21 savage/offset tape wherein 21 Savage totally outclassed offset. Offset jumping around like a child off their ritalin, look at me look at me. Like Eminem appeared on 'The Infamous' and started doing his comedy arab voice.
 

luka

Well-known member
If Bartys in the room and I can get a contact high I enjoy The Migos but I don't listen to them otherwise. I can't hold on to the enthusiasm. I don't dislike it, it's just a bit like aural wallpaper for me. Muzak. Ambient exotica. Part of that is the production. I don't get a sense of space from it. It seems flat, and so the bits I like (cutesy little flute motifs etc) don't pop in the way I want them too. I have to strain an ear to grab onto them.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
To me they'll always seem like a novelty joke that kept going.

EDIT: The idea that people could get EXCITED about a solo album from one of them is totally baffling to me. From my POV, they're not even interesting enough to sustain an entire album between the THREE of them!
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I was literally listening to that when you posted it! That whole album is great.

Not had time to read the whole thread but i've always thought of Migos as being in continuity with Bone and therefore the tradition of the black male vocal group that starts off in doo wop. They all share the technique of voice as instrument where "lyrical content" (whatever that is) comes a distant second, third even to the textures produced by vocal interplay. I still don't find Migos as likeable as Bone though, maybe it's the lack of harmonies.

Hoping the evoking of music history doesn't make me sound too much like Craner or his Dad.
 

forclosure

Well-known member
That i personally feel the same whatever personality people can gleam from them god bless them cause i get nothing from them

Hell i get more out of Young Scooter and for the longest time for me anytime he appeard on a track he was just "there"


as far as drill goes my own relationship with it is wonky and i make no pretense about being into it when it first blew up now it feels like it has its own identity but at the time it just felt like Chicago doing Brick Squad all the way down,its not that i didnt like Chief Keef i flat out didnt care then i heard Bang 3 and was like "ok this is interesting blunter in terms of sound than some other rap but this is cool"
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
baby music for white people.

I thought this was an interesting assertion, particularly with the view that Migos have DEVOLVED since getting popular/or in order to get popular. Don't think anybody took it up?

I saw 'Spiderman: Multiverse' t'other day and there is a post malone/swae lee choon in it that is horrifically catchy and also sounds like a baby song. Pondered this and thought Third is really onto something insofar as the mainstream labels must relish selling this sort of lobotomised music to white suburbanites rather than problematic gangsta rap...

Here's that song btw

 
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