Anyone listened to this yet? Thoughts? I really like it, yet have a weird ambivalence. On one hand - the plus side - it's just fucking good, clever, thoughtful rhymes that are deeply London but reference the immigrant experience. Even the gash love song that's on every rap album is actually good, and the political stuff is well done (though I didn't like the use of news broadcasts to announce the track's intention). The beats are mostly fire, a coupe of afrobeat-inflected tunes that are brilliant. I think the ambivalence comes from not quite being able to place it, I didn't have a sense of who it was for, in the way I do with most rap - which obviously opens up the dread possibility it's "for" mainstream music publications and Alexis Petridis. Perhaps this is just my weirdo shit snobbery, Idk.
Dave - All alone in this together
- Thread starter DannyL
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luka
Well-known member
the pa salieu effect
The track I just put up references Corbyn which just amplifies said effect
rubberdingyrapids
Well-known member
i like dave as a guy. never really heard one of his albums. theres something a bit mundane or ordinary about his voice which might be why mainstream critics like him. OTOH, you cant really argue with funky fridays (old now but still an incredible banger).
luka
Well-known member
i basically dont like this genre
xtra urban
this is a sequel to rinse fm pop. me and barty were trying to find the uk 'urban pop' records with the most views. some of the things were familair eg stormzy's shut up has 100 million views. other stuff was way more popular than i ever realised, eg wstrn have videos with tens of millions of...
www.dissensus.com
Good thread, missed that one.
This is a deep thread, it exactly nails my reservations. I still think it's sufficiently good for me to put them to one side though.
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Interesting comment from Third:
It's Black music white liberals are comfortable listening to (in contradiction to capleton or UK drill or whatever.) And I think that in itself is a reassertion of white privilege. Wiley is an establishment figure now. Stormzy is getting there.
Stormzy is on the track above (of course)
It's Black music white liberals are comfortable listening to (in contradiction to capleton or UK drill or whatever.) And I think that in itself is a reassertion of white privilege. Wiley is an establishment figure now. Stormzy is getting there.
Stormzy is on the track above (of course)
luka
Well-known member
the obnoxious gangsta music is very very recent and only appears in the mid '00s. but yeah, white liberals, slightly reductive in that it also includes well spoken Nigerian liberals called Obi who play for the university rugby team etc
we've talked about this loads before. black music in this country has, or is thought to have by the record companies, either/or, a kind of ceiling which is built in by demographics. you can get so far doing jungle, grime, whatever, but to unlock the real mass market you have to do something different.
we've talked about this loads before. black music in this country has, or is thought to have by the record companies, either/or, a kind of ceiling which is built in by demographics. you can get so far doing jungle, grime, whatever, but to unlock the real mass market you have to do something different.
luka
Well-known member
and then you have that awkward transition where you have a Giggs say, trying to balance a gang image with a personna that can comfortably negotiate a chat with Richard and Judy, or a children's television appearance. there doesn't seem to be room here, yet, for the black rock star archetype. in america you allowed to be rich and black and shot bullets into your television and trash your hotel room and appear for interviews comotose on codeine etc but here black people are expected to be on their best behviour particularly if they have been 'offered opportunties' they should be bloody well grateful for etc.
very different landscape.
very different landscape.
Yeah exactly. I was trying to think of American equivalents and thought of Billy Woods - who escapes the cerebral rap trap by being very abstract - but then realised they don't have this fucking problem. The earnest politically progressive rapper. I'm going to talk myself out of liking this record at this rate.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Surely cos America is so big you can be a niche artist and be super rich, you don't need to reach the mainstream to sell millions. Not just black artists, I remember years ago when it turned out Garth Brooks was one of the biggest selling artists in the world but everyone in UK was like "who?"