tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-321357712024-02-07T15:05:27.366-08:00Carry Like MariahAs American as herpes and hot dogsMr. Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11114086214498296176noreply@blogger.comBlogger812125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-87662515278572629832019-07-14T11:49:00.000-07:002019-07-14T11:49:14.274-07:00Half time
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Here’s my favorite albums this year so far. What are yours?</div>
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Ariana Grande, Thank You, Next</div>
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Sasami, s/t</div>
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Dua Saleh, Nur</div>
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Little Simz, Grey Area</div>
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Inter Arma, Sulphur English</div>
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Pivot Gang, You Can’t Sit with Us</div>
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Murg, Straven</div>
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Julia Jacklin, Crushing</div>
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Jamila Woods, LEGACY! LEGACY!</div>
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Haviah Mighty, 13th Floor</div>
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Earth, Full Upon Her Burning Lips</div>
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Mavradoxa, Nightmarrow</div>
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Chris Orrick, Out to Sea</div>
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Darkthrone, Old Star</div>
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Cate Le Bon, Reward</div>
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Flesh of Stars, Mercy</div>
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Blu and Oh No, A Long Red Hot Lost Angeles Night</div>
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Sofia Bolt, Waves</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-78144742878255701952018-06-23T10:21:00.000-07:002018-06-23T10:21:56.086-07:00HalftimeHere are my favorite rekkids of 2018, in alphabetical order:<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ails,”The Unraveling”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Courtney Barnett, “Tell Me How You Really Feel”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Black Milk, “Fever”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Ilsa, “Corpse Fortress”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Chris Orrick, “Portraits”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Saba, “CARE FOR ME”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Skyzoo, “A Celebration of Us”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Sleep, “The Sciences”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Superchunk, “What a Time to Be Alive”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Various “Black Panther Soundtrack”</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-288a3bc6-2da0-4ebb-1a89-d02d24081db2"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Yob, “Our Raw Heart” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Ails album is a blast of black/death metal with a healthy dose of hardcore. Aggression channelled for more than macho BS. Courtney Barnett's latest is less fun than her last album, but I actually like it more. Black Milk's newest sees him continuing to grow as a rapper and producer. Ilsa make ugly, dirty sludge that is like a tonic of gravel and bile. Chris Orrik's "Portraits" is a really honest album about screwing up. Saba's is emo rap done well. Skyzoo is old school rap that totally delivers. Sleep's newest is maybe their best yet. Superchunk's latest is the perfect protest album. The Black Panther soundtrack is black excellence at work, and Yob's "Our Raw Heart" is a powerful look at life and death. My favorite song is "The Original Face," a blistering and raw examination of the Zen koan about your original face.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-52981653068583141732018-04-14T11:10:00.001-07:002018-04-14T11:10:42.616-07:00Checking inJesus, has it really been almost a year since I've posted?<br />
<br />
I'd say that I was going to start posting more regularly, but I don't know how likely that is to happen. Life has a way of butting in. I've only been posting once every 4-6 weeks at RapReviews.com, and only when there is something that a, excites me and b, I feel like I can fire off in an hour.<br />
<br />
The reality is I'm old and busy and a working dad, so my life doesn't leave a lot of room for writing. By the time my kid falls asleep at 8pm, I've been going since 5am and I am doneski.<br />
<br />
I do listen to a lot of music, and music still keeps me going. I've been listening mostly to a combination of metal, old school punk, hip-hop, and kids pop music. <br />
<br />
One thing I did recently was make a list of female rockers to listen to with my daughter. These are all female rock or pop punk singers. It runs the gamut from Honeyblood to Hole to Pat Benatar. It was interesting listening to Pat Benatar after thirty years - her stuff holds up pretty well. I just remembered her as a sort of cheesy super eighties artist. I forgot how powerful her voice was. And I feel like 80s cheese has made sort of a come back these days.<br />
<br />
Anyways, here's the playlist.<br />
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<br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/pstaylor75/playlist/2iIAcFCX4qhmHwhYYNXpNq" width="300"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-81614608211089756102017-07-08T15:52:00.000-07:002017-07-08T15:52:37.288-07:00Half TimeLet's be honest: The world, or at least the U.S., is kind of a shitshow right about now. Politically, we are living the worst-case scenario of 10 years ago, and my new worst-case scenario is so fucking grim I don't even want to write it down. Suffice to say dystopian fiction is not appealing to me right now.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One thing that keeps me keeping on is music. There is so much amazing music coming out lately that I almost can't handle it. I definitely can't digest all of it. So here are some of my favorites (so far) of 2017:</div>
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<i>Ison</i>, Sevdaliza</div>
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<i>Horizonless</i>, Loss</div>
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<i>Grey,</i> Kweku Collins</div>
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<i>Big Fish Theory, </i>Vince Staples</div>
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<i>Damn., </i>Kendrick Lamar</div>
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<i>Syd,</i> Syd.</div>
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<i>Ancestors</i>, Volur</div>
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<i>The Boy Who Spoke to the Wind,</i> Lando Chill</div>
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<i>Obsidian Arc</i>, Pillorian</div>
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<i>Nightmare Logic, </i>Power Trip</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-89642160058505667972017-02-20T13:29:00.005-08:002017-02-20T13:30:40.181-08:00Czarface Review<br />
<br />
Czarface<br />
<i>A Fistful of Peril</i><br />
Silver Age Records<br />
<div>
<a href="http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2017_01F_fistfulofperil.html">(Originally posted at RapReviews)</a><br />
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Comic books and hip-hop have a long history together. The Wu-Tang Clan melded kung fu and comic books with hardcore gangster rap, with several of their MCs taking on comic book alter egos. DOOM borrowed his persona from the Marvel villain Doctor Doom, and created a series of other characters inspired by comic books. More recently, Wu-Tang member Inspectah Deck teamed up with 7L and Esoteric to create Czarface. The supergroup continues the Wu’s tradition of combining gritty street rap with comic book themes. “A Fistful of Peril” is their third effort, coming on the heels with a collaboration with Marvel Comics.<br />
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<br />
Czarface’s mission statement seems to echo what Run the Jewel’s was about on their first album: make trash-talking raps over heavy beats, and have a good time doing it. There isn’t much political on this album, and lyrically it never gets much beyond battle rhymes. It’s all Esoteric and Deck and friends going off over 7L’s boom-bap beats. It is a proudly old school approach, with no acknowledgment that hip-hop has changed all all in the last 20 years. No singing, no hooks, no message beyond “I am a better rapper than you.” <br />
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<br />
And damn if they don’t have a point. After an instrumental, they start things off with a bang on “Two in the Chest,” slaying sucker MCs with their rhymes. Or, as Esoteric puts it:<br />
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“The price of death never been cheaper<br />
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And you ain’t gotta notify your next of kin neither<br />
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You can't sleep 'cause the inn keeper is the Grim Reaper<br />
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I'm a sin eater, Czarface the ringleader<br />
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Bust a nine millimeter rhyme at your two-seater<br />
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Crush your spine with a lethal line, you're an easy bleeder”<br />
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Inspectah Deck never got the fame that some of his fellow Wu members got, but he was always a consistently strong MC, if not a particularly showy one. It’s nice to hear him drop bars without having to compete for airtime with Ghostface and Method Man. His rhymes are sharp, with no sign that he is content to rest on his laurels, even if he does quote old Method Man lyrics on “Revenge on Lizard City.” <br />
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“I came to bring the pain, hardcore from the brain And damage your mind like bad cocaine The flamethrower started the game, it's game over I Holly Holm's rappers while signing your face poster I'm way colder, you need gloves tryna touch the kid The Terminator with the flow, let nothing live Voice shining, you could hardly steer Like a judge, been handing out bars for years Yeah, the team make cream while you daydream Futuristic, our names up in laser beams I make a scene on Broadway in broad day 24/7 365, man, I'm all day Get it right, sir, I global mogul Flex superpower like I changed in a phone booth”<br />
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The biggest criticism I can make of the album is that sometimes it feels samey and one-note, being that it is basically 11 different versions of the same musical idea. But while there are a couple points on the 35-minute album where it starts to feel plodding, on a whole the album delivers. “A Fistful of Peril” is two skilled MCs rapping over hard-hitting beats, and definitely worth the price of admission.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-74680760509924746392017-02-20T13:27:00.001-08:002017-02-20T13:27:34.554-08:00Tristate x Oh No Review<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tristate x Oh No, </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>3 Dimensional Prescriptions</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hieroglyphics</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2017_01_3dimensional.html">(originally posted on RapReviews)</a></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh No has been producing quality hip-hop albums for albums for going on 13 years. He dropped his first album in 2004, and his first beat album, “Dr. No’s Oxperiment,” in 2007. Since then he’s gone on to produce or co-produce numerous releases, both under his own name and as with the Alchemist as Gangrene, with whom he scored Grand Theft Auto V. “3 Dimensional Prescriptions” is his latest release, with Gold Chain Music’s Tristate.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh No is Madlib’s little brother, and his production style has always contained elements of Madlib’s esoteric crate-digging. There’s no genre too obscure or out there for Oh No. Whether it is Ethiopian jazz, Turkish funk, or rare R&B, Oh No is a master at mining odd snippets of music for loops and breaks. Oh No differs from his older brother in that his beats are more grounded in hip-hop rather than in outer space. An Oh No beat always hits hard, and he always keeps one foot firmly planted on earth. That tradition continues on “3 Dimensional Prescriptons,” which is 14 tracks of solid hip-hop.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tristate has a gruff voice and an even, measured flow. It’s the kind of voice that would usually be used to deliver grimy, tough-guy rhymes, and while Tristate is no wimp, his lyrics are more intricate than his flow suggests. He’s rapping about hooking people on his rhymes on “Latest Drugs,” reminiscing about an ex on “Tears on My Nautica,” comparing his rhymes to a spaceship on “Spaceship,” and dropping artistic references on “Exit Thru the Gift Shop.” It’s a nice combination of grittiness and lyricism.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh No’s jazzy, funky beats are a nice pairing with Tristate’s more meat-and-potatoes rap style. Oh No keeps it grimy, but adds just enough weirdness to keep the record from falling into retro boom-bap worship. The nimbleness of the music brings out the nimbleness of the rappers, and as a result the album is full of lyricism without being boring or monotonous. Hus KingPin, Lyric Jones, Westside Gunn, Casual, Brotha J, Bro AA Rasheed, Xiomara, Planet Asia, Rogue Venom, Washeyi Choir, and evidence all offer their skills on the album, proving worthy sparring partners with Tristate. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe I’ve just been listening to too many rappers who sing or too much cross-genre hip-hop, but “3 Dimensional Prescriptions” felt like a breath of fresh air. There’’s little singing, no one raps in odd voices, there’s no guest spots by indie rock musicians, no production assists by EDM DJs. Not that any of those are bad things, but sometimes you just want to hear some dudes rapping over flipped soul and jazz samples. “3 Dimensional Prescriptions” may not break new ground, but it’s unapologetically old school sound is well executed.</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-2320513826169132822017-01-27T13:54:00.001-08:002017-01-27T13:54:28.696-08:00FDTI didn't vote for Trump. I called fascist early in his campaign. I did graduate work on Italian Fascism, the <i>Sonderweg</i>, the lead-up to the Nazis, and the historiography of the Holocaust. I know a fucking fascist when I see one. I was a little shocked by how many people were ok with his shenanigans, but then again the groundwork had been laid by the Republican Party and rightwing media for decades.<br />
I'm disappointed that the powers of be have done so little to directly address Trump and what a batshit crazy wannabe dictator he is, but then people will rarely stand up for the politically unpowerful when it means sacrificing their own power. Which is how you end up with things like the Catholic Church's child molestation scandals or Jerry Sandusky.<br />
<br />
I've been more politically active in the past few months than ever before in my life. I still feel largely impotent. I called and emailed Paul Ryan to ask him to preserve the Affordable Care Act, but I dont' think he actually gives a shit. The people in his shitty district want him to repeal it, his funders want him to repeal it, so it will get repealed.<br />
<br />
The reaction to Trump has been telling. The Dems have been using it to ask me for money (something they do three times a day anyways, to be fair). Every nonprofit I remotely support has been emailing me for money. Shops I like have been using protest as a way to sell hats or albums or natural fabrics. We are trying to spend our way out of this, turn it into an opportunity to drive up sales. I know it is for a good cause (and I was happy to give money to help lobby against Trump's appointees), but it is still a little gross. Like, THIS is our idea?<br />
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I've been vocally skeptical about protest marches for a while, but I was impressed by the Woman's March, and I think similar marches could do some actual good. I just hope they don't devolve into the same pool of far-left groups shutting down highways or smashing burger kings or camping out to like protest capitalism or whatever. I've been disappointed at how unfocused the Black Lives Matter movement has been. Instead of trying to seek actionable, achievable outcomes, it has become, in my opinion, too broad and too unrealistic. It's really hard to see a path from the movement to any sort of actual change. And don't get me started that they have an internationally focused charity as their fiscal sponsor because they want to end racism globally. I think they had a tough hill to climb from the get-go because they are a)black and b)going against the police, which is tough politically and tends to bring out the asshole anarchists, which isn't the image you want the American people to see. My experience with those protests, though, was that they were more expressions of anger without any policy follow through or realistic policy objectives. In oakland they were demanding the Oakland Police be disbanded, as if THAT was ever going to happen.<br />
<br />
Again, focused, achievable, actionable. That's the key, I think. Stuff that people can actually do, like try to shut down Betsy Davos' nomination, or block Trump's crazier executive order, or win swing districts, or (longer term, bigger lift) support redistricting efforts. In the end, a lot of this is going to come down to voter outreach and registration and making it easier for young people and brown people to vote. Easy to say, hard to do. Especially when you are dealing with an uneducated populace (I'm speaking Americans generally) and really complicated, boring issues like environmental regulatory policy etc. that no one understands but that has a huge impact. We also can't afford to get cynical. Hardest of all, we somehow need to not throw people under the bus while at the same time tamping down the "but what about me!!!!!" impulse that is so destructively american. It's this weird thing I try to tell myself and teach my daughter - you are important and your needs matter, but you also one of seven billion people on this planet, so you are not the only person in the world who matters. It's not all about you, which is a frustrating thing to hear when you've been ignored your whole life, but yeah. It's not.<br />
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Also, this can't just be about Democrats taking back control of congress and the white house. This has to be about the Republican party moving to a more moderate/less batshit crazy place. They are doing incredibly well at the same time they are totally fucking crazy. So there's that.<br />
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Mostly, I just want to find a balance between fighting the good fight and not being consumed by the abuser in chief. I wake up at 2am freaking out about how shitty things are. That's not good.<br />
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This week has taught me that things you spent decades building can be destroyed in a moment, and that there are way more people opposed to the Trump presidency than for it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-44894253071811317192017-01-07T09:22:00.002-08:002017-01-07T09:22:16.012-08:00I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go OutsideSo, it has been three months since I posted here. The main reason for the hiatus is boring and has to do with age - I've fucked up my arm and shoulder from being on the computer so much, and so I am trying to minimize how much time I spend on a computer when I am not at work.<br />
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Also, the last half of 2016 was so full of heavy shit that writing about music seemed like the least important thing I could be doing.<br />
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Maybe I'll keep this up, maybe not. I do want to write more in 2017, but I also want to spend more time with my daughter, exercise more, meditate more, and limit screen time so we'll see how that all pans out - many of those are mutually exclusive.<br />
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My final thought on 2016 and the year ahead is this: sometimes life kicks you in the fucking teeth. Everything is impermanent, change is the only constant, bad things happen, everything you love and hold dear to you will be taken away from you at some point, so enjoy the time you have with the people you love and when shit goes haywire, which it always will, try to be strong enough to get back up.<br />
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That's all.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-90202756983587175522017-01-07T09:17:00.000-08:002017-01-07T09:17:04.575-08:00Best Rap Albums of 2016<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">(originally posted at rapreviews)</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-83f4704c-79ee-ad60-aa8d-de8ff5a5d4fb" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2016 offered many reminders of how hard and unfair life can be, and how quickly things can fall apart. In a year when internet trolls took over national governments, overt racism and anti-semitism become politically acceptable, and civilians in Syria were publicly bombed to death while the rest of the world stood by, music helped me connect with the rest of the world in a powerful way. I’m disappointed and fearful of how the internet has divided and radicalized people instead of bringing them together, of how it has created echo-chambers that reflect back the reality we want to believe in rather than how things actually are. The one outlier in all this is music. Music has remained an honest voice in the wilderness, reflecting back people’s actual experiences rather than outrage porn, regurgitated talking points, and blatant misinformation. It is is especially true of hip-hop, which has long given voice to the disenfranchised and marginalized. Whether it was the street poetry from a gifted craftsman like Ka, or YG trying to figure out how reconcile his gangsta persona with being a grown up, or Vic Mensa calling out police brutality, or Danny Brown wrestling with addiction and depression, 2016 offered many opportunities to listen to people who don’t normally get a voice in the world. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are ten albums I liked the best from this year, in order:</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">10. Kate Tempest, “Let Them Eat Chaos” An album about trying to connect in post-Brexit London and the things we do to distract ourselves.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">9. Aesop Rock, “The Impossible Kid” Aesop’s most personal album yet, and one of his best.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">8. ScHoolboy Q, “Blank Face” I can’t really defend this on an intellectual level, but this ish bangs.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7. Ka, “Honor Killed the Samurai” One of the most skilled and exacting MCs in the game makes another great album.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. Danny Brown, “Atrocity Exhibition” A druggy party album about the downside of being a druggy party rapper.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Frank Ocean, “Blonde” “It’s hell on earth and the city’s on fire/In hell in hell there’s heaven.” </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. YG, “Still Brazy” An unapologetic gangsta rap album.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. A Tribe Called Quest, “We got it from Here...Thank You 4 Your Service” I had no reason to hope that another Tribe album would be released, and even less hope that it would be this good. R.I.P. Phife Dawg.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Anderson.Paak, “Malibu” He’s a rapper! He’s a singer! He’s a drummer! He’s like a less annoying Bruno Mars!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. Solange, “A Seat at the Table” This is a fierce, beautiful album, and the album I listened to the most this year.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Disappointments of the year: </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">De La Soul, “and the anonymous Nobody…” This isn’t a bad album, but as a lifelong De La Soul fan (and backer of their Kickstarter), it wasn’t the comeback album I wanted. I found it to be a little lifeless and I had a hard time with the casual misogyny. Why are a bunch of men in their 40s rapping about sexy bitches and trainwrecks?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Atmosphere, “Fishing Blues,” I love Atmosphere’s brand of confessional story rap, but they have become almost a self-parody at this point. Slug can still unleash when he wants to, but too much of “Fishing Blues” is territory that Atmosphere has tread to death.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kanye West, “Life of Pablo” I sincerely hope Kanye gets the help he so clearly needs, and I do not want to pile on the circus that surrounds him, but I do not understand what people see in his work. At this point he could release an album of himself burping the alphabet and Pitchfork would give it a 9.4.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chance the Rapper, “Coloring Book.” I loved “Acid Rap,” but I couldn’t handle this album. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I lost my ability to put up with Chance mumbling in a baby voice. Maybe it’s because I live with a three-year-old. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-51464005261071829532017-01-07T09:16:00.001-08:002017-01-07T09:16:02.411-08:00Favorite non rap albums of 2016<span id="docs-internal-guid-92e2e81f-79ec-fa62-d8f3-19a8919a0f17"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Angel Olsen, My Woman - A beautiful, haunting album.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Darkthrone, Arctic Thunder - Sometimes, you just need to rock. This is like Motorhead mixed with a little Maiden and Priest with a dash of crusty punk. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lotus Thief, Gramarye - A beautiful, haunting album.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">P.J. Harvey, The Hope Six Demolition Project</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vektor, Terminal Redux - Insanely fast and ambitious scifi thrash.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mary Lattimore, At the Dam</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Against Me! Shape Shift with Me. I’m pretty ignorant about trans issues, and a lot of what I know comes from Against Me!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inquisition, Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith - Satanism is right up there with fundamentalist Christianity or conservative Islam in terms of religious ideologies that I have huge issues with. And yet I put up with Inquisition’s cosmic satanism because they are so interesting musically. The singer croaks like a robot frog about jibber-jabber while creating walls of noise on his guitar while the drummer bangs away like a madman. The cover art doesn’t do this music justice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hammers of Misfortune, Dead Revolution - proggy metal about San Francisco being decimated by wealth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Subrose, For This We Fought the Battle of Ages - Heavy doom from Salt Lake City.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inter Arma, Paradise Gallows</span></div>
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</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-61803503424363509102016-09-01T20:33:00.001-07:002016-09-01T20:33:17.011-07:00Vic Mensa Review<br />
Vic Mensa<br />
<i>There's A Lot Going On</i> EP<br />
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<a href="http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2016_06_theresalot.html">Originally posted at RapReviews</a><br />
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There's a false binary in hip-hop where rappers are either supposed to be conscious or street, make protest rap or rap about women and money and liquor. Chicago rapper Vic Mensa shows just how false that binary is on his major label debut "There's Alot Going On." Over seven songs, he addresses serious issues like police brutality, mental illness, and the Flint, Michigan water crisis, as well as less serious issues like getting drunk in the club and chasing after pretty women. By doing so, he manages to make his own lane in hip-hop.<br />
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Mensa has been rapping since 2012, but he first came on the scene in 2013 mixtape "Innanetape," as well as performances with the Gorillaz, J. Cole, and Wale. He also contributed bars to Chance the Rapper's "Acid Rap," which is where I first heard of him. While Chance went in a more indie and gospel direction, first with his collaboration with Donnie Surf and the Social Experiment, and then with his latest album "Coloring Book," Mensa has stayed closer to mainstream hip-hop. Producer Papi Beatz keeps the snares snapping and hi-hats rolling throughout the album, and Mensa does his share of Auto-Tuned singing, which is a requirement for any rapper trying to break the Hot 100. What sets Mensa apart from his peers is that he hasn't diluted his message even as he's signed to Roc Nation.<br />
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There's a trend in hip-hop towards minimalist, almost gibberish rhymes, and Mensa completely ignores it. Instead, he crams as many syllables as possible into his bars, sometimes not even bothering to rhyme. He starts off with "Dynasty," giving some exposition-heavy bars to set the scene:<br />
<i>"The crazy man's keeping me up, I'm not sleeping<br />My fit too fresh to be doing the housekeeping<br />The maids cost too much, started cleaning my own closet<br />Living childhood fantasies, dealing with grown problems<br />Got a brand new bae, she keep me G.O.O.D like the music<br />If the Roc is here, throw up your diamonds and hood cubics<br />No I.D. said it's time to take these goofy ni***s out rap<br />Drop bombs over Baghdad on these SoundCloud outcasts<br />I stray away to say the way my days would be without rap<br />My mind drifts to back before the Chi was labelled Chiraq<br />Then Chief Keef dropped in 2012, now it's a drill<br />I was waiting in the wing like a bird on a windowsill<br />Now I'm the fresh prince, I think I know how my uncle feel"</i><br />
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Then he goes into "16 Shots," which addresses the 2014 murder of Laquan McDonald by a Chicago Police officer. The song calls out the mayor and the police force for how they bungled the case and tried to cover it up, but it also promises retaliation, in no uncertain terms. "This ain't conscious rap, this shit's ignorant," he raps. "Ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun/When I cock back, police better run." The song ends with the McDonald family's lawyer reading a description of how the 17-year-old died that October night. It's a harrowing description, and a harrowing song that is full of unrestrained anger<br />
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From there, Mensa goes in a more radio-friendly direction. "Danger" is a banger with an Auto-Tuned chorus of "You know me, I like the danger." "New Bae" is a melodic song about sex, followed by "Liquor Locker," a guitar-led R&B ballad. Lest you think Mensa is going soft or selling out, he drops some real truth on "Shades of Blue," rapping about the Flint Michigan water crisis:<br />
<i>"Now you've got toddlers drinking toxic waste<br />While the people responsible still ain't caught no case<br />I don't get it man, I just ain't wit it man<br />They got Damn Daniel distracting you on Instagram<br />Back again with the all-white media coverage<br />They do it over and over like remedial subjects<br />The people with the least always gotta pay the most<br />We the first to go when they deleting them budgets<br />Can a n***a get his basic human rights?<br />Is that too much to ask? Should I say it more polite?<br />And everybody broke so we in the same boat<br />But would they let that bitch sink if we was white?"</i><br />
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The EP ends with the somewhat rambling title track, which is basically Mensa listing all the crazy ish he's been up to these past three years. It's interesting that a rapper who just spent several songs celebrating partying and living dangerously would close with a song that soberly lays out the trouble he's gotten in through partying and living dangerously. He gives it warts and all, with self-awareness. He even raps about assaulting a woman who attacked him when he was high. He not only admits that he was in the wrong, he also understands how the breakup of his group and his drug use played into it. It's a long way from Eazy-E or Biggie bragging about beating women up in their rhymes.<br />
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<i>"She came out the room swinging, hit me in the jaw<br />I was really trying to fend her off<br />But I ended up in the closet with my hands around her neck<br />I was tripping, dawg<br />Too proud to apologize or empathize, I blamed it all on her<br />Saying that she hit me first, even though she was the one hurt<br />I was really just reflecting all the hurt that I was feeling from the band's rejection<br />When Kids These Days split, that shit felt like a c-section<br />And my infidelity and jealousy with Natalie on top of the amphetamines<br />And the ecstasy had me trying drown face down in the Chesapeake"</i><br />
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Mensa's honest lyrics and skills on the mic work well with his club-ready beats. He manages to represent the different facets of his life and his experience and makes it sounds convincing and not calculating. Just when you think he's being too ignorant or hedonistic, he'll drop some serious knowledge, and just when you think he's being too personal, he'll drop some bars about sex and drinking. None of us are just one thing, or an either/or proposition, and Mensa represents this complexity to the fullest. To paraphrase Walt Whitman, Vic Mensa is large and contains multitudes. He's also released one of this year's better EPs.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-47769548060835465702016-09-01T20:30:00.002-07:002016-09-01T20:30:33.878-07:00YG Review<a href="http://rapreviews.com/archive/2016_08_stillbrazy.html">I reviewed YG's Still Brazy this week at RapReviews</a>. Here it is:<br />
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Rap music offers a depressing number of examples about recidivism and how difficult it is to escape cycles of trauma, violence, and poverty. Many rappers who grew up surrounded by crime and violence find that it follows them into adulthood and prosperity. How many hip-hop concerts, recording sessions, and video shoots have been disrupted by gunfire? How many rappers have suffered violent deaths? How many rappers are in prison for parole violations for doing things that middle class whites get away with every day? From T.I. to Jazy Z, from Biggie and 2Pac to Big L, from Lil Wayne to Lil Boosie, the impact of violence and the criminal justice system on African-Americans is clearly illustrated in hip-hop.<br />
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YG (Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson) is the latest rapper to go from hood to riches and find that the hood has a nasty habit of following you. YG went from breaking into houses to making hit singles, but his transition from criminal to rap star hasn't been smooth. He was shot at while filming a video in 2012, and was shot while recording in 2015. Much of "Still Brazy," his second album after 2014's breakthrough "My Krazy Life," deals with the aftermath of his success, and what it means to be a gangbanger who is now a famous rapper. To put it in Compton album terms, this is YG's "Chronic"; he has one foot in the life of celebrity, and one foot in his old life.<br />
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He starts off with warning people "Don't Come to L.A." "Y'all playing. "Y'all playing with the set [...] but I'm really from the set, so y'all don't come round here." "Who Shot Me" is YG contemplating who could have fired shots at him, and arriving at the same lesson Biggie did twenty years ago, that it's often those closest to you that betray you:<br />
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<i>"Staring out the window<br />Smoking on this indo<br />'Cause I don't know who did it<br />But I know this<br />Bullets don't just go where the wind blows<br />So I'm looking under my nose<br />Hate always comes from up close<br />But they can't stand me though"</i><br />
Even the certified party track is about gang life. "Twist My Fingaz" is a club song, but it's a club song about throwing gang signs when fake gangsters try to mess with him at the club. "I just do my dance/Cuff my pants/Twist my fingaz with my hands," he raps, over a slapping G-funk beat.<br />
That beat marks a departure for YG. Where his previous work had been mostly produced by DJ Mustard, YG is working with other producers here. While P-Lo and DJ Swish's tracks all have a similar sound to Mustard's now ubiquitous chanting 808s, there's also a notable G funk influence. When I first heard "Twist My Fingaz" I thought it was an obscure 90s song, and several other tracks have a similar old school feel.<br />
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While most of the album is concerned with asserting that YG is still a G despite his fame, it closes with a trio of protest songs. First up is "FDT," about presidential hopeful Donald Trump. The LAPD shut down a video shoot for the song, and the Secret Service allegedly threatened YG's label over it. Maybe they didn't like the implied violence against Trump; YG implies at several points that if elected Trump is likely to have shots fired at him. It's ironic that the authorities caught feelings over YG's songs, and yet Trump made similar insinuations against his opponent and got a pass.:<br />
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<i>"Look, Reagan sold coke, Obama sold hope<br />Donald Trump spent his trust fund money on the vote<br />I'm from a place where you probably can't go<br />Speaking for some people that you probably ain't know<br />It's pressure built up and it's probably going to blow<br />And if we say go then they're probably going to go<br />You vote Trump then you're probably on dope<br />And if you like me then you probably ain't know<br />And if you been to jail you can probably still vote<br />We let this nigga win, we going to probably feel broke<br />You built walls? We going to probably dig holes<br />And if your ass do win, you going to probably get smoked"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
"FDT" lacks the elegance and poetry of Kendrick, Ice Cube, Chuck D, or other more notable protest rappers. However, what YG lacks in lyrical grace he more than makes up for in honesty. His song reflects the frustrations that a lot of black and Latino feel about the Trump campaign.<br />
"Blacks and browns" compares the experiences of a black and Latino Angelenos. YG raps about the issues of black on black violence and calls for unity:<br />
<br />
<i>"We killing ourselves, they killing us too<br />They distract us with entertainment while they get they loot<br />They never gave us what they owed us, put liquor stores on every corner<br />Welcome to Lost Skanless, California"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Meanwhile, Sadboy raps about being a second-class citizen:<br />
<br />
<i>"They made the border for the browns cause we're not allowed<br />Gotta get the green card for me and my child<br />Those assholes payment under the table that don't last a while<br />Those jobs getting passed around, they dog our people<br />Why we gotta look for work at Home Depot?<br />It was us before the natives, why we ain't equal?"</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Sad Boy offers the best features on an album loaded with features from everyone from Lil Wayne and Drake to Nipsey Hustle Slim 400.<br />
<br />
The album ends with "Police Get Away Wit Murder," a song that address police violence. YG raps about the same overreach of powers and poor treatment that N.W.A. rapped about almost 30 years ago, with a chorus of "We don't give a f***/Police get away with murder!" "Still Brazy" may be unrepentant gangsta rap, but YG is well aware of the cost of the life he raps about, and the forces that drive people to it.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-39434650045470425512016-08-01T14:52:00.003-07:002016-08-01T14:52:45.651-07:00You’re Breaking My Heart: “Nate”<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You’re Breaking My Heart </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">highlights songs that make me want to cry.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My parents were alcoholics growing up. Every night, they’d polish off at least a six-pack of beer each, ending up somewhere between merely drunk and wasted. As far as parental issues to have, it isn’t even on the top 5 (sexually abusive, physically abusive, psychologically abusive, absent, drug addicted, homeless, dying being higher on the list, among others). Still it sucked. I spent a lot of my youth very aware that there was no one around to take care of me, and having to be the adult in the situation. Well, my older sister had to be the adult. I just kind of shut down/drowned my feelings out with loud music.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“As a kid all I wanted was to kill a man/Be like my daddy’s friends hopping out a minivan.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CdQN5xTuFUM" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s how Vince Staples starts off “Nate,” a song about his abusive, drug-addicted father. It’s a song about what happens when your father, your hero, is the villain in the story, and what that does to a kid. It’s about how the trauma kids are exposed to affects them. It’s about all the stuff that kids see that parents don’t realize they see. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Knew he was the villain never been a fan of Superman</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beaten on my momma in the kitchen screaming:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Bitch you better listen when I speak my mind!"</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Used to think he was unbreakable he did fed time</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But made sure a nigga plate was full and I shined</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Was walking in the first day of school new J's, and all of that</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Football was cornerback, never made a game I played for Compton High</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But my daddy was the man that would be suicide</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Picked me up from visitation in the newest ride</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Always told me that he loved me, fuck his foolish pride</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a sense of love and pride in Staples’ raps about his father. It’s not whining about what a terrible dad he was. At times he almost seems like he’s bragging about his father, but you get the underlying sense of sadness beneath it all.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a kid all I wanted was a hundred grand</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Uncle counting money while my daddy cut him grams</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Made me promise that this shit would never touch my hands</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And it never did said it'd make me be a better man</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Smoking in the crib, hiding dip inside of soda cans</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Black bandana on his arm, needle in his hand</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Momma trying to wake him up, young so I ain't understand</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why she wouldn't let my daddy sleep, used to see him stand</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Out in the alley through my window</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This song, more than any other, highlights Staples’ genius as a writer. In just a few words he completes a full picture of exactly what he was seeing, little vignettes of the life of a hustler and addict. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Drinking Hen' with his homies blowing cig' smoke</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lights flashing now he running from the Winslows</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hear him screaming from my momma at the backdoor</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sometimes she wouldn't open it, sitting on the couch</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Face emotionless, I don't think they ever noticed that I noticed it</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a kid all I wanted a hundred grand</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“I don’t think they ever noticed that I noticed it.” I think about that sometimes as my wife and I are having a heated discussion and I can see our daughter playing nearby, acting absorbed in her Duplos or paints but clearly listening to us. I think about all the times I did the same thing while my parents were drunk or arguing or both. How I pretended not to notice, and how it still affected me.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the most powerful aspects of Black Lives Matter, for me, has the very vocal affirmation that these lives do matter. As a white person, I see how black murders get written off as “gang-related.” How black people killed by the police or by other black people are written off as thugs. It’s a way to dehumanize people, to say that they are not like us, do not feel pain like we do. “Nate” is a reminder of pain and sadness in communities afflicted with drugs and violence. It’s a reminder that the young thug may have seen more shit in his 17 years than you are likely to see in a lifetime. It’s a reminder that the guy you are locking up has children, had a father, has a past, has a history. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I cry pretty much every time I hear this song.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-70643253779916578882016-07-30T16:13:00.001-07:002016-07-30T16:13:58.827-07:00Rap music for people who don't listen to much rap musicAfter my grumpy post the other day, I thought I'd highlight some of the rap artists people who don't listen to rap music might like.<br />
<br />
Do you like hip hop but are put off by the lyrics about partying and sex? Check out Kendrick Lamar and Vince Staples, who are the pinnacle (to me, at least) of what hip-hop can be. But maybe that's not your thing because they use a lot of curse words and talk about killing police and Staples does a lot of rappity rapping with no hooks.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you want rap music with more of a melody, there's Anderson Paak, who sings and raps and whose music has a very musical quality. (Musical being my way of describing rap music that isn't just beats and rapping.) Or Chance the Rapper.<br />
<br />
Or you could try Open Mike Eagle, who also sings some, and raps about REAL ISSUES but also raps about mundane life in a low-key but skillful way. Swears, but sparingly.<br />
<br />
Or Oddissee, who is similar to Open Mike Eagle in some ways (and also on the same label) but a little more old school, a little less indie rock. <br />
<br />
You could also check out Blackalicious, who are musical and positive. In that vein you have Lyrics Born, who is also from the Bay Area.<br />
<br />
Lizzo and Ivy Sole are two female rappers making excellent positive hip-hop. Azealia Banks is a little raunchier but also very talented.<br />
<br />
If you like your music weird, Shabazz Palaces make a nice blend of hip-hop, EDM, and Martian.<br />
And if you are an aging punk, POS, Death Grips, and Run the Jewels all add some punk aggression to their rhymes.<br />
<br />
There you go. Have at it. And the only white guy in that mix is El-P.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-61203276859733196562016-07-28T15:33:00.001-07:002016-07-28T15:33:37.438-07:00The problem with hip-hop in '16<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.unwinnable.com/2016/07/28/rap-artist-for-people-who-dont-like-rap/">Amanda Hudgins wrote an article over at Unwinnable about rap artists for people who don't like rap.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was in reference to an article she had come across that was almost all white rappers. I posted a little rant in the comments, which I'm posting below. As you can see, I caught some feelings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a sore subject to me, because I find rap music on the whole to be problematic, and acting like it is racist to think it is problematic is bullshit. Anyways, my rant is below:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m white and I listen to a lot of rap music. While rap
music isn’t all about bitches and the grind, a lot of it is, and most mainstream
rap is. Mainstream rap has become what hair metal was in the 80s-cookie-cutter
songs about sex, drugs, and partying, a lifestyle that none of its listeners
enjoy but all would like to have. Even if it isn’t about sex, money and drugs,
it’s full of profanity in a way that no other music is. Every fourth word out
of Kendrick’s mouth is either the N word or the B word, and he is one of the
best rappers around today. I love vince staples, but I can’t listen to that
around my wife or kid because it is all curse words. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have a friend who was trying to listen to more hip-hop, so
she checked out kendrick’s good kid album. She said she wanted to like it, but
it was like getting hit in the face over and over again with how much he said
bitch. And she doesn’t want to hear racial slurs. She stopped trying after
that.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I listen to the local hip-hop station, and every song is
about sex, cars, and drugs. Every fucking one, only with the swears blocked out
so that it is like watching a porn movie with a black bar over the genitals. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The alt-rappers everyone got excited about four years ago
were odd future, who rapped about raping women and called everyone a faggot. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even Anderson Paak, the fucking Bruno Mars of hip-hop, has
lyrics full of bitches and n-bombs. I was rocking Malibu with my kid the other
day and alla sudden some lady is saying she wants him to fuck the shit out of
her. There’s another one off rotation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I struggle to find rap albums I can listen to with my kid
that are not rife with profanity or sexism. Even the Native Tongue’s stuff isn’t
safe. I can get away with Blackalicious, early Tribe, early De La (but not “De
La Orgy!), Digible Planets. That’s about it, I mean that I wanna listen to. I’ve
been going with jazz or R&B. Yes, there are rappers who don’t swear, but
there aren’t many rappers with more than 1,000 plays on Spotify who don’t
swear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rap has chosen to embrace raw language as some sort of brand
of realness. Twenty-five years ago it was shocking to hear the n-word in a rap
song and you had to seek out those records. Nowadays they get played on
mainstream radio, with the swears blurred out. If hammer was starting out today
his song would be “Can’t Touch This, Bitch.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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I know I sound like a pearl clutching old white lady, but it’s
something that bums me out. <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-48886608580257717292016-07-18T20:54:00.000-07:002016-07-18T20:54:24.453-07:00What I've Been Listening To<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4VT8rzHBVgY" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-86213207399241545982016-07-18T20:31:00.000-07:002016-07-18T20:31:17.643-07:00Half timeI really don't keep this up so good, do I?<br />
<br />
So it's the half-year mark and time to reflect on what i've listened to so far this year.<br />
<br />
This is going to be super incomplete, but here are some of the records I'm really excited about this year, in the order I remembered they existed.<br />
<br />
1. Beyonce, Lemonade. I didn't listen to Beyonce at all prior to this. I mean, I liked her hits fine, but I don't fuck with pop music and she makes pop music. And then this comes. Granted, I don't love all of it, but "Hold Up," "Sorry," "Sandcastles," hell, even "All Night" are brilliant songs.<br />
<br />
2. Jessy Lanza, Oh No. A pop album, but a pop album on Burial's label, so it maintains a nice edge.<br />
<br />
3. Anderson Paak, Malibu. Soulful hip-hop that has kept me going this year.<br />
<br />
4. Ivy Sole, Eden. A nice heartfelt rap album by a female MC.<br />
<br />
5. J-Zone, Fish-N-Grits. Funky beats and funny rhymes calling out rap nostalgia.<br />
<br />
6. Andy Stott, Too Many Voices.<br />
<br />
7. Schoolboy Q, Blank Face<br />
<br />
8. Mary Lattimore, After the Dam<br />
<br />
9. Juliana Barwick, Will<br />
<br />
10. Nothing, Tired of Tomorrow<br />
<br />
11. Kvelertak, Nattesferd<br />
<br />
12. PJ Harvey, The Hope Six Demolition Project<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-72542219582631856442016-06-27T20:00:00.001-07:002016-06-27T20:00:46.541-07:00Shabazz Palaces ReviewShabazz Palaces<br />
<i>Live At Third Man Records</i><br />
Third Man Records, 2016<br />
<a href="http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2016_06_liveatthirdman.html">Originally Posted on RapReviews.com</a><br />
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve always found live hip-hop to be an iffy proposition. I’ve
been to some amazing shows, but too often it is a guy shouting into a
microphone over a backing track. There’s not much room for improvisation or
spontaneity, which are two key components of a good live show. A recent Travis
Scott performance on the Jimmy Kimmel show illustrates the worst-case scenario
(https://youtu.be/66TRwDUeyB4). He is shouting along to a recording of the
song, not even bothering to pretend he’s rapping. Maybe I need to see Shabazz
Palaces live to change my mind. Their “Live At Third Man Records” is definitely
a strong argument in favor of live hip-hop.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One thing that sets Shabazz off from many hip-hop acts (the Roots
excluded) is that it isn’t just a rapper and a guy on his laptop. Tendai
Maraire plays congos and drums and provides backing vocal while Ishmael
Butler raps between twiddling knobs and playing a drum pad. This allows them
more room to improvise and go off script than a DJ only armed with the backing
track. Also, their music isn’t built around samples or hooks, which means
Butler isn’t having to rap along to a recording of someone else singing. It
also doesn’t hurt that their music is nebulous, spacey, and more focused on
sustaining a vibe than on pumping up a crowd or playing hits.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The tracks are mostly drawn from the Palaces’ two studio albums,
especially 2014’s “Lese Majesty.” The duo isn’t afraid to build out the
intros of the songs, to change up the lyrics and to take song in new
directions. At best, the songs here have a warmth and energy that isn’t always
present on their studio albums. “Forerunner Foray,” for example, has a sense of
urgency that I don’t get from the version on “Lese Majesty.” Ditto the
version of “Free Press and Curl” here. It abandons the intimacy and delicacy of
the studio version, turning it into a party song. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are also times when things get muddy and messy. Shabazz
Palaces’ music is dense, and that denseness can come off as chaotic in the live
setting. There are times where it feels like Butler is struggling to juggle
rapping and programming. You can hear him lose his breath or lose his line as
he fights with his laptop or drum machine. That is one downside to having a
performer also doing programming - drum machines and laptops lack the elegance
of a guitar or drum, and don’t work as well as live instruments.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As with all live albums, “Live At Third Man Records” loses
something in its translation from live performance to digital document. It is
still a worthy entry into the small collection of good live hip-hop albums. It
may not be as great an experience as seeing Shabazz Palaces live, but it is a
worthy substitute.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-27566121681597337432016-06-27T19:58:00.002-07:002016-06-27T19:58:44.217-07:00Detroit's Son ReviewGuilty Simpson<br />
<i>Detroit's Son</i><br />
Stones Throw, 2015<br />
<a href="http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2016_05F_detroitsson.html">Originally Posted on RapReviews.com</a><br />
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<div class="p1">
Detroit rapper Guilty Simpson is like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of rap. He is incredibly effective at being a badass, but not the most versatile or emotive of performers. He doesn’t sing and he doesn’t do features with R&B divas. That might sound limiting, but in the hands of the right producer, Simpson can drop fire. He’s responsible for at least two of my favorite rap songs of all time (“Coroner’s Music” and “Pigs.”) He’s found the right partner on “Detroit’s Son” in Aussie producer Katalyst, who is part of the Quakers crew. In fact, “Detroit’s Son” may well be his strongest release to date.</div>
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“Detroit’s Son” has a similar feel to Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s 2014 album “Piñata.” It’s tough as nails rhymes over warped funk samples, with the rapper and the producer actually collaborating. Simpson spent time in Australia with Katalyst, and the face time they spent together pays off. They have the kind of chemistry that is hard to obtain if you are just Skyping and exchanging files in the cloud.</div>
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Much of “Detroit’s Son” is Simpson giving tough guy raps over menacing beats. He starts off on “R.I.P.,” rapping “The bigger the yap, the bigger the slap” while Katalyst lays down a beat that sounds like a race car warming up. Katalyst manages to make funk guitars sound threatening on “Blunts In the Air” one of several tracks dedicated to the sweet leaf. “The D” is as cold and unfriendly as the city it is about. </div>
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“Rhyme 101” might be the best example of Guilty in grimey mode. The beat is funky but punishing, and Guilty spews venomous bars:</div>
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“Call this style pub crawl</div>
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Cuz you can get shot from bars</div>
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Hot shit pop from cars</div>
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Drive by</div>
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I’m an animal I I </div>
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Swear to get my share I enjoy the air up here”</div>
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Guilty is so good at being a villain that it is easy to forget that from day one that has only been a part of his rap persona. One of his earlier tracks was the Dilla-produced “Man’s World” (https://youtu.be/VEDBFzDnIRM) about the tortured relationship he had with his father. (“I’m sorry about the bruise on your face, you understand? I still love you, I’m still you’re old man.”) One of Guilty’s talents is the way he can rap about the harsh realities of life without it coming off as maudlin or pandering. “Ghetto” is a great example of this. It starts out your standard cautionary tale about life in the ghetto, but what Guilty is really rapping about is how our own behaviors and thinking can trap us.</div>
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“Fam had a gun and he died with it</div>
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Barrel still cold</div>
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Thirty years old with his brains shot over what he owed</div>
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Some say over what he told</div>
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Some say over what he sold</div>
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Whatever</div>
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Still left the pros cold like the winter weather</div>
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Still shows in the hood we don’t stick together</div>
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Killers mask up like ‘we’ll stick whoever’</div>
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Wish I could say they do it to live better</div>
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But really</div>
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They rob you with the clippers</div>
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Then turn and give it to a stripper”</div>
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The title track, “Smoking,” and “Say What?” all offer more cheerful beats and rhymes, which adds variety and makes the harder songs hit that much harder. There are a couple moments on the album where Guilty’s blunt flow doesn’t totally connect, but those are few and far between. When I first heard Simpson ten years ago, he seemed like the antidote to mediocre backpack rappers. Nowadays, he sounds like a soldier doing his part to preserve a type of hip-hop that feels almost like an endangered species. “Detroit’s Son” is proof that Guilty Simpson is far from done, and that you don’t need to be able to sing hooks in order to be a compelling rapper.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-35092876921828084552016-06-27T19:55:00.001-07:002016-06-27T19:55:12.333-07:00EV Zepplin Review<div class="p1">
EV Zepplin </div>
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S/T</div>
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Reviewed by Patrick Taylor</div>
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<a href="http://www.rapreviews.com/archive/2016_04_EVZepplin.html">Originally Posted on RapReviews.com</a></div>
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EV Zepplin are Chuck Inglish of Cool Kids fame and Blended Babies. Blended Babies are a production duo who have done work for Freddie Gibbs, Anderson Paak, Chance the Rapper, and Ab-Soul, among others. They are also incredibly prolific. If my count is correct, this album is the second album they’ve put out in April, and comes after six EPs released in the past 11 months. That doesn’t even count the tracks they’ve produced for other artists, or Blended Babies member Jonathan Keller’s solo project.</div>
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Blended Babies’ take a musical approach to hip-hop, combining elements of rock, R&B, and electronica. Two of their recent projects have been with singers (an EP with Anderson Paak and an album with indie/R&B artist Jake Barker). They are more songwriters than beat makers, and the songs on “EV Zepplin” all feature as much singing as rapping. </div>
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Not that the rapping gets short shrift. Besides Inglish, Alex Wiley, Caleb James, Boldy James, Asher Roth, A$ton Mathews, and Drew Smith all provide bars. The surprise for me was Asher Roth, a rapper I had written off after the frat rap of “I Love College” seven years ago. He reinvented himself as a more psychedelic rapper on 2014’s “RetroHash,” and he continues on that tip here, rapping about tripping on “Hang Up,” and offering some blunted menace on “Gun.” </div>
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The album is at its best when it is riding a blunted groove. Songs like “Scenic Route,” “Hang Ups,” the reggae-inflected “What I Want,” and “Over Much.” are highlights, offering up a hazy combination of piano, guitar, and banging drums. Sometimes Blended Babies’ bombast misfires. Opener “We On” combines buttrock guitars with lame sex lyrics, and the result is best avoided. </div>
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Lyrically, Ev Zepplin sticks to getting high and bragging. Things get romantic on “Re-Creating” and “What I Want,” although both tracks are more about how the woman can please the man rather than vice-versa. The lyrics may lack depth, but they are delivered with skill, and you can tell that the MCs were having a good time recording this. “I’m rhyming like I’m Gryffindor, you rhyming like you Hufflepuff,” raps Asher Roth on “Gun,” which gives you a sense of where the rappers are at. </div>
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Ev Zepplin may have nothing to do with the classic rock band that inspires their name, but it is a well-executed dose of psychedelic rap. Inglish has found worthy collaborators both in the Blended Babies and the MCs and singers that round this album out. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-48563277368199149902016-04-23T14:39:00.003-07:002016-04-23T14:39:40.034-07:00PrinceLike most human beings with functioning souls, I was sad to hear that Prince died. More because he was too young to die and seemed to be having a bit of a renaissance, putting out albums, touring, and writing a memoir. His current output may not have set the world on fire, but he had such an amazing run in the 80s-mid 90s that he could have never released anything else and it would have been enough.<br />
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I loved 1999 and Purple Rain, and I owned both cassettes. Well, I owned 1999 and my sister owned Purple Rain. I have yet to go to a wedding where "Kiss" isn't played. He was incredible. More than that, he challenged a lot of stereotypes. He was a black man who rocked out AND got funky. He had gay women in his band, and he championed female artists. He was hyper sexual and yet wore heels and frills and sang in a falsetto. He was a powerful role model to have in the conservative, homophobic, and racist 80s. He showed a lot of kids a different view of masculinity. And like the Beatles, EVERYONE likes at least one Prince song.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-2108565058007244432016-04-23T14:17:00.001-07:002016-04-23T14:25:42.634-07:00New Music by Old PeopleI've been listening to two recent albums by musicians who have been around a while.<br />
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First is Bob Mould's newest album <i>Patch the Sky. </i>This is the third album he's made since his return to loud guitars, working with two-thirds of Superchunk. I didn't love the first two albums, but this one is resonating with me. My issue with Mould's music is that he can get kind of cheesy, but he's tampering that down here. A lot of this album has to do with his relationship ending and his father dying, and there are some great songs. My favorite so far is "The End of Things," about a break up with the great line "A graduation/Or a gradual decay." It's exciting to hear someone using their skills as a musician to tackle more grown up emotions.<br />
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I also got PJ Harvey's new album, <i>The Hope Six Demolition Project, </i>about a redevelopment project in Washington DC. The lyrics to some of the songs are a little clumsy (see all the "justs" in the opener), but I'm into it.<br />
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<i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qsLqsqbObyg" width="560"></iframe>.</i><br />
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As an aside, when I was looking up videos of PJ Harvey, I came across this clip of her playing "Dress" live ten years ago. Just her looking amazing and rocking out with only a drummer.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QySwGXrpHzw" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-79583575575653183382016-04-23T06:33:00.000-07:002016-04-23T06:33:04.404-07:00The ReplacementsI saw the documentary "Color Me Obsessed" this week, about the Minneapolis legends The Replacements. What was interesting about the doc was how much their mythology sort of capsized the band. The thing everyone remembers about the Replacements is what drunken fuck ups they were. They were frequently wasted on stage, often to the point of being unable to play. An aura of chaos followed the band, the kind of chaos you usually associate with hardcore junkie artists like Iggy Pop or G.G. Allin, although it seems like the 'Mats were mostly into caseloads of beer rather than drugs. The documentary mentioned that, but also mentioned how sad and frustrating it was to see a band with so much potential consistently squander it. Bob Stinson, the drunkenest, most fucked upenest member, was booted in '86 for being too much of a fuck up, and managed to drink and drug himself to death by 35.<br />
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The Replacements are also the ultimate cautionary tale for any punk band trying to grow up. Their genius lay in straddling the line between clever and stupid, and when they went for a grown-up sound on their later albums, they lost much of the smart-ass charm that had made them great in the first place. Not unlike Husker Du, they went from being a scrappy punk band to being another boring modern rock act.<br />
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I was never into the Replacements during their existence from 1979-1991. They were a little too rock for my tastes as a younger listener, and their later modern rock incarnation didn't appeal to me either. It's only as I've gotten older than I've come to appreciate them, although I don't own any of their album. I briefly owned 1987's "Pleased to Meet Me," but have since sold it. However, I've been revisiting them a lot lately. They appeal much more to me now.<br />
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Their performance of "Bastards of Young" on SNL in 1985 shows a lot of their appeal, and a lot of their problem. It's great in part because it is a shambolic, drunken mess, but it is also a drunken, shambolic mess that got them banned from the show.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x6yi30" width="480"></iframe><br />
<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6yi30_what-a-mess_music" target="_blank">What a mess</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/mmr421" target="_blank">mmr421</a></i><br />
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One of my favorite songs by them is "<a href="https://youtu.be/wDCrVy9Tveg">Can't Hardly Wait." </a>, only not the neutered version that appears on "Pleased to Meet Me." It's much better live, or in the "Tim" outtake, which maintains a rawness that got lost in the studio recording. The lyrics are also different. In the official studio version, there are some key lines changed, and the song seems to be about the weariness of touring. The "Tim" version makes it seem like it is about suicide. My favorite line is "I'll be sad in heaven/If I can't find a hole in the gate/Stand on the top of this scummy water tower/Screaming I can't hardly wait/'Til it's over."<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-48635999491296409372016-04-01T11:37:00.001-07:002016-04-01T11:47:47.717-07:00How to Ruin A Record LabelI just read Larry Livermore's <i>How to Ru(i)n A Record Label</i>, which details his experience starting, leaving, and watching the demise of Lookout Records.<br />
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I came to the Bay Area in 1993, and got into local punk that year. I saw Green Day at Slim's in San Francisco right after Dookie hit but before they blew up. I was an exciting time for music and the scene, even if I was a good three years too late. Lookout was the epicenter of it. They had Green Day, Operation Ivy, Tiger Trap, Crimpshrine, and a host of other local punk bands. Plus, their shabby aesthetic and low prices made it seem like a label run by and for the kids.<br />
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Both Green Day and Op Ivy became huge sellers for them. I think they were used to selling thousands of copies, and those bands were selling hundreds of thousands of copies. It infused the label with a lot of money, and they struggled to find a path forward. What struck me reading the book was how short-lived this all was. The label started in 1987, and was effectively done by 2005, although the writing was on the wall sooner, and they officially closed much later.<br />
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I've read Chris Applegren's description of how he ran the label into the ground after Larry Livermore bailed in the late 90s. Applegren basically thought that since Green Day went on to become bajillionaires with some serious promotion, any other band should be able to become bajillionaires with the same level of promotion. What they missed was that Green Day was lightning in a bottle, ie not the kind of thing that is likely to come along again. Also, most of the commercially successful punk bands sounded nothing like the shabby pop-punk Lookout! was putting out. The Epitaph sound was much more prevalent as the 90s closed - think Blink 182 or Sum 41. The band used royalty payments to pay bills, thus stiffing bands, thus losing their catalogue as Green Day and Op Ivy took their records to other labels.<br />
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I felt a sense of loss when the label closed, but looking back it seems kind of inevitable. The Lookout! sound was very specific to a time and place. They put out East Bay pop punk records, or East Coast bands that sounded like East Bay pop punk. Their few excursions into weirder punk (Neurosis, Filth) were anomalies. Their attempts to branch out into bands like the Donnas and the Pattern weren't successful. By 1999 pop punk was done and so the label. I have a lot of respect and admiration for what they did, and I love some of those records, but I'm not surprised that it folded. I know Molly Neuman is still in the industry. I'm not sure what the rest of them are up to.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32135771.post-78536104995026649432016-03-25T12:50:00.003-07:002016-03-25T12:50:48.091-07:00RIP PhifePhife Dawg, aka Malik Taylor, died this week at 47.<br />
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Tribe Called Quest's <i>The Low End Theory</i> is one of my favorite albums of all time. It got me into hip-hop in a big way. It got me into jazz. I have listened to it regularly since I first purchased it in 1992ish. <i>Midnight Marauders</i> was another album I loved, if not as much. I haven't revisited the rest of their catalogue. Maybe now I should. <br />
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RIP to the funky diabetic.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0