Yellowman Review

I reviewed Yellowman's Young Gifted and Yellow perspective last week on RapReviews.
I was into it.



I also deleted about five albums from my "to review" folder. They were all self-released albums that I wasn't totally feeling, and given the little time I have to listen to and write about music, I don't really want to waste it on stuff I'm not feeling. I have reviews of TeeFlii and the new Homeboy Sandman submitted, and I'm not sure what I got on my plate for the coming weeks.

Boldy James Review

I reviewed Boldy James' new EP, "Grand Quarters," this week on RapReviews. He's a Detroit rapper following in the tradition of the Clipse.



I've been on an electronic music kick. I've been enjoying Sepalcure's 2011 debut album, which is sort of dubstep meets house meets downtempo. Good late night listening.

Reviews

I've been busy with fatherhood, so I haven't had time to update this blog in a while. I have written a few reviews including:

A review of the Lions album.

A review of the new Shlohmo EP.

A review of the latest Pitbull album.

A review of the latest Pusha T mixtape.

A review of the Heliocentrics album.

I've been listening to the new Wavves, the new Rhye album, the new Devendra Banhart, Boldy James' new EP, and Prince Douglas's Roots of Dub. Mostly, though, I've been either at work or trying to spend as much time with my kid as possible.  So there's that.

Pusha T Review/What I've Been Listening To

I reviewed Pusha T's new mixtape on RapReviews this week. 

I've also been digging Grimes' 2012 album Visions, which I was late to. It's sort of Goth dance music. 

I'm trying to get into the new Thao and the Get Down Stay Down album, which came out on my daughter's birthday, but so far it hasn't grabbed me. I loved their last album, and I want to be Thao's friend, but I just haven't gotten into this one yet. 

I've also been listening to the Lion's album. It's guys from Hepcat hooking up with OG reggae musicians to make OG reggae music. Sort of what the Daptones did for R&B. pretty good stuff. 

I'm also trying to digest the Heliocentrics new one, which is no easy task.

I also bought the two English Beat albums I didn't own, Just Can't Stop It and Special Beat Service. Both albums totally hold up, by the way, even though they are thirty years old. 

Etana and Kevin Gates Reviews

I did two reviews this week. First up is a review of Etana's new album, Better Tomorrow. She's a reggae singer with a gorgeous voice. The production can get a little adult contemporary for my tastes, but there are some good songs on the album.

The other review is for Kevin Gates' The Luca Brasi Story mixtape. He's a Baton Rouge rapper with sing/rap style that seems destined to be huge.

I'm currently listening to Pusha T's Wrath of Cain mixtape, the Underachiever's mixtape, and a lot of reggae and dub. I have a theory that the mellow, repetitive riddims of reggae are just the thing to soothe a newborn. It seems to be working so far with my daughter. Oh, and Andy Stott's hypnotic Luxury Problems.

Reviews

It's been a month since I've posted here. I've been too busy tending to new life to keep up the blog, but I have done a few reviews in the past month. Including:

Disco and Spence's Heatwave EP. 

Phace's Plozart.

Nosaj Thing's Home.

Disposable Heroes' Hipocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury.

Quanstar and Outsiders Review

I reviewed Atlanta rapper Quanstar's latest, Yo Soy La Mierda, as well as the Outsiders album. Quanstar is an independent rapper who has put out ten albums, done a documentary, written a book, does a web show about cooking, and makes Android apps. The Outsiders make Christian club rap. Neither were my thing, but they were both sincere and committed to their craft, so props to them.

I've been listening to a lot of downtempo electronic music. Nosaj Thing just came out with a new album, Home, which I've been listening to. Burial has a new single which I'm enjoying. In a similar vein their is Andy Stott's album Luxury Problems, which is dark and moody.

Chief Keef

I did a review of Chief Keef's Finally Rich at RapReviews that is up now. I'm not that proud of it. I think it is more of a rant and a put-down, two things I don't think you should indulge in very often, and certainly not publicly. Given that I'm not Keef's demographic, I am not sure I should have written about it in the first place. I now wish I had spent less time on his backstory and more time talking about his actual music. I stand by my opinion, that his music is terrible, but in some ways my review is like an old man telling the kids to get off his lawn. At least I'm not Jim DeRogatis, who's review of the album, which links it to the Newtown massacre, has gotten a lot of derision. I think critics are hating on DeRo unfairly. He wasn't saying that Keef is to blame for Newton,  he was comparing the gun murders in Chicago to the Newtwon tragedy, and saying that if we think it would be tasteless to glamourize Newton, why is it ok to glamourize the gang violence in Chicago.

I think Keith can rap about whatever Keith wants to rap about, and if kids connect to it, so be it. What bothers me about Keith's music is the way that it is being celebrated by Spin, Pitchfork, and the New York Times by white guys in their 30s. Here's a 17-year-old kid making monosyllabic street rap, and he is being made out to be some sort of savant genius by critics.  I'm not saying he's an idiot-you don't get to be a label head and get a huge record contract by being stupid - but his music is about fucking, getting wasted, wasting haters, and spending money. Full stop. There's nothing more to it. There is no self-reflection or self-awareness. And, in case I haven't mentioned it before, he can't rap.

Maybe I'm like the jazzheads in the sixties who thought rock was noise, or the rockers in the 80s who thought hip-hop was noise, or the people who don't like dance music because there's no lyrics. Maybe I'm missing the point or an old fart who just doesn't get it. But, while I can accept that hip-hop will continue to change and evolve, there needs to be some sort of ability or craft to what rappers are doing.

Best of/JJ Doom Review

My year-end best of is up at RapReviews.com.

I did it alphabetically, which is cheating. If I was forced to do it ranking, the order might be
1. El-P
2. Kendrick Lamar
3. Burial
4. Killer Mike
5. Brother Ali
6. Death Grips
7. Oddisee
8. Apollo Brown
9. Brother Ali
10. Quakers

Or something like that.

As is my review of the JJ DOOM album. Meh.

My review of Chief Keef is up as well, which I'll post next week.

Favorite Songs of 2012

Here are my favorite songs of 2012, in no particular order

El-P, "The Full Retard"

Killer Mike, "Big Beast"

Rick Ross, "Hold Me Back"

La Sera "Break My Heart"

Burial, "Kindred"

Kendrick Lamar, "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe"

Babies, "Alligator"

Quakers featuring Guilty Simpson and MED, "Fitta Happier"

Evian Christ, "Fuck It None of Y'all Don't Rap"

Death Grips, "Get Got"

Brother Ali, "Work Everyday"

Ceremony, "Citizen"

Favorite Albums of 2012

2012 was a big year. It started with the birth of my nephew, my apartment almost being burned down, and the death of my grandmother. In May, my wife and I found out we were expecting and bought a house within a 24-hour period. I moved out of San Francisco, my home for 19 years, to the East Bay. I finished a Master's degree. I grew professionally. And through it all I managed to write a review or two a week. Every year I wonder if I am too old to listen to hip-hop anymore. The answer I came up with this year is yes and no. There is a lot of rap music that I am too old to listen to. Street rap like Chief Keef or King Louis is too nihilistic for my old man ears. Club rap like Pitbull is too far removed from my life. I am far past the age of popping bottles in clubs. In fact, I never was at that age.

There was a lot of music that spoke to me, though. For one thing, a lot of thirtysomethings put out solid albums in 2012. Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, El-P, Killer Mike, Guilty Simpson, and Oddisee all released excellent albums that showed a depth and maturity that you don't see in younger rappers. Unless that younger rapper is Kendrick Lamar, who released one of the best albums of the year. "Good kid M.A.A.D. city managed to walk the perfect line between mainstream rap and backpack rap, conscious rap and gangsta rap. It's a bummer that so many of his songs are so foul-mouthed. The album has been 86'ed by my wife because it is so full of profanity.

I'm going to have a daughter in early 2013, and I'm not sure how that will impact the music I listen to. I can't imagine a baby being into noisy music, and I can't see myself listening to profanity-laced rap music around my kid. I'm already wondering if I should start buying the edited versions of albums so that I can play them around the house.

I spent a lot of the year stressed out and studying, so listened to a fair amount of mellow music. Much of that took the form of old jazz albums, but I also explored ambient music and instrumental music. I'm especially enamored with the so-called instrumental hip-hop coming out of Los Angeles's Low End Theory scene - Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Nosaj Thing, etc. I'm not really seeing the connection to hip-hop, but it is some of the more interesting electronic music being made today.

I didn't listen to a lot of new punk or indie rock this year. I'm not sure why. I liked the albums by Metz and Ceremony well enough, but they didn't make my heavy rotation. I've downloaded the Tame Impala record everyone loves but haven't listened to it enough to make up my mind about. My favorite albums were side projects by two members of the Vivian Girls. I'm not a huge fan of the Vivian Girls, but I loved the new albums by La Sera and the Babies. I also loved Grizzly Bear's Shields, despite my efforts to hate it for its utter pretentiousness and preciousness.

Here's a list of some of my favorite new albums of 2012, in alphabetical order.

Aesop Rock, Skelethon

Babies, Our House On the Hill

Brother Ali, Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color

Burial, Kindred EP. 

Death Grips, The Money Store/No Love Deep Web

El-P, Cancer 4 Cure

Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes

Gaslamp Killer, Breakthrough

Grizzly Bear, Shields

Kendrick Lamar, good kid, M.A.A.D city

Killer Mike, R.A.P. Music

La Sera, Sees the Light

Quakers s/t

Iron Lyon Review

I reviewed Iron Lyon's "From the Ground Up" last week on RapReviews. I should have a best-of up there soon.

The review is here.

Chief, Gaslamp Killer, and Heems Reviews

I've written three new reviews for RapReviews.

Shadows Crossing is the new instrumental album by Swiss producer Chief.

Nehru Jackets, a mixtape by ex-Das Racist rapper Heems.

Breakthrough, the debut album by The Gaslamp Killer.

Too Much Music

I've been reviewing records for RapReviews for five years now. If I average four reviews a month, that means I've reviewed around 250 albums for the site. That's a lot. I've begun deleted a lot of those files from my hard drive and throwing away many of the promos. My original thinking was that I wanted to archive everything - who knows when I'll want to listen to that Crew54 album I reviewed four years ago. But I've come to realize I don't have time to listen to all this shit. I have almost 10,000 songs on my iPod. It would take me over a month to listen to all of them, assuming I listened for twelve hours a day. And honestly, a lot of the stuff I review I don't really need to revisit, even if I like it.

One of my current musical goals is to have every Beatles and John Coltrane studio album. I'm close on the Beatles: I'm just missing their first two and Sgt. Peppers. For Coltrane I have some work to do. The Beatles released eleven albums, Coltrane somewhere in the twenties or thirties, so he has more territory to cover. I also want to actually LISTEN to all of his albums. I'm familiar with all the Beatles. Coltrane's work takes concentration. I've owned "Ole" for over a year and just recently started really getting it. 

Every year I say that I'm going to buy less music, and every year I fail at that goal. I am trying to be more honest about what I can listen to and what I am going to want to listen to in my free time. It's hard to fight my natural inclination to want to hear everything, even if I know I'll never be able to truly absorb it.

I'm convinced that many of the most loved albums from the past fifty years are loved in part because people spent so much time with them. If you only listened to Abbey Road a few times on your iPod, I'm not sure it would have the same impact as it did to the people who listened to it over and over again, in its entirety. I wonder if that means that the music we admire the most twenty or forty years from now will be songs rather than albums. Who listens to entire albums, and how many times do they listen to them? 

Reggae Golden Jubilee Review

I reviewed the new box set Reggae Golden Jubilee on RapReviews this week. It's a four-disc set that goes from the earliest days of ska and rocksteady, through the roots reggae 70s, the dancehall 80s, and beyond. The first three discs (through the 80s) were fantastic, even if there is some overlap with other compilations, including VP's own Out of Many compilation released earlier this year. I wasn't as in love with the final disc, which concentrated on contemporary reggae. I didn't really need to hear Sean Paul again, you know?

What I'm Listening to

I'm in the middle of writing my final school paper, a hectic end of year period at work, going on vacations and conferences, and preparing for some massive (positive) life changes. As always dub and punk rock are helping me mitigate and manage the stress. I'm really happy with Metz's new self-titled disc on Sub Pop. It's lean, muscular punk that is catchy as hell, not unlike Hot Snakes.



The other artists helping me make it through is Big Youth. I can't ever understand a word he says, but for some reason his chatting always manages to calm me down and put me in a good mood.

And if that doesn't work, a little Duke Ellington or John Coltrane is sure to do the trick. Especially if they are together.

RoyceBIRTH and Guilty Simpson Reviews

I reviewed Apollo Brown and Guilty Simpson's Dice Game this week on RapReviews. I've been a fan of Guilty since hearing him on some tracks back in 2007, and I'm happy to see him progressing (just a little) as an artist. Apollo Brown is a consistently good producer, and this disc is definitely worth check out.

I also reviewed royceBIRTH's "TheREBIRTH."

Tricky and Flying Lotus Review

I reviewed Tricky's 1996 album  Pre-Millennium Tension for RapReviews last week. It remains one of my favorite albums ever, even if the second half drags.

I also reviewed Flying Lotus's Until the Quiet Comes. I always enjoy what Flying Lotus puts down.

Death Grips and Zion I Review

I reviewed Death Grips' latest album No Love Deep Web on RapReviews a few weeks ago. This album was released as a free download after their label said they didn't want to release two albums by them in one year. You can download it for free at their website, www.thirdworlds.net, but be warned: the cover of the album is  a photo of an erect penis with the album title written on it in sharpie. I replaced the picture with one of John Travolta on my iTunes. I don't need to be having pornographic images on my iPod.

I may like the new album better than The Money Store. It's the same thing - jagged electronic beats with Ride rap/yelling about getting wasted. The formula could go so wrong so easily - it's not that far removed from Limp Bizkit. But there is a realness and a sense of actual danger in their music that makes it work. It's not something I can listen to all the time, but there are definitely days when what I need is something noisy and angry.

I also reviewed Oakland hip-hop act Zion I's new album Shadowboxing.  While it's the same formula of a lot of hip-hop I've been enjoying recently - rapping over electronic production - I was not feeling it. I wanted to like it because they are local boys, but I did not enjoy it.

Roots Manuva Review

I reviewed Roots Manuva's 1999 album Brand New Second Hand on RapReviews as part of UK Month.

It's a British take on hip-hop purism. A solid album.