To me that is the difference between making songs and being a musician.

A true musician works hard at presenting their music and stage show in the best light for them. It means rehearsals, practice, proper use of light effects, all to create a great show. It can be very basic, but your stage presence is everything, and too many pop rap acts these days are guys who put up 5 songs on Spotify, got one hit that sounded neat, but have no idea how to present themselves at shows, do not have the stamina to perform for longer than 15 minutes, and therefore pad their shows with their friends, extra bullshit, and lame ass nonsense.

Lupe Fiasco put on a great show, when I saw him, and you can tell he worked at it beforehand.

From what I've gathered, most trap artists are terrible performers. People always complain about how they show up late, high as fuck, and don't give a damn about their performance.

Hip Hop seems to be no longer about MC's moving the crowd. It is as vacuous a live show as a pop star's, with some idiot rapping to his full track being played on some cocksmear's ipad.

a live show is superfulous nowadays it seems. what a shame.

Ha! What. Ha!

[EDIT: To alleviate some of peper's confusion, I'M LAUGHING BECAUSE I THINK HE'S FUNNY.]

Did y'all not catch that bit about Kim K. basically saying TLOP was going to go on sale as soon as it was done?

....

Damn, throw a guy a bone!

To quote Kendrick Lamar: "when the shit hits the fan is you still a fan?"

Well... is you?!?!?!!

What the fuck is your problem? I was just cracking up about your "dumbass kids are the worst" line. I thought it was funny.

I wasn't commenting on the Rob conversation at all.

So... you read it wrong.

You really think I'm a dumbass? Please. You're lucky I don't take a red pen to half your posts, young man.

Anyway, again, I was just saying "hah hah, you're funny pepper_green."

I do think Rob's question about "dance" music being hard to connect with in a meaningful way is is a good one, and deserves a more analytical answer than what you're giving him.

But I wasn't talking about that. I was giving you props for being funny and irreverent. Thanks for insinuating that I'm a dumbass, though. (I'm a lot of things, but "dumb" is not one of them.)

Not yet. I'll get on it this weekend.

This new album is very different though. It's much more rock 'n' roll than neo soul. Who knows, maybe you'll like it.

I understand where Rob is coming from by the way, there are many young hip hop listeners who don't care about older artists. The likes of Young Thug (whose appeal is basically a big 'fuck you' to the history of hip hop) are everything for them and more.

I'm not sure what Rob's getting at is actually being addressed. I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem as though his concern is that kids/new artists don't listen to older hip-hop.

It seems to me that he's saying:
There's something inherent about "non-organic" (for lack of a better terms) music that makes it more transitory and less likely to leave a lasting impression/make a lasting impact.

I think in some cases this is true, partly because as Rob noted, there is an immediacy to hip-hop/dance/party music. It's made for one purpose and one purpose only. Also, it's less relatable, because there's kind of an invisible curtain that makes it difficult to identify what the sounds are, where they're coming from, and how they're made. And whether it's hip-hop or dance music, there's a language issue at play. Theses genres rely heavily on vocal samples, and it's more difficult to hear what's being said and usually it can be difficult to relate to what's being said for anyone outside the culture.

Guitar/bass/drum/singer music is more traditionally relatable. On a broader level. There's science behind this. When you see four dudes playing live instruments on a stage, hear the words coming out of their mouths, theres a connection that takes place on a human level. It's related to how we attend to and prioritize information, how we learn, how we form memories...

If the music is secondary to the dancing, it's a different experience entirely. You don't have time to focus on the people making the music. You're swinging yourself around like a rag doll and you're probably five different kinds of fucked up and if it's just a DJ flipping vinyl, or a monkey with a MacBook, there's no facial or linguistic recognition. Different parts of your brain are activated. It's more "of the moment" ... And therefore less likely to form a lasting memory or emotional connection.

But that's not a hard and fast rule. I've been to DJ sets and IDM shows that were extremely emotionally powerful experiences for me. So much so that I remember them years later. But at the same time, I feel like I remember an absurd amount of no-name basement bands better than I remember theatre and arena gigs, regardless of what type of music was being played. And I think it has a lot to do with universal non-verbal communication. A singer looks you in the eye, you notice. Can't see a singer's eyes because you're 80 feet away? Who cares? There are no eyes because you're just listening to a record some dude is spinning? Yeah, very little intimate connection going on there.

But I'm a big fan of elecronic music, dance music and hip-hop, so that shit resonates with me fairly well.

I'm blah-ing. I know it. Blah.

New Domo Gensis single from his upcoming album "Genesis," featuring our boy Anderson Paak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLiMrd45I0M

It's hilarious how Domo decided to call his album "Genesis" after Wiz called his album "Khalifa," since they both had a project called "Rolling Papers" a few years ago. I'm noticing a pattern.

Kanye just said he's gonna drop not 2.. but 3 albums this year?! https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/708670997612908546

Wildheart (by Miguel) from last year is mad underrated.. that and Black Messiah are my most played albums, along with TPAB.

Hey, I was meaning to ask you what you think of his new EP. I listened to the track "Waves" (no relation ;) ) yesterday and thought it was really fucking good. I never got into Wildheart, but I think I'll be picking it up now.

Also, I listened to TPAB all the way through on Thurs. and I really enjoyed it. I've identified some of the problems I have with its flow (I just plain can't listen to "u" ... It's painful), but all of the full length non-interlude tracks on that record now have 5-star ratings on my iTunes. My favorites are still "Mortal Man," "Alright" and "The Blacker the Berry," but everything else is goddamn dope too. I just have to skip some of the incidental music and interludes unless I want the whole cinematic experience, which I sometimes do. Still prefer good kid, but TPAB has better individual songs, I think.

WAVES is my song! The new EP is dope and really interesting, even though it's just a bunch of Waves remixes. But yeah, get Wildheart for the full experience!

Miguel insists that Wildheart is a rock album.. it's a great mixture of rock, funk, r&b and psychedelic music. I'm very excited by how R&B artists are starting to implement rock elements into their albums again, probably for the first time since the 80's. Honestly that shit is just next level. It adds sexiness and raw energy that is much needed. We heard it on Black Messiah where D'Angelo played a badass riff on 1000 Deaths. And now we've got that new Esperanza album.. even Frank said that his next album is influenced by The Beatles and The Beach Boys, whenever that comes out. I'd love to hear a rock album from Anderson Paak too.

And I fully understand how you're feeling about TPAB, it's not the easiest listen in the world for most people. Thankfully we have untitled unmastered. now which is another gem. :)

Nah I haven't heard it yet. Mostly because Himself Himself has not assured me that he is done fucking with it. When it is clear to me that TLOP really is finished, then I will consider. I know this could take some time!!

And...this.

I just want him to finish it. This "release" is the greatest clusterfuck in music history. Of course it has been downloaded illegally 500,000+ times.

And it's also the best reviewed album of the year. Rolling Stone, Spin, pitchfork, NPR, CoS, Stereogum, Quietus... nothing but glowing reviews. So honestly, whether Kanye likes it or not, the world has already formed a connection with the album, so if he's still fucking with it, he's going to have to deal with that fact. I don't even care if the album "isn't finished." It's great, and he should just move on because nobody's going to care about a slightly different version. A radically different version will be more likely to piss people off than make people happy.

I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to enjoy the album as it is, because it's a masterpiece. A messy masterpiece, but a masterpiece all the same.

And yet tool sucks? Meh

Robert Glasper - Everything's Beautiful (Miles Davis Tribute Album):

1. Talking Shit
2. Ghetto Walkin featuring Bilal
3. They Can’t Hold Me Down featuring Illa J
4. Maiysha (So Long) featuring Erykah Badu
5. Violets featuring Phonte
6. Little Church featuring Hiatus Kaiyote
7. Silence Is The Way featuring Laura Mvula
8. Song For Selim featuring KING
9. Milestones featuring Georgia Ann Muldrow
10. I’m Leaving You featuring John Scofield and Ledisi
11. Right On Brotha featuring Stevie Wonder

Coming out May 27th! That tracklist looks very promising. Looking forward to this.

holy shit!!

Yeah, believe it or not, even though Kanye West's The Life of Pablo is a masterpiece, Tool still sucks :eek:

(what were you even trying to get at with this one, bud?)

Just poking the bear

See why can't your incoherent posts be more like this and less like the inflammatory "pepper_green channeling his inner Trumpisms" ??

More of this, less of the drunken tirades

That's funny, I know Daft Punk is widely considered to be the greatest electronic group of all time (I searched on Google and they topped every non-underground list I looked at... along with Skrillex ..) but I actually think their discography is quite spotty. Discovery is essential, yes, and their live albums are very good, but Homework and Human After All both leave me cold. I liked about four tracks on Random Access Memories, and the only two that REALLY do it for me are "Contact" (overlooked song, best on the album, one of the best of 2013, no question), and "Doing it right" w/ Panda Bear.

The rest was super basic, dumb, music.

I'm really not that into their sound. I vastly prefer the intricacies of artists like RDJ, KidKanevil, bonobo, and possibly above all others, DJ Koze. And the indie-influenced groups like Boards of Canada and Mouse on Mars. So much more interesting than that big festival stuff.

This is why I don't care for generalizations about electronic music. Even Daft Punk, who basically made the Loveless of house music, and are higher quality than many of their peers, represent something entirely different than Aphex Twin or Autechre or Squarepusher. It makes me wish that IDM was still an acceptable label, because it's true. Some of it's Fucking intelligent and some of its fucking really dumb. I like some of the dumb stuff (Rustie is dumb), but I'm not going to say it's not dumb. It certainly isn't intelligent.

I really look forward to hearing it....someday. Apparently there were some updates to TLOP today.

so that Future/Ty $ show I was complaining about being $180? Future rapped to his vocal track the entire fucking time.

People pay for anything stupid fucks.

I remember when the Univ of Houston audience booed Snow off the stage and chased him throwing bottles at his ass for "rapping" to his vocal track. Fucking pathetics. There only exists sucka MC's......

I have never particularly enjoyed live hip hop. I don't even go see any of my favorite rappers.. recently such favorites as DJ Quik, Bone Thugs, Mack 10, WC, Zion I, Ghostface.. Kool Keith.. were all playing cheap and easy access shows. But I wasn't even remotely interested because live hip hop sucks. Bad sound. Bad mixing by engineers.. bad vocals.. a bunch of quasi-organized chaos with the hype men jumping in and out all out of sync..sounds like a house party under the ocean.. fuck all that mess..

the only live hip hop I actually wanted to see was when Dead Prez was performing Lets Get Free live for only $5 back in december!! But I had night class and work the next day... couldn't take a sick day...

Yeah, he fucked with my favorite song. Like all Kanye albums, TLOP has now become part of my life. I'm not stoked about him continuing to fuck with it, especially when he's Fucking with the best tracks. Haven't heard the new version yet.

(sigh) ... What the hell is going on man?

^and that's why I didn't want to hear it even when it pained you. I didn't want to "live with" an album that was still influx.

And the whole Tidal "exclusive" thing gives him license to do this forever. You pay a monthly fee to hope that eventually he stops changing around the thing you're paying to have access to.

he is pulling a George Lucas

You know, I actually think it could be kind of a revolutionary thing if done right. To have an "album" out there whose evolution people can actually witness. It's not really something that's ever been done before. It would break down walls between listener and artist. Maybe that's what's happening? But it's not CLEAR enough. Nothing is clear enough!

If he wanted to make the making of his album public, he should have announced that. Should have said "hey, I'm going to do this crazy thing where I put out an album and then live-mix and master it in front of the whole world, while taking the thoughts and opinions of fans into consideration as I go. And it's going to be a (insert pre-determined time limit here, like 1 month maybe) process, and then I'll drop the album and you can hear what you were all a part of"

If he'd done that, said that, it would be a novel and fascinating concept. But who the hell knows what he's doing? Kim seems to think he's going to release the album once it's done, but who the fuck knows? She also said we'd get GOOD Fridays again, and that went to shit immediately.

Still, I'm glad I've been listening to the album. It's just been a blast for me. I wouldn't have it any other way. I still don't really get why some people aren't interested in hearing it until it's "done," because honestly, it's done! Anything he does now is basically remixing.

There's 18 Kanye West songs out there, and they're "done" enough for every major news publication to review them. They're done enough for the songs to have an impact on fans, as they have done. You might be holding out for a worse "final" product! And assuming he does eventually release it a final version I'm pretty sure you're going to be interested in hearing what the album "was" for the first month of its life anyway.

Or maybe I'm wrong, and you guys will listen to the new album and never be curious about what it originally sounded like. But I don't see that happening.

I'm irked because he's playing with "Famous" which is my favorite track on the album, and I have no way of knowing whether or not he's making it better, but as far as I'm concerned it didn't need to be better, was already my favorite song of the year.

Mostly I just want more transparency. I want to know what's going on and what the long term goal of this bullshit is. If I knew that it would be far less irritating.

I heard Martin Shkreli offered him some insane amount of money for TLOP. Maybe he sold it to clear his debt. Maybe he signed a contract and this is the only way he can make it available. ???

That would be seriously fucked up, and I'd have mad beef about it, but it would be an explanation at least.

Sia and Vic Mensa Back on "Wolves," Frank Ocean Gets Own Track
http://pitchfork.com/news/64176-kany...ets-own-track/

updates, updates..

Sorry.

But I thought in the hip hop thread post about a Kanye album, everyone would know who I was talking about

Yeah, he said something about it being a constantly changing "living" project or something. Guess I kinda nailed that one too.

Did you hear about Jay Z's albums being removed from iTunes, Spotify and google play? Maybe it was just the Blueprint, but still... Weird.

Yeah, fuck this shit. What now cracks me up about this tweaking is that it is being described as something creative, and deliberate from the get-go. That's fuckin spin. Kanye is a politician now.

Wake me up when it is done.