[Severian]

Are Y'all Dead?

[Severian]

Don't make me join the hip-hop subreddit you nerds!

[Rob Instigator]

so what will happen to Travis Scott now that he is married to the Kardashian?

 

[Rob Instigator]

Here is what Christgau said about 4:44
Jay-Z: 4:44 (Roc Nation/UMG) At its frequent peaks, this unusual album nails the understated mastery it's going for—the calm candor of a titan with plenty to own up to hence plenty to teach. He's so discreet you may not notice that he can still outrhyme the small fry—"fuck with me"-"cutlery"-"butlers be"-"hustlers be," say, all parsing as "The Story of OJ." But clever's not his program. From the subtle beats No I.D. builds from Sean Carter's all-time playlist, he means to pretend he's just talking to us, nowhere more than in the painfully detailed "4:44" a.k.a. "I Apologize" a.k.a. "I suck at love." But just as "4:44" resorts for no discernible reason to an "I cut off my nose to spite my face," "The Story of OJ" is marred by a pun on "Dumbo" that's funny twice max and very nearly wrecked by the deplorable "You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America?" The answer, in case you were wondering: "credit." Which is an OK principle—Jay-Z isn't the only rap elder advising youngbloods to buy property instead of Lambos. But there are plenty of similar lapses on an album where "Legacy" celebrates his money, some of it secured by other people's artworks, rather than his art. He's teaching black capitalism, not weighing every word much less manning up and learning to love. Compared to white capitalism, I'll take it. But unlike learning to love, it has plenty of downside. A MINUS

[louder]

https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/...21220759355397

SoundCloud just got saved (update: not because of Chance, apparently), a platform that helped a lot of rappers rise to fame and influenced the current rap scene as a whole.

[louder]

Originally Posted by Severian

Don't make me join the hip-hop subreddit you nerds!

Oh no. Don't do it, man. Seriously.

[louder]

Originally Posted by Severian

I can't really listen to any of it anymore and truly enjoy it. There was a time when I really did listen to and enjoy 50, and The Masssacre is probably his best. I actually really like a couple of tracks from Before I Self Destruct ("The Invitation," "Death to my Enemies"), but I never feel a desire to listen to them.

Thing about 50 is that he was a personality above all. As a rapper, he's really pretty shite. His flow is stunted and lurches like a stalling car engine. His rhymes are flat. His delivery is flat, except for when he's just screaming himself hoarse. He raps like Puff Daddy, or Mase, only with Phil Anselmo's impotent rage.

Basically, he sucks. His good songs can be attributed to his personality, the production, the company (G-Unit), etc.

Anyway, if he thinks Jay Z's music is "too smart," I don't really know what to say to that. His head would probably explode if ever heard Gift of Gab or Aesop Rocky. Calling 4:44 "too smart," and "golf course music" (?) is just way, way off. For a guy who can be funny, he certainly is going out of his way not to be.

4:44 is like We Got it From Here... No, there's nothing new going on... nothing revolutionary, but it's a traditionalist hip-hop record, and a "thinking man's" rap record in an era when most rap is just boing-boing, slobbery, Brocolli bullshit. It's refreshing in that it captures the best of an older artist and sounds fresh in 2017.

Interestingly, there was a time that I liked 50 Cent to the point where I legitimately bumped his music quite a bit. I also had a Rick Ross phase, a Tyler phase and probably a bunch of other weird phases. Now I can hardly bring myself to enjoy their music. I respect Tyler a bit more, because he has some production skills, but meh.

[louder]

Chance the Rapper and Young Thug Share Surprise New Track “Big B’s”: Listen
Released on SoundCloud the same day that Chance announced the platform was “here to stay”
https://soundcloud.com/chancetherapper/big-bs

Chance flows like Busta on this one.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Here is what Christgau said about 4:44
Jay-Z: 4:44 (Roc Nation/UMG) At its frequent peaks, this unusual album nails the understated mastery it's going for—the calm candor of a titan with plenty to own up to hence plenty to teach. He's so discreet you may not notice that he can still outrhyme the small fry—"fuck with me"-"cutlery"-"butlers be"-"hustlers be," say, all parsing as "The Story of OJ." But clever's not his program. From the subtle beats No I.D. builds from Sean Carter's all-time playlist, he means to pretend he's just talking to us, nowhere more than in the painfully detailed "4:44" a.k.a. "I Apologize" a.k.a. "I suck at love." But just as "4:44" resorts for no discernible reason to an "I cut off my nose to spite my face," "The Story of OJ" is marred by a pun on "Dumbo" that's funny twice max and very nearly wrecked by the deplorable "You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America?" The answer, in case you were wondering: "credit." Which is an OK principle—Jay-Z isn't the only rap elder advising youngbloods to buy property instead of Lambos. But there are plenty of similar lapses on an album where "Legacy" celebrates his money, some of it secured by other people's artworks, rather than his art. He's teaching black capitalism, not weighing every word much less manning up and learning to love. Compared to white capitalism, I'll take it. But unlike learning to love, it has plenty of downside. A MINUS

That's a pretty good review. An A- is a good review, wherever it came from. You hate Jay. Why would you post something that (generally) praises him?

Anyway, there's no denying the "Jewish people" line is in poor, poor taste regardless of the intention. As is, I think, trying to "teach" a systemically disenfranchised and marginalized people how to live their lives by spending money they don't have on things they don't have access to. I'm not a fan of the "Jay as financial guru" thing he's doing here. It's fucking really, dangerously, brazenly oversimplifying the greater issue of racial income and living condition disparity that is a fucking plague on the American infrastructure, and it makes Jay sound a little bit like the Donald motherfucking he-who-shall-not-be-named-but-I'm-doing-it-anyway-because-if-he-appears-in-front-of-me-like-Voldemort-I'll-beat-him-with-his-own-sad-cock-so-bring-it-on Trump of black America.

That said, the album is still really good on the whole. And I am still listening to it. If a modern rap album comes out and disses Kanye and Jewish people and makes me think of Donald Trump with the first five minutes, and I listen anyway... ME... that's a Fucking achievement.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Interestingly, there was a time that I liked 50 Cent to the point where I legitimately bumped his music quite a bit. I also had a Rick Ross phase, a Tyler phase and probably a bunch of other weird phases. Now I can hardly bring myself to enjoy their music. I respect Tyler a bit more, because he has some production skills, but meh.

Me too! Look thorough these very pages we've been typing on for the past 6 years and you'll see! We have all been there bro (by "all" I basically just mean you, me and NR, and I'm generalizing that to "most" adult hip-hop fans).

When I first came onto this board officially and stoped lurking behind my girlfriend's account, I was ALL ABOUT Tyler and OF. Now, I can't imagine a scenario where I'd listen to an OF project. Only Frank Ocean and to a much lesser extent Earl Sweatshirt have maintained my interest.

Same with the others. Mastermind was an album I was really looking forward to, but after hearing it a bit, I realized that "Sanctified" was the only really great track, and it was great because it was basically a Kanye track with a Ross feature. He's a sad old fuck, king of a wasteland empire where Wale and Meek Mill are his hottest commodities (hotter than Ross himself). He trades in basic ass shit that I have no patience for anymore.

When I first got back into hip-hop, I bought and listened to everything I could get my hands on for a while. I bumped 50 constantly for a while in like '07. Just constantly. But he had his time and now he's basically just a ghost tied to a dead era. No legacy there.

Hip-hop has to have some musical ingenuity to it for me to maintain interest. I'm no longer compelled to listen to the violent shit, and I no longer get excited when I hear a new rapper who can rap. Lots of people can rap. There needs to be some vision, some personality, something really powerful about the music and the experience of listening to it. Dropping bars or saying weird shit isn't good enough anymore. My money and time are too valuable and scant to be wasted on shit that nobody will remember in two years.

[Severian]

These are the hip-hop albums of 2010-present that REALLY matter:

Kanye: MBDTF, WTT, Yeezus, TLOP
Kendrick: Section.80, good kid, TPAB, DAMN.
A Tribe Called Quest: We Got it from here...
Vince Staples: Summertime '06, and maybe Big Fish Theory
A$AP Rocky: LiveLove, LongLive
Danny Brown: XXX, Old, Atrocity Exhibition
Chance: Acid Rap, and I guess Coloring Book
Pusha T: MNIMN, Darkest Before Dawn
Shabazz Palaces: Black Up, Lese Majesty
Death Grips: Money Store, No Love Deep Web
Earl: Doris
Black Milk: No Poison, No Paradise
Frank Ocean: Channel Orange, Blonde
Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata
Ghostface: 12 Reasons to Die (first one, before he started repeated himself to a ridiculous degree)
And, yes, JAY-Z: 4:44

I'm probably missing a few, but my point is... like 99% of this shit is forgettable ass shit. Underachievers went nowhere. Run the Jewels have become pretty intolerable, so even though I do like their first and third albums well enough, I'm not about to say they really "matter," and I think they've gotten old and that their albums have little repeat-listen value. Denzel Curry went nowhere. YG bleh. The Game has overdone it by doing the same thing over and over and not seeming to give much of a fuck about quality. Even A$AP Rocky has slipped, and I'm really on the fence about whether or not he'll be able to pull another good album off. Wu-Tang bungled it. Future is largely a disappointment. Drake is... just... wow. Y'know? I was almost rooting for him when IYRTITL came out. Still think that's a fairly tight album, but the sounds are fucking so old and boring now and the face is more punchabke than anything ever. Young Thug has yet to impress me in a lasting way. Wayne is dead as fuck, or nearly there. 2 Chainz is just second rate, even if he's likable... none of his music has any lasting value. All the Lil Uzi and co. types are just boring, with the occasional good track, but nothing great. Migos and Rae Srummond are both pretty forgettable in my opinion, though they might grow into something. Haven't yet.

[Rob Instigator]

Why do I find Run The Jewels to be so fucking boring? Like, Rage Against The Machine boring....

[Rob Instigator]

Future and Rae Sremms and Young Thug will shine bright like a diamond for all time........

[louder]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Why do I find Run The Jewels to be so fucking boring? Like, Rage Against The Machine boring....

They are boring. RTJ 1 and 2 had some good shit but I lost them at 3.

@Sev - would personally add Isaiah Rashad, Schoolboy and maybe a few other things, but generally speaking your list is pretty accurate.

[Rob Instigator]

Sev your list is so East Coast/West Coast centric that it hurts us peeps in the dirty dirty.

[louder]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Sev your list is so East Coast/West Coast centric that it hurts us peeps in the dirty dirty.

Sev makes sure to let us know he's NOT a trap music enthusiast. Haha.

I'm a pretty big Future, Thug, Sremm and Migos fan myself. Like it or not, they're an inseparable part of this decade in hip hop.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Sev makes sure to let us know he's NOT a trap music enthusiast. Haha.

I'm a pretty big Future, Thug, Sremm and Migos fan myself. Like it or not, they're an inseparable part of this decade in hip hop.

I'm waiting for any of them to impress me in a lasting way. I like plenty of Future songs, but I never play his albums. Rae and Migos might turn into something real, but they haven't yet. Trap is really quite boring and insipid musically. Like I said, it has to be musically and aesthetically appealing.

My neighbor was blasting Spotify rap radio the other night. That "damn i hate being sober" song, followed by a song about slamming pussies, followed by a song that interpolates Joan Osborne' ("What if God was one of us/ jus' a thug like one of us") and OMG it all sounded so Fucking shit. Like it was recorded by the same artist, in a tin can, with a iPad drum track (not even a good one, but something you'd get from a free app with Audible ads all over it).

Just... wow... so fucking bad. Sloppy drawling non-rapping. Chopped and screwed production styles so overused that they've lost all impact. Just really fucking abysmal.

Thi shit will die like gabgsta rap, with one or two classic albums, from two artists who die young, and then a data dump of bullshit nobody will remember.

[Rob Instigator]

Trap Trap Trap....

the first asian american rapper died and no one cares.

https://youtu.be/oNeRaQfuyMI


People cry bullshit about the lyrics of the trap rap but I remember....I remember....

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Trap Trap Trap....

the first asian american rapper died and no one cares.

https://youtu.be/oNeRaQfuyMI


People cry bullshit about the lyrics of the trap rap but I remember....I remember....

Holy shit.

Good point, actually. I mean, not about trap because that has nothing to do with this, but nobody has said fuckall about Fresh Kid Ice. I didn't even know about it until I clicked your link.

[louder]

I tried with the new Tyler album. I can't. His rapping is too goofy.