Word. YRN is fun as hell but Gucci put out at least three tapes that I've enjoyed as much, and Young Scooter has an album with similar mixing problems that was as ignorant and delightful as anything this year. Migos had their moment, and a well-deserved moment, but let's hesitate before enshrining YRN in the Parthenon
Yooo how is there only one comment on here and it's hate? The tape is really good, and "Lil Nigga Snupe": good God. I played that track five times in a row when I heard it.
As an unapologetic fan of this whole movement, I'm thrilled to see these bands getting some well-deserved coverage. However, I feel like some obvious front-runners were neglected (Glocca Morra, Modern Baseball, Owen, Pity Sex, Joyce Manor) if we're going to lump all these diverse-sounding bands together. Also, the RIYL sections don't really make sense to me...I saw very few bands that actually represented the sound of their attached band. Maybe there's no need to provide people with unrelated reasons to listen to these bands: this is a sound that was obviously formed from mid-90s midwest emo, but it exists in its own right. It's sometimes nostalgic and nasal but, hell, this is some good shit.
Also: saw The World Is with Pity Sex and Dads this summer and I can tell you very few of the other shows I saw around the same time could compare. There's a vitality to the live show with these bands that gives me the energy and enthusiasm of being at a hardcore show when I was 16, but doesn't feel like it's trying to recapture anything. It's a hell of a party, like any show should be.
I agree, this is bullshit. A Sheryl Crow retrospective that excludes "If It Makes You Happy"? R.I.P. MUSIC JOURNALISM.
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This continues the trend we saw establishing itself on Trap House III (and continuing in part through World War 3, despite the presence of so many previously recorded tracks) of a fascinatingly low-key Gucci. The beats still bang (Zaytoven's credits in particular), but everything feels more...restrained than we came to expect from Mr. Zone 6. Gucci has developed a hushed, murmuring delivery that isn't as sing-song as Atlanta in general has been leaning, just...quiet. He sounds more gentle and even fragile than ever, particularly on "Me" and "Cali": the essential loneliness of "she wasn't for you and she wasn't for me"; "I am not a rapper," which is usually the set-up for a brag but here is just a flat statement of statement. Even at his most ig'nant, Gucci sounds wounded and more subdued than ever for it.
I don't think a description of how an album was made so perfectly parallels the experience of listening to said album. This album has been a central part of most of my emotional experiences from high school into adulthood. Can't think of anything that can hold the exact place in my heart that this album does.
Anybody else feel like releasing the demo for each song isn't much of a "bonus"? Like it'll be cool to hear these songs but...you guys really had no b-sides or unreleased stuff to dust off?
right right right, no intention to compare the tracks sonically. There is a shared "lyrics over everything"/"angry loud rap real fast" ethic that characterizes both tracks. When Kendrick dropped his track, there was a lot of talk about a "return to lyricism" (which is both kind of specious and not really the point in rap right now), and Eminem isn't quoteunquote lyrical but he's very lyrics focused. Same people that were psyched about Kendrick's "rap fast and loud" approach are in arms about Eminem. Pro'lly cause the latter sounds like a dick all the time but whatever I think it's fun.
This chorus is straighter/cleaner/more obvious and sucker-punchy than their best stuff is, particularly in the music/melody department: there's just not a ton happening comparatively. That said, it's big and beautiful and I will take it.
Dude is having a hell of a year. Good tape followed by great tape followed by this. That attitude and some rappityrap rap just a hair off the beat which comes off more impressive than lashing himself to the snare Gibbs-style. Excited for the mixtape.
Kendrik: "rapraprappityraprap" --> internet: "OHHH SHITTTT"
Eminem: "rapraprapityraprap" --> internet: "This is shit."
I'm not saying this is *very* good, but the internet asked for "barz" and they got it.
Also: this is kinda good in a "remember when white people rapped very silly? those were good days" way.
Brooklyn's VMAs.
No black musicians won awards.
Lil' Kim was the only local black musician given a mic, and her job was to present the award for best hip hop video to...a clueless white "rapper" who crassly appropriates black culture as "funny" and "ironic" in his videos.
...the fuck?
I've decided to throw caution to the wind: Em: you've let me down time and time again and I've gone from frustration to resignation to pure, violent anger, but I'm opening my arms wide one more time. I will allow myself to be excited about this. Don't let me fall.
*cue gif of Eminem and I reenacting the bow scene on the titanic (he's leonardo)*
Rap bloggers somewhere in the cloud-internet-future-ether gonna be talking about '09-'13 Gucci waaayyyy more than anybody will be talking about Kendrick (not to mention Big Sean). Atlanta + Chicago are all that matter right now.
Where is the conversation about this album? Dude has been lurking around for a long time, but now we finally have a sustained effort from him and it's fantastic. Not all with the same raw intensity of Out Getting Ribs, but the instrumentation has developed into something that doesn't just soundtrack that bellow, but stands on its own. This has gotten a lot of play from me lately.
An album that deserves all the love it receives. Always about to collapse in on itself but it propels itself forward on....what? Two-thirds of the way of the into the album, Brock moans that he's out of gas, but they keep going all the way to Styrofoam Boots where shit breaks all the way into pieces. They pushed themselves further than even they thought they could go, and we get transcendent gems like Polar Opposites out of it: desperation and defeatism run through a kaleidoscope. The essential road trip album for every reason.
This is the most beauty-and-life-affirming example of a band who is excellent and consistent and just never bad and everyone still loves them for it. There's no debate about if it's time for them to change it up or pack it in; there's no backlash because anything you could call "hype" is just a phenomenal band getting what they deserve. Here's to a dozen more albums.
It's like he's sort of surprised he successfully caught it.
"THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE I FINALLY SNAGGED THAT SLOW MOVING BOTTLE OF ALCOHOL THIS IS A GREAT DAY IN THE LIFE OF SEAN PUFF DADDY COMBS"
I may be a minority here, and it could be raw walkman-nostalgia but: am the only one who goes back to Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes the most frequently? I'm not even gonna try and argue it's their best, but there's something intangible and deeply rewarding about that record. The experience of it as a whole unified thing feels more natural and straight up enjoyable than anything else in their catalog for me.
I agree with the added intensity; takes the original whimsy and makes it darker, heavier. Very happy to have a reason for this album to come back into my life.
Did you guys forget how good just straight up rappity-rap rap could be? Because I completely did, thought that we were past the days where an emcee syncing directly up to the beat and spitting unrelenting intensity was interesting/could be innovative.
I WAS FUCKING WRONG AND I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT.
So disheartening to log on and see a bunch of crotchety, "real hip-hop" reductionism. Hip-hop includes drill, just like it includes east coast boom-bap, etc. etc. This is a strong female emcee with a unique presence in the drill scene, and it's a hell of a lot more fun and refreshing than a lot of big name rap releases thus far this year.
I started typing OH SHIT but apparently I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I forgot to finish saying OH SHIT I FORGOT Charlie XCX - What I Like. That jam was is so insanely infectious plus also I sent it via spotify to a girl and we ended up getting weird that weekend so Charlie XCX is like the world's best wing(wo)man.
I know it just came out, but I'm surprised to not see more Surfer Blood on here. Maybe it isn't groundbreaking or even as fresh as it was the first album, but I can't get over how excellent the vibes are for driving around in this summer Florida heat that you can feel through the windshield even with the a/c on. That said:
Surfer Blood - Demon Dance
Chance the Rapper - Chain Smoker
Major Lazer - Bubble Butt
Waxahatchee - Coast to Coast
No matter how many people are on stage at any given time, I'm always genuinely surprised to not see more. When I saw them a few years ago, it felt like a full football team rotating in and out.
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