Here’s Fiend rapping over Washed Out’s “Feel It All Around,” which makes no sense, and a little too much sense. Important things mentioned on “Aqua Flow”: Ocean Drive, Zach Galifianakis, potions, valiums (on the beach), pyramids. Also worth noting: Those rushing water sounds before the beat drops were not added for ambiance, they come straight from this video for that song from Portlandia, which means Fiend just queued this up on YouTube, clicked “record” on whatever cheapo program he’s got on his computer, tapped into the sensuous-ness of this chillwave classic (no, really!), and purred out some spliff-inspired sweet somethings. And chillwave owes a great deal to hip-hop anyways. On this song, Ernest Greene, who has some Dilla and Pete Rock in his sound, pretty much just slopped-and-screwed Gary Low’s “I Want You.” And chillwave and chilled-out rap pretty much started up at the same exact time, so let International Jones go jackin’ for beats over top some Gorilla vs. Bear fare. “Aqua Flow” isn’t as accomplished as his freestyle over the Specials’ “Ghost Town,” but I’m just as happy this one exists.
Holy fuck, this G-Mane mixtape. If you’re like me, you probably follow quite a few #occupy types, and they can be equal parts informative and idiotic. One thing that seems to come up quite a bit (way too much really), is a certain distaste for rappers’ spending (as if the money of one moderately wealthy aspirational black man has anything to do with our country’s problems) and the typical grumbling about needing more “conscious” or “political hip-hop” to soundtrack the movement. Dunno, kinda think this was what Jay-Z was getting at with those “Occupy All Streets” shirts, but anyways: Hip-hop is political by nature dummy, and there is this whole New Underground thing, which in both its business model (dogged D.I.Y.-ness, use of the majors rather than the other way around) and content (low-stakes regular guy-ness) addresses the state of the nation quite well.
But okay, fair enough, save for Killer Mike, there isn’t a lot of effective, revolutionary rhetoric and old fashioned street knowledge running around right now and so, something like Mark Of The Beast from G-Side buddy G-Mane fills that void. “Thankful,” an interpolation of William DeVaughn’s “Be Thankful For What You Got” (“9 in my lap, pop-back top, pull up on the scene blowing hydro-green”) comes right after “Think,” one of the best and most quotable rap songs of last year (“you got a new whip man, that’s tight, go and pick up your soon”). “Think” is recycled for this short EP, which feels like Willie D’s I’m Goin’ Out Like A Soldier, Behold A Pale Horse by way of Pimp C, Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted, and the collected works of Clarence 13X all mixed together and then given hooks by Nate Dogg.
Antwon is a San Jose MC who sounds a little bit like Biggie. Not just because he calls himself “Young Poppa” and has a similar, fat guy rumble to his voice, but because of his youthful wit, food obsession, and the goofball sensitivity of his sex raps. The closing lines of “Handsome” combine all of those things: “Sauteed lamb samosa, blue magic weed/ Shout out Zooey Deschanel, she can have my seed/ Shout out all womens, all colors, all creeds/Especially the ones in the world that love me.” Producer Bad Slorp’s beat is on some Toto “Africa” plus early UGK with a John Tesh twist shit, though it also scans as 90s golden-era nostalgic somehow?! Whatever, it’s awesome and a nice step up for this charming rapper who just a few months ago was rhyming over Washed Out and Salem songs. This isn’t even the best track on My Westside Horizon, which came out late last year, it’s just the most illustrative example of its lo-fi shimmer. Not in the hypnagogia gone Memphis by way of Florida chillwave cacophony of SpaceGhostPurrp mind you, but in an almost classic indie rock sense where fizz and hiss don’t make the music, they just add more rocky textures and raw energy to a sturdy, classic formula.
Without Oval you’d have no glitch and without glitch you’d have no Boards of Canada or Fennesz and without those fellas you’d have none of this delightful, warped bliss-out electronic music right now that soundtracks your chill-out times at the beach and your bum-out, nodding off on painkillers time alone. Well maybe indirect father of chillwave isn’t a good argument for Oval’s growing though marginalized importance, but listen anyway: Oval are awesome and important and one of a kind, and that’s clear on OvalDNA a newly released odds-and-sods compilation that fuses together better than anything they’ve put out since 94 Diskont.
“Heroic” has a simple evocative, spot-on title, which helps conjure up a scene from some psychedelic sci-fi viking movie’s last act, where everything’s gone to shit. There’s something in that guitar–meaty, yet depressed and lost–and the way the chords ring out, getting sloppier each time they’re played, that sounds like whoever’s strumming them is losing consciousness. This mysterious shard of guitar, waterlogged R2D2 squeals, and sad-sack piano, is my favorite song of 2012, even though it’s definitely not from this year. Then again, “Rack City” (which is great because it has even fewer elements and stretches them to three and a half minutes, instead of two and half) isn’t from this year either, though it’s ubiquity has made me, on more than one occasion, declare it SONG OF THE YEAR SO FAR as well.
Creating evil, stop-start squiggly Lex Luger-like productions is like, the thing now, and the way that Drumma Boy, who had a hand in inventing that style anyways, does it on “Spend It” without sounding like a straight rip-off, is something to celebrate. “Spend It” works because Drumma adds like two more sounds (that lonely horn, some hefty low-end) than he needs to, and well, 2 Chainz is a total maniac.
DDm is also a maniac. Formerly known as Midas, I’ve been pushing dude for a few years now and he’s slowly figuring his persona out beyond “hilarious, dope rapper.” Brevity is key here–the way he jumps in and jumps out, says some funny but honest shit and calls it a day. To really mess with you, DDm also has a freestyle over Rihanna’s “Cockiness,” which is a really brilliant gender-bending mindfuck from this Baltimore, tough-talking queer MC. He’s also got a concept album called Winter & The Tin-Man’s Heart coming out soon. Earlier today he released “Piece Of My Heart”, the first song from that project. Love this guy.
One of the reasons Mannie Fresh’s work dried up is because he spoke out about Cash Money fucking him, which pretty much means he’s going up against Universal Records, right? It’s wise that he’s letting himself get balled up in the Internet mixtape game like this. And so, besides this being a T.I./Fresh collaboration, it hopefully marks Mannie entertaining how rap works in 2012 instead of gingerly grousing that it isn’t 2004 anymore.
On “The One,” T.I. luxuriates in the beat for a while, letting its laser car alarm synths and Big Tymer rumble ride out for awhile, psyching himself up by muttering half-syllables and gargling. When he does steps up, he’s the quiet, confident MC of Trap Muzik, not the meter-obsessed show-off on King. And by the time the hook arrives, well, it’s barely even clear that it’s a hook because it’s like it’s own little pissed-off verse. Rap’s always a game of right now and Tip’s done plenty to fuck up his hype, but Rick Ross strong-arming his way in with a pretty good mixtape, simply by being bigger, louder, and dumber, though not necessarily better, is a Newt Gingrich move. Rozay is gangsta rap’s A-student in that he does everything exactly right with little deviation and no emotion. F*ck Da City Up > Rich Forever.
Baltimore club music lives for the holy-shit brilliant refix (the“taking [of] the so-called dominant culture and making it fit your nightlife rather than the other way around”), but what producer Matic (formerly Lil Matic) does here is a little different. He like, climbs inside the cockpit of Lex Luger’s rickety, still-stomping Voltron robot and mans the controls. The first few moments find Matic figuring it all out as he gently screws the Ace Hood hit but nah, that’s not it. So the song picks up the pace, starts to shuffle, and teases some Baltimore horns and some laser synths and from there, it just keeps getting darker and weirder. Shouts rise up and snippets of Ace Hood, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross poke through. The “Think” breaks arrives, too, as it should, but it’s like an afterthought or one more noise to throw in there. And then it changes again, slowing-up and even getting beautiful for a few moments, before seemingly falling apart, and then, coming back together for a sprint to song’s end, powering through a din of synths and shouts and samples and a dude groaning out, “bitch!” Matic has turned a Lex Luger beat even more evil. Even meaner and more fuck-you-up intense than the original, but somehow, freer too ready for a peak hour DJ set, and in that sense, communally cathartic and ready for those who do more than mean-mug and jump up and down when they’re in the club.
This year, Ken Seeno played on Ponytail’s Do Whatever You Want All The Time–the group’s saddest and best and probably last record. He also put out two excellent tapes: Invisible Surfer On An Invisible Wave and Open Window. The both of them mix cheeseball synth work with patient, Terry Riley-like meditative minimalism. Not too sophisticated–like not even reaching for the pleasant, somber grooves of komische–they hover around in this weird awesome netherworld between like, 80s movie make-out music and what I wanted all those Ashra releases I read about to sound like. So basically, both tapes are perfect. In the video above, Seeno performs his song “Spirt of 77″ from Open Window which seems like it must be a reference to Ashra’s “77 Slightly Delayed” only this has the potential to emotionally destroy with gut-level guitar emoting. There are interviews where Seeno praises the Allman Brothers and Fleetwood Mac. This also makes sense and is probably where this song’s heart comes from.
This is a song about Louboutins that mentions them only once by name and so, you gotta at least kinda know something to realize Trina’s referencing a specific type of heel here. And that’s a welcome change from all those superficially hip-to-fashion raps lately. See: Jim Jones on “Believe In Magic” calling them “Lou Boutons” (pronounced like it’s the name of a third baseman from the 1970s or something). “Long Heels, Red Bottoms” is also as an antidote to Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci,” in that it’s like a populist feminist “fuck you” to that million dollar idiot’s privileged (oh but she grew up in Oakland!) hipster screed against rocking nice things. And the beat from Mr. Collipark (also known as bass legend DJ Smurf) is just awesomely throwback, skittering and shuffling along with a big dumb catchy hook that reminds this Baltimorean of “What Chew Know About Down The Hill.” Trina and Collipark could’ve easily made a shiny, product-referencing attempt at a viral hit but instead, there’s well, this, which is so raw and simple that it makes “Pull Over” sound decadent.
So, I’m listening to this song. You know, the Cam’ron and Vado song called “American Greed” that has a hook that declares, “you get more dirty when your collar and shirt white” and invokes Bernie Madoff, Kirk Wright, and Lou Pearlman? Yeah that one. And I’m also reading about how a NATO airstrike killed one of Gadhafi’s sons tonight and mostly, it’s just like, that’s pretty “gangsta,” right? We take out this motherfucker’s family, just like we did with Sadaam’s kids. That’s some real enforcer type shit.
And of course, the wonky war parallels keep coming. Another effort that probably has some good intentions behind it (this time humanitarian, last time some loose idea of spreading democracy) but has a lot to do with “oil” too (though not exclusively, get smarter you cynics) and well, some half-insightful goon rap can really punch you in gut if you’re thinking hard enough. It helps that AraabMuzik’s beat is this completely evil, simmering Argento score type thing, that Vado has the singular ability to make his verses sound like hooks and his hooks like verses, and well, Cam’ron’s just being his decadent self, interested in oral sex punchlines and Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon references only.
Awhile back, Bun B started calling himself “Big Dick Cheney,” which yes, was a dick joke, but was also a way of calling our old vice president exactly what he was: a bad-ass criminal. For decades, rappers compared themselves to the real or fictional crooks they looked up to: Tony Montana, Richard Kuklinksi, John Gotti, etc. Those guys though, are all ultimately, pretty inconsequential. Dick Cheney man, now that’s a real villain. And Bernie Madoff too. There’s also that really great line in Jay Electronica’s “Bitches And Drugs” (“If rap was blacks in the sixties/I’m a white cop in riot gear ready to hose down”), which again, adds some real sociopolitical weight to a simple “I’m bad” boast. “American Greed” is the same type of goofy, tangentially political shit talk rap. Fuck “Maybach Music.” We need more Madoff Music.
*I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention something about Bin Laden’s death here, which happened less than a day after I posted this. All I’ll add is that this both undermines my hand-wringing above and kinda proves my point: There’s very real, not-so-pleasant actions and consequences behind all this stuff. Last night, Cam’ron and Vado reminded me of that fact. This evening it was our own president who invoked “the costs of war” in a speech that was like a lot of Obama’s speeches, conventional and rah-rah enough to satisfy people who want that kind of thing, but quietly turned and complex enough for anyone listening harder. It’s a dark, half-hopeful speech if you sit there and really listen. As it should be.
