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Pazz & Jop 2009

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So, the Village Voice’s Pazz and Jop is up today and as usual, it’s fascinating and infuriating and fascinating again when you dig through all the individual ballots and comments and everything. Below’s my ballot, tell me the shit I missed or why the stuff I liked sucks and whatever else. That’s the point of this poll, right?:

Albums
1. Ryan Leslie, Ryan Leslie
2. G-Side, Huntsville International
3. Maxwell, BLACKsummers’night
4. James Ferraro, Edward Flex Presents: Do You Believe In Hawaii?
5. Wavves, Wavves
6. Diamond District, In the Ruff
7. DJ Quik & Kurupt, BlaQKout
8. Jay-Z, The Blueprint 3
9. Robert Glasper, Double Booked
10. Ryan Leslie, Transition

Singles
1. DJ Class “I’m the Shit”
2. Bat for Lashes, “Daniel”
3. Keri Hilson (ft. Kanye West & Ne-Yo), “Knock You Down”
4. Gucci Mane, “First Day Out”
5. Girls, “Lust For Life”
6. Emynd, “What About Tomorrow”
7. Mariah Carey, “Obsessed”
8. Cam’ron, “My Job”
9. Soulja Boy Tell Em’, “Turn My Swag On”
10. Raheem DeVaughn (ft. Ludacris), “Bulletproof”

Was also quoted twice in the section “Michael Jackson and Hip-Hop”. On Hip-Hop, not Michael Jackson, who I’m either going to just keep quiet about or write a 10,000 word thesis on the song “Human Nature”. No in-betweens there. But yeah, I got to talk about two of my favorite things: Why Kanye is always interesting and great and the awesome ways rap gets smart and mature and how all of y’all are ignoring it…

“Besides Kanye being right—Beyoncé did have the best video—he more quietly outshined Taylor Swift with his verse on Keri Hilson’s “Knock You Down,” which one-upped Swift’s “You Belong With Me” and its high school love histrionics. In Kanye’s version, high school binaries are broken down—the class clown gets the prom queen—and then it turns sour anyway. Another awkward, awesome bummer from Mr. West.”

“Jay-Z tells you it isn’t cool to carry a strap. The Clipse wanna watch Madagascar with their kids. And Internet rap is no longer indulgent day-glo whatever, whatever, but wizened, worker-bee rap from every region. In short, hip-hop finally answers a lot of its critics—it grows up, it actually matures, and not in a “Ludacris goes on Oprah” way—and everyone’s favorite rap album of 2009 is a facsimile of a 1995 coke-rap blueprint. OK.”

Written by Brandon

January 20th, 2010 at 2:59 am

Posted in Pazz and Jop, Village Voice

Village Voice: “Huntsville’s G-Side Are Thriving on the Internet—and East Village Radio”

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The reason this blog was relatively silent about G-Side’s masterful Huntsville International was because of this article in this week’s Village Voice about G-Side, the new mixtape, and their connection to East Village Radio’s very awesome “Baller’s Eve”. In the process of doing the article, I managed to lose my driver’s license, spill Crystal Light all over my Macbook, hang-out in New York with G-Side and The Baller’s Eve dudes, as well as meet Joseph of “Geek Down” and yes, the Internets Celebrities Rafi and Dallas. Loads of fun. On the way back to Baltimore, I listened to Huntsville International for the first time and it just totally devastated me. I hope I was able to put some of that experience into words.

“Kat Daddy Slim, one-third of the East Village Radio show Baller’s Eve, takes a shot at summing up Huntsville, Alabama’s finest hip-hop duo, G-Side: “Outkast on steroids.” His co-hosts, DJ Dirrty and Minski Walker, just nod their heads: “Yep.”

G-Side themselves—rappers Clova and ST 2 Lettaz, alongside Codie G, manager of their label, Slow Motion Soundz—are taken aback. There is a moment of modest silence.

We’re gathered in the EVR office after a mid-November Baller’s Eve episode (there’s another one every Wednesday, from 10 p.m. to midnight) heavily devoted to tracks from G-Side’s Huntsville International mixtape, released for free online earlier that day. Clova’s eyes grow big, taking in that profoundly flattering comparison. ST drawls out an appreciative “Shit . . .” Codie G, for once, has no words…”

Written by Brandon

December 9th, 2009 at 2:38 am

Posted in Baller's Eve, G-Side, Village Voice

Village Voice, Sound of the City: “Free Gucci, Fuck Diplo, & The History of “Free ___”

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So there’s a pretty nutty thing I wrote about Diplo’s loathsome “Free Gucci” T-shirt and upcoming mixtape up on the Voice’s “Sound of the City” blog. Word to Zach Baron for sculpting it all into something that sorta makes sense:

“Gucci Mane’s new album, The State vs. Radric Davis is in stores today, but the insanely prolific, remarkably consistent Atlanta rapper has been in jail since November 12th. This is Gucci’s second stint in jail for a parole violation this year. Both sentences stem from a 2005 incident in which Gucci attacked a promoter, served six months for the attack, and was released under the agreement that he would take rehabilitation classes and do some community service–which he’s now failed to do, and gone to jail for failing to do…twice.

And though this recent return to jail brought about another wave of “Free Gucci” T-shirts, mixtapes, and Facebook groups, there’s an equal amount of healthy, hands-up-in-the-air frustration with the guy. It’s impossible to turn Gucci Mane into any kind of victim of “the system” because the system’s given him second, third, and fourth chances to get his shit right…”

Written by Brandon

December 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

Posted in Diplo, Sound of the City, Village Voice, hipster

Village Voice, Sound of the City: Interview w/Mike Williams of Eyehategod

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Really not trying to neglect this blog, it’s just working out that way. There’s plenty to comment on (SFJ’s problematic article, a defense of Nicky Minaj), but for now, all you get is this pretty fun, though rather guarded interview I did with Mike Williams of New Orleans’ Eyehategod–a group that’s meant a lot to me over the years. The same hard-ass, fuck everything nihilism rubbing up against community-based humanism you get in stuff like UGK or whatever. I like that Mike throws in a reference to “Bounce” when discussing the sounds of New Orleans, not a lot of metal dudes would. Anyways, check it out. EHG plays with Pig Destroyer and Goatwhore as part of CMJ tomorrow night.

“The New Orleans sludge legends Eyehategod–a band of squirming, perpetual outsiders–have remained masters of miserablist metal for twenty years now. Dominated by weighty blues riffs, punctuated by bursts of hardcore, and anchored by lead singer Mike Williams’ growl, the sound of the New Orleans-based band mixed and matched styles of punk and metal before that sort of thing was fashionable. Add battles with addiction and the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the band–temporarily derailing the group and leading to Williams’ arrest for drug possession–and Eyehategod more than live up to their return-to-touring tagline: “Twenty years of abuse.” The band plays a show on a boat this Saturday, along with Pig Destroyer and Goatwhore as part of the (though varied and ever expansive) still predominantly indie CMJ. Via e-mail, we spoke to EHG lead singer Mike Williams about the show, Hurricane Katrina–something Mike’s tired of discussing on other people’s terms–and how and why the world getting more and more terrible makes Eyehategod’s devastating music sound that much better.”

Written by Brandon

October 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm

Posted in Village Voice, interview

Village Voice, Sound of the City: "In Defense of Nathan Williams"

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“So, you’re Nathan Williams of Wavves. You just played a pretty disastrous show that Pitchfork, in full TMZ mode, called “a meltdown”. What do you do? Well, you cancel your next bunch of shows, and then the next day, post an apology on your personal blog…before deleting it a few hours later. Very 2009, and more like a quasi-controversy fit for Kanye’s blog than for a bratty, no-fi musician who makes sad sack surf music aimed at a tiny percentage of the population, but here we are–at least Williams’ mea culpa isn’t all caps.

Really though, Williams’ apology is a surprisingly humble, no-bullshit explanation and it was, presumably, only the too-sincere laundry list of exactly what drugs he took (“ecstasy valium and xanax”) and Williams’ acknowledgment of a drinking problem that got his Fat Possum wranglers or even just good friends to tell him to take the thing off Blogger. Let’s hope the note, despite its deletion, lives on in people’s Google Readers and now, on a bunch of blogs (and at the top of this post) and reduces the schadenfreude coursing through comments sections and the Twitterverse and lets in some sympathy.”

Written by Brandon

June 1st, 2009 at 3:49 pm

Posted in Indie, Village Voice, Wavves, white rapper show

Pazz & Jop 2007

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Village Voice posted their Pazz & Jop poll this evening. Here’s my ballot, it’s the same as my Idolator poll though. Both of my comments were also printed:

on Kanye’s ‘Graduation’ from ‘The Top 10′: “Those who don’t listen closely hear even more of Kanye’s ego-tripping, but Graduation is about how fame, fashion, and girls are fun and all, but really, not that great.”

on Justice’s ‘†’ from ‘That Which We Cranked’: “Justice’s music has roots in French house, but the influences extend to jagged Michael Jackson rhythms, all-treble-no-bass black-metal fuzz, a seemingly genuine hint of Christianity, and, well, everything else ever: Cross begins as a Daft Punk derivation (“New Jack”), becomes hipster effrontery with the one-two punch of “The Party” and “DVNO,” and then morphs into an all-out George Romero dance party for the undeniable trilogy—all this God stuff can’t be a coincidence—of “Stress,” “Waters of Nazareth,” and “One Minute to Midnight.” Justice are the side of the French that loves Jerry Lewis and Edgar Allen Poe, the side that’s daringly anti-elitist. To get real fancy about it—something the group would never do—Justice are more Barthes than Baudrillard?”

Written by Brandon

January 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 am

Posted in 2007, Lists, Village Voice

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