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Archive for May, 2011

Pitchfork: Beyonce – “1 + 1″

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Wrote about Beyonce’s “1 + 1.” This song’s way different than third-rate “Pon De Floor” wannabe “Run The World” and the A.D.D. marching band party of “Til The End Of Time,” and hey, I like stuff like that as much as anybody, but this one just destroys in a really traditional, classic songwriting way, and that doesn’t happen too much anymore. There’s a lot of loaded stuff behind what is ostensibly a love ballad that totally fit in on American Idol where it premiered. The way I tried to sell this to a few people and though it only sort of makes sense, it does sound good: Imagine TV On The Radio’s concluding Dear Science two-fer “DLZ and “Lover’s Day,” crammed into one cathartic pop ballad.

Written by Brandon

May 31st, 2011 at 7:34 pm

Posted in Beyonce, Pitchfork

Spin: “The Death and Resurrection of Conscious Rap.”

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Part one in a three part series about “conscious hip-hop.” What it did well, how it failed, and how it’s been making a comeback thanks to the Internet.

Though rap music has had its socially and politically aware side from its inception, the term is most frequently applied to artists of the late 1980s, like Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions, or early-’90s innovators like A Tribe Called Quest and others (Digable Planets, Arrested Development). But the focus here is on the underground movement that hit critical mass from 1996 forward, just as hip-hop started to become the mainstream.

Rappers as disparate as Common, Mos Def and Talib Kweli (collectively Black Star), Company Flow, Blackalicious, the Roots, Jurassic 5, the Coup, and yes, believe it or not, an early incarnation of the Black Eyed Peas, seemingly merged into a clump of what came to be termed “alternative rap”; all supposedly were doing battle with the shiny suits and corny sampling of Puff Daddy, who was in the process of overtaking “the culture.” At least that’s the conventional narrative. The real story is a more complex…

Written by Brandon

May 28th, 2011 at 11:40 pm

Posted in Common, Spin, Spin column

How Big Is Your World? Murder Mark – “You The Best”

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Baltimore club producer Murder Mark begins “You The Best” with a nod to “Blue Monday” by New Order. That timeless, simple kick drum intro though, doesn’t build to something more elegant or radio-ready. Instead, there’s just more minimal, sorta evil-sounding percussion stacked on top of other noisy drums, only letting up for a few sonically bold diversions (a sea of “what?!” shouts, a handclap and techno-synth breakdown). Like most club music being made in 2011, the “Think” break isn’t the driving force of the song or even a part of it at all anymore. Baltimore’s batty dance music is mutating as fast as all those electronic genres still deemed blog-worthy, so please pay attention. The video for “You The Best” is similarly stripped-down: An empty room, some dancers, fog, and cool colors. And you know, it isn’t Beyonce’s post-apocalyptic Russ Meyer couture freak-out or nothing, but a room of dudes and only dudes (Team Squad Up) performing a really amazing mix of in-the-club rocking-off and almost interpretive dance to a shit-talk track, holds its own kind of gender-bucking fun.

Written by Brandon

May 25th, 2011 at 2:54 am

Posted in Baltimore, Baltimore Club, ZOME

Spin: “Nicki Minaj’s Lived-In Love Songs.”

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Inspired by “Super Bass,” I wrote a ton about Nicki Minaj’s love raps. Once more guys,Pink Friday, really good! Other things about “Super Bass” worth discussing: The one maybe two transvestites dancing with her in the video, and the “he might sell coke” line from verse one.

Listen to “Super Bass”, the Pink Friday bonus track turned victory-lap single, and for a few minutes, try not to think about about Nicki Minaj’s breathless rapping ability, weirdo vocal tics, funny faces, and visionary fashion sense (yes to long-sleeve spandex dresses, yes yes yes to late-’90s Aaliyah swag). Simply focus on her singular ability to make genuinely joy-filled pop music.

The production on “Super Bass” is the same as everything on the radio (shiny, loud-quiet-loud dance), but Nicki has surrounded that signature style with palpable emotions and, of course, a shit ton of attitude. And that goes a long way. This is an experience-based song about a rote topic: Really being into a guy and feeling like he could change your world. “Super Bass” easily could devolve into subservient cheese, but Nicki’s up to the challenge of expressing it maturely…

Written by Brandon

May 21st, 2011 at 7:22 am

Posted in Nicki Minaj, Spin, Spin column

Spin: “Goblin Redux, Touching Up Tyler’s New Album.”

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In this week’s column, I fix Tyler, the Creator’s Goblin.

Twenty tedious minutes longer than his 2009 solo debut Bastard, Goblin bounces between spoken-word diatribes over minor chords and lumpy approximations of the Neptunes’ hardest, hip-hop productions. The latter hints at what Goblin could have been: Something a bit more open to new sounds. There’s still a pretty good album in here somewhere, something at least as engaging as the best stuff Odd Future gave away for free. So let’s make it that way. Here’s Goblin Redux…”

Written by Brandon

May 13th, 2011 at 4:33 pm

Posted in Spin, Spin column

Pitchfork: Joker – “Vision (Let Me Breathe)” [ft. Jessie Ware]

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Gonna guess quite a few people out there aren’t exactly feeling this Joker song I wrote about, but maybe I can convince you. It’s a typical Joker production that boldly takes on Top 40 dubstep, “bro-step,” and “post-dubstep” all at once. The vocals sound like the chick from your high school that was “a singer,” but that kinda works here.

Written by Brandon

May 11th, 2011 at 9:20 pm

Posted in Pitchfork

Spin: “Rap, Rape, and R&B: Battle of the Sexes, Round 2.”

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Round Two is up!

My conversation with Latoya Peterson of Racialicious continues. In Round One, some of my guycentric critical oversights were addressed, and then we tackled the Weeknd (a.k.a., Abel Tesfaye), who I found to be symptomatic of a “Date Rape & B” trend, and who Latoya found to be nothing more than a creep.

We did, however, agree on the way that “murky” issues of consent have snuck into R&B and that something is indeed changing in hip-hop right now. Round One ended with Latoya responding to my rather sunny interpretation of hip-hop’s subtle shifts, as she observed that just because “Kanye gets to have a few reflective moments… doesn’t mean society has suddenly started caring more about what women want…”

Written by Brandon

May 7th, 2011 at 3:05 am

Posted in Spin, Spin column

Spin: Big K.R.I.T. – Return Of 4Eva

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This one works a little better than K.R.I.T. Wuz Here because it’s much more focused. K.R.I.T.’s lacking some of his Pimp C sneer here, but the byproduct of that calculated snarl was that it kinda created these weird pockets of energy that the record couldn’t otherwise keep up, and just by avoiding that, this one can really glide along. Dude seems to be transitioning, for better and worse, into a conscious rapper and that’s not a bad look for him. “Another Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism” is probably my favorite track and it gets into that weird area where it’s straight up corny and full of platitudes but still makes me like, cry it’s so intense and heartfelt. But there are also these little things that suggest K.R.I.T. doesn’t have a good sense of what he’s doing or is a little too focused on his retro aesthetic to get some outside feedback. Return Of 4Eva has 3 intro songs. Two songs in a row interpolate Dungeon Family songs. We go from “I’m just rotatin’ my tires, I’m just rotatin’ my tires” to “My sub my sub my sub,” and it’s like what dude? He knows how to make a platonically good album because he grew up listening on UGK and Outkast, and that could make him a total fucking threat if he is indeed, as I suggest in my Spin review, working his way through his influences until he breaks through to something new.

Written by Brandon

May 5th, 2011 at 10:46 pm

Posted in Spin

Spin: J Rocc – Some Cold Rock Stuf

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This is a pretty great album and one that increasingly, doesn’t really have place to be celebrated. Honestly, I only checked it out after reading Nate Patrin’s review for Pitchfork, mostly because he seemed to think it was interesting but ultimately just alright, and those are often my favorite favorite kinds of albums. Other than “Rocchead’s “Delight,” the first track with all the different records cut-up to say “rock,” nothing on here is too turntable-y and the whole thing just reallymoves. Also, a total CD purchase in that it all glides together in a way that 4 sides of vinyl won’t allow. The most interesting thing about Some Cold Rock Stuf though, is its occasional nods to just straight dance–”Play This (Also),” “Too Many Clowns”–and “Party,” which really is just a 90s house single. The “Play This Too” single from last year features an even more house-y version of “Party” called “Party (Boogie Man Remix)” and it bleeds right into “Star,” a disco track. It all suggests J. Rocc could easily be some kind of bleeding-edge hipster DJ/producer if he wanted to be. Blah blah blah, anybody else out there really feeling this? Oh yeah, review’s right here.

Written by Brandon

May 5th, 2011 at 5:19 am

Posted in Spin

Village Voice, Sound Of The City: “The Curious 21st-Century Decline Of Hype Williams.”

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Something about how sucky Hype Williams has been for like a whole decade now, with a focus on the disastrous videos for “All Of The Lights” and “6 Foot 7 Foot” via this making-of footage for Hype’s never-finished version of M.I.A.’s “XXXO.”

On Friday, a link to three-minute making-of video for a scrapped, Hype Williams-helmed clip of “XXXO” appeared on M.I.A.’s twitter. The footage shows M.I.A and a small group of dancers (including Beyoncé choreographer Jonté) painted head-to-toe and gyrating to the song’s hissing, whirling beat. There’s also a tiger. And there’s M.I.A. wearing side-slit leggings and Timberlands and looking really awesome in one scene, and in a metallic, skeletal chest plate thingy looking very uncomfortable in another…

Written by Brandon

May 4th, 2011 at 3:56 am

Posted in Sound of the City, Village Voice, music videos

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