-Crime Mob’s Hated on Mostly
What It Was: The kinda slept-on, but at the same time labelled slept-on so much they’re almost overrated Crime Mob, dropped the pretty amazing ‘Hated On Mostly’. Besides ‘Hated On Mostly’ being the best album title of the year, it also possesses plenty of moments of Southern production genius and as usual, one song that even Southern Rap haters can’t hate on:‘Circles’.
One can’t ignore or dismiss Three-Six Mafia’s “influence” on the group, but Mob’s sound is tinnier and even more aggressive than Three-Six productions, which never fail to be catchy and damn near-poppy even if they are willfully weird. The quasi-gun-shot drums and super-clean guitar accompaniment of opener ‘Represent’ might feel like some genius (or horrible) conflation of Three-Six and Mannie Fresh production styles, but there’s this underlying mess of deep synth tones and screeching strings approximations that put it into new (at least new-ish) territory. There’s some genuine raver acid squelches on the Pimp C-assisted ‘Go To War’, weird theremin and even deeper more ominous synth tones on ‘All-Madden’ and of course, Crime Mob’s secret weapon/gimmick, female rappers that really can rap, Diamond and Princess. The girls overall, were inconsistent- they occasionally bleat out a verse- but their best moments (as on ‘Circles’) give me hope for future Crime Mob records.
What It Is: Initially, this album seemed a bit inconsistent, but the more I listen, the minor flaws sort of disappear. ‘Hated On Mostly’ has remained in my player way after the deceiving single ‘Rock Yo’ Hips’ stopped dominating local radio, BET countdowns, and MTV Jams. ‘Circles’ got plenty of music-fan love but it didn’t really translate to anything big. It’s the sort of thing that really does make you think there’s some radio conspiracy against any rap song that is even remotely smart or insightful. A few months ago, it was announced that Diamond, the most engaging member of the group, went solo. Every listen of ‘Hated’ had me asking myself or whoever was in the car with me, “Why don’t the male members just produce and leave the rapping to the females?” So, Diamond’s leaving is kinda cool but without the Crime Mob production, it will end up as either hipster-baiting throwback girl rap or crappy hard-ass rap just not over Crime Mob beats. I’m vaguely interested in how this plays out.
-Devin the Dude’s ‘Waitin’ to Inhale’
What It Was: In an act of particularly grotesque rap elitism (and defeatism), rap heads expressed fear about Devin’s celebration by “hipsters” before it even happened. But Devin’s way too weird in a way that’s pretty much devoid of coolness- there’s not really anything to the Dude that warrants even ironic appropriation- and he’s painfully sincere. He’s out-there like a guy at your bus-stop. You’re initially afraid of him, but after like two days, you sit there and bullshit with and even look forward to the frigid or too-hot- depending on the season- wait for the bus, because it’s really the only time you’ll interact with a guy like him. And that’s what ‘Waitin’ to Inhale’ feels like: A totally unfiltered dive into the mind of Devin, equal parts funny and depressed, offensive and insightful, a little too long, too much to take in one-sitting, but ultimately worth your time; you’ll laugh a lot and learn a lot.
What It Is: Having since gone back and digested Devin’s discography, ‘Inhale’s particular brand of dirty raps and Southern production is even more of a delight. Although I’m still partial to ‘To Tha X-Treme’, the album’s series of fables and sweetness feel unrealistic and forced in a way that his other albums are not. At the same time, the increased focus found on ‘X-Treme’ carries over to ‘Inhale’. It’s still a little long but there’s so many great songs on here, that when it kind of falters at the end, it stands-out more than it really should. I honestly haven’t listened to the album all the way through since the Spring, but looking at the tracks, it’s really only the last two (the jokey-in-a-way-that-”hipsters”-would like ‘Nothin’ to Roll With’ and the over-over-long ‘Till It’s All Gone’) that seem unnecessary and it’s the rest of the disc’s greatness that makes these tracks feel so underwhelming. Early’s fall’s ‘Waitin’ Our Turn’ (credited to the Coughee Brothaz) is expectedly messy but contains enough genius that it’s at least worth a listen. And, don’t worry, the hipsters didn’t get into Devin, I’m sure many of you are so happy Devin sold less albums than sell them to those goddamned hipsters.
Related Blogs: Devin the Dude Week Part 1,Part 2,Part 3,Part 4, and my Baltimore City Paper article on the Dude.
-Prodigy’s ‘Return of the Mac’
What It Was: Those bad-ass Youtube videos, those really-great soul beats…P was apologizing for aligning himself with 50 Cent! Not really, even on the “gulliest” tracks, there are lines like “I got blood on my G-Units”-which ingeniously combines the Mobb Deep we all love with the one we feel sorry for- that make it impossible to totally disassociate ‘Blood Money’ from ‘Return of the Mac’. A remarkably consistent album that constantly plays with the tension between the young Prodigy of ‘The Infamous’ and that era of rap and the older, money-grabbing lame rapper of the 2000s and ultimately, attempts a noble but sensible return to the former.
What It Is: This album kinda sucks. The ‘Hell Hath No Fury’ of 2007 in the sense that I got totally sucked into the hype, the glossy shine, and its baiting of dumb rap fans like me and lost perspective on a “meh” album that isn’t content-less but is quantifiably “complex” or “dark” and not you know, actually dark or complex. My bad. Fun to listen to a track when it pops up on my iPod and good for my friends that aren’t rap obsessives, but otherwise, a pretty worthless album 8 months after its release. What was once novel and interesting about Prodigy working out his messed-up career and damaged street-cred, has gone too far- especially since his arrest and imminent incarceration- and gives me the same sad, icky, exploitative feeling of say, that Amy Fisher Sex Tape.
-Robert Glasper’s ‘In My Element’: Rap-Influenced Jazz Done Right
-osc.jpg --> )
What It Was: ‘In My Element’ is the best kind of album to get into. I wasn’t anticipating its release on any level, it wasn’t the latest album from a favorite or notable group, I wasn’t even aware of it until I heard an NPR story and some quick samples that piqued my interest and what I heard was a pretty perfect mix of conservative jazz and open-minded but fusion-skirting experimentation. The hook of the album is its hip-hop influence, but that doesn’t show up through embarrassing jazz-rapping, but through some loosely hip-hop rhythms, some ‘Mecca & the Soul Brother’-ish interludes, and occasional vocal samples culled from answering machine messages and in ‘Tribute’ the final devastating track dedicated to Glasper’s mother, a preacher’s eulogy. The other “hooks” are ‘J Dillalude’, a medley of Dilla beats done jazz trio style, and a cover of Radiohead (mixed with Herbie Hancock) on ‘Maiden Voyage/Everything In Its Right Place’. If those ideas excite you, they won’t disappoint; if they make you weary of Glasper’s album, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
What It Is: I kept waiting for this album to get some support and the proper talk-up but it never really did. It still gets near-weekly play on long drives and every listen opens up some new comparison or subtle musical detail. It also serves as an unintentional but strong response to Wynton Marsalis’ snarky, misinformed ‘From the Plantation to the Penetentiary’.
-Don Imus Says Some Bullshit
What It Was: Don Imus thinks he’s being a postmodern racist when he calls a women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hoes” but forgets he’s a stupid old man who is actually racist. My thoughts immediately darted to Howard Stern who has had a long-standing hatred of Imus, for not only being a hack but a genuinely dishonest and horrible person (old Stern stories reveal Imus to consistently use the word “nigger”). Somehow, Imus was able to deflect the criticism by invoking the moronic double-standard and what began as a bunch of opportunistic people exploiting Imus’ mistake, became bans on “the N-Word”, Paula Zahn specials, and Imus being fired. Ultimately, it was like so many situations related to political correctness, one where it reveals everyone, left and right, right and wrong, to be totally full of shit.
What It Is: Don Imus is back on the air, he was paid for his “firing”, and rap is still under attack (although it seems to have subsided a bit, no?). This is why this kind of good-intentioned censorship is retarded…
-Three-Six Mafia Release Two Great Singles and No Album
What It Was: It was pretty refreshing that after Three-Six’s Academy Award, goofy reality show, and general moving up a plateau in terms of fame, their first single contained lyrics like “I pop her cherry then I pop my collar”, a fairly explicit verse about doing coke from Juicy J, and a particularly John Carpenter-esque beat, full of looming synths, ghostly oohs and ahhs, and a totally flanged-out guitar outro. At the same time, there were rumors that the album had people like Good Charlotte and Paris Hilton on it…who knew what the fuck was going on? A few months later, there was the equally insane and aggressive ‘Like Money’, cut from the same sonic cloth but this time with some flanged-out scratching, more guitar riffs, and some Godzilla stomp drums. By the time ‘Like Money’ came out, ‘Da Last 2 Walk’ had been delayed twice and was slated for the December 2007.
What It Is: Is Three-Six Mafia or their label to blame for these delays? Both sides needs to realize these dudes just can’t sell-out even when they want to. ‘Doe Boy Fresh’ and ‘Like Money’ are their singles??? Just give up and let them make another genius album of songs that keep the content simple, the guests minimal, and the beats the most out-there shit being made, be the comparison to fellow weirdo producers like Timbaland or overtly “experimental” musicians that grabs the cover of magazines like ‘WIRE’ and have stupid names.
-Lil Wayne’s Rap Takeover (or something)
What It Was: It was hard not to scoff at the Wayne hyperbole going on but still, you ask anybody still interested in this rap shit and they will ruefully or gleefully rattle off an impressive list of Weezy tracks from last year that bounced all around their brain. Wayne’s schtick was to be ubiquituous, admittedly whorish, and drop some random shit on a random song to random degrees of success. He turds up Kanye’s ‘Barry Bonds’ and is just plain annoying on ‘Make It Rain’ but drops super-affecting shit on the Lloyd’s ‘You’ (and ‘Something You Forgot’ and Wyclef’s ‘Sweetest Girl’ remix and ‘Prostitute Flange’ and ‘Comfortable’..) and is crazy and creepy as fuck on ‘I Feel Like Dying’ (and ‘It’s Me Snitches’ remix and ‘I Like It’). The highs of ‘Da Drought 3′ match the highs of any collection of music released this year, but it’s still pretty much impossible to get-through in a single sitting (while say, UGK’s double-disc is surprisingly listenable all the way through…). The sheer weirdness met with unexpected consistency on ‘Da Drought is Over Pt. 4′, my preferred Weezy mixtape for 2007.
What It Is: I recently put together a Lil Wayne mix CD for a friend at work and it was through compiling that mix, that the greatness of recent Lil Wayne totally struck me. Editing out all the bullshit and cloying half-assedness, with minor diversions into my personal favorite eccentric tracks from the rapper-eater, the scope of what Lil Wayne has done in the past year and a half was clear. His jumps from an insane amount of metaphors (or to be real, mostly similes) for getting head and wet pussies to some really emotional shit about the women- real and imagined, fucked and ones he wants to fuck- to a (and I fucking mean this) Proustian ability to recall the minor details of his childhood, both personal details (Starter jackets, Saints hat, ‘Gremlins’) and pop-culture events (Tonya Harding, ‘The Bodyguard’, Nintendo), builds into a feeling of really getting to know a rapper who has made it his goal to be as weird and grotesque and obscure as any. Of course, this hyperbole dies down because I realize that through the making of my Lil Wayne mix, I custom-fit the dude to appeal to me. The brief ‘The Leak EP’ is both exciting and disappointing and is but one more example of the way Wayne drops the ball on actual, official releases- the releases that “matter”.
Brandon’s Worst Posts of the Year
-Black Hercules: You guys kinda slept-on this dude. He just posted some new videos like yesterday and make sure to check them out. Nevertheless, this was a clear attempt to keep-up with my three-posts a week schedule.
-More About Amy Winehouse: Before I realized that the amount of comments one receives means very little- especially from a bunch of angry Winehouse fans clearly directed from some kind of message board, not actual readers- I did this sequel to my first Amy Winehouse hater post.
-Paid Bloggers Are Assholes: I’m supposed to put this one here and act like I’m embarassed by it, but it’s still basically correct and I’m impressed by my kinda articulate vitriol. Also, Fennessey’s Vibe blog currently has an even more prick-ishly obnoxious pic, for those interested…
-Lil Wayne’s Latest Single: I Just Shit My Pants: I’m on the fence on whether this was a particularly great post or a particularly terrible one. Like most things, the truth probably falls somewhere in-between…
-Links & Lists: This was from when I was in film-school for three days. Again, before I realized that no post is usually better than a shitty post. Also, admitting it’s a crappy post doesn’t make it a less crappy post.
-Who Said It: Common or The Technopriests?: The links to the images don’t work but I don’t really have a place to house them and you’re not missing anything anyways. It’s sort of funny to think that when I pitched this to Rafi at OhWord, I was a little pissed he didn’t accept it.
-Just Some Good Videos: When you’re too busy to post, just post a bunch of Youtube videos…works everytime!
-Ja Rule and the Gays: Following-up my pretty good “Kanye Week” series with this muddled discussion of homophobia and silly condemnation of anti-homophobia was pretty stupid.
Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?