blackmuzak8484

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Kendrick Lamar - Count Me Out (Official Audio)

one of these lives i'mma make things right.

sigh. i like this album. And given the people involved, I should hate this even more than Damn. I dunno, thought. I find Kendrick making a deeply navel gazy and self righteous/shamefaced and arrogant album a far more honest and sincere move than Damn, which just felt like a sop to folks to let him , well, make albums like this.

yet, i've found that clearly a lot of people were not actually here for Kendrick Lamar, just Drake but less aggravatingly self-involved and more interesting. This is somehting Drake can't do.

it also feels right that when Kendrick makes his work soexplicit that what was once an abstraction is unignorable and thus the defence one could muster for this kinda sugared pill stuff has fallen away, leaving either the sugar or the pill. Now we all know what Kendrick is - a conscious rapper who, when in full control of his faculties (hopefully) will be making conscious albums, even when he is trying his damnedest not to.

on another note, this song make me think of taking up running.

Kendrick going full mask off as to who he really is, for better or worse, has actually freed many folks from being a slave in their mind (word to my man jim) to continuing to support, listen and accept him, and I think that is a far greater act of saviorship than anything he's ever done.

this is the best rapping on the whole album.

a tiresome reheat of the cancel culture crack is thankfully briefer than you'd expect - only 2 verses about it and 1 mention at the end of the 2nd song. At least Kendrick knows not make the whole album about, nobody is interested or even willing to pay for that. (Don't even about Dave Chappelle. When's the last time you thought about anything he even said apart from the cancel culture bits?)

if kendrick had just given her an interlude, it would've been a greater act of allyship.

mr morale and the big steppers is a better album than damn, but it is in no way better than the kendrick lamar EP. which does, of course, mean that it is all downhill from here - hope Tanna Leone and Baby Keem go on to have a successful career without needing Kendrick. I am interested in what will become of him now that he is no longer the rap savior, no longer the saint, no longer our center -

oh no. oh no. oh no. someone hide mavi. get kenny mason out of the country. lock cordae back down. get jack harlow a real job. once that mantle comes down on one of them, this kinda album is in our and their future. let's hope JID's too old.

#youtube

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I feel things when I listen to mavi. I. can rarely say that about many rappers anymore.

#youtube

[blackmuzak8484]

The Heart Part 4 - Kendrick Lamar - IV - (Official Audio)

ok fine. lets talk about damn.

in all honesty, damn was a complete failure. it didn't prove that Kendrick was good enough to enter the ranks of the greats, not good enough to budge the need for say, a Drake or J. Cole out of the timeline. instead, it just had him look even more flat and uncompelling except for flashes of inspiration (duckworth, fear, lust) and flshes of utter garbage (loyalty, god, yah) and a brief moment of genuineness (love, feel, dna). at this point, has anyone even heard it at a party or kickback or even bumping out of a car randomly?

it just looks even worse in light of the upcoming Kendrick Lamar album, MR. MORALE AND THE BIG STEPPERS, coming out in May. Mainly cuz it should be the album that can be pored over like Things Fall Apart and read like Things Fall Apart but i haven't heard anything from Kendrick apart from his features on Keem's album that gives me any hope.

apart from my prayer, somebody won't tell us what could possibly be up. But in all seriousness, records like those are what we come to Kendrick for, twisted, agonized records grappling with the scary and unglamorous fears we all carry with us on the daily that come from a more defined, refined and direct perspective than the one on Damn, which felt clumsy, hamhanded and even...CORNY.

the fact that people only talk about damn in reflection to their distaste for Kendrick giving what he actually wanted to make at the height of his cultural power and interest reminds me that a lot of Kendrick fans only tollerated the Kush and Corinthians for the Rigormortus and the SchoolBoy verses, as well as whenever he and Jay Rock would link up to adlib and boast, not the Ab-Soul features, not in the slightest. And it's clear that there would be no quarter given to an actual doo-wop style record, or another story style record in the vein of TPAB, or even a move away from the more memeable style he did with Keem to an actual STYLIN type record more indebted to the 2DopeBoyz slums he rose to prominence in.

but at this point, i want a record that doesn't try to chase what damn did - a brief, fleeting moment of enjoyment that died almost instantly while the disliked, resented and quietly despised statementslowly drew reluctant applause for its quality and not its mere existence. i'd rather he drop a record completely and utterly disinterested in the petty dramas and nonsesical fanwank that mainstream rap has become in Kendrick's long leave of absence, a last sterling creation out of step with the times that closes the chapter on Kendrick Lamar, the rapper of public concern, and opens the book of PGLang, where Kendrick Duckworth and Dave Free busy themselves with helping their artists grow and fufil their talents and careers.

#kendrick lamar #pglang

[blackmuzak8484]

gorgeous

[blackmuzak8484]

Tyler, The Creator - CORSO (Official Video)

this got posted on the wrong blog but I have to blog this cuz he said "you left my heart twerking" and added this gorgeous piano glissando when he then said "aw, my heart broken."

#tyler the creator #black boy joy

[blackmuzak8484]

Little Simz - Point And Kill feat. Obongjayar (Official Video)

as someone who is only Nigerian by a vague and definitely unverifiable amount, I have been enjoying a lot of Nigerian/Trinidadian/Jamaican music lately (Most of it's hiphop, some of its Nigerian pop, some is dancehall).

but this ive enjoyed a great deal. I just listened to it 2 months after it finally arrived and it still is fangtastic. I'm looking forward to gushing about this in january when I -

#little simz #obongjayar #simbi #rapture

[blackmuzak8484]

BKTHERULA - IDK WHAT TO TELL YOU [Official Audio]

so i just heard this now, and i think it's the best song of the year. BKTheRula is one of those Carti-esque rappers who focuses far more on literally everything but the lyrics, and strangely, this is not the case for this song, which actually has distinct lyrics, even if they're simple; "only you can tell me what is going on in your brain."

this has been such an awful year that just makes me more and more depressed, but this song is a balm from that. thank u, BKtheRula.

#bktherula #idk what else to tag #classic

[blackmuzak8484]

midwxst - Made It Back (Official Video)

first, i apoligize for not wrting about the Morray album. it was pretty good but not enought that I listen to it often, which i do with several other albums. secondly, I love this song, and i loved it from the first loping bass melody. It ends way too abruptly, but at this point songs are only gonna get shorter and blunter until we do howls over a single violin strum for 4 seconds.

Midwxst put out an album today. listen to it before it goes behind the streaming paywalls.

[blackmuzak8484]

Kanye West - Heard 'Em Say ft. Adam Levine

remmeber when kanye titling his album after his mom was a great idea? yeah, me neither.

[blackmuzak8484]

SiR - John Redcorn

look, i don't want to go to bed, alright! just rock this song and ingnore my awful sleep schedule.

[blackmuzak8484]

Brandy - Full Moon (Official Video)

Brandy is just like Kendrick Lamar to me: a phenominally talented Black Californian artist who happens to kinda be a dick. But Brandy grew out of her dickishness and became a great mom and dropped a pretty alright album i think last year. But i think my nostalgia for her late 90's/early 2000's work is so strong i haven't even touched it in full (Baby Mama is great!) and I'm instead posting this. The vocals are brilliant here, all deep and also high, trilling in head voice above a deep watery bed of tenor coos that feels almost heavenly. the bass, also knocking and scaring the police shitless is great here too. maybe I'll actually listen to that 7 album. Might actually be pretty good. (Baby Mama is great!)

[blackmuzak8484]

Page Kennedy - Toyfriend (Not Your Boyfriend) Official Video

as a carrot man, i appreciate this. Page rules.

[blackmuzak8484]

morray - quicksand (official music video)

morray is such a sweethearted big dude. he feels so vibrant and warm floating out of even the laptop speakers im playing this on that i've got to ask whther a good audio system is really that importnt for a good record. it's pretty straightforward and beautiful and you don't need any qualifications or expensive speakers, it sounds gorgeous.

it makes me think, why can't J. Cole, who also came from Fayette ville, ever approximate this near perfect joy. Maybe because he was never as ebullient in his voice nor as vivid and descriptive or imginative as "The phonies, jabronies, the opps or the jakes." And it makes sense that Cole would see putting Morray with the task of re-singing Pharoahe Monch's "My Life" hook and not even begging him to put down a verse. Methinks a Morray verse would've overshadowed 21 Savage and Cole himself with of that soulful, sweethearted voice.

i'm gonna write a review for Street Sermons by next week thursday. should be enlightening.

[blackmuzak8484]

Armand Hammer & The Alchemist "Falling Out the Sky" feat. Earl Sweatshirt

troughout last year i kept asking questions about black artists who did blakc music in an unorthodox way largely as a proxy for my own anxieties about how mostly folx were mostly indifferent to my pretty normal but kind of sickly sweet music. now I've come to the understanding that you really can't control or even convert those who aren't willing to come to you, and this is something everyone who is 13 learns.

Armand Hammer are at most gonna be big amongst NPR listeners and folx who missed out on Bigg Jus and listen only to the LIV.e album, and honestly that's just fine. If the mountain won't come to Muhammad I'll go to the mountain. There might be some good raps there and Elucid might make me a smoothie.

[blackmuzak8484]

so i have some feeling about this but until i can properly articulate them, this will have to do. pls listen to this.

[blackmuzak8484]

Vince Staples - Summertime ’06

The cool, unruffled tone of “Street Punks” is a tone Vince rarely takes on “summertime ’06” but its such a natural one that it makes sense “billions” would put it in a party scene, it fulfills exactly how we prefer our favorite rap; unbothered, unruffled, unaffected. It sounds like something you could play at a party and shimmy to. and fulfills that role pretty well. But it’s and outlier, especially on this record. Because Vince is anything but unruffled.

Throughout the entirety of this record, Vince shifts through many modes of deadened affect and panicked terror, often in the same verse. as if they are part of the same person, not coat to put on and then shed. often throughout Vince’s records he often seemed unable to emote, especially on his strongest written song, and often his most openhearted songs fell victim to them. Here though, his keening voice finally emotes, being anguished and sad on “Summertime”, desperate and pleading on “Jump Off The Roof”, and worried and panicked on “Senorita”, in which he kills a crying child, scared to be caught lacking.

Vince has never had a problem writing though, and now that his voice can carry his songs they truly sing. “Jump Off The Roof” depicts Vince and Snoh as a crumbling, drug addicted couple about to come apart, held together by fear and their addictions, just about to leap from the roof of their home. “Lemme Know” depicts Vince and Jhene as a couple trying to keep themselves from unspooling and falling away from each other. “Loca” also sees Vince court a lady, with Kilo Kish responding back to him enticingly.

Each of these songs involves women in a way that is genuinely sharp and clear, an actual depiction which allows them to speak back and even have their own opinions. Jhene smirking as she tells him he’s gonna get fucked up fucking with her, Snoh wishing she could open up her heart to him, Kilo beckoning to him, excited and of course the Mexican girl at the end of Loca, who irritably cusses him out.

Meanwhile, Vince does indeed fulfill the “gangsta shit” quota. “Norf Norf” is the biggest song from the record, and its a fantastic song: sharp deadly lyrics {you ain’t heard of Coldchain/Best thang smoking out the city/riding round with the same shot gun that shot ricky/lil ninja should’ve zigzagged/then he got his back wet/naughty runnin norfside, ninjas better fact check} a hard edged hook {i ain’t never ran from nothin’ but the police} and a crackling, siren led beat made by Clams Casino. “Dopeman” also has a absoultely fantastic hook by Joey Fatts Vince cut out of the actual song and has Kilo’s soft, pastel voice intone on the actual hook that she is the “dopeman”, while Vince rips his voice apart in a truly frightening way. “Senorita” blends both sides of Vince, the compassionate and the pitiless, but buries the compassionate, in a way that shows how he subdues it. Then the song shatters and Snoh tells us she will have him beside her again. It is stunning.

One of the best Vince songs is Like It Is, which has Vince shedding his coat of darkness and addressing the reality he’s lived and depicted in song. It’s a song that can’t be in “Billions,” that can’t be in “The Chi,” or even played in “The Wire”. It pulls away all the cobwebs to starkly print out the reality that these songs are built of a painful past that the rapper is either adopting or formerly living, and since Vince is the first, Vince opens up his heart fully and openly to us, telling us who he is and why he became this way. It’s a song no one will option because it undoes the fantasy: that these are not video game characters, but human beings, who need help.

Also, A$ton Matthews says he’s making product out somebody’s daughter and you need to hear all the songs before that if you want to make any sense of that.

#vince staples #summertime 06 #norf norf

[blackmuzak8484]

aj tracey - flu game

for okjeldsberg

the problem with not missing the drop is that when you always catch the beat drop, you begin to use it as a crutch. AJ Tracey got nothing but hype for being able to catch the beat drop in a record in all the comments I saw of his freestyles and I had no idea how that was at all relevant, until I heard his additional verse on Clams Casino’s “Be Somebody”. ASAP Rocky rode the beat rotely, said a few decent lines then bolted as the beat dropped. Then A j Tracey began. And it all hit me like a brick.

AJ has a fantastic rap voice, a warm, honeyed tenor, and a tight, economical flow that bounces in a way that his former Thiago Silva partner, Dave doesn’t. AJ is also much better at making pop singles than Dave, and has been racking up hits over the years, including “Ladbrokes Grove” with Jorja Smith, which made him into a star. With this new album, “Flu Game”, AJ is clearly aiming again to pop into the playlists and radio rotation and hopefully big festivals once those are safe again. And as a launchpad for possible pop rap records, this album succeeds with flying colors.

Once the darker and heavier bar fests in the beginning of the album are done by track 6, “Eurostep”, AJ sounds a lot smoother and charming on “Summertime Shootout” [featuring T-Pendergrass], “Coupe”[featuring Kehlani], “Numba 9”[featuring SahBabii and Millie Go Lightly] and “Dinner Guest”[featuring MoStack], all made to pop off in the club and get folks grooving and dancing. The squealing synth chords on “Summertime Shootout” and the gorgeous crooning from T-Pendergrass make it pop and bubble. Notice that all, except for “Dinner Guest” with MoStack, are all American artists. Clearly, AJ is trying to be the London rapper who breaks America at long last. Another bonus track, “West End”, feel sweet and poppy as well but it’s already out there, and climbed the charts too.

But it’s the darker tracks that in all honesty, that I feel are misplaced and point out to a far more thrilling album. “Cheerleaders” is one of his best, featuring some of his best wordplay, {My young G got his first star ever/and he jumped on the pitch like Xavi and Scholes/All he do is make pass and goals/He carves a name out from sparking poles} and his other double duty single with Digga D, “Bringing It Back” is a bouncy record, but on that feels energetic and fritzing with energy as Digga drives a drill tank (those are a real thing) through the beluga bass while AJ jump ropes with it expertly.

AJ says on “Cheerleaders {Told man, “if you can’t explain it, (what?)/then you don’t understand it.}, so let me try: I feel like if AJ really wants to make pop records, he needs to drop the darker fringes off the velvet coat of his sound unless he’s going to say something with them deeper than that he knows of and deals with dangerous thugz. He might have to start exploring their own joys and highs, in letting more of them work with him on drill and rap records, he might even want to start doing some 1st/3rd person storytelling? But I see far more success from him cutting off those fringes wholesale and going pop. He’s proven he can do it, and he’s done it well on this album, why not commit to the bit?

Maybe because, like many pop rappers who shed their former street identities and became the “i don’t like street rap but I like him on heartbreaker/all night long/can’t you see” guy, AJ wants to keep those fringes on to remain connected to the rest of British rap in case this pop adventure winds up drying up. And since he’s already broken ties with grime, he might be loath to break even more ties. The fact that only 6 of these 16 stars belies the fact that he is far more interested on being a pop star.

At a point, you have to make a choice between these dueling sides - or make them more simpatico. 50 did, DMX did- to a point, Mobb Deep - not at all. AJ also has the problem of being technically sharp but not personable and charming in the way 50 and DMX were, and doesn’t have the introspection and bitterness of a Prodigy. He’s clearly far more invested in these pop records. From “Cherry Blossom” to “Top Dog”, a slab of perfect, pristine pop rap that could fill a playlist then leave your head and never return. It’s the records with guests that stand out as possible hits, especially “Dinner Guest.” (MoStack is hilarious as per usual.)

Hopefully, the next album will be far more like “Perfect Storm,” which is a surprisingly successful mixture of those sides. It has a smooth, spindly guitar lick, wistful synths and heavy bass drums lying on the flattened percussion and cracked snares, created by JBJ and Yoz Beatz, as AJ gently lays out his rise to fame and the bleak lives his friends and family still face. It has a weak hook, so it’s not the best song on the album (the best is Summertime Shootout, T-Pendergrass still undefeated) but it is the best way forward for the future, a careful and nuanced balance of his sides, if he does actually want to start putting those fringes directly into his coat.

#aj tracey #kehlani #flu game