rae sremmurd - sremmlife (6 jan 2015)

1. “Lit Like Bic”
2. “Unlock the Swag” f/ Jace of Two-9
3. “No Flex Zone”
4. “My X”
5. “This Could Be Us”
6. “Come Get Her”
7. “Up Like Trump”
8. “Throw Sum Mo” f/ Nicki Minaj and Young Thug
9. “Yno” f/ Big Sean
10. “No Type”
11. “Safe Sex Pay Checks”

hmm "throw sum mo" isn't quite the world-stopping masterpiece i expected of these three acts tho

legit didn't know two-9 was a collective

i was expecting better from "throw sum mo" but still kinda anticipating this

it's a perfectly acceptable album cut. So far everything these guys have released has grown on me like crazy so I wouldn't put it past any of these tracks to do the same.

Thanks for starting this thread Lex!

i love the beat on it, time will tell on the song itself

this was still supposed to be an EP like a few weeks ago, pretty cool that the success of the singles got it bumped up to a full-length album

Throw Sum is excellent imo. Up there with the other two.

it's alright but i really wanted everyone involved to just wild out as we know they can, not anything this understated

I was definitely ready for an understated Nicki at this point in time. I also like the concept of an understated strip club jam.

well "pour it up" is over a year old now

And from than on only overstated strip club jams are allowed? I like the way the boys' overexcitement in the verses is punctured every time by Nicki's disinterested voice + the giggly "nothing really matters anyway" quality of the beat.

*then

aren't 90% of strip club jams all sad submarine synths feel-my-pain emo nonsense anyway these days?

my disappointment was more that if you've got rae sremmurd AND nicki AND young thug on the same track you should be playing to their collective wilding-out strengths

But this isn't a sad submarine synth feel my pain emo joint. It's a celebration of the absurdity of it all. And it's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLa9YxV1Xps

another good one

feel like this group needs to change their name. like, pronto

Shut up dranreb ywons

I mean don't get me wrong, I'm all for underground musical acts having stupid names, but when you start to get mainstream exposure & radio airplay & shit you have to stop and think "actually, how are people not on the internet supposed to talk about this music"

i heard a radio DJ or two struggle with their name when they first started getting airplay a few months ago, now they all have pretty much gotten the hang of it. it's really not that hard to pronounce or spell.

It's fun to say imo

"throw sum mo" is ok ... the beat feels a bit too soon after "only" to me

also i'm not sure who decided nicki should be on a hook w/ no verse and young thug should rap a verse w/ no hook but i don't think it worked out -- nick sounds extremely bored

for the perplexed: http://www.thefader.com/2014/12/10/r-a-e-s-r-e-m-m-u-r-d

Every time I've heard a radio dj say their name (which is twice) they have made a point of explaining that it is ear drummers backward

Which it isn't, it's drummers ear backward

^^^ my thoughts exactly lol

Ya'll are a bunch of sselyoj stnadep

o ya D

i saw a stripper dance to "silent lucidity" by queensryche once

dayo otm

Nicki is supposed to sound bored! That's the conceit!

Every time I've heard a radio dj say their name (which is twice) they have made a point of explaining that it is ear drummers backward

― tl;dr, gukbar, morbis detrius (wins), Thursday, December 18, 2014 1:51 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I love how media pretends like everyone is dumb as fucking shit and didn't realize this within like the first four seconds of seeing their name

that's discriminatory whiney

i didn't realise it until 'dranreb ywons'

fully thought this was a female name. like a scandinavian one or something

*emoticon where the person is waving their arms like idk yo*

left yall the open zing goal obv

i didn't realize it until now

i always thought it was "drummers ear,"like swimmers ear or something

I esteem the word sremmurd, it is truly beautiful, but I prefer it without the 'sh' sound which also turns the drummers ear thing into sean connery

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/F81021FC-9344-4E63-8082-E7D3CDF00A58_zpsddfkcxo4.jpg

https://www.thefader.com/2014/12/29/stream-rae-sremmurd-debut-album

idk i like some of these beats but some better choruses plz

like unlock the swag is toxic no thanks

^ ronglife

would have been 100% perfect but for the safe sex psa finale (maybe the big sean one too)

so excellent tho. 'this could be us'!

i couldn't find this stream on uk itunes?

i don't even hate the safe sex finale, it's quite sweet

really good album! the beats are so excellent. not disappointed at all

thumbs up to my itunes for segueing into "one touch" as a bonus track

who here has the best Rae Sremmurd name? I'm pretty happy with La Yelpihs but Divad Ekard is fire.

Diva D!

Xela Nosrehpcam starts off well but descends badly

happy bday La Yelpihs btw

La Yelpihs sounds like a supergroup of female indie vocalists

Mine just sounds Hawai'ian

Vote in the poll btw guys NO (choose one): FLEX ZONE | TYPE

noslen darb motherfuckers

sounds like some kind of post dilla / flying lotus affair

Star Wars 7 character

"llebpmac" might be the worst backwards surname possible

this album <3

Fucked up thing to call darragh xp

not feeling these dudes at all, do i need to permanently retire my part-time goon credentials?

i couldn't even begin to pretend to like this garbage, kudos to y'all

much appreciated gab gnipeels

kind of obsessed with this right now. come get her is perfect

these two are basically tweens. fine for a song like no flex zone but really awkward and weird when they start rapping about sex. "safe sex pay checks" is some kind of questionable nickelodeon song

they're both in their 20s

i know. everything about them seems young though. like the skate-video thing in the no flex zone video. plus their faces

except the parts where they reference Kool Moe Dee and Magilla Gorilla like they went to junior high with 2 Chainz

Uaerraj Eneerg :(

Dnerever Srallod is way better and more Sremm-like

I like Safe Sex Pay Checks a lot, actually. More sceptical about the slightly dated/generic sounding My X, mostly due to Chop.

"my x" is sort of mean-spirited in a way that jars with what they're like elsewhere, if there's a weak link then it's def it

don't get what's off-putting about teen rap even if they were teenagers

hundred
dollar
bills

The chorus of “Safe Sex Pay Checks” is a complete lift of Alley Boy/Ty$'s "RNGM" but maybe that's why I like it so much

like unlock the swag is toxic no thanks

No way, it's sort of perfect.

Whole album is so gleeful. Haven't heard anything so shamelessly fun in a long time. Nice to start the year with.

the beat is v similar to RNGM!

impossible not to love any song that goes 'shots shots shots shots shots shots'

noslen darb motherfuckers

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, January 6, 2015 10:40 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this might be the winner

it would be darb noslen in the rae sremmurd formula tho

"throw sum mo" may have underwhelmed a little as a single but it bangs in the middle of the album

this album is great

it is the rap bangerz

oh true xp

also true

it is the rap bangerz

not inaccurate in that only the singles are listenable

xpost

Not saying there's anything inherently offputting about teen rap. I think the teenageyness is part of No Flex's appeal. I consider it a kind of a cute and cheerful singalong at heart and was pleasantly surprised at how good natured it sounded. Lex, I feel you about the mean-spiritedness being jarring, and I think I might just be more sensitive to mean-spiritedness as I seem to find it in more places.

they're not teenagers........................

not inaccurate in that only the singles are listenable

pfft

"yno" is such a jam

"lit like bic" is incredible, you only have to listen to the first song to refute that point

"throw sum mo" may have underwhelmed a little as a single but it bangs in the middle of the album

actually heard it on the radio yesterday and it does sound better there than it does played off my browser in my bedroom or w/e

anyway i still need to listen to this

not inaccurate in that only the singles are listenable

untrue of both bangerz and sremmlife

At some point this year the streak is going to end, but as of now Rae Sremmurd have yet to release a bad song. Amazing streak.

"throw some mo" is pretty far below the bar of their first two singles though

"throw sum mo" may have underwhelmed a little as a single but it bangs in the middle of the album

― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 7, 2015 2:09 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Agree, I've been listening to it sandwiched between no flex/no type and it's great

yeah 'throw sum mo' does sound great on the radio, nicki sounding zzz on muffled midrange really pops out

there's obviously a deliberate lightly absurdity to it which is v funny and tbh rly kinda brilliant imo, like the way its laconic circularity conflates nicki as ogled-by-slobbering-teens-stripper-cashing-in (who better to play this part of course) with inanimate music box doll

clever thing about this album i guess (beyond some cute lines) is how the rare way they embrace their youth lends a more forgiving, even almost sometimes knowing, aspect to the excesses of their behaviour and by extension that of the behaviour of the rap manchildren around them - 'no flex zone', 'my x' and 'this could be us' is a perfectly conceived hormonal triptych iirc

Totally in love with "this could be us".

ikr how good?!

btw whiney's retro accusation + trying to work out what the cover art reminded me of + the huaaahhs on 'my x' can only lead me to conclude this album represents an updated run dmc king of pop-punk

apart from 'unlock the swag' which is more like hot snakes or w/e natch

there's obviously a deliberate lightly absurdity to it which is v funny and tbh rly kinda brilliant imo, like the way its laconic circularity conflates nicki as ogled-by-slobbering-teens-stripper-cashing-in (who better to play this part of course) with inanimate music box doll

This is spot on. It's a very clever delivery.

btw whiney's retro accusation + trying to work out what the cover art reminded me of + the huaaahhs on 'my x' can only lead me to conclude this album represents an updated run dmc king of pop-punk

apart from 'unlock the swag' which is more like hot snakes or w/e natch

*prayer hands emoji*

"i can flick the money all night, til my wrist tired"

Listening to this for the first time now, and it's so infectiously fun. It's all in the delivery.

Also, fuck the "shremmerd" pronunciation, much more fun to pronounce it without the "sh" sound. It does explain "unlock the shwag" though.

Unlock the Swag is more fun if you hear it as "Allah, the swag. The swag, Allah"

this album is pretty good, all the tracks are solid

i love the idea of waiters on OKC

Listening to this for the first time now, and it's so infectiously fun. It's all in the delivery.
--quan voice (voodoo chili)

this undersells the songwriting and general craftsmanship

there are some very charming backing vox on this album. "money make the world go round" on "this could be us", the whoa-oas on "come get her"

"twerk like she from russia"?

Putins do it better.

vladivostwerk

turns out i've not actually really paid attention to the 'up like trump' lyrics at all, like the song is a gaseous swampstage for the hiccupping ad libbing, incessant batrachoidal bubble

"lit like bic" is incredible, you only have to listen to the first song to refute that point

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 7 January 2015 19:28 Bookmark

this absolutely bears underlining - if ur already not captivated by the first verse of the first song then save everyone the bother and get on back down to a more appropriately basic rung

like take this amazing bit not 3 mins in, why does the stream of consciousness bragging take this quite real, pained melancholy detour and slowly back round to bluffing

Lit sex yes, she show chest
Breathe in deep, geeked all week
Sunday night, Sunday fight
Argue, don't wanna argue
How could you think that I would ever leave you?
I see right through you
Get money with the same crew
I fuck the same hoes like you
Switch 'em out once a week, I'm cool
Midnight crew, paint the Maserati midnight blue
Money pool, I'm 'bout to swim right through
Who are you?

TOKYO DRIFT THRU THE HILLS

http://uk.complex.com/music/2015/01/rae-sremmurd-sremmlife-track-by-track-breakdown/safe-sex-pay-checks

Slim Jimmy: Young Thug got on it, he liked the song. Nicki Minaj, we met her in the studio. She was looking like a goddess.

Swae Lee: She was working on her album, and we were working on ours. We were going to do some collaboration work, but it was just crazy.

Slim Jimmy: She walked in looking like the most beautiful woman on the planet, and everything was in slow motion. Then time stopped. I couldn’t say anything because my mouth wouldn’t open. I was trying to say “Hi,” but I couldn’t.

Listening to this for the first time now, and it's so infectiously fun. It's all in the delivery.--quan voice (voodoo chili)

this undersells the songwriting and general craftsmanship

― J0rdan S., Thursday, 8 January 2015 03:53 (14 hours ago) Permalink

The songs are good but The delivery was the most immediately appealing aspect of the album on first listen, and Swae Lee's sing-song on No Type and No Flex Zone are still my favorite things about those songs after dozens of listens

I guess you could say that Slim Jim couldn't snap out of it...

https://weeklyguiltypleasure.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/david-caruso-3.jpg

my fav thing about their delivery is the amount of fun they seem to have with their voices - all these switch-ups between rat-a-tat stuff and sing-song warbles and growling and slurring and squeaky outrage. it's very nicki

but j0rdan otm about the craftsmanship too, these songs keep on giving

I don't remember if this Baauer/AlunaGeorge collab was posted elsewhere on ilm, but this song still kicks, too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tITYj52gXxU

yeah i remember it from...somewhere else and it's brilliant

ya this gets better and better

this could be us <3

This could be us could be pretty huge I think.

I don't remember if this Baauer/AlunaGeorge collab was posted elsewhere on ilm, but this song still kicks, too

http://www.youtube.com/v/tITYj52gXxU&fs=1&hl=en

― Evan R, Thursday, January 8, 2015 1:14 PM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i remember it from...somewhere else and it's brilliant

― lex pretend, Thursday, January 8, 2015 1:18 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark

you guys talked about this in the r&b 2014 thread

Usually those Converse/Adult Swim-style "we put three unassociated artists together; blog about us" songs don't hold much interest beyond a few listens but this one still gets me. It's like these guys are incapable of a throwaway

"safe sex pay checks" is so good... i love the sort of valley dude voice they affect on the chorus

this album is amazing

still processing this but holy shit "Safe Sex Pay Checks" RULES

makonnen and father are like the faulty disposed prototypical rae sremmurd's ... i like to imagine mike will building a frankenstein rap star and overdoing the babyfaced youthfulness on makonnen & having to go back to the drawing board ... then drake brings makonnen back to life by pulling the switch & he jumps up from under the sheet ... its alive! sort of, anyway

idk why but makonnen as the failed experiment from Mike WIll's Laboratory makes me lol

Just clarifying, but if makonnen is under the sheet in this scenario then he's looming

I'm sorry everyone

it would be funny if i'd actually misused looming

dont try to make this a running joke bc published author curse of ray tabano doesn't know what looming means

Good to see you guys appreciating Safe Sex Pay Checks - breihan weirdly wanted it cut from the album lol

makonnen and father are like the faulty disposed prototypical rae sremmurd's ... i like to imagine mike will building a frankenstein rap star and overdoing the babyfaced youthfulness on makonnen & having to go back to the drawing board ... then drake brings makonnen back to life by pulling the switch & he jumps up from under the sheet ... its alive! sort of, anyway

― deej loaf (D-40), Thursday, January 8, 2015 3:43 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

deej latin

imagining "rock like Billy Ray" is a nod to the writer-director of Shattered Glass

anyway this is great!

deej latin

― 龜, Thursday, January 8, 2015 3:00 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idgi

still processing this but holy shit "Safe Sex Pay Checks" RULES

― Simon H., Thursday, January 8, 2015 2:40 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Yno" has the best "heyyyy" backing vox maybe ever

u ain't got no life
cups loom with ice and we zing this every night

imagining "rock like Billy Ray" is a nod to the writer-director of Shattered Glass

This is one of my favorite movies fwiw. So good.

Swae Lee: He’s the one that gave us the big chance. We had jobs at Olive Garden in Tupelo,​ and he said, “Y'all, leave Tupelo​…”

Slim Jimmy: Fuck that shit, come to Atlanta.

Swae Lee: I’ll always love Olive Garden.

Slim Jimmy: I can’t wait to go in there and buy all I want.

Swae Lee: Those little breadsticks? Sheesh.

http://www.complex.com/music/2015/01/rae-sremmurd-sremmlife-track-by-track-breakdown/

what a glorious day that will be, when mike will hands them $100 each for their never ending pasta passes

"We used to work at Olive Garden... now we're eatin' at Olive Garden!" is like the saddest Rich Kidz boast

their awestruck reaction to nicki illustrates why her "throw sum mo" hook works so well, she must be a decade older than them at least so it's v much the boredom of a more experienced/jaded woman in the face of puppyish excitement, and maybe that's a better look than trying to out-wild them?

Yes.

Swae Lee: It’s like, “You’re my ex, but you’re playing.” It’s like the video for this is going to be crazy. It’s going to be not normal take you out to eat. We’re going to be out in space or something crazy.

Slim Jimmy: I’m going to be with my girl in space, then we’re going to go and play baseball.

Swae Lee: Let’s go to Applebee's. It’s going to be something crazy. Like, what’s crazy? I love Applebee's. Maybe jet skis. Maybe go to space. We have to make a video for this one.

They should make a whole mixtape about casual dining establishments.

word @ someone mentioning rich kidz. i keep thinking about them and travis porter when listening to this. sremm take everything those guys do well and put it on a bigger platform.

that interview is great too

ok i think i'm on board now, these dudes are fun

the album is great

ok i think i'm on board now, these dudes are fun

― gr8080, Saturday, January 10, 2015 4:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

much better

still have no idea wtf yr talking abt in half your posts itt but that's ok

you mean about the makonnen thing?

TOKYO DRIFT THRU THE HILLS

Line of the year imo

Having heard the singles, but not the album, I'm getting the sense that Slim Jimmy is more or less the Phife to Swae Lee's Q-Tip. Is that accurate?

It's closer to a 50/50 split than in Tribe, but I think it's a fair analogy if you take the most generous read of it, which is to say the Slim Jimmy is an essential player. He lands a ton of great moments; Swae Lee probably lands just a handful more

Lately I've started thinking of this more as kind of like a Beastie Boys album, in that it makes me wish I still skateboarded. And I think a lot of that punk energy comes from Slim Jimmy

swae lee is gonna have a solo career very soon

hopefully not 'very' soon tbh

"Unlock the Swag" is so amazing

The mix of "No Flex Zone" on the album sounds completely puny compared to the one I've been bumping for months? :(

"Throw Sum Mo" does have a bit of a Weird Science vibe to it, it's true

it's the same mix of "no flex zone" as far as i can tell?

i wish there was an official version with all RS verses and nicki's verse, nice that her remix was made official but no one needs to hear pusha t on it

the mp3 I've had starts completely differently, and the levels and even some of the synth textures are quite noticeably different

mmm hmm

it's the same mix of "no flex zone" as far as i can tell?

i wish there was an official version with all RS verses and nicki's verse, nice that her remix was made official but no one needs to hear pusha t on it

― lex pretend, Sunday, January 11, 2015 7:15 AM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well, the official nicki/pusha remix has new RS verses: https://soundcloud.com/raesremmurd/rae-sremmurd-no-flex-zone-remix-featuring-nicki-minaj-pusha-t-prod-by-mike-will-made-it

and there's definitely a version that just tacks the nicki verse onto the original with RS's verses intact, because i've heard it on the radio a lot.

"Unlock the Swag" is so amazing

― The Reverend, Sunday, January 11, 2015 4:52 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

Kinda jarring to hear the HUAHs of the nae nae on My X

UNLOCK ☠ THE SWAG ☠ THE SWAG ☠ UNLOCK

this is pretty corny

best rap boy band since... odd future

theyre biters too

they do have good pop abilities tho, or whoever writes their songs

extremely strong think they cute vibes

prob prefer them to drake as far as turn up music for kids who have finished their homework tho

odd future werent any good at writing songs though

they are def biters but thats how the game goes

yeah i agree w that mostly just if you go too far over the biting/influenced line it gets kinda uncanny

also swaggy teachers pet is basically my irl nemesis personality type

love "come get her" - or it's been stuck in my head for two weeks now which is pretty much the same thing

also swaggy teachers pet is basically my irl nemesis personality type

― lag∞n, Monday, January 12, 2015 11:11 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

interesting.

what

guess he never realised that's what the opposite of hater is

haters shall inherit the earth

academic paper on aspirational hater shaming

i feel like rae sremm are more akin to the jerk kids than odd future in terms of personality type, and much the better for it

yeah theyre not like exactly the same they just share an extreme unchill preening that todays pop music critical framework is incapable of engaging with

And the odd future comparison thing happened because... they're young?

see previous reply

yeah I'm still gonna need you to flesh it out a bit more before I'm capable of engaging with your post I'm afraid

oh well

need to know what lagoon thinks of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqnUn-5xKiA

ha poor lil dude i hope he figures it all out

is that one of those hot cheetos and takis kids?

ha was wondering same

playing webster hall tonight with Just Blaze and DJ Soul

every generation gets the Kriss Kross it deserves apparently

ouch

was that supposed to be a diss

do you like kriss kross lex

of course

i mean not that i ever heard any of their other songs

just like jump or deep cuts too ha xp

not entirely a diss, I mean they had some good singles but were also obviously gimmicky w a short shelf life and omg cuet etc

whoah I had no idea Mac Daddy died last year :(

Does 'I Missed the Bus' count as a deep cut?

pretty sure I still remember 2/3 of the lyrics to the first kriss kross album :o

2/3rds of the lyrics are iggidy tbf

true

shit lex you haven't heard "i missed the bus"?? classic

this is off a later album 2nd or maybe 3rd but anyway they did g-funk warren g vibe pretty good w/redman too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck5lYs9OZXA

that's the 'pls listen to my demo' by epmd loop i think?

http://pitchfork.com/features/guest-lists/9570-rae-sremmurd/

SJ: Patrón and orange juice. Every meal I eat I be like, "Can I get some orange juice?"
SL: Especially breakfast, man. Pulp is the best, for the record. You get to chew the little pieces.
SJ: I just swallow that shit.

this is pretty great too, w/brat & aaliyah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQHhoQOHXdo

Picking up a dollar copy of this CD is going to be my highest priority this week

The Kris Kross CD I mean. Those tracks kind of remind me of Black Sheep's Nonfiction

kris kross were dope smh

Rae Sremmurd is more like Young and Restless imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD6hfzUbKtA

Bars on a Cadillac Brougham!

Seriously, its such a better metaphor than the basic bitch KRIS HAHA REMEMBER ALL THAT WHATEVER HAPPENED TO LORI BETH DENBERG AMIRITE KROSS metaphor since Young and Restless were like sing-song melodies on top of the hardest Southern music at the time but w/e

I guess Kris Kross were actually famous, so I take back my snark

I'm in a pissy, spiteful mood today, ILX and I'm sorry I took it out on you

not really a metaphor but ok

xp

sing-song melodies on top of the hardest Southern music

there are maybe a couple other basic surface similarities you're overlooking that don't have anything to do with the music

xpost hope you feel better whiney :)

anyway now i've got "b stands for broncos bass BMW beat bangles and a pair of bars" in my head all day

feelin this later period kriss kross

hahaha clickhole in the same lori beth denberg internet funk as me today apparantly

http://chimg.onionstatic.com/6989/16x9/1300.jpg

Weirdly, Kriss Kross' most enduring piece of influence is that they did the source of "June 27th"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPTSHv4AQUw

the all-white look is pretty dope on that album cover

they did the source of "June 27th"!

via detour through a Texas classic!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtAxMpfy1uQ

or shit maybe June 27 is just the Kriss Kross!! anyway Knocking Pictures off the wall is classic

These guys are super charming and endearing even when they're being kind of gross and they really know their way around a great vocal hook, so it's a shame they're anchored to such boring beats because I find this album a massive slog even though I basically approve of them.

"June 27" predates "Knocking Pictures Off the Wall" by several years.

naw, the beats on this album are A+

i don't get how these detail-packed beats are boring

spare me the details

I only listened to the two tracks linked to the pfork review but they sounded pretty spare to me. "No Type" is basically just the piano at the beginning and then autotuned/reverbed-vocal + snare/claps.

also lol at the terrible last line of that review btw

echoing piano, the stuttering bass, the piano bit really only hits on chorus

the initial bit, that is

the beats are cool, it sounds really nice and pro altogether from a production standpoint imo

I watched a bit of an interview they did with Peter Rosenberg on Youtube because I was curious about what Swae Lee's speaking voice sounded like. Early on he told them people have been calling the the 2015 Kriss Kross and asked how they felt about it. Not only did they seem to take it as a compliment, they kinda seemed like they didn't see how it wouldn't be a compliment. I thought that was cool.

Ha I swear I read something else where they were really tired of the comparison.

that was when people were comparing them to Christopher Cross

xp Could be! That could even be why they reacted the way the did. Rather than fight it, they just act like it's a favorable thing and move on.

At 1:35:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq1vJ6rcU3o

They're full of detail, the consistency of tempo just bores me shitless, I keep wanting more momentum and bounce.

Like, it's fine, I recognise this stuff isn't for me and I have no right to dictate what it 'should' be like, I just don't want to listen to it, which is a shame because I like these guys and would like to hear them in other rhythmic contexts.

haha wut http://instagram.com/p/x7fj_rCi1y

Matt DC in still not understanding cut time shock. Like in what world is "No Flex Zone" anything other than full of bounce and momentum?

Dude I only studied music for fifteen years, I know how cut time works. It's just that other rhythmic choices made on a lot of double-time trap beats (chiefly when the bass hits, and a general lack of syncopation outside the hi-hats) mean I *hear* them as slow rather than fast. Like one of those pictures that are designed to look like two different things to two different people. That's why I'm framing this as "I know this isn't for me" rather than "why are you all listening to this bullshit?". In general a really technically great MC can make me forget this but the more nonchalant or goofy the vocals the more my brain goes back to default.

Actually I fuck with No Flex Zone (and elsewhere I also like Hookah and Lifestyle so I'm not totally immune to stuff in this vein), I just don't want to hear it in the context of seven or eight other tracks taking a very similar approach (the old difference between disrupting a groove vs being the groove again).

I keep meaning to start a thread about how people respond differently to the same rhythm or physicality in music because it comes up a lot but often it's not worth the derail.

Basically (and without wanting to get all maths and physics about it) if the bass is only hitting every four or even eight beats, and there's minimal syncopation in other areas, I'm going to hear it as a slow and draggy 4/4 rather than a fast 2/2.

Haha it's an interesting area though, for sure, although I tend to frame it in terms of dancing -- e.g. I was born in '87 & my peer group learned to bump&grind in middle-school; I have noticed many 90s babies lack this skill, but are much more comfortable getting busy to 4-on-the-floor eurotrance stuff that makes me confused & awkward (when I was a kid & Alice Deejay or w/e came on we either did the "Jump Around" dance or, at best, badly pantomimed glowsticking)

sremmurd is slow of course, but not draggy, there's so much space the way they emphasise the offbeat making it hang in the air for a second. in no flex zone it's built into the hook, the pause between 'flex....zone' is delicious, it changes the phrasing, I love it. the bass is more like a diving board to get it airborne, badoinging underneath.

the kick drum on "No Flex Zone" is some fantastic syncopated shit

I keep meaning to start a thread about how people respond differently to the same rhythm or physicality in music because it comes up a lot but often it's not worth the derail.

― Matt DC, Saturday, January 17, 2015 7:11 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Basically (and without wanting to get all maths and physics about it) if the bass is only hitting every four or even eight beats, and there's minimal syncopation in other areas, I'm going to hear it as a slow and draggy 4/4 rather than a fast 2/2.

― Matt DC, Saturday, January 17, 2015 7:40 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is very interesting thank u, u shd start that thread

otm, appreciate your insights, Matt

I encourage you to start that thread, Matt!

(and elsewhere I also like Hookah and Lifestyle so I'm not totally immune to stuff in this vein)

fwiw, neither of these songs are half-time. 95/89 bpm respectively

Haha it's an interesting area though, for sure, although I tend to frame it in terms of dancing -- e.g. I was born in '87 & my peer group learned to bump&grind in middle-school; I have noticed many 90s babies lack this skill, but are much more comfortable getting busy to 4-on-the-floor eurotrance stuff that makes me confused & awkward (when I was a kid & Alice Deejay or w/e came on we either did the "Jump Around" dance or, at best, badly pantomimed glowsticking)

― Eman Srebmud (bernard snowy), Saturday, January 17, 2015 5:51 AM Bookmark

this is way more true of witekids than the young black youth ime

Oh yeah, my frame of reference here is like 100% suburban tumblrwhites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02h49p7

i lolled

still loling @ dayo's Ree Drummond pic

i liked this album way more than i thought i would. it's maybe still the best album i've heard all month

are these guys piss freaks?

all my blunts, they stink like pee ("Unlock the Swag")
bitch uh pee... you so foul ("My X")

yes

are you playing dumb or are you now just catching onto rappers' obsession w/ scatalogical similies for weed smell

tbf its urological

well i'm roping shit/fart/piss/B.O. into one general umbrella here

https://twitter.com/youngthug/status/149946952107298816

the one w/out the no homo is funnier

anyway, timely discussion
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-future-song-peacoat-is-about-fashion-and-peeing-o-1681127546/+leshorn

great, informative post

Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?
He drinks Codeine so much he pees it out

Pee Mode.

Unlock the Swag is more fun if you hear it as "Allah, the swag. The swag, Allah"
― quan voice (voodoo chili)

am i wrong to think "unlock the swag" is a direct reference to
http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.33406272.0220/ap%2C550x550%2C16x12%2C1%2Ctransparent%2Ct.u2.png

yes.

enlighten me hawaiian swami

Idk they strike me as dudes who would play a lot of xbox

yeah but does their ghostwriter play xbox

(prob)

Sitting in a doctors office in Manhattan and the receptionist is plAying throw some mo on her phone

This is pretty much all I want in life

its a great song

yah I know

Sitting in a doctors office in Manhattan and the receptionist is plAying throw some mo on her phone

This is pretty much all I want in life

― 龜, Friday, February 6, 2015 5:41 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You want to be in a doctor's office?

waiting room swag

the dr will be with you shortly i said MAKE IT WORTH MY WHIAAAAIILLE

of all the beats ever made in human history to hear in a waiting room 'tsm' is so thoroughly appropriate i kinda almost wanna call bullshit on this anecdote

6 weeks in and I'm still listening to this 3 or 4 times a day.

love the way the chorus appears to start mid conversation in This Could Be Us..so back to what I was saying... Also "Girl, improvise, look me in my eyes and lie to me, lie to me, act like I'll believe anything"

As has been said by others love the detached boredom of Nikki's part in Throw Sum Mo and really dig the first verse in particular "can flick the money all night till my wrist tired, if you put in work this the night you're gon retire"

The chorus to YNO too catchy even/especially the SKRRR in the middle of tokyo drift through the hills used to hafta walk no wheels

http://i.imgur.com/6HNIzzq.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCHkdX1VrG4

maybe it's just swae ghosting kremlinology but i keep wondering if weeksy originally wrote the hook melody and then came back on for the remix cos it's an uncommonly natural fit?

but then "i keep a pedicured lawn so them snakes they will be dead", "tears of joy run down my cheek onto the soil, i would trick off on your bitch but she aint loyal", "my comrades", who would write such sweet things and give them away i ask u

havent actually listened to this lp in full for ages but i keeps 'unlock the swag' in permanent special reserve as monday morning turn up theme tune

aloha, aloha, luau, suit up

hasnt had tons of replay from me either but i love 'drinks on us'

yeah, I haven't listened to this album nearly as much as I expected to but the other night I needed to TOKYO DRIFT THROUGH THE HILLS

But what you riding in a spaCESHIP??????

to be clear i hadnt really meant to suggest the album's returns have diminished at all, i just tend to binge and skrrt as standard, if anything i'm more confident in this record than any other that its many thorough charms will remain on deck safely waiting for my return. anyone irl who's asked me whats good this year i always tell them that detlef schrempf

well it's the end of march so naturally this is no longer on loop but it certainly hasn't fallen out of rotation and every time i come back to it after a gap it sounds even better

Yeah this is my favorite album of the year so far. It's not in constant rotation anymore but it's the only LP this year that makes me smile just thinking about it.

Also the original, non-Weeknd "Drinks On Us" is fantastic, but the remix saps all the character out of it

yeah, I haven't listened to this album nearly as much as I expected to but the other night I needed to TOKYO DRIFT THROUGH THE HILLS

This is exactly what I think of when I think about this album.

i dont mean to suggest it's been disappointing or anything, more just a recording of the fact that i haven't felt compelled to go back ... doubt id be mad at it if i relistened

I listen to Yno at least once per day idk

still reckon Rae Sremmurd are actually a cunningly-veiled Autechre side project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ7Mu8YJbSU

oops, wrong thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwuVV07f8DY

"we even turn babies up"
"i said if i ever got famous i was gonna put some goggles on my head"
"what i do is i just wake up in the morning and then just jump off the balcony so i'll be awake for the rest of the day"
these are likeable kids

it has been very odd coming across references to them and realising with a start that they're meant as pejoratives

should I go see these guys play with Nicki Minaj and Big Sean in a Roman amphitheater this summer?

long as it's the oresteia

no clytemnestra, they know better

this Kingdom remix is horrible *throws up*

I'm bout to empty out the ATM *throw it throw it*

I like "Throw Some Mo," still getting played a bunch on radio, but it and "No Type" have some really pointless/stupid-sounding vocal inflections from these guys

I vaguely recall getting drunk on Saturday night and shouting 'NO FLEX.. ZONE!' at p much anyone within earshot :-/

I like Throw Some Mo too.

some really pointless/stupid-sounding vocal inflections

revealed as someone who does not live a sremmlife

My housemate often says 'nay dramas' as a substitute for 'you're welcome' or 'no bother', and it took me a while to grasp that that's not what the DJ watermark thing is saying at the beginning of sremmurd productions.

brb tokyo drifting through the hills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z1tedsWMb8

I've watched this multiple times since it's been posted and it is still one of the funnest things I've heard all year

Anyone returning to this as ballots get completed?

"Up Like Trump" turned out to be the prescient political song of the year.

I put it third on my last EOY list.

i think its one of the best rap albums of the year. seems to cover a lot of ATL trends/strands in a really good, fun, way thats better than a lot of mixtapes. i.e. its just sonically beefier/more polished a bit more.

I also put it third on my ballots. It's a perfect for what it is

its a better reflection of the current ATL stuff than people prob give it credit for. theyre also just a lot of fun to listen to as rappers.

they were supposed to release a new album this month

After seeing some rave reviews I checked out the first two singles from this record almost a year ago and didn't get them at all. Within a few months "Throw Some Mo" became totally inescapable at New Orleans clubs, and that song is a jam. Been meaning to check out the rest of the record for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZx5WXwNUVM

between this and "tears of joy run down my cheek onto the soil" i am ofc rly feeling new swae christopher lee. greatness

sort of bummed there's another ATL rap song that rips off the "u guessed it" beat but good song & great video

have they confirmed that you're supposed to say the name with a connery brogue?

i really have not ever thought of "the "u guessed it" beat" as some obvious signature thing i'm tortured by but maybe i'm just not that plugged in by chance

but also since caring about painfully lame overt biting is seemingly such an antiquarian pursuit now i think shades of familiar grey need no longer be called out like we used to

no ebro but it's still funny reading back about the unresolved ghosting suspicions upthread, i guess cos they remain unresolved p much? (also cos who really even cares tbh). on one hand totally justifiable because absurdly precocious otherwise, on the other who would this talented humble mystery man even be. and then there's the co-write on 'formation' where u can totally hear this fascinating hypothetical kinship between bey and swae delighting in trying out croaky / blocked sinus voices just for the sheer performative swag of it

j0rd otm about the visuals btw - i am rarely satisfied when it comes to vids and this one is incredible to me, could not be more appropriate

i really have not ever thought of "the "u guessed it" beat" as some obvious signature thing i'm tortured by but maybe i'm just not that plugged in by chance

― r|t|c, Sunday, March 20, 2016 3:07 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

there's 2 chainz "watch out" & bankroll fresh "walked in" (tho this one also sounds a lot like D4L too), d40 showed this one to me a month back https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIVzwAMM4Sk

anyway i don't really dislike it on a musical level, it's more that og maco seems like a bad person so i'm loathe to see his influence stretched any further. i'm just nitpicking.

Watch out feels more explicitly like a u guessed it rip than the others to me but

The producer of hit the Quan claims "by chance" was nicked from his record here:
http://youtu.be/R6XfHlMJVWM

no ebro but it's still funny reading back about the unresolved ghosting suspicions upthread, i guess cos they remain unresolved p much? (also cos who really even cares tbh). on one hand totally justifiable because absurdly precocious otherwise, on the other who would this talented humble mystery man even be. and then there's the co-write on 'formation' where u can totally hear this fascinating hypothetical kinship between bey and swae delighting in trying out croaky / blocked sinus voices just for the sheer performative swag of it

― r|t|c, Sunday, March 20, 2016 4:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ebro basically does this maddening self-defeating argument where he goes "this music isn't as good as you're saying it is" and then "if it is good, it's only good because there's a ghostwriter." like, say one or the other and stand by it if you want, but pushing both seems stupid. also the weird circular logic because a couple guys made an album at 19 and 20 (respectively) that reminds people of what the 13-year-old Kriss Kross did w/ acknowledged ghostwriters, it must be the same deal. and he just throws Mike Will in it as the mastermind even though he's only a little older than the Rae Sremmurd dudes and has never demonstrated any skill set outside of making beats.

if they have a ghostwriter, can i hire him plz

Even if they have a ghostwriter their deliveries are so inventive/effusive that it's still really, really impressive

aaah the "by chance" video, the colour scheme!

slightly underwhelmed by the sremmlife crew mixtape tho

Sremmlife crew tape is mediocre

i had never heard of any of them

i had no idea the sremms had a crew

Yeah, wasn't familiar with this until Lex's post but I'm kind of enjoying it? This Impxct dude has a really weird voice (like Young Thug wearing a mouth guard or something) and his tracks are fire. I'd listen to a whole tape of this stuff.

Huh, shouldn't read too much into this but Slim Jimmy is on 6 of these songs and Swae Lee is only on 1

I'm kind of enjoying it too. Not sremm life level but not exactly mediocre either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_2Eo0No_k

abel teswae

rae sremmorrissey

idk it's great though

i like this one. they're pretty ambitious stylistically.

yeah. the laziest sremm song is not very lazy

great song.

i think this album will be slightly underrated to make up for the first one being slightly overrated, based on a few random temperature readings ive taken

wasn't feeling 'by chance' but this is terrific.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkClJp0jSgA

god they're such cunts

what a shitty outcome for a rae sremm + lil jon song

Yeah this might be the first Rae Sremm I dislike. Stay with Mike Will, Sremm!

im ok w this just super tired of dj mustard

same ol same bassline

I've always liked these guys, until hearing this one and combined with the video I think a lot of goodwill I had for them has instantly evaporated, what a disaster

im ok w this just super tired of dj mustard

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Monday, August 8, 2016 4:39 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same ol same bassline

― Spottie, Monday, August 8, 2016 4:48 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for real

i don't mind the beat i just think the hook is really boring & useless

game recognize game

"Chinchilla hella furry!"

New album is awesome. Less consistent than the first but stronger overall imo. Their songwriting is so good. Their best books don't feel "borrowed" to me any more

guess they can afford not to go the librarrurd

when u say borrowed in inverted commas i'm guessing u just mean the writing has greater complexity (= borrows more intricately) and so deepens their idiosyncracy? cos (ignoring the precocity/ghosting gossip obv) i don't think it's ever really felt like something not theirs or artificially overlaid

Lol *hooks obv

Nah it's that the biggest hooks on album tracks (safe sex / pay checks and this could be us) both reminded me explicitly of songs by Ty Dolla and blackalicious (lol autocorrected to "blac malicious") respectively, to a degree that was distracting, regardless if they even were intentionally borrowed. (Unbearably A Boogie is recycling the blackalicious melody again)

those two were often used as arguments for the depth of their Pop bench beyond the singles--and they need that Pop bench bc despite obvious skill as lyricists they are fairly one-D as personalities (which is fine, they just love or die by pop's tools). This yes deepens their music in a way that hides influences but also there's just no record that uses found-hook-sound so blatantly like older ones to me

I liked the first Rae sremmurd a lot but felt little depth of attachment, via auteurist Magic I'm now coming around

that's interesting to me for historical white post-rap-college-nerd-white reasons. blackalicious, really?

'safe sex' and 'this could be us' are the definitive tracks from the album, with the best hooks? no

the other 9 tracks are full of auteurist magic, this exaggeratedly fatal "distraction" p much seems like u just feel more comfortable splaining them now they levelled up from sl1 enchanter to sl2 mage

can't wait til some pfork nerd arrives to tell us which smiths song gift of dab and chief xtendo are interpolating on 'black beatles'

Well that they leveled up is kind of my point

It's not like I was down on them on the record or something, I'm expressing my earlier reticence ex post facto

Speaking of auteur magic I quite like this as Swae Lee's evil twin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Cy-CsszhU

oh good -- Sunday morning listening!

Five tracks into number 2 and it's pretty flawless, so far. They aren't the hyperenergetic pixies that they were on the first Sremmlife but the darker tone suits them, they're still having a lot of fun and the beats still bang (Black Beatles goddamn).

If the second half can keep this momentum up, I can't imagine listening to anything else for the next month or so.

this album is incredible

The fun stuff still bangs, the darker/somber stuff works and somehow these two have still never recorded a flat-out bad song

Take It Or Leave It is basically a good version of White Iversons lol

this album rules

Black Beatles has so many little hooks, the ad-libs are perfection. listened to it like 3 times and have the whole thing m/l memorized

been listening for three days. "Black Beatles" and "Real Chill" are my jams.

Whats the sample on BB? sounds super obvious and its on the tip of my brain but can't quite place it

"I Am The Walrus," iirc

no way they paid for a beatles sample lol

Yes, that was a joke.

The beat reminds a little bit of "Letter" from the Kodak Black album: https://youtu.be/bZbj4x6RzIU

I can't understand ppl thinking the new one is a falloff

I can see some giving a slight edge to the first

i find the sound considerably more engaging throughout this

This is not a response to this thread more the ppl who have decided this one isn't as good as the first as if it's some kind of verified truth

I'm calling them about even for now

"chinchilla hellafurry"

:)

as far as ATL sophomore albums given an iffy reception by a fickle audience, it's somewhere below BOATS II and above Triple F Life.

lol, that's otm

i purposely restrained myself from overdosing on 'look alive' when the video/single came out so that i could jam the hole album front to back without skipping... strategy payed off big time

Agree BOATS II was underrated but this blows that album out of the water

From my view the album seems pretty well received though? All I'm seeing is excitement over it; where are people dismissing it?

Yeah, this is a cut above BOATS II - which was a very good album. This stuff though? They sound like they're forging their own genre.

love love love this album, zero disappointment at all

they have such an impressive range in every direction

All I'm seeing is excitement over it; where are people dismissing it?

― Evan R, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 10:09 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

it's gonna sell like 500 copies

was shocked to see last night that the last album went platinum

i think that's basically all streams for the singles

This stuff though? They sound like they're forging their own genre.

naw.

you can draw a continuous line from atlanta rap as it existed a decade ago to where rae sremmurd are now

yeaaaaah can't agree w that xp

Yeah, this is a cut above BOATS II - which was a very good album. This stuff though? They sound like they're forging their own genre.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Wednesday, August 17, 2016 9:15 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

huh, judging by my Twitter feed (not a representative sample I know) people are really juiced over it. Haven't seen anybody claim they've fallen off.

Feels like they carried a lot of the excitement surrounding their debut over to this one and that's pretty impressive imo. They're not gonna do Fetty Wap numbers but it seems like they know their audience and are reaching them

it's gonna sell like 500 copies

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, August 17, 2016 12:13 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well prob more like 20k but its sales are gonna be bad yeah

the question of whether its better than boats ii is kind of interesting (albeit pointless)

the first boats is a pretty bad album though outside a couple tracks. that the second boats seems better is in part bc of the wide variance in quality between the two

RS1 and RS2 are much much closer in quality. I will probably listen to the best songs on RS2 more than I listened to the best songs on BOATS II. They are both similar in that the singles undersold the albums although BOATS II even moreso (lol Feds Watching)

feds watching is a great song

"look alive" was a far more bizarre choice for a lead single

watching grown adults discussing rae sremmurd like it was literature is to behold the end of art

― imago, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 1:31 PM

Art needs to end once in a while.

And of course there are elements similar to a decade old ATL rap in what they do. Who wrote songs like Look Alive or Black Beatles even five years ago, though?

i feel like they fit pretty comfortably in some kinda nexus of post 80s kanye & future & gucci & keef etc etc

I'm Turrican up in yo hood

Actually I'm not gonna post here except to ask how yall deal with rae sremm's terribly progressive attitude to women

yeah idk they're like a fabulous marriage of Descendants and Kool Keith. They get away with their snottiness and for the moment they don't sound anomic or evil. I don't get the sense that they're forcing themselves on unwilling victims like I do when I listen to The Weeknd and Kanye, who are worse because they include pliant points of views. But they can't keep it up forever and I can imagine hating them like I do The Weeknd and late Kanye.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, August 17, 2016

added some words to my C&P but whatever

I get Travis Porter and Beastie Boys vibes... strip club skateboard party music with an auteuristic lean.

they're the ones at school who'd have pantsed you, called you a fat virgin and left turds in your locker

what school did you even go to

they're the ones at school who'd have pantsed you, called you a fat virgin and left turds in your locker

― imago, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 3:25 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

cool your jets, man

pls delete ur account

imago third wheeling trying to cock block

find it fascinating that imago sees them as jock bullybros and lag∞n as unchill preening swaggy teachers pets

these are the likeable nerds at school who practiced for six months to win the talent show

my complete thoughts on this band, now and forever, can be expressed as:

"oh, it's 'drummer's ear' backwards. how clever."

these are the likeable nerds at school who practiced for six months to win the talent show

― mh, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 7:59 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rizzle_Kicks

nah it's "ear drummers", they didn't think to reverse the word order

that's why every other song begins with someone saying "ear drummers!" enthusiastically

rae sremm album exec produced by dom passantino

what's dom passantino backwards

"do yoga" is the perfect end to this album

'just like us' is the perfect end to this deluxe edition

this thread is the perfect end to ilx

have you been on the Taibbi thread

"just like us" really pushes the envelope towards R&B. I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first but I think that's a sign that I do

All my favorite stuff on the album is the loud, obnoxious stuff, obv: "Start a Party," "Real Chill," "Shake it Fast," "Set the Roof," "Over Here"

ditto

i feel completely opposite

although some of those songs are good

All my favorite stuff on the album is the loud, obnoxious stuff, obv: "Start a Party," "Real Chill," "Shake it Fast," "Set the Roof," "Over Here"

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 5:05 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

this is the least surprising revelation i've ever heard

doodlebobwave lives

i ain't got no type
doodlebob is the only thing that i like

Whiney is going to evaporate and melt into the fabric of the universe when Danny Brown drops house System of a Down influenced album named after a Joy Division song, it's like the cosmos made something just for you

I'm very excited about that album

So am I tbh

i dont think ill like it but im excited to hear it if only bc it sounds potentially...something

i appreciate that he was like, fuck it, and doubled down on the rock critic pinterest board aesthetics

All my favorite stuff on the album is the loud, obnoxious stuff, obv: "Start a Party," "Real Chill," "Shake it Fast," "Set the Roof," "Over Here"

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 5:05 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

haha "shake it fast" hits every one of my spots, such a banger, but if it had been the lead single it might have seemed a bit generic? one of the strengths of the album really is how they balance the different things they do, and the variation even within the bangers/ballads - like, "start a party" and "shake it fast" are very different kinds of bangers, lurching and distorted vs choreographed dance moves, and among the crooners "take it or leave it" leans very r&b but i don't think you could say that of "look alive" or "black beatles"

it's weird to me that imago thinks they're jock bullies, they're lovable scamps to me. class clowns if we're going by high school archetypes. think they don't cleave to typical alpha male macho swagger that much esp compared to usual rap modes. it's much more about hedonism than aggressive assertion of power imo. actually i hear more female rap influences in what they do than with most male rappers.

they're the ones at school who'd have pantsed you, called you a fat virgin and left turds in your locker

― imago, Wednesday, August 17, 2016 7:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is more odd future to me

'shake it fast' and 'set the roof' are p much obv the two worst songs of their career, certainly more superfluous than any of the bonuses

feels like someone at the label maybe panicked somewhat idk. like if they had to have lil jon and juicy j on there for frat boys and whoever else is in a passé aesthetic quagmire then sure but they could have easily slotted onto several other tracks here instead of these boilerplates

(tracklist in general doesnt really add up either imo - series of pairs, kinda uncreative)

altogether i'm finding myself a little bit on the fence with this album... steps forward in small interesting ways but steps back in (deceptively admittedly) basic appeals, immediacy, clarity of vision

otoh this is so the cliche awkward second album that it's kinda comically endearing for it

"just like us" really pushes the envelope towards R&B. I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first but I think that's a sign that I do

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 22:01 Bookmark

i knooooow u do... i know u doooooo

odd future are the weird nerd psychopaths who'd burn your hamster and spike your juice with laxative. idk

damn fortunato, back at it again with the amontillado

one of the amusing ironies of the imago caricature is that swae is among a very few rappers around lowkey florid enough to occasionally insist on effete mannerisms like "small world all her friends know of me..."

"Set the Roof" is the album's worst, agreed, although I'm not fond of the extra tracks, "Just Like Us" excepted.

"over here" is the only one i find myself skipping, sort of tries a bit too hard

the poignant genius of 'just like us' is when it's built up your expectations for the big 'safe sex pay checks' anthemic chorus and then instead turns all the way down for "i done seen... stars... a million times..." ;_;

see lil jon would have been great on 'over here' to cosign the pastor troy karaoke

Over Here is the one that doesn't do anything for me.

i like "shake it fast" cuz i think the beat briefly touches part of the southern rap universe that rae sremm hadn't really visited before? like... kind of a early 2000s david banner sound? which is kinda funny since they're really from mississippi

idk i find the forward thinking records here a lot more meaty than much of the stuff on their debut in terms of creating a new coherent aesthetic that feels apart from everything else.

which track/what verse strikes u as a notable breakaway original

well im not saying they dont build on the general tools of the first one, it's not a radical break more a further push, but the verging-on-R&B melodics & harmonies. that ppl are describing this album as being "like synth pop" which no one really said about the first one. 'black beatles' 'take it or leave it' 'came a long way' 'look alive' 'now that i know' 'just like us'

I haven't heard these guys yet but their Puma ads are all over my subway and I find them really annoying, like just the most generic, warmed-over "lol old school amirite?!" looks and poses.

That and their name.

In fairness they did poop in LJ's locker

finally heard "just like us" today and looking forward to the 1975 cover

haha yes

fantasia sounds like shura

lol

This album... man... The first one had two killer singles and one really good single and some really good tracks, but this is kicking my arse on each one. Black Beatles is the current fave - 'she's a big teaser'

Black Beatles is the best song out atm. Wish it could be huge.

it's weird to me that imago thinks they're jock bullies, they're lovable scamps to me. class clowns if we're going by high school archetypes. think they don't cleave to typical alpha male macho swagger that much esp compared to usual rap modes. it's much more about hedonism than aggressive assertion of power imo. actually i hear more female rap influences in what they do than with most male rappers.

― lex pretend, Thursday, August 18, 2016 12:13 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ yup. just makes me think of hanging out with my best mate when we were 17, working on ridiculous music projects, smoking, drinking, mythologising and thinking we're the bollocks

http://theundefeated.com/features/rae-sremmurd-the-fader-photo/?ex_cid=story-twitter

Great read and important regardless of yr opinion on RS

It's a lovely article. But its relevance to RS extrapolates from literally one photo, and one that isn't without its ambiguities - how do you square it with the Set The Roof lyrics and video, for instance? My uncharitable reading is that the photo simply positions them as heterosex symbols in a particularly current way

people are reading a little much into a photo of two guys who probably used to take baths together

'Just Like Us' is remarkably sweet, especially for these guys. Love the line about 'seeing stars a million times/how come they only come out at night?'

Over Here is the one that doesn't do anything for me.

― human and working on getting beer (longneck), Thursday, August 18, 2016 1:47 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah this is maybe my 3rd or 4th favourite. There's some weird/interesting stuff going on with the vocals and that repetitive 'Aye, aye' thing. Plus there's that noise that sounds like you left the car door open. they used it on the last album but I can't get enough of it.

Just haven't been able to stop listening to this over the last week. It's such a step up from the first one, and that was a great record.

"roof on fire" is the first time I've heard scratching on a non boom bap throwback song in forever

https://twitter.com/annkpowers/status/775407953587400704

idgi

ask ann i guess

in any case, this was my reminder to finally listen to the new Sremmurd, which i will do now as penance.

(reading your comments with whiney earlier regarding spongedoodlebob rap evolution while listening to Start a Party is clearly the RIGHT WAY to get into this album)

wow so this is fucking great huh

http://media.giphy.com/media/efUcLJePY6RkA/giphy.gif

the bass is pure on this record

i'm not gonna lie, i just jumped around my kitchen a whole lot just now

Love this.

yeah i really ended up getting into this one, seems like giant leap over the first one

it's loads better than the last one, which is saying something

You love that spotlight
That spotlight that never goes out

^^^^ same

BLACK BEATLES | JUST LIKE US (rae sremmurd)

:-)

black beatles is the number 1 song on itunes o_O

also the number 1 song on spotify

Also the number one song of 2016

what a tune

the countermelody is more like beach boys "i get around" than the beatles

this tune is a real ear wormer

it's being used as the soundtrack to every 'mannequin challenge' video on the internet, which is some major viral shit.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/07/entertainment/mannequin-challenge-trnd/index.html

i cant believe how long it took for this song to pop lol

"black beatles" is also the best song title of 2016

it might blow up but it won't go pop

"Black Beatles" hits the Hot 100's top 40 driven largely by streaming, as it bounds 25-20 on the Streaming Songs chart (9.1 million, up 11 percent

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7541878/rae-sremmurd-black-beatles-hot-100-chart-moves

The duo's single "Black Beatles" becomes the highest-charting Hot 100 title to name-check The Beatles, by an act other than the Fab Four themselves, as it rises 41-38,

What Beatles song name-checked the Beatles?

This went to 23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsyfvYyxjp8

hey hey we're the beatles

Beatle You Can Drive My Car
I Saw the Beatles Standing There
Across the Beatleverse

etc

Let it Be(atles)

You will know "Black Beatles" has peaked when you start seeing outraged FB posts from Baby Boomers.

i cant believe how long it took for this song to pop lol

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Monday, November 7, 2016 11:33 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark

it actually hasn't been that long at all?

it hit the top 40 like two weeks after they released the video

the song came out in the summer & now its november, feels like a while to me

it has steadily risen up the charts over the period of a couple months like pretty much any hit but you should ask mike will why he didn't release it as a single until late september

amazed but so thrilled it's doing so well

would love for it to make the full pop crossover but not holding my breath

It sold almost twice as much digitally as any other song did today so I'd say a top 10 placement is pretty much inevitable at this point.
http://www.digitalsalesdata.com/diydsd.php?Region=143441

What's Your Favorite Made-Up Band Name?

The Harlem Beatles.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 13 June 2001 00:00 (fifteen years ago) Permalink

https://twitter.com/paulmccartney/status/796723111710298112

okay, for that alone i can feel warmer to black beatles now

are they still performing "up like trump"

They made a statement against Trump a while back

Nipping down the bookies to place an odds on bet of Black Beatles winning EOY

#onecanonlydream

whew! xxp

wondering whether to see these guys when they come to play in Jan. Worried I might be the oldest person there by at least 20 years though... Does it matter?

I saw them last year and they were amazing. But yes you probably will be the oldest person there.

You need to see them they are great

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7573655/hot-100-rae-sremmurd-black-beatles-number-one

Gucci Mane is number one the week after Trump won the election. The universe is working hard to achieve the right balance at the moment.

guwop and em just came in through the side door

this is like the only good piece of news of 2016

yep

'unforgettable' was probably a p cool song before it became an oafish french montana bodge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRYxxXGF68

fyi we got our own super legit bootleg sremms this summer thanks to man of the year plug harry http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-37376600

eurostep past a hater like ian woan

damn this is pretty great actually

doesnt rly reflect the current uk rap abundance at all but def an amazingly adroit industry punt

dont get too excited tho their follow up is called 'monster' and well yes https://twitter.com/youngtartist/status/793184304201404417

this is really nice

imo there should be a Black Beatles / Black Elvis tour
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d6/Black_Elvis.jpg/220px-Black_Elvis.jpg

went to a festival once where a 'black abba' were playing

The Black Sweden?

every time she contorted, i supported

https://twitter.com/RPMSports18/status/805821003100254210

so is "Swang" sampling something or just really reminiscent of a slow idm track?! it drives me nuts and I think it just sounds like something

I'm almost certain "By Chance" samples "Gammi" by Disjecta for the beat.

I am all for doing some research as a group, here. We can crack this producers into 90s idm sampling or jacking beats connection

I also suspect part of Kendrick's "HUMBLE." beat is lifted from the end of Autechre's "Augmatic Disport". Which would please them massively since they are hip-hop to the core.

'Swang' does sound a bit like Boards of Canada or Plaid or something. I wonder what that bubbly synth sounds like backwards?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAP47abpRMk

oh shit

idk this does nothing for me

All kinda reckless, I flexed it
keep the change, yeah, you heard me correctly

Perfect title & great song.

title, art and fonts looks like a 1993 edie brickell & the new bohemians/rusted band formed by students at a small midwestern liberal arts college

Well this is different. Hard to believe Mike Will produced this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxo3xSRctb4&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxo3xSRctb4

hmmm... not sure about this. fair play for trying something new, but on first listen it's a bit of a mess. then again, i thought the same about no flex zone, so

i like it

Eh... ditch Makonnen and I'd love it.

oh thats bad

"love" is like their take on "hey ya" and hoo boy

also:
http://valiantentertainment.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SM_RS_001_002.jpg

"I'm heartless and I don't need a donor" is extremely Wentzian.

unforgettable is crazy pretty *ducks*

why is/was this thread going on like "love" is a rae sremmurd song

swaecation

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeeGOg5h9Lb/

and a good three 6 mafia interpolation in 2018 would be a feat in its own right

Dope.

if this actually drops as a three album set I'm going to be ecstatic

this speaks to my interests

i'll admit i was a little nervy about the whole 'january passing without any sign of our promised sremmlife 3' situation but if they are actually gonna be the guys bringing triple albums back i am legitimately going to nut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK7JtrAog3U

Nice. There are also Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy solo singles out today.

powerglide is a 'side 2 side' remake

Yeah, hence the Juicy J appearance I guess. That's three minutes of Swae Lee before anyone else is called to the table, though.

i wouldn't exactly say it's a side 2 side remake. i really like it tho juicy's verse is def superfluous

How do you guys feel about the two solo tracks though? I must admit that I prefer the two (three, if we’re counting Pegasus) group tracks so far.

swae's track is nice but it doesn't strike me as a hit... not sure i ever needed a slim jim solo track tho

I think Swae's track is glorious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKmsXqz6qJU

Jimmi is very much becoming the Big Boi to Swae's Andre 3000, the solid and maybe even underrated rapper eclipsed by his more interesting, creatively daring counterpart. His third of the record is obviously the one everybody's least excited about but I could see it being a sleeper.

We're so lucky to have these guys.

i wouldn't exactly say it's a side 2 side remake. i really like it tho juicy's verse is def superfluous

― J0rdan S., Thursday, March 1, 2018 9:31 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the beat is a 95% rip. he uses the same melodies in his vox on the hook too. i like it too tho

well it is better than the original, so...

what no way

Jimmi is very much becoming the Big Boi to Swae's Andre 3000, the solid and maybe even underrated rapper eclipsed by his more interesting, creatively daring counterpart. His third of the record is obviously the one everybody's least excited about but I could see it being a sleeper.

uh let's relax here...

to me swae uses one bit of the melody from the side 2 side chorus to go to a completely different place... it feels more like genuine/inspiration artistry to me than pure "remake" especially when compared to that asap ferg song and whatever else

for some reason people put on their label a&r hats and decided swae lee had unique solo potential that slim jxmmi would never have even when they only had one song out. at least he had the best verse on "black beatles" i guess.

yes "for some reason"

'he had the best verse...' was referring to slim jxmmi since that wasn't clear

anyway "hurt to look" is the clear standout among this recent batch

yes, this reason, it is a mystery to me

I like jxmmi tho. they did a cool freestyle on radio that was going round last (?) year and jxmmi crushes it

He also did a Gucci track on Mr. Davis w/o Swae Lee and absolutely crushed it

sorry if swae lee's unique star quality wasn't so clear to me when only "no flex zone" was out, anyone flippantly commenting care to elaborate on what jumped out at you at that time?

damn im already tired of powerglide.

anyway "hurt to look" is the clear standout among this recent batch

― dyl, Friday, March 2, 2018 6:07 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is straight up challops

Idk why it’s so controversial itt that swae is a more natural breakout star: he’s better looking (seems weird to say that but it’s true and matters); he does the sing-rap post drake thing (sorry for crudeness of that description) and he seems more chilll and confident, whereas jim is more drugged out /manic and channels the bratty element of their sound more. This isn’t to say swae is better per se just better adapted to the current rap ecosystem. I love Jxmmi on their second lp especially, he sounds super hungry

he also sings the hook on every one of their hits and wrote one of the biggest songs of last year

co-wrote Formation too. He's been the chosen one since the beginning

do ppl not like "hurt to look"? like i would agree with the assessment above that it will probably not be a hit but i really like it much more than the other recent releases

to be fair I'll give it another chance, just not my thing maybe

i wanted to like "hurt to look" but it only has one melodic idea. i can vibe w/ it because it's very vibey but i rate it well below "sativa" as far as swae R&B goes

"Powerglide" was a big grower

love it

it's lit

yeah it's a really good song, ready to get sick of it during the NBA playoffs tho

maybe they'll play "Hurts to Look" during montages of the Celtics on offense instead.

'Slime green paint, peanut butter inside' - Powerglide definitely one of my pop songs of the year

Swae's "Guatemala" is a pretty forgettable "Unforgettable" rip. But still loving the flood of new material from these guys. Triple-album rollouts are fun

maybe they'll play "Hurts to Look" during montages of the Celtics on offense instead.

― evol j, Tuesday, April 10, 2018 2:46 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i laughed

'Powerglide' is the fastest five and a half minutes in pop.

it seems i have yet another objectively wrong opinion about rae sremmurd since i prefer "guatemala" to "powerglide"

'Guatemala' is terrific too.

Was underwhelmed by some of the tracks as they came out, but, as a group, this is really working for me.

i like “close” way more than “guatemala”

"close" is niiiiiiiiiicce

Based on its radio play so far "Guatemala" seems like it might be a hit, so I guess Swae knew what he was doing going back to that well

I'm a little peeved SR3MM doesn't have a release date yet but if that means that they just keep releasing two new song a week indefinitely I'm totally fine with it

swae
cation

feel like swaecation might be more interesting than good but "offshore" is amazing

emotional diddy music

“offshore” rules so much

I haven't made it to the Jxmtro section yet

A friend called Swaecation the 2018 Amplified and I'm inclined to agree. It's not bad, but a little one note compared to what I was hoping for.

oh shit, didn't realise this was out!!

feel like swaecation might be more interesting than good

feel like this is prob true, the songs themselves are kinda formless, but it’s a pretty mood to sink into. can’t tell if that’s why i suddenly think “hurt to look” sounds fantastic even though i felt relatively cool about it when it came out

I keep reading 'Swaecation' as 'Swaetcorn'

Jxmtro is the only side that meets expectations

They really spread themselves thin here. The first Sremmlife albums packed each song with melodic ideas, but Swaecation especially is almost stingy with them

even grading on the "it's a triple album what did you expect" curve this is really a disappointment :(

idk my current evaluation is it came out a few hours ago and i gotta spend more time with it

On my first playthrough and Swaecation sounds incredible despite its lack of hooks and stand-up lines. The panflutes and guitar tones!

The "chinny chin chin" line in Powerglide really spoils an otherwise great track

I like the sound of Swaecation but that sequence bores me, mostly.

This whole album feels a lot less... focused than their previous two? And I’m not just talking about the 27 tracks. It’s more... something about how they let their guests steal the spotlight on these songs, something that rarely happened before, even when they had great guests.

That being said, I really like all the group album tracks. And a few of the solo tracks. The 3-4 final Jxmtroduction tracks are good.

Swaecation makes me think of Charli XCX's Pop 2

SR3MM proper is the most disappointing disc for me. "Up In My Cocina" is a dull opener, especially by this group's standards, and "Bedtime Stories" is the last thing I want to hear on a Rae Sremmurd album.

Swaecation is hard to criticize because it feels like a hug and it's so sweet and genuine and I love that. But it runs the same basic idea or two into the ground, and I have a hard time believing these are the best possible songs Swae Lee is capable of. It almost feels more like a Future mixtape to me, a myopic snapshot of where an artist's muse is at a very specific moment in their career, rather than a landmark portrait that captures the full scope of his talents.

There's enough good scattered throughout all of these sides that I feel greedy saying I wanted more, but I wanted more. "Touchscreen Navigation" is perfect, though, and "Hurt To Look" is classic

Interesting. I don' think SR3MM's songs are at their best either (I like "Up in my Cocina" more than you do), but it's the one I listen to most while I feel a real dip in my enthusiasm when I get to Swaecation

My expectations were highest for Swaecation, because I wanted it to be a real Swae Lee solo debut and not just the bonus disc it essentially is. I don't think it cashes in on his talent or his buzz the way it could have, but once I balance for all of that I can at least appreciate that it mostly does what it sets out to do.

SR3MM though is just really unfocused and uneven and almost perfunctory at times. It feels like the disc the group shorted as they divided their attention across projects

I feel like Black Beatles was the sound of them arriving and this is the sound of them discovering that they now have to figure out where to go next. There's just less passion to it all. Like they're trying new stuff because they guess they have to and not out of genuine curiosity. There's a great yacht rock album somewhere inside Swaecation but it hasn't really left the shore. (Thugger does, obvs.)

Well I was expecting this album to be a bit patchy and disappointing compared to the last two. Especially after mixed feelings on Migos's bumper album and the fact I've already heard about a fifth of the album already.

I was wrong. It's a thrill-ride and great fun to listen to on shuffle. I've not really had time to check the whole thing out yet but there are already some proper pump your fist moments.

per hits magazine, failed to outperform the leon bridges album released the same week, even w/ streaming numbers added

they’ve never sold albums

That’s true. It strikes me as weird though. The singles aren’t exactly moving like hot cakes either this time around. Why aren’t the kids gravitating towards them? My initial lukewarmness had more to do with sky high expectations than with the actual quality of this album.

i thought they might buck that tendency post-"black beatles" and "unforgettable" but that is true enough

"powerglide" has actually been holding pretty strong, i think its peak position has been deflated by the crazy distortion of the streaming economy rn--drake to an extent, but mostly by cardi's album and especially post malone's album placing every song on the hot 100. if you look at spotify's weekly chart this week it's the 8th most streamed song on spotify not by drake, cardi or post malone... it's just that that means it's only the 26th most streamed song overall. (i think this is true for a lot of songs... "plug walk", "sad" etc.) "guatemala" and "close" were both on the hot 100 too prior to this deluge, i think things might even out in that regard as we get some distance from the carti/post malone albums

i like "guatemala" a lot

me too!

"powerglide" has more room to grow for sure but for now its hot 100 peak seems about right for how much exposure it seems to be getting, more "throw some mo" or "this could be us" than "no type". it is still a streaming-dominated hit and artists that are comfortably/consistently in the spotify top 50 are not really the ones being short-changed in the streaming economy lol. like yeah, big 'event albums' do shake things up a little but it's not tremendously different from when taylor swift would release an album and have every single track clogging up the top 20 on itunes for a week back when itunes was the thing -- basically a blip in the long run.

Whenever "Powerglide" comes on the radio it tends to outclass whatever comes on before or after, but I don't hear it on pop radio. It hasn't crossed over like 'Black Beatles,' so they're back to where we were exactly two years ago.

well, itunes did distort the charts but not in totality the way streaming is doing right now. itunes sales would shoot a song or two into the top 10 but not have 40% of the hot 100 eaten up by ~4 artists. it shortchanges pretty much every artist except those ones.