internet-hyped acts of 2011

"video games" is my favourite song any of these people has made, i also like "212" a lot (and to a lesser extent "gucci gucci"). but as an artist i care about hearing in the future, i'd vote azealia.

gucci gucci is the song i like most of all these. then i guess novacane

rip tyler, the creator

frank ocean is the male lana del rey

i knew i'd forgotten someone! xp

I think I would like Frank Ocean but finding dl's of his shit is a pain and all I've heard is Novacane.

voted kreayshawn

oh lol i didn't even know that apparently kreayshawn and azealia banks are twitter beefing

hahahaha

Voted Azealia just because she can go just about any direction from where she's currently standing. Frank Ocean has likewise managed to keep from being painted in any kind of corner. Lana Del Rey, Kreayshawn and The Weeknd all seem to have already shown their hand.

i didnt see it on there but this is otm
https://twitter.com/#!/KREAYSHAWN/status/154116878770515968

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/01/azealia-banks-takes-shots-at-kreayshawn-on-twitter

lmao azealia banks is a dipshit shocker

uh oh looks like there's gonna be a GIRLFIGHT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhBM7H-ggvY

D-40 Enters Banks-Kreayshawn Beef On Internet Typing Board - more

azealia cause i keep coming back to "212" for more. cannot get enough!! i love "blue jeans" but revisit it like never. kreayshawn is interesting cause she has the same raw disdain that azealia does but she just seems a little... annoying? or maybe a lot? i don't really get the accolades for frank ocean. sometimes i wonder if it's cause his songs aren't SO IN YOUR FACE and he actually doesn't seem like a jerk. but apart from those negative qualities.. i dunno. a lot of people i like like him though. so i guess i'm missing something. weeknd is sad comedown sex music for scenesters, the appeal of which i can totally understand but have absolutely no interest in.

actually that's not true, i like plenty of sad comedown sex music for scenesters. i don't know why i said that. i just don't like weeknd. i keep wanting to hit FFWD. hurry up!

azealia

i enjoy 'gucci gucci' but kind of in spite of kreayshawn and not because of her, and i truthfully didn't revisit it much
i like "video games" a lot but have been lukewarm on LDR's other stuff (i'd like to hear 'born to die' in someone else's hands)
not really bothered about FO or the weeknd either way

Kind of bizarre I'm saying this but Frank Ocean.

frank ocean for sure

hard to compare tho--do kreayshawn/LDR/AB have as much music as FO/weeknd?

frank ocean's songwriting seems kinda basic to me - not much complexity in his language or craft that i can see. a strong performer can sell it ("i miss you") but he isn't one at all.

tyler has had way more success & impact than any of these ppl -- he was really a hyped act of 2010

gucci gucci is the song i like most of all these.

"gucci gucci" was my #1 single of the year, but i'm skeptical of kreayshawn ever coming that close to a song that good

i really really like "212" and "liquorice girl" but i don't know... i think her eventual album should be pretty good, but it's a lot of hype off of one or two songs

i like 'house of balloons' but have no use for the two weeknd albums after that... the dude definitely hit on something that i like, but i'm not sure if he's talented enough to continually mine the same sound/themes over and over again and put out consistently good or great albums. i still have some tepid anticipation for his 'debut album' or whatever, but we'll see

lana del rey i couldn't care less about

i'm gonna vote for frank ocean... his mixtape is pretty good and i think there's a few really great songs on there. and i like "thinking about you" and "i miss you" a lot. i think lex is right about his songwriting, and i'd like to see him find his sound a bit cuz 'nostalgia, ultra' is a bit all over the place. and if he just has a pretty solid career writing songs for other people, his career will probably end up better than anyone else on this list.

the frank ocean song with the samurai was really really bad

i'm not even sure what you're talking about

"gucci gucci" isn't that great and of course everything else she has done or will do is shit but on the slim pickings of this thread she's king

dayo i think you're thinking of the tyler song he's on -- the hook on that is pretty great imo

it's this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmN9rZW0HGo

the dude definitely hit on something that i like, but i'm not sure if he's talented enough to continually mine the same sound/themes over and over again and put out consistently good or great albums.

the sad thing is that this doesn't have to be a problem except that he(? they? i missed when the weeknd stopped being 'an anonymous collective') have to drop a new album every 2 months or whatever. i don't really know why anyone besides a rapper would drop material that frequently.

frank ocean feels like a fake R&B star. I think I don't like him for the same reasons why people don't like the weeknd. AZ BANKS seems like the safe choice here because she hasn't really fucked up yet

tyler has had way more success & impact than any of these ppl -- he was really a hyped act of 2010

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, January 4, 2012 7:16 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

he's on par w/ the weeknd in terms of making unlistenable music tho

the sad thing is that this doesn't have to be a problem except that he(? they? i missed when the weeknd stopped being 'an anonymous collective') have to drop a new album every 2 months or whatever. i don't really know why anyone besides a rapper would drop material that frequently.

― we bought a zoo in a hopeless place (some dude), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah i have no idea why he did this -- some arbitrary decision to release a "trilogy" or some shit -- he should've just ridden his first album + 'take care' buzz and dropped a bomb album two months from now

i feel like it's kind of telling that frank ocean is on watch the throne and the weeknd is on take care, like the rap world cares way more about the kind of 'buzz' they have, the r&b world cares more about tunes and whether you can sing better than those jokers

I thought drake WAS the weeknd

the draknd

i feel like it's kind of telling that frank ocean is on watch the throne and the weeknd is on take care, like the rap world cares way more about the kind of 'buzz' they have, the r&b world cares more about tunes and whether you can sing better than those jokers

― we bought a zoo in a hopeless place (some dude), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:36 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well, frank on 'watch the throne' was more or less straight trendjacking, but then again they also had dubstep beats and production from lex luger and southside on there, so it's not an utter shock

people only know about the weeknd cuz of the OVO blog, so him showing up on 'take care' is a bit of a diff situation

it never seemed to me like drake is THAT responsible for the weeknd being well known, although obviously they have a pretty strong common ground in both locale and sound where the connection was almost inevitable

i still don't know what the weeknd did on "headline" -- the stupid 'they know' part?

i don't give a shit about any of these artists

i don't think drake specifically had a huge hand in the weeknd becoming well known, but as far as i know his stuff broke on the october's very own blog, and initially he def benefited from the confusion over whether or not drake and/or shebib were involved. people responded independently to 'house of balloons' but there was def a boost from the general cosign.

o well I only liked the weeknd cuz drake told me to, now I don't like the weeknd anymore

i like frank ocean cuz he doesnt think the moon landing happened

again tho if az banks or kreayshawn or LDR had a bunch of songs i might go for them, i just feel weird voting for someone like kreay who i basically dont think will ever make another song as good

voted for the white girl from Oakland

i love sad parties so i voted for the weeknd

o well I only liked the weeknd cuz drake told me to, now I don't like the weeknd anymore

― tracy mcgr8080 (dayo), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:50 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

well, this is a much better position than when you were defending the weeknd, so good for you

it's not that huge a diss on kreay that she'll nvr make a better song than gucci gucci imo -- i think i posted the same sentiment during last summer -- its more that it's *that good* a song

it's kind of insane that kreayshawn is still like this hotly discussed artist, all off of one song that nobody thinks she will top that peaked 6 months ago and didn't break into the top 40 or anything

i think it's less that she won't make a song as good as that and more that she seems to have no vision for how her music should sound after it

well don't forget that her friend says the n-word

dog that's not even true btw

xp

i talked w/ her publicist dude, the label basically had her criss-cross the country doing promo & radio interviews before getting her into a studio just this past month. they're making her into a celebrity before trying to follow up

which makes sense as johnny crunch said if u are trying to follow up a song like G

GG

well, this is a much better position than when you were defending the weeknd, so good for you

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, January 4, 2012 9:04 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

what goes on in the sandbox stays in the sandbox

and she has released a fairly decent follow-up altho no spot on GG obv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptzfL4og6fM

like, how is she a hotly discussed thing? b/c she got signed & they paid her to basically go across the country making her into a celebrity, gossip mag interviews, creating a profile for her. it's standard artist-building shit

we bought a zoo in a hopeless place

finest

waiting for the day an artist does a song referencing firefighters w/o trying to include something in the beat that sounds like a fire siren

lol had no idea u all felt so strongly abt gucci gucci

i'll give it to kreay because part of the "gucci gucci" vid was shot with my hipster hair salon in the background. i'm not sure she has much of a future, but i'm not sure how much i care?

i really like "rich whores"! just as much as "gucci gucci" i think. "212" better than either though

like, how is she a hotly discussed thing? b/c she got signed & they paid her to basically go across the country making her into a celebrity, gossip mag interviews, creating a profile for her. it's standard artist-building shit

― Regional Thug (D-40), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 9:11 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

right, i get that. but usually someone has an actual HIT to be able to ride this much publicity for this long off of one single. in chart terms the song was like this quick little buzz song that they should've been rushing to follow up with something bigger months ago.

lol had no idea u all felt so strongly abt gucci gucci

― lag∞n, Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:14 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

did i say anything abt how i felt abt it? u lazy zingin

right, i get that. but usually someone has an actual HIT to be able to ride this much publicity for this long off of one single. in chart terms the song was like this quick little buzz song that they should've been rushing to follow up with something bigger months ago.

― we bought a zoo in a hopeless place (some dude), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:17 PM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

except like we said they were prob concerned they couldn't follow it up, so the idea was, this girl has a pretty strong personality that ppl connect w/, so lets make her into a thing first

i voted 212 but now im kinda regretting not going w/lana cause making a super dire numbed out song complaining abt how yr boyfriend plays video games is kinda next level

lol ok sry not u deej xp

can't believe kreayshawn bottomed out so fast

― brazenly alive (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, June 23, 2011 7:12 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark

i really like "rich whores"! just as much as "gucci gucci" i think.

the FIDM diss made me lol.

The thing I don't understand about adulation over The Weeknd is that Massive Attack is still making good albums.

Btw I have only heard one Weeknd song so that is probably totally unfair but that's how I'm rolling in 2012 (ie just like 2011).

shocked at how little witch house there is in this thread

ok not really

i feel like it's kind of telling that frank ocean is on watch the throne and the weeknd is on take care, like the rap world cares way more about the kind of 'buzz' they have, the r&b world cares more about tunes and whether you can sing better than those jokers

― we bought a zoo in a hopeless place (some dude), Wednesday, January 4, 2012 8:36 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

Yeah, this kinda links into something that I've found odd about the reception of both acts. There's been so much focus on them having unconventional fanbases for r&b singers and indie people listening to them, when really, the first part is true but it's mostly ~rap~ listeners who make up most of their listenership, not white dudes with beards. I'm not sure I'd try to prove that by their appearances on a couple albums tho, or else like Marsha from Floetry and MMTS have the biggest rap-head fanbases of any r&b sangas ever.

Voting for Kreayshawn, obv.

*on a couple rap albums

Going with Lana Del Rey even though I'm 90% certain she'll never make a record as good as Video Games/Blue Jeans again. Azealia Banks has more potential but... I just don't like 212 enough, her flow is fine but the track itself has got this 2006 blog house remix vibe going on that doesn't really work with me.

Frank Ocean/Weeknd = boring. Could never be bothered with Kreayshawn because the kind of numbingly earnest standom she provoked here kind of wiped out the idea that it could possibly be a fun record.

It is an outrage and a travesty that there is no Rebecca Black here btw.

'standom'

from the moment i said i thought it was a dope song it's been p much a non-stop rush of negative press abt her & ppl taking potshots at me so i dont know why u would think anyone has stanned for her; the best i've said was that ppl were rushing to judgement considering she hadn't dropped much after that single

we've stanned for ~the song~ but this isn't even remotely comparable to the cassie fanclub

^^^ Point proven.

"her flow is fine"

her flow is off the goddamn chain

.....

^^^ Point proven.

― Matt DC, Thursday, January 5, 2012 4:47 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

\oO/ you're missing out bro

is that the emoticon for "the reverend rolls his eyes"?

xpost

Voted Frank Ocean as the default cos he has the most amount of material I enjoy. Kreayshawn had the best song out of anyone else on or off this list last year tho.

Like the day Deej posted it on gun sounds I must have played it at least 20 times, and I'm still not sick of it tho I'm kinda maxed out on the video now.

re: amount of material, i did consider making this a poll of their buzz songs ("novacane" for ocean) but couldn't be bothered to work out which specific song would work for the weeknd

though tbh all frank ocean and weeknd songs pretty much sound like each other anyway

last.fm says that last year i played "video games" 36 times (24th most played of 2011), "212" 34 times (26th) and "gucci gucci" 26 times (74th). sounds about right, god bless stats

I just don't like 212 enough, her flow is fine but the track itself has got this 2006 blog house remix vibe going on that doesn't really work with me.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 5 January 2012

Never heard this but the Derrick Carter put a real good (unofficial) rework of this on his soundcloud

Not heard any of the other cats

Oh no wait, apart from the video games song, I heard that

haha sudden recollection of playing it to you!

don't wanna open up a can of worms with this but there's something.. kind of... "white" about azealia's intonation on her verses. right? to the point that i actually thought she was white at first. not that i think that's significant or anything necessarily. this has probably been talked about before. but it creates a weird kind of frisson when she's throwing around the n-word, classic thug boasts, etc

at this point i guess the rev's "........." is implied

hmm idk about whiteness (though i've been aware of her for 2 years now) but, like kid sister, azealia's flow is one that strikes me as more suited to dance/house beats than to rap beats (see how well it worked over the derrick carter bootleg). their voices definitely remind me of each other. kid sister is of course another rapper disproportionately disdained by the ilx goons

shes awful, yeah

disproportionate to what, though? her extreme unpopularity in pop music?

i guess it's like, she doesn't sound like da brat? she hammers the "r"s at the ends of her words? her accent doesn't sound to me actually all that different from kreayshawn's but that might just be down to them both affecting the same sort of dripping contempt, i dunno

she definitely uses at least two registers of voice in 212, the second one which is def a parody of a white bro nerd voice

yeah that's it! it's kind of a wild choice

don't wanna open up a can of worms with this but there's something.. kind of... "white" about azealia's intonation on her verses.

why don't we make a pact in 2012 to not say shit like this

she sorta half jacks nickis style

No Pamplemoose??

man i knew i was gonna get busted for that somehow :(

do you mean i'm imagining that, dan, or that it's not worth talking about? or that i'm hearing it in the wrong way?

.....

I mean that expecting her to sound a specific way because of the color of her skin is nonsensical. It's akin to all of the buzz in 2008 about the hot new hip-hop artist Santogold.

So yes, I suppose I am saying it is not worth talking about unless you are really looking to have a 300 post conversation/argument about cultural privilege and unintentional prejudice.

i don't expect her to sound a certain way because of the color of her skin.

but i do expect someone saying things like:

"I was in the 212 / On the uptown A / nigga you know what’s up or don’t you? / Word to who made ya / I’m a rude bitch, nigga, what are you made up of? / I’m-a eat ya food up, boo / I could bust your 8, I’m-a do one too, fuck ya gon' do?"

to sound a certain way.

crazy right?

keep in mind also i'm hearing this in the context of a video where she's basically shouting at a white dude in horn-rimmed glasses

if you're hearing this in the context of a video where you can SEE HER, why did you say this:

don't wanna open up a can of worms with this but there's something.. kind of... "white" about azealia's intonation on her verses. right? to the point that i actually thought she was white at first.

well i think the question is is she fucking around w/a voice that she thinks codes white, cause the stoner voice in that song is def one you hear people imitating for lolz more than you like actually hear people speaking in, its a well known p clearly identifiable joke mode, tho obvs labeling it white is somewhat reductive as there are certainly many irl not white stoners who speak kinda like that

im just talking abt the one part where she speaks stoner so to speak

i'm nooooototttt surrrre that the way racial voice coding works for 30somethings is exactly the same way it works for 22-yr-olds but i dont really know

would for sure like to see some linguistic work on the tendency towards xtreme enunciation amongst young black americans, seems like an emerging trend

The larger point, as pointed out by icelag∞n, is that there are cultural archetypes more closely tied to modes of speech than broad racial archetypes, and it's both more precise and less offensive to speak in terms of "stoner"/"surfer" and "urban"/"street" than it is to speak in terms of "black" and "white", even taking the inherent dogwhistles within those terms into account.

dan the first few times i heard it i hadn't seen the video. now i have and if anything i guess i was somehow i dunno *relieved* she wasn't white? which i will admit is a bizarre reaction and one i feel uncomfortable with. but when she slides into that difft "register" and the nerdo white guy is there it points it up more for me i guess

btw i really like this song, its p fun and wild and half amateurish but still shows more depth of skills than the other poll contenders

hang on which verse is she meant to be doing a white stoner voice? she does 5 voices as far as i can tell

- verse 1, "i can be the answer, i'm ready to dance when the band up" - this codes kinda high school dance class to me, it's almost like a wram-up for the rest of the song
- verse 2, "i was in the 212" - laconic and contemptuous, really super-casual, like she's just leaning back and assessing you
- the faux-dramatic "ayooo" section which is really like a house vocalist, sinking into the beat
- "WHATCHU GON DO WHEN I APPEAR" - dance mc exhortations when the beat drops <3
- verse 3, "bitch i'm in the 212" - this is the really amazing switch-up because it's almost identical to the 2nd verse except instead of casual she's suddenly all up in your face, coming at you rather than leaning back

in my massively perceptive reading of her voice codes it never even occurred to me that she was doing "stoner" or "surfer talk" :/

verse 2, "i was in the 212" - laconic and contemptuous, really super-casual, like she's just leaning back and assessing you <<this is the stoner voice imho

oh okay, that kinda codes london rudegyal to me - the narrowed eyes and cool gaze. estelle x stush x mutya. stoner voice is sloooooower

it may just be that were from diff countries

wow this Frank Ocean Hotel California song is really... unfortunate. some of the better lyrics on the mixtape but ugh

212 was snoresville for me, don't care about her vocal impersonations - as someone else noted Nicki did it first and better

perhaps you enjoy neither bangin beats nor fierce rapping nor thrilling breakdowns

I say thee nay

it's completely different to nicki's voices imo - azealia's verse voices are only slightly different from each other, the difference is in slight tone and inflection rather than nicki pulling funny faces at you; and the bridge/chorus voices are in response to the beat (whereas nicki switches her voices up regardless of what the beat's doing a lot of the time)

like, azealia's switch-ups are still conversational in a way, whereas nicki aims straight for cartoonish

minor distinctions altho lol c'mon AB is totally being a cartoon

'fierce rapping'

she's very nimble and gets off some good lines. Liquorice beat/chorus is totally fucking irritating tho ugh. has a particular euro-house taint to it that I just can't accept, sorry.

pretty fierce to my ears

xpost

Pretty sure AB's album is going to pan out along the 'hype girl over hipster dance music' lines than actual hip-hop.

mmmm eurohouse taint

@AZEALIABANKS
♥ AH-ZEE-LEE-YAH ♥
P.p.s: I am not going to stay independent. I do not want to be the grungy hipster brown girl you all are begging me to be.
30 Dec via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

matt if she can put up the kinds of verses that are on 212 i'll be very happy with that album

xpost !!

AB's album is going to pan out along the 'hype girl over hipster dance music' lines than actual hip-hop

yeah this would be my guess

yeah Tim suggested MIA was the main comparison

i felt / still feel the same way about Galang, what a random-ass song to be 'buzzed about'

Azealia has this kind of indie almost Malkmus-y accent which is both annoying and great.

i have to confess a total bias in that it seems like somebody with skills is finally deciding to rap over techno and making it sound like it was always meant to be, which basically i have been silently holding out for since like 1996

did you miss the entire hip-house trend

i love house but house isn't techno!

*backs away slowly*

but yes i probably missed some good stuff. i'm not exactly a new music svengali these days

the "212" beat isn't a techno beat, dude

well it's sort of uk funky / electro which is close enough for me -- and "liquorice" is about as classic techno as it gets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HPKH3w9so

well okay, I wouldn't argue very strenuously against that but I thought we were still talking about "212"

They all annoy me to some extent but it's interesting to hear Mr. Ocean's voice. Kreayshawn probably annoys me the most - her voice really grates on my ears.

voted "anyone that isnt kreayshawn"

even with "212" - i feel like plenty of techno DJs could drop those beats into a set - the intro even reminds me of "circus bells - hardfloor remix"

thx to this conversation I discovered Definition of Sound is on Spotify, so win/win

i love house but house isn't techno!

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, January 5, 2012 5:27 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

*backs away slowly*

― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, January 5, 2012 5:27 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

fuckin LOL'd

i've been working through why i initially read one of azealia's "212" guises as white - rather than something else - and i'm not sure i have a credible reason for it

@AZEALIABANKS
♥ AH-ZEE-LEE-YAH ♥
P.p.s: I am not going to stay independent. I do not want to be the grungy hipster brown girl you all are begging me to be.
30 Dec via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply

― Number None, Thursday, January 5, 2012 9:06 AM Bookmark

first thing she's done that i find endearing (altho i think anyone who signs to a major who doesn't already have a huge fanbase in place already is a sucker)

maybe that was directed at XL?

I mean...

wait, why is that endearing? Like, I get the latter part of the sentiment, about not wanting to be some idealized hipster white audience thing, but why on earth is she tying that to independent hustle?

idk every public interaction -- including her publicly airing out her former employer -- just seems really unprofessional and shrill to me

not sure signing to a well-established indie label quite qualifies as "independent hustle"

vs. signing to a major? yes it does!

encouraging people to chase major label deals is just irresponsible

i said that

last.fm says that last year i played "video games" 36 times (24th most played of 2011), "212" 34 times (26th) and "gucci gucci" 26 times (74th). sounds about right, god bless stats

iTunes says I have listened to "212" 1457 times in the last month, I am suspicious of these stats

i watch tons of stuff on youtube, and sometimes if i open an mp3 it opens up multiple copies of winamp which means the plays don't get recorded, so my last.fm stats are completely bogus

yeah, i would like some method of knowing how many times i've listened to certain tracks on youtube

i think that wd require youtube to be something more than a hacked together collection of templates essentially unchanged since 2006, god bless it

if any mac ppl use "glimmerblocker" there's an optional filter to add a "download" link to every YT video. better than a plugin

youtube is like my most hated means of listening to music :/

youtube is better than spotify because it actually has the vast majority of songs i want to hear on it, but the sound is so shitty that i can't imagine using it as anything other than a first-listen resource, or if i want to actually watch the video. and now that every youtube video has an advert dumped in front of it it's even more annoying.

youtube stats would be negligible to my last.fm, though there's always hearing songs out in the wild at clubs, parties etc, by which measure "212" wins again easily anyway.

azealia's comments on xl and major labels are the first things i've read from her that endear her to me as a person(a) rather than just some girl who made a great song

i think its an actively stupid comment, would like to understand what you find so 'endearing'

The whole interview makes me love Azealia even more. I like my musicians to be mouthy, touchy, conflicted, provocative and funny. smh at someone who can't see why that's appealing.

youtube is better than spotify because it actually has the vast majority of songs i want to hear on it, but the sound is so shitty that i can't imagine using it as anything other than a first-listen resource, or if i want to actually watch the video. and now that every youtube video has an advert dumped in front of it it's even more annoying.

Love YouTube for this reason, that's all I want from it really. Will buy it if I like it. Actually prefer soundcloud because artist-run but I'm fine with youtubes way of being

Very rarely see any ads thank god, do they kick in after a certainamoint of hits?

Also the embedding thing I like because I can see I'm context right then and there instead of going to a new place

The whole interview makes me love Azealia even more. I like my musicians to be mouthy, touchy, conflicted, provocative and funny. smh at someone who can't see why that's appealing.

Lol I v rarely read interviews, kinda no idea what anyone is like outside of their records

youtube is like my most hated means of listening to music :/

― The Reverend, Friday, January 6, 2012 8:25 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm. Most hated, but often my most used.

lex, i think there's a plug in that will scrobble youtube plays for you

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/71606

if you have greasemonkey

if not get greasemonkey here - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/

then add the script

and there is this one too http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/110008

oh that is appreciated but i can't be bothered to futz around with technology and scripts and browsers and whatever just for the sake of a few plays

no worries. It only takes a few seconds but maybe others will be interested in it. I dont have it as i dont really listen to anything on youtube unless linked to or auto-embeds on ilm. I do have other greasemonkey last.fm scripts which are useful however

Frank Ocean over Azealia here but curious to see how 2012 plays out.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wrong

best results ever

proof that this board has the worst taste in music on earth

lol fuck kreayshawn

I would've voted for Frank Ocean, but I'm ok with Azaelia winning - "212" is a dope song.

That said, she comes off as extremely annoying in interviews & on twitter.

I like them all to some extent, but "Video Games" should be called "video lames" because it's lame.

xp to whoever said "Swim Good" was really bad.. you suck

"The samurai one" lol

Azari Banks on Kreayshawn:\
“As much as Kreayshawn would love to be considered part of this ‘rap game,’ she’s not. I guess a part of me is kind of annoyed that those white girls are making these songs, and it’s like if these girls were black and making the same songs would you be that interested?”

damn card pulled

what an arrogant dork

haha azari banks is sure to be one of the most annoying people of the next few years

er azealia. is azari her nickname? anyway she does come off full of shit in interviews.

i c+p'd that from something brainwasher sent me. i assume he was just using chat shorthand

while we're at it:

on Nicki Minaj: “The butt, the hair, the this, the that, all the other shit, like… As much respect that I have for her, we’ve seen you do this already, what else can you do?”

mizay-era nicki >>>> anything banks will ever produce in her life

proof that this board has the worst taste in music on earth

i don't see a weeknd/ocean victory here, which it would probably be elsewhere

it is HILARIOUS to me how butthurt az banks gets ~real~ ~hip hop~ ~heads~

she won the freakytrig 2011 poll incidentally

kind of feel like i spend half my time defending her to people who hate unreasonably and the other half grumbling "er she's not THAT amazing" to people who love to follow bullshit bloghype (see also LDR i guess).

haha these results are awesome

it is HILARIOUS to me how butthurt az banks gets ~real~ ~hip hop~ ~heads~

― irina-camelia begu (lex pretend), Thursday, January 12, 2012 4:20 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

tbf those quotes are idiotic as all fuck

Hope you're all looking forward to having this argument another 50 times this year, ILM! Might be worth holding off on it for a bit until she's at least released a few more records to be judged on.

tbf, even off 3 songs she's more fun to talk about than Madonna

most of the artists in this poll are testaments to how many arguments and blog essays people can wring out of 1 or 2 songs

idk why she's so pissed about real hip hop when she herself stated she's just using rap as an accessory when she's more into singing broadway

~real~ ~hip hop~ ~heads~

― irina-camelia begu (lex pretend), Thursday, January 12, 2012 4:20 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol yeah our problem is that she's not 'real hip-hop' -- dude shes just bad

keep telling yourself that!

opinions4u

I voted for uncle acid & the deadbeats

keep telling yourself that!

― irina-camelia begu (lex pretend), Friday, January 13, 2012 2:57 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're the one who keeps telling yourself it's about my authenticity issues instead of my already-stated aesthetic preferences for rappers who dont seem like arrogant jerks w/ knockoff nicki minaj rap styles

like maybe i wouldnt be catty abt it if you took me at my word?

and then we can agree to disagree re: those preferenecs

Wait, rappers who sound like arrogant jerks are a bad thing now?

Next thing you'll be telling me faceless techno is bad.

man azealia banks seems like a 'la roux'-level idiot. i don't dislike '212' and people go mad for it. i never really thought about her ~rapping~ too much. always just thought of it as a fun blog electro track. her rapping is alright i guess? doesn't make me angry but would need to hear a little more before trying to hold her up against rappers with hundreds of songs though...

can't remember if i voted but would've voted for kreayshawn or frank ocean.

and fwiw the reason why rap discussion is so great on this website is that people don't throw around terms like 'real hip hop' so please don't start now.

love these poll resutls

and fwiw the reason why rap discussion is so great on this website is that people don't throw around terms like 'real hip hop' so please don't start now.

― tpp, Friday, January 13, 2012 11:11 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

sure instead they use the valuable metric of # of songs

it's a more valuable metric yeah

i think that is a valuable metric tbh

i guess i think it's a weird almost technical thing, in which the focus is going to become 'how good a rapper' over 'how good is the track', which is fine & makes sense but which feels like a different conversation to me. & w/azealia there is however much there is to go on, like a few songs, & i can't imagine changing the conversation from 'how good are those specific songs', maybe that's me though bc i know there's interest in gauging potential or talent or w/e.

man azealia banks seems like a 'la roux'-level idiot

this seems very OTM, with a crucial difference being that her voice doesn't sound like steel wool being rubbed over glass

Has Azealia Banks said anything about women in violent relationships basically deserving it yet? If not, I'm still prepared to go with La Roux as being more annoying.

wait really? oh wow what a spectacularly clueless person

also gives "Bulletproof" a little extra ironic edge

for your edification

"There's far more ways to be sexy than to dress in a miniskirt and a tank top … I think you attract a certain kind of man by dressing like that. Women wonder why they get beaten up, or have relationships with arsehole men. Because you attracted one, you twat."

good lord

k i take it back

a compendium of la roux idiocy: http://poptimists.livejournal.com/725974.html

That quote saddens me.

I don't hear any Nicki Minaj influence on Azealia Banks personally. AB doesn't come across as a "girl rapper" which other people have mentioned here already, and there's a large stylistic difference between them.. Simply "using different dialects" is not enough to convince me that she ripped off any one rapper's style.

I just don't think she's particularly exciting or engaging; every piece of enjoyment I've gotten from one of her tracks has been tied to the music she has used, which has been lifted from elsewhere and is just as enjoyable in instrumental form

it's like the inverse of the emperor's new clothes, in that she is releasing some enjoyable songs where she is the least enjoyable/most easily ignorable part of them

It does kinda bother me, however, that she wasted no time before trashing other artists in interviews. Three of the artists in the poll options are chiefly known for one song (so far)... Not enough to merit loudmouth beefing.

nicki and azealia went to the same hs and were both active rappers when nicki caught fire iirc

"went to the same high school" does not equal "one artist ripped off the other's style"

lol Azealia is like 9 years younger than Nicki

a female rapper using funny voices in 2011 without ANY minaj influence whatsoever is like an early '80s metal guitarist doing a bunch of finger tapping solos and then saying "eddie van who?"

i'm not suggesting she ripped off nicki, quite the opposite.
What little i've heard of both women's early work suggests that they were both working this mode at the same time independently

Nicki's is more unique and original, whereas AB is a combination of elements we've heard before that does not include Nicki Minaj.

Whoever said Nicki is far more cartoonish nailed it. Azealia is uses different dialects but not for the purpose of "making funny faces."

well no, for her it's "making amused faces"

ok haha those are different styles IMO

I would never place Nicki Minaj in the AWK-influenced "party" category that Ke$ha is in... She is more party.

AB is more party that is..

"the party category"? is this an actual thing or total crazy talk?

no thats just what I say...

as if "party rock" could ever be a force in popular music, it is to laugh

well... Azealia rapping over dance tracks is going to make her music sound more like another dance artist's than a hip-hop artist's, but that sort of has nothing to do with what's actually going on with her in terms of both flow and subject matter, all of which is Nicki 2.0

Hey, I can be the answer
I’m ready to dance when they vamp up
And when they hit that dip get your camera
You can see when that bitch sets the pamper
And get in that young sister beacon
The bitch who wants to compete and
I can freakin fit that pump with the peep in
And you know what your bitch become when her weaved in
I just wanna sip that punch with your peeps and
Sit in that lunch if your treating
Kick it with your bitch who come from...
You knows where to get mine from in the season
Unless you wanna lick my plum in the evening
And flick that tongue, tongue d-deep in
I guess that cunt getting eaten
I guess that cunt getting eaten
I guess that cunt getting eaten
I guess that cunt getting eaten
I guess that cunt getting eaten

I was in the 212 on the uptown
Hey nigga, you know what's up or don’t you?
Wonder who made ya
I’ma rude bitch nigga, what are you made up of
I’ma eat your food up, boo
I could bust your 8, I’ma do one too
Fuck it
When you do make bucks
I’ma look right, nigga, I bet you do want to fuck
Fuck 'em like you do want to come
...you discovered I'm a 212
Cock-a-licking in the water...
Caught the warm goo and you do right too son
Nigga, you’re a cooler dude
Plus your bitch might lick it
Wonder who let you come 212, what do you...son
Fuck are you in to, huh?
Niggas better do run run
You could get shot homie if you do want to
Put your guns up
Tell your crew don't front
I'm a hoodlum nigga
You know you were too once
Bitch about to blew up to
I’m the one today
I’m the new shit too
Yeah I’m Rapunzel
Who are you bitch, new lunch?
I’ma ruin you cunt!
I’ma ruin you cunt!
I’ma ruin you cunt!
I’ma ruin you cunt!

Ayo, ayo

I heard you’re riding with the same tall, tall tale
Tell him I made some, made some
Saying you’re grinding but you ain’t going nowhere, nowhere!
Why procrastinate girl?
You gotta lot, but you just waste all yourself
They'll forget your name soon, name soon
And won't nobody be to blame but yourself, yeah

What you gonna do when I appear?
W-when I premier
Bitch the end of your lives are near
This shit been mine, mine!
What you gonna do when I appear?
W-when I premier
Bitch the end of your lives are near
This shit been mine, mine!

Bitch I’m in the 212
With the fifth cock nigga
Its the 212
Fuck your gun, dude!
When your goons sprayed up
Bet his bitch won't get him
Betcha you won't do much
See, even if you do want to bust
Your bitch ... and touch your crew up to pop
You’re playing with your butter like you do want to cock the gun too
Where did you eat too, hun?
And fuck him with your cutie-cue ...
What’s your dick like homie?
What are you into?
What’s the run dude?
Where do you wake up?
Tell your bitch, "Keep hating"
I'm a new one too, huh
See I remember you when you were the young new face
But you do like to slumber don't you
Now you blew up too hun
I’ma ruin you cunt!
I’ma ruin you cunt!
I’ma ruin you cunt!

What you gonna do when I appear?
W-when I premier
Bitch the end of your lives are near
This shit been mine, mine!
What you gonna do when I appear
W-when I premier
Bitch the end of your lives are near
This shit been mine, mine!

the first thing that leaps to mind when I read this is "We R What We R" and "Tik Tok", no question; clearly nothing like "Roman's Revenge" or "Did It On 'Em"

nah that's clearly more on the Andrew W.K. side of the party category

It's too early to tell, but since people want to talk about her "rapping" so much... Nicki seems more versatile, for example Azealia would absolutely not fit in doing a guest version on "Dance (A$$) (Remix)"

guest verse*

she's much closer to nicki than kesha, that's pretty obv

Yes but I don't see how the influence from Nicki is so glaring... She's also trying to cover lots of ground with one song, wheras Nicki appears naturally crazy and ends up showing off her talents by accident

i don't think she's really that close to nicki either (she's way closer to kid sister or domonique young unique and shit) but she did say that nicki bit her style or whatever it was which was just stupid

Ugh... she should quit being interviewed while she's ahead.

xp If it were up to me "post-AWK party-music" would be a valid genre. I don't care how ridiculous that sounds!

new banks

http://pitchfork.com/news/45104-new-azealia-banks-needsumluv/

the first thing that leaps to mind when I read this is "We R What We R" and "Tik Tok", no question; clearly nothing like "Roman's Revenge" or "Did It On 'Em"

the first thing that leaps to mind when I read it is "I hate it when DJP c+p's wildly inaccurate things off the internets" http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-angry008.gif

I heard "212" played out sandwiched between "Pon De Floor" and "Jump & Shout" on Sunday night.

It was like the DJ was responding to this thread.

I want to go to there

the second thing that leaps to mind is "you can suck it"

^ I can see when that bitch set the pamper

Her new song sounds like she stopped partying.

and started party rocking