Kendrick Lamar will kill your favorite rapper for money

also, j0rd, thanks for RTing my emoji pumpkin, dogg. Your tweet inspired it.

yeah it's kind of a bummer that a single guest verse so rarely has that kind of impact on a career anymore. now if anything it's about how many guest verses you can do.

― Victory Goon (some dude), Monday, October 29, 2012 9:42 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I know she was already established by this point, but Nikki's "Monster" verse sort of had a similar impact... I'm sure she would've still exploded without it, of course, but it was a defining guest verse early in her career.

yeah i almost brought that up, but i think that being the best recent example illustrates how much things have changed, in the sense that she was already pretty famous before that verse and got way more famous since then for other songs.

the recent one that sticks out to me is lupe on "touch the sky" but man that was a while back

also, j0rd, thanks for RTing my emoji pumpkin, dogg. Your tweet inspired it.

― croup the color of mayonnaise (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:20 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

ha, my boyfriend & i were dying at emoji pumpkin

j0rdan what the hell was that post

― Victory Goon (some dude), Monday, October 29, 2012 3:14 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

admittedly could've phrased the joke better

the recent one that sticks out to me is lupe on "touch the sky" but man that was a while back

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 29, 2012 4:28 PM (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, considering that was a lot of people's first-ever exposure to lupe, good call

yeah, but in retrospect it's not even a particularly good lupe verse

actually in retrospect might've been a top percentile lupe verse

maybe going back past "monster", i think nicki's "can't stop, won't stop" freestyle on 'drought 3'

not quite the same but that was really big (and good) look for her before she was famous/fully-formed as an artist... i think a lot of the 'beam me up' buzz came off that exposure

actually in retrospect might've been a top percentile lupe verse

― lil dirk (J0rdan S.), Monday, October 29, 2012 4:32 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, it is. considering how insufferable i find him now, i always really enjoy that verse when it pops up

apropos of nothing but listening to this "can't stop" freestyle and wayne says "all these other niggas pussy like dry sperm" which might be the most nonsensical wayne line ever

or he has the working knowledge of the female body of a republican

yeah that makes absolutely no sense...

Whiney, you liked The Cool though, didn't you? This album kinda reminds me of The Cool, only much better and more personal.

haven't heard the whole Meek Mill album yet but i like Caramanica's take on MM vs. Kendrick:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-and-meek-mill-rappers-with-debut-albums.html?ref=arts&pagewanted=all

that's a good piece about two modes of rap unfortunately pegged to two albums that don't quite fit the argument: the most immediate tracks on kendrick's album are way more memorable than most of meek mill's album (which just seems toned down in a lot of ways compared to his mixtapes, both wrt energy and storytelling)

Lex otm. The biggest problem with the Weak Willie is that it isn't very good at being immediate. My four year old daughter is singing along with the Kendrick hooks though.

not to mention that there's Beach House samples

lol I think we've found the molten core of Whiney's problem w/this record

seriously though Whines the response to this is your punishment for that "Baroness is the metal album of the year" wackness, enjoy every minute of it Mr Soft Metal Lover

looool

whiney's post itt was like the most considered criticism of this album that i've seen so far (more considered than my own, for sure)

yeah to be real I can dig Whiney's take - I don't agree w/it, but I'm not a rap head, I listen to random shit & bigger albums and this is the first one that's really grabbed me in a while - I liked the Schoolboy Q album, but not as well - the one thing I'd say is "overproduced"? what's that mean? didn't you rep hard for the Big Boi album?" - that was a heavy production job, this is more like "mixing it for the dudes with the headphones on"

I think "soft beats" is an accurate criticism but not really a jab (and that the Beach House sample is in this wheelhouse, too) - there's a smooth, deliberately soft west coast feel to this imo, it's shooting for something dreamy. (which makes the freestyle, as much as I dig it, seem out of place.) I know Whiney likes his rap HARD AS FUCK tho. The one thing I don't think can be fairly argued is that this isn't a really well-crafted album-as-album, it reminds me of early/mid-nineties "let's just fucking go for it" records

unrelatedly I have a baby on my lap and we're listening to Kool G Rap so whatever you got goin on in your life isn't as hard as a baby learning to say "4, 5, 6 is in the mix"

”fast life” of that kool g album might be nas's best moment

the one thing I'd say is "overproduced"? what's that mean?

i mean, i think there's a lot of like female choruses and strings and interludes for the sake of having having female choruses and strings and interludes. Like all this extra stuff exists to give it the feeling of "lush" and "cinematic," when, to me, it just seems like a way to turn an excellent 45 minute rap album into a bloated 69-minute "experience"

I think you are drastically overstating the presence of strings and female choruses on this album, considering that only three songs have a female voice on the chorus ("Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", "Money Trees", "Real", and in all three cases that voice is doubled by a male voice) and only four songs have strings on them ("Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe", "Money Trees", the second half of "m.A.A.d city" and "Sing About Me", and none of those songs have extended solo sections that show of the awesome cinematic power of the strings) and none of these elements actually extend the length of the songs.

strings and female choruses are awesome things

i love the sound of this album, i don't feel like much has been said about how purely pleasurably soft it is

"strings and female choruses are awesome things" - alex pretend da kid

I actually think what ppl are responding to is that this thing actually has a lot of space & air in the mix, it doesn't feel overstuffed like so much music now

I mean the kinda bloated concept stuff & sermons from granny signify overproduced but moment to moment the tracks are fairly spare

fast life” of that kool g album might be nas's best moment

― seasonal hugs (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 30 October 2012 13:29 (57 minutes ago) Bookmark

salaam remi norfside mix of this is one of the very best things

haven't heard that? link?

http://youtu.be/97GQMscedD4

Nice

always preferred this remix tbh: http://youtu.be/uqfP2MoKYz4

that salaam one is nice though. i love "fast life" but was never crazy about the original beat

can't believe DJP is reading a post totally literally, what an amazing turn of events for ILX

my point is that theres too many things that arent rapping on a rap album and it makes for a tedious, aggravating listen, especially when the dude in question is one of the best rappers working today

it would be a better point if you weren't using stupid examples to make it

Really sorry to hear about your tedious, aggravating listen, Whiney. Glad it's not contagious.

like, if your point is "I want him to tell his big sweeping story by rapping about it, not through framing skits", just say that

I hate to be the guy who's like "maybe if you have a long attention span this is a great album" but yeah. the interludes and all were entertaining, even engrossing, when I was lying in bed yesterday morning listening to the album in a good pair of headphones with my eyes closed. I imagine I'll find them distracting if I'm listening while I'm doing other shit.

it would be a better point if you weren't using stupid examples to make it

― Gandalf’s Gobble Melt (DJP), Tuesday, October 30, 2012 12:20 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lol, yeah your "He only does it in 7 of the 12 songs" argument really made me look like an idiot

always preferred this remix tbh: http://youtu.be/uqfP2MoKYz4

that salaam one is nice though. i love "fast life" but was never crazy about the original beat

― don't trust the lil b in apartment 23 (fadanuf4erybody), Tuesday, 30 October 2012 16:14 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah me either. i like the vinyl reanimators beat but i think salaam's melancholy gambino recasting stages it perfectly

I hate to be the guy who's like "maybe if you have a long attention span this is a great album" but yeah.

― Inconceivable (to the entire world) (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 30 October 2012 16:26 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

making generalisations to fit whiney in is fool's work. my attention span is fucking shameful and this album drew me in on its own by design

i agree w whiney that there are too many skits & not enough rapping (i like the softserve beats tho), but it's kind of like when he complains about not being able to listen to mixtapes with dj drops or low bitrates, the music that's there is still hot & i think it's kind of prissy to dismiss it on that basis alone, like spoiled kids whose parents have to cut the crust off of their bread or something

"too many skits & not enough rapping" wasn't actually his gripe at all though

oh noes a rap album with hooks and good production

his criticism is a rejection of the album's entire presentation, its basic framework, which is fine if he wants to dismiss it but doesn't qualify as a 'considered criticism' by that standard imo, its like when i had a friend who complained about the snares on cuban linx being too loud, or when a certain ilxor dissed the drums on anthony hamilton's debut

he said "most of the runtime is eaten up by choruses and bridges that go on forever, forever ever, forever ever... not to mention that if anyone this side of Lupe dropped a 69-minute "short film" they'd be laughed off ilx" & that's the part i was agreeing with, i don't think its overproduced, i like that the beats are butter-soft, dgaf about beach house samples, think his voice is cool

it's tasteful production that stays out of the way of the rapping but i don't know how much it's particularly good production