official liveblog rap album review thread

Albums only or mixtapes too? My friend gave me this over the weekend.

im gonna liveblog the 2 pistols album tonight

Nas - Untitled, n word, whatever you wanna call it
don't know if this is what you have in mind for this thread, all in one post or cut up into individual posts, but i thought i'd try and get the ball rolling

1. Queens Get The Money
Nice tinkly piano intro, this one apparently produced by that dude Jay Electronica that the URB type mags keep talking about that I haven't checked out because of the awful name, Baduizm, etc. Cool dramatic way to start the album. Are any drums gonna ever come in? No? That's cool. "I'm the shaky hand that touched George Foreman"?

2. Can't Stop Us Now
Big lolz @ "Aunt Jemima hoes, historic horseshit." The only Salaam Remi beat on the album, and kinda disappointing. Fuck anyone who says latter day Nas albums all have bad production and blames that on the lack of big name producers, SR did some incredible beats on those records. This one really felt short and anticlimactic, shouldn't have been second after a relatively low key first track.

3. Breathe
Big spangly cheeseball beat, this coulda been on Stillmatic or somethin'. Writing stream of consciousness about Nas is giving me dylannn flashbacks. I wonder what he thinks of this album. I don't even know what he thought of Hip Hop Is Dead. I liked it at the time, but I haven't had any desire to listen to it since then (and fwiw, I still bump some of Street's Disciple).

4. Make The World Go Round
If you asked me to name my least favorite popular rapper, R&B singer and production team in 2008, there's a good chance I'd say The Game, Chris Brown, and Cool & Dre. And here they are all in one song! Good job, Nas, let's get them in one place and then set the building on fire. Nah this is actually OK, all things considered. More cheeseball late 90s/early 00s vibe that I'm not necessarily complainin' about. Game's verse is even decent! Ugh Khaled just showed up out of nowhere and yelled WE THE BEST! Chris Brown again things it's OK for him to kick a verse like on that garbage David Banner song, stfu.

5. Hero
I think this leaked when I was out of the country a few weeks ago, kept hearing that Nas had a dope single but didn't really get around to hearing it until a little while ago. Not super nuts about it, but I might be getting there. Possibly the first non-disappointing Polow Da Don beat in forever, I'm trying to remember the last track he did that I really really liked, besides "Party People," which noone else seems to like. Chorus kinda reminds of the "When I See U" remix (the last great Polow track?), but not in a recycling/biting way, like he took that idea and did something new with it. Shame Nas has been dropping flop singles for so long that radio will ignore this like everything else he's dropped since "I Can." Fuck, that was SIX YEARS AGO.

6. America
Harder drums than I ever would've expected from Stargate. Still kinda zzzz, though. The choppy mutes on the synths in the last verse are pretty awesome and grab my attention again. I dunno who does the hook but surely Stargate could've found someone better, famous or not, to sing this shit.

7. Sly Fox
Chunky clunky guitar beat, sounds like it's gonna turn into one of those awful interpolations of some classic roc shit. Nas goes at O'Reilly but I dunno if he even does it as well as Luda. After that greuling last track on Tha Carter III it's almost refreshing to hear Nas do his pretentious faux-political babble: "Comcast digital Satan, the Fox has a Bush-y tail."

8. Testify
Cheesy skit opening, but song isn't as conceptual as I feared/anticipated. He sounds all scattered, like he's drunk or going off the dome in that way that you know Nas would be terrible at. WTF is this shit.

9. N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and the Master)
Man, ever since Toomp hooked up with Kanye it feels like he's just following his old formula, hooking a different generic soul sample to the same damn drums every time. I hate the way that cymbal hit on this (and on "Can't Tell Me Nothing," and on "Say Hello" etc) is almost as loud as the snare. For all the controversy-bailting same ol' bullshit like w/ Hip Hop Is Dead, at least this time he actually stuck to the topic/title for more than one song and to at least some vague degree has something to say this time.

10. Louis Farrakhan
The syllable patterns on the first verse here are sick, now and then he does something like this that reminds me why people went so nuts about Nas in the first place, considering I've first heard Nas in the Esco era and have only really known him as the guy whose new shit people always complain about it, always the disappointment and unrealized potential. On my copy this is called "Untitled," I guess the label squashed this title too!?

11. Fried Chicken
Perhaps the biggest reason I wish this album kept its original title (besides that Nas lost Nas lost Nas lost) is that it'd be hilarious if it had that title with a Mark Ronson track on it. Goddammit I actually kind of like the douchebag's beat on this, though. Why is Busta even on this song.

12. Project Roach
I like this. I think? Another really short song that just goes away too fast to leave a major impression. Nas is one of those guys that really needs to go in on a 3rd verse most of the time.

13. Y'All My Niggas
More semi-cheeseball jazz fusion shit for me to dig on. Might be lyrically one of the best on the album. Really bad vocal mixing on the chorus kinda fucks up the whole song, though.

14. We're Not Alone
The THIRD beat on the album by dude from Dead Prez, definitely the one of the three that shouldn't have made the cut. It is one of those songs that gets better on the last verse, though. Are those crickets in the background?

15. Black President
Another one that got leaked early and talked about a lot that I kinda missed when it was making the rounds. Not bad. It's nuts that as many great beats as Green Lantern has made, I can't remember any others that made it onto a major label album.

OH SHIT I GOT THE BONUS TRACKS, LET'S LIVEBLOG THEM TOO

Nigger Hatred
More rappin over piano with no drums. Paul Mooney sample > the actual song.

Be A Nigger Too
I think I remember this dropping as supposedly the single back when he still thought he'd get to keep the title? Didn't like it then, don't like it now. Verses woulda sounded harder without that stupid ass hook.

Association
Yet another song with stic,man! Is that Will Smith sampled on the intro? Shoulda been a Fresh Prince duet. Another one where for some reason I don't really pay attention to Nas's words until the 2nd or 3rd verse.

Esco Let's Go
Are these actual bonus tracks or just stuff from the mixtape that someone tacked onto this version I downloaded. I dunno. Anyway. Any reference to Esco-era Nas cracks me up. This beat is weird as shit, I like it.

those are on the mixtape - dunno if they are being released as bonuses

good review - im w/ you on most of it, i think game actually kinda kills the song hes on and it might be the sleeper-best track of the record

i totally agree about him sticking to the concept - its probably the best part about this record is its consistency in its almost Pac-ish politicization

altho again yeah lots of lol/wince lines thruout

i hate the chorus on 'hero,' but the beat is bangin

yeah, me calling a Game verse decent generally means it's probably actually fire.

okay --- T.I., Paper Trail --- we are go

"What Up, What's Happenin'" is a good opening, pretty intense. I can't help think of what Al said about the reverse perverse psychology of "hater" songs, though. T.I. seems on-point, the last verse where he argues back and forth with himself is great, and probably works the split personality than anything on T.I. vs. T.I.P. did.

Kinda like the half-assed, off-key singing on "Life of the Party". It works better than his somewhat more effortful singing on "Whatever You Like". Beat is laid-back with flutes, which is pretty much a guarenteed win in my book and oh shit it's R. Kelly. Kells is pretty much playing the exact same role Tip had on "I'm a Flirt", the second layer of smooth on top of the first.

Still kind of ambivalent about "Whatever You Like". Sounds like "What You Know" mixed with "Why You Wanna", diluted by half and then by half again. The choruses and verses barely distinguish themselves from each other and, not that I expect T.I. to go off on any vocal pyrotechnics, the song barely goes anywhere. Meh.

Hold up, liking the coda, even though it doesn't really do anything different.

"No Matter What" has grown on me quite a bit. At first I assumed it was another flop a la the "Big Shit Poppin'" and "You Know What It Is". Yeah, it probably wasn't a great pick as a single, but it's much better than the first two singles from his last album. The synth/organ sounds are great and T.I.-as-platitudinous-survivor isn't as bad as it sounds. The part towards the end, where it strips down to just strings and vocals is great.

"A Better Way" at first seems like a slightly inferior version of the "No Matter What". The verses are more concrete and the hook more universalized, though. The ghostly vocals? synths? are pretty cool. Glass bottle solo? Go for it.

I was hoping "Swing Your Rag" would be more of an uptempo club banger like "Bring 'Em Out", but this more of a street track with big synth-horn riffs. T.I. sounds like Shawty Lo for a second somewhere in there. This really isn't that great.

"King On Set" has more energy than anything since the opener. T.I. sounds pretty fierce here. B.G. is the wrong guest for this song. While his verse is fine, all the momentum dies when he comes on. His bridge later on works better, though.

Okay, "Done It Now" has an incredible, Godzilla stomping around, knocking down buildings, beat. What the fuck is that sample? I may just be thinking of this cause their thread got bumped, but it kinda sounds like an M.O.P. track.

Weird sudden shift in feel here. "Message to the Government" is deceptively largic, but a bit twitchy underneath. Tip is especially lucid, justifying his thug by appeal.

Despite how easily taken down "Swagga Like Us" is on the basis of most of the rapping and the lol sample, it still sounds pretty damn incredible, woozy yet triumphant, nimble and monolithic at once. And no one fronts on T.I.'s verse.

Instead of talking about "Live Your Life", I'm going to talk about how hot Rihanna looked at the VMAs in her little mini-jacket with nothing else underneath. Damn.

Okay, anyway, I feel so ass-backward because this song introduced me to the "Numa Numa" dance. I feel so oblivious. What? "The swagger of a college kid"? This is a better pop move than "Whatever You Like", as far as I'm concerned.

And "Like I Do" might be an even weirder pop move. The trance synths are much bouncier than most of those invading the hiphop airwaves, but the beat is otherwise pretty laconic. Tip is pretty laconic, too. The-Dream isn't really playing down any of his oddities. Pretty damn good.

And "My Life, Your Entertainment" might be where the crossover attempts run out of steam, Usher sounds as generic as he ever has singing the weak-ass hook. T.I. carries this off much better, though. The song is really hindered by the hook, and would easily be better off without. Usher justifies his presence on his bridge/verse at the end, where he sounds like he's actually able to be himself a bit. Damn that ugly hook.

Holy shit. "Let My Beat Pound" sounds like a Newcleus song played at half-speed. Second chorus in a row that doesn't work. Tip's verses are kinda undistinguished BS about how big his speakers are. Meh. He totally squanders the promise of the sonics.

hahahaha just realized this isn't the official tracklist at all

official liveblog fake leak review thread

sucks that some of the better songs here aren't on the actual release

liveblogging dedication 3 here

Stoked for the madness

dedication 3

i guess anyone can sound good over the art of storytelling pt 4 beat but all the no names here (mack maine, jae millz) sound real grimey. good look. meanwhile wayne's rapping in a total drugged up way with a lil bit of autotune in his voice and spitting some real C+ rhymes ("so hip-hop like two bunnies)"

dick pleaser

this one is awesome. don't recognize the beat (clown me here) but it's really spare and low-key which allows wayne to go off in these two word tangents in the really skittish way like he does on weezyana. on drought 3 i always liked him going over snap songs that let him just play around with flow ("all my guns knee high/m-o-n-e-y/that's what i rely/on, i'm gone"

always thought Jae Millz was one of the best out of that whole last generation of NYC never-gonna-bes, good to see he's getting a lot of shine off this.

ain't i

looking forward the most to this one but once the beat starts playing i just want to hear the young dro verse. jae millz is only an aight rapper dunno why he's on here. i guess jadakiss or whoever hasn't putting out enough mixtapes lately. wtf @ millz: "this is the dedication 3/ you can't replace we/ that's like asking a group of muslims where the bacon be". classic fecal matter wayne w/ in the first two rhymes. yeah this is retarded. wayne's not even rapping or singing. he could've killed this beat imo :/. raps too much about eating pussy.

the other side

la the darkman is not a good rapper. who is he anyway? none of these other guys can rap at all really but by virtue of showing up next to tweaked out wayne they at least sound pretty good until you start listening to tired ass punchlines about cheese. every wayne punchline here is "y like x". we must demand more in a post-obama era.

or in an obama era

just looked up the dick pleaser joint on youtube & the beat is off

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4uuyy_too-short-ft-lil-john-couldn-t-be-a_music

Like 4th-string Wu-Tang La the Darkman?

x-post

so madd la the darkman reinvented his former wu tang killa b-teamer ass as a dj drama aphilliate in atl - i sold dudes album back to the cd store back in 2000 for like 3 bucks and now its on ebay for 80 bucks

this was the joint offa that

he used to hang around ear wax records like every damn day back in 05 with these bootleg cd-rs but i guess dude is makin $$$$$ now

my weezy

the beat selection on here is totally on point but besides doing some cool things with his voice wayne is pointless. shanell sings but sounds like a ghost. im not sure if lil twist is a chick or 13 year old boy but either way this is hilarious. i think he just threatened to kill ppl who threaten his friend, lil wayne's daughter, who i think is 7. as for tyga, today i woke up really hoping to hear a bunch of verses by a second-rate yung berg.

she's a ryder

wayne on here is like "can't believe it" verse but more weeded if that's even possible. i thought it was funny when dj drama said "obviously there is more singing on here but wayne is in that zone". the palpable disgust in that statement alone was lol. gudda gudda is like mack maine with less personality and even less brain cells. can't wait to hear more.

still i rise (nikki minaj solo song)

over the no matter what beat. nikki minaj can really spit and even though she's not saying shit on here she's still way better than maine or millz or whoever. her verse on drought is classic. she sings the hook and it's really good actually. singing about nostalgia. this song actually hits but it just might be the verse.

La The Darkman is Willie Da Kid's older brother so that's how he started showing up on every other DJ Drama project

wow i had no idea that la the darkman had made down south comeback! crazy.

sunz of man on the next young dro album!

just might be the beat*

magic

more autotune raps. "i wanna fuck your head off and then fuck your ankles loose/the drink the juice". this vibe is kinda cool and wayne doing necro goth rap would be kinda cool given his drugginess if he hadn't been on this formless, sleepy tip for like a year or whatever.

whoever you like

excited about wayne going over this one in a world eating itself kinda way. more "cant believe it" style stretching words over like 5 seconds. "you could fuck whoever you like". jae millz talking about letting you fuck tyga. every hoodrat's dream im sure. fast forward through this bullshit

get bizzy

a tape of wayne going over snap beats would be murder imo. not so great on this one due to more autotune raps but i'm still down with anything that lets him follow his flow wherever. "im not talkin about fleas when i say im ticked off". it's come to this. more gudda gudda. this guy has a future if mack maine ever becomes the dictator of cuba and needs a body double

i got that gangsta (LA the darkman solo)

my version has it tagged "i goth that gangster" which is probably the most interesting thing about this one. you dudes will like this one. willie the kid shows up. i like this dude. interesting flow w/ that really bratty voice that young skinny dudes from NY have. "i know yung la/ the real young la" i lol'd

dick pleaser

feat. baby ?

jae millz talking about letting you fuck tyga. every hoodrat's dream im sure. fast forward through this bullshit

more gudda gudda. this guy has a future if mack maine ever becomes the dictator of cuba and needs a body double

lol

stuntin

over the banner/chris brown beat. our very own david drake shows up on here. not a very good rapper. wayne finally starts rapping over this one at the end. 40 mins or some shit.

dedicated (skit)

wayne basically says that every artist on young money is never dropping an album, and that we should check them out elsewhere, where they are assuredly doing their thing. then he implies that he's gotten head from dudes and then goes "i'm looking for straight beautiful women- nah im lyin"

put on

dj drama should be jailed for allowing tyga to rap over this beat. there's kind of a nice suspense built up to wayne rapping over this beat but if kanye straddled the line between using autotune as an emotive device and using it to ruin a good rap verse wayne certainly doesn't straddle that line.

wayne basically says that every artist on young money is never dropping an album, and that we should check them out elsewhere, where they are assuredly doing their thing. then he implies that he's gotten head from dudes and then goes "i'm looking for straight beautiful women- nah im lyin"

ok can you transcribe this in full

how is Kid Cudi in 2012 like the 3rd most popular artist on this label

bliss / john legend, teyena taylor

song number 2 off of legend & teyena's 'cruel bummer' mini-EP. this is apparently a full hudson mohawke production but it's pretty boring. i'm not going to sit thru this nonsense, my mom might like it tho.

how is Kid Cudi in 2012 like the 3rd most popular artist on this label

― some dude, Thursday, September 13, 2012 1:13 AM (18 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah it's weird. this really makes such a terrible case for the label as a whole. i mean it's okay just by kanye's sheer force of will but man the once you get past him the river runs dry really fucking quickly.

hahaha the kid cudi song is apparently produced by that fuckin guy who sang "hypnotize" over "umbrella"

i don't like (remix) / pusha, kanye, sean, chief keef, jada

jada's inclusion on this so puzzling to me, still. i don't really have much of an opinion on what kanye did to this beat but i like ye's verse on this a lot. THEY WANNA FIND ME NOT BREATHING LIKE THEY FOUND MIKE. anyway i think they added some ad-libs of pusha going "bang bang! haha!" i can't tell if it's supposed to be ironic or what

hahaha the kid cudi song is apparently produced by that fuckin guy who sang "hypnotize" over "umbrella"

― some dude, Thursday, September 13, 2012 1:16 AM (19 seconds ago) Bookmark

ha fuck i randomly heard this song at the gym the other day and almost purposefully dropped a 45 pound weight on my head

somehow this is only 12 songs. i'm truly astounded... in part because i'm not sure how kanye couldn't get CRUEL SUMMER out in the fucking summer when it only had 12 songs. but yeah this isn't very good, a lot of the songs sound cheap and messy. would've been a decent solo ye album tho.

kanye on "i don't like" is the worst verse of the year imo, i have no real opinion whatsoever of chief keef or this song but i'm kind of happy for him that he was able to get the original song's national profile up and out of the shadow of this terrible terrible remix

the 2nd DTP album is secretly the most redeemable modern rap vanity imprint compilation, was also the first time i enjoyed a tity boi verse!

i should check that out. underrated crew, obv.

kanye on "i don't like" is the worst verse of the year imo, i have no real opinion whatsoever of chief keef or this song but i'm kind of happy for him that he was able to get the original song's national profile up and out of the shadow of this terrible terrible remix

― some dude, Thursday, September 13, 2012 12:19 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yah otm the remix is garish as hell & ye's verse is an embarrassment

i do think pusha t & kanye rapping about club drugs is one of the corniest moments of the year. pusha t dropping ecstasy is so fucking funny to me for some reason. would put this song as my no. 1 of the year on principle if there was a remix where plies busted in for a verse right when pusha says "blue dolphins".

not sure if i lol'd harder @ this or at some dude staying up past his bedtime 2 read u liveblogging

also <3 this typo

golden sachs

eh today was like the only day this week i didn't have to be up super early. this thread is classic, though, don't knock it.

sarge do you have any opinions on who may have gone hard on any particular songs, and if so did any of them go in

after he takes a listen to the GOOD music album, he looks at it, and all he sees is more sound bites

that was great, j0rdan

It's official: I can save my cash for the Maya comeback

So thanks man, this sounds terrible

The funny thing is that some places (like Insound) were listing Cruel Summer as a Kanye album, I guess because they figured nobody would care otgerwise

tbf the single is credited to "Kanye West featuring" etc. and there's no name on the cover, so i can see how it'd get labelled like that

ah

sarge do you have any opinions on who may have gone hard on any particular songs, and if so did any of them go in

― la goonies (k3vin k.), Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:21 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

this is only for khaled albums :-)

♫♫the whole world is a couch/bitch im rick james tonight♫♫
♫♫the whole world is a couch/bitch im rick james tonight♫♫
♫♫the whole world is a couch/bitch im rick james tonight♫♫
♫♫the whole world is a couch/bitch im rick james tonight♫♫

pusha's not untalented but reverence for him always seemed bizarre and misplaced to me

― some dude, Thursday, September 13, 2012 12:54 AM (40 seconds ago) Bookmark

he used to be a really clever rapper but he's not even that anymore. he stopped being clever when he started rapping exclusively about luxury.

― J0rdan S., Thursday, September 13, 2012 5:56 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seeing as Terius is heavily involved in it, I think the Pusha T album will be really dope. Exodus 3:16 was good, and he works well on Dope Bitch. The question is whether or not Pusha will be able to carry a hit single, hence when/if it will ever come out.

nahh shoulda been fabolous on 'dope bitch' and any other terius track pusha t is featured on

otm

Well, Terius seems pretty excited about it, so it might well be special I gather. I do agree that Fabolous + Terius is a better match, but I'm not really mad.

fabolous and terius was a good match 5 years ago but i can't see why anyone would care now

there hasn't really been a point in time that fabolous wasn't a better rapper than pusha imo

to the world / kanye & kells

the only voice you hear on this album for the first 2 minutes is kells doing some weird vocal scale exercise. saw various ppl on twitter freaking out over this hook but it's pretty corny to me, and i don't really like when kells is trying to sing LOUDER than really LOUD modern beats. anyway kanye's verse on this is okay... there's some bits about golden sachs and mitt romney on this that might get people talking, but they don't really make much sense so maybe not. by virture of kelly being on this i'll assume it's one of the better songs. there's an uncredited female vocalist at the end of this in typical overblown kanye fashion.

― J0rdan S., Thursday, September 13, 2012 12:29 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark

I dig this song tbh, like it when kanye goes in on the feel-good vibes. but I have an unusual high tolerance for corny shit

btw kanye sounds like big sean on this

the goldman sachs stuff made sense to me? like goldman sachs = the 1% = holding everybody else back + mittens doesn't pay tax so why should ye

if you asked me who on this album said "the world is my couch/ bitch i'm rick james tonight," i would've had a lot of guesses before kells

pretty dope album on the whole imo. i like that it feels sorta disposable, i really couldn't stomach another MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY or WATCH THE THRONE right now

god the second half of this album is embarrassing. that keef remix is sorta unlistenable

it did, weirdly, make cold/theraflu sound doper than it did when i first heard it? thought that song sucked when it came out but now it kinda goes

don't know if it's depressing or comforting that kanye still thinks "a frew brews" is funny

def comforting

feel bad for Mannie Fresh that after all that talk he ended up with ONE production credit on the whole album (on a song with three producers)

the kid cudi song is one of the worst songs I've ever heard

and yet it's one of the best kid cudi songs i've ever heard!

otm

i think most of us dig this joint at this point? the bass & drums on this are just really cool. i do think pusha t & kanye rapping about club drugs is one of the corniest moments of the year. pusha t dropping ecstasy is so fucking funny to me for some reason. would put this song as my no. 1 of the year on principle if there was a remix where plies busted in for a verse right when pusha says "blue dolphins". in any event, fun to relive the one moment where it seemed like 2 chainz might rightfully take over the world.

― J0rdan S., Thursday, September 13, 2012 12:37 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is still otm but feels like it'll soon become kind of a quaint position to take as we enter the era of every other fucking rap song on the radio having a "molly" reference

yeah it's getting to be a bit much

jay's verse on "clique" is soooooo bad, have we talked about that

kanye's is worse imo

jay's attempt at doubletime is so embarrassing. it's like the rap equivalent of the slutty mom in "mean girls"

i dig every verse on that song

kanye's is just, don't do 32 consecutive bars on a single if your quality control is that low, no, stop it.

haha i like kanye's goofy-ass verse on that too.

was considering suggesting 'rolling molly world thread' for 2013 but i guess now it's too late

molly world is aite feel like the trend might burn out by then tho

all the better to be the name of the '13 thread!

can I just say that reading the Gorilla Zoe thread made me (re)discover "Shit on 'Em" and that song is hilarious

i think i can say with confidence that gunplay will never be involved in anything nearly as awesome as "gunplay ft. gunplay"

― khaled zeppelin (The Reverend), Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:00 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah obv

― hitler runoff (J0rdan S.), Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:08 AM Bookmark

damn, I really said that? my crystal ball was way off ;_;