Dangermouse - Moment of Clarity

Grey Album > Black Album.

Blasphemy? Probably yeah, but that just how I feel. Like don't get me wrong, there are amazing songs on the original Black album. 99 Problems, Lucifer, PSA, My 1st Song. However there are duds. Allure, Threat, Justify My Thug, Moment of Clarity.

Actually to call them duds would be inaccurate. The raps on these songs are fine, but the production is lackluster. Allure is probably one of the worst beats I've ever heard. The lyrical content is heavy, but the beats don't match. Its like Jay had been working on the album in his head for years, but the producers weren't on the same page.

What the Grey Album has (after the novelty of the Beatles samples has worn off) is cohesion. It shapes the feel of the song around the content of the raps that are already there so it starts to take shape. Even the use of the Beatles as a sample source gives the album a sense of weight and gravity to match the importance of the lyrics. This is Jay 'retiring', summing everything up and stepping away. It has a reverence to material that the original album didn't have.

This could also just be a product of context. I heard alot of these songs for the first time in the Grey Album form and got chills. When I heard the originals, I was underwhelmed. But thats just me. I don't expect to change anyones mind on this, just my thoughts...

But srsly, the Neptunes version Allure is garbage, so I'm also posting the awesome Ratatat version below. Enjoy.

Jay Z - Allure (Ratatat Remix)

Jay Electronica x Jay Z - Shiny Suit Theory

Finally new Jay Elect. While this one doesn't have the jaw dropping ability of earlier tracks like Exhibit C or Eternal Sunshine, it hits all the right pleasure centers. And that beat is crazy, like his old stuff with minimal drums and the rhythm is found simply in the ultra strong cadence of the raps.

Also Jay Z is showing interest in rap again. Not in the 'OMG i cant believe he signed Jay Electronica! reaaallll hip hop, realllll hip hop' wankery, but in the sense that he seems like hes trying again. Over the past couple of months, especially in his stuff with Kanye (So Appalled and The Joy, specifically) there seems to be a spark back in his voice, like he feels more energized, not trying to dumb down for his audience to double his dollars quite so much. What can I say, I'm appreciative!

Jay Electronica - Shiny Suit Theory (ft. Charlotte Ginsberg & The Dream)

So Appalled

So while I've been trying to not just write about every single G.O.O.D Friday track that comes out, its been getting harder and harder till finally, this Saturday morning, I couldn't help myself. Jesus tittyfucking Christ, its getting insane. I mean, Lord Lord Lord was crazy, I love that track except maybe the Swizz verse. Good Fridays, I didn't really rate, but then Devil in a New Dress was fantastic, vintage Kanye.

Now we come to the long anticipated So Appalled. Its simply crazy good. Jay-Z has a fantastic verse featuring some of his cold vicious logic ("What you rather be, underpaid or overrated?"). Kanye keeps his form on this with some amazing assonance along with good verses from Pusha T and CyHi The Prince. But the best moment for me comes at the very end with the RZA getting on his hype thing again. It comes as such a rush, that with the sheer multitude of verses, the dark and ominous beat and the cold aggression of the rappers, when RZA starts doing the chorus, its like being back in the 36 Chambers, without it ever seeming forced or hackneyed. Another good song from a G.O.O.D. series.

But what of G.O.O.D. Fridays themselves? Rappers have done stuff like this before, whether its a relatively constant stream of mixtape tracks or freestyles, a weekly thing, or even daily (like Freeways Month of Madness). Yet what we have here with Kanye is of a different breed. These aren't throwaway mixtape freestyles over the hot beat of the day. These are songs! These are originals with A List features. They're curated with dream lineups and striking artwork and design that sets them apart from the dubiously photoshopped mixtape covers that line the pages of Nah Right. Kanye has taken the breed of rappers that depend on the 24 hour internet rap news cycle to survive and completely son'ed them.

Yet that's what should have happened. Maybe I'm not getting the full picture cause I'm not on the ground in America, but it seems to me like there's a disconnect between these songs and the reaction Kanye usually gets. 70% of the tracks on here should have meant at the very least the internet should have ground to a halt. Yet it seems its business as usual, beyond the posts on the news sites like Nah Right and The Smoking Section. There's no follow up, no analysis, no real engagement with it. Maybe we've grown used to Kanyes crazy lineups, maybe we're just overwhelmed by it, maybe the songs are ahead of their time. Either way no-one seems to be coming to terms with it or admitting that most of the tracks that coming out of G.O.O.D. Fridays are a head and shoulders above everything else right now in rap, with a desire to sound like no one else.

It demonstrates the disconnect between the 'real world' and the class of people permanently connected to the internet (I am in box number two for sure). Especially for music, its becoming more and more evident that there is a huge gap. Many of my friends are fans of Kanye. Like Jay Z, hes one of those artists that's immediately accessible for white people, pop without being commercial. There is no uniform Kanye fan, they range from the casual who just get helllll turbo to Stronger, to those who got into him from 808's and Heartbreaks cause they could identify, those who exclaim (correctly) that Gone is the best Kanye song, those who can recite every word to his verse from Run this Town, those who don't drink the kool-aid and critique but still cop every song and to those who are simply 'Ye stans like myself. Its these broad spectrum of people who really really enjoy Kanye but simply just aren't hearing the new stuff. Whether it's due to the delay to reach terrestrial radio (about a month after Monster dropped I finally heard from my friend that hes 'heard the new Kanye song with Bon Iver and that chicks verse is crazy!') or just aren't as focused on the stuff.

Maybe thats the problem, Kanye despite being a guy who came up being a backpacker, from the underground, hes always been a guy who made songs for the radio, not to be searched for on the internet. And while every internet talking head will end up putting Kanye albums in their best of lists (Hi my name is 72) the reality is they're more focused on the new up and comers. And with most Kanye fans getting their fix through radio and tv, we wind up with this chasm where all this good music gets lost in. I'm so appalled!

Kanye West - So Appalled (feat. RZA, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Swizz Beatz & CyHi Da Prynce)

Kanye West - Monster

Wow. Just wow. Look at that lineup. Most of the time in rap, big track lineups are designed to be ‘too big to fail’. Yet mostly they do because we’ve seen so many huge ones over the years (DJ Khaled, I’m looking at you*) and they never really live up the to the potential that they had in the minds of fans. This one here differs for a couple of reasons. Firstly Kanye and Jay strictly regulate the supply of their verses to big posse tracks, hence they’re a hot commodity, something that will get left at the top of Nah Right for maybe a day if they’re lucky. Secondly Rick Ross and Minaj are veterans of the posse tracks; one who’s on a career high of form right now and the other has a habit of stealing the show. Finally the addition of Bon Iver is bait to the indie crowd, and even those of us whose hearts aren’t exactly a flutter at the news are interested to see how it turns out.

That’s all well and good for context, but how does the track sound? Awesome. Assuming Kanye actually produced it (I’m gonna say yes cause it sounds like the sort of drums he has been using these days), he’s had a bit of a return to form behind the boards. His production has seemed a bit wanting of late to me yet this track just works. Each rapper tailors their verses to the variations in the beat so everything sounds like it belongs and isn’t just tacked on. Even the Bon Iver parts that bookend the song sound like they’re crazy important and not simply an afterthought of a power mad ‘Ye.

In terms of the rapping, Nicki Minaj comes out on top, simply because she has that fantastic quality of someone who sounds like they’re having the best time of their lives rapping. Her extended verse is both wildly enthusiastic and completely off the wall, and it’s these qualities that allow her to outshine rappers who are far more skilled than she. Not unlike Kanye back in the day come to think of it. Jay Z gives us what’s one of my favorite verses from him in recent memory. Getting his Vincent Price on, he conjures up vintage monster movie images to explain his current situation in rap and since he isn’t saying UGHHHHH every single line, it’s a joy to listen to. Also of note, Ross’s** 10-second intro and Yeezy’s Napoleon Dynamite reference. All in all, it’s a wildly entertaining song that for once lives up to the promise of its lineup.

* Is it just me or is T-Pain going for that Wolverine look.
**Oh dear, that’s two Rick Ross related posts in a row.

Kanye West – Monster (Ft. Jay Z, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross & Bon Iver) LINK FIXED!