JoshJams

Reality Surf is a track off Bladee’s fourth studio album, ‘333’, released in July of 2020. The track was produced by Whitearmor and Gud. The title of the song may be a reference to the book series ‘Transurfing Reality’ by Vadim Zeland, which covers ways of looking at or creating your own reality in life. In my opinion, the song is about two people in an established relationship where one person is extremely whimsical and positive and the other is somewhat pessimistic, or at least seems so to the other individual.

What’s Rockin?

I really like the backing vocals by blade and Gud, which are slightly strained high individual notes with slight autotuned modulation on them. They really add to the innocent and fragile atmosphere of the song.

I also really enjoy the simple chip-tune melody of the synthesizer notes that underpin the track, they propagate a kind of retro-video game atmosphere that really fits the song.

The highhats and claps in the background also help to ground the song under the rap genre’s umbrella, and give the song a solid tempo to bop along to.

The lyrics are quite interesting and ethereal, touching on perspectives of life, relationships and emotions.

Bladee’s more low-key main vocals are great too, they really fit perfectly with the higher tune backing vocals and melody. I especially love the delivery of the lines ‘Cinderella, Cinderella wear it if it suits’ and ‘Listen to your heart’, which feel especially fragile emotionally.

Another thing I like about ‘Reality Surf’ is the high pitch (vocal?) melody that sounds almost like a remixed cat meowing that appear throughout the song.

 What’s Whack?

Nothing!

What’s the Deal?

‘Reality Surf’ is a song I really love for it’s innocent and fragile atmosphere and it’s amazing production, lyrics and vocals. Its animated music video’s great too and really leans into the retro videogame feel of the song, you should go and give it a watch!

‘I’m Goofy’ is the final track on Bladee’s 2018 album ‘Red Light’, and was produced by Whitearmor. The song touches on bladee’s drug use, trauma, emotional turmoil, and self-image.

What’s Rockin?

Bladee’s reverberating laughs in the beginning paired with the strange-sounding percussion and notes from a string instrument set a menacing and spooky scene which I like very much.

I absolutely love the stringed instrument that kicks in after the intro, and paired with the booming bass, high-hats and snares it creates an awesome backing for Bladee’s ethereal and robotically augmented vocals.

There’s some really great word-play and lyricism in this track, with each line landing perfectly with the beat and providing some great insights into Bladee’s state of mind.

What’s Whack?

Nothing!

What’s the Deal?

‘I’m Goofy’ is a great example of the Cloud Rap genre, with great production, lyrics, and vocals.

‘Simple and Clean’ by Hikaru Utada is the 2003 English version of her previous 2002 release ‘Hikari’. ‘Simple and Clean’ is different in both lyrical meaning and melody to ‘Hikari’ due to the difficulty of literally translating Japanese to English while maintaining the original rhythm and flow of the music. The English version in question here seems to surround a crumbling relationship, of which Utada is fond of but resolute in her desire to move on into the future either way. The songs were used in their respective regional versions of the hit-game ‘Kingdom Hearts’.

What’s Rockin?

I like how the song begins immediately with the punchy and dramatic chorus, especially with the loud, magical, and  twinkling boom straight off the bat.

I like the brief moment of silent after the initial chorus that really emphasises the downward leap in tone and vibe to Verse 1.

I love Utada’s emotional and delicate vocals, as well as her use of vocal vibrato at the end of ascending lines.

I really like the acoustic guitar used throughout the song, as well as the backing drums that give the song a hip beat.

What’s Whack?

Some of the lyrics are pretty cryptic and vague and seem disjointed from each other (eg. The one about having to meet ‘your’ father, and others that seem random), which may be a consequence of the song’s translation from Japanese to English.

What’s the Deal?

‘Simple and Clean’ is a great punchy and emotional track with great vocals, but some questionable lyrics may affect the musical immersion of those listening closely. 

‘Little Dark Age is a track from American rock band MGMT’s 4th album ‘Little Dark Age’ (2018). The track, according to MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden, is about “anxiety….the culture of crucifying and internet shaming” and the world of people who do harmful things to society and the intense guilt and shame they must feel “calling them out”.

What’s Rockin?

I enjoy the various layers of synth notes that underscore the track, and the fluctuating hard synth that kicks in for the choruses is great and gave great energy to the song.

I also really enjoyed the modulated deep bass guitar notes that are utilized in the verses, its deep and thick sound was quite satisfying to the ear, and the unmodulated version of it that’s utilized once or twice sounded great too.

Andrew VanWyngarden’s vocals were great too, and the various ways they’re engineered throughout the song added to the song’s atmosphere, for example the persistent reverb applied to his voice that’s occasionally flipped to leave a tinny and isolated voice to compliment the section of the song.

I liked the cryptic lyrics too, as they let you attach your own meaning to each line yourself, and add to the ethereal and almost spooky atmosphere of the song.

What’s Whack?

Nothin’ explicitly whack here!

 What’s the Deal?

‘Little Dark Age’ is quite a nice indie song in my opinion, and deserved the viral attention it got on tiktok.

‘CAN’T SAY’ is a track on Travis Scott’s 2018 album ‘ASTROWORLD’. The song heavily features Don Toliver and centres around the pair’s retellings of their salacious and intoxicated experiences.

What’s Rockin?

I liked the distorted guitar and wispy notes in the intro and throughout the track, I think it gives a nice and intimidating/eerie vibe to the song that fits with image the two are trying to portray of themselves.

I really enjoyed Don Toliver’s unique vocals on the track, and I think his use of exaggerated vocal vibrato and relatively high pitch voice added a lot to the song.

Travis’ trademark autotuned vocals with some added reverb added to the ghostly vibe, as well as the pitched shifted line between verses.

The lyrics themselves were great too and the execution by the two rappers was great.

The bass and high hats solidified all the other elements and made the song hype.

What’s Whack?

In the intro there seemed to be a random feint off-tune guitar note or two that made it into the mix that I don’t think was intended to be there, and it’s kind of distracting and harms the vibe.

The outro feels a tad underwhelming and deflating.

What’s the Deal?

‘CAN’T SAY’ is a pretty good song with a lot of energy and really brought up by Don Toliver’s fresh vocals, a great one to play while intoxicated to feel gangster.

‘A New Kind of Love’ is an unreleased track on the British duo Frou Frou’s first and only album- Details (2002). The duo is composed of singer Imogen Heap and producer Guy Sigsworth. The song centres around the singer’s uncertainty of their partner’s feelings towards them, and whether or not they’re actually falling in love with each other.

What’s Rockin?

I like the drum and bass paired with the piano and violin-like string instrument arrangement, it gives the backing an interesting contrast between modern and classical music.

Imogen Heap’s unique vocals are fantastic on the track, her fragile, soft singing and her switching to falsetto mid-line add to the sense of hopelessness and love slipping away that the lyrics bring about.

I particularly like the chorus, both the lyricism and Imogen Heap’s delivery of it.

What’s Whack?

The metaphorical use of brand-name butter substitutes in the first verse is kind of hilarious, and can bring you out of the vibe the song’s going for if you’re listening for it/notice the reference.

What’s the Deal?

‘A New Kind of Love’ is a great emotional song with a great atmosphere that fans of Imogen Heap will surely love, though since it wasn’t officially released you won’t find it on streaming services.

Alane is a track released in 1997 by the Cameroonian artist Wes Madiko, who sadly passed away in June 2021. The track’s title translates to ‘love song’ from Bantu, and its general message throughout is to dance together in love and peace and to enjoy the gift of life.

What’s Rockin?

Wes’ singing voice is quite unique, and I really like the trill and warbling of his voice in the chorus.

The harmony between Wes/another recording of Wes and the backing vocalists is great and adds to the feeling of unity.

The beat has a great upbeat rhythm to it that certainly helped it top charts in Europe, and makes the song great to dance to. The beat also has multiple stages it progresses through throughout the song which prevents the beat from becoming stale.

I also like Wes’ abrupt pitch and volume changes in the line ‘hé hé hémentourek!’

What’s Whack?

The female vocalist’s line of ‘Hé hi yé yé yé (bis)’ seems slightly out of place and more suited to a Hindustani style of music. It also seems contrived and almost like canned singing to me.

What’s the Deal?

Wes’ Alane is a great 90’s anthem with a positive and uplifting message that’s a joy to listen to.

‘Doomsday’ is a track from MF DOOM’s 1999 album ‘OPERATION DOOMSDAY’, which was Daniel Dumile’s first album released under the MF DOOM pseudonym. Doomsday is a track where DOOM brags about his rapping proficiency, as well as ‘explaining hip-hop rules; rules about rhyming; typical shit that you would normally do or don’t do’, in his own words.

What’s Rockin?

I love the samples from Sade’s ‘Kiss of Life’, especially the loop with smooth jazzy piano and airy wailing ascending synth note that backs the song paired with added percussion and record scratching. The beat is really pleasant to listen to, and was later released separately as ‘Saffron’ on Special Herbs Vol. 2 (2002).

Sade’s soft vocals contrast nicely with DOOM’s gruff rapping.

I love the lyricism on the track too, as well as the sharp execution. I especially like sound of the line “Stop and stick around, come through and dig the sound Of the fly brown cinco-cinco sicko psycho who throws his dick around”

I also like how the instrumental outro gets quieter before unexpectedly returning to a higher volume before the actual fade out.

What’s Whack?

(N/A)

What’s the Deal?

Doomsday is a smooth and satisfying listen, with tight lyricism that keeps you hooked throughout.

‘Rapp Snitch Knishes’ is a track from the late MF DOOM’s 2004 album ‘MM..FOOD’, and focuses on the foolish rappers that describe their own crimes in detail, essentially confessing to the police and leading to the record label that they and other rappers rely on being negatively affected.

What’s Rockin?

I love the production on the track, which was done by DOOM himself and previously released separately as ‘COFFIN NAILS’, the melodic electric guitar and bass work fantastically together along with the drums to create a relaxed and smooth beat.

The lyricism in the track is fantastic with great storytelling, humour, references and rhyme, and the delivery flows perfectly from both DOOM and Mr. Fantastik (a pseudonym for a still unknown rapper).

  What’s Whack?

(N/A)

 What’s the Deal?

‘Rapp Snitch Knishes’ is an amazing track from a fantastic artist with near unlimited replay value, a true top-tier song.

'range brothers’ is another collaboration between Baby Keem and his legendary cousin Kendrick Lamar with similar themes to Family Ties, being; fame, success and sexual prowess. This time, however, the atmosphere and intention of the track seems much less serious and in the latter portion even seems comedic.

What’s Rockin?

Baby Keem’s post chorus in part 2 of the song along with the start of his first verse had great rhythm, vocals and a solid beat with ethereal backing female vocals and violin that gave a proud and hopeful feeling to the section that I liked. The repetition of ‘Okay’ at the start of the lines of the chorus worked well too.

I enjoyed the third part of the song in which the beat, flow and tone dramatically changes triggered by Kendrick’s repetition of “let’s get this shit” and “top of the mornin’ “. This hilariously ridiculous change in the track paired with this Leprechaun persona never having been used by Kendrick in the past led to this snippet of the song going viral.

Kendrick’s interjections after Keem’s lines in the last verse were quite funny too.

What’s Whack?

Baby Keem’s autotuned whiny vocals got pretty hard to listen to at points of the track, notably the repetition of ‘I need a girlfriend’.

At other points his enunciation of words went beyond whiny and deformed almost into baby noises, notably the last line in his first verse. This may fit his stage-name but I wasn’t a fan.

This also applied to some of Kendrick’s lines too, like ‘Fuck that, let me get some too’ in verse 2.

What’s the Deal?

'range brothers’ is a track that I mainly listened to for Kendrick’s ‘top of the mornin’ lines like a lot of people, and I struggle to enjoy it much past the comedic bits, though it has good elements.

‘family ties’ is the first official collaboration release between up-and coming rapper Baby Keem and his hugely famous cousin Kendrick Lamar. The track centres around Baby Keem’s comeup in the rap game and his rise to fame, as well as Kendrick’s assertion of his undisputed place at the top of rap and his prophethood to both rap and the African American community.

What’s Rockin?

The retro looped sample in the intro with the shrill pedal-steel-like note sounds great and complemented Keem’s vocals and the heavy bass.

I really liked the “beat ‘em up, beat ‘em up, beat ‘em up” line where the bass and sample repeated, and I think it split up the first section verse nicely.

I liked how after a period of just vocals the first verse entered a second phase with totally different, more modern rap backing. This added some extra variety to Keem’s verse even though he continued through the transition impressively without even taking a breath.

With Kendrick’s verse comes another phase in the backing, one that is more similar to a drill beat with a base of bass beats paired with distorted condensed and boosted bass and snares.

I also really liked Kendrick’s sudden switches to a Southern US accent, especially in the line “I'm trippin', I'm juugin', my mental is amazing, brother- Pop off, only on occasions, brother” where the switch is especially distinct due to Kendrick’s high pitched vocals instantaneously cutting to a low pitched southern version of himself.

What’s Whack?

I thought that Keem’s shrill voice became slightly fatiguing to listen to by the end of his verse, even with the drastic shift in the backing track to mix things up.

Some of the vocal lines in the track seemed disconnected and separated from the backing to me (notably the line “I answer to Metatron and Gabriel”, though I’m not sure if this is due to reverb in the recording environment or an audio production issue/decision to ensure the vocals were as crisp and intelligible as possible.

What’s the Deal?

Overall, I really enjoyed ‘family ties’ and I think it’s a solid return to the spotlight for Kendrick, and was impressed by Baby Keem’s confidence and execution with Kendrick being on the track.

I give ‘family ties’ 7.5 jams out of 10!

The track ‘Jail’ from Kanye West’s DONDA is an expression of West’s reaction to his highly publicised divorce from Kim Kardashian, and his own prediction of a deepening mental spiral as a result. Without his wife, Kanye looks to God for support and for him to metaphorically ‘post his bail’ from his mental prison.

What’s Rockin?

I’m a big fan of the rich and intimidating synth (possibly heavily modulated electric guitar?) notes that underpin the track, and paired with more sustained higher pitch electric guitar-esque synths create a determined but vulnerable atmosphere for the song.

I liked Kanye’s vocals both in lyricism and delivery, especially in harmony with the choir for certain pivotal lines.

The interweaving of Kanye and Dem Jointz’ vocals in verse 2 sounds fantastic to me, and is probably the high-point of the song for me, specifically the line ‘You made a choice that’s your bad, single life ain’t so bad’.

What’s Whack?

I wasn’t a huge fan of Jay-Z’s verse in the track, as I generally disliked his style of delivery and I perceived a lack of satisfying rhythm, thought this is likely purely subjective. I didn’t particularly enjoy his lyricism either, though the double entendre of the line ‘Pray five times a day, so many felonies’ (fell-on-knees) was clever.

The strong synths can also be fatiguing to listen to over repeated listens of the song, and can feel slightly repetitive by the time the outro drums section starts.

What’s The Deal?

Overall, I think that West’s ‘Jail’ is a decent song containing a lot of strong emotion within the lyrics and composition, with some high points I really enjoy. The song is dragged down for me however by Jay-Z’s verse and a sense of stagnation I felt by the end of the song.

In this track, dedicated to the late NBA Superstar Kobe Bryant, Kanye expresses himself tackling a tragic situation such as the death of someone he admired dearly, or the passing of a close family member (such as the sudden death of his mother Donda West). The song is mournful, but progresses to hope stemming from West’s belief in God to make the situation right, sooth his pain and save those that have passed.

What’s Rockin’

The pitched-down vocals of the Sunday Service Choir mixed with the sorrowful organ and slowed percussion that the backing mainly consists of complement each other fantastically, and set the tone for the song and its message.

The selective use of piano and periods of refrain create great range in the track and allow the belting organ and vocals in the latter portion of the song to be emphasized and brought to higher comparative heights.

 What’s Whack

The lines in reference to the Devil being a ‘lie’ and ‘finished’ didn’t really resonate with me, not for any religious or spiritual reasons but it seemed to stick out from the other lyrics and felt out of place to me.

The ending of the track seemed pretty abrupt to me as well, and could have used some extra wind-down in my opinion.

What’s the Deal?

Overall, I think that West’s ‘24’ is a solid track with a hopeful message and I have really enjoyed listening to it since DONDA dropped. (On a side-note, the recently released music video for the track is spectacular and adds a lot to the listening experience, I recommend you go check it out!)