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@lyingaboutiguanas

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True Confession: I utterly detested the first three Kanye West albums, and recently heard again "College Dropout" and found it absolutely insufferable. Honestly, I only enjoy everything post-"Flashing Lights" as a single with genuine enthusiasm. Maybe for y'all this was an emotionally pivotal moment, but for me it was more of the Roots/Mos Def/Early B.E.P. snarky 'wit' (albeit a lot more subdued) and just what my best friend in high-school would bore me to tears with whenever we played video games, denying my chances to put on Papoose mixtapes (I AM a New Yorker, so shut up), MF Doom's "MM... Food" (which years later after fucking Danger Doom he'd really enjoy. HMM, CAN'T IMAGINE WHY HE DIDN'T IN THE FIRST PLACE), anything Dipset related ("COMPUTERS DON'T PUTE. THAT'S NOT A FUCKING WORD MAX"), etc. etc. I'd recognize that I was being judgemental, but to illustrate the difference... The Boondocks Comics: "College Dropout", The Boondocks Cartoon: ?uestlove's stupid mugging and sneering in the "What They Do" is what I THOUGHT "College Dropout" was a part of.
During this whole time I LIKED Kanye as a human being. I appreciated his admission that he couldn't beat Maroon 5 during the Grammys because: "THEY JUST TOO GOOD WITH HITS. THEY'RE LIKE OUTKAST LAST YEAR". I laughed my ass off at how he subconsciously beat the system on Punk'd. I resented his betrayal of Dame Dash (a man who whenever livefromthetabernacle sees him talk nowadays, he constantly compares our respective maniac energies), but conceded that better Hovito than being stuck next to Beanie Siegel's dead-weight the rest of his life.
But his albums felt like "RAP: The Musical". I cannot tell you how much of a weird fucking betrayal I felt that kids chorus on "We Don't Care" was. I fucking HATE those kids, to this day, because it represented the commercialization of a life that had been romanticized but never so explicitly presented on terms for everyone to understand. This album had BRIDGES. It was pure pop. I didn't understand why at the time, I just thought it wasn't as good as anything my favorite rappers had done; because it wasn't a great RAP album. It was a great rap ALBUM. That and to this day, every time white dudes say the words to "Jesus Walks", it sets my teeth on edge and my entire world sounds like this.
(Now of course, Kanye can't make a true ALBUM ALBUM to save his life, and I'm in fucking heaven, because they seem so desperately happy to antagonize the same audience he unwittingly helped ensnare. I have a massive mental essay on Yeezus I didn't commit to writing to that I'll one day finish off about why the whole point of the album is Kanye trying to abuse his audience. Another time though.)
Anyway, as Kanye got bolder, weirder and more interesting for me in a time when I was just sick to death of turning on video channels and seeing terrible songs like Skull Gang's "I Am The Club" or Young Joc do absolutely anything, or whatever, I eventually heard this song. I never paid attention to Kanye as a lyricist because honestly I just didn't think he ever really talked about anything. "Diamonds" isn't actually about shit, you just think it's about Sierra Leone because of the video, blah blah blah. But this weird little throwaway post-808s mess he gave away to friend and poet Malik Yusef... It has all my woes with his early discog; his (eternally) god-awful rap production, John Legend's eternally sharp shitty fucking singing voice (Someone trade out Tony Williams for this dude and his bloated ego and fucked up vibrato already) and the presence of Common, the ever present fucking insult to my every hint of well-being for having been mistakenly recognized as some form of talented individual... but it was enough. Maybe it was the way he fully embodied the DEPRESSION that's in something like Early Nas, and not just the scowling post-De La stupid Neo-Soul cynicism and shaming, maybe it was because I finally got a tragic portrait of the people I saw and lived beside (Never fully with but, they were there. I saw them, they saw me, that counts) that wasn't QUITE as glimmering and "Vegas" as he kept foisting on me (Because JESUS CHRIST was "Good Life" still to this day a fucking tiring record), but whatever the reason... I fully came around.
Nobody cares about this, but I figured this song's got to be something special if it did something to me that stupid album couldn't.
The Freshest Shrimp Catch Vol. 8
The Lure of Potential: Lil Mouseâs âMichael Mouse Myersâ - Maxwell, who is I think one of two Lil Mouse fans I know, tried to find the good in his debut album Michael Mouse Myers. He felt the album didnât come together, but there might be something in this young rapper.Â
The Frozen World of Vince Staplesâ âShyne Coldchain Vol. 2â - Maxwell again leading the disappointment train with some thoughts on Vince Staplesâ latest nihilistic mixtape Shyne Coldchain Vol. 2.Â
THIS WEEK WAS NEGATIVE, BECAUSE THE GAME IS NEGATIVE.
V_____V
Sage The Gemini - âBring Hyphy Backâ (Internet, 2012)
I wrote quite a few words about Hyphy and Post-Hyphy and Pre-Hyphy and Middle-Hyphy and Quasi-Hyphy and Demi-Hyphy for this Sage The Gemini/Iamsu/HBK piece over at Spin. Sageâs album Remember Me is out today.
As someone who's been trying to write about these subjects of late, this is enough to make me want to jump off a cliff, but if you don't realize that Lil' B, Roach Gigz, Main Attrakionz and Iamsu! are all technically borne of the same gene pool, get acquainted to the water of Lake Merrit. Noz does the bay severe justice.
Also this record is never not incredible.
The Freshest Shrimp Catch Vol. 7
Yiken in the Bay - Maxwell took a look at the Bay Area dance called âYikenâ and highlighted some of the more notable songs and artists that again prove every zipcode has their own strain of rap-related dance.Â
Passion of the Weiss & So Many Shrimp Present: Krazy (A YG Primer Mix) - Maxwell linked-up with Son Raw to put together a tour through YGâs discography in-case oneâs only knew him from âToot It and Bootâ and âMy Nigga.âÂ
Ratchet King: YGâs âMy Krazy Lifeâ - Jerkin and YG Historian Maxwell got to do something thatâd had been unimaginable in 2009. Reviewing a YG major label album, but Iâm happy the album is out and that Max got to do this piece.
There are a lot of things happening on SMS all the time, and you already knew I did one thing, here's the rest, with more coming soon.
#400

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Tributaries
So, for those of you who follow somanyshrimp.com, and/or this tumblr, you know I've been contributing to them for a little bit. Today, to celebrate the fact that yesterday saw the release of what might be my favorite rap album all year, YG's "My Krazy Life", I compiled a mix w/ the assistance of Son Raw to serve as a sort of primer to YG for those uninitiated.
If you interact with me or know me, you are aware that I am a total fucking dork when it comes to YG. I indicate eras of his career like he's Picasso or something, I hunt down video clips of him getting into trouble like my name was Charles "@drugmoney" Willhoit, and I defend even the most lunkheaded of his verses (yes, including the verse on function where he rhymes "dick for days" with "dick for days".). It's a personal crusade that's finally paid off.
The reason for this mania is actually another blogger who's no longer with us; the first time I heard YG properly, it was on Matthew Africa's "Jerk" megamix (tracklist found here; I believe I still have the mix available should anyone want it, but I'd have to ask for permission). "AIM Me" was everything I wanted out of rap at the time, but didn't realize I was missing. And after that, this led to several years of laughing my head off at this kid, and the way he'd do things like cry out "HOOTERS!!!!" on DJ Mustard's "Burn Rubber" or the absurdity of how goofy the video of his "Otis" Freestyle w/ partner Reem Riches is.
So this mix, which I've been looking forward to for a minute, does two purposes. Obviously it exposes the back catalog of a rapper who doesn't get a lot of love from people because 'lol jerk', 'lol Toot It And Boot It', 'lol not K. dot' and whatever reasons they come up with. But also in my haphazard way, it's my way of extending the gift Matthew gave to me indirectly to everyone else. Though obviously I wish he could see it.
RIP, and I hope y'all enjoy.
The Freshest Shrimp Catch Vol. 4
Again general thanks and appreciate to all those that are working with me on this. And even more so to the initiative people thatâll hopefully be seen/continue to be seen with some upcoming features in the upcoming weeks. Codie Gâs Curation of Rap Regionalism - Daniel researched and delved into Codie Gâs The Greene Cottenham Project. Again, many thanks to the work Daniel has been doing. Dude kind of is the site right now.Â
Disney Meets Ratchet - A small little bit by myself about Zendayaâs âMy Babyâ remix, which included Bobby Brackins, Ty$ and Iamsu! Itâs more or less my dream remix and it doesnât disappoint.Â
5 Atlanta Songs You Mightâve Missed - Maxwell dug into some lesser known tracks from Atlanta artists youâve probably already forgot about (Yung L.A.) and others youâll probably know by the end of the year (Johnny Cinco).Â
I'M BAWLING LIKE THE SPIDER, HOE!!!
Still somehow being productive in 2014, it's a fucking miracle. But anyway, shout out to Daniel & David, everyone else who's been posting on SMS (including the prospectives), it's a great feeling to see people getting it in.
The Freshest Shrimp Catch Vol. 2
dalatu:
Welcome to Black Portland - Maxwell, a scholar of Futuristic and Post-Futuristic rap, had many nice things to say about Young Thug and Bloody Jayâs Black Portland.Â
So, if you guys didn't see when it made the rounds, I'm back in the game, though this time for the legendary Somanyshrimp.com. Shout out to Davids Drakk and Turner for hooking me up with the opportunity, as I can't think of too many other websites who'd put up with me for a heartbeat.
A lot more coming in the pipeline for them, so stay tuned, and if you aren't already following SMS, Turner and everyone else affiliated with the team... I mean... You could just learn on your own without our expertise. But we see what happens when you try that shit.
:D
Singles and Jukes Vol. 9
dalatu:
I posted on Facebook: âSo there is a Kid Ink Song that has Chris Brown that sounds like TeeFlii, and is of course produced by DJ Mustard.â And of course, internet grump and generous soul, Maxwell gave it an even better description: âSo itâs a Chris Brown song that features Chris Brown that sounds like Chris Brown, produced by DJ Mustard?â [7]
Kid Ink (feat. Chris Brown) - Show Me
I kind of accidently cheated my way into The Singles Jukebox. Hey! I'm all for slippery qualities.
2013 End Of Year Rap List
Ladies and Gentlemen, I know nobody asked but... Here it is.
 RIP NoJumper. Please keep posted for any more opinions I might manage to finally eloquate onto tumblr (especially given the lack of other outlets at the moment).Â
1. Rich Homie Quan â Differences 2. Chief Keef â Fuck Me 3. P. Rico â Hang Wit Me 4. YG â Left, Right 5. Kurupt â In A Low Low (ft. The Rejectz & E-40) 6. DJ Mustard â Bounce That (ft. RJ, Royce The Choice, Skeme, Casey Veggies) 7. Young Scooter â Work (ft. Gucci Mane) 8. Wiley â I Was Born In The Cold 9. Z-Money â Regular 10. Young Dro â Mucho 11. Que â Young N***A (ft. Migos) 12. Rocko â UOENO (ft. Future & Rick Ross) 13. Paul White â Get Your Head Round This (ft. Trim) 14. Kanye West â Bound 2 15. Future â Mark McGwire 16. Ka â Peace Akhi 17. Rich Kidz â Grammy (ft. SD) 18. Meek Mill â Lil N***A Snupe 19. Young Thug â Rich N***A Shit 20. Roc Marciano â Ice Cream Man 21. Sage The Gemini â Swerve 22. Jay Ant â Aliens (ft. 1 O.A.K.) 23. Ali (of Travis Porter) â Cheetah 24. D-Mac â Panoramic (ft. Sage The Gemini & Show Banga) 25. RJ â Bitchez (ft. YG) 26. Peewee Longway â Give A Damn 27. Fiend â On My Job (ft. Juvenile) 28. Migos â 50 Chicks (ft.Skippa Da Flippa) 29. Doe Boy â They Don't Want War (ft. SD) 30. Earl Sweatshirt â Hive (ft. Casey Veggies & Vince Staples) 31. Chance The Rapper â Juice 32. Yung LA â Whoop 33. SD â N.W.O. 34. Lil Silk â I'm Geeked 35. Casino â Communication (ft. Young Thug) 36. Juvenile â LL Cool 37. Problem â Twerk (ft. Bad Lucc) 38. Oochie â Heeming (ft. Loso) 39. Kap G â Jose Got Them Tacos 40. Yale Lucciani â Speed Up (ft. Lil Mouse) 41. Pusha T â Numbers On The Board 42. Waka Flocka Flame â Real Recognize Real 43. DB Tha General â Turnt Out 44. Yung Japan â It's The Mob 45. Johnny May Cash â Keep Dancing (ft. Roland Green) 46. Tadoe â I Love Money (ft. Jay Macc & Tony Gunnz) 47. R.A. - Brick Walls This High 48. Skypad War â Old Friends (ft. Mexico Rann) 49. Juicy J â Money A Do It 50. Tyler, The Creator â Partyisn'tover/Campfire/Bimmer

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While you were all distracted by the bluster of some guy's passive aggressive growl showcase, tricking you into giving Big Sean buzz, YG killed the UOENO beat better than any rapper on the record yet, including all of TDE. I'm going to ignore the fact that there's another rapper riding on his fame present.
Seriously though, Gucci chasing Gotti and Jeezy out of Atlanta has severely backfired, because while Gucci has become a tyrannical blowhard, CTE has finally become a label of note and their swift capitalization on the Mustard vein of the Ratchet sound has revitalized their careers.
And I'm the kind of former New Yorker who remembers TM:101 and it's hits like it was the bubonic plague, so you KNOW it's really when I'm begrudgingly admitting a comeback for the guy who made a song called "Jizzle"
*MAXWELL/CROWLEYHEAD VOICE*
I THINK MIGOS AND YRN SYMBOLIZES FOR ME THIS WEIRD MOMENT WHERE I BECOME CRANKY AND START TO QUESTION EVERYONEâS TASTE
MY FRIEND BHK AND I ARE CONSTANTLY AGONIZING OVER THE âCONTENTâ PEOPLE âCHOOSEâ TO âPARTAKE INâ AND THAT YRN WAS SO IMMEDIATELY EMBRACED BY âALLâ THE âRIGHTâ PEOPLE WAS A RED FLAG FOR ME. EVERY TIME SOMETHING OR SOMEONE APPROACHES COMPLETE CRITICAL CONSENSUS THEREâS AT LEAST ONE OUTLIER WHO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE SOMETHING SENSIBLE TO SAY ABOUT THEIR OBJECTIONS BUT THAT DOESNâT EXIST WITH YRN AND THIS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS WHERE I FEEL LIKE THEREâS A SECRET ILLUMINATI WORKING âBEHIND THE SCENESâ TO ENSURE âWHO GOT NEXT.â
IN THAT REGARD YRN DOES âEPITOMIZEâ THE âCONTENTâ PEOPLE WANT RN: YOUNG, âTRAP,â REPETITIOUS, PROUDLY SHALLOW (CUE PEOPLE TELLING ME I DONâT âGETâ THE HIDDEN DEPTHS OF THE RECORD), BUT INSANELY FUN AND CERTAINLY MEME-ABLE. IN ONE OF HIS TRADEMARK HIT-THE-NAIL-ON-ITS-HEAD AESTHETIC STATEMENTS THE MARTORIALIST REFERRED TO YRN AS âTRAPIS PORTERâ AND THAT FELT 100% RIGHT.CHRISTOPHER WEINGARTEN CALLED IT âTWITTER RAPâ WHICH WAS NOT MEANT PEJORATIVELY BUT IS STILL AN ACCURATE STATEMENT.
ITâS UNFAIR TO DUMP HATE GUYS WHO ARE YOUNG AND CLEARLY TALENTED AND ARE CAPABLE OF MAKING SLAPS BUT I THINK IT MIGHT ALSO BE EQUALLY UNFAIR TO HEAP HUGE AMOUNTS OF PRAISE ON SOMETHING THAT TO ME SOUNDS NOT YET FULLY FORMED AND SLIGHTLY UNDER-DEVELOPED. I MEAN IN THE SPAN OF ONE WEEK MIGOS WENT FROM A GROUP THAT WAS HUGE IN ATLANTA AND HYPED BY A DUDE LIKE WAVRIEL/SMACKDAHOE TO RYAN HEMSWORTH REMIXING ONE OF THEIR SONGS, A REMIX ALBUM OF YRN WAS ANNOUNCED, AND DRAKE OF COURSE SHOWED UP TO WHEEZE LIKE A DRYER ALL OVER THEIR BEST SONG. THIS PROJECTORY IS AS PREDICTABLE AS THE SUN AND IS BECOMING MORE -X- EVERYDAY.
IT ALSO MAKES ME THINK RAP WRITERS ARE SO RARELY CRITICAL OF THINGS UNLESS ITâS CRANKY-OLD-MAN-SARCASM OR KNEE-JERK CRASS DISMISSAL OF SOMETHING THATâS ALREADY BEEN DEEMED âACCEPTABLEâ TO DISLIKE IN A WAY THAT USUALLY MISSES THE POINT. I MEAN YRN IS GOOD I GUESS BUT ITâS ALSO NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING ONE OF THE BEST THINGS RELEASED IN THE PAST MONTH AND A HALF. BUT ITâS EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO CONTINUE THE MEME-IFICATION OF REAL CRITICISM BY COMPARING IT TO YEEZUS AS IF THE TWO HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON AND MAKING DUMB JOKES ABOUT IT ON TWITTER. SEE MY THOUGHT ABOUT THE STENCH OF CONDESCENSION THAT ARISES FROM A LOT OF PEOPLE WHEN THEY DECIDE TO TRUMP A PIECE OF MUSIC THAT IS SO CLEARLY ABOUT AN ENVIRONMENT/SETTING THAT IS SURELY UNFAMILIAR TO THEM.
AND I THINK THERE ARE OTHER RELEASES THAT HAVE COME OUT THAT PROBABLY DESERVE MORE INK/PRAISE BECAUSE FOR ALL THE THINKPIECES THAT ARE SHAT OUT EVERYDAY IT FEELS RARE TO READ ANYTHING OF SUBSTANCE. FOR EXAMPLE BRANDON SODERBERG ACCURATELY PREDICTED PEOPLE WOULD SHY AWAY FROM AN IN-DEEP ANALYSIS OF ACID RAP OUT OF FEAR OF BEING âWRONGâ AND THIS HAPPENS MORE AND MORE FREQUENTLY.Â
THEREâS VERY LITTLE âCONTENTâ ABOUT ACTS/ALBUMS THAT MAYBE DONâT FIT INTO PRE-ORDAINED CONTEXT OR NARRATIVE AND IT SEEMS DUMB TO ESTABLISH A LIMIT FOR THE THINGS WE ALLOW TO DOMINATE THE CONTENT CYCLE. THIS OF COURSE MEANS A SLIGHT BUT STILL GREAT GROUP LIKE YUNG NATION FROM DALLAS WILL NEVER BE âPUT ONâ BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO LOW-STAKES FOR SOME HANGER-ON LIKE DRAKE TO HANG HIS HAT ON AND ALSO THEY ARENâT QUITE MEME-ABLE ENOUGH FOR A LARGER AUDIENCE.
AND MAYBE THATâS HOW IT SHOULD BE RIGHT? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO REGIONAL ACTS AND PEOPLE CHASING THEIR MUSE THAT DONâT NECESSARILY LEAD TO MAINSTREAM CONSUMPTION? MIGOS ARENâT QUITE HAVING THEIR SOULJA/GUCCI/OJ/WAKA/KEEF MOMENT YET AND I PRAY TO BASEDGOD WE DONâT SEE A THOUSAND RETREADS OF THE SAME âREAL HIP HOPâ CONVERSATIONS THAT SPROUT UP EVERY TIME. SHOUT TO JORDAN SARGENT BECAUSE I HOPE HE SHUT ALL THAT SHIT DOWN.
CUE PEOPLE COMPARING THIS TO B.DOT ANYWAY AND COMING FOR ME LIKE I DONâT GET IT/SAYING I HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR OR SELF-AWARENESS
THAT STILL DOESNâT MAKE ANYTHING ON YRN BETTER THAN THIS SONG AND THE REAL TRAVIS PORTER DROPPED A SOLID FUN CONSISTENT AND GREAT TAPE MR. PORTER EARLIER THIS YEAR
If you're not reading Matthew Ramirez, who do you get advice from?
⌠and I felt embarrassed by the whiteness of the crowd and all the DJs. Baring in mind that I have been listening to a lot of grime again recently and have aspirations of DJing it. But having been thinking so much recently about cultural appropriation in relation to my own whiteness, I now seeâŚ
What repackaging, exactly?
I wouldn't say it's a repackaging, but Grime has definitely had a massive change in it's fanbase from it's origins.
Grime's taken a lot of changes as over the years, it's stopped being a 'street' movement due to a myriad of reasons. For one, the established grime acts moving towards a more mainstreamed role in trying to be pop acts, or the slow... 'universitization' of Grime. I mean, as much as his growth is natural, logical and not too distressing, look at someone like JME's evolution from his Meridian days to his current persona now. Not everyone is comfortable with this sort of distancing from the 'road' where grime originated from, and this general parade before a circuit of fascinated youth who don't HAVE to deal with the world that produced these MCs.
One thing you have to remember is Giggs absolutely STUNTED grime. It seems oversimplifying to put the blame on him, but he came out with a rap 'sound' that was raw, UK-oriented and to-the-point, compared to the constantly busy sound of grime, that was more overtly about stylization and was descended from the more entertainment-based world of Garage MCing. You can see how for plenty of people, including former grime acts, would see an out from a scene that was increasingly expecting everyone to step up and make Top 40 music. And it showed in the fact that when Road Rap was properly booming, maybe a hundred MCs had emerged to gain new fans whereas you didn't see that many new faces in Grime.
And as a result of that, the new MC talent is... incredibly divorced from what Grime's supposed to be, beyond declaring that they love real grime and they're bad and they're... well... Who the hell are they? A lot of these younger grime acts are just relying upon the fact that they're younger and they have fans who appreciate that they're not making pop, but they lack theÂ
After that, you have the tug of war between grime as a form of dance music descended from garage and jungle, or grime as a host of British MCs. I mean, it's 2013, we can pretty much see who were truly grime MCs and who were rappers, biding their time in one scene until they could go full-on rap. Obviously it's greatest power when it emerged was in that friction where it felt like it was garage, dancehall, rap & maybe anything else you could think of all in one... But eventually that friction results in the genre splintering on multiple levels. And in the case of instrumental grime, it became the idea that an MC 'clutters' an instrumental since it's so strong as a potential dancefloor record. (Remember, this happened all the time as dubstep started it's crossover, where MCs were no longer considered useful by the masses who weren't familiar with soundsystem-based culture).
Speaking of dubstep, we all know that dubstep robbed grime of it's place as the new 'dance music' of tomorrow. When Geenus called it 'safe grime' he knew exactly what it meant... Dubstep, while great in it's emergence, had no real energy of youth behind it, no culture. It was dance music made by random producers, and never truly felt as cross cultural in the sense of grime where it was reaching various disparate groups of people and unifying them. Dubstep never had a feeling of 'proper' violence, of expression beyond the instrumental. It was moody, somber, subdued and held an austerity that grime couldn't reach due to it's association with MC culture, and all the negative stereotypes that come across with that. Any grime fan, or rap fan, who's on the internet and knows the disgusting dismissals that people can fire off just because they see someone 'rapping' over something else with a bitter familiarity. So dubstep, which never depended on MCs, was saved from such judgement. It also ended up making more money (which subsequently resulted in one of the last great grime producers of the 00s defecting to dubstep).
And lastly, you have the fact that the elders of established grime are actually weighing down their scene. For every Slew Dem (who are currently working hard at re-establishing themselves based not only on their older merits, but providing new and exciting music for the game) you get another bunch of bratty diva MCs forcing their fanbase to slog through dire commercial crap that their label expects from them, or coasting on the entitlement of their success... It is 2013, grime has existed for at least a decade and even a bit beyond, we should not suffer the presence of older acts who have peaked and take up all of the money and exposure that should be devoted to newer and younger acts trying to earn a name for themselves. Such is the reason how an MC like Kozzie has been around since 2005 or so, and has only become famous in his scene in the last few years. Because he's had to wait for all these people who've been around since as far back as the dawn of the new millenium STILL commanding all the attention, based on their past achievements.
I mean, I've been a grime fan ever since I heard Dizzee back in 2004, and then proceeded along into discovering the wonderful world that sired him. And I'm not trying to discourage people from this music by crying about how things were before this and that happened, because it's been producing some of it's best stuff in the last year or so both on an instrumental and an MCing level that stands up with those classics that blew my mind as a youth. But I can say with certainty that the audience for grime has switched up entirely into something radically different, and the original poster is right to feel a sense of apprehension at such a climate.
Hi, saw your reblog. Not sure how this is ripping off Kitty Pryde, considering she's been rapping (I think that's what you're referring to) since "Stay Away" at least. I mean, I've interviewed Kitty Pryde and like her stuff a great deal, but you could just as easily say this sounds like T'Pau or lots of people.
I don't know. If you think about it, the video seems like a high-budget reinterpretation of OKC, and her delivery on the verse for this song mirrors that of Kitty (And let's be fair, I can't think of too many other female rap presences in pop that play up a more softer femininity than Kitty or maybe Kilo Kish. Charli is smart to know that the harder edged Iggy Azalea Banks-vibe is increasingly passe, and entirely unbelievable from someone like her.)
CHARLI XCX - WHAT I LIKE [7.82] In this instance it would be quite rude to mention that we may have developed a bit of a canonâŚ
Iain Mew: Much of âWhat I Likeâ is a song about relationship becoming routine, about the repetition of undressing and undressing and undressing, about getting âon some husband and wife shitâ to the point where thereâs no need to spell out what she likes anymore. Charli makes it clear just how much sheâs getting out of that, and sheâs aided enormously by the rhythm, the quick splashes that wriggle and defy expectation and still make it sound like the rush of first love. So when she sings, âThis shit is super coolâ, her performance of that line makes it ring true, but it also feels like a reaffirmation of whatâs been unspoken all along. [9]
Katherine St Asaph: I relate a lot to Charli XCX, being another semi-scorned semi-youth whoâs one-third hair. Iâm invested in her career and also, apparently, her on-record love life. âWhat I Likeâ is the grounded, content counterpart to the abstract, half-terrified âYouâre the Oneâ; no silver lovers stealing stars, just two kids getting high, fucking around, feeling super-weird about feeling super-cool. Iâm biased at least three times toward the former, but even so, âWhat I Likeâ is objectively less of a standalone single. It isnât worse, though. We get to hear more of what Charli liked growing up: the trance intro, the way sheâs autotuned to sound like Gwen Stefani circa Rock Steady. âThis shit is kind of gangstaâ and âha! we on some husband-and-wife shitâ are what they are, but hey, sheâs 20. âPlaying board games, horror films with the super goreâ is perfect in the same way as ârock-paper-scissors â wait! best out of three!â The way she dwells on the T-shirt is perfect; thatâs a point in a relationship you dwell on, when itâs morning for the first or whatever time, the guyâs still got his shirt off and he looks one of two ways: decayed, sunken face, chest like a roach, everything at its grotesque worst; or so stunning you canât quite believe youâre the one looking. (This doesnât necessarily correlate to anything; itâs just usually one or the other.) But youâve got to be casual about noticing, and Charli is: very chill, very calm. So even if I prefer her old career direction â sheâs been around long enough that this is career shift #2 â songs like these are probably happier to live with. [8]
Alfred Soto: Her voice, her voice: smoky, declassĂŠ, comfortable in post-M.I.A./Santigold distorted mode and sassing her way through spoken word portions. She can sound wistful about memories of T-shirts on the floor and houses by the ocean while still not quite persuading us sheâs reached the limit of what she likes. [8]
Rebecca A. Gowns: Love the song, hackles raised by the video â and I guess by the whole Charli XCX âbrand.â But this song is tight. The spoken parts, and the hi-hat riff that pops up in-between the synthy strings (or rather, stringy synths), and the note sequence that surfaces as the luscious little cherry on top of all of it: â⪠you-know just-what i like! âŞâŞâ [9]
Anthony Easton: The detail of the âT-shirt on the floorâ is so tossed-off it might be deliberately accidental, but the artifice works. Itâs so symbolic of something au courant and slightly obsessed with being liked. Deliberateness is made to sound louche and meaningless. This gap between effort and ennui is sort of the mark of recent pop â but instead of making a point about the ennui being essentially anhedonic, that itâs so loose it falls apart, it uses that falling apart to mean nothing more than intimacy and care with another person. I am on record as preferring fuck anthems to making-love anthems, but we need a balance, and of late itâs been measured towards the âfucking as feelingâ method. This is feeling, and as a result fucking â thatâs powerful! [10]
Jonathan Bogart: Nothing sheâs done since can touch the majesty and mystery of âNuclear Seasons.â Probably thatâs because she wants to move in another direction, and itâs my sad 80s fetish that keeps me from getting excited about the weird robo-trap-ballad thing sheâs doing here. [7]
Patrick St. Michel: That intro is more than a stab at Hyperdub credibility â itâs jittery excitement before a big realization, the first tingles after meeting someone you are really into. Charli XCX spends most of the first half of this song throwing out bold declarations about love lasting longer than the end of the world and reiterating how into one another these two are. But when she gets to the little rap interlude past the midway point, she shows her cards. Sheâs hoping heâs âgonna be my man,â with all this âhusband and wife shitâ as her hope. Sheâs giddy at the prospect, to the point she gets basic in describing how âthis shit is super wild/this shit is super cool.â This is a song about being caught in the whirlwind of a new relationship, one that seems especially amazing and actually makes you a little anxious because you really want this one to work. So Charli XCX is putting on a fair amount of bluster⌠but itâs the little touches of nervousness (âI think Iâm into youâ) that make this great. [9]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: On âWhat I Likeâ, Ms XCX switches between different takes of settling down with someone you admire, every new performance communicating the different ways she feels about her beau. Sheâs sexually attracted and content during the narration of the chorus, goofily rapping when explaining the security and happiness found with him, and â best of all â an Auto-Tune interlude showing the wobbly low-stakes teen heart at the core of meaningful relationships: âWhen the last heart been broken/weâll be sitting on your bedroom floor just smokingâ. [7]
Brad Shoup: Charliâs mumbleflow becomes a song-length feature, finally, and with it comes all the feared tendencies: schwag-grade lines about weed and judgment and monogamy, all filtered through a Korine-thian conception of hip-hop. (Danny Brown is no oneâs concept of gangsta, but heâll do, evidently.) The production choices are more value-neutral, and the speed-addled cymbal work and distant G-funk synth tweak are the kind of playful you can take outside the house. Those noob exhales arenât. The difference between this and Lana is propulsion. And marketing. But mostly propulsion. [5]
Scott Mildenhall: Whatâs being described here is monotony, supposedly of a blissful nature, but it feels like thereâs a heavy implication of the contrary â maybe it isnât really what Charli likes. Does she know what she likes? Is she kidding herself that itâs this? Has she forgotten? On the other hand, she says things like âI think Iâm into youâ and they seem genuine. Maybe they are, and any gloomy overtones are just emblematic of the XCX schtick (âhorror films with the super goreâ!); maybe itâs for the listener to decide. Also, âgangstaâ? [6]
Will Adams: The frenetic opening is great because it doesnât quite leave the song. As Charli XCX tries to play it âsuper coolâ over the grinding groove, sharp percussion darts in and out like pinpricks. Itâs as if the real emotion â stumbling-over-self love â is just beneath the surface, ready to burst out at any moment. 2013, consider your summer jam delivered. [8]
[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]
Maxwell Cavaseno: 10 or so people too oblivious to realize a Major Label ripping off Kitty Pryde when it's right in front of their face. [3]

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One of the things that always bemuses me about Jimi Hendrix perception with fans and casual observers, is when the latter group plays up the influence of Dylan, and focuses on that one bit of legendary footage of him crooning "Hey Joe" over an acoustic guitar. It's always funny for me that one would divorce Hendrix from his true instrument which was the electric guitar as an unstable element. The wild soloing that would often dissolve into pools of sonic noise may not have had musical or cultural value (unless of course, placed in the context of his infamous "Star-Spangled Banner"), but they were a logical extension of Hendrix's psyche.
Likewise, watching the celebration of "James Blake As Artist" with his debut was a bit of a lark for me being a fan of the frantic synth screeches that established the university student as one of the more essential acts among his wave of dubstep producers. Marrying the G-Funk/Grime Machismo of early Joker to a more gospel-indebted sense of melody, Blake's early work such as his Untold Remix or the apocalyptic sounds of his Bells Sketch EP marked a high-point in the melange of 'post-dubstep'. Between that, the autotune-trickstery of his "Harmonimix" projects, he seemed on top of the world.
And then, it happened; the experimental "Measurements", a R&B-styled response to Bon Iver's "Woods" premiered on Mary Anne Hobbs BBC Show, well deserving of fascination for how it displayed a whole new world for Blake. He provided haunting vocals for his friends and then peers, Mount Kimbie, during live gigs together. Slowly, the weirdo James Blake was dressed up into James Blake, the commercial digital soul boy that creatures like early Badly Drawn Boy and Thom Yorke struggled to evolve into (the former abandoning it for bland singer-songwriter territory, the other seemingly too frantic in production and life to let his songs breath with a grace he cannot display). It was all very rewarding to see such a talent make it...
And yet, the debut felt like a betrayal. Gone were the eccentric buzzing noises, the weird little melodies. Instead, Blake moaned mantra-like hooks endlessly, while awkwardly cluttering together cheap pastiche lyrics. At least one critic compared it to Kanye West's "808s & Heartbreaks", a not entirely unreasonable comparison, given the two records auto-tuned and processed their respective vocal performances. But whereas West had made a record that was seemingly stark, grandiose, harsh and invocating at once, Blake had smoothed out all of his edges into a rather puzzlingly dull sonic haze. He felt more of a subdued Howard Jones than the hardcore continuum's Jamie Lidell.
Which is why this past week, hearing those synths harass me every time I click a youtube link, has been such a relief. Admittedly, considering the relative success of Blake's debut, I assumed he would simply continue along at his given course, while ocassionally releasing relatively uninteresting little sketches or warped remix side-projects. But much to my, and the world's benefit, Blake's new album feels like the proper debut of the James Blake I was introduced to. So many of these songs play with the charged synths and startling sounds of his pre-Pro League work, to create a much more expansive and fascinating listen. Helps that he's also stepped up the vocals a bit, and the songwriting a bit much more.
The point is, I am relieved to hear James Blake finally return to his instruments of choice, that demonstrate what REALLY makes James Blake one of the more exciting artists of his generation.
On the evening of November 4th, 2008, Chi Cheng was riding in a car back from a memorial service with his sister, when their vehicle lost control. The car would flip three times, and impact another vehicle at 60 MPH. During this, Chi was thrown out of the vehicleâdue to not wearing a seatbeltâand ejected from the car. The resulting trauma left him in critical condition and effectively rendered him comatose for a period of time. Thankfully, he regained conciousness as of May 2009, but remains physically incapacitated up to the present day.
It was one year ago that I got the opportunity to contribute to One Week One Band about deftones, and whilst doing so, pay tribute to their bassist Chi Cheng, then in a coma, and now, finally at peace.
I never had the chance to meet with Chi, or the band at all, and have only admired them afar, through their music and brief interviews. Of the band's members, Chi always struck me for being very mature, esoteric and serious. Possibly the only Lynyrd Skynyrd fan I ever took 'serious'. A man who played on all of my favorite deftones records, but more importantly was a loving husband and father.
I'm sitting here, listening to various tracks from "Around The Fur" and hating the fact that I'm providing a eulogy to someone who was a key part of records that helped save my life when I was younger and still struggling with self-loathing and frustration. When I wrote about this band, and when I took the time to pay tribute to this man, I remembered struggling with the difficulty that something so simple as 'I care about this' was so difficult to word. But nothing's more difficult than trying to word why I cared about Cheng.
Was I particularly fond of his bass parts? Yes, certainly. Was he charismatic and likeable? Quite. Did he seem like a 'good guy'? I still feel as such. But inadvertently he had contributed an amazing gift to me, and I may always feel inadequate about how well I tried to reciprocate the man as a fan. For how do you truly pay someone back for the gift of relief from a weight on your heart?
So RIP to Chi Cheng, and may your soul rest well knowing that you'd been such a blessing to me and millions around the world.