Ghost Voices, Gypsy Cabs & Cellphones

The Lure of Potential: Lil Mouse’s “Michael Mouse Myers” - 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 didn’t come together, but there might be something in this young rapper. 

Sage The Gemini - “Bring Hyphy Back” (Internet, 2012)

Yiken in the Bay - Maxwell took a look at the Bay Area dance called “Yiken” and highlighted some of the more notable songs and artists that again prove every zipcode has their own strain of rap-related dance. 

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 YG’s discography in-case one’s only knew him from “Toot It and Boot” and “My Nigga.” 

Again general thanks and appreciate to all those that are working with me on this. And even more so to the initiative people that’ll hopefully be seen/continue to be seen with some upcoming features in the upcoming weeks.  Codie G’s Curation of Rap Regionalism - Daniel researched and delved into Codie G’s The Greene Cottenham Project. Again, many thanks to the work Daniel has been doing. Dude kind of is the site right now. 

Disney Meets Ratchet - A small little bit by myself about Zendaya’s “My Baby” remix, which included Bobby Brackins, Ty$ and Iamsu! It’s more or less my dream remix and it doesn’t disappoint. 

Welcome to Black Portland - Maxwell, a scholar of Futuristic and Post-Futuristic rap, had many nice things to say about Young Thug and Bloody Jay’s Black Portland. 

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.

I posted on Facebook: “So there is a Kid Ink Song that has Chris Brown that sounds like TeeFlii, and is of course produced by DJ Mustard.” And of course, internet grump and generous soul, Maxwell gave it an even better description: “So it’s a Chris Brown song that features Chris Brown that sounds like Chris Brown, produced by DJ Mustard?” [7]

Kid Ink (feat. Chris Brown) - Show Me

I THINK MIGOS AND YRN SYMBOLIZES FOR ME THIS WEIRD MOMENT WHERE I BECOME CRANKY AND START TO QUESTION EVERYONE’S TASTE

MY FRIEND BHK AND I ARE CONSTANTLY AGONIZING OVER THE “CONTENT” PEOPLE “CHOOSE” TO “PARTAKE IN” AND THAT YRN WAS SO IMMEDIATELY EMBRACED BY “ALL” THE “RIGHT” PEOPLE WAS A RED FLAG FOR ME. EVERY TIME SOMETHING OR SOMEONE APPROACHES COMPLETE CRITICAL CONSENSUS THERE’S AT LEAST ONE OUTLIER WHO MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE SOMETHING SENSIBLE TO SAY ABOUT THEIR OBJECTIONS BUT THAT DOESN’T EXIST WITH YRN AND THIS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS WHERE I FEEL LIKE THERE’S A SECRET ILLUMINATI WORKING “BEHIND THE SCENES” TO ENSURE “WHO GOT NEXT.”

IN THAT REGARD YRN DOES “EPITOMIZE” THE “CONTENT” PEOPLE WANT RN: YOUNG, “TRAP,” REPETITIOUS, PROUDLY SHALLOW (CUE PEOPLE TELLING ME I DON’T “GET” 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 “TRAPIS PORTER” AND THAT FELT 100% RIGHT.CHRISTOPHER WEINGARTEN CALLED IT “TWITTER RAP” WHICH WAS NOT MEANT PEJORATIVELY BUT IS STILL AN ACCURATE STATEMENT.

IT’S 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 IT’S CRANKY-OLD-MAN-SARCASM OR KNEE-JERK CRASS DISMISSAL OF SOMETHING THAT’S ALREADY BEEN DEEMED “ACCEPTABLE” TO DISLIKE IN A WAY THAT USUALLY MISSES THE POINT. I MEAN YRN IS GOOD I GUESS BUT IT’S ALSO NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BEING ONE OF THE BEST THINGS RELEASED IN THE PAST MONTH AND A HALF. BUT IT’S 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 ‘WRONG’ AND THIS HAPPENS MORE AND MORE FREQUENTLY. 

THERE’S VERY LITTLE “CONTENT” ABOUT ACTS/ALBUMS THAT MAYBE DON’T 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 “PUT ON” BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO LOW-STAKES FOR SOME HANGER-ON LIKE DRAKE TO HANG HIS HAT ON AND ALSO THEY AREN’T QUITE MEME-ABLE ENOUGH FOR A LARGER AUDIENCE.

AND MAYBE THAT’S HOW IT SHOULD BE RIGHT? WHATEVER HAPPENED TO REGIONAL ACTS AND PEOPLE CHASING THEIR MUSE THAT DON’T NECESSARILY LEAD TO MAINSTREAM CONSUMPTION? MIGOS AREN’T QUITE HAVING THEIR SOULJA/GUCCI/OJ/WAKA/KEEF MOMENT YET AND I PRAY TO BASEDGOD WE DON’T SEE A THOUSAND RETREADS OF THE SAME “REAL HIP HOP” 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 DON’T GET IT/SAYING I HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR OR SELF-AWARENESS

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 the 

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.

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 canon…

Iain Mew: Much of “What I Like” is a song about relationship becoming routine, about the repetition of undressing and undressing and undressing, about getting “on some husband and wife shit” to the point where there’s no need to spell out what she likes anymore. Charli makes it clear just how much she’s getting out of that, and she’s 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, “This shit is super cool”, her performance of that line makes it ring true, but it also feels like a reaffirmation of what’s been unspoken all along. [9]

Katherine St Asaph: I relate a lot to Charli XCX, being another semi-scorned semi-youth who’s one-third hair. I’m invested in her career and also, apparently, her on-record love life. “What I Like” is the grounded, content counterpart to the abstract, half-terrified “You’re the One”; no silver lovers stealing stars, just two kids getting high, fucking around, feeling super-weird about feeling super-cool. I’m biased at least three times toward the former, but even so, “What I Like” is objectively less of a standalone single. It isn’t worse, though. We get to hear more of what Charli liked growing up: the trance intro, the way she’s autotuned to sound like Gwen Stefani circa Rock Steady. “This shit is kind of gangsta” and “ha! we on some husband-and-wife shit” are what they are, but hey, she’s 20. “Playing board games, horror films with the super gore” is perfect in the same way as “rock-paper-scissors — wait! best out of three!” The way she dwells on the T-shirt is perfect; that’s a point in a relationship you dwell on, when it’s morning for the first or whatever time, the guy’s 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 can’t quite believe you’re the one looking. (This doesn’t necessarily correlate to anything; it’s just usually one or the other.) But you’ve got to be casual about noticing, and Charli is: very chill, very calm. So even if I prefer her old career direction — she’s been around long enough that this is career shift #2 — songs like these are probably happier to live with. [8]

Alfred Soto: Her voice, her voice: smoky, declassé, 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 she’s reached the limit of what she likes. [8]

Rebecca A. Gowns: Love the song, hackles raised by the video — and I guess by the whole Charli XCX “brand.” 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: “♪ you-know just-what i like! ♪♪” [9]

Anthony Easton: The detail of the “T-shirt on the floor” is so tossed-off it might be deliberately accidental, but the artifice works. It’s 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 — but instead of making a point about the ennui being essentially anhedonic, that it’s 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 it’s been measured towards the “fucking as feeling” method. This is feeling, and as a result fucking — that’s powerful! [10]

Jonathan Bogart: Nothing she’s done since can touch the majesty and mystery of “Nuclear Seasons.” Probably that’s because she wants to move in another direction, and it’s my sad 80s fetish that keeps me from getting excited about the weird robo-trap-ballad thing she’s doing here. [7]

Patrick St. Michel: That intro is more than a stab at Hyperdub credibility — it’s 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. She’s hoping he’s “gonna be my man,” with all this “husband and wife shit” as her hope. She’s giddy at the prospect, to the point she gets basic in describing how “this shit is super wild/this shit is super cool.” 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 it’s the little touches of nervousness (“I think I’m into you”) that make this great. [9]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: On “What I Like”, 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. She’s sexually attracted and content during the narration of the chorus, goofily rapping when explaining the security and happiness found with him, and — best of all — an Auto-Tune interlude showing the wobbly low-stakes teen heart at the core of meaningful relationships: “When the last heart been broken/we’ll be sitting on your bedroom floor just smoking”. [7]

Brad Shoup: Charli’s 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 one’s concept of gangsta, but he’ll 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 aren’t. The difference between this and Lana is propulsion. And marketing. But mostly propulsion. [5]

Scott Mildenhall: What’s being described here is monotony, supposedly of a blissful nature, but it feels like there’s a heavy implication of the contrary — maybe it isn’t really what Charli likes. Does she know what she likes? Is she kidding herself that it’s this? Has she forgotten? On the other hand, she says things like “I think I’m into you” and they seem genuine. Maybe they are, and any gloomy overtones are just emblematic of the XCX schtick (“horror films with the super gore”!); maybe it’s for the listener to decide. Also, “gangsta”? [6]

Will Adams: The frenetic opening is great because it doesn’t quite leave the song. As Charli XCX tries to play it “super cool” over the grinding groove, sharp percussion darts in and out like pinpricks. It’s as if the real emotion – stumbling-over-self love – is just beneath the surface, ready to burst out at any moment. 2013, consider your summer jam delivered. [8]

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?