#featured feature

FEATURED FEATURE

(Guest Spots That Steal The Spotlight)

Eminem on Terror Squad’s “Lean Back (Remix)”

Eminem’s music is one of those things that I feel like I’m unable to engage with critically due solely to how present it’s been in my life. There are those certain songs that you’ve heard over and over again to the degree that they just become wallpaper. Rather than being actual pieces of music they’re just these...things. Sonic events that unfold over a couple of minutes in the same way that they’ve unfolded time and time again.

It is, of course, possible to break through such a mental block. In fact, doing so with the Beach Boys is essentially a universal milestone for any music fan. But when it comes to Eminem, I’ve never been able to find the wonder and appreciation I’ve eventually discovered for songs like the Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” or the Who’s “Baba O’Riley.” I suspect that it’s because Em’s Greatest Rapper Alive stint coincided with my preteen years, an era in which I inhaled music, but hadn’t yet developed my own taste. (Peep my P.O.D. and Alien Ant Farm CDs.) So, while I’m intimate familiar with Em’s music, it’s hard for me to engage with it or be impressed by it.

But maybe that’s changing. I’ve recently been revisiting Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz’ early 00’s output, and rediscovered the remix to “Lean Back” that I’d not thought about in a decade or so. And I’ll be damned if I don’t love Em’s verse.

The whole thing sounds like Marshall’s drunk on assonance. Sure, he’s still spitting traditional raps (this is Eminem we’re talking about, after all) but he’s way looser in his deliver that he usually is. Rather than grabbing you by the scruff of the neck and joylessly forcing you to appreciate every syllable, he sounds like he’s actually...having fun? He smudges his way from one vowel to the next, turning the whole verse into a big slurry of schwa sounds.

It might not be the same as really hearing “Good Vibrations” for the first time, but it was still a pleasant surprise.

FEATURED FEATURE

(Guest Spots That Steal The Spotlight)

Drake on YG’s “Why You Always Hatin?”

To paraphrase Howard Hawks, sometimes all you need to have a good rap verse is one great line and no bad ones. And that’s how I feel about Drake’s guest turn on YG’s hit “Why You Always Hatin?” 

It’s not exactly transcendent (I didn’t even include it on my shortlist of best rap verses for last year.) But it’s got lots of fun draaaaawn out syllables and a buoyant cadence that makes it a hell of a lot of fun to rap along to. And it’s last couplet (”I'mma spend the summer gettin' to the cake / And I'mma wish a n**** would on every candle”) is a total slam dunk.

But what I really like about it is how it works in the song. Just compare the two YG verses that bookend it. The first is pure hood-up grievance tallying. You can practically hear YG shaking his head in disbelief as he grumbles through lines like “Friends and business don't mix so I'm brotherless” and insists that he “don't care at all.” He’s asking “Why you hatin?” in the sense that he’s totally exasperated with your shit.

Then Drake rolls through and turns the track on it’s ear. Now, the chorus is asking “How could you hate on something so obviously awesome?” And YG’s subsequent verse he keeps the party going. Instead of tallying faults with his head down, he’s shouting out lines and switching up his delivery line to line. I mean, have you ever hear YG sound playful before?

Now, there is, of course, no way for me to know how this song was constructed and whether or not Drake’s appearance influenced the writing of YG’s second verse. But, man, doesn’t it sound like it did?

- TWG

FEATURED FEATURE

(Guest Spots That Steal The Spotlight)

David Bowie on Mott The Hoople’s “All The Young Dudes”

No, David Bowie isn’t actually featured on Mott The Hoople’s recording of “All The Young Dudes.” Yeah, he wrote it. And sure, he played it live with them a few times. And you can find live versions of it on his Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture and David Live records, and he recorded a studio version during the Aladdin Sane sessions that can be found on any number of Bowie rarities or retrospective compilations. But he isn’t featured on Mott The Hoople’s original recording of the track.

But, damn, doesn’t it feel like he is?

Can’t you feel his presence hanging over the track? On their album of the same name, “All The Young Dudes” sticks out like a sore thumb, but if a sore thumb was a great thing instead of an inconvenient aliment. While the rest of the record is comprised of solid but unremarkable slices of glam, “All The Young Dudes” is a three-minute-thirty-two-second streak of brilliance. The reason is that it doesn’t feel like a Mott The Hoople song; it feels like a damned Bowie song.

Unlike the thick boogie grooves and platform shoe stomps that surround it, “All The Young Dudes” sounds like the most fabulous ‘70s funeral ever. Golden gleaming organs, spiraling guitar leads, stumble-drunk verses, and those choruses - one yelping voice shouting and raving over drawn-out choir harmonies. It does sound like anything else on the album named for it.

But you know what it does sound like? “Watch That Man.” And “Suffragette City.” And “Queen Bitch.” I could keep going, but you get the point. It sounds like a Ziggy Stardust era Bowie song. 

While it probably seems like I’m writing this post to slag Mott The Hoople, I’m actually hoping to illustrate just what a toweringly great artist Bowie was. Although he gave the song to them because he was a fan and wanted to give them a hand, he couldn’t help but cast a massive shadow over them and their version of the song, even though he doesn’t make a sound on the recording itself.

Playlist: Earl Grey, EP influences

With Earl Grey’s new EP The Times You Cross My Mind released next month we asked the band to put together a playlist based on tracks that have influenced them. Over to the band…

The Story So Far – Roam

Flowing hard from start to finish. We always wanted to create something as catchy as this track with the attitude to go fucking crazy.

FEATURED FEATURE

(Guest Spots That Steal The Spotlight)

Rick Ross on “Knotty Head” by Denzel Curry 

There’s a lot of stuff to love about “Knotty Head” from Curry’s classic Memphis triplet flow bursts to the queasy post-Arca wince of the beat, but the part that keeps bringing me back to it is Rick Ross’s guest verse. 

It’s startling how far Rozay has come since he was introduced to us saying dire stuff like "Get your umbrella, fella / 'cause we blowin' hella chedder.” Over the years he’s grown into a master of imagery, as evidenced by his immediate and visceral uses of the device on this track. Just think about how much mileage he gets out of nine words when he raps “Pickin’ up the pistol every time the dogs bark.” 

A lesser rapper would have just said something direct about how they’re tough and always ready for action. Instead, Ross paints a scene. He evokes sound and action and a particular situation. To dust off an old writing chestnut, he shows, rather than tells. 

He uses a similar approach in the verse’s best moment: it’s staggeringly great opening three lines. “Found another body in the lake / Same day another tattoo on his face / Obituary on his mother’s fireplace.” In those three flashes of imagery, without a bit of connective tissue between them, Ross paints a clear picture of a murder without ever explicitly saying what happened. Disconnected, those images wouldn’t say all that they do here, but by juxtaposing them Ross tells us the whole story. 

He’s using techniques that bring to mind great film editing, drawing out the power of images by carefully arranging them beside one another. Think about it. Can’t you imagine a great episode of a prestige crime drama ending with a montage that includes those three images? 

Actually, don’t. 

I wanna write that episode.

Playlist: The Family and their influences

With their new EP Welcome To The Family due for release on the 19th May, we asked The Family to curate a playlist that would give us a bit of insight into the band.

Over to the band…

  We’ve been around the band a picked a couple of tracks each for you below, hopefully this will give you some idea about where we come from musically, both as The Family, and individually. We’ve spent our lives…

FEATURED FEATURE

(Guest Spots That Steal The Spotlight)

ScHoolboy Q on Danny Brown’s “Pneumonia”

If you’ve ever played with The Rap Board, you know that ad libs (you know, the random noises rappers make when finding the rhythm) are one of the most singularly delightful parts of hip hop. Would we love Jeezy as much without “Jyeah!” or “Ha-HA!”? What about Gucci without “Brrrrrrr!”? Or Mike Jones without, uh, “MIKE JONES!”

Which brings us to one of my favorite guest spots from last year: ScHoolboy Q’s ad-libs-only spot on Danny Brown’s “Pneumonia,” which is less “singularly delightful” and more “straight-up harrowing.” Out of all the tracks on Atrocity Exhibition, “Pneumonia” is the one that feels like like high before the crash, the peak from which you can’t help but look down and see the fall before it happens. And if Danny is our protagonist, our analogue, then Q is the demon lurking over his left shoulder, a grinning, cackling gremlin always glimpsed through the corner of the eye. He’s temptation and impulsive decisions and self-destruction flitting through your mind. He is the shadow you that fear and feel must come tumbling out eventually. 

Forget guest verses. Sometimes you don’t need words to make an impression.