I cannot force anyone to like a particular song; yet my god how many people would I’d to kill so everyone could enjoy shouting: “Got a condo on wrist, girl, I’m cashin’ out”, while cruising down a highway. Cash Out’s “Cashin’ Out” isn’t too far removed from YC’s “Racks”, any hit by Roscoe Dash, or one of the first Swag Rap cross-over F.L.Y.’s “Swag Surfin”. So, my hyperbole for “Cashin’ Out” isn’t exactly new, as all those songs gave me the same feelings.
There is just something about these pure hook songs, where rapping and singing become one, and the best lyrics are describing the jewelry that rests on one’s neck and wrist. Actually, right there explains why I love these songs. I like hooks. I mean, I really like hooks. A Pop/Rap/Rock/Dance song without a strong hook (or chorus) is useless to me, and right here are songs that are just one gigantic hook.
Nearly, every line Cash Out says is quotable even the stupid adlib “Can I meet you Hoe?” plays in my mind far too many times in the day to be healthy. Yet, for all of this talk of hooks, the production by DJ Spinz shouldn’t be overlooked. In a rare use of steel drums in rap music, “Cashin’ Out” could have worked with fine with a Casio keyboard melody. But, I won’t complain, because I certainly wouldn’t have imagined Swag Rap needing to include steel drums to become a cross-over hit, but I won’t complain about it. Have I converted you to the “Cashin’ Out”? Whatever, I don’t care I got a pair of condos on my wrists and one on my neck.
North Carolina doesn’t have a sound, because they steal, copy and borrow style from so many other places. But little do they know man that if we get our own sound people will be able to identify my music and know that it’s from North Carolina.
When you hear a nigga from NC it’s hard to guess where he’s from. People don’t even know where the fuck I’m from. But I’m being true to the NC movement man. My whole slang is North Carolina. You come down to Charlotte everybody talk like me. I’m not trying to steal no fucking New Orleans slang with a little bit of Atlanta, with a little dab of fucking New York. No, it’s all North Carolina. It’s all Charlotte shit man.
Deniro Farrar, from an interview at Passion of the Weiss with Jimmy Ness, talking about the lack of distinct North Carolina rap.
He is correct about North Carolina rap, and he does sound like someone from Charlotte to me for whatever that’s worth.
I changed my little Tumblr icon. It is an unfinished self-portrait my father did in college. It was recently discovered (as in 2 hours ago) in our garage during a cleaning session.
Remember the lead-up conversations about Odd Future before Tyler the Creator’s Goblin came out? You do? Okay good. Did you listen to Goblin? You did? Okay, so did I, didn’t like it. Doesn’t matter. Reviews for the album came out, but who cares about a review ofGoblin. The think pieces were already written.
Next One. Lana Del Rey, never cared about her music, never wrote about her music. Was I missing some larger conversation about her, by not discussing her image, music, and previous career: Sure, but I didn’t/still don’t care.
Next. Do you remember articles on Kreayshawn? I’m so sorry, if you do. Can you name any other Kreayshawn songs besides “Gucci Gucci”? Did you hear her verse on 2 Chainz “Murder”? I’d hope the answer to all three is “No”, but especially for the latter.
Finally. Kitty Pryde was in the New York Times last week. The New York Times. Why was she there? I don’t know. I could ask Jon Caramanica, but really that doesn’t matter. I mean, there is no bar or requirement for a musician to appear in any publication. But, maybe it would serve the artist and readers, for a young and very much still developing act to not be rushed to the spotlight, especially when articles were already being written about the backlash to them, which—secret—hasn’t happened yet.
I went to bed around 2:30am last night, after hours of multiple Facebook/Gmail chats with topics ranging from realizing the Oklahoma City Thunder are probably going to crush the Lakers this year to discussing hypothetical scenarios where ASAP Yams explains overly elaborate music video ideas to a not very receptive ASAP Mob. Obviously or not obviously, I’m back home from finishing my second year of college, and I know I’ve got many similar nights ahead of me. So as I’ve done the last few summer, I wake up at 6am turn on MTV, because this is the only time of the day when they show videos and fall back asleep. Half-awake my dad was says he was going to work, I say something intelligible and turned my hazy vision to the TV screen.
I see this women singing on the phone throughout a very colorful apartment as she is getting ready for her evening. Halfway through, Jermaine Dupri, looking a bit like Too Short, knocks on the door and I wonder when was the last time I saw Dupri in a music video. Then Pharrell shows up for a similar cameo, and this late 90s sounding R&B song continued to confuse my drowsy self. I stumble out of bed to a computer and discover the song is “Sexify” by Leah Lebelle, and that she is working on an album with Durpi and Pharrell, explaining away those seemingly random appearances.
I don’t want to speak too strongly on R&B music, because I usually don’t engage enough with it outside of radio singles, so my familiarity is very surface (also, I don’t like The-Dream, which probably means I’ll be excluded from future secret music writer meetings). Yet, for all the 90s R&B IS RELEVANT AND IMPORTANT TALK, the simplicity in production here lets Labelle’s voice shine and doesn’t sound too far from the R&B selection on Elijah and Skilliam’s recent 90s R&B show. But, “Sexify” isn’t overly ambitious sounding or busy trying too hard to sound like Timbaland (see: Alunageorge “You Know You Like It”). Labelle has a 5 songalbum sampler out, and its fine, but hearing the other songs shows that “Sexify” was the correct choice for her first single.
1017 Bricksquad has seen a lot of changes in the last two years. Gucci Mane hasn’t been able to get out of his in-and-out of jail routine; Waka Flocka Flame has become the biggest mainstream star of the group; OJ Da Juiceman hasn’t worked with Bricksquad consistently in over a year and a half. All of these changes at the top has left spots open lesser known members to step up, and while Frenchie and Wooh Da Kid continue to release solid mixtapes; Ice Burgandy, who for most was probably introduced alongside the now deceased Slim Dunkin on “Fuck the Club Up” from Flockaveli, appears ready to step up.
Burgandy appeared on Waka’s 2011 mixtapes, as just another cog in the Bricksquad machine that could sustain a six minute long posse cute like “2 Deep”. But, Progress Involves Risks Unfortunately shows more attention should have been paid attention to the guy that said the instantly memorable “I push the line, I think I’m Suge in 1995”. With only a handful of quality releases between late 2010’s Flockaveli and Waka’s soon to be released Triple F: For Life, Burgandy’s release represents the first notable (read: listenable) Bricksquad release since Waka Flocka’s DuFlocka Rant nearly a year ago. He does it through the established Bricksquad formula of working with a single producer: Gucci Mane had Zaytoven, Waka had Lex Luger, Wooh Da Kid had Southside, and Burgandy has Purps.
Purps, who produced a majority of this tape, does not have as a defined a sound as those other producers letting him work through a variety of style and techniques like reversing the beat of “PMBB” during the last verse. That malleable means he can have beats that range from the usual Lex Luger beat (“Wake The Game Up”) or spacey synths paired with tinny hit-hats and crazy drum rolls on “Northside Rose Mo”. His style clearly has the influence of Zaytoven and Southside, so this isn’t a new sound for Trap Rap, yet those influences are well used instead of just becoming a dozen variations of “B.M.F.”.
Depending on who’s asked none of the rappers in Bricksquad are good rappers or everyone including OJ Da Juiceman has some underappreciated talent (I am stanchly in the Pro-Juiceman camp). Burgandy doesn’t have the tongue-twisting quotables of Gucci Mane at his prime, the adlibs of Waka Flocka Flame, or even the intensity of Slim Dunkin or Wooh Da Kid. Instead, he knows how to write a good hook and raps about a trapper’s lifestyle with a good balance of introspection and revelry that makes it easy to connect when he’s talking about lost friends or when he’s just smoking weed and getting drunk at the club. But, not to entirely undermine some of Burgandy’s quality lines, because “Black trash bag full of reefer, saying I call this bitch Precious” from tape highlight “PBMM” is too funny and mean to forget. Even if, Ice Burgandy’s career isn’t push dramatically forward with Progress Involves Risks Unfortunately; he and the young producer Purps are at least showing that the lower registers of Bricksquad are still very deep.
Str8 Like That - Meek Mill (feat. 2 Chainz & Louie V)
Let’s get this out the way: Meek Mill can write hooks. “I’m A Boss” might have had some Rick Ross adlibs, but Meek’s yelping “Yeah, I’m the king where’s my mothafucking crown” made it the perfect drunken sing-a-long rap song of 2011. And on Dreamchasers 2 it would be hard to call the hooks of “Amen”, “Flexing”, or “Lean Wit It” weak, when each song could easily run rap radio stations/DJ mixes for the summer.
So, why exactly did I choose “Str8 Like That”, which lacks Meek Mill on the hook, to be my highlight from Dreamchasers 2? Uumm, the song is just kind of perfect. The hook by Louie V is pure Swag Rap, a Roscoe Dashesque auto-tune soaring chorus on top of a steroided variation of “Show Out”. Louie V’s style is pretty different from Meek’s usual hard-nosed rap hooks that eschew any traces of sing-songy hooks.
Relieved of hook carrying duty allows Meek to attack the beat for two strong verses and sandwiched between Meek is rap star of the moment 2 Chainz, who makes the most of his materialistic boast by ending his verse saying “to tell a friend, to tell a friend, to tell a friend” about how much he spent on his paint job and rims. Right now, rap music is almost at parody levels of bizarre collaborations, as if rapper’s careers were controlled by an 18-year-old Complex reader. And as much as I like Swizz Beatz rapping over Araabmuzik’s production; Meek Mill and Swag Rap is a left field combination that makes more sense heard rather than on paper.*
*In Phily, Meek also has a history on some “Swag Rap” classics. Locally, he had two popular freestyles on “Swag Surfin” and “Ain’t I” So while this may seem like a departure from the harder MMG/Ross styled anthemic ish, there is a precedent. - A great note/correction of history from Crossfadedbacon
Two years ago, I started a tumblr…and that’s the only trip down memory lane happening today. Instead, I’m going to look a bit towards the future.
As is always the case for any anniversy celebrated here. HUGE THANKS FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART/BRAIN/LIVER. IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU PEOPLE, I’D STILL BE DOING THIS ANYWAY, BECAUSE I’VE NEVER CARED ABOUT MY FOLLOWERS.
This summer, I have some blog/writing projects I’m going to pursue, which should be fun. But, more importantly, I’m gonna try and get back to writing about music I like because there are soo many song from this year, I’ve never written about and really enjoy. (See: “#1 Crew by Treated Crew”)
Last. Currently, I have been trying to follow an even 100, because many tumblrs I’ve followed the last couple years have either deactivated or moved on to other non-tumblr related lands. So, if there are any good music writing tumblrs I should follow let me know, and honestly if it’s just a blog with good writing I’ll probably give them a follow.
I saw Hospitality more than a month ago, along with quite a few other bands (Kurt Vile and Onenotrix Point Never). I forgot to write about the show, but if you have a few minutes read Jamieson Cox’s retelling of his night seeing Hospitality and Eleanor Friedberger. I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again right now but this dude’s writing! This dude’s writing!!
