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Acid Rap

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:10:47 -0400

Rap has never needed nor will it ever need saving, but Chance the Rapper got the type of hype that casted Acid Rap in the light that says the genre needed some kind of savior. Was Chance going to be the next Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West or let’s just jump to the point is Acid Rap the new Illmatic?

Chance used a school suspension last year to inspired his first mixtape, 10 Days, which was well received and got him a tour with Childish Gambino. After the increased exposure from that tour, he began leaking out tracks at the beginning of the year from his next latest project, Acid Rap. The mixtape received immediate accolades from Complex, Spin and even cross-country praise from the L.A. Times, validating the initial hype.

On a first listen of Acid Rap, it would be hard to miss Chance’s nasally high-pitched voice and technical rapping ability. Those two elements create an interesting contrast as his voice contorts and morphs so much that as his flow becomes closer to singing the style works surprisingly well (“Smoke Again”). The vocal tweaking obviously takes inspiration from Kendrick Lamar, but these moments for Chance feel less forced than Kendrick’s vocal twisting. Nor do the hyper lyrical moments reminiscent of Earl Sweatshirt—or probably better yet Eminem—keep those rappers’ topical nastiness, Chance’s lyrics gymnastics, thankfully, aren’t interested grossing out the listener. All these elements of the rap language are employed by Chance for empathy, so when he raps “Do you love being Kobe when you make the lay-up/till you realize everybody in the world fuckin hates the Lakers”; Chance humorously works though why this simple boast might be better served as a self-critique.

In addition to his sharp technical skills, Chance isn’t afraid to let the personal details of his young life form and inform his songs. He raps about seeing his friend stabbed and the lingering demons from that altercation (“Acid Rap”) and constantly references smoking cigarettes and other drugs to talk about his paternal relationships (“Cocoa Butter Kisses” and “Smoke Again”). Despite being indebted to Kendrick, Chance pushes Kendrick’s highly lyrical and contemplative style beyond sheer rapping ability, as Chance becomes more humanized with each verse.

Acid Rap shows that Chance understands the necessity of the personal appeal. He understands a rapper, who lacks that passion quickly becomes a church pastor attempting to convert a congregation without putting their own soul in a sermon. He even steps up the pulpit on the interlude “That’s Love”, where church organs, blues guitar and gospel choir join him in asking the congregation (the listeners) to scream out in love. Comparisons between Chance and Kanye West due to labels like “Chicago” and “middle class” could force parallels between “That’s Love” and West’s “Jesus Walks”. Though both songs use a religious framework, the broader political, racial and class issues that appear in “Walks” and have defined West’s career aren’t the overriding concern for Chance. The tangibility of Chicago’s violence, matters of the heart and nostalgia for days that involved Rugrats preoccupy Chance’s world and his words.

Chief Keef had all of 2012 being the face of Chicago rap, and in 2013 the spotlight is being shifted to Chance. Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like” remains the mantra of Chicago for those outside the city, but last year there was a healthy rise of female rappers like Katie Got Bandz and Sasha Go Hard; even the comparatively old Kanye West’s Cruel Summer was focused on Chicago.

This kind of “savior of the city” narrative being put on Chance made me a bit weary of Acid Rap before I gave it a listen. Would Chance condescend and moralize once he was given more open ears? The answer was no. Chance instead on Acid Rap shouted out to Keef, included veteran Chicagoan Twista and never let the pressure of the world weigh down his music.

Acid Rap has and will probably continue to receive great praise this year, but I originally wrote this piece to offer a dissenting voice to this praise. Assuming that maybe Chance sounded too naïve or took on far too many issues on what is only his second major mixtape. But every listen made it harder to keep up that desire to critique.

A lot of niggas want to go with a bang

But I ain’t trying to out at all

No I ain’t trying to go out at all

I got a lot of ideas gotta throw out the door

(“Chain Smoker”)

Humbled. No rap lines from this year have made me want to say I wrote them. To lie and say I thought of them. Or simply motivate myself to just scribble them down in a journal. Chance has and will become various things to many people, but right now he is the guy in the grade below me I’m looking up to.

Pitchfork: Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y: Live in Concert

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:45:40 -0400

Pitchfork: Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y: Live in Concert:

I reviewed the latest Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y project Live in Concert.

I really really like the last paragraph. So read this and click a liquor ad or something. And go listen to the Savages album. Its good!!!

"The truth is that without this album, rap is in an entirely different place right now. And while..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:36:42 -0400

“The truth is that without this album, rap is in an entirely different place right now. And while Kanye West’s growth and experimentation has resulted in some thrilling music, this is bedrock for a generation of MCs. Deeply middle class, musically ambitious but never alienating, emotionally naked: This was not the stuff of pre-2002 hip-hop. The paradigm shift is only now really taking shape as young rappers like Drake, Kid Cudi, Wale, and Asher Roth bend and pull on West’s thorny contradictions. As singles, “Slow Jamz” and “Jesus Walks” made for the perfect dichotomy; light and dark, secular and devout, stupid and smart. But what still moves me are the beautifully told personal notes: retail details while slinging sweaters at the Gap, peeing in the bed as a snot-nosed kid, landing in the same hospital as Biggie after a devastating accident. On Dropout, Kanye wasn’t the best rapper or the best producer or even the best album-maker. But he was the most original.”

- Sean Fennessey, from Pitchfork’s Top 200 albums of the 2000s list on Kanye West’s The College Dropout.

We don’t say this enough.

At my school (Elon University), we had our Spring show last...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:47:38 -0400

Elon Producer T-Mare was the opening act for the bigger artists. I liked him, and my girlfriend has an accounting class with him. I expect his life to be chill and prosperous.

BIG FUCKING SEAN. *NOT SHOWN* HIS BACKING TRACK. PRAISE BOTH OF THEM.

3LAU pronounced "Bl-wow", I think. I am not sure what the difference between Trap, Moombahton or EDM is. But, I liked when he played the three trance songs that always play at High School dances.

BIG SEAN TWITTER IN THE AM. NO MENTION OF ELON IN THE MORNING

LOCATION OF THE SHOW IN THE AFTERNOON OVERCAST

TICKET

FINALLY FAMOUS

DID THIS GUY PLAY FOR THE TORONTO RAPTORS IN 2002

THIS HAD A NAME WHAT WAS ITS NAME

At my school (Elon University), we had our Spring show last Friday. And here are some pictures I took at the show. I mean these aren’t the best photos, but it gives you the feeling of being at a college EDM/Rap show, minus the shoving, smell of alcohol and LARGE FONT t-shirts! With small additional commentary on the photos by me (David Turner)!!!

Red Bull Music Academy: DJ Spinz: The New Sound of Atlanta

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:27:00 -0400

Red Bull Music Academy: DJ Spinz: The New Sound of Atlanta:

This is a feature I did on Augusta’s own DJ Spinz and Childish Major. I know Mike Will and DJ Mustard have taken over the collective minds of rap critics, but DJ Spinz should really be in that conversation. He produces beats, hosts mixtapes, has created a production super group and is even on tour with Flosstradamus right now. That is far too much stuff to overlook considering many hot for a minute producers who limit themselves to beat making are forgotten once their style is overdone.

I also wanted to say that I actually interviewed DJ Spinz and Childish Major, which is the first time I’ve done that for a feature. Both guys were great and super cooperative!

And, I know not everyone listens to ATL rap stations, but if you have not heard the DJ Spinz’s produced “Nun Else 2 Do” by the Rich Kidz. Please do.

Photo

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 10:53:14 -0400

"Trap: a noun (a place where drugs are sold), a verb (to sell drugs), and sometimes, a sub-genre;..."

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:50:35 -0400

“Trap: a noun (a place where drugs are sold), a verb (to sell drugs), and sometimes, a sub-genre; T.I. staked his claim in 2003, with Trap Muzik, his second album, and so did Young Jeezy with his 2005 mixtape, Trap or Die. Unsmiling dudes rapping in the first person about drug trade—in cities with less fertile musical scenes, they just call that ‘hip-hop’.””

- Kelefa Sanneh, from his book with Michael Schmelling Atlanta.

“They Just Call That ‘Hip-Hop’”

"The works of highly successful artists raise a closely related point regarding style. In what might..."

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:41:01 -0400

“The works of highly successful artists raise a closely related point regarding style. In what might be called the “masterpiece syndrome” in the collecting and publishing of African works of art, pieces of exceptionally high quality and technical excellence are obviously preferred to mediocre works which may be far more widespread and representative of the culture. While this is understandable, it does have the effect of limiting judgments about collective styles to the output of a handful of master carvers, and not of a more broadly-based sample.”

- Sidney L. Kasfir, from “One Tribe, One Style? Paradigms in the Historiography of African Art”.

“Masterpiece Syndrome”

Late Nights - Jeremih “Late Nights” grows stronger, as the...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:44:44 -0400

Late Nights - Jeremih

“Late Nights” grows stronger, as the evening clocks moves from the PM to AM. The track’s lone hand claps begin to feel like distant applause from a previous concert. Keys and synths linger, anticipating one final encore. And each backing track reveals Jeremih’s personal vocal tics, as one has fallen into his world. Too many great songs have been given the lazy metaphor of being soundtracks to late evening drives. “Late Nights” is not for those drives. Characters stumbled far too many times, after the first “after show” party for that to be an option. Instead “Late Nights” is in memory, ironically, to the nights unremembered. Evenings pieced together in a hope of rediscovering the pleasurable hours between a show’s end and the sun’s rising.

Moms and Stars

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 09:50:00 -0400

A few years ago, my mother mentioned that she enjoyed the Tyler Perry film “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”. This got under my skin. Not because I disliked the movie—I hadn’t seen it. I just assumed that the movie was bad, based on the reputation among cultural critics that Perry had built. Despite her reservations before seeing the film, she enjoyed it. But, her appreciation was not enough for me. I had to validate her appreciation.

My family used to get weekly TV Guides in our Sunday newspaper. These guides gave out star ratings to movies being broadcasted during the week. I came across “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”; there it sat with 3 out of 4 stars. Without any knowledge of Tyler Perry’s work, I mentally fabricated that my mother enjoyed Perry’s lone quality film. The criticism lobbied at him had to do with those other films, which my mother hadn’t seen. She had been saved.

Peer Across The State

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:50:00 -0400

Earlier this week, Ian Cohen interviewed the young musician Jackson Scott for Pitchfork. Reading the interview I could not get out of my mind that we were a stone’s throw away. Well a really long stone’s throw, considering I am a few hours from Asheville, North Carolina on the other side of the state. But no matter the actual distance between us, I wanted to reach out to this somehow younger than me kid who was interviewed.

The school that Scott calls home, UNC Asheville, was a college that I visited a few years ago when looking for a small liberal arts schools in North Carolina. The school was fine but I would say my lack of enthusiasm had more to do with the cloudy fall day I visited, than the school itself.

Once I started reading Scott’s interview a thought immediately jumped into my mind: “We could have gone to the same school”. Would we have had any classes together? Would I have known about the music he was making? Or would I have woken up one day to find out that a guy I had first year English with was being interviewed by Pitchfork. Who knows, but I’d like to envision a stilted conversation where I say “I saw your feature on Pitchfork”. Then awkwardly mention that I had written for the same site, grasping, despite our geographical closeness, for a point that connected us.

Noisey: Mac Miller's Reality Show is Secretly Great, and You Should Play this Drinking Game Along to It

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:26:00 -0400

Noisey: Mac Miller's Reality Show is Secretly Great, and You Should Play this Drinking Game Along to It:

Probably my favorite Noisey headline on a something I’ve written yet. This piece actually made me laugh, then again I wrote it, but hopefully it’ll makes you laugh too!

Complex: Every Number 1 Rap Song in Hot 100 History

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:34:58 -0400

Complex: Every Number 1 Rap Song in Hot 100 History:

I worked on this! I might say more later, but if this exists just to remind people about “Like A G6”, I’ll be happy.

katherinestasaph: jamiesoncox: A Shot of Jamieson, Episode 2.5...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:07:32 -0400

katherinestasaph:

jamiesoncox:

A Shot of Jamieson, Episode 2.5 - David Turner & Brandon Soderberg (dalatu, no-trivia)

The newest episode of A Shot of Jamieson features birthday boy David Turner, who has contributed to Pitchfork, Complex, and Noisey among others, and SPIN rap blogger Brandon Soderberg. The theme of this episode was “young writer problems,” and we discussed editing, “trust,” Twitter/Tumblr cliques, and the music we’re enjoying right now.

As always, thanks for your support. I welcome your questions and comments via askbox, tweet, email, or whatever else you can imagine. Happy listening!

This is good; I wish it had more advice for writers/aspiring writers who don’t consider themselves part of any cliques. (I don’t.)

(Also, since music writing is a male-dominated field, the more so the higher up and closer to the pursestrings you get, networking is a lot different for women, in ways both subtle and not. But most things are.)

Kind of agree. More advice would be good, and from a non-dude perspective is always good. And, I guess here are a few small advice things.

1. Don’t stop writing!

2. Ask other people to read your reading, so you aren’t writing for an audience of one.

3. Reach out to other writers. At worst someone doesn’t answer your email, but even writers for major outlets are wiling to offer advice/just talk to younger writers.

4. Have a reason behind what you are writing. Adjective pilling seems to be a default for some music writers.Others can disagree, but personal I don’t enjoy writing, if I cannot least some sort of thought behind the words and instead get a paragraph describing a singer’s voice. ~ Shrugs shoulders~

5. Last one, Brandon and I talked a bit after the recording, but do not let the name of an outlet cloud your mind. Aim for quality writing no matter where it is your published. Whether it is the New York Times or your own personal blog, make sure you feel comfortable standing by whatever you write.

Anyway, this show was fun to do and many thanks to Jamieson and Brandon.

21

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 09:45:03 -0400

I was originally going to post some dumb personal essay, but I wasn’t able to finish it. Instead here are some facts about today: I am on Spring Break; I ‘m supposed to conduct my first interview today as a music writer dude; I am recording a podcast with some great people tonight; and hopefully my day ends with a phone call to my girlfriend. What more can I say. I might even try to fit in some homework.

Happy 21st to me.

And, I watched “Rushmore” this morning. I liked it.

All Camo Everything

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:48:44 -0400

The last few years there has been a fixation in men’s fashion around the camo print. This has manifested itself in: shorts, pants, snapbacks, canvas shoes, sneakers and even for the bold, full camo suits. On the last look of my closet I have not found anything of this particular print, but maybe it was too well hidden. The trend, while a bit ridiculous in certain examples, seemed overall fine to me. Maybe through a bit of internet myopia, I’ve associated the style with being hip/cool/cutting edge, until my eyes picked up on a different kind of camo style.

Instead of vintage camo patterns being worn by 20 and 30 somethings in nicely fitted clothes with expensive shoe taste; this camo appeared as very baggy and loosely fitted outerwear and pants. This look seemed to have more to do with the actual sport of hunting or at least trying to say you’re the type of person, who might care about the sport of hunting.

Over the last few months when shopping, I’ve kept seeing the two styles collide. It would be easy to say the hunting camo looks weaker against its more stylish sibling, but to me that isn’t true. The hunting camo feels better situated in these suburban spaces, unlike its more “stylish” sibling. Maybe it’s the more natural patterns, lots of grass and branches, which might aesthetically be more pleasing than the more “stylish” camo’s more abstract forms. Or it could be that, whatever little clothes ask as a tell sign for people, I feel—maybe incorrectly—I can gleam something from a person looking ready for hunting instead of a person that thought military camo skinny chinos were hot for 2013.

Noisey: The Spring Breakers Soundtrack is the Best Trap Album

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:51:00 -0400

Noisey: The Spring Breakers Soundtrack is the Best Trap Album:

The comments here are kind of cool to me. The piece is about how the Spring Breakers OST kind of perfectly contextualizes Trap music. I might have made a too big of a jump equating Skrillex with “Trap”. Even, though structurally they share the same DNA and the move from Dubstep to Trap is really not that hard to hear to me…I think Meaghan Garvey said this (or maybe Brandon Soderberg via Garvey), but we are kind of in a “Post-Drop” musical world, which is kind what all of this music sounds like Post-I.E. Dubstep commercials and the Harlem Shake Meme (still no. 1 this week).

I'm New in the City

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:03:07 -0400

I have no qualms with white males writing about rap— or any black/non-white music— but here’s something they should keep in mind. Critics are typically assumed to be white males, meaning anyone writing about music who isn’t a white male is automatically challenging this basic assumption. At the very least, white male critics focusing on rap should consider that whites have been dominating the stories of non-whites for centuries. A black critic engaging in poor criticism of a black rapper isn’t automatically more valuable, but it does contribute to an internal community which has been historically underrepresented. When I read lazy criticism from a white critic who has failed to engage with a person of color’s work in a responsible and respectful manner, I think, “Well, I guess some things never change.”

d’Eon - Music For Keyboards Vol. III After couple listens...

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:59:19 -0400

d’Eon - Music For Keyboards Vol. III

After couple listens of this forty minute long composition, the only thing that came to mind were old episodes of a podcast called Retronauts*. The show was devoted to old video games, and would occasionally have music from the old games as buffer music—usually corresponding to the games being discussed. I’d even admit that is odd to reference pieces of music that were only used to transition between segments on a podcast. And to be even more specific it was the music that was used from older PC games that seemed to be called by back from this D’eon piece.

This felt like a weird rabbit hole to fall down, to describe this composition. But, with there being sometime of an over reliance on the idea that nostalgia being the trigger point for artistic inspiration or appreciation. Maybe I’m just justifying my own nostalgia for an old podcast series—which in itself was self-admittingly nostalgic about old videos games—that explains why I like this particular work. But I also don’t think that appreciation of the arts works in such a circularly nostalgic way. Or maybe it does, I don’t really care, really like this tracks and that it reminds me of playing boring Japanese role-playing games in 9^th grade when I didn’t have any friends, then I don’t care.

*Sadly, between when I originally drafted than and posted, the show has finally come to an end along with its parent website 1up.com.

"You always hear stories about the early hardcore days, when bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat..."

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:29:09 -0400

“You always hear stories about the early hardcore days, when bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat had to figure out touring channels by themselves because nobody was doing it for them. D.I.Y. shows still happen, but they mostly happen through choice, not necessity. Now, there’s an indie rock infrastructure that pays a whole lot of people’s bills, including mine. But that whole era, where people were making shit up as they went along, was still going strong in the mid-to-late 90s. Teenage kids were convincing their parents to help them sweep up the North Baltimore storefront D.I.Y. spaces that they rented with their own money. They were selling Now & Laters at a concession stand and asking everyone to please be cool and not drink because they didn’t want the place to be busted. And the energy that these kids put in was enough to nurture and sustain bands like the Dismemberment Plan, bands that would help shape the indie universe for years to come. Maybe that’s still happening somewhere. I’d like to think so.”

- Tom Breihan, from Pitchfork’s 15 Writer/15 Songs anniversary feature talking about The Dismemberment Plan’s “Ellen and Ben”.

I don’t even think I’ve heard this song. Yet this piece comes up in my mind far too often for me not to have put this on my blog. I am not sure if it is aspiration, inspiration or just a nice little story. But it is something that I just love reading.