Posts tagged 2012

It must be weird to apologize to your fans for one of last year’s most successful rap album, but that is  the position Wiz Khalifa found himself one day when writing up a letter to his tumblr: “The album did great numbers, but creatively wasn’t my best work. No regrets though. We live and we learn.” The honesty shown admitting he lost his way with his major label debut is probably why Wiz Khalifa new mixtape Taylor Allderdice plays so to his strengths and minimizes the styles that weren’t working for him.

The funny thing about the backlash that Wiz Khalifa has experienced from Rolling Papers was that complaints of “selling put” or going “pop” could not be more wrong. On his breakthrough mixtape Kush and OJ, he was rapping over Camp Rock’s “Our Time is Now”, which is about as “Pop” as one can get without being produced by Dr. Luke. He might have “sold out” in term of working with producers like Stargate, whose leaning are more pop than his usual producers of Cardo and I.D. Labs, but they are also the guys who produced Khalifa’s biggest hit “Black and Yellow”, which was one of the purest rap songs to top the Hot 100 charts in this young decade. 

In attempting to make up for Rolling Papers, Taylor Allderdice rewrites Wiz’s narrative pretending that he is not one of the few rappers that can still sell records. Instead it casts him as just another dude trolling weed and rap tumblrs that say Spaceghostpurp is the next big thing and that Juicy J is still a relevant rapper to young people. This rewriting is a bit disingenuous, but it does allow the light to be cast on long time collaborators Cardo, Sledgren, and Big Jerm who all update their styles for this expansive mixtape. Cardo, who produced the biggest song from Kush and OJ “Memorized”, on “California” and “Mary 3x” tweaks his rolling 808s sound with pillowly synths to better fit the luxury flights that Khalifa is now details. And with Sledgren on “O.N.I.F.C.”, Cardo brushes right up next to the production of Araabmuzik’s Electronic Dream or the loftiest heights of the Main Attrakionz as the song floats at a relaxed pace Khalifa might even say is a bit slow. 

The production shows obvious growth from its predecessor Kush and OJ, but the growth that appears in the sonics is also found in Khalifa’s lyrics. That isn’t to say that he is starting to expand beyond his topics of weed and money, in fact he has reduced his scope because where there were once songs about girls, Amber Rose has replaced those nameless women Wiz used to rap about. Wiz Khalifa hasn’t collaborated with Lil B (even though he can be seen doing Lil B’s cooking dance in the video of “Black and Yellow”), but the constantly positive worldview of Lil B runs throughout the tape, as Wiz cares more about building up those around him rather than tearing down others. This is might seems like a minor change to highlight, but when Wiz mentions his willingness to smoke with his haters shows a maturity to not let petty beef effect his life and instead just move on and enjoy life. 

Listen to the Space Jam Soundtrack recently? If no, seek it out, or at least listen to the theme song on Youtube. Last Saturday, I was at party where the theme was 90s but I was mentally too out of it to enjoy it. And I was also too lazy to dress up for the theme unless a plaid long sleeve shirt and shitty pants counts as 90s—someone told me they did, so I ran with it. Sources of inspiration for dress ranged from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the AIM symbol, Rugrats, Britney Spears, Men in Black, and the adjective of “Grunge”. Plenty of people were having fun and in the end that’s all that counts, but as I was trying to identify if some guy was Tupac, Soulja Slim, or Lil B channeling Lil Wayne, the rapid nostalgia and too soon throwbackness of the whole thing was a bit overwhelming.

Would I have had a better time if I didn’t hear a Pussycat Dolls song, (“Don’t Cha” if you were curious) and instead heard “Everybody Dance Now”, probably but maybe that’s asking for too much. Most of the people there would have been in middle school during the early/mid 2000s, and a lot of the music skewed in that direction, because while I love “Say My Name” should that really count for the 90s? Then again I am complaining about a lack of verisimilitude at a college party I did not even properly dress up for. So not that it matters much, but one song I am surprised did not get played was “C’mon N Ride It” by Quad Cities DJs, who did the theme song for what…Space Jam.

I mentioned listening to the Space Jam soundtrack to some friends, and they were like “O yeah, I remember that movie and soundtrack”, which is pretty good considering some of these guys would have been three, when they first saw it. And while Michael Jordan and R. Kelly are names that won’t be forgotten when mentioning Space Jam, I doubt the Quad Cities DJ’s will get as many mentions. And maybe I would’ve liked this 90s revival more if people remembered the time like I do or better yet if they remembered the 90s how I wish I remembered them. I couldn’t have identified a Quad Cities DJs song a few weeks ago, so again maybe no one would want my 90s because I just learned Mark Walberg was a rapper, who had actual hits!

DUBSTEP! Rihanna with her album Rated R can take credit as one the first US pop star to really have some strong Dubstep influence in their music. Since then, Britney Spears released a pretty good dubstep influenced pop album last year in Femme Fataleand all of the stuff that has happened on this chart has lead to Dubstep being the next big thing people are stumbling over themselves to cover. Last year, I wrote about the slight dubstepiness of “On the Floor” by Jennifer Lopez, and here is a quick update on that idea looking at “Love You Like a Love Song”, “You Da One”, and some general ideas on the Skrillex.

“Love You Like A Love Song” by Selena Gomez is hard to exactly figure out how popular the song truly is, as it came out last summer, but it took some time for it to gain a moderate amount of radio buzz. So, maybe it took some time for the rest of the world to appreciate the bass oddness instead of finding it off putting. It’s a love song about love songs and with an odd pairing of some of the glossiest vocals I’ve heard in a pop song in recent memory with over active bass sounds. But, considering how loose the definition of dubstep has gotten in the last few years that is still enough for music writers (this one included) to say that there is dubstep influence in the song and one of the better ones with roots in pop music to get that distinction.

Dubstep went from something so under-covered in music circles, I’d bet a year ago most music critics would have been asking “What is a Skrillex?” while mocking those people who were saying “Who is Arcade Fire?” after their Grammy victory.  But, where we stand now, dubstep is the music of the young people that must be covered. So, great writers are now wrestling with the music of Skrillex and other more American based Dubstep producers, whose names are usually never mentioned in Dubstep articles, because Skrillex serves to be the head of this second electronic music revolution and conveniently the only one most writers can name.

Not to be too crabby, but when I first heard Skrillex more than a year and half ago I thought he was garbage, so seeing people stumbling over themselves to praise the man is strange to say the least. Which accounts for the name of this article, because early on Dubstep pieces would characterize it as music for bros to mosh out and go crazy to, which while not untrue as people started to pay more attention to the music, it became obvious this was music both genders equally enjoyed. Also, for all of the Grammy nominations and sold out shows that Skrillex will play, the way that dubstep is entering the mainstream is through female artists, who take some dubstep elements are work them into their music far better than Skrillex and his peers (Flux Pavilion, Zeds Dead, Nero, and a the UKF group if you want some other examples of this stuff).

“You Da One” is a weird Rihanna single still trying to find another life to eventually top the charts like so many of her songs have already. Yet, focusing on bass drops in dubstep, quickly loses the fact the drums of most dubstep songs have an instantly recognizable slowed up lurch compared to other more bland four on the floor pound of most pop songs on the radio today. That is the most notable dubstepish part of “You Da One”, as while the bass is noticeable the drum pattern is what gives the anticipation of a bass drop eventually happening, even if it doesn’t really happen. I don’t really enjoy too many Skrillex or Rusko (supposed originator of this Bro-step style) dubstep songs that are heavy on bass drop and not much else, but considering they are probably the reason a songs like “You Da One” or “Love You Like A Love Song” were even considered for a major label means I will begrudgingly accept their place in the world.