Honestly, I’m just over Kanye and all them – if Hov wants to come with a grimy analog hip hop album then I’m there – otherwise it’s all equivalent to Em doing a record with frickin’ Rhi-Rhi as far as I’m concerned. Wasted talent.
Ha!
I put 95-2005 Hov over pretty much all other mc’s as far as the perfect mix of lyrics, flow, wit, consistency, punchlines, beat selection, beef, ‘swag’ *ahem* and all that, which makes this ‘I’ve still got it’ old man routine all the more painful as a Jigga fan from back in the day. Seriously, remember our debates/arguments about whether he was any good aside from reasonable doubt? It’s painful for me to watch.
Right. And when ‘on to the next one’ drops you’re like – again – why aren’t you doing WHOLE ALBUMS of this? Same with Em for me – where even on ‘without me’ (which I dislike) lyrically and the way he flows is still the shit, but I cannot get past the music. Wasted.
All those cats need to: make your mark/money/move on. You’re not Led Zeppelin or the Beatles or Radiohead where you can change record to record and maintain any semblance of integrity – so stop trying.
Or even the soulful shit on ‘American Gangster’... Hov and Beans over a Just Blaze / Isley Brother’s loop? Yes please. This skinny jeans / electro beats soul sample with me shouting ‘swag' for four minutes is a waste of everything.
Yeah Em needs to stop too, sadly some of his flow on ‘relapse’ is the best he’s ever had, but the beats and the content? Horrid. Do that Scarface shit, of, ‘every five years I drop an album, same producers, same vibe, same ethos. Maybe the odd club track’...I think it’s called ‘doing me’. fuck all this ‘I’m still twenty’ shit.
Dudes are killing rap. Them and the blog rappers. Fuck it, whatever, it’s over. Life goes on.
It’s true – funnily enough it parallels skateboarding like that – it goes in cycles of getting too big/overexposed and the only thing it can do to prevent imploding completely is to go underground again and recoup.
Like I don’t give a flying fig that P-Rod is in the new Nike TV commercial along with some surfers/bmxers etc – all glossy and shit. Same with the Adidas one – all ‘faces’ and hype. Pah – there IS no scene anymore – there is no music industry anymore!
It’s all mass marketed - homogenised bullshit. And still, at the end of the day there’ll always be some dude skating a waxed curb somewhere by himself, and having a blast - and dudes in a basement making fat beats that will never see the light of day, bar on a mix CD.
So yeah – whatever.