Tag Archives: rap

Heems, Lapgan – LAFANDER

20 Mar

It’s been a long time since Das Racist, a fact that I’m a little surprised Heems seems to know so well. LAFANDER has him more mature both as a person and as a musician and the development is excellent.

Right off the bat, “Stupid Dumb Illiterate” is great stuff. “I speak the mother tongue / but I’m illiterate / I’m an idiot / but only just a little bit” is excellent work. He does great work with his heritage throughout. The closing verse to “Sri Lanka” has some tremendous Hinglish and the call of “cricket” behind the line “swing the bat like I’m going for 6” is hilarious.

This is a New York album through and through (shout-out Jalen Brunson, Cubes did you wrong) and Heems stays eclectic throughout. “Bukayo Saka” has both of the coldest one-liners in the album; “Only right wing I acknowledge is Bukayo Saka” and “kill my cousin for the throne like in the Mahabharata.” Look at those references and look at how hard both lines go and you’ll get what this album is.

The heavy references are very reminiscent of Das Racist but they miss a lot less here. “My dough nuts / Ich bin ein berliner” is excellent. Heems’ flow is also better than before. He stays nimble throughout and maintains a relaxed swagger throughout.

It’s really helped by Lapgan’s excellent production throughout. He draws from much more than your average producer and his record collection is immaculate. The lofi, laid back production plays well against Heems throughout, especially in the vocal production in “Kala Tika.”

There are some issues with the album. Some songs drag, some jokes don’t last as long as they need and there’s no really killer song in the album. It’s a good album though and one that only Heems could have made. It’s unique and it’s fun and it’s very New York.

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Little Simz – Drop 7

29 Feb

Little Simz has long held the niche of literary rap and despite her massive talent, it’s never really served her that well. Her albums are fun and always a little out of left field but too comfortable to be memorable. Drop 7 moves her out of her comfort zone musically but isn’t enough to jump her to the next level.

The instrumentals of “SOS” are just filler and while her Spanish is excellent, “Fever” doesn’t work. There’s some infectiousness but the sound doesn’t work for her. It’s unfortunate that “Mood Swingz” is one of the strongest tracks here given how deep it is in her comfort zone.

I appreciate that this is her trying a whole bunch of new things and I wish that one of them worked better but this is ultimately just a collection of failed experiments.

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Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign – VULTURES 1

15 Feb

This album is the pointless animation of a corpse. It’s a grotesque rictus dance with nothing to say, an empty skull unable to do anything but howl. The provocations don’t land at all. “PAID” in uninteresting and the remixing of “Roxanne” is supremely boring. “BACK TO ME” might have been decent but sinks under self-sabotage. I have no idea who would be enough of an apologist to be convinced by Mike Tyson.

There’s the occasional sample or line to spark interest but never enough to carry a full song, let alone an album. In it’s favor, this album has none of the mess of the last few Kanye albums but that’s because it doesn’t even attempt anything novel. This is not polish, this is just laziness.

The only interesting thing about this album is the person who made it and it’s been a long time since he was interesting either.

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Young Thug – BUSINESS IS BUSINESS

2 Dec

Young Thug is just fun. He makes rap into simple, unabashed fun. It’s such a breath of fresh air to hear him in an industry that’s obsessed with all the trappings around the music. He’s very obviously not oblivious to the peripherals but when you hear him rap, you can be.

His fun extends to his guest stars. He loosens up Drake to great effect in “Oh U Went” and “Parade on Cleveland” and he corrupts poor Lil Uzi Vert on “Hellcat Kenny” for some shockingly funny bars. He’s also infectious as ever in “Gucci Grocery Bag” which brings back all of the best of trap. This is music that sounds like it was a pleasure to make and is a definite pleasure to listen to.

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Drake – For All The Dogs

11 Oct

I actually really like this album. In many ways, this is a low for Drake. His strength has never been his albums. He’s a man of moments, not of album-sized statements. This is the first time that there hasn’t even been a single to attach to. However, this is the easiest of his albums to just listen to. He’s had higher highs in all of his other albums but he has also had lower lows.

Honestly, I approach this album as background music. This is the rap equivalent of smooth jazz to me. Even the provocations that he puts in here – the shots at Rihanna, at Esparanza Spalding, the J. Cole feature – don’t really register as something worth thinking about. This is now all such well-trod ground. His talk about women is all stuff we’ve heard from him before. The 21 Savage feature is the same 21 Savage sound we’ve heard before. The Bad Bunny one is the same.

There are a couple of things that I do want to highlight. I really like “7969 Santa.” The production is so open and the song has so much space in it and the “I Don’t Like” sample is quite good. I also want to shout out the chorus of “Rich Baby Daddy” which finally brought out a little energy in Drake.

However, these are mostly just far too many songs that provide really easy-to-find grooves. One of the defenses of bloat is that you can build your own 10-track playlist from the raw materials it provides you, but honestly if I do that with Drake, none of these songs will make it. I’m never going to play this album or any track from it again. This is the least interesting Drake has ever been and somehow the most listenable album he’s ever made.

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Lil Uzi Vert – Pink Tape

20 Aug

It’s impossible to predict what Uzi is going to do next. There are just no rules to what they do next. Uzi consistently makes some of the most exciting music in rap with that freedom, but that’s unfortunately the only consistency you’ll find from them.

This is most obvious in “Just Wanna Rock,” currently every sporting event’s first choice for hype music. You cannot really describe “Just Wanna Rock,” let alone find a genre it falls neatly into, but it’s still absurdly compelling with every listen. Uzi’s blatant disregard for norms allow them to make music that doesn’t just bend genre, but instead comes from an alien planet where genre has never existed.

Even more surprising are the places Uzi draws inspiration from though. “Endless Fashion” takes “I’m Blue” and makes something spectacular from it. Everyone has an interpolation these days, most notably Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj on the Barbie Soundtrack, but this is the first one to really commit. Normally a song of this style just has the artists doing whatever they normally do over a nostalgic hook, but Uzi and Nicki modify their flows here to match the song and finally make one of these more than just a gimmick.

Uzi does a similar, if smaller, maneuver in “Mama, I’m Sorry” but cuts it with a couple of other samples to make a very strong cut, but they take yet another left turn with “CS,” an almost straight cover of “Chop Suey!” Now, I’m very clear about my feelings on the music of my youth; the time was a cultural wasteland and System of a Down is very much a part of that. “Chop Suey!” is a very memorable song, and is absolutely a song that I headbanged to when I was 14, but it’s not a good song and Uzi’s cover doesn’t do anything interesting with it. “Werewolf,” though an original track, is also pretty firmly 00s alt-rock and is tiring for being such.

Between the good and the bad, there’s a lot that’s just mediocre. “Amped” is pretty good in the “Just Wanna Rock” way, “All Alone” and “Suicide Doors” are both good Uzi cuts and there are other things one could highlight from the album, but the rest is just not very memorable. Every Uzi album is a mixed bag for the listener to sift through. There’s magic, missteps and always a lot of the mediocre, but when they hit, it feels like the future of music today and that always makes them worth the effort.

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Lil Uzi Vert – RED & WHITE

28 Oct

As always, Uzi just brings fun energy to every project of his. The joy that he takes in his work is infectious and often feels needed in a genre that quickly slips too far into seriousness. In particular, “GLOCK IN MY PURSE” is mad fun and gloriously silly. He’s not the first to rap about designer goods and masculinity but he is definitely the rapper having the most fun with the conflict.

He finds occasional lightness through the rest of the album, but unfortunately the album is still more filler than not. There’s some music here that can still hook you, like in “ISSA HIT” and the closer of “F.F.” is very well done, but there’s just not that much that sticks. He’s fun when he’s fun though and “GLOCK IN MY PURSE” has more fun in every minute than most albums can find in an hour.

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JID – The Forever Story

17 Sep

Sometimes rap can just be fun. JID is fluid and agile. He just pops off in “Raydar” and whispering the second half of “I got the shit you could play for your mama / I got the shit you could play for your hoes” is hilarious. Similarly, “Dance Now” is good fun and the beat suits the raps well. Also, “RIP, I miss my dogs like Mike Vick” in “Crack Sandwich” always makes me laugh, even if the sportscaster references don’t do much for me. This free-flowing playfulness makes Weezy a good match for him in “Just In Time” even if the beat is mediocre.

He even does well with Mos Def in the Danger Mouse-y “Stars” but “Sistanem” doesn’t have enough in the storytelling or the lyrics to make the sober cut it wants to be. A couple of other filler tracks like “Money” bring the album down, but overall it’s an album of clean fun and ends up being quite a good time.

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Danger Mouse & Black Thought – Cheat Codes

4 Sep

This is not a particularly daring or noteworthy album but it is very pleasant to relax into the very old-school sound that Danger Mouse and Black Thought bring. Danger Mouse sets the tone strong from the start. He sets up nice funky grooves for people to rap over and Black Thought complements them well. This traditional sound works well for OGs like Black Thought and like Raekwon when he shows up in “The Darkest Part” but can’t cover for Run The Jewels’ anemic rapping in “Strangers,” the weakest cut in the album.

Still, save for that one blemish, this is an album very consistent in its quality. Sometimes, it’s a little stronger, like in the compelling “Aquamarine” but it’s more really just comfortable. This is a safe album. It takes no risks and never really finds brilliance but it’s always a good listen and its just nice to get a throwback like this every now and again.

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Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti

1 Jul

Un Verano Sin Ti was the most puzzling release of the year thus far. Bad Bunny’s mix of Caribbean musics was completely unexpected and constantly surprising. It was also just too good to deny.

“Party” could be pretty standard reggaeton but Bad Bunny’s crooning elevates it well beyond the regular just for it to go straight back to the dancefloor with the chorus. Similarly, the first half of “El Apagon” is conversational and feels intimate, as though you’re talking to someone in a bar, just for the bar to turn into a dancefloor and a Puerto Rico-pride one at that. You can see the flags unfurling from the rafters. You can hear the entire building jumping up and down and you can see the solo voice take command over the whole thing.

There are two pillars that make this album special. The first is the depth and texture of the sound. “Moscow Mule” opens as though this is a producer’s album with an extended instrumental-only section and wildlife sounds and as the song progresses, this remains true. There are quiet drum beats, little vocal hiccups, quiet moments and tiny, little fascinating subbeats.

Secondly, Bad Bunny just brings a ton of emotion to every track. There’s a quaver in his voice in “Dos Mil 16” that immediately just takes the whole song over. On top of that, these tracks are just bangers. Listen to something like “La Corriente” and no matter what you feel of Latin club music, you can’t help but enjoy it, and that’s really this album in a nutshell.

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