Originally Posted by Severian

Here, try this: https://youtu.be/3kFmkDNp1fY


Yup.

1. DAMN
2. 4:44
3. Big Fish Theory

Everything else is a joke.

Originally Posted by louder

I'm interested in Kanye, Earl and Nas. Pretty much everyone else can fuck off. Perhaps I'm exaggerating but hip hop has gotten so stale.

Originally Posted by Severian

Uh. Kendrick. Chance. Pusha. Vince. Danny Brown is the absolute fucking shit. Just completely mad, that guy. Doing interesting things with the genre.

And of course Kane.

Nas? I dunno. He could use an album like 4:44 at this point. Otherwise it might be game over.

Originally Posted by louder

I'm talking about people who haven't put their album out yet.

So the only one who still applies out of the rappers you listed is Pusha.

These are pretty much the only 4 names who can drop something that would be on par or better than the top 3 albums of the year, which as of now, are in a league of their own.

Originally Posted by Severian

I can't quite tell if Frank Ocean should be considered. I've been revisiting Blonde a bit here and there, and every time I play it through it blows me the fuck away.

Blonde was really one of the best albums of 2016. Frank's been dropping nice features in its wake. If by some insanely lucky turn of events he ends up releasing a new project this year, I don't doubt it will be incredible.

It's really worth noting that Frank is, like, mother. fucking. good. I think there was some discussion of him being overrated when Blonde dropped. I passionately disagree. If anything he's underrated. Blonde was a grower, and a slow-burner, and it took many listens for it to really make sense, but in the end it's, like, twice as good as Channel Orange if not moreso.

Frank... Frank is dank. :cool:

Originally Posted by louder

Yeah, Frank is amazing. Blonde grew on me so much in the last couple months. In its own way, I think it's as incredible as a D'Angelo album.

Originally Posted by Severian

What about the new Lil' B? Anyone heard that yet?

Originally Posted by louder

NeedleDrop destroys XXXTentacion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmYXxJs0uCk

Originally Posted by Severian

Yeah. I still can't stand that guy though. He's going to a look and claims to laugh at the look (think people who wear Unknown Pleasures shirts). Also, he used WAY too many vague, non-quantifiable flowery adjectives and nouns to fill the space that would normally be reserved for actual information. and it drives me batty.

Count how many times he says "dense" or "pulsing" or ... "grooves." Guy can't talk about his own shit without mentioned it's "grooves." He knows zero music theory. I hate him.

Originally Posted by louder

This is true, but rap journalism is just trash in general nowadays. Pitchfork's XXXTENTACION review made me mad as fuck. Barely addressed the music, just the controversy behind the character.

Originally Posted by Obtained by Pitchfork from Florida court system

• The reported victim met XXXTentacion online and went to a movie theater with him once before she attended one of his shows in late May 2016. On that particular evening, he came up from behind her in the crowd, grabbed her neck, and walked away silently. Later that same night, he hugged her and invited her to a party at the house where he was living in North Miami. At the house, he told her he liked her and suggested she could move in with him. The next day, she left her ex-boyfriend’s place and began cohabitating with XXXTentacion.

• The first incident of domestic violence occurred about two weeks later. He slapped her and broke her iPhone 6S, because she had complimented a male friend on his new jewelry. (XXXTentacion later repaired the phone.) Later that day, XXXTentacion left the room and returned with two grilling implements—a “barbecue pitchfork” and a “barbecue cleaner,” she said—and told her to pick between them, because he was going to put one of them in her vagina. She chose the fork. He told her to undress. He was lightly dragging the tool against her inner thigh when she passed out. He did not penetrate her with it.

• Following that incident, XXXTentacion began to act violently toward her often. Around July 2016, the couple moved to Orlando. When asked during the deposition to “pinpoint the days he threatened to kill you,” the reported victim responded, “Well, when we lived in Orlando, it was literally like every day.”

• About a week and a half into their stint in Orlando, the woman and XXXTentacion were on their way to a show together. They listened to one of XXXTentacion’s songs in the car and she sang along with his verse. Then she hummed along with a verse from a featured artist on the track. After that, XXXTentacion fell silent and left her in the car outside the venue. Inside, they got into a fight. When they arrived home after the show, he took her into the bathroom. “And he was asking me why I was singing his friend’s part of the song, if I like him, why do I like him, like do I ever look at his Twitter,” she said.

Then, XXXTentacion head-butted her, punched her, stomped on her, and put her in the bathtub, where he continued hitting and kicking her. “He also wanted to cut out my tongue because I was singing the song,” she said. She tried to run away down the street. He tackled her, causing her head to hit the pavement. She suffered black eyes, a lump on the back of her head, scratch marks, and bruises, including a large bruise on her ankle where he stomped her.

• Also while living in Orlando, he hit her with white plastic clothes hangers. “He broke a good 30 hangers on my legs,” she said. Around this time, he tried cutting her hair, and he held her head under running water in the bathtub.

• In August, XXXTentacion was arrested in a separate case. (As previously reported, he was charged with armed home invasion, robbery, and aggravated battery with a firearm, stemming from an alleged incident in November 2015. He pleaded no contest to those charges in March 2017 and was ordered to serve six years of probation.) The woman called her mother to pick her up and then went to stay with a friend in Texas. But she soon had to return to South Florida, where her planned accommodations fell through and she ended up living with XXXTentacion’s friends. Around this time, she had sex with another man.

• When XXXTentacion got out of jail, they moved back in together in North Miami. (On September 16, 2016, court records show, XXXTentacion agreed to house arrest, and was released.) He told her he knew she had cheated on him. He put a knife to her neck, strangled her “a little bit,” and called her a “ho,” she said. That night, he woke her up and told her to go outside, where he picked up an empty glass beer bottle and demanded that she tell him the truth or, “I’m going to fuck you up.” She replied that she already was telling him the truth, that she had cheated and was sorry. He dropped the bottle, slapped her, and let her go back to bed.

• About a week later, she and XXXTentacion moved to an apartment in Sweetwater, Fla. In two incidents there, XXXTentacion grabbed her by the neck, strangled her, and forced her down on the bed before another person who lived there came to the rescue. “I’m like scared,” she said, recalling how she felt. “It’s like he’s going to like end up killing me or something.”

• In early October 2016, she found out that she was pregnant by XXXTentacion. The pregnancy was planned by both of them. On the afternoon of October 6, he told her to move from the bed they were lying on. He then went out onto the balcony, where she could still hear him, and called up the person she had slept with while XXXTentacion was in jail, demanding to know everything. When XXXTentacion returned inside, he told her, “You need to tell me the truth right now or I’ll kill you and this jit.” She said that “jit” was slang for the unborn child.

He then started elbowing, head-butting, and punching her. He strangled her until she almost passed out. He took her to the bathroom and demanded one last time that she tell him everything or he would kill her in the bathtub. She couldn’t even recognize her face in the mirror—it looked “distorted”—and her left eye was completely shut and “leaking blood.” She was losing vision. She vomited.

• Other people who lived in the Sweetwater apartment eventually arrived, and she asked them to let her go to the hospital. XXXTentacion told her she couldn’t leave until her face had healed, because otherwise the police would be called. He told her she had to wear a hoodie. XXXTentacion and the others also put glasses on her, then they all got in a car and drove to an apartment she had never been to before, in North Miami Beach. (The hoodie and glasses were noted in a police report.) They left her in a bedroom, and XXXTentacion confiscated her phone. She didn’t get it back until he was arrested on October 8.

• For the next two days she didn’t leave that room except to use an adjacent bathroom. She couldn’t find a way to flee. There were bars on the windows. “If you’re smart, you would stay with me until you get a car and you have enough money to move into an apartment,” he told her. “Because if you leave now, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. You’re going to be homeless.”

• Around 2 a.m. on October 8, XXXTentacion was in the living room of the apartment playing Minecraft and using Skype. She let him know she was going into the kitchen to make him some food. She opened the refrigerator door wide enough so that he wouldn’t be able to see her if he she crouched down, and then she opened a side door and ran to the nearest main street she knew. She didn’t have any money. She asked someone if she could use their phone and called the only number she knew by heart. It was the number for the ex-boyfriend she had been living with the night she agreed to move in with XXXTentacion. That ex-boyfriend’s mother drove her to the Miami Beach police department.

Pitchfork also obtained transcripts of previously unreported depositions by the woman’s ex-boyfriend, his mother, and Sgt. Amel Soto, the Miami Beach police officer who first questioned the woman. The ex-boyfriend backed up much of her testimony regarding what XXXTentacion had done to her. The ex-boyfriend’s mother attested to the woman’s injuries, describing her eyes, for example, as “black and blue, purple, every color under the rainbow.” Soto—a 23-year veteran of the police force—remembered the reported victim telling him about being attacked for humming someone else’s music. He testified, “I had never in my entire career heard something like that.”

Originally Posted by Severian

Sometimes the controversy, or real-life issue, is important enough to color the way people process the music. I didn't read the review you're talking about, but that kid is fucked up. I personally don't care what kind of music he's making if he's in the habit of assaulting women and shirking blame.

I know I've always said "it's about the music," but sometimes it really shouldn't be. That fucker doesn't need or deserve any idolatry or attention. He needs to take a goddamn break, grow up, and figure out whether he wants to be a positive or negative force in the world before I'm going to entertain the idea of thinking of him as an artist.

Kid's famous in part because of his criminal background. It's a dangerous feedback loop I have no intention of encouraging.

Originally Posted by louder

He is far from a good artist, either way. His 20 minute "album" was rushed, redundant and gimmicky.

Originally Posted by Severian

Plus, y'know, the torture, kidnapping and imprisonment, battery, death threats, psychotic paranoia, beating a pregnant woman, and so on. Oh, and home invasion, armed robbery, battery, etc.

His album could be fucking Highway 61 Revisited and I still wouldn't give a shit about his music. Pathetic, sickening excuse for a man-boy.

Originally Posted by louder

I know. I was just letting you know that you're not missing out. :D

Originally Posted by Severian

Glad to hear it. lol.

Actually, some of my friends were fawning over him briefly on Facebook a few months ago, so I have definitely heard his stuff before. I remember feeling like there was something dark and Morrissey- or Lana Del Rey-esque about it. Maybe a bit of pop subversion going on, what with the über darkness and whatnot, least in the track I'm thinking of. But in general, I found nothing about it particularly inviting or appealing about it. Sounded pretty basic. Nuts and bolts post-Gucci street hip hop. Nothing special going on.

It's insane, but have you noticed there's been a bit of a kickback at Kendrick lately? Like, he got too big and now he has these horses of haters. Anyway, one friend of a friend said something like, "I can't believe people think Kendrick's the best when this kid's out there making real hip-hop."

Laughable. I'd rather listen to Kendrick Lamar fart in his sleep or fap it to pictures of my girlfriend than spend a single penny on this little bitchass motherfucker.

Originally Posted by louder

I know he's had some trappy stuff before, but the songs on this album are either very poor, dumbed down versions of Kendrick (think dark, sad Kendrick, a la "Sing About Me" or "u.") or very poor, dumbed down attempts at sad acoustic guitar music, a la Elliott Smith.

He had a stupid fucking line that went "nobody wants death / 'cause nobody wants life to end", which as soon as I noticed, made me feel like deleting the tape and never listening to it again.

His fans credit him for being "versatile", but the truth is he just attempts a lot of different genres and he's no more than average at all of them.

Yeah that is dumb, Kendrick is still far ahead of his competition.

Originally Posted by Severian

Well, his fans are high school kids. And a few mislead knuckleheads like my friend's dumb friend.

DAMN. is still the hottest goddamn rap album of the year by miles. 4:44 may be more fun, but DAMN. is... Jesus ... harrowing. No contest. And if Kendrick had Hov beat, he certainly had this little whiny goth bitch beat.

Originally Posted by louder

I actually don't mind Lil Uzi. He failed to make another song on the same level as "XO Tour Life" aka "trap artist meets mallpunk era Avril Lavigne", but that is a solid tune.

Those new artists in general and that includes Lil Uzi and Kodak Black, to be more specific, need to learn a thing or two about quality control. Dividing the amount of tracks on their recent projects by about half would've made them listenable. In 2017, I'm not trying to sit through an album of 16+ songs from any rapper except Kanye and Kendrick.

Yep, 4:44 is the most enjoyable, DAMN. is the best.

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Young Thug IS the evolution.

Long Live the Thugga

Originally Posted by Severian

Dude... I honestly think Young Thug is just about over.

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I know it is not Hip Hop per se, but FUCK I cannot stop listening to Luke James' DRIP. https://youtu.be/zYL3HPMiOho

I played it for some friends of mine (all my age) and they dismissed it instantly with "yeah, ripping off Prince." and I went OFF.

No one will say it but I will say it. Prince SUCKED SHIT for the last 25 years. HORRIBLE horrible "music. shit songs. shit lame WEAK funk-lite. horrible horrible horrible. as a musician and performing? genius. as a writer of songs? DONE FELL OFF a quarter century ago. I hate when fuckers try to dismiss young dudes by claiming they ripped off an old great. fucking weak.

Prince in the past 25 years could not come up with a song so fucking funky and smooth as DRIP.(I always thought Prince's "funk") was stilted and repetitive in a non-funky way.)