Another excellent song.

I just read through Stereogum's list of Prince albums "from worst to best." Weird list. Doesn't even include all of his actual albums, for some reason only permitting an arbitrary two "internet albums" to be included.

It also puts Batman ahead of 1999. And puts his self-titled in the top 5. (???) but the top two make sense. Sign and Purple Rain. Otherwise it's kind of a WTF exercise.

The self titled is a fun listen and has "I Wanna Be Your Lover" which is one of my favorite Prince songs. But yeah, nowhere near his top 5.

Hey, I'm a big fan of reading really long boring scientific studies and research hypotheses. (Seriously.) I haven't read anything about this particular finding, but I'd like to. Link me that dhit.

Also, I find it unsurprising that most popular music uses simple language. But while this is certainly the case with a lot of popular artists from all genres, I don't think hip-hop is a specifically major offender by any means. Yes, the hit songs need to be relatable to most Americans (so hence the seventh grade vocabulary) but hip-hop is not less verbally sophisticated than modern pop, country or rock. Ever heard a 3 doors down song that didn't sound like it was written by a 10 year old? (And when I say 3 doors down, I mean every pop-rock group since 2000, including Nickelback, Daightry and blah blah.)

Also I want to say that lyrics do not have to use advanced vocabulary to be complex and interesting and to tackle larger subjects. Look at a song like "Norwegian Wood (this bird has flown)" ... All very simple words, but the story between the words is in the way those very simple words are paired. In other words, the substance comes from the song as a whole, not from a coded breakdown of the complexity of the individual lyrics. If high vocab meant better music, Aesop Rock would be the best rapper in the world.

Still, yes most music is dumb as hell.

I haven't read a music magazine or blog since 2002..

Last review i remember reading was when they said that Hail To Thief wasn't a guitar oriented album

Weird, cause Hail to the Thief came out in 2003.

Also, that comment you made about me and how I write "more and better" than any blog you read suddenly means A LOT less. ;)

Doftones x Bushwick Bill !!

http://pitchfork.com/news/64252-deft...-bill-at-sxsw/

Hey asshole its called a typo. Weird because its not like that wasn't obvious. Also you should be honored as you remember it wrong, i didn't say just that yours was best, i said it was ONLY that i read

Maybe the Hail to the Thief thing, yeah, but he smoke you blew up my ass about music writing? That's called bullshit.

If this thread's just gonna fizzle out then I'm going to resume praising TLOP every time I have a TLOP thought.

I listened to TLOP today and it was SOOO GOOD. Skipped "I love Kanye," but listened to several tracks twice. It puts me in the mood for more Kanye, but there's no other Kanye that's like TLOP, so I listen to TLOP some more.

What a great album.

Phife has died.

This is one of the worst hip hop tragedies ever.

:(

8 years after a kidney transplant. Diabetes sucks.

My man Phife....

While i love phife its a human tragedy not a hip hop tragedy. What has phife done for current hip hop? Nothing in like 15 years! I ain't pissing on his grave just saying what it is in hip hop cpntext

Bro you been waaaaaaaay to sensitive lately.. turn it down a notch

lately? Nothing. But we wouldn't have gotten here had it not been for work that Phife and Tribe did many years ago.

I think that if The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders had never been released, hip hop would have taken a very diff path in that Butterfly Effect version of the universe.

his favorite rap group was EPMD and his fave track was Eric B For President....

and his favorite rapper was him (cuz he did go solo).

My point is you said its biggest tragedy in hip hop. But hip hop hasn't lost phife influential discography so its not lost anything. The tragedy is the human side, the loss of life. Also a moral here.. phife didn't take care of his health :(

I didn't say it was a loss to hip hop, I said it was a tragedy. This is semantics now. Whatever.

It was a tragedy - you agree?

He was a hip hop artist - you agree?

I don't know how well he did or didn't control his diabetes. He had a kidney transplant in 2008. They don't tend to do that for someone who isn't taking care of themselves do they?

Yes but its not a tragedy to hip hop because hip hop doesn't lose anything. Everything phife brought to hip hop is legacy.

Its not semantics, its reality. I know what you MEAN to say but its not communicated in how you said it

I been trying to find more details to cause of death but none of reports mentioned it at all. What is known is phife never took good care of his diabetes, indeed it in part contributed to the split of Tribe because tip was increasingly frustrated seeing phife harming himself and phife was gettingincreasingly obstinate and defensive about people checking on his health.

As i said, its a human tragedy. And i love phife especially. His brash attitude and straight up ill sense of humor (pun intended) made him one of my all time fav rappers. And that even in New York he repped Lakers hard i found endearing cuz yall know im caught up in that westcoast eastcoast shit.

When i saw this morning in my Twitter feed it shocked me... but not because i thought hip hop was losing anything. Hip hop will ALWAYS have phife's legacy. No, what we lost was a unique and inspiring human being who can never be replaced

what I mean is that to anybody who loves hip hop, this is heavy on the heart. I don't know why we're spending any time picking apart how I worded my grief though.

I'm not being sensitive, I'm just busting your balls. I'm almost insulted that you didn't pick up on that. I don't care about this crap at all. I like you and all, but I forgot I'd even said that. I was just pointing out the silliness of your statements. My heart ain't hurtin'.

Yeah, this is a major, major loss for the hip-hop world. You're absolutely right. It's fucking Phife Dawg, man! Are people not getting that Phife was in ATCQ? This is like a George Harrison passing to the hip-hop community.

I'm very saddened by this. Spent the day blasting Tribe. One of hip-hop's greatest talents, and certainly one of (if not THE) greatest group in the genre's history.

RIP Phife dawg.

My bad to seem to pick on you.

We all hurting about it

So sad, RIP. :(

That also cancels the possibility of getting a reunion album, which I've been hoping for for a while.

Listening to Butter..

all good buddy.


I listened to Low End and MM last night back-to-back. I have to say this passing has hurt me more than any musician I can recall in a very long time. No disrespect to any other lost ones of course. But Tribe has meant so much to me since I was like 12. I discovered their music at such an important and formative time in my life. Not only did they lead me to so much other hip hop, but their samples and liner notes also exposed me to so much jazz. As a teen, the arrival of Beats Rhymes And Life and The Love Movement where treated like... I don't even have an analog. All I can say is that a new Tribe album back then was pretty much the biggest musical event that could happen to me. Y'know? They were one of those groups where I had to have everything. When I was 15 or 16 I imported the Revised Quest For The Seasoned Traveler remix album... I also amassed a rather ridiculous collection of ATCQ singles on cassette, vinyl, CD... I mean I'd even buy every compilation or soundtrack that had a new Tribe song on it. I was serious.

Y'all know that I put Q-Tip on a giant pedestal. There's no denying that. And for good reason I think - having his hands in helping craft Illmatic and The Infamous; co-forming The Ummah w/ Dilla; etc. BUT... while I've followed his solo career post-Tribe, it's always been my wish that there would be another Tribe album. I love Q-Tip, But I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing him juxtaposed w/ Phife & Ali. And I spent the years after Love Movement always having a feeling in the back of my mind that this could be the year. I always expected that one day, out of the blue, Tribe would just surprise drop a new album on us. I think that part of what has hit me so hard about this is that now I know that can't ever happen. This naive fantasy that I've had since I was like 17 is gone. And now the teenager in me has to finally let go and admit that Tribe is truly over forever.

Real sad day.

Indeed.

Phife always told it like it was, never rapped about shit that was not REAL to him, and I loved him for it.

I agree with Rob about Phife

Yeah, this one feels big. I was probably personally more shattered by Lou Reed's death (I still haven't fully come to grips with the fact that we're living in a Lou-less world), but this affects me on a personal level more than most.

Clearly you and I have some similarities in how we handle our fandom. I too am a "collect them all!" kind of guy when it comes to my favorite groups. You said you did this with Dipset too, correct? I've always been like that. Definitely a completist when it comes to my true favorites.

Tribe was one of the first hip-hop groups I ever got into. For me, ATCQ was always an untouchable force. I know I've long argued in favor of Wu-Tang being the Beatle of hip hop, but I've changed my stance on that. It's certainly Tribe, at least for that era.. As a group they influenced hip-hop more than any other group or collective, and they popped up just in time to set the tone for an entire generation of rap and hip-hop artists (gangsta rappers aside) who pursued sonic exploration and blended genres. All of the game's true "artists" have Tribe to thank for making hip-hop a musical genre instead of simply a vocal one. Hip-hop instead of just "rap."

Phife's passing is unexpected and hits home. I'm sure there are almost no hip-hop fans in our age group who won't be affected by this. It's sad shit.

I'm trying to rep you guys but it won't let me! I can't rep any of you!
Done it too many times. I've even been deliberately spreading rep around more to address this problem, but so far it's done no good.

Anyway, I'm repping you all in my heart.

one thing making me really happy this week is seeing Phife get his due props. He always kind of seemed overshadowed by Q-Tip. But it's great to see him being remembered on his own terms. Not as "the other rapper in ATCQ" y'know? PFork ran a nice article today about Phife's love of sports. I even heard a nice obit on NPR yesterday. It feels good that this isn't just a footnote. It seems like people realize how important this is, and why we need to keep remembering such an special person.

Stop being a bitch, go spread rep randomly to other users and come back. THAT is how it works. Share the love

I said that's exactly what I've been doing, you taint. How did you miss that?

Actually, I haven't been doing it randomly. I've been passing out good rec to new folks though. But I must have pos repped the shit out of you guys if I'm still backed up. Whoweee.

I confess i didn't read

fascist! don't understand why you guys are so obsessed with shit music boring party hip hop.

all you fuckheads talk about is hip hop this hip hop that. ya'll are so narrow minded.

"so and so released an ep and single, so good" no it's not good. it sucks shit. it '
s garbage and will be forgotten and so and so got his ass shot like a dumbass and I took a duimp in gargabe n3ext to the president while have in a baby blue eyes ae4re ok ne panitu.

this is what I think of guys: I thtnk you shourl comparer dick and cat dparar and fuck each woth with condeums and eat a lost of shit wholel taking cokck n the ass and whle watching tv electing s and pacing gass wjp;e r4e;aced amd re ,'amdd. pray I meend to god and iwich oiuyr soul the be4st.

can't get no perfect than that. nothing I think he did is dated.

It is a 10/10 but so is 1999, as well as Sign O which is about a million times better. If you only know Purple Rain you don't really know Prince. Trust me, it was the only Prince album I was familiar with for the longest. Boy was I missing out.

I'm a huge Prince fan, but his music often does sound like some typical 80's pop shit with dusty synths and all that. The mastering on those albums is horrible and when I hear "Let's Go Crazy" I can't help but think of corny people in the 80's dancing funny: