Yeah. It's been a while, but yeah.

That reminds me, I still haven't checked out his 2015 release Your Face.

Man I am not super feeling the new Underachievers, guys! I feel like a turncoat. I've been championing those guys since Indigosim (which is- far and away- their best work and one of the best hip hop releases of the decade), but I can't get behind Art of Duality. There's nothing *wrong* with it, but... It's just more of the same.

They don't sound hungry and dangerous like they did on Indigo, or even on Cellar Door's primo moments. They sound... pedantic. And it's just the Cellar Door concept. Like, oh look we are the ying and the yang -- oh, we're STILL the ying and the yang... it's *duality* yo, cuz we're womanizing thugs but we're also super spiritual!

Uh-uh! No! That's corny shit! What the hell are you guys doing?!

As far as "beast coast" is concerned, Joey Bada$$ is running circles around them at this point. The beats are fine, mostly, and many of the lyrics are passable, but I'm not re-playing tracks. It's just not good enough, dammit.

And Rocky.

Well yeah, Rocky's ALLA destroys both Underachievers proper albums... But is Rocky really part of the whole "beast coast" scene? I don't think of him that wa, but maybe I'm wrong.


ALLA has been a slow burner for me... This wasn't the case with Live.Love or Long.Live (though I did briefly think Long.Live was a bit lacking... not sure why, since it's obviously a perfect album). But ALLA immediately hit me hard, then I went through an extended period of only listening to a few of the songs... I'm only now starting to see that it really does work as an album, and that it holds up to repeated listenings.

"Excuse me" is still my jam though.

Wait... i didn't know Hussein Fatal was killed in a car crash this summer :( :( :(

wow. The Game's Documentary 2 is a thing that really exists now. It's out.

Yeah, but is it "OK" Game of Year of the Wolf, the "sometimes amazing" Game of Jesus Piece, or is it THE GAME? Know what I mean?

Everybody (except for, like, me) hated YOTW, and Jesus Piece was underrated as hell, even with that killer title track. The Game's fans haven't been Game fans lately. Why do people feel like resurrecting an old album title is going to make him great again?

I've always liked him, myself, even his "bad" albums. But... man, rap album sequels almost never manage to really match the original (unless you're Raekwon)

I thought YOTW was alright, but his weakest studio album. Jesus Piece was great. Anyway, I listened to the first few tracks on this one at lunch and I like it a lot. It's not what you're expecting. It's weird - it has a very deliberate 90's hip hop sound. There's a track w/ Dre and Cube produced by Will.I.Am that throwbacks to "Rebirth Of Slick" of all things. There's tracks built on Pac's "I Get Around" and Erykah Badu's "On And On"... and this is the first 4 or 5 tracks. Really interesting album honestly. I'm sort of caught off guard.

Documentary 2.5 out next week!

Well, what do you guys think? Should I get the standard edition or wait for 2.5?

(Yeah, I'm buying it. It's the Game. I buy Game albums.)

I'm pretty excited about it too at this point.

no no - 2.5 is a whole new album man. A companion. He's dropping 2 albums this month.

Whoah. Weird.

I have my hands full with new releases right now. Trying to work in time for the new Deerhunter, Battles, Oneohtrix.., Deafheaven, etc. all at the same time. But oddly I'm finding myself listening to less and less music of any kind. Kinda sucks.

Wait wait.. a new supergroup consisted of FlyLo, Thundercat and Shabazz Palaces, on a song featuring George Clinton?? AND they have an album on the way??? Holy shit!!!!

https://soundcloud.com/adultswimsingles/woke

Yeah man, you didn't know about that?

I like that song quite a bit.

I'm thinking it will be kind of like a hip-hop/jazz/funk version of Atoms for Peace. Not sure why.

There's a new Blackalicious album out now. Did I mention that already? It's not bad.

I kinda stopped listening to Blackalicious years ago, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I had a special place in my heart for Blazing Arrow and The Craft. I like Imani Vol.1 too. Glad to see them back.

My wife can't listen to "White Iverson" enough.......

If any of my buds in this thread interested in buying some of my hip hop cd collection hit me up....

Hey man I keep meaning to message you. I went through EVERYTHING and while you definitely have a few albums I wouldn't mind having, nothing really jumped out at me. There's a lot of overlap in our collections.

Did you really list your entire hip-hop/rap collection? There were a couple of titles (can't remember which, now) that I didn't see, and it made me scratch my head a bit.

I'm sorry bro.

So how's The Documentary 2.5? Been hearing good things about it.

he's got a lot of enemies

whatup hip hop heads.

The Homecoming concert for the University I work for will be Lupe Fiasco and Wale.

Is that worth $25? Anyone?

For Lupe fuck yeah.

I don't care for Wale.

But Lupe Fiasco is excellent, and Tetsuo & Youth has really brought him back into the swing of things... One of the best hip hop albums of the year.

will check it out.

Whale kinda sucks. Lupe has his classics.

They just announced Fetty Wap is "hosting" the show.

I'll be in the kitchen cookin' pies with my baby

Are they saying Bruce had to go through years of mental torture to become a woman? He's felt that way since the 80's before Kris was even involved. Sorry but that article is a bunch of bullshit.. Kanye is fine.

Black Messiah is my favorite album of the decade, I'd even put it above My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, so I've decided.

There's a big difference between a man who's in his 20's, which D'Angelo was when Voodoo came out, to someone who's (nearly) 40 like he was by the time of Black Messiah's release. It showed a new, more mature side of him that most people probably didn't know he had in him before.

The presentation of this album was so minimal. It was announced shortly before its release and came out with barely any promo. The album cover art has no picture of D'Angelo. No music videos were released. D'Angelo made it clear: He wanted to let the music speak for itself.

I come to that album by default whenever I don't know what to listen to. Even though the sounds on this album are so familiar to me at this point, I can still hear something new on every listen.

This is D'Angelo's magic that was already presented on his two previous albums; somehow even Brown Sugar which was released in the 90's, when D was 21 years old (which is pretty damn unbelieveable, by the way) still sounds fresh to this day, but Black Messiah shows progression in terms of songwriting, as well as his musicality and performance as a vocalist. Every song on the album has a different feel and is a world of its own.

D'Angelo lived up to my expectations and beyond. It took him more than a decade to finish up this album but this music is for a lifetime. It would make me break into tears if he won a Grammy for this album, cuz I really want to see him getting the recognition he deserves. It would be an accolade not only for this album (which is a masterpiece) but also for his brilliant career as a whole.

Thanks for making a nice, classic café post louder. I was beginning to forget this thread existed.

I agree with you 100% of course. Even though Black Messiah is nowhere near my favorite album of the decade (that honor would have to go to MBDTF or possibly something I'm totally blanking on at the moment... Public Strain maybe? Reflecting the Light? The Seer? Nah... almost certainly MBDTF) it is certainly an album that only grows larger and larger in my estimation with the passage of time.

It was actually incredibly difficult for me to appropriately rate the album for the year of its release, since it dropped in 2014. My impulse was to make it too 3, and it definitely wound up in the top 10, but I had a hard time justifying placing it above albums that had had more time to prove their worth.

I don't find it a particularly epic album. I find that I'm not deeply connected to it emotionally. Instead, like a great jazz album, I find that listening to it is never a bad choice. It's soothing and it's organic and it has the fragile perfection of a soulful Beatles ballad ("Don't let me down" with Billy Preston comes to mind), or an enigmatic but well-balanced experimental pop game-changer (like perhaps Prince's Sign O The Times).

If I were to rate 2014's albums now, I'd put Black Messiah above everything except for Syro (what can I say, I've followed and adored and awaited the return of RDJ as Aphex Twin just as you have with D'angelo). More than A U R O R A or Bécs or 9 Songs or MyLittleGhost, Black Messiah imprinted on me from the very first listen. Since then my feelings for it have only grown stronger.

I'm willing to bet that it will be in my top 10 of the decade. And frankly, I believe I prefer it to Voodoo. The sound of Black Messiah is less a product of a moment in the evolution of a genre than its predecessors. Instead, it's like a crystal clear snapshot of one of the world's greatest artists at his absolute best. If any note was struck differently, it make for an entirely different experience, making BM an extremely personal, immediate and of the moment piece of work. Like a journal entry. It's imperfections, if it had any, help make it perfect.

Word.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to louder again.

Really? It tells me that every time now, even though I forget the rep feature even exists for months, sometimes years.

Anyway, I informally rep you louder. Damn the rules.

This about Kanye career not them
...

...

They just caught Kanye trying to do some quick accounting in his head, is all.

Is that People? I can't tell.

I think a lot of folks make the mistake of thinking People is somehow more accurate or legitimate than your National Inquirers and whatnot, but in truth most of that magazine is made up of runoff from the rumor mill. Jay and Beyoncé were had separated, B and Blue had narrowly escaped Jay-Z and his horrifying physical abuse. Kanye locks Kim up in a room and only feeds her lemon water and egg whites...

Sometimes they do an interview, but most of the time it's just bulkshit "a source close to the celebrity couple said"... They fill pages with that shit, Hot or Not, who wore it better and Fucking horoscopes.

Might as well be the National Enquirer.

No, this wasn't a joke. Yes, I know it's hilarious ;)

Digible Planets reunion? I hope its as good as the Hieroglyphics reunion and not just empty nostalgia money grab tour... new record?

New DP would be awesome

I'd ruin my career, and other people's tooooooooooo

se me para

For some ass? Id take the money and get another chick yo

the K's have more money than I would ever make in a lifetime.....