remember Nothing Was the Same gave me sorta mixed feelings when it came out, but finally ended up in my top 10 albums of the year. well, now i seem to enjoy it even more. one of those albums that just keep getting better with every listen.

I still haven't heard Watching Movies. I seriously JUST got into Mac by accident recently.

Put WMWTSO on your 'to listen' list. It's not perfect, but its super enjoyable and above all, really admirable.

yeah I will. I mean, I'm def impressed w/ this kid so I'm interested in what else he's done. I don't know, seems sure of himself beyond his years. Rocking 90's beats on mixtapes, doing Bright Eyes covers on YT... so weird in a fascinating way.

i'd put Watching Movies on the same line as Doris and Wolf. it's awesome to see his growth from a corny frat rapper to this album.

there's FlyLo, Clams Casino, The Alchemist as well as his own prod on the album. features by Odd Future, TDE and Jay Electronica.

yeah, he isn't really a joke anymore. ;)

his production is really good too. wait 'til you hear that "Avian" beat from Watching Movies. hehe.

Louder, yer PM box is fuuulllll


(wanted to send you this. It's a hiphop/jpop duo called Halcali)

oh I've heard "Avian." Great song.

oh thank you! i just skimmed through some songs, sounds beautiful indeed. gonna delve into it later.

that last Kyary Pamyu Pamyu album rocks my world. :o her vids are pretty much the greatest thing ever too.

Nanda Collection? Holy fuck...yeah....that album is pretty fucking killer, I like A LOT more than Kyary Revolution.

(some quick favorite halcali songs: electric sensei, strawberry chips, fuku no hoshi(sp?), fuwa fuwa brand new, ai no tame ni)

New Contender. Smoke DZA has really delivered on this album. There are moments that sound as classic as early Jay and Nas; NYC to the core. It's really irritating how often the word "RIIIIIIIGHT?" appears. It's worse than A$AP's tendency to say "Aaaaaaasssssaaaaappppp." At least "ASAP" sounds kind of badass. "raaaaaiiiiiiiiiight?" just sounds like a catch phrase that Dza pulled right out of his ass, and repeats because he thinks it's funny and/or irritating.


Anyway, I'll check Watching Movies, but you ALL need to check out Smoke DZA's Dream.Zone.Achieve. Pete Rock provides a beat that is tight as hell, and reminds me of how much Rock influenced Madlib.

Smoke DZA! Listen!!

wait.. APRIL FOOLS'?

if not, 2014 is gonna be Kanye's year. every other rapper can already go home.

sev, I'll check out the DZA.

But,

the hip hop album I"m most excited about right now? The Infamous Mobb Deep. Do you guys know about this? Came out today. First disc new stuff and 2nd disc outtakes and demos from The Infamous...

So excited.

Yeah, I remember you flip flopped a lot last year, but I did the same thing! When you were ranting about NWETS being a massive disappointment, I think I said something like "dude, it's not Yeezus, or 12 Reasons, or Blueprint, but it's a solid hip hop album. Standard boom bap with some dream pop shot thrown in for some reason." And you agreed.

The. I started hating it. Then I started liking it. Now I see it's going to be considered a classic of our era by many. I appreciate the pbr&b vibe, and the synthy sections more. It's just not the kind of rap that will ever be top 10 material, because I've heard Jay-z go there and back again. It's derivative, but it's a good album. Props to Drake for making a better record than Lil Wayne last year. That's something.

Isn't there already a Mobb Deep record called the Infamous... ?
Is this a reissue or something weird, or am I just blanking on something here.

always said it's a good album, just disappointing.
but i don't really think of it as a disappointment anymore, i like it a lot. pretty much every track grew on me.

i say this all the time but i think Drake will drop his "classic" album sooner or later. he is here to stay, he isn't just another Ja Rule or Nelly.

P.S. new Drake song: https://soundcloud.com/octobersveryown/drake-draft-day

Jay Z and Drake taking jabs at each other on recent releases:

"Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk
Silly me rappin' 'bout shit that I really bought
While these rappers rap about guns they ain't shot
And a bunch of other silly shit that they ain't got"

Drake's response:

"And if I left shit to chance I would've picked a name like Chance the Rapper
No offense cause I don't know that nigga
I'm focused on makin' records and gettin' bigger
Just hits, no misses, that's for the married folk
Tell 'em fix my suite up cause I'm comin' home
I heard they talkin' crazy, I was out of town
You know they love to pop all that shit when I'm not around
But when I'm here, not a sound
That'll make me snap, jot it down
Go in the booth and lay a body down"

Damn, Drake's verse is ill. I don't like how he lets lines hang in the air sometimes, with only a few syllables, in the middle of a verse that's otherwise consistent. Still, that's last line is hot.

Yeah, I know you never said it was bad. But I do know it was hard for both of us to get into. I compared it to Magna Carta, and said it was the best we could reasonably expect. But I think you're right- Drake is showing signs of creative growth that shouldn't go unnoticed. He's not doing what everyone thought he would do, but he's still taking giant artistic leaps. Like I said, the fact that he out-rapped, out-sold and just plain outdid Weezy on every level is pretty amazing. I mean, you can't even compare NWETS with Human Being II. It's like comparing Picasso to Jim Lee. And Jim is a great comic book artist, but is he an "artist" in the truest sense of the word? No. He draws what he's paid to draw.

I hope Wayne turns this around in 2014, but Drake is currently too good for Young Money. His appearance on the comp was a kindness.

Also, we ALL flip flopped a lot last year. I mean, there was so much great music. I slept on a lot of shit I should have paid attention to, and bought a lot of albums on the first day of release that I could have just downladed.

I flipped like nuts on Indigoism. It was lower on my list than IANAHBII until I woke up and realized it was absolute fucking fire. Also, I didn't like Long.Live.A$AP at first!!!!! I was like "well, LVL is tight... But..." Man, what was I fucking thinking?!

I even think Magna Carta got the shaft. People were way too hard on that album. I listen to it now, and it's thoroughly enjoyable. It's no Blueprint/Blueprint III, or Black Album, or American Gangster, but it's better than at least half his albums.

Oh, and we all missed Dopplegangaz completely. We should be pretty ashamed about that. :)

I'm confused by this bro, you're gonna have to clear it up for me. I just got this, and it appears to be a deluxe reissue of the absolute 90s gangsta classic, "The Infamous..." with no new material on it.

Am I misreading something? It looks like the first disc is the album, and then there's bonus shit. I haven't listened yet, or even scoped out the track list, but all signs tell me this is a standard reissue.

Whatchutallinabout new Mobb Deep?! Lol

Yeah, The Infamous... is one of the defining records of East Coast hip hop of that time man. Up there w/ Illmatic or Enter The Wu for sure. I don't even care, I still listen to Infamous wayyyyyyy more than Ready To Die.

The Infamous... was released in 1995.

The Infamous Mobb Deep was released in 2014.

(Confusing, I agree). But the idea is this - instead of re-issuing the 1995 album, that everyone surely has, why not just give everyone a 'companion album' 20 yrs later? So think of it like a deluxe reissue w/o the original disc.

EDIT: And actually, apparently, if you buy it digitally from Amazon, you'll get the original album as the 3rd disc...

Also interesting is that it's 2 discs... Disc 1 is a brand new album recorded over the past few years with the intention of revisiting the mid-90's sound. Think of it as Mobb Deep's homage to that era of their work. What would it sound like if we made this album in 2014?

Disc 2 is even more interesting of course, as it's referred to as 'the 1994 Infamous Session" and features a bunch of demos/outtakes/etc - basically an alternate version of the 1995 album. Guests including Ghostface, Rae, Nas, etc.

I had trouble picking it up yesterday, but I'm dying to get this thing. It kind of came out of nowhere, but it's suddenly the first record that I'm really excited about this year.

sad but true.

not even our fault, Yeezus just made everything else seem wack. ;)

seriously though, sometimes it takes more than a few listens to "get" an album.

--

i can't really see why a Jay fan wouldn't enjoy the first half of Magna Carta.
Picasso Baby, Tom Ford, FuckWithMe, Somewhere in America, Crown.. clearly far from Jay's best, but still solid.

i like the Drake/Jay comparsion. i also like how they're competing with each other these days.

people don't remember featured verses and random track releases.. they remember albums. Jay knows that. so hopefully that'll give him some motivation to cook up something great.

it took Kanye 5 attempts to make his magnum-opus. he did it just when nobody expected it too.

in fairness, I was repping Magna Carta on first listen kids. :D

DJ Frankie Knuckles has died at age 59. https://music.yahoo.com/news/frankie...ing-stone.html

These mufuh's are becoming one of my favorite acts in hip hop. I cannot wait for them to drop a proper album. Put this shit on the shelves! It's just hood enough for harder rap fans, and just arty/intelligent enough for backpackers and the like.

A new release is coming out this year, but I don't know if it's going to be an album or another mixtape. I guess it doesn't matter, but they deserve to be up there wit' Rocky. They should tour together.

is that a new mixtape? I don't recognize it?

http://pitchfork.com/news/54627-rza-...e-as-one-copy/

It might not be wishful thinking. In an interview with Billboard, RZA claims that the group has already received an offer of $5 million for the album. "I've been getting a lot of emails: some from people I know, some from people I don't know, and they're also emailing other members of my organization," he said. "So far, $5 million is the biggest number."

Anyone else up on Lucki Eck$? He's like the Chiraq answer to A$AP. I've been listening to this project for a minute, and while I think it could use some work it shows a huge amount of promise.

Ya'll should check out the big homie Fat Tony.
Not only does he make awesome, forward thinking southern rap, he's a really cool guy. Bro works at my favorite record store in Houston and is always a blast to chat rap and punk rock with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSkTLc4w9Rw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk3gtMw3O0E

fuck new Mobb Deep is dope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eadPjCzBVw

Yeah, I'm all too familiar with the original album as well. I was just being snarky by phrasing it as a question. But I DID think that this was just a reissue, plain and simple.

... Until about 12:00 today when I threw it on at work and was like - "Whaaaaaa???"

So my apologies. I've never been a hard core Mobb Deep fan, but a few of their albums are among my all time favorites. They were so goddamn influential... I don't even think it's been recognized by the public just how big of an impact their take on street rap had on the emergence of post-gangsta artists, who rapped about street issues, but did so thoughtfully and articulately.

I had no idea there was a new album out. It makes all of my excitement over Schoolboy, Rick, and even DZA seem rather quaint by comparison.

(I'm so glad I'm friends with a record store owner.)

dood. Yeah. This new Mobb album is great. Right?

In 2007, when Prodigy put out Return of the Mac, I was like "damn, I wish Mobb Deep could make a new album that's THIS solid." Well... they just did. I love it.

Hey Louder... NR... Where the hell are you guys?

I wanna talk about stuff!

Shit, the first quarter of the year is over, and no mention has been made of who's on top of our respective lists! It seems like whenever I'm posting, it's just me, for pages. But when I'm gone, yall are like"where's Sev yo?"

Right here, ninjas.

Yeah, that album was much better than Blood Money. And that was a fine album, good by the standards of most artists, but for Mobb it was like a "guys, call it quits, you're going all REM on us and just making albums to make albums."

But this new Infamous Mobb Deep (yes, really confusing title, especially with the Life of the Infamous Mobb Deep out there) is fucking on point.

NR- I wouldn't have even know about this if you hadn't mentioned it. Thank you!

np dood. I think so much of it is title confusion. You're not the only one to tell me "what? There's a new album? Thought it was jsut a reissue!"

Thing is - I think when it was first announced it WAS meant as a reissue. But it seems only the SUPER DELUXE digital copies come w/ the OG album as disc 3. So like I said, this is like a deluxe edition 2CD set of bonus shiz. Haha.

But what's crazy is, yeah originally I was more excited for the 1995 outtakes. But now I'm just amazed at the new record. The only dud for me is "Low" but there's just so so much good stuff. Production is so tight. I'm just really happy to hear them finally make another album this solid.

And like you sev, I really give them more credit than most critics. All of their past albums have good stuff. But this just feels so focused as a whole album.

HYPNOTICTHUGLIFE!

btw, so far I've been really underwhelmed w/ 2014 albums. So now list from me. My favorite albums of the year so far have been Mogwai, Crosses, and now this Mobb Deep.

New Beck is good, but a little too same-y.

Oddly, I like SGP's Intoxxxicated mixtape quite a bit.

Also, really happy that the D'Angelo live album came out this week. I had the EP for years. But it's great that they finally released it domestically and expanded it to the full show.