Real. It's mainly Thurston being the "problematic" one in the group with his immaturity.

It's been 20 years since Biggie was shot today.. so let's have a moment for a legend and one of the greatest rappers of all time. Gone but never forgotten. Both of his albums have aged like fine wine, and rappers still bite his rhymes on their albums to this day (Meek Mill, I'm looking in your direction).

Eminem too. Whether he wants to admit it or not, his whole style is heavily influenced by Biggie.

Jay Z, of course, even though he was in a sense almost a peer of Big's (or so he likes to think...).

Freddie Gibbs. Listen to "Deep" from Piñata and tell me that kind of tell-tale hood rap narrative wasn't inspired by Big.

Joey Bada$$ for sure.

ScHoolboy Q to an extent.

There's no question about it, big is among the greatest and most influential emcees of all time.

Yeah, no excuse for the bully shit. But I think that video is more of an embarrassment to Lee and Thurston than to anyone else, including Nard.

In fact, it's hard to tell if Nard isn't in on it. They weren't actually hitting him, and he totally went along with it. But... they broke his LP and acted like douchebags.

Thurston grabbing the mic and trying to sound irreverent and "I-don't-give-a-fuck" while he said that thing about "I don't drink and I don't fuck, but something something..." Then he kind of laughs at his own "in your face" punk irreverence (which is pathetic) and looks around to kind of nervously see if anyone else is laughing (nobody was -- not even Lee... just silence). Man, that she was Fucking EMBARRASSING.

And he was at least in his early 39's at the time. 32? Something like that. That's fucking BAD man. That's fucking REALLY BAD.

But hey, they're still my favorite band of all time, and they always will be (unless Kanye West goes totally releases 20 more years of perfect albums). I can handle the embarrassment.

I'm embarrassed by a lot of Kurt Cobain's interview behavior. Those aimless slacker kids had no idea what to do in front of a camera if they weren't playing music back then. Krist Novoselic too. Wow. Lots of embarrassing stuff from him.

Comes with the territory.

fuck nardwar. that shit sucks. he sets himself up to be ridiculed. fuck him. SY for life.

Yes, SY for life, and yes, The Nard sets himself up for ridicule (and ridicules his interview subjects like crazy out of the corner of his mouth and under the guise of some weird kind of played-up pseudo-autism that's kind of insulting and fucked up)

BUT... that doesn't justify the way Thurston and Lee acted in the '91 interview. They could have just ... I don't know ... not done the interview. Or Thurston could have run away right at the start. Or they could have said "wow, can you give us some space?" and if he didn't, I'm sure some security douche on Young's detail would have removed Nard from the premises.

Instead, they acted like sub-Neanderthals. Index finger penis joke? Really? Shirt over the head? Really? I swear to god, I knew bullies in high school with more imagination.

My take on shit like this is: unless you feel that the safety of you or someone you care about or someone who is defenseless is being threatened, there is no justification for laying your hands on someone else. Certainly not someone who is interviewing you with your permission, and who you KNOWis going to act a certain way.

Now, that guy calling Kim K. a "nigger-lover?" The fact that he was laid out doesn't really bother me.
That wouldn't be MY reaction to someone saying that about MY significant other, but I'm a white nerd, so my reaction would probably be "whaaaaaaaaaaat? Fuck you man! You're weird and that makes zero sense, but I still don't like it!"
I imagine the word sounds a lot like a threat to a black person, and as I said before, my code allows for putting up dukes when someone is threatened.

So, yeah, SY for life. But Thurston and Lee were still sub-moronic douche bags to Nard, and the whole thing made them look insecure and VERY stupid.

Kim came across just fine if you ask me. So did Steve. I highly doubt Lee would resort to that shit at this point in his life. Thurston might, if he was dealing with someone who didn't, like, brush and gargle with Bernie Sanders' cum every morning.

Calling out members of SY being jackasses at times does not negate or have any bearing on whether or not SY is "for life" (they are.) There you go again, with your inability to separate art from art-maker. Thurston and Lee being assholes in '91 doesn't make Daydream Nation any less awesome.

Joey Bada$$ - All-AmeriKKKan Bada$$

Second studio LP. Due out April 7. This is cool, right? Lame title, but fuck it, I'll take what I can get as far as 2017 hip-hop goes.

I thought new Joey Bada$$ would help out some asses in the seats.

What's up y'all? This is like the least active hip-hop thread ever.

How long has it been since we last listed our favorite hip-hop albums of all time? Eh? That could be a fun, bonding experience. Eh?

Or, since the 2010s are ⅘ of the way over, maybe it's time to start talking about our favorite hip-hop albums between 2010 and now. Might be good to re-evaluate some of our decisions over the last few years, and see if, y'know, 12 Reasons to Die and My Name is my Name and Summertime '06 still hold up like we thought they would.

... I miss us, you guys. :(

Sorry dude, I've been a little depressed and it kind of took away my enjoyment of music.

But now I'm listening to More Life and it's better than VIEWS.

Hm.

I don't think I'm even going to attempt that shit. Not even the Kanye track. I just can't do Drake. At this point he's become so offensively bad -- so emblematic of everything I despise -- that I am straight-up rooting against him. Like, I actually hope he doesn't get better. I hope he doesn't become a legitimately talented artist.

How petty is that? I'm such a dick! But really, he's so awful. I feel so bad for his producers. If someone gets a kick out of "Hotline Bling," more power to them, but I just CAN'T. EVEN.

In some other cases, with other terrible music acts, sometimes I can, at least a little bit. Like, I can have Katy Perry's "Roar" stuck in my head and not be pissed about it.

But with Drake? I just CAN'T. EVEN.

ETA: I watch New Girl sometimes, and apparently saying "I can't even," like, means something. ;)

Ok. I like the production on "Glow." I can tell Kanye did some of that shit. In fact I'll bet I could tell you exactly which portions were "40" and which were Kanye. It's a decent track. Too bad it has Drake's crooning ridiculousness all over half of it.

The production is dope though.

Still hate Drake. His voice is obviously "better" than Kanye's —Kanye struggles to hit notes when he's not auto-tuned, but it still sounds so much better to my ears than Drake, who always sounds like he just swallowed a bunch of his own jizz. (Gross I know, but true.)

I can't believe he's singing about "girl I know we're hot and heavy" on that next track. What the fuck man. Is Drake so millennial and under-30 that he doesn't know that "hot and heavy" became universally known as a stupid-as-fuck thing to say back in the '90s, thanks to a little show called Seinfeld and Elaine's idiot jazz musician boyfriend?

Yeah.. it's definitely not great. Let's face it, Drake is a pretty bad writer. His use of British and Jamaican slang words is contrived and corny as hell. But at least More Life is slightly more bearable than VIEWS, for some reason.. maybe because the production is more vivid, due to less "40" on it (he was only credited on a few songs). I'll try and listen to it a couple more times until it wears off.

It only proves what we already knew - a Kanye and Drake collaborative project would've been terrible.

My favorite song so far is "Passionfruit", maybe because it doesn't really sound like a Drake song.

I like "Glow" quite a bit. Especially that glitchy sample that fades in and out, and the breakdown at the end. But I do not like anything Drake contributes to the track. Nothing. Next to Kanye's adorably strained vocals, his wankery sounds like Bieber. He's such an ear-rapist. I used to only hate the sound of his voice when he was singing. Now I hate just everything about it. "Rapping," talking...

fuck, I even hate he way his voice sounds in my head when I'm reading his lame ass Instagram posts and interviews.

I feel an overwhelming sense of skepticism whenever he talks or sings about women, or being in relationships, because somehow it seems unfathomable to me that any woman would be interested in him. Let alone women who are in law school or whatever. High school girls... maybe.

UHH... you guys?

I think Kendrick Lamar is dropping a new album in a couple weeks. :eek:

He just released a new song — best rap song of the year so far, easily — titled "My Heart Part 4," in which he calls out Donald Trump by name, and says, "Y'all got 'til April the 7th to get ya'll shit together."

April 7 is a Friday. :eek:

Oh, he also drops this bomb:

Here, check it:

Kendrick Lamar - "My Heart pt. 4"

This is exactly what we needed bro. I'm sooo excited.

Heart Pt. 4 is really good shit even though it's essentially just an appetizer. Really hope to hear more soulful production like that first beat on the album.

I might check that song out later. I generally don't like to hear stray singles ahead of an album tho. I might not be as excited as you guys. I mean I love Kendrick - I think he's super talented. But I also didn't get into Butterfly or Untitled as much as I did Section80 or Good Kid.

I did listen to the new Drake. It was better than Views, anyway.

I've def been listening to less hip hop lately. New Ryan Adams, Grandaddy, Thundercat... been listening to the Either/Or reissue. Actually, I kind of like the new Charli XCX album.

New Charli XCX album/mixtape/whatever is good!

Fuck I've just been listening to the new Spoon and recycling old nostalgia faves lately.

But Kendrick does get me pumped. He's in a really tough situation, though. Expectations for this album will be SO FUCKING HIGH. I almost feel bad for him. But I think he's up to the challenge. The new song is fucking good.

My expectations were already insane before Section.80, not to mention after Good Kid. And now they're even higher. :D

Yeah but now it's a global thing. Dude is in a Kane post-MBDTF position. I doubt he'll go the Kanye route, but I'm happy to hear him switching things up from the free jazz style that was all over much of TPAB and all of untitled unmastered. I'd like to see Kendrick become a "free agent" and lose TDE, and just do whatever he wants. I'd say he's earned it.

Pitchfork said something about there being Drake and Big Sean disses. I'm not up enough on Drake or Big Sean to be able to identify disses.

Enlighten me!

Vince Staples and Anderson .Paak both featured in new Netflix show, Marvel's Iron Fist.

The new song is markedly different in production from TPAB and untitled unmastered. I think you should give it a listen, ASAP. It's utterly satisfying. It's Kendrick in, like, battle-rap, don't-fuck-with-me mode. I love it. He just cuts right through the bullshit. But it's not a "hard" song. It has texture and nuance and it's volatility is complex.

It's kind of funny to me that you, of all of us, never really got into TPAB. It took me a while to really come to terms with it, but you got, like, super into modern jazz right around the time the album came out (I think?), and since the jazz sound was really one of the foundational elements of the record, it seems weird that it didn't appeal to you more. But whatever -- I get it. I love TPAB and hold it in extremely high regard... I feel silly for not acknowledging that it was the best hip-hop record of 2015 sooner. But it's not something I listen to a lot.

It will be interesting to see what Kendrick cooks up for album #4. I didn't think he'd be back so soon, but I would not complain for a second if a new LP dropped in April.

There's a new Freddie Gibbs album I guess. Not sure if I care.

Should I care?

You are right it is weird. I discovered hella good jazz from TPAB that I got into more than the album itself.

g'damn the video for "Dis Generation" is fucking gorgeous.

http://vevo.ly/iln48T

I swear - not only was Thank You my favorite album of 2016, it's one of the absolute finest hip hop albums of the 2010's. Shit still amazes me. Unreal.

New Kendrick song and video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvTRZJ-4EyI

It's a banger. Soo different than his last shit. Regardless, I LOVE IT.

On "No More Interviews", Big Sean said:
These lines come across as shots towards Kendrick.

^^^ and these lines from The Heart Part 4 seem like a response to Big Sean's shade.

Also:
Is pretty clearly about Drake since he claims to be "bigger than rap".

Thanks.

Re: the Drake part... I initially took this as a shot at Jay Z, actually, who was recently inducted into the songwriters' hall of fame. But I guess that's not the consensus. The consensus, from what you said and from what I gathered from a video posted by Genius dissecting the meaning of "The Heart of. 4," is that this line is more like a, [i]"Hey man, fuck you -- you're not bigger than rap, HOV is bigger than rap, and you're nothing by comparison" kind of thing.

But I still struggle to see a direct line to Drake. I feel like Kendrick can and should do better if he's going to call someone out. This is just a subliminal. He can't really bitch about Sean using subliminals ("tiptoin' round (his) name") and then go and use the same tactic on Drake a few breaths later.

Don't get me wrong though. I Fucking love Kendrick and I fucking loathe Drake, and if any post-Kanye artist is "bigger than rap" it's Kendrick, even though he's stuck to rapping (hard as a muh!) instead of branching out into pop and other genres vocally. I mean, "Alright" may not be an international #1 hit (not sure it was ever even released as a single) but it means more to more people than "One Dance" ever will. Millions of people bought "One Dance" because it was force fed them and made to cater to their lazy, radio-praising ears. But millions chanted "Alright" because it spoke to them on an emotional level, when they were watching young black men get gunned down every week, and when a certain orange Orangutan wearing a pelt on his head took the White House.

Still. I feel like if he wants to call Drake out, he should either do it openly (he'll call out Trump and Putin, so why not Drake?) or not do it. Subliminals are clever but, again, he can't really condemn someone for using them while he's using them.

*shrug*

Hey that's a goddamn cool ass video!

Its funny, I've been home sick with the flu ALL FUCKING WEEK, and I've been passively entertaining myself by listening to random shits on YouTube and Apple Music, but for some reason "Dis Generation" has been floating around in my head the whole time. Just yesterday I was humming it and thinking about the lyrics. So it's funny you should bring it up right now.

One problem I have is that Tip praises J. Cole. Praising Kendrick and Earl I get... praising J. Cole? What. Dude is weak.

Anyway, We Got it From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service was a great record, but ultimately it didn't have the impact of Pablo for me. Nowhere close in fact. I think it came in as my #3 or 4 album of 2016, and it was probably the strongest rap album of the year — but as albums go in general, TLOP just crushed it and everything for me.

But yes, it's a great album and "Dis Generation" is one of its highlights.

I wish it hasn't come out two days after the election. Jesus I was at a low point at that time. Everything I saw, heard, did, increased my dislike, and playing We Got it From Here was no exception. Fucking everything was tainted for me, and I'm still having a hard time hitting the reset button. I think Tribe bet on "The Donald" not winning, and their album was going to accentuate the victory of the oppressed and marginalized people of the world. Instead, it just served as a reminder of how fucked we all were/are. I remember listening to it and thinking about how much hope and joy must have gone into making those tracks, only to have it all sound kind of futile in the wake of T-Day. It was quite depressing actually.

Time heals all wounds though. As time swallows Trump and Ryan and Bannon, and gives them all ass-cancer and hopefully finds them out of jobs, this album will have more opppirtunities to be meaningful in other ways. But as of now, it's still a bit too bittersweet for me. :(

I've listened to the new Kendrick track, "Humble," and it's ok... good rapping as always, but I'm really not very impressed.

As far as bangers following more thoughtful tracks, it strikes me that Kendrick did something similar when he followed "i" with "The Blacker the Berry." But in that case, well... "The Blacker the Berry" was pretty much the most insane thing to come out of the rap world since Yeezus. It wasn't just a "banger," it was fucking explosive, and it was textured and complex and hit all the harder for the variation within the song. That chorus still haunts me...

Anyway, "Humble" is good and stuff, but there's nothing amazing about it. It kind of feels like when Kanye released "FACTS" before TLOP. Kind of a head-scratcher in the sense that there's not a whole lot going on in either song, and that's rarely the case with either artist.

But in the long run, after the Charlie Heat remix hit, "FACTS" became a crucial track for me. What once was boring and kind of dumb became necessarily to the flow of the album. I guess I'm hoping the same proves to be true of "Humble."

Sorry y'all. Must be insufferable to be internet friends with my ass at times. I can't seem to have a conversation without talking about Kanye. I blame you guys though. ;)

I see the potential in "Humble". I like it. I think it's more along the lines of "King Kunta" than "The Blacker The Berry".

Haven't watched Dis Generation video yet, but this new Danny Brown video is INSANE, in the best way possible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L4JnAuW00k

Can we take a moment to appreciate the first verse on The Heart Part 4? Much more interesting than the Drake/Big Sean subs that everyone was focusing on. Virtuosic braggadocio rhymes that make my head spin, reminiscent of his first verse on Momma.

"Thirty millions later, my future favors
The legendary status of a hip-hop rhyme savior"

"I’m satisfied when I strategize my kid's future
I ain't sanctified enough to say that I won't shoot ya"