[louder]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

but again all those are your opinions, clearly the guy feels like it represents himself as an artist. you keep insinuating its something akin to a publicity stunt, i disagree. i think the guy just put out a gangsta rap record and honestly i can't understand why you're choosing this particular record for the brunt of your anti gangsta rap criticism.

i respect your feelings and opinions, i just don't understand the trigger point, we've talked about other gangsta rap records before no big deal.. why now?

True.. a lot of gangsta rappers are posers but YG actually lives that shit. I hear that once you're a blood, you're a part of it forever, no matter how famous and successful you are, you can't get out. And I don't think he glorifies his lifestyle, he just shows it as it is.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

but again all those are your opinions, clearly the guy feels like it represents himself as an artist. you keep insinuating its something akin to a publicity stunt, i disagree. i think the guy just put out a gangsta rap record and honestly i can't understand why you're choosing this particular record for the brunt of your anti gangsta rap criticism.

i respect your feelings and opinions, i just don't understand the trigger point, we've talked about other gangsta rap records before no big deal.. why now?

I'm honestly not entirely sure why this has bothered me so much, but I have some ideas.

Mostly, I think it's about timing. Again, this is 2016. You're right, we talk about a lot of gangsta shit, and I've always been largely ok with it. But part of the reason I'm ok with, I think, is that almost all of it is in the past. The pretty distant past, in hip-hop years. It's like, 2pacalypse now and Me Against the World and Ready to Die and Life After Death, 36 Chambers, and so on... These albums are all part of history at this point. It was exciting and nervy and maybe even socially necessary for rappers to make hard, violent, scary music back then. Socially necessary because it had been a while since white America associated blackness with power or strength. It was novel, and it scared white folks, and that was excellent. But it didn't turn out all that well in the end, and despite the many classic records that fall under the gangsta sub-genre, it may have actually had a negative overall impact on hip-hop and cultural discourse alike.

But still, it happened, and for a while it was good, and I listened to it, and I still can listen to it to this day, partly because that era is very much over. There's nothing to worry about at this point. And the genre seemed to learn a lesson from that era, and now rap that's informed by that lifestyle is coming in more diverse and thoughtful incarnations.

To have a something like this drop NOW, it just feels tacky. I guess not everyone did learn their lesson. In other words, golden era gangsta rap is historically important. But to put out a major label, long-anticipated album and make it a Gang-focused ode to Bloodness just feels wrong. We already HAD the '90s, and we already HAD the whole thug life thing. It feels like a devolution of rap, or a complete disregard for the history of the art form. It also feels lazy.

Another reason why I think this pisses me off so much is because of the last minute change to the album name, which turned "Brazy" into a headline word, and definitely acted as a advertisement, whether that was the intention or not. Oh hey, this just in, new YG album now called Still Brazy... Why? Well, because .... and then it becomes a focal point, and more people know about the culture and more people learn that YG's a banger.

ALSO ... Do you even listen to YG?
This is not the kind of artist who raps about his painful experience so he can process it and create art. This is a self-proclaimed heathen, debauched, and unapologetic, reveling in excesses and the "krazy" shit he does. My Krazy Life was like the Bizarro Good Kid, mAAd city; it had nothing to do with art. It was just about being loud and wilin' out, and celebrating being an absolute thug. And it was a pretty goddam good album for what it was. (For what it was)

You assume that he thinks of his music artistically because you think about music that way. You assume the imagery/symbolism/whatever has some artistic purpose because he's technically an "artist" in the colloquial sense of the word. But I promise you, YG is not that kind of artist.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm just sayin how I feel man...

[noisereductions]

Originally Posted by Severian

ALSO ... Do you even listen to YG?
This is not the kind of artist who raps about his painful experience so he can process it and create art. This is a self-proclaimed heathen, debauched, and unapologetic, reveling in excesses and the "krazy" shit he does. My Krazy Life was like the Bizarro Good Kid, mAAd city; it had nothing to do with art. It was just about being loud and wilin' out, and celebrating being an absolute thug. And it was a pretty goddam good album for what it was. (For what it was)

I don't entirely agree with this part. MKL had a track about being cheated on and how he's hurt by that relationship gone sour. The album proper ends with an apology to his mother. I feel like MKL (for what it was) actually had a cohesive story, with an interesting dichotomy that was rather thoughtful. This new album just doesn't have that depth to me.

[louder]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I don't entirely agree with this part. MKL had a track about being cheated on and how he's hurt by that relationship gone sour. The album proper ends with an apology to his mother. I feel like MKL (for what it was) actually had a cohesive story, with an interesting dichotomy that was rather thoughtful. This new album just doesn't have that depth to me.

Well the new album has a few (very straightforward) political songs.. whether y'all like it or not is up to you, but this is the man's art and the way he chooses to express himself..

[pepper_green]

Originally Posted by Severian

Mostly, I think it's about timing. Again, this is 2016. You're right, we talk about a lot of gangsta shit, and I've always been largely ok with it. But part of the reason I'm ok with, I think, is that almost all of it is in the past. The pretty distant past, in hip-hop years. It's like, 2pacalypse now and Me Against the World and Ready to Die and Life After Death, 36 Chambers, and so on... These albums are all part of history at this point. It was exciting and nervy and maybe even socially necessary for rappers to make hard, violent, scary music back then. Socially necessary because it had been a while since white America associated blackness with power or strength. It was novel, and it scared white folks, and that was excellent. But it didn't turn out all that well in the end, and despite the many classic records that fall under the gangsta sub-genre, it may have actually had a negative overall impact on hip-hop and cultural discourse alike....

what a smart and mature post! it's hard to be threating and hard anymore because most white people are jaded and used to it by now and don't care. old people could give a fuck and parents these days have heard it all. if art can't shock as it's aesthetic anymore, it has no purpose. it's old man blues. when I hear a republican talking about violence in hip hop these days I think of Ice T and Body Count. whatever old man. nice try old man.

[pepper_green]

ha! i realized we're talking about YG. fuck dat dude. he needs to go dunk his fucking fat head in a vat of acid. lame fuck! GAWD! his corny shit sucks!!!

[pepper_green]

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[pepper_green]

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[pepper_green]

trendsetter nigga!!!!

[pepper_green]

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[pepper_green]

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[pepper_green]

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[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I don't entirely agree with this part. MKL had a track about being cheated on and how he's hurt by that relationship gone sour. The album proper ends with an apology to his mother. I feel like MKL (for what it was) actually had a cohesive story, with an interesting dichotomy that was rather thoughtful. This new album just doesn't have that depth to me.

Well, yeah, I liked (like... rpesent tense) My Krazy Life quite a bit. And I know the songs you're talking about, so I feel you. But I actually think you are the one who told me — when I was making some comment about wishing MKL was more like good kid at its core — that it's like good kid turned upside down, less about regret and reflection, more about embracing the "Krazy." I remember because I thought it was a prett astute observation, and that maybe YG was kind of a balancing force for Kendrick. A straight up crazy ass thug motherfucker. There's probably a need for that to some extent, lest hip-hop lose its sense of humor entirely and disappear up its own asshole.

But I was just expecting a lot more from this album in general. The ugly ass cover and the "Brazy" thing and the red red red, ultimately just the shit cherry on the cake of shit.

Still think it's totally possible to write about gang violence in a tasteful way that's appropriate for this era, and that YG has chosen not to do that. But the dude's a kid himself. What the fuck does he know?

[pepper_green]

so you guys think i have a chance? u dudes want my mix email me.

CROWN ME!!! i know you liked it. you think im a loser. what till the beats.

[pepper_green]

hip hop is about one thing and one thing only. braggadocio.

[Severian]

Jesus man, you need to re-watch that Seinfeld episode where George learns about shomanship, and decides to start "going out on a high note" in his every day life. There's some important bullcrap in there that I think you could benefit from.

[noisereductions]

Yeah i said that on MKL YG was the dude pouring drinks on Kendrick's "swimming pools", its like the same album structure told from two polar opposite storytellers.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

Yeah i said that on MKL YG was the dude pouring drinks on Kendrick's "swimming pools", its like the same album structure told from two polar opposite storytellers.

That's what it was, yeah. Excellent description.

[louder]

Are y'all not excited about the new Frank Ocean album?

Revisting Channel Orange right now.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Are y'all not excited about the new Frank Ocean album?

Revisting Channel Orange right now.

Ah, yes. Forgot all about that though. Only had a chance to read a headline this morning before the day exploded. Haven't given it a second thought.

But yeah, sure. Definitely excited. About goddamn morherfucking time.