[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

no love for Rick the Ruler?

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by foreverasskiss

never heard it, but i'll check it out.

you mean Slick Rick in general? yeah of course.

More specifically, The Art of Story Telling

[Severian]

I like the first Bobby Digital. Maybe it's for nostalgic reasons only. I haven't heard it in a few years.

...

I am feeling super divided about J. Cole's Born Sinner. Sometimes it sounds brilliant, then it sounds really half assed. I am not very familiar with this guy, but he sounds like he's doing a Weird Al version of Kanye. His lyrics go back and forth between excellent and dillusional (seriously? J Cole, a millionaire? Worried about bumping into his ex-girlfriends at the Oscars? I just don't see that being a serious problem for him.)

Either he's as smart as he thinks he is/talks about being, or he's trying to talk his way into epic stardom. He talks about famous rappers who he used to adore, and winning them over with his sick skills.... Sounds familiar, only no names are dropped.

I really can't tell if I love it or think it's so so, but this is no Late Registration, and I think e needs a new angle. Hip hop does not need another intelligent (lots of people have college degrees... Even black folks, J), nerdy, hater-hatin' crown watcher. After listening to Born Sinner a few times, I doubt Jay or Kanye are looking over their shoulders in fear of this guy stealing their thunder.

Decent album. Sounds good if you shuffle it up with a bunch of other artists. But a game changer it is definitely not.

Meanwhile, Run the Jewels is better than I even expected it to be. Good team, those two.

[louder]

yeah i have some issues with Born Sinner. there are some brilliant moments here and there (the closing track is just.. wow), but the constant namedropping and the way he ripped off beats from classic songs just make it seem like he's struggling to find his own identity in the hip-hop world. easily Cole's worst project to date.

[noisereductions]

So Born Sinner is like a throwback to the Game?

[louder]

it's like Jesus Piece, except instead of a WC gangsta, imagine a normal dude who just really loves early Kanye. yeah.

[louder]

Magna Carta Holy Grail cover art revealed:

 

[Rob Instigator]

Slick Rick the Ruler

One of my fave 12" single records is The Show b/w La Di Da Di. I love it soooo much.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by louder

Magna Carta Holy Grail cover art revealed:

 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm a little astounded by the unabashed commercialism behind this album. I find the art and teaser pics compelling as hell, and I am most definitely going to pirate the fuck out of the thing (all I have are Apple products now, so I don't think I can utilize the early release app) because I sure as hell know I'll probably listen to it for a month straight... But I find the whole thing a bit disgusting. Brand promotion and misleading marketing ploys, and this kind of slight of hand chivalry... Giving an album away, or giving a million albums away, or a million theoretical electronic kind-of albums away, then trying to get the charity google sales to count on Billboard? Then, when told "yeah, probably not," getting the RIAA to change the meaning of the term "platinum?"

I mean... Why? I haven't been following anything other than headlines, but is Jay really that invested in having his album go platinum before it's even listened to? And doesn't he get that he's selling phones for Samsung? For a guy who can "sell ice in the winter," that doesn't seem very savvy to me. You'd think he would have been going over the fine print and bending the wills of CEOs to make it so that this was never even an issue.

Interesting that you mention taking shit for being loyal to someone generally thought of as shallow, louder, because I've never really thought of Jay as a shallow guy. Not until now, I mean.

That said, I'll sign a contract and buy a goddamn Nexus Galactus Ninety or whatever the fuck those fat, stupid, ridiculously ugly phones are called if I have to.... I'm gonna hear that album as soon as humanly possible.
I'll chuck the thing after I side load or extract the songs from it, of course.

Wait, maybe one of my Kindles will work.

Cool art. I'm just being snarky. I don't give much of a shit what the platform is; a new Jay album is something I can't not get excited about.

[noisereductions]

I'm just confused as to when it comes out for folks that don't have Samsung phones?

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Y'all get with that Raphael Saadiq? Muthafucka is BAD! I like how he goes through specific sounds like Kool Keith goes through characters.

 

Austin City Limits (FULL PERFORMANCE STREAM
Live at the Artists' Den

[url=

[noisereductions]

^YES

Saadiq is so underrated. Dude is brilliant.

[louder]

ok so Magna Carta is fucking great. Jay and Kanye are running 2013, what's new?

[louder]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I'm just confused as to when it comes out for folks that don't have Samsung phones?

July 8th.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by louder

Jay and Kanye are running 2013, what's new?

Meh. Those are just like the years when the San Antonio Spurs win the Championship, years when there isn't anything particularly better.

[chocolate_ladyland]

not felling magna carta. ghost's still got this year down.

honestly i've been a bit let down from hip hop this year, especially after the last two year's successes (danny brown, kendrick, death grips, ugly mane)

[louder]

Originally Posted by chocolate_ladyland

not felling magna carta. ghost's still got this year down.

honestly i've been a bit let down from hip hop this year, especially after the last two year's successes (danny brown, kendrick, death grips, ugly mane)

i agree that all those albums are extremely interesting and dope, i'd put them on par with Yeezus (edit: well okay, Good Kid is better). Danny is gonna drop a new album soon though. Schoolboy is gonna kill it too, Kenny made him step it up. Ugly Mane is working on a retirement album. and i'm still excited about Doris. we just gotta be patient.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...grail-reviewed

But no matter the album's gaudy and annoyingly glitchy big-business baggage, Magna Carta … Holy Grail truly is unique, even unprecedented. Consider that MCHG was made by a 43-year-old rapper who is 17 years deep into a highly celebrated discography, and that it will surely go on to become his 13th no. 1 album. Or that it arrives as Jay-Z prepares to launch what will likely rank among the year's most successful tours with one of the world's top pop stars, Justin Timberlake. In the history of hip-hop, where nearly every career arc sinks toward irrelevance after about a decade or so (if you're lucky), Magna Carta … Holy Grail finds Jay-Z still on top of the rap game as he approaches the start of his third decade.

I don't buy it. Its just one writer's opinion, but I think its bullshit. Jay-Z isn't necessarily dominating hip-hop into his 40s because of his inherent artistic greatness so much as his (a) extreme marketing blitz and (b) the reality of 21st century media technology allowing for just about ANY band/group/artist with some recognition to be unprecedentedly successful.

Its not that Jay-Z's rap is that good, its that music and pop culture has become that diluted, hyped, and technologically exploited. There is more casual access to music than ever, so people can have way overly inflated hype, audience share, and sales/views of their music. The technology in the twitter era has reshaped what it truly means to be popular. What made the Beatles, or Michael Jackson, or Nirvana popular is very different than what makes rappers like Kanye and Jay-Z popular today. When the access to distribution was more limited, it took some serious luck to get that kind of almost universal exposure. Now? Its become the norm. Jaz-Z has a "heritage" name for himself, he can sell records and advertising slots on his name alone, and even a haters will add to his account even if just to scoff. So its not necessarily that Jay-Z's talent has merited his success so much as that is the reality of popular art in the 21st century. EVERYBODY is Michael Jackson big. I will tip my cap at Jay-Z for still putting his art out there, but in all actuality he isn't the first rapper in his 40s to put out albums across three decades, he just so happens to be the benefit of a diluted scene full of mediocre talent. Dave Matthews Band and U2 have had similar moments of unnecessary success, thriving in the vacuum absence of better talent and building on their name alone and the nostalgia factor of aging fans with more money to spend. The broke teenagers who bumped Jigga in the 90s are the middle-class yuppies of the 21st century with money to burn, and just like the Stones and Aerosmith before him, Jay-Z is admittedly milking it

[noisereductions]

I'm avoiding all reviews (including what you guys are writing about it) until I hear it myself.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

By the way, I wasn't posting strictly to hate on Jay-Z, I could do that anyways, but rather to dispute that review's insinuation that Jay-Z is the best or biggest rapper of all-time (that is, unless people really don't dig the Stones )

I don't really like Jay-Z, but I give respect to any artist or producer who is consistently prolific, its just that being a veteran doesn't exclude honest criticism out of matters of style and taste.

Besides, E-40 got way more albums and started years earlier than Jay-Z but that shit is quasi-underground..