[pepper_green]

haha!

[noisereductions]

Originally Posted by louder

It is a 10/10 but so is 1999, as well as Sign O which is about a million times better. If you only know Purple Rain you don't really know Prince. Trust me, it was the only Prince album I was familiar with for the longest. Boy was I missing out.

I know plenty of Prince, man. Fun fact: Batman was the first album I ever bought on CD haha.

I think 1999 is great... but not a 10/10 (or 5/5 or whatever you wanna call it) to me. It's up there. But not quite.

[noisereductions]

in the latest episode of noiseredux's Spotify Survivor:


Flatbush Zombies - 3001 A Laced Odyssey
Bill Frisell - When You Wish Upon A Star
Future - Evol
Heliocentrics - From The Deep
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered
Anderson Paak - Malibu
Rihanna - Anti
2 Chainz - Collegrove

[Rob Instigator]

I have been listening to Kevin Gates Islah LP a lot. It is quite cohesive as an album and sonically too. My man does it his way.


I have been listening to mixtapes, catching up and shit.

Ty Dolla $ign - FRee TC
Love the extended version of Blase' on this, and I dig like half the tracks. I am not too big on the R&B stuff though

Young Thug - I'm Up
Couple of tracks I really dig (Hercules, My Boys) but a few duds

Travi$ Scott - Rodeo
Fuck I love this thing. I am still getting into parts of it, and I already adore Antidote like nothing that's come out of Houston in years. Travis likes his music production a bit more complex and shall I say, Proggy? I dig it.

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Finally got this. Finally GET IT. Great full LP, tracks flow from one to the other cohesively, Classic, like old school PE or a great Gang Starr LP....

Future - Evol
Not sure how I feel about this as a whole. I dig on some tracks, but nothing really stands out to me like some of the peak tracks in Monster.

Travi$ Scott - Mamacita (feat. Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan)
I have been loving this track since I first caught the video on the tube of you. Fucking LOVE THIS SONG. I am married to one of them light skinned mamacitas from H-Town! "She get freaky with the lights down, nothing like them lightskinned mamacitas from H town, got them porn star big booties, let me film it then shoot it...." https://youtu.be/RH9kl6XZixo

[noisereductions]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Future - Evol
Not sure how I feel about this as a whole. I dig on some tracks, but nothing really stands out to me like some of the peak tracks in Monster.

has oddly become one of my fav albums so far this year.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I know plenty of Prince, man. Fun fact: Batman was the first album I ever bought on CD haha.

I think 1999 is great... but not a 10/10 (or 5/5 or whatever you wanna call it) to me. It's up there. But not quite.

I agree. It's a classic and it's excellent, but it's not perfect.

Sign O' the Times, the critical favorite and the album of choice for white music nerds who were raised to think of the White Album as the gold standard chaotic of rock n' roll creativity (like me), is a perfect 10/10 (5/5, whatever) in my opinion. And Purple Rain would have to be a 5/5, though perhaps not a 10/10.

The rest of his albums for me range between 1 (Hitnrun) to 7-8 (For You, Controversy, Batman).... Definitely a lot of shit to wade through in the past 20 years, but like Bowie, for every turd of a moment there's a majestic, beautiful, culture defining moment to balance it out. Just the chorus of "For You" makes most of his crap totally worth it. The verse on "Little Red Corvette" is so heavenly it makes hell itself seem a small, reasonable price to pay for the existence of such beauty.

I even like some of his duds, man. At least, some of the albums that are generally viewed as duds. I like The Love Symbol, Chaos and Disorder and Emancypation because I grew up with that shit. I couldn't unlike it if I tried. Those albums were released during my formative years, and I found them shocking and fascinating, totally different from everything else I was listening to back then. I don't fuck with a LOT of his more recent stuff (and by meow recent I probably mean... from the past 15 years) because I think he's a bit lost, and may be resting on his laurels while he does a bit of whatever the fuck pops into his head.

[louder]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

I know plenty of Prince, man. Fun fact: Batman was the first album I ever bought on CD haha.

I think 1999 is great... but not a 10/10 (or 5/5 or whatever you wanna call it) to me. It's up there. But not quite.

I didn't imply that you didn't.. I didn't mean "you" as in you in particular, it wasn't really directed at you or anyone else. Just talked about my own experience. Sorry if it came off this way.

[louder]

I have a soft spot for 1999 and honestly it was always easy for me to consider an album I enjoy a lot from start to finish a "10/10" (not that I'm a critic or anything so it doesn't matter, lol). But I get your point.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I have been listening to Kevin Gates Islah LP a lot. It is quite cohesive as an album and sonically too. My man does it his way.


I have been listening to mixtapes, catching up and shit.

Ty Dolla $ign - FRee TC
Love the extended version of Blase' on this, and I dig like half the tracks. I am not too big on the R&B stuff though

Young Thug - I'm Up
Couple of tracks I really dig (Hercules, My Boys) but a few duds

Travi$ Scott - Rodeo
Fuck I love this thing. I am still getting into parts of it, and I already adore Antidote like nothing that's come out of Houston in years. Travis likes his music production a bit more complex and shall I say, Proggy? I dig it.

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Finally got this. Finally GET IT. Great full LP, tracks flow from one to the other cohesively, Classic, like old school PE or a great Gang Starr LP....

Future - Evol
Not sure how I feel about this as a whole. I dig on some tracks, but nothing really stands out to me like some of the peak tracks in Monster.

Travi$ Scott - Mamacita (feat. Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan)
I have been loving this track since I first caught the video on the tube of you. Fucking LOVE THIS SONG. I am married to one of them light skinned mamacitas from H-Town! "She get freaky with the lights down, nothing like them lightskinned mamacitas from H town, got them porn star big booties, let me film it then shoot it...." https://youtu.be/RH9kl6XZixo

You're into Travi$ Scott? I thought I was the only one who dig Rodeo. I ate a ton of shit for liking that album (right here, in last year's hip hop cafe, mostly from pepper_green I think...) and I don't think I ever had anyone back me up. I am super glad you like the record. It was unfairly dismissed as being too derivative of too many different artists, which honestly I don't get. For example, it was compared to Yeezus a lot, but Trav helped sculpt the sound and feel of Yeezus, so it's not really fair to say that he's ripping off Kanye. He's part of Ye's "think tank" and for all we know, that's Travi$'s own input that he's "ripping off." I also don't agree with Pitchfork that the album sounds like Future, Thug, or Drake either.

Anyway glad you like it. It's kind of messy, but it pushes at some sonic boundaries for what hip hop is and can be and I like that.

Re: Future - Evol
I actually enjoy this record more than I enjoy Future. I'm in a perpetual state of indecision on the guy. But even though I don't listen to it often, Evol has been fun for me.

Re: Kendrick - super glad you're digging TPAB. It takes a while, doesn't it? But damn, some of those tracks are just so goddamn good. "The Blacker the Berry" should have received more attention. I prefer it to King Kunta as far as upbeat bangers go. But "Mortal Man" is just my jam.

Interestingly I read that Prince was in the studio during "These Walls," which borrows from the man himself and sounds like it might contain some live vocals from him, though I can't find any confirmation on that. Just that they "shared a studio" for the song (???)

[louder]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Finally got this. Finally GET IT. Great full LP, tracks flow from one to the other cohesively, Classic, like old school PE or a great Gang Starr LP....

WOO! Hi-five.

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Travi$ Scott - Mamacita (feat. Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan)
I have been loving this track since I first caught the video on the tube of you. Fucking LOVE THIS SONG. I am married to one of them light skinned mamacitas from H-Town! "She get freaky with the lights down, nothing like them lightskinned mamacitas from H town, got them porn star big booties, let me film it then shoot it...." https://youtu.be/RH9kl6XZixo

Lol!! This was great to read.

[louder]

Originally Posted by Severian

Interestingly I read that Prince was in the studio during "These Walls," which borrows from the man himself and sounds like it might contain some live vocals from him, though I can't find any confirmation on that. Just that they "shared a studio" for the song (???)

I read Prince was supposed to be featured on Complexion but they ended up just talking and didn't come up with anything until they realized the "studio time" was up.

[louder]

Originally Posted by Severian

1 (Hitnrun)

Hahahaha!!!

[louder]

Man if y'all like Prince so much then you're gonna love Miguel, whom I've been listening to A LOT in the past few months. Kaleidoscope Dream and especially Wildheart which is more rock orientated. He hasn't made his definitive classic yet (on the level of Sign O or Purple Rain) but he's definitely on the right path.

In fact Prince digs him so much that he asked him to perform Purple Rain, which he refused cuz he (rightfully) thought that nobody should touch it!

[Severian]

Also, I got Free TC too, finally, despite my previous comments about being "done" with Ty$. After I realized that it was him singing on "Real Friends" (or rather, after Louder told me it was him ) my faith was restored and my interest was renewed.

I see how much he brings to the songs on The Life of Pablo that he contributes to, and I'm really glad he was involved with the project. Free TC actually reminds me a bit of TLOP, as it has a gospel feel and is also longer than it should be.

[louder]

Prince inspired: D'Angelo, Maxwell, Miguel, Pharrell, Timberlake (SexyBack and probably FutureSex/LoveSounds as a whole), Janelle Monae and most recently A.K. Paul (listen to this shit and tell me it doesn't sound like a straight Prince tribute).. I believe he also had a hand in creating the current alt-R&B (the Toronto wave.. "PBR&B"? Fuck all those terms, you know what I mean) sound that a lot of new artists are on. 20 years later, his influence is still going strong.

[Severian]

Hey did any of you guys ever listen to Bas's Too High to Riot? I feel like I mentioned it at least a month ago.

I haven't actually listened to it again since those first few days, but what was I supposed to do? There's new Kanye and Kendrick out at the same time! I'm afraid I've been pretty much confined to those two new records for the past month. I've listened to some new releases as they drop, but as soon as they're over, I'm back to blasting "Untitled 01" or "Ultralight Beams." My musical growth has been stunted.
...
Can't wait for new Pusha T (who. apparently, everyone here has forgotten about... I don't recall hearing anyone comment on Darkest Before Dawn, and nobody seems to care that he's dropping King Push in less than a month!)

I will also give Views from the 6 a fair chance, but I'm more looking forward to it being over than I am to hearing it. Not sure why.

[Severian]

Here's what's on my... uhh... I don't play Spotify Survivor. I just have a couple of 7th gen iPod classics that hold about a lifetime's worth of music between them... so...

Kanye - Pablo (lie, literally every day)
Kendrick - untitled unmastered.
Moderat - III
Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion
Glitterbust - Glitterbust

[louder]

Originally Posted by Severian

I will also give Views from the 6 a fair chance, but I'm more looking forward to it being over than I am to hearing it. Not sure why.

With or without Drake, April is gonna be one exciting month. We get new dvsn (new R&B group signed to his OVO imprint), Jai and A.K. Paul, BEYONCE, new Terrace Martin (Kendrick's producer on some straight jazz shit), that unreleased Dilla joint and who knows what else..

[louder]

Been losing interest in hip hop throughout the last few months. The Curren$y and Alchemist tape was enjoyable for a couple of listens, that's it. The Kevin Gates album was good but I enjoyed it for like a good week then moved on.

With that said, I'm still hyped for whatever TDE does (Isaiah Rashad, I got my eyes on you), Chance the Rapper and perhaps more than everyone else at the moment, EARL SWEATSHIRT (trying to seem serious and then typing his full name doesn't really work, but you get my drift), I genuinely believe he's gonna kill everyone when his next project drops.

[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by Severian

Anyway glad you like it. It's kind of messy, but it pushes at some sonic boundaries for what hip hop is and can be and I like that.

(???)

Ain't nobody triller than Scott....

ha!

Here is the thing that so many people do not understand about Houston music, whether it be hip hop (Geto Boys, Travi$ Scott, etc.), freakfolk (Jandek, Charalambides), metal (Dead Horse, Academy Black), noise freakrock (Rusted Shut), Free jazz/funk (Free Radicals), and garage prog (The MIke Gunn, Sugar Shack). H-town music is deeply involved in psychedelics. Everyone in Houston goes through a heavy LSD phase for some reason. It is always available and cheap and has been since I can remember. There is always a hallucinatory element to Houston music, and Travi$ Scott specifically has that, and even discusses being on acid in songs.
Back in the day The Geto Boys did an interview with Jim and Debbie Goad's magazine ANSWER ME!, and they discussed how Houston is full of every kind of mind-altering substance and that even in the hardest ghetto there are acid heads and mushroom heads..... Maybe it's the heat.

Either way, TRavis Scott has it in spades.


Out of all the shit I have been listening to, however, Kevin Gates is the best RAPPER. He could have flowed on any track in any time, 70's 80's 90's 00's and now.....