8.15.2007

And now some music news: yeah, that Clipse album is real real good. Does Brent know they swipe his buenos noches, roaches rhyme in WAMP WAMP (What it Do)? The The Cool Kids' production is similar, though there's brighter colors, rope chains and a home studio sound. DOMESTIC sound. There's Jens Lekman (thanks, Neil) and Cass McCombs doing the POP thing. And Armchair Apocrypha & Spoon's The Underdog are constantly spinning in the household, lots of head-bobbing and twist-shouting. That's old news though. Old as Otis Redding. This has been your music moment. Goodnight.

4 Comments:

Blogger John Sakkis said...

but aren't you sick of this cocaine-rap crap...i mean, as a genre it's pretty fucking lame...

16 August, 2007  
Blogger Alli Warren said...

I guess I haven't heard enough of it to be tired of it. But the thing about Clipse? Their rhymes are SO good. They're smart and funny and the beats are just ridiculous. "Been two years like I was paddy wagon cruisin/The streets was yours, ya dunce cappin and cazooin." "When I'm shovelin snow, call me frosty, lover" "Give a little take a little, ma check the deali/ Most robbies is will-nots, you're dealin with a willy/3-D faces on them crisp new billies/ Got Benji lookin all googly-eyed and silly"

I mean, that's quite a few steps above that freakin Bartender song I hear all over the neighborhood.

16 August, 2007  
Blogger John Sakkis said...

clipse's lyrics are definitely good, above-par. i guess as of late i'm just having a hard time enjoying irresponsible rap music. and don't get me wrong, i hate "conscious rap" as much as the next guy...but the Bay Area is so disgustingly violent right now...6 people shot and killed in oakland just last friday...12 people shot in richmond last saturday...Antioch is off the fucking hook right now...murders happening everyday in SF, in broad daylight...Bay Area cities are breaking all records w/regards to homocide in 2007...so, i feel weird as a white guy (or even just as a white-collar guy) bumping the hell out of music that basically sexualizes murder, drug dealing and thuggery...i mean, fuck thugs, thugs suck...and while you and i can listen to this stuff and bump it or whatever (and let's be honest, laugh at it, be entertained by it) a large population of urban youth think this shit is a lifestyle...like, aspire to that faux-lifestyle...and that's fucked. rap just needs to die and then be reborn as something else (The Cool Kids, M.I.A., Busdriver, El-P, Spankrock et al. or whatever)...and then the sales figures for mainstream rap these last couple years reflect that...rap isn't doing so good anymore...and i think it's because rap is so fucking predictable right now...ultra-violence, ultra-bragadocious-sex rhymes, ultra-thugery...and by right now i mean for the last 10 years of so...i mean, what Master P was doing in the late 90's is still going on today (with blippy'er beats and glossier women), that's fucking stagnation...but even what Master P was doing in the late 90's had already been done by Mac Dre, Dre Dog, San Quinn, Spice 1 and pre-hyphy E-40 back in the early-mid 90's...i mean fuck...that's bullshit.

anyway, i guess short story long i'm conflicted about listening to stuff like Clipse talented or not...

16 August, 2007  
Blogger Alli Warren said...

I feel you, John. It’s hard. I couldn’t listen to hip-hop for a long time. The grip-on-my-balls attitude was too much for my sensitive Santa Cruz girl heart. But then I moved to the Mission and had to learn how to walk down the street as a young white woman and deal with the aggressive gazes and the young thugs. I don’t know if it was a result of that steeling process that I began to listen to hip hop again or what, but now it feels different. The violence and misogyny and homophobia, of course, are still so grating. But it feels different now. I can enjoy the rhymes and beats and still be critical. Or at least to try and think through my subject position and the rapper’s position and the kids on the corner trying to be hard, trying to be “men,” and their subject positions.

There’s this track on Hell Hath No Fury called “Hello New World” that’s about, you know, piggy-backing out of the ghetto…

“This goes out to my Hyalites that hang out on them corners
Who rock Air Nike's, hustlers' way of life
In white T's, constantly, ducking from Ds
Pumpin that D arm, readily, waiting to squeeze
Who stay cookin, stay lookin, over they shoulders
Holdin them boulders, tryin to avoid central booking
I ain't coming at cha quote unquote "Famous Rapper"
Who turn positive, try to tell ya how to live
But this information I must pass to the homies
If hustling is a must be Sosa, not Tony
We can all shine; I want your wrist lit like mine
Neck and ears, I want it lit like mine
Foreign cars, stick shift, 6 gears like mine
Anything that keep mama from crying, visiting
You from behind that glass, while you away, sentencing
But the judge is saying "Life" like it ain't someone's life”

The way he says "life" really gets me.

16 August, 2007  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home