Showing posts with label Reviews. Show all posts

"In Search of... Did more for me than Illmatic, That's when I realised we ain't cut from the same fabric"

This quote from the song sums Tyler up completely, It's obvious he isnt the Hip-Hop which is perceived as "Hip-Hop". His alternative music styling have obviously allowed him to develop his own sound ad this album is a great example of that.

After 3 years from his "WOLF" album many Odd Future fans were left to think that Tyler especially stopped creating music since his interest in other ventures such as "Scoring Movies"… Creating an App, launching the Odd Future radio station and continuing with their TV Show Loiter Squad. It's fair to say he has been a busy man in the past 2 years. However it seems that Tyler has in fact been making music as this album was in recording since WOLF.


I mentioned in my review of Earl Sweatshirt's latest effort that I was disappointed in the musical direction of the group and was hoping Tyler could now resurrect my hope. I would say he did this for a small part but not loads. 

Good:
Tyler is known for producing and writing and producing his own songs which is a quality I envy, not many artists these days are able to do this, even J.Cole didn't write every lyric and produce every beat in 2014 Forest Hill Drive despite not having any features. In WOLF we saw that Tyler's production took a drastic change in the right direction of course, with more luxury sounds from his jazzy sensations of "Treehome95" to his party/riot starter "Tamale" and his trap influenced track "Trashwang". In Cherry Bomb, Tyler has kept the same components and has tried to develop them into a new sound but at the same time just expand on his previous works for example the song "Find Your Wings" has the same type of sound as "Treehome95" but is definitely an improvement of the sound. However I personally prefer Treehome
Another thing I enjoy is that Tyler has kept his same flow and technique of rap. With his un-serious execution of ridiculous lyrics but still make sense, link together and some will leave you laughing. I particularly enjoyed:

"But keep your ego here so I can buttfuck your opinion" 

Which you will understand more when you listen to the song. There are a good amount of production highlights on the album. I feel that some songs are the pinnacle of anything Tyler has every released for example in "Smuckers" I feel that this is one of his best songs in terms of lyrical matter and production. He should be proud too as he has both Lil Wayne and Kanye West on a track at the age of 24. The mid bass on Deathcamp is executed so perfectly and matches the guitar, the random screeching background vocals and all the other small elements to the song. The beat on "Buffalo" can also be included with the heavy bass hits and the quick snares with the added 2 main synth sequences, this making the song very enjoyable. Obviously his production isn't the sounds of my favourite producers but that doesn't matter as he has taken up roles of producer and rapper and is still growing in terms of his own sound.

Bad:
I was expecting another edition to the concept that has been the focus of both the "GOBLIN" and "WOLF" albums, however if Tyler didn't want to go in this direction then that is his own choice as an artist. In songs such as "Run", "Pilot","Cherry Bomb" and "Keep da O's" due to the large amounts of bass I wasn't really able to catch much of what Tyler was saying/rapping. This could be an effect that Tyler wanted to implement himself or it could be due to cheap and poor musical engineering which is no excuse when you're making music professionally. Unfortunately there wasn't enough on this album despite a Lil Wayne and Kanye West feature to make me think that this was a better album than "WOLF". I felt that in "WOLF" everything was executed to near perfection however in Cherry Bomb I just think it was executed to moderate.

It's no secret that Tyler is stranger to "Love Songs" but in the song "Blow My Load" I feel he's forcing the whole act. This is the same guy that said "Fuck a pregnant Bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome", I feel as if the whole song is trying to make me forget about the "Goblin" Tyler and make me come to terms with this new "affectionate and caring" Tyler? No I don't think so, especially as Tyler is one viewed by the media as a rebel and a hooligan which is part of the reason of his large fan base anyway. It's as if he tried to rip of Danny Brown's "I Will". Come on Tyler... The song "Fucking Young/Perfect" makes this even worse. Like the whole statutory rape thing is just. If I take you back to 2011 with the song "She" it's completely different however is the same theme. I accept this Tyler can't come back however there is a fine line between rebelling and adhering to rules. But at least he accepts this as he says at the end of "Keep Da O's": "I'm rapping about diamonds and cars and money now, what the fuck has gotten into me man". Yes I agree.

Favourite Tracks/Things I love:

  • Deathcamp.
  • Buffalo.
  • Pilot.
  • The Brown Stains of Darkeese Latifah Part 6-12 (Remix).
  • Smuckers.
  • Fucking Young/Perfect.
  • The female vocals throughout the album.
  • Tyler's Piano skills. 
  • Tyler's Flow.
  • Tyler's production improvements. 
  • Tyler's exploration of different types of sounds.
  • Kanye and Lil Wayne's verses on Smuckers.
  • The fact Tyler produced and wrote everything.
  • Charlie Wilson... 
  • How no one from Odd Future was on the album
Yes Tyler you did, you can have that.

Final Rating: TTTTTTT

"For my prayer has always been Love"

Indie Folk...
When I hear this the first thing I think about is those songs that play in between those sad scenes of romantic comedies where the main protagonists have an argument and go their separate ways temporarily. You'll understand what I'm talking about when you hear the album. Anywaaay. 

Those who read this blog frequently would guess that I listen to a lot of Hip-Hop due to most posts I have are related to this genre. Although this is true I love all music of different types and genres which is why I want to review this particular album. 

I first heard of Sufjan Stevens when I checked the producer credits of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly and saw that "Hood Politics" was sampled from "All for Myself" from Sufjan's "The Age of Adz's" album. So it was just a coincidence where he released Carrie & Lowell 15 days later. 

Good:
When I heard the first opening chords on "Death With Dignity" I was completely in love. This type of music is something I'm not really used to but I was so impressed at the subtleness of the guitar and how this element alone can make such a rewarding song and album. Sufjan's vocals and lyrics is some of the best I've ever heard, I'm mesmerised with his robotic but sweet sounding voice, what makes it better is that the lyrics he's singing are so coherent and meaningful. For example in the song "Drawn To The Blood"  the song conceptualises love and religion and the accompanying chords make the song so beautiful and moving. By far one of the highlights of the album. Another thing I like about the album is just the fact that it's so mellow, you can listen to it anywhere at any time, it's very easy on the ears. The way Sufjan Stevens uses simple guitar, pianos and his own voice to create an incredible sound is fantastic and not many artists at present have that quality

Bad:
The only bad thing I can point out is the hollow instrumentals at the end of some songs such as in Drawn To The Blood and Death With Dignity. I feel like they can be a bit harsh on my ears after hearing such smooth and soft vocals and sounds.

Favourite Tracks/Things I love:

  • Should Have Known Better
  • Eugene
  • Fourth Of July
  • Death With Dignity 
  • Drawn To The Blood
  • Sufjan's Lyrics
  • The subtle but powerful instrumentation 
Final Rating: TTTTTTTTTT

"Niggas is fake, I limit the features I give 'em"

Earl Sweatshirt. A member of the seemingly unproductive Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. It has been established since their popularity back in 2007 that this was a group of talented Nigg**. However I felt recently that the group haven't been up to their full potential. Mellowhype's release for me didn't really speak to me, I think there was only 1 song I liked and I don't remember it so it isn't that important. Doris is the best I've heard from these guys in a while and that came out back in 2013. 
It's obvious that Earl Sweatshirt is one of the best if not the best rapper in the collective and his début studio album "Doris" was by far one of the best projects to come from anyone in the group. So obviously hearing his studio début (but sophomore album) I expected fire from whatever he would release next. 
*Sigh* I was wrong. 

Good: 

I felt that on "Doris" that Earl's flow was lazy, as if he doesn't want to rap, as if he was mumbling to someone because he didn't want them to hear what he said but at the same time he wants someone to hear what he said. But with this project I feel that he is more energetic with his flow. He knows he is one of the best rappers at the moment and he wants to give us a reason as to why we should continue to think that. If you look at the album credits you will notice that all the songs apart from "Off Top" (which is produced by Leftbrain) are produced by a "randomblackdude". This is Earl's pseudonym for his production credits. I like that Earl has given producing his own music a chance and I think he can get better once he has found his signature sound as it is extremely experimental at the moment, you can hear it especially with his instrumentals you hear. I feel Earl is trying to do a Tyler The Creator in terms of producing and writing his own music and he can surpass him with time and effort. 

Bad:

Doris was waaaaaaay better. Not a little, not a small amount but a huge amount. I feel that Earl has taken the piss a bit with this album and I don't know why he made a big deal about his record label messing up the release date because if this was the surprise I wouldn't be happy. His record label did him a big favour. When I saw that the album was less than 30 minutes and the cover artwork I just thought that Earl released something just for the sake of it and I still think that. Going back to the production style I feel that Earl tries so hard to keep his music sounding authentic and alternative that in the end it just sounds like a mess. Apart from Grown Ups which has an interesting beat and an eerie feel with the dark melody. I feel as if this isn't Earl's best effort and I was expecting a big improvement from Doris. However I take into account that Earl is trying to develop his own sound. He uses a lot of organs, distorted snares and beats and it may be possible that the RZA must have influenced this production style from his own Wu-Tang tunes and the collaboration on "Molasses" back in "Doris". An example of this is in the song "Grief". but he has a long way to go, When Tyler, The Creator released Goblin the production on that was also below average and I feel that Earl is at this stage. He has a long way to go before he reaches his "Wolf" stage of production.

Favourite Tracks/Things I love:

  • Grown Ups (feat. Dash)
  • Inside
  • Earl's Flow 
  • Earl's Creativity 

Final Rating: TTTTTT

"This dick ain't freeeeee" 



Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam. Can we have a moment of silence real quick. 

The J.Cole and Kendrick Lamar debate must be dropped now and Kendrick has won. If you don't like my opinion please never return to this blog. 

Anyway, prior to the release of the album I genuinely thought that despite Kendrick's growing talent, he couldn't release an album better than good kid M.A.A.D. City. Even though this was a concept album (and I'm a big fan of these) the actual concept is very basic, Gang warfare and what it does to innocent people, friends, family, religion etc. however the way Kendrick used this concept to create a gripping and thought provoking story is beyond me. 

To pimp a butterfly is a project that I knew very little about prior to its release because Kendrick was very secretive about the music he was releasing but I don't mind that as it was even released early. I am so happy that Interscope messed up the release as I would've had to wait 3 days to listen to it. One thing I noticed when listening to the project is there's no Ab-Soul, Schoolboy Q or Jay Rock. I was expecting to hear from at least Ab-Soul however only Jay Rock was on G.K.M.C. anyway so this wasn't a problem.

Strong Points:

The album includes a large amount of black supremacy themes, it is able to access such a controversial topic and do it in a way that it doesn't create a large problem. Kendrick is able to rap so fluently about Black people especially at a time whereby America is facing a large problem with: Police and violence with black people and Black on Black crime. Gangs are still a factor of this album which Kendrick explores however he doesn't do as much in comparison to G.K.M.C. Kendrick's style of rap has not deferred from his natural story telling quality and because of this he is still able to rap his stories or rap at someone else's point of view in tracks like "u" and "King Kunta". Kendrick delivers his very smooth and convincing style of rapping as he's been doing since section 80. A personal favoured line for me was in "Hood Politics" where he says:

Ain’t nothin' new but a flow of new DemoCrips and ReBloodlicans
Red state versus a blue state, which one you governin’?

The spoken word/poetry is something that is new but works extremely well, I mean "this dick ain't free" amazing. The poetry in the album supports the theme of Black power and is even delivered in a Black style, for example in "for free" an ambient jazzy tune plays in the background which is something you would expect in a jazz night at your local poetry club. The thought provoking "Mortal Man" is something that really sticks out to me as a strong album on the track which exemplifies black empowerment with the interview with the late 2pac. I think that the song a constructive use of the 12 minute length in comparison to J. Cole's 14 minute "Note To Self".

One thing that I love about the album is that it explores past music genres which reminds me of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's partnership back in the 1990s, even in songs that have a more current Hip-Hop sound like Hood Politics there is still instances of G-Funk signature sounds like in California Love by 2pac. Songs like These Walls, King Kunta and Complexion (A Zulu Love) are great examples of the signature G-Funk that Kendrick has "brought back". We can't give Kendrick all the credit though because his array of producers have helped him make this project into what it is. In-House TDE producers such as Tae Beast and Sounwave have really shone in this project. The song Hood Politics has been produced to perfection (Credits to Thundercat, Tae Beast and Sounwave), the groove and instrumentation on These Walls (Martin, Dopson and Sounwave). The production throughout this album is just executed properly and the result is an all rounded groovy, meaningful, danceable album. I'm also very impressed with the Fela Kuti sample in "Mortal Man" where it incorporates the beat from "I No Get Eye For Back"

Weak Points:

It ends. Also I don't understand the weird moaning at the beginning of the "These Walls" but this is a small detail and it doesn't impact the perfection of the song. "u" is one track which I didn't understand in terms of production and lyrics however i realised that the concept is the opposite of the song "i", plus the song even diverges into a soulful melody as supposed to the abstract "You're Dead!" Flying Lotus kind of style.

Favourite Tracks/Things I love:

  • These Walls (feat. Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat)
  • Hood Politics
  • Alright 
  • King Kunta 
  • Complexion (A Zulu Love) [feat. Rhapsody] 
  • Black Empowerment/Culture Concept 
  • Good Length 
  • Kendrick's Bars 
  • The collaboration of Thundercat
  • The Cover Art
  • The use of 90's G-Funk and Gangsta Rap songs
Final Rating: TTTTTTTTTT 
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