• 68 Posts
  • 72 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: July 22nd, 2023
  • Bearigator@ttrpg.networkOPtoHipHopHeads@sopuli.xyz•Book Club Week 8: It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back by Public EnemyEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    This is a busy day/week for me at work, so I’ll have to keep this short.

    This album is very much a product of the time, so before I start I’ll mention some obvious stuff that doesn’t hold up super well. The beats can be repetitive and the rhymes/flows, my modern standards, are terrible. If a modern rapper came out sounding like this, nobody would buy that album.

    Now that that is out of the way, I love this album. When I first got in to rap (outside of weird underground stuff), this is the sort of stuff I listened to. I was in my “modern rappers just rap about bitches and money, old rapers rapped about real stuff” phase. While I outgrew that phase, it is nice to hear some blatantly political rap. I checked and this was the fifth best selling rap album of 1988, beaten by “Straight Outta Compton”, “Eazy-Duz-It”, “He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper” and “Life Is…Too $hort”. Not bad to be behind NWA, Eazy-E, Will Smith (and DJ Jazzy Jeff) and Too $hort. I also fucking love the scratching on some of these beats. That old school sound of a DJ scratching records always gets me hype.

    Favorite track is Bring the Noise and Show 'Em Whatcha Got. Bring The Noise is a classic and I just really like what they did with the saxophone sample on Show 'Em Whatcha Got.

  • Bearigator@ttrpg.networkOPtoHipHopHeads@sopuli.xyz•Who is your favorite Mixtape Rapper?English
    3·
    1 year ago

    My top 2 are Lil Wayne and Waka Flocka Flame. Wayne speaks for himself. He is one of the best to ever do it and has like 20 or 30 mixtapes. I heard T-Wayne for the first time recently and it reminded me how good Wayne is.

    Waka is different though. Guy doesn’t rap like Wayne, guy gets you hyped. He only had 3 albums but almost as many mixtapes as Wayne. Also worth noting is that while his last album was in 2012, but he has dropped at least 10 mixtapes since then. He doesn’t need the money, he just loves making tapes. A surprising amount of them are on Spotify too if you have never given them a listen. I won’t pretend they are all amazing, but I recommend I Can’t Rap and Twin Towers. Again, don’t expect lyrical rap. Waka is for when you need to get unreasonably hype.

    Honorable Mention to Nicki Minaj. She is mostly known for her pop-rap stuff, but she raps hard on Sucka Free,

  • Bearigator@ttrpg.networkOPtoHipHopHeads@sopuli.xyz•Book Club Week 7: There Existed an Addiction to Blood by clipping.English
    1·
    1 year ago

    I was looking up Daveed Diggs after seeing this. He has done so much. He has awards for rapping, acting (stage and TV), writing (TV and Movie), and was nominated for a Hugo. Some people are just better. He is basically a less famous Donald Glover, which I mean as a huge compliment.

    Also, I listened to Visions of Bodies Being Burned last night, but I had my wife with me this time. I really enjoyed it, in the same way I liked There Existed an Addiction to Blood. Meaning I found it kind of unpleasant and enjoyed that haha. She hated it sadly, but was nice enough to sit with me through it anyways. I’ll have to listen to it by myself at some point because I think her being there made the experience less nerve-wracking than it would have been otherwise. Favorite track was probably Pain Everyday or Enlacing. My wife’s was Check the Lock I think. I think she liked it most because it was a relatively straight forward rap song.

  • Bearigator@ttrpg.networkOPtoHipHopHeads@sopuli.xyz•Book Club Week 7: There Existed an Addiction to Blood by clipping.English
    3·
    1 year ago

    @[email protected] was nice enough to suggest this album when I said I wanted something a little different for Halloween. This for sure hit the spot. Instead of my usual post in here, I will set the scene and tell the story of me listening to this album. If you don’t care about my story but are curious about my overall opinion, just skip to the bottom. I’ll separate the story from the rest of the post.

    I dropped my youngest son off at soccer practice last night. It was windy, the sun had just fallen behind the trees and it was ever so slightly drizzling. I don’t want to go watch practice in the mild rain so instead of putting on my headphones I turned on the Bluetooth, drove to a separate, empty portion of the park and turned on the album.

    It starts off well. Intro sets the scene and Nothing is Safe is a damn good track. It is a little spooky and the high pitch piano repeating in the background of the beat is giving me “Michael Myers Theme Song” vibes, which is exactly what I want the night before Halloween.

    Right around the time He Dead comes on it is officially “dark”. The clouds are eating the light that would normally filter in through the trees for the next 20ish minutes. The song starts with the low droning and some other noises and the guy goes “they want to take your body” and…I won’t say I was scared, but I am not too proud to admit that I was a little spooked. The song goes on and the organ builds in the background and at this point I’m officially locked in.

    I’m feeling good still, Haunting (interlude) plays and then it goes to La Mala Ordina. Man, fuck this song. The silence/crackling from the last track leading in to it already has be vaguely on edge. The horror movie soundtrack-esque start leading in to him rapping about body parts works perfectly. Then the song starts to break down and cuts to just static/noise at 3:50. Now, under normal circumstances, I would probably remember that @[email protected] mentioned that this album has “elements of noise and industrial”. But I’m a bit of a wuss and it is dark and windy and ever so slightly raining and I’m pretty confident some kind of demon is getting ready to come kill me, so that doesn’t cross my mind. But I’m a wuss, not a coward, so I wait it out. The noise cuts and Club Down comes on. Thank God, it was part of the album and not Satan trying to come for me through the speakers.

    I’ll skip a few tracks here because it is generally more of me being vaguely spooked and enjoying the experience. Shout out to Run for Your Life, probably my second favorite track overall.

    Possession (interlude) comes on and sadly takes me out of it a little bit. It was too goofy. That said, I’m still in my car. In the dark. In the woods. In the dark. With the wind and rain. So when All in Your Head comes on I am sucked right back in. When the spooky lady came in “bow your head and repeat what is said. Lead us away from every temptation,” and slowly had noise overtake her voice, I loved it.

    Skipping to the end of Story 7, as the song slows down. The guy is borderline chanting “Cynthia…” and then it cuts. I sit in silence. In the car. In the dark. in the woods. With the wind and rain. and Attunement starts and I’m back watching for demons as the track screeches at me. It doesn’t last long but it is long enough to stress my already frazzled nerves. Unfortunately, instead of relief I get spooky-ass rapping. I feel like I can see this man watching my from outside my car as he raps in near monotone.

    Finally I reach the last track, Piano Burning. 18 minutes of the sound of, presumably, a piano burning. I sat in the dark and listened to the whole thing, and honestly it was a relief. I spent so long being assaulted by sounds and sudden static and general spookiness that it was very calming, almost cathartic. I was able to release the stress I had built up over the past hour and change. I drove back to the populated part of the park and waited for my kid to wrap up practice, then drove home listening to something upbeat that he would enjoy.

    This album was an experience. Sitting in a dimly lit card while it is almost pitch black outside, surrounded by trees, was a better experience. Compared to my listen in the comfort of my office chair this morning, I think that it may have been the perfect listening environment. I think this is an album that is better if you are a little uncomfortable. It isn’t uncommon for me to check my phone sometimes when listening to an album, but I really recommend finding some time alone and in the dark to listen to this album, it really does enhance it. The more willing you are to let yourself be spooked, to give up on trying to seem tough or laughing it off in your head, the more I think you will enjoy this album. As an experience, it is a solid 10/10 for me. Even taking away the experience and just looking at it as an album, I really liked it and it is like an 8/10.

    I also didn’t mention it in the story but Blood of the Fang was my favorite track on this album. This isn’t an album that has songs that would be a traditional “single”, but this track stands up on its own as well as within the context of the album. I think that is extra impressive on this sort of project, which is meant to be listened to as a whole. Would massively recommend.

    I really hope everybody enjoyed this as much as I did.

  • Bearigator@ttrpg.networktoHipHopHeads@sopuli.xyz•CASISDEAD - Matte Grey Wrap [feat. Desire]English
    3·
    1 year ago

    Just listened to the album cause I liked this song. Shit was good. Dude’s story is kind of weird too. He did music from 2005-2007, then quit to do business shit, then came back after having some success I guess.

    A Spark, Steptronic and Venom all really hooked me. Album was a little long overall imo, but some of these songs came out as singles years ago so I think he was just working on it for a long time.