Have You Heard the Ocarina of Rhyme by Team Teamwork? (New Hip-Hop Thread)

[edison]

God, I forgot how awesome For Hero: For Fool is.

It really is! Thanks to this thread, I'll put this on later today for the first time in probably more than a year. I was completely unaware that there was a third Subtle LP, although now that I'm seeing its title it seems to vaguely ring a bell.

[shai faithe]

Atmosphere has never made good music.

waaaaack.
i'll take lucy ford over a LOT of shit any day.  as for their other stuff...eh.
also, yes, anybody that likes fh : ff will like crownsdown. go get it, support a dying breed.

[Thermofusion]

Re: Odd Future upthread

I've only done some a la carte sampling of their stuff, but what I've heard hasn't struck me as particularly innovative or "out there." If anything, it tends to remind me of midwestern horrorcore (esp. Tech N9ne + certain members of the Strange Music circle).

[coldforge]

College buddy 1 is guesting on college buddy 2's track here: http://www.birthplacemag.com/2010/10/soul-khan-fahrenheit-video/

[shai faithe]

Re: Odd Future upthread

I've only done some a la carte sampling of their stuff, but what I've heard hasn't struck me as particularly innovative or "out there." If anything, it tends to remind me of midwestern horrorcore (esp. Tech N9ne + certain members of the Strange Music circle).

http://tumblinerb.com/post/1270164437/wolf-haley-hodgy-beats-sandwitches-ofwgkta

the thing that really strikes me--and i'm pretty certain antero too--about OF, is tyler's incredible beat making.  obviously some of the early horrocore dudes from the east coast had rza on the boards, but personally feel that tyler's work is way too novel, and hits too many emotions, to be pigeonholed like that.  you know, a good point of comparison is the fact that you can here rza restraining himself on a lot of that horrorcore shit, and the same thing is true of tyler on the darker OF tracks.

that video that coldforge posted is dope as fuck.

[Antero]

Re: Odd Future upthread

I've only done some a la carte sampling of their stuff, but what I've heard hasn't struck me as particularly innovative or "out there." If anything, it tends to remind me of midwestern horrorcore (esp. Tech N9ne + certain members of the Strange Music circle).

I really don't think it has anything in common with that at all.  The only thing that really seems like horrorcore is "EARL" and accompanying video which is pretty distressing... and Earl Sweatshirt is the sickest 15 year old rapper ever, so whatever.

When Tyler hits rape/violence, he's not using it as an outward-directed fantasy, but rather as a way to expose internal concerns - rejection, possessiveness, &c.  The big point, I think, is that horrorcore and the like use the description of violence and so forth as a way to either act out a fantasy of power or to gross out the audience (itself an assertion of control), whereas Tyler is internally-focused and engaging his own lack of power and control.  There is nothing at all empowering about "Sarah."

Things that should be heard:

Bastard is amazing.  Flat-out.  On the one hand, it's definitely post-#based: stronger ambient moves in beat construction, raw whatever-comes-to-mind expression, serious lo-fi bass rumble.  On the other hand, Tyler is a serious technician.  He makes fucking amazing beats that are stuffed with unusual chord changes and countermelodies and weird noises, and the songs are carefully structured with evolving instrumentals.  Everything's put together for the song.  He also has an extremely compelling voice and real content (see: "Inglorious").

EARL needs to be heard simply because Earl is operating on another level lyrically.  I have no idea where he came from or how he got this far at such a young age.  Tyler can spit, but Earl slaughters beats arbitrarily.  He tends towards black humor ("the reincarnation of '98 Eminem," as he says on Bastard), but he does it better than anyone.

Radical is all of the OF cats demonstrating that fuck yeah they can rap over some great mainstream beats.  And fuck yeah they can rap!

[dieblucasdie]

Not to derail, but, speaking of horrorcore, RZA posted this new Gravediggaz track for Halloween.

The first comment about says it:

WU TANG BABY, you guys record this with a 6 dollar mic?

[shai faithe]

CALL TO ARMS!
"squeeze radio"--the rightful successor to the world-famous, hip hop lengendary, "stretch and bobbito show," which if don't know (you should) is where mf doom, jay-z, big l, nas, wu-tang, rawkus records, fondle'em records, el-p and co flow, can ox, aesop rock, on and on, got their starts (basically if you've heard any famous-underground radio freestyle, it was probably on this show, check these again)--was just cancelled for no good reason by the governing board of wkcr at columbia.  i was an intern for squeeze for three plus years (three years i might add that were the roughest in my life, and i always had the show), and i cherish those memories the same as the ones with my daughter.  that's how good it was, that's how much it matters.
please please i implore you, send an email to board@wkcr.org and american@wkcr.org (the dept) to tell them to put the show back on the air.

[ellaguru]

Atmosphere has never made good music.

waaaaack.
i'll take lucy ford over a LOT of shit any day.  as for their other stuff...eh.
also, yes, anybody that like's fh : ff will like crownsdown. go get it, support a dying breed.

Now playing CrownsDown and liking it. Thanks, I liked both Subtle and 13 & God, but for no good reason had never given Themselves a try.

Also, I like both Lucy Ford and God Loves Ugly, so I guess I'll have to disagree on the Atmosphere hateration.

[shai faithe]

maybe the second best atmosphere release after lucy is sad clown bad dub ii. so if you like that earlier work, then get that.
and re: squeeze radio.  if nobody emails, at least try to spread the word, however you will. thanks.

[Antero]

Sheek Louch: A far better live performer than I expected!

Also, Mellowhype's BLACKENEDWHITE dropped yesterday, and it's siiiiiiick.  It mostly alternates between weird riot music and some sort of fractured pop-rap filtered through all the wrong sort of chemicals.  Left Brain isn't as instinctively musical a producer as Tyler - the beats here don't have the same sort of embedded hooks that Bastard does - but it's pretty great funhouse-mirror gangsta music.

I'm glad OF is getting crazy press now, but I wish that press would talk about the music in a bit of detail beyond "FUCK MAN THIS SHIT IS AWESOME AND THEY'RE LIKE 18!" 

[Trousers and Pat]

yeah I like it, I just got hit by chordaroy. I love that mean little lilt, and the one slurred line they sing.

[nonotyet]

LIL WAYNE IS OUT OF JAIL
CELEBRATE, BITCHES

[shai faithe]

LIL WAYNE IS OUT OF JAIL
CELEBRATE, BITCHES

and. take THAT establishment.

[Maaik]

LIL WAYNE IS OUT OF JAIL
CELEBRATE, BITCHES

and. take THAT establishment.

I read that last night and while I appreciate reading someone coming into hip hop fresh and developing an appreciation for it basically in front of us, I still couldn't get over that he thought it was enough for his review that he read the lyrics.  Is there any other genre of music where one would find this acceptable?  Like if someone was reviewing an anthology of Country music and never listened to a note--god, I can't imagine an editor wouldn't turn that right around and tell the writer to try again.

But +1 for NPR taking someone to school on hip hop, that's pretty cool.

[Ignatius]

Well, when lyrics are published like that I think the intentions are partly to separate them from the music and show that they are poetry or whatever. The two songwriters I can think of offhand who have had their lyrics published in big deal anthologies are Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan and the intention in those cases was almost definitely to demonstrate their validity as poetry without the music.

Otherwise he'd be reviewing a mix cd, essentially.

[Maaik]

Ah, then yeah, I suppose this dude was perfectly suited to review it.

[shai faithe]

this beat is reeee-donkulous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV4gGiJ25Yc

[Antero]

Shiiiiit.

Why aren't Young L beats banging in every club in America?

[Antero]

Lil B's Red Flame just dropped.  It's dominated by the lo-fi New York style stuff.  It's like Lox x Disintegration Loops.

[edit]: Oh my fucking god Lil B just called himself "metro-goon."

[Metonymy]

More importantly, B is sampling/shouting out Ariel Pink on Red Flame. He also claims G.O.A.T. status at least once. Wow.

"Feels good to be the rawest and the realest. Best mixtape since I don't know what."

[Antero]

So, Pharoahe Monch, Internal Affairs - Fantastic?  Or STAGGERINGLY FANTASTIC?

What a great album!  Aside from that track with Common and Kweli, which is... exactly as boring as you'd expect, once Pharoahe's verse is over.  Common has to be my least favorite rapper, full stop.

[shai faithe]

has anyone read this article over at the fork?
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7867-beg-steal-or-borrow-new-beats-from-moscow/
speaking of young l, some of those beats are even more back to the future.  go russia.

alright yeah this red flame tape is fucking good. i'm converted.
edit: really fucking good.

[Antero]

I need to check out that Moscow story soon, it sounds fascinating.

And yeah, Red Flame is actually amazing.  Legitimately.  All of the New York style stuff is weird and awesome, like trying to reconstruct the Roc circa 2002 from memory.  Even Lil B's production on a couple tracks - "Groupie"?  It's like Young L via a game of Telephone, but it still bangs.

[DanielBurns11]

Listened to Red Flame for the first time today. Everything Based is still my favorite I think, but RF is pretty amazing most of the time, just wish it wasn't an hour and a half :/