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

[shai faithe]

suspicious that yung clova is missing from that thank you list.
tsk tsk.
but seriously. there's probably a planet that feels like this album sounds. i want to live there for eternity.

[dieblucasdie]

For real.  I was a lot less enthusiastic about Huntsville International than y'all; this is what I wanted that to sound like after reading all the praise.  What a fucking album.  I'll be listening to this more or less nonstop for the next few weeks, at LEAST. 

[shai faithe]

oh man! last train to paris is awesome!

[Antero]

I need to get on that one.  I've only listened to about half of it.

Random thought: I feel like Cohesive is actually in some way related to Last Train To Paris and My Beautiful Dark Creepy Whatever in the incorporation of electronic/dance/pop sounds that wouldn't normally find their way into rap.

[shai faithe]

this is interesting to me because i've always been a devotee to electronic-based hip hop. for the most part, i don't much like hip hop that isn't grounded in noise or electro (even though i don't really like those aesthetics as such). i see the past five years of mainstream hip hop (or sounds that participate in mainstream tastes) as something to behold because it's so highly electronic. assuming electronic genres' sounds and forms has opened up a fascinating terrain; a largely unexplored area left abandoned after bomb squad became dre.
to the extent that cohesive and mbdtf and lttp are further instances of that exploration, they're related. but really, no more than that, i'd say. though i'd also say that cohesive feels to me to be doing something brand new (i'll need to really digest it before i can be sure about that), whereas fantasy is absolutely reliant on some winking incorporation of the entirety of the 90's underground, "uplifting" it into some knowing ART(!!!!), and paris is more simply an incredibly well-accomplished performance of the more interesting (and darker) popular sounds of the past few years.
there's a lot to think about here, especially as the underground noise hop sounds of the 2000's and late 90's begin to merge with, and/or be incorporated into, the current mainstream--or at least as more avant electro hop becomes more prevalent.

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

oh man! last train to paris is awesome!

Fuck yeah it is.

[Antero]

i'd also say that cohesive feels to me to be doing something brand new (i'll need to really digest it before i can be sure about that)

This seems like it might be fair.  Really, it sounds a little... a little #based.  Check the Clams Casino beat for "Pictures."

[Andrew_TSKS]

For real.  I was a lot less enthusiastic about Huntsville International than y'all; this is what I wanted that to sound like after reading all the praise.  What a fucking album.  I'll be listening to this more or less nonstop for the next few weeks, at LEAST. 

This post and the few before it... what are you guys talking about exactly?

[Antero]

For real.  I was a lot less enthusiastic about Huntsville International than y'all; this is what I wanted that to sound like after reading all the praise.  What a fucking album.  I'll be listening to this more or less nonstop for the next few weeks, at LEAST. 

This post and the few before it... what are you guys talking about exactly?

We are talking about the new G-Side/Block Beattaz album, Cohesive, and the previous one, Huntsville International.

[edit]: and how they are awesome

[Antero]

I finally found an mp3 of "Quarter of a Century", which I'm pretty sure I've posted about before, and I think you guys need to have it.  He's got the blues in his bones.

[Andrew_TSKS]

For real.  I was a lot less enthusiastic about Huntsville International than y'all; this is what I wanted that to sound like after reading all the praise.  What a fucking album.  I'll be listening to this more or less nonstop for the next few weeks, at LEAST. 

This post and the few before it... what are you guys talking about exactly?

We are talking about the new G-Side/Block Beattaz album, Cohesive, and the previous one, Huntsville International.

[edit]: and how they are awesome

Ah. I heard G-Side for the first time on tumblr yesterday and dug it. I'll check this stuff out.

[Antero]

Bay Rap Alert: Roach Gigz just dropped Roachy Balboa 2.  A pretty awesome affair, all told.  He's definitely one of the best up-and-coming rappers around.

I think he needs to start working with Young L.  Roach could straight up slaughter a beat like "Drop Top Swag."

[Antero]

Gunplay, Rick Ross's cokehead subordinate, just dropped a mixtape called Inglorious Bastard.  He's much more exciting than Ross*, something of a less-radical Waka Flocka.  He gets some good lines off and has a twitchy energy and the connects to get good beats, so there's the potential for a good album here.  That said, though, the tape gets kind of monotonous. 

One of the best cuts on here is "Rollin'" with Waka, where he brings a hyperactive Pastor Troy style that plays nicely off of Waka's berzerk juggernaut.  The other standout is "All On You," which has a more distinctive feel... maybe an MOP or a Mob Figaz sort of vibe, definitely bangs and he's rapping quite well.  er.... right up to the last line, when he says "Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks / that's word to the motherfucking DJ Quik."

Um...

[edit]: Also he raps about 4 Loko over the "Hard In The Paint" beat.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.

*Rick Ross bores me to death, always has and always will.  The man has no range in his vocal inflection, no capacity for dynamic motion, and is totally unconvincing.  Listening to him also makes me feel like I'm going to have a sympathetic asthma attack.

[kyle]

To celebrate being released from a mental hospital, Gucci Mane got a giant face tattoo of a three-scoop ice cream cone with lightning bolts shooting out of it and the word "Brrr." But why?

[Andrew_TSKS]

He's already got 5 tattoos on his face and he's probably going to spend the great majority of the rest of his life in jail. Why not?

[Antero]

If they're pushing a mental incompetence defense I can see this helping.

[Trousers and Pat]

I finally found an mp3 of "Quarter of a Century", which I'm pretty sure I've posted about before, and I think you guys need to have it.  He's got the blues in his bones.

yesss, I had forgotten this jam. thank you.

np the new fiend/international jones mixtape, it's quite good

[dieblucasdie]

Someone needs to kick the pfork writer who reviewed Cohesive in the crotch.

[Antero]

Wherefore?

Aside from the fact that it didn't get a "Best New Music" tag, which is pretty much impossible for any rap record that isn't Kanye.

[Little Sixes Little Nines]

ugh, yeah, what an awful review. but we've come to expect that from pitchfork.

[Antero]

David Banner and 9th Wonder dropped a project in December.  I initially discounted it because I couldn't stand Little Brother, and David Banner had been seeming kind of down on music lately (and his last album was a trainwreck).  The first cut I've heard from it, though, makes me think I should check out the rest. 

[Antero]

That said: Retro visual stylings are getting played out.

[shai faithe]

i think that's a pretty good review, especially since the guy was over on cocaine blunts, defending g-side to the death. score's too low, but meh. who puts stock in them anymore anyway?
that 9th and banner album is very solid stuff, such an interesting blend. i totally forgot about it. that thing fell into the same category as the gangrene album (oh no and alchemist with all sorts of gutter motherfuckers. sooo good.)
re: cohesive and #based. i think that cloud rap tape that spaceagehustle put together last summer makes obvious the connections there. i would say honestly that the entire ethos and sound around both g-side and lil b are much bigger than lil b's lil based pet project. it feels like it could be a force to really alter mainstream hip hop, (possibly) much more than kanye.
edit:
i'd also like to bring attention to the best thing i've seen in a long time, which just so happens to be over on our (mine and some other cats on the board here) hip hop blog, "nothin can save ya." who did that shit? blucas? let's get it goin! 2011: year of another obscure picture pic/text meme! but OUR meme!
edit 2:
we should do a chat review of this album. i was gone for two weeks with no music, and i had it stuck in my head the whole time. today i've listened to it ten times in a row.

[Antero]

I'd definitely put Lil B, G-Side, Main Attrakionz, OFWGKTA, Danny Brown, and Waka (and by extension Clams Casino and Lex Luger) in the same box - they're all fucking with the genre in really potent ways.

There's this awesome interview with Danny Brown, who is a serious music nerd and quite aware of movements within rap, where he specifically analogizes what he (and Lil B and OFWGKTA) are doing to the death of hair metal (and I know I definitely compared Lil B to The Ramones on some cocaineblunts thread a while back).  Tyler has talked about doing something to represent actual life, not just fantasies of Maybachs.  Lil B advocates radical honesty and has repeatedly fucked the conception of classical MCing right in the eye.  G-Side, in some interview that I can't find, talked about how the sound of their words and the emotions and ideas they express are all that matter, and that they have little concern for traditional virtuosic tongue-twisting (2 Lettaz is, after all, the man who wrote the verse in "Jones" where he rhymed "windows," "window," "window," "win dough," and "when, though" in a total triumph of homophony.  That's barely scratching the surface.

(I am totally going to finish my nothincansaveya posts as soon as I can.  Law school is beating me down.)

Also: "Pictures" is one of the best songs ever, in large part because it has one of the most incredible beats ever made.  Clams Casino is a genius.

[dieblucasdie]

haha yeah that was me.  Fuckin TEBOW. 

Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure if have much of substance I can about Cohesive beyond "it fucking rules."  I am a little leery of any "THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING" talk, especially re: all the business model/blog stuff they get all excited about.  It seems almost cute from the perspective of someone so old he can remember when Tapes N' Tapes were popular.  Throughout Cohesive I keep wanting to shake people by the neck, like:  "NO CODY G,  DON'T FUCK A DEAL.  GET THAT MONEY WHILE YOU CAN."