Kanye West Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris [The Rap Thread]

[dieblucasdie]

haha, y'all see the MTV thing where Killer Mike claims to be a member of the NRA and advises black people to stockpile guns and water?

[shai faithe]

http://www.mtv.com/videos/news/753924/killer-mike-is-very-angry-with-black-leadership.jhtml
holy shit goddamn killer mike is aaawwwesome.
i mean there's a lot that's problematic with that nra bit (supporting the very group that lobbied so heavily to create the law that allowed george zimmerman to create the situation that led to trayvon martin's death...), but fuck if i don't agree with just about EVERYTHING else he said in that interview.
edit: just remembered this too:

It began shortly after the shooting of Denzil Dowell. Easy Bay legislator Don Mulford introduced a bill to repeal the law that permitted citizens to carry loaded weapons in public places so long as the weapons were openly displayed [see link to California Penal Code, Sections 12031 and 171.c]. What the Mulford law sought to achieve was the elimination of the Black Panther Police Patrols, and it had been tagged "the Panther Bill" by the media.
Passage of the Mulford Bill would essentially end the Panther Police Patrols, so the BPP sent a group to Sacramento, California on May 2nd, 1967 to protest. The group carried loaded rifles and shotguns, publicly displayed and entered the State Capitol building to read aloud Executive Mandate Number 1, which was in opposition to the Mulford Bill.

strange that he explicitly distances himself from the panthers, when what it looks like he's trying to do is EXACTLY what they did then...

[Antero]

I don't even like Stalley but his new tape is almost all Block Beattaz production.  I'll give it a shot.

[shai faithe]

an interesting mmg / slow motion soundz thing happening?

[Antero]

I'm hoping for Gunplay x Block Beattaz.

[shai faithe]

g-side x justice league. 

[dieblucasdie]

Lana, that's my bitch.

Carpetbaggers of the world, unite!

[shai faithe]

the new kendrick and dre is amazing.

[Antero]

It's creepy hearing Kendrick's cadence in Dre's voice.

[shai faithe]

yeah there's a point where i think they overlap or dre hands it back to kendrick, and for about a bar, you can't really tell who's rapping, which is conceptually awesome, but otherwise sort of bad production.

[Trousers and Pat]

for the record, my favorite video of american rappers in paris is onyx-money in the sky

actually it's just funny for me.
I found it when I was looking for the other "money in the sky"

[milly balgeary]

Whatcha guys think about Quakers?

Quakers is a hip hop collective of 35+ members: Fuzzface (Geoff Barrow of Portishead), Katalyst (Ashley Anderson), 7STU7 (Stuart Matthews, Portishead studio engineer) and a team of their favorite MCs from around the globe. It's an epic concept album that plays right through without any pauses between tracks. The second disc is the instrumentals. Some of the instrumental tracks appear in Banksy's film, Exit Through The Gift Shop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5R4T0yW5_4

I couldn't stop listening to this shit Friday...

[Chet]

reading a press release or an interview where they were talking about how their wanted to "save" hip hop or some other self congratulatory shit made sure that i will never listen to that shit just on principle.

the presumption that hip hop needs "saving" and that some fucking middle age white dudes are the people to do it made me vom.

[Antero]

Yeah... I'm getting those "real hip-hop" vibes...

[dieblucasdie]

Cool that they found a black kid to rap over some Portishead

[dieblucasdie]

deeeeeeeeath griiiiiiiips

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/13421-ive-seen-footage/?utm_medium=site&utm_source=latest&utm_name=tracks

[milly balgeary]

Cool that they found a black kid to rap over some Portishead

OK hip hop authoritarian. My name is diebluecasdie and I make the hip hop rules!...

[milly balgeary]

I like portishead and rap!... win win for me!

[milly balgeary]

deeeeeeeeath griiiiiiiips

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/13421-ive-seen-footage/?utm_medium=site&utm_source=latest&utm_name=tracks

Please leak deathgrips.

[shai faithe]

yeah i've found it interesting that, recently, people have begun regarding elemental hip hop in the same way that the subgenre has, for years, been regarding other forms of rap. which, yaknow, sort of defeats a critique hinging on accepting hip hop for what it is...
if you don't like it straight up, then that's no biggie, but to talk inclusivity while probably unintentionally walking a very particular and subtle sort of exclusivity is kinda ignorant maybe? (like how proponents of multi-culturalism can't "tolerate" people who are diametrically opposed to their worldview?)

ps just wanted to add that i'm not trying to come at anyone, only making an observation.

[Antero]

Well, a lot of it has to do with the culture that's sprung up around "real hip-hop."  There's a claim to authenticity that simply isn't justified either historically or aesthetically.  At this point it's sort of like - actually, exactly like - old guys who talk about how great classic rock is and how nobody's making real rock and roll anymore.

And the result, of course, is they make music that apes certain aesthetic elements of the classics* without coming close to their spirit.  It's strictly backwards-looking, and as such it doesn't have any force in the present.

*I will never understand what the throwback boom-bap crowd makes such CLEAN music, though. Have they never heard Tical?

[Black Amnesia of Heaven]

totally agree with antero, and not only is it backwards-looking but it's nostalgically-driven toward a time and aesthetic that i think never existed.

meanwhile, for an example of great, engaged, backwards-looking hip-hop i recommend the i self divine tape from this year.

[shai faithe]

i don't disagree with any of this. and though our critiques of an artform take into account the culture around that form, i find it a little misguided to mistake a critique of the culture for the form. ie, andrew once told me that i shouldn't dismiss dino rock because i don't like its fans. and that made me feel stupid, because it was a silly prejudice. i had been doing the same thing with regard to southern hip hop for years, and once i stopped, i was able to enjoy the music for what it is to me outside of assumptions about what it's supposed to be / what it is to others. again, i'm not defending elemental hip hop. i could care less about it particularly. i'm just wary of writing things off.

[Antero]

The thing is, though, it's not like I don't fuck with the relevant canon - it's just that trying to recreate that moment in the present, in a backwards-looking manner, has no appeal to me.  It's just surface signifiers.

Similarly, I don't care much for recent retro-soul throwback bands, despite being an utter devotee of Motown/Northern Soul/Funk.

Zizek said something about this that I read many years ago which has stuck with me.  Let me dig it up.

[Antero]

Er, on backwards-looking art.  Not on rap.  Zizek hasn't written about rap, to my knowledge.  The Venn diagram of Zizek and rap consists of pretty much social commentary, words, and cocaine.  And also fleeting movie references.