Thursday, June 23, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
I'm trying to think of some new RSStB skits. I want to have a bank of skit ideas in a text file so that Marissa and I don't have to think of an idea five minutes before we shoot. I downloaded a handful of albums for inspiration. When we first started RSStB, I came up with most of the ideas while listening to music. Not so much the case anymore.
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II - I don't like Crystal Castle songs with singing, or at least the ones where you can make out the vocals, as much as songs like this...
CYNE - Yikes. Corny. These guys give me a Jurassic 5 vibe and it creeps me out. Are they Christian rappers? Jesus Christ, the more I listen to this, the more I think it belongs in the "Christian" genre. In high school, I got into a group called Mood for a second but then I figured out they were basically Christian rap and I got disillusioned and I didn't trust myself for a while.
Raekwon - Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang - What is with Lloyd Banks' voice on the track "Last Trip to Scotland"? That song's got one of the best beats on the album and Rae's flow is good but Lloyd Banks sounds like a cartoon character. I guess he's trying something new since his old schtick doesn't work anymore. He even stumbles through his lyrics. Fucking more embarrassing than CYNE. Banks ruins the track just like he helped ruin East Coast rap in the last decade.
Rick Ross - Teflon Don - I will never listen to this bullshit.
Tyler, the Creator - Bastard - Notice how over the past few years there are all these indie rock (or, as it's called now, "hipster", or "emo") rappers? Tyler, the Creator is weird because Lady GaGa made weird popular again, which I suppose is a good thing, because it's been a while since David Bowie. Music got terrible in the 90s and proceeded downhill until the last decade ended with Taylor Swift becoming popular. I think terrible music is obvious music and good music is weird music. I don't know if Tyler, the Creator is really that weird, but at least he tries. I like his video for Goblin, but did he really have to take his shirt off? I thought he's trying to do something different. What do real rappers think of this music?
Wavves - King of the Beach - Hey, he turned down the distortion. I don't like it anymore.
Wiz Khalifa - Flight School - Like everything else on the radio. Actually, it's like Kanye (even his name).
Finally, these two songs sound similar to me...
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II - I don't like Crystal Castle songs with singing, or at least the ones where you can make out the vocals, as much as songs like this...
CYNE - Yikes. Corny. These guys give me a Jurassic 5 vibe and it creeps me out. Are they Christian rappers? Jesus Christ, the more I listen to this, the more I think it belongs in the "Christian" genre. In high school, I got into a group called Mood for a second but then I figured out they were basically Christian rap and I got disillusioned and I didn't trust myself for a while.
Raekwon - Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang - What is with Lloyd Banks' voice on the track "Last Trip to Scotland"? That song's got one of the best beats on the album and Rae's flow is good but Lloyd Banks sounds like a cartoon character. I guess he's trying something new since his old schtick doesn't work anymore. He even stumbles through his lyrics. Fucking more embarrassing than CYNE. Banks ruins the track just like he helped ruin East Coast rap in the last decade.
Rick Ross - Teflon Don - I will never listen to this bullshit.
Tyler, the Creator - Bastard - Notice how over the past few years there are all these indie rock (or, as it's called now, "hipster", or "emo") rappers? Tyler, the Creator is weird because Lady GaGa made weird popular again, which I suppose is a good thing, because it's been a while since David Bowie. Music got terrible in the 90s and proceeded downhill until the last decade ended with Taylor Swift becoming popular. I think terrible music is obvious music and good music is weird music. I don't know if Tyler, the Creator is really that weird, but at least he tries. I like his video for Goblin, but did he really have to take his shirt off? I thought he's trying to do something different. What do real rappers think of this music?
Wavves - King of the Beach - Hey, he turned down the distortion. I don't like it anymore.
Wiz Khalifa - Flight School - Like everything else on the radio. Actually, it's like Kanye (even his name).
Finally, these two songs sound similar to me...
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Favorite Movies of 2010
2010 was a great year for movies. I can't believe it.
As a side-note, when I looked up the embed codes for the following trailers on YouTube, I noticed how many "likes" and "dislikes" each video received from the YouTube community. When I first made this list, I hadn't seen several of my favorites yet. At that point I had Machete, The Town, and The Kids are Alright in the top ten. Machete and The Kids are Alright got tons of dislikes because of the many bigots and homophobes in the world. On the other hand, The Town got barely any dislikes because it's a conventional, safe genre movie that doesn't stir up as many feelings as the other movies because it's more trite than they are. Movies were liked and disliked predictably. Antichrist was disliked a lot because people are easy.
Also, I still haven't seen True Grit.
10. A Prophet
Pretty awesome. The marketing in the U.S. hides that it's a prison movie which is a shame because it's a great prison movie.
9. The Ghost Writer
Best movie by a pedophile ass-rapist this year (Sorry, Woody, but You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger sucked).
8. Enter the Void
Noe claims the movie's plot is not literal, that it's all a hallucination by the main character, but whatever the "right" interpretation is, Enter the Void is still mysterious.
7. Shutter Island
When I saw it in the theater, I was so anxious to leave my uncomfortable seat that I was kind of like, "whoop de-doo" about the twist. When I watched it again at home on Blu-ray, I appreciated Shutter Island more, maybe because I understood what was actually happening. The movie is about a lot of things, and if it only grazes some of its many epic themes instead of truly doing the themes justice, then that's because Scorsese isn't perfect.
6. Antichrist
John Waters said it best about Antichrist in his top ten for 2009 - "If Ingmar Bergman had committed suicide, gone to hell, and come back to earth to direct an exploitation/art film for drive-ins, this is the movie he would have made"
(Yeah, okay, so Antichrist is technically from 2009, but fuck that. Same goes for A Prophet and another movie on this list. Antichrist wasn't even available on Netflix until like yesterday. Movies nowadays are running on Showtime before they come out on DVD. The world is upside down)
5. The Fighter
Everybody's good in this, but Christian Bale steals the show. Remember the video of David O. Russell screaming at Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees?
4. Greenberg
Props to Jennifer Jason Leigh for co-authoring the story. I didn't think Noah Baumbach would top The Squid and the Whale, but maybe over time he'll turn into a reliable director like Robert Altman, whose entire catalogue of work speaks as one volume. He reminds me of Altman. Maybe it's Baumbach's use of natural lighting, his conversational dialogue, or maybe it was the deliberate throwback 70s art design of Greenberg that made me think of the deceased alcoholic grouch. If Baumbach turns into the type of director Altman was, he won't have to top himself. He'll just have career highlights. Although Margot at the Wedding lacked, Greenberg is on par with The Squid and the Whale, so he still has time to make Margot good in retrospect. He seems to know what's up.
3. The Social Network
A movie as good as The Godfather, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, and whatever other classic you want to drum up. I used to talk a lot of shit about David Fincher. I said he's style over substance, but now I think that could be only when he's given the wrong material. Who wanted to see an adaptation of Benjamin Button? I sure didn't, and I loved the Fitgerald story. That movie is horrible, Hollywood gloss garbage, and I think the same about Seven, The Game, Panic Room, and especially Fight Club. Fight Club is the dumbest jack-off idea I've ever heard. Dude, it's about male aggression and how we read Ikea all the time when really we wanna just punch each other's brains out, and, dude, the movie is so deep with its visual gimmicks and editing tricks!!! Dumb. Zodiac is Fincher's only other good movie so far besides The Social Network. They're both fact-based stories that take their time and don't overload the audience with gimmickry. Maybe Fincher should stick to true stories. The Social Network isn't good because it's fact based, though. It's good because it has an amazing screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, a scary performance by Jesse Eisenberg, and a story so compelling that I had a hard time ending this sentence.
2. Life During Wartime
If Todd Solondz wants to blend David Lynch and Woody Allen's filmography together for his own then I'm cool with it. He's almost better than they are, so when he makes a movie, it's like I get to see something by three of my favorite directors. Why is this not out on DVD? Never came out in theaters here. It premiered on On Demand. I watched a screener online the first time I saw it. It's playing on Showtime now. As I said, the world is upside down.
1. Exit Through the Gift Shop
Awesome.
Honorable mentions:
Animal Kingdom
Cop Out (for some reason it became popular to hate this movie, which is too bad because it's funny)
Jackass 3
Macgruber (what? I think it's funny)
Machete (more political than most movies. I was rooting for Machete)
Mother
Piranha
The Kids are Alright
The Town
Toy Story 3
Winter's Bone (wish it were better)
Least favorite movies:
7. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
6. I'm Still Here
5. Splice
4. Jonah Hex
3. Sex and the City 2
2. Inception
1. Red
A note on Black Swan:
Probably Marissa's favorite movie of the year. It was decent. It held my attention. Maybe I was more grossed out than scared. Underneath Black Swan's desire to be an art film, it's a fairly conventional horror movie. It's even got sharp bursts of music to highlight sudden "scary parts". Roger Ebert (who's not my favorite guy or anything) wrote in his review for Drag Me to Hell that if someone sees a ghost, theoretically it should be silent, but if someone sees a ghost in a horror movie, it's usually accompanied by piercing strings or some other loud musical burst. The horror genre has a lot of staples, standards, certain things that most horror movies contain, like a cat jumping out to startle the audience. Black Swan's got that, and it seems to have everything else, too - sex, murder, drugs, mayhem. It's a genre picture, a horror movie. Not that there's anything wrong with horror movies, but Black Swan tries to be something bigger than the horror genre, and I don't feel that it succeeds. While The Wrestler succeeds for being what it is, Black Swan doesn't. Natalie Portman's character isn't very deep. Portman is excellent in the role, but the only reason we get for her character's mental breakdown is that she has a crazy mom, and maybe the pressures of being a dancer. Not enough for me. Not only does the movie revel in horror cliches, but it's also full of ballet movie cliches. The brilliant but arrogant instructor, the scheming rival dancer, all the pressure leading up the big night, blah blah. I'm not really sure what Aronofsky's trying to say with this movie. He seems to try to make a grand statement at the end, possibly agreeing with Portman's character as the film fades to white while her instructor gazes at her in admiration. That's kind of scary, and not in a good way. I hope morose little girls don't think they have to be like she is to write great poetry, or music, or whatever it is they do. I liked Black Swan, but I can't say it's one of the best movies of the year. Especially not this year. It's a damn good horror movie though.
-Alex
As a side-note, when I looked up the embed codes for the following trailers on YouTube, I noticed how many "likes" and "dislikes" each video received from the YouTube community. When I first made this list, I hadn't seen several of my favorites yet. At that point I had Machete, The Town, and The Kids are Alright in the top ten. Machete and The Kids are Alright got tons of dislikes because of the many bigots and homophobes in the world. On the other hand, The Town got barely any dislikes because it's a conventional, safe genre movie that doesn't stir up as many feelings as the other movies because it's more trite than they are. Movies were liked and disliked predictably. Antichrist was disliked a lot because people are easy.
Also, I still haven't seen True Grit.
10. A Prophet
Pretty awesome. The marketing in the U.S. hides that it's a prison movie which is a shame because it's a great prison movie.
9. The Ghost Writer
Best movie by a pedophile ass-rapist this year (Sorry, Woody, but You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger sucked).
8. Enter the Void
Noe claims the movie's plot is not literal, that it's all a hallucination by the main character, but whatever the "right" interpretation is, Enter the Void is still mysterious.
7. Shutter Island
When I saw it in the theater, I was so anxious to leave my uncomfortable seat that I was kind of like, "whoop de-doo" about the twist. When I watched it again at home on Blu-ray, I appreciated Shutter Island more, maybe because I understood what was actually happening. The movie is about a lot of things, and if it only grazes some of its many epic themes instead of truly doing the themes justice, then that's because Scorsese isn't perfect.
6. Antichrist
John Waters said it best about Antichrist in his top ten for 2009 - "If Ingmar Bergman had committed suicide, gone to hell, and come back to earth to direct an exploitation/art film for drive-ins, this is the movie he would have made"
(Yeah, okay, so Antichrist is technically from 2009, but fuck that. Same goes for A Prophet and another movie on this list. Antichrist wasn't even available on Netflix until like yesterday. Movies nowadays are running on Showtime before they come out on DVD. The world is upside down)
5. The Fighter
Everybody's good in this, but Christian Bale steals the show. Remember the video of David O. Russell screaming at Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees?
4. Greenberg
Props to Jennifer Jason Leigh for co-authoring the story. I didn't think Noah Baumbach would top The Squid and the Whale, but maybe over time he'll turn into a reliable director like Robert Altman, whose entire catalogue of work speaks as one volume. He reminds me of Altman. Maybe it's Baumbach's use of natural lighting, his conversational dialogue, or maybe it was the deliberate throwback 70s art design of Greenberg that made me think of the deceased alcoholic grouch. If Baumbach turns into the type of director Altman was, he won't have to top himself. He'll just have career highlights. Although Margot at the Wedding lacked, Greenberg is on par with The Squid and the Whale, so he still has time to make Margot good in retrospect. He seems to know what's up.
3. The Social Network
A movie as good as The Godfather, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, and whatever other classic you want to drum up. I used to talk a lot of shit about David Fincher. I said he's style over substance, but now I think that could be only when he's given the wrong material. Who wanted to see an adaptation of Benjamin Button? I sure didn't, and I loved the Fitgerald story. That movie is horrible, Hollywood gloss garbage, and I think the same about Seven, The Game, Panic Room, and especially Fight Club. Fight Club is the dumbest jack-off idea I've ever heard. Dude, it's about male aggression and how we read Ikea all the time when really we wanna just punch each other's brains out, and, dude, the movie is so deep with its visual gimmicks and editing tricks!!! Dumb. Zodiac is Fincher's only other good movie so far besides The Social Network. They're both fact-based stories that take their time and don't overload the audience with gimmickry. Maybe Fincher should stick to true stories. The Social Network isn't good because it's fact based, though. It's good because it has an amazing screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, a scary performance by Jesse Eisenberg, and a story so compelling that I had a hard time ending this sentence.
2. Life During Wartime
If Todd Solondz wants to blend David Lynch and Woody Allen's filmography together for his own then I'm cool with it. He's almost better than they are, so when he makes a movie, it's like I get to see something by three of my favorite directors. Why is this not out on DVD? Never came out in theaters here. It premiered on On Demand. I watched a screener online the first time I saw it. It's playing on Showtime now. As I said, the world is upside down.
1. Exit Through the Gift Shop
Awesome.
Honorable mentions:
Animal Kingdom
Cop Out (for some reason it became popular to hate this movie, which is too bad because it's funny)
Jackass 3
Macgruber (what? I think it's funny)
Machete (more political than most movies. I was rooting for Machete)
Mother
Piranha
The Kids are Alright
The Town
Toy Story 3
Winter's Bone (wish it were better)
Least favorite movies:
7. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
6. I'm Still Here
5. Splice
4. Jonah Hex
3. Sex and the City 2
2. Inception
1. Red
A note on Black Swan:
Probably Marissa's favorite movie of the year. It was decent. It held my attention. Maybe I was more grossed out than scared. Underneath Black Swan's desire to be an art film, it's a fairly conventional horror movie. It's even got sharp bursts of music to highlight sudden "scary parts". Roger Ebert (who's not my favorite guy or anything) wrote in his review for Drag Me to Hell that if someone sees a ghost, theoretically it should be silent, but if someone sees a ghost in a horror movie, it's usually accompanied by piercing strings or some other loud musical burst. The horror genre has a lot of staples, standards, certain things that most horror movies contain, like a cat jumping out to startle the audience. Black Swan's got that, and it seems to have everything else, too - sex, murder, drugs, mayhem. It's a genre picture, a horror movie. Not that there's anything wrong with horror movies, but Black Swan tries to be something bigger than the horror genre, and I don't feel that it succeeds. While The Wrestler succeeds for being what it is, Black Swan doesn't. Natalie Portman's character isn't very deep. Portman is excellent in the role, but the only reason we get for her character's mental breakdown is that she has a crazy mom, and maybe the pressures of being a dancer. Not enough for me. Not only does the movie revel in horror cliches, but it's also full of ballet movie cliches. The brilliant but arrogant instructor, the scheming rival dancer, all the pressure leading up the big night, blah blah. I'm not really sure what Aronofsky's trying to say with this movie. He seems to try to make a grand statement at the end, possibly agreeing with Portman's character as the film fades to white while her instructor gazes at her in admiration. That's kind of scary, and not in a good way. I hope morose little girls don't think they have to be like she is to write great poetry, or music, or whatever it is they do. I liked Black Swan, but I can't say it's one of the best movies of the year. Especially not this year. It's a damn good horror movie though.
-Alex
Friday, December 31, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
The Geto Boys Were Big Softies
Scarface is widely regarded as one of the greatest rappers, so maybe I'm crazy if I like Willie D and Bushwick more. Could be my resistance to go with the flow. Scarface is a great rapper, but he can be a little dry for me. Willie D and Bushwick always keep me entertained with their bizarre bravado. Have you heard "Mind of a Lunatic"? That song would stir up controversy if it came out today. Listen to the horrifying second verse...
The Geto Boys were one of the reasons people created the Parental Advisory label. It wasn't The Geto Boys' shocking material that made them legends, though. It was their bluesy, reflective songs. "Mind Playing Tricks" seems more popular now than ever. I've heard it on XM, Sirius, and in YouTube videos countless times over the past decade. I should be sick of it but it's one of my favorite rap songs. One awesome thing about the video is they dramatized nearly every line...
The Geto Boys grew a conscience after being a center of controversy. They were made out to be devils, and in the days of Grip it on that Other Level, they basically were. Every track on that album is bleak as hell. Even critics who admitted to liking the music on the early albums had negative things to say about the group's graphic depictions of rape and murder. Some critics argued that the group glorified a criminal lifestyle rather than condemned it. The Geto Boys made an effort to change that perception. Starting with "Mind Playing Tricks", each album had at least one contemplative song that seemed to try to say, "We're not so bad!" In the song "Street Life" off the album Til' Death Do Us Part (sans Willie D), Scarface distances himself from shallow gangster fantasies and tries to rap with more substance. Ok, maybe he is the best in the group...
On "The Resurrection", Willie D came back into the group and recorded "The World is a Ghetto", which, like the most tender of The Geto Boys' tracks, got a video...
My favorite Geto Boys track might be "I Tried". I've written mean things about old rappers in this blog but sometimes old guys rhyme from a deeper perspective than the Waka Flocka Flames of the world. On "I Tried", Willie D has a great verse about his mom, and in the video he actually re-creates her death, crawling onto the bed after she passes away and shaking her face. It would be hilarious if it weren't sad. Bushwick's verse sticks in my head the most, particularly the lines, "I get pissed over little shit/Little shit drive me crazy/then I start thinking about my babies". Touching and honest...
I hope Bushwick doesn't get deported.
-Alex
The Geto Boys were one of the reasons people created the Parental Advisory label. It wasn't The Geto Boys' shocking material that made them legends, though. It was their bluesy, reflective songs. "Mind Playing Tricks" seems more popular now than ever. I've heard it on XM, Sirius, and in YouTube videos countless times over the past decade. I should be sick of it but it's one of my favorite rap songs. One awesome thing about the video is they dramatized nearly every line...
The Geto Boys grew a conscience after being a center of controversy. They were made out to be devils, and in the days of Grip it on that Other Level, they basically were. Every track on that album is bleak as hell. Even critics who admitted to liking the music on the early albums had negative things to say about the group's graphic depictions of rape and murder. Some critics argued that the group glorified a criminal lifestyle rather than condemned it. The Geto Boys made an effort to change that perception. Starting with "Mind Playing Tricks", each album had at least one contemplative song that seemed to try to say, "We're not so bad!" In the song "Street Life" off the album Til' Death Do Us Part (sans Willie D), Scarface distances himself from shallow gangster fantasies and tries to rap with more substance. Ok, maybe he is the best in the group...
On "The Resurrection", Willie D came back into the group and recorded "The World is a Ghetto", which, like the most tender of The Geto Boys' tracks, got a video...
My favorite Geto Boys track might be "I Tried". I've written mean things about old rappers in this blog but sometimes old guys rhyme from a deeper perspective than the Waka Flocka Flames of the world. On "I Tried", Willie D has a great verse about his mom, and in the video he actually re-creates her death, crawling onto the bed after she passes away and shaking her face. It would be hilarious if it weren't sad. Bushwick's verse sticks in my head the most, particularly the lines, "I get pissed over little shit/Little shit drive me crazy/then I start thinking about my babies". Touching and honest...
I hope Bushwick doesn't get deported.
-Alex
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
New With Us
Long year. Looking forward to the next one. We're zeroing in on a new camera to purchase - the Canon EOS 60D. We're excited to work with an SLR. I like the look of the video recorded with SLRs. Usually the background is kinda out of focus and the images in the forefront are razor sharp. Sharp images fade into shadows. It may be less versatile than a professional camcorder, but its focusing limitations give a nice cinematic feel.
Once we have our new camera, we'll begin shooting (again) on our feature length horror movie, which we want to release on Blu Ray this Spring. Since the video quality of the new camera will be better, we'll re-shoot all the material we've already shot. No worries. It was shit anyway.
Luckily the camcorder we have now is reliable enough to post RSStB (knock on wood). If you watch the new episodes carefully though, you'll notice picture glitches and sound pops all over the place. Oh well. Soon that'll be in the past and we'll be in 1080p.
-Alex
Once we have our new camera, we'll begin shooting (again) on our feature length horror movie, which we want to release on Blu Ray this Spring. Since the video quality of the new camera will be better, we'll re-shoot all the material we've already shot. No worries. It was shit anyway.
Luckily the camcorder we have now is reliable enough to post RSStB (knock on wood). If you watch the new episodes carefully though, you'll notice picture glitches and sound pops all over the place. Oh well. Soon that'll be in the past and we'll be in 1080p.
-Alex
Monday, November 15, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
I've Only Listened to Kutmasta Kurt Lately
In the fall of my senior year of high school, I made a tape of my favorite Kool Keith songs and then listened to pretty much only that tape until I graduated. I look back in embarrassment at all the times I played "Sex Style" for random people who rode in my car. The tape was highlights from Dr. Octagon, Sex Style, and Dr. Dooom. Back then I preferred the Kool Keith beats that were produced by Automator. It took me time to realize Kutmasta Kurt's genius. I stopped listening to Kool Keith when he stopped rapping, started the spoken-word thing he does on most tracks nowadays. Aside from Masters of Illusion, I never really listened to his music until the past month. I discovered that Keith actually raps on The Diesel Truckers record (and sporadically throughout the rest of his discography), and that his spoken-word thing really isn't so bad anyway. At least he's creative.
The Kutmasta Kurt songs from Keith's catalogue are the special ones, especially the tracks from the final Ultramagnetic MCs album, Big Time, when the group was just Keith with some dude named Tim Dog under the name Ultra. That is a record that I can listen to endlessly, which is what I've been doing lately. Most underrated album of all time. Kutmasta Kurt and Kool Keith are an unstoppable duo, classic status like EPMD.
I branched out and I'm also listening to the albums Kurt produced for Motion Man, Pablito's Way being my favorite. Motion Man is good, but ain't nobody like Keith. Every sewer in the world must run into Kool Keith's brain. Fucking bizarre. Call me crazy but I'll bet he smokes a lot of angel dust.
The Kutmasta Kurt songs from Keith's catalogue are the special ones, especially the tracks from the final Ultramagnetic MCs album, Big Time, when the group was just Keith with some dude named Tim Dog under the name Ultra. That is a record that I can listen to endlessly, which is what I've been doing lately. Most underrated album of all time. Kutmasta Kurt and Kool Keith are an unstoppable duo, classic status like EPMD.
I branched out and I'm also listening to the albums Kurt produced for Motion Man, Pablito's Way being my favorite. Motion Man is good, but ain't nobody like Keith. Every sewer in the world must run into Kool Keith's brain. Fucking bizarre. Call me crazy but I'll bet he smokes a lot of angel dust.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Suga Free is Not Guilt Free
I love hip hop from Oakland, California. Rappin 4-Tay, Too $hort, 2Pac, Andre Nickatina, Motion Man, Mac Dre, Mac Mall, and plenty more legends hail from the Bay Area. Suga Free's a lesser-legend. He's got a sing-song style to his flow and he was all over Oakland tracks in the 90s. Street Gospel is his best album, probably because it came out in 1997 and DJ Quik produced all the songs. Traditional Oakland player music. It's a badass record but it takes a certain mood to listen to. It's a guilty pleasure for sure. I feel like I should have a drink in my hand when I play it.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Young Chris' "Grandson killin' 'em, Grandma!"
I've had a rap lyric in my head for a few days because it's so bad, sounds funny to me. On Freeway and Jake One's alright "Stimulus Package", there's a song called "Microphone Killa" featuring Young Chris of the underwhelming Young Gunz. Remember them? Barely? Yeah, so anyway, Young Chris' verse (at 2:03) goes like this: "Microphone killa, no Cam'ron/bomb like landmine/I don't aks shit, I demand mine/I take a little bit and expand mine/grandson killin 'em, Grandma!" Yipee, look at me! He says "grandma" nasally and whiney and I want to punch him in the arm. Haha so lame.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Getting Old
I listen to mixtapes, the DJ Whitowls, DJ Dramas, Tapemasters Inc and all that bullshit, and I'll find a good song here and there but I always go back to the classics. I like rap from the nineties. I notice I write about Wu Tang too much in this blog. Old Wu tracks sound as fresh to me now as they did when they came out. So do Biggie, Pac, DJ Premier, Black Moon, old Mobb Deep, and the list goes on but stops in the late nineties. Maybe I'll find something else to write about.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Cuban Linx II
After writing the last post, I burned a copy of Only Built for Cuban Linx II and started listening to it in the car. After a few days it's starting to grow on me the way the first one did. When Cuban Linx came out, it was my least favorite of the first string of Wu solos. I don't know what I was thinking. After a short time it became my favorite. By senior year of high school I knew the lyrics to every song on the album. With that in mind I felt I owed Cuban Linx II more of a chance.
What makes this Cuban Linx II and not The Lex Diamond Story II or The Vatican Mixtape Vol. 3 is that it shares a similar conceptual vision with the first Cuban Linx. The first album had minimalist beats with Raekwon's legendary crime stories, specific as a newspaper. Raekwon's later releases strayed from the original formula and were pretty forgettable because of it.
The main difference between the sequel and the original is that this time the production is handled by an assortment of producers, rather than by just RZA. That's what made me initially reluctant to like it. There are some heavyweight producers on here - J Dilla, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, Eric Sermon, Alchemist, holy shit Marley Marl. That sounds like a dream I had in high school. But I still like RZA better, especially on a Wu CD. Oh well. I've settled for the heavyweights. Seems like the public demand for Cuban Linx II got Raekwon a fat advance to spend on grimy beats. The song "Have Mercy" that I previously wrote about is outstanding. Beanie Siegel's verse is the best verse on the album. It's always a shame when a guest steals the show. The track "Broken Safety" is awesome, too. It features the always dependable Jadakiss and Styles P....
Rakewon's flow has deteriorated since his machine gun rap for everybody in the back. He still works the crime stories nicely but he doesn't sound like he used to.
P.S. The two Dr. Dre beats on the album sound ghost produced by somebody else.
What makes this Cuban Linx II and not The Lex Diamond Story II or The Vatican Mixtape Vol. 3 is that it shares a similar conceptual vision with the first Cuban Linx. The first album had minimalist beats with Raekwon's legendary crime stories, specific as a newspaper. Raekwon's later releases strayed from the original formula and were pretty forgettable because of it.
The main difference between the sequel and the original is that this time the production is handled by an assortment of producers, rather than by just RZA. That's what made me initially reluctant to like it. There are some heavyweight producers on here - J Dilla, Dr. Dre, Pete Rock, Eric Sermon, Alchemist, holy shit Marley Marl. That sounds like a dream I had in high school. But I still like RZA better, especially on a Wu CD. Oh well. I've settled for the heavyweights. Seems like the public demand for Cuban Linx II got Raekwon a fat advance to spend on grimy beats. The song "Have Mercy" that I previously wrote about is outstanding. Beanie Siegel's verse is the best verse on the album. It's always a shame when a guest steals the show. The track "Broken Safety" is awesome, too. It features the always dependable Jadakiss and Styles P....
Rakewon's flow has deteriorated since his machine gun rap for everybody in the back. He still works the crime stories nicely but he doesn't sound like he used to.
P.S. The two Dr. Dre beats on the album sound ghost produced by somebody else.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Raekwon's "Have Mercy"
I felt bad for writing nasty things about Raekwon a few entries ago so I listened to Cuban Linx II again and HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK -
Guess I didn't appreciate this song the first and only time I listened to Cuban Linx II and maybe I ought to listen to records more than once before posting blogs about them. "Have Mercy" is produced by MoSS, who produced every track on Obie Trice's most recent album.
Guess I didn't appreciate this song the first and only time I listened to Cuban Linx II and maybe I ought to listen to records more than once before posting blogs about them. "Have Mercy" is produced by MoSS, who produced every track on Obie Trice's most recent album.
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