My proud indie friends will have to forgive me because I love rap music.
Just like the girl at the Rock Show said, people are pretty judgmental about good and bad genres. Even good and bad music within genres, like Canadian "head rap" versus American gangsta rap. I just like what I like.
"A Milli" is an amazing example. Looping and sampling over a tappity-tap-tap faux snare drum beat, Wayne talks about his money and stuff. Is it emotionally moving? No. But it's energizing and skillfully written. It's from "Tha Carter III," a pretty okay record that exploded on the charts and made Wayne some decent dough after years of releasing free mix tapes.
I understand where you're coming from. I think a lot of people condemn Wayne for pandering or writing about money or whatever. That would be my gut reaction at first too.
But really, critically, he's an amazing rapper. Personally I'm not into "head rap" and what I appreciate most is hiphop's "gangsta rap" qualities — violence, hyper-masculinity, etc. Wayne does all of it with incredible delivery and charisma.
"Believe the hype and then multiply it by ten. You are going to feel dumb if you realize in five years that you were too cool to enjoy the dataflow." - Sasha Frere-Jones
I love how this post is so completely different in terms of genre than the rest of your posts. I have worked at Sunrise Record's for the past four and a half years now and I too tend to have interests all over the spectrum. This album in particular was super anticipated and sold huge and fast. If you haven't already done so, you should check out the new Matisyahu. I'm really enjoying reading your blogs, keep it up!
Have you ever come here and NOT listened to any songs, depsite being able to do so?
I'm not a music critic, but I am a music lover. Here you'll read some thoughts and hear some tunes. When I'm not blogging, I'm involved in the London arts scene and also work at the Gazette and the ITRC at Western. I do other things, too, and have maintained blogs since around 2005.
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I agree that there is good and bad in every genre.... Lil' Wayne leans towards the bad for me... but keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI understand where you're coming from. I think a lot of people condemn Wayne for pandering or writing about money or whatever. That would be my gut reaction at first too.
ReplyDeleteBut really, critically, he's an amazing rapper. Personally I'm not into "head rap" and what I appreciate most is hiphop's "gangsta rap" qualities — violence, hyper-masculinity, etc. Wayne does all of it with incredible delivery and charisma.
"Believe the hype and then multiply it by ten. You are going to feel dumb if you realize in five years that you were too cool to enjoy the dataflow." - Sasha Frere-Jones
I love how this post is so completely different in terms of genre than the rest of your posts. I have worked at Sunrise Record's for the past four and a half years now and I too tend to have interests all over the spectrum. This album in particular was super anticipated and sold huge and fast. If you haven't already done so, you should check out the new Matisyahu.
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying reading your blogs, keep it up!