If you needed further encouragement to stay the hell away from whatever Nelly is doing, check out this sweet ass Good Morning America video from their Fall Concert Series presented by Advil. I wasn't able to glean a ton of new information re: his ability to suck all the joy from a room because I spent the majority of its duration absolutely kicking ass at the version of Snake embedded in the video. I will say that getting Advil to sponsor this nonsense was a masterstroke. I can only speculate how many tens of thousands of 54-65 year olds were sent stumbling hysterically to the medicine cabinet. Way to go, ABC. Mom-mom and pop-pop will never understand us.
Lauryn Hill - "Consumerism"
Guess who's out of prison! Best hip hop track you'll hear all year with an ethereal flute on the beat. Did anyone know Ms. Lauryn knew so many words that ended with -ism? I think she might even drop priapism in there. If anyone can artistically layer in a reference to the erect penis refusing to return to its flaccid state it's gotta be her, right?
Anyhow, consumerism. Totes not cool. I hope she pays her taxes this time.
Tyler, The Creator, Hodgy Beats, Domo Genesis & Earl Sweatshirt - "Look"
I'll stop writing about them when they stop rapping like this. On three, everyone say who they think has the best verse.
Act like you ain't know it's Earl.
Schoolboy Q - "Banger (MOSHPIT)"
I wish Sample Clearance Issues was an actual person so someone could run a drive-by on this dude. He'd be smugly strolling out of some rich asshole restaurant with a three million dollar wine cellar like he owned the whole block. And you just know he ordered his steak well-done. The valet would be all, "Here's your Maybach, Mr. Issues," and then Q (or Q's homie, more likely) would roll up in a late-model Cadillac (like they did Pac) and just light that whole shit up.
Confident the job was done, Schoolboy would come over to my house with a factory sealed copy of Oxymoron and we would take drugs and stay up all night listening to it while he slept with my girlfriend and I listened to it alone with no drugs at all.
Oxymoron still has no release date. Have this instead.
Pusha T ft. Kendrick Lamar - "Nosetalgia"
Apt title for a track by a dude who absolutely can't stop talking about selling that powder. But here we have entered the dangerous waters of Best New Music territory. We've got two emcees on top of their shit reminiscing about the way their lives were touched by drugs in extremely different ways. It's just goddamn fantastic to see Pusha's glamorization of the life juxtaposed with Kendrick watching his family members sink into addiction.
The music video itself is a hell of a thing, a minimalist evening stroll through a black and white Compton. If you pick one track to put on your playlist today, this is the one.
And, hey, Kendrick Lamar! Every song he's featured on since "Control" has felt like the next leg of his victory parade which I expect to continue all the way up until Thanksgiving Day when he hijacks the Sesame Street float and goes in on Big Bird for being soft as hell.
