Showing posts with label lil wayne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lil wayne. Show all posts
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Album Review: DJ Khaled - Suffering From Success


On "You Don't Want These Problems," the fourth track on his new album, Suffering From Success, rap "artist" DJ Khaled bawls, "You can't stop me, I'm a franchise!" Unfortunately for anyone who cares about hip-hip, he's right.  And while Khaled might not be the best. . .wait, what does this guy do again? He doesn't rap, or sing, or even produce much of his record, technically not making him not even a DJ. It seems like all he can do is yell "DJ Khaled!" cool voice at the start of each track.

No, scratch that.  His voice isn't cool; it sucks.

So what does he do? Well, on Suffering From Success, he assembles an all-star crew of mostly infuriatingly bad rappers - the kind of rappers who almost make me embarrassed to say I listen to hip-hop. What you get is exactly what you'd expect.  A lot of generic beats and a lot of deep-voiced rappers yelling about wealth, drugs, designer brands and, most frequently, haters and niggas and hatin-ass niggas. They also get romantic once in a while and give (usually unflattering) shout-outs to their bitch and hoes.

Ugh.

Production-wise, the record is mostly banal and devoid of anything even slightly creative. The first half follows the same tired formula for every shitty southern rap track: big ringing synths, loads of autotune, clickedy-clack snare and heavy, slow-to-mid tempo bass. The second half does have its cool moments, like the coll reggae vibe of "Give it All to Me" and the psychedelic minimalism of "Hell's Kitchen," but performers like Nicki Minaj can't quite step up to the beat.

Lyrically, at its best moments, the performers might not make you cringe. Khaled and Rick Ross yell a lot, Lil Wayne drops some weak metaphors on "No Motive," and on "I'm Still," Chris Browns croons, "Still gon'a do my thing" - which, as we all know, is assaulting other R&B singers.

In more than a few ways, the album seems to embody everything that's wrong with modern hip-hop: the pointless misogyny, the banal production, the look-at-my-I'm-rich-bitch idealism. That's not a problem is you only want to turn up the volume, turn down your brain and get the trunk rattling for an hour or so. But if you're someone who likes to, ya know, think while you listen to music, then it's just disgustingly bad. DJ Khaled isn't the one Suffering From Success - we are. We're suffering from too many successful rappers who don't have any story worth telling or music worth creating. 

Grade: D-






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Listener's Digest: Paris Hilton ft. Lil Wayne - "Good Time"


Yesterday, "Good Time," the long-awaited, much-teased single from Paris Hilton and Lil' Wayne, officially dropped. There have been some contenders, but I think we've finally found the worst song in the history of the world. I'm saying this as an overall fan of Lil' Wayne, and an accidental defender of Paris Hilton (When she released her first single, "Stars are Blind," I was in a bit of a weird phase and maybe admitted that I kind of liked it). But anyway, "Good Time" is is irredeemably bad. These are Paris Hilton's lyrics:

 Are you having a good time
Cause I'm having a good time
And I might be a bit tipsy
But that's okay 'cause you're with me

 I came here just to party
All this don't you hate on me, yeah
Got my sexy girls with me
Oh, I love it

 Wo-oh, let's party
Yeah, let's party, and have a good time
Wo-oh, let's party
Yeah, let's party, and have a good time

 There go the paparazzi
I really don't give a fuck, who got in my way
'Cause I came to party rock
Good times are here, and you know they're here to stay
If you're not here to party, move and get out of the way

 Those are the the lyrics she sings, in various degrees of repetition. That's it. That's what Young Money just signed her for and paid her to do. The fourth paragraph is her big verse, and look out, Paris came to tear some shit up. She doesn't give a fuck about the paparazzi. That's some pretty edgy stuff.

 Yes, she's hot. Yes, she spends the entire video in a bikini. But why subject yourself to listening to an awful song when you can just watch her sex tape and call it a day? Lil' Wayne, unsurprisingly, totally mails-in his verse. I, as usual, have no idea what the fuck he is talking about.

 As for the video itself, the cuts are so quick and disorienting that you can't really tell how good of a time these people are having. For whatever reason, there is a blow-up giraffe and a blow-up zebra hanging out by the pool. I guess those things are fun. I kept looking for Fred Durst, another fairly recent Young Money signee, another veteran of the sex-tape world, hanging out poolside in his hoodie and red Yankees fitted. He wasn't there, but look at the heat Young Money is now packing: Can you imagine a sex tape, I mean music video with Limp Bizkit, Paris Hilton, and Nicki Minaj? The future is full of potential.



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Straight Dope: September 9th


Boy, there’s just so much to talk about this week. Football is back, DMX has been wielding his penis in a threatening manner, R. Kelly’s got a release date for his new album (it’s November 11th), 2 Chainz is releasing a goddamn cookbook, and Lil Wayne sits down with Katie Couric again later this afternoon on daytime TV.

 RE: Lil Wayne and Miss Katie, I must confess to some seriously hardcore ambivalence. I think if you see Lil Wayne during the day you should get some kind of prize, or at least a handshake from a supportive father figure to remind you that life is tricky and it does get better. For a long time, I wasn't sure he actually existed. I thought of him as a type of ghost story a bunch of rappers would recite to each other as a cautionary tale with each emcee adding their own personal embellishments to try and scare the shit out of everyone in the room. Like, if the Scooby Doo gang were chasing Lil Wayne, they’d pull the rubber mask off and it’d have been Kanye the whole time.

 I eventually found out how wrong I was and had to come to terms with the concept of filthy rich adult men mixing prescription cough syrup with Sprite for recreational purposes. Remember when people would just get drunk as hell? On a more positive note, this is not the CBS Evening News’ Katie Couric of years ago. As her star continues to fall, we inch that much closer to these two eventually dropping a single together. Matt Lauer diss track? Matt Lauer diss track.

 Alright, let’s listen to some rap.

 Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - “Deeper”

 Freddie Gibbs really is the best rapper from Gary, Indiana. Deeper (the album) is the third collaboration between Mr. Gibbs and his presumptive BFF Madlib, and here you have a title track to pass through the canal of your ear directly into your brain. What happens next is up to you.

 Deeper (the album) comes out 9/14. Their next collaborative effort, Cocaine Piñata, is expected 2/14/14 with guest spots by everyone good.

 But really. A cocaine piñata. I just… Man.

Eminem - “Berzerk”

 And then Eminem came back on some vintage Slim Shady shit. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but it does make me feel like it’s 1999. I could do without the extended Kevin Federline diss, but Em more than makes up for it by insulting both Khloe Kardashian and her disturbed husband Lamar Odom. I know the song was recorded before Lamar Odom’s awesome drug use was made public, so yeah, I guess, suck it nerd. Shady got yo’ ass with that perfect timing.

 I never thought Khloe looked exceptionally terrible; however I learned a valuable lesson about how the public feels about her appearance when I told an ex-girlfriend I thought she kind of looked like her. I get that she’s clearly the Kardashian sister still in beta, by which I mean that someone did not work the bugs out before they released the software, but goddamn. Apparently she’s the Jack’s Links Beef Jerky Sasquatch and I had no idea.

 MMLP2 is out 10/5.


You only get two songs this week, because when I go on hiatus apparently so does the entire rap industry. You don’t want to hear Eddie Murphy’s new single with Snoop Lion, Weezy’s 29 song Dedication 5 mixtape, or Meek Mill’s soft as hell Kendrick Lamar diss track. During a national survey, 9 out of 10 Charmin bears chose Meek Mill’s track as their preferred toilet tissue over other leading brands.

By the way, did you hear about Kim Kardashian wanting to pose for Playboy again? Kanye West is reportedly enthusiastic about the prospect, and I don’t even have a punchline for this joke. I just really want his ego to lead him to take over the shoot, eventually throw out all the pictures of Kim, and become the first male entertainer with an issue of Playboy showcasing his nude body on every page.

You're next, Hov.

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Listener's Digest: Rich Gang - "Tapout"



I can’t figure out if there was a time when Lil Wayne was poised to become a legitimate force to be reckoned with or if my own personal standards had been brought so low by an unstable internet connection and an inability to stop drinking that I failed to realize the dearth of talent being presented to me.

Weezy returns now with this wonderful little ditty, a track you may have inferred has almost nothing to do with mixed martial arts. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but if misogyny died and all of his friends came together to celebrate the man he used to be, they’d probably be singing "Tapout" as they lowered him into the cold earth.

Just to make sure there’s something for everyone, YMCMB staples Birdman and Nicki Minaj come along for the ride, and they do good work for the most part. Of course, “good work” is pretty relative, and I only meant to suggest they don’t do any worse than Tunechi, Future, or Mack Maine, all of whom split the responsibility of making this song such a chore to listen to.

Nicki Minaj does deserve special mention, however, for managing to be even more sexually explicit than her male counterparts. As a vaccine against the young, impressionable suburban fans she picked up with Super Bass, "Tapout" will surely be a triumph.

The video itself could also fairly be described as unpleasant, and it does appear to be designed to make you swear loudly in front of your kids. Paris Hilton and Christina Millian put in work as a pair of jewel thieves (just like in real life), and Bow Wow is in there too, I guess. So I’m saying this is a star-studded affair.

This is not dope, but please watch it. Lil Wayne is putting on a "How to Kill Hip Hop" clinic, and awareness is the first step toward prevention.
I can’t wait to hear this three hundred times on the radio.




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Album Review: Lil Wayne - I Am Not A Human Being II


Lil Wayne is not dead. He is also not a human being, as he tells us over and over on his latest album I Am Not A Human Being II. I don’t necessarily buy it, but due to the lack of funding available to prove otherwise – and I now know why NASA has been all up in arms – I’m going to operate under the assumption that he is, as he says, not a human being. So within those parameters, his album, IANAHB II, is a resounding success.

Had a human being created it, I would’ve called the album pretty god damn ridiculous. The first song, “IANAHB,” is a 5 minute, piano-driven flood of nonsense, complete with lines like, “She said my dick could be the next black president,” and “I’m with my killer bees, fuck bug spray.” I stopped trying to figure out what the hell Lil Wayne was talking about a long, long time ago – though I can tell you that his dick seems to have been through a lot – but this song, this explicit, confusing preaching over only the sounds of classical piano, takes his absurdity to another level. I was pissed, because bashing a CD is exhausting work.

But then a weird thing happened: the album got a lot better. I don’t know if there was something otherworldly going on, but all of a sudden the beats became pretty sick and the rhymes, even by human standards, became pretty funny. Lil Wayne didn’t become famous for nothing; he’s more or less a rap genius, and he has more hits on the Billboard charts than Elvis. There might not be anyone better than him when he’s, you know, with us. But he tends to get a little fucked up; he loves his purple drank, and it’s kind of amazing that he’s alive, let alone productive. He’s been rapping since he was a little kid, and his first son was born when he was 15(!). To enjoy to his music, which at times can be wildly inconsistent and even downright stupid, you probably have to try to imagine how absolutely insane his life must be.

He’s back in form on IANAHB II, though. Maybe he’s on his way to assimilating himself back with the rest of the human race. I felt like I needed to take a shower after listening to a few tracks, and quite honestly I think someone could be arrested just for having this album in their possession; so that must mean he’s back. The album really takes off on the 3rd track, “Days and Days,” and I really have to credit 2 Chainz for the turnaround. Nobody enters a song better than 2 Chainz; he announces his arrival on a track with such gusto that it’s impossible not to get excited. Lil Wayne keeps himself more or less in check during the middle portion of the album, which is where the best songs pop up; “Trigger Finger,” “Rich as Fuck,” and “Trippy,” are the highlights of the album.

On “Back to You,” the 6th track on the album, Lil Wayne illustrates some of the problems he has to deal with. “Should I call somebody else/cuz girl it’s almost 12/this dick won’t suck itself,” he cries multiple times throughout the song. Maybe he isn’t so different from us after all. I mean, who hasn’t been there? Who hasn’t had that 11:30 freak-out moment? If he hadn’t so proudly proclaimed throughout the album that he’s a Martian, I wouldn’t believe him, because those are, like, real problems.

The penultimate track, “Wowzers,” is just a straight-up porno, in which he likens his tongue to an Uzi and his dick to an AK. Again with that dick of his; if I have one complaint about the album, it’s that he talks about his dick way, way too much. I feel like I kind of know what it looks like, and that scares me. But that’s Lil’ Wayne. He’s going to share way too much information. He’s going to make you uncomfortable. There are declarations made on the album that I don’t even want to type; after he dropped the line “I’m in the ocean gettin’ shark pussy,” I had to officially take it off the karaoke list.

So listen to and enjoy IANAHB II, a well-done collection of transmissions from Weezy’s drug and sex filled utopia that serves as his home planet. Just don’t listen to it with your mom. Just don’t do it.

Grade: B



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Best of 2011 Staff Picks: James


Favorite Album of 2011

M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming: A cut above the rest, the double album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83 tops my list, and plenty of others’ lists too. I haven’t really stopped listening to it since it came out in October, and although that short time frame does not assume the expectation of staying power, a few listens through and it’s all over. This work of art explores the boundaries of modern popular music. Anthony Gonzalez, the soft-spoken French mastermind along with his band M83 have encapsulated modern styles of music and blended them into a concoction served into two entirely full albums that could each stand alone if separated. To me, this music is the dreamscape that best describes what the past year has felt like in our world; sometimes epic and sometimes quiet, but always truthful. Self-expression and vulnerability were major themes of this year that I feel Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming has summarized brilliantly through music and lyric both.


Honorable Mention

Rustie - Glass Swords: Party album of the year for all the cool kids. Rustie is a producer from Glasgow, Scotland who entered onto my radar the later half of this year. Glass Swords is absolutely fantastic for a fan of new electronica and dance music. Rustie takes the synthesized sounds of yesterday’s electronic music like new-wave and forces them over newer style dance beats such as dubstep and house. Every song on this album screams highly intelligent production; meaning alien in nature. I’m whisked away into a future filled with endless crystal hallways, voluptuous fountains of nectar, and technicolor neon cityscapes that are only visible with the third eye.


Favorite Song of 2011

“I’m On One” by DJ Khaled featuring Drake, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne: The phrase “living under a rock” would become dubious if you went anywhere publicly in 2011 without hearing this song in some context. This song, was in my opinion, the best song of this year. It is my favorite song of this year because of the now famous lyrics of the chorus sung by Drake:

“All I care about is money and the city that I’m from. I’m a sip until I feel it, I’m a smoke until it’s done. I don’t really give a fuck and my excuse is that I’m young, and I’m only only getting older, Somebody should’ve told you I’m on one.”

It’s not just me. Those lyrics mean something to all of us. And aside from that brilliant brainwash, it’s all of the songs’ remixes. It’s all of the times you heard it with your crew, or up in the club. It was the anthem of 2011, Until “Niggas in Paris” blew up. That shit cray.


Honorable Mention

“Take it Back” by Toddla T (Dillon Francis Remix):  My favorite song to dance to this year was definitely this song. People can hate on Moombahton all they want, and I would respectfully listen and disagree with their arguments. But if your toes remain glued to the ground while listening to this song you will not get any sympathy from me on the dancefloor. Dillon Francis’ remix of Toddla T’s piano riff break house song captured my heart many times at parties this year. It was a favorite of many DJs freshly savvy in the ways of Moombahton, the invasive species of music in 2011.



Favorite Concert of 2011

Brother’s Past at Soundlab (04/09/2011):  I traveled quite a bit to other places to see music this year, and alas my favorite concert of this year was not in Buffalo, but as this is buffaBLOG, so my choice for favorite concert in Buffalo this year was Brother’s Past at Soundlab this past April. I had seen BP upwards of 10 times prior to this show, so going in with low-expectations is always an advantage. But when one of your favorite bands plays an absolutely jaw-dropping concert in your favorite city in one of your favorite venues, it can be difficult to just brush-off. I remember texting a friend in NYC to tell her that they were covering National Anthem by Radiohead (a common cover they play) and looking up from my phone, I felt a pride come over me that Buffalo was on the map for this once-little band I got into many years ago.


james wild
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