That’s some line up this year, I only caught the last couple of songs of Future at Governors Ball earlier this year, but it was the one set I am sorry I couldn’t catch from the start, Meek Mill has a surprisingly strong album newly released, Jidenna is the guy with “Classic man” –the remix featuring Kendrick Lamar is killer as well.
The 385,000 units shifted of “Bad Blood” is pretty impressive though I personally am not so crazy about the Kendrick verse as the rest of the world. Plus, not my fave track on the album at the best of times though Taylor certainly keeps changing the plot on us, doesn’t she
King Kunta – Kendrick Lamar – This is as playful as Kendrick ever gets, for a full fledged rap superstars he isn’t a particularly cheerful fellow though you think he would be on this Roots sage – B+
Swimming Pools – Kendrick Lamar – His star making turn and may I just add that the chorus to this track is catchier than anything on Pimp/Butterfly, and his Twista with a hangover verses are a blast – A
You can’t play without a scorecard fellow pop pickers, and as the terrain of new releases changes like at the speed of a blink of the eye, here are two newer new releases.
Taylor Swift was spotted in Los Angeles at a Haim concert at the Troubadour on Thursday…. And she was holding hands with Calvin Harris… the world’s highest paid DJ with the world’s highest paid pop star, what a power couple! And both highly overrated! But we already know it won’t last for very long.
I have gone back to Pimp-Butterfly over and over again and I am stuck respecting it more in theory than enjoying it in practise. I really don’t like feeling OBLIGED to like something that is leaving me more bemused than amused.
: I’ve listened to the new Kendrick a lot and I am getting a handle on it but it reminds me of the recent D’Angelo album… shouldn’t this stuff not feel like homework? Like hard work? Like a slog, waiting for the songs to reveal themselves. And I guess they do slowly, “Wesley’s Theory”, “i” and “u”, the undeniable “The Blacker The Berry” but again, would I have spent this much time wthout the hype? Well, yes for “The Blacker The Berry”…
Between money, success, the black man’s plught and the wages of sin, this is not untypical hip hop land thematically and while Kenrick can rhyme like a motherfucker, that ability hides his shallowness to a certain extent. Sometimes he is worth listening to, sometimes he is too self-obsorbed.
When I saw this guy open for Kanye iw as less than impressed whatever, and I guess it is weird calling a song this in your face subtle, but at least subtleties of rhyme, of tempo, is lost on stage. On this extremely vicious hit back at blacks who didn’t like him questioning Fergusson, Lamar makes his point and then some: emancipation of a real nigga, he claims at the end. I buy it – A
Pitchfork review: “Somewhere beneath the spazzing cymbals, the maze of key changes, and the sphincter-tightening virtuosity of the synth lines, a quizzical piano motif repeats itself, softly—a grounding idea among the song’s avant-jazz madness.” Sphincter-tightening? – B+
Patrick was wrong. If you are the warming act, shut up and warm and if you did it well (Patrick did it very well: he was hysterical that night, telling the audience, on St. Patrick’s Day, at a Pogues, to drink sensibly) perhaps the band will say thank you. In 2014, if the headliner isn’t charging you, you are one step ahead of the crowd.
Not only are they pushing a really good new album lousy with sylvian briar, released just last week ,but I’ve seen Of Montreal on stage before and they put on a very very live show. Like a thetarical wallop. Monday at Webster Hall.
But depression, sorrow, the infiniteness lightness of blueing, the pain of fame gam?. These are the colors of modern r&b and superheroes. Thanks, guys.
Loser – Rock The Bells – The hip hop festival meant to play this weekend was cancelled due to lack of sales and really, where was the big name to sell it?
