Kanye West is drenched in auto-tune on 808s & Heartbreak, Ashley Simpson and Pete Wentz join the long list of celebrities who give their children eccentric names (in this case, Bronx Mowgli Wentz), Neal has a 72 hour crush on Hillary Duff and he’s pretty sure that Sean Connery is an aphrodisiac, watching the Nick Fury movie is like putting your head in a bag of shit, Watchmen has graphic novel variant covers, and Dynamo 5 #18 is awesome.
Tag Archive for 'hip hop'
Don’t get it twisted - 808s & Heartbreak is NOT a hip hop album. It’s a VnB album (that stands for “vocoder and blues” for those of you keeping score at home).
Seriously, the first two tracks - Say You Will and Welcome to Heartbreak - are not even close to anything known as hip hop. Instead, Kayne sings RnB vocals drenched in vocoder and auto-tune.
The third track, Heartless, features some sort-of-rapping. But that sort-of-rapping sort of sucks, so it’s pretty irrelevant. Getting back to hardcore VnB on the fourth track, Amazing, Kanye sings some more while Young Jeezy stops by to stink up the place.
Next up is Love Lockdown, the first single off the disc. It’s a combo of Jesus Walks drums, poorly utilized Daft Punk vocal effects, and a song structure straight out of Tainted Love. Basically, it sounds like shit.
The following track, Paranoid, is a step in the right direction. The melody is strong and the song has a powerful forward movement. Kanye actually spits some rhymes here, but they’re nothing insightful or infectious. This song is by far the best thing on 808s and Heartbreak.
Props to Kanye for naming the seventh track RoboCop. Too bad the song blows. Next up is Street Lights, which sucks so let’s just breeze past that one. Actually, come to think of it, Bad News sounds like poop too so let’s keep it moving.
This takes us to track 10, See You in My Nightmares. Now that’s a nice way to sum up this album: I’ll probably have nightmares about it. Hell, even Lil Wanye can’t save this song.
Coldest Winter isn’t as awful as its predecessors, but I still didn’t enjoy it. At this point, I’m pretty sure that Kanye’s next project will be a duet album with Annie Lennox.
The “bonus track” is a horrid live freestyle called Pinocchio Story. It’s full of people screaming in the background. At first, you might think they’re screaming out of joy. But by the end of track, it’s 100% obvious that they’re screaming in pain. They’ve just been subjected to entire concert of this crap. I would be screaming too.
The Beatcast is back! Nik Furious comes roaring out the gate with To the MAX, a story about infidelity with his nanny, love for his wife, and a special connection with his mother-in-law. All this is told over a smooth, funk-infused hip hop beat.
Kardinal Offishall has been getting a savage amount of airplay around these parts. At first I wondered how a new artist could have so many music videos out already. A quick Wiki revealed that Offishall has been around for a while and that I really don’t know anything about music. Well, that’s never stopped me before - so keep reading as I give you the straight dope on his new joint Numba 1 (Tide Is High).
The Track: The Kardinal hails from Canada but loves that dancehall sound. I got real burned out on dancehall back in 2003 when Beanie and Elephant Man were doing it real big. I’m more of a gentrified reggae person and Kardinal’s version is easy to digest. That said, I think he may be trying a little too hard. Even as the scion of Jamaican immigrants - Ontario is hardly the Caribbean Islands. You’re steez is less beleivable than Yatismahu’s.
Interestingly, there are at least three versions of this song, each with a different IT girl doing the hook: Keri Hilson, Rihanna (probably the best), and Nicole Scherzinger. The video features Hilson who honestly needs the exposure.
I’m about 50% on Kardinal covering Tide Is High. Blondie did a great job with it back in the 80s, but this is a little different. It will probably grow on me - but I feel a little betrayed to see my favorite 80s hooks used this way. What’s next, Walking on Sunshine?
The Video: Remember Sean Paul’s Get Busy and Like Glue music videos? Kardinal is basically an even more accessible version of Sean Paul. I don’t see much differentiation here. I’d even posit that Sean Paul and Beanie Man had better dancers. But, it didn’t bore me.
Of note: There is a bonus snippet of Nina at the end. Despite my thing about double videos, I enjoyed its briefness and double entendre. Look out for the new Dr. Dre headphones in this video too. They are being placed in almost new video right now. Lastly, I really really really hate Keri Hilson’s haircut and the bleached bang tips. I can not handle that.
The Bottom Line: Not mindblowing, but a solid non-sucky performance.
The Street Fighter movie, Super Mario Bros movie, Wes Anderson, Outsourced, Iron Man on DVD, Rampaging Hulk magazine, and reviews of new albums by TI, Skillz, and Solange Knowles are how we celebrate the big five-oh. Then, after the end theme, a special update as we learn about Street Fighter - The Legend of Chun Li.
Trafficlight by Nik Furious, an instrumental cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Crosstown Traffic.
Perfect, a hip hop track by Cherry DeMA featuring Nik Furious. This is an unreleased song dug straight out of Furious vaults for your enjoyment.
Phoenix Bay, another new hip hop beat by Nik Furious. This electronic instrumental was unearthed when Nik (a.k.a. me) got ProTools back after a few years without his L1 Ultramaximizer.
Legal Green, a new hip hop beat by Nik Furious. Bonus points if you can guess who it’s named after.
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