Vince Staples is the master of sharp left turns. His go-to move is to set you up with a line that leads in one particular direction only to deviate quickly into unexpected terrain, as he does with lines like “I need to fight the power but man I need that new Ferrari,” or, “My momma was a Christian, Crip walkin’ on blue waters.” In addition to this knack for startling juxtapositions, his delivery is dirty and deliberate and deadpan, painting distinctive pictures while leaving you unsure as to just how serious he is at any given time. In the lead-up to his last release, Big Fish Theory, he said of the album to LA Weekly, “It’s Afro-futurism. This is my Afro-futurism. There’s no other kind.” He followed that up with an interview with Trevor Noah of The Daily Show in which he completely blew that comment off, stating, “I like saying stuff about black people to white people.” When Noah persisted, asking, “So that doesn’t mean anything?”, Vince responded, “Of course not.” Continue reading “Stuff I Like: Vince Staples – FM! Review”
Stuff I Like: Open Mike Eagle – What Happens When I Try To Relax
Open Mike Eagle is an artist whose career I have followed closely. I met him back in 2004 when I was doing research for my undergraduate thesis in Koreatown, Los Angeles, where he was among a group of young MCs recording an album at JUiCE – Justice by Uniting in Creative Energy, a nonprofit, hip hop themed afterschool organization that offered creative tutelage in B-boying, DJing, graffiti art, and MCing. My interaction with him was limited but was enough to recognize the burgeoning talent, and I have watched as he has moved from Project Blowed little brother to Mello Music Group marquee talent, and now even professional wrestler with Mick Foley in his corner. Every time he shows up somewhere like Hannibal Buress’s short-lived Comedy Central show or an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, I geek out and tell everyone how I used to kinda sorta know him. We were chatting many years ago when I was doing more hip hop writing, but at that exact moment my marriage fell apart, I went back to working full time, and my life more generally went to shit so I never got to follow through with the interview we had discussed. C’est la vie, but I still wish I would’ve made it happen.
The point here is that I’ve paid careful attention to his artistic output, and while I have genuinely enjoyed all of it, his newest EP, What Happens When I Try To Relax, has become an instant favorite. It is six tracks of back-to-back bangers, filled with intricate rhymes, dynamic rhythmic cadences, and ethereal boom bap, and it is extremely easy to just let it play on repeat two or even three times in a row. In an age of hit singles and disposable full-lengths, that is saying something. Continue reading “Stuff I Like: Open Mike Eagle – What Happens When I Try To Relax”
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Stuff I Like: Lil Wayne – Tha Carter V Review
Lil Wayne’s career has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride. From Cash Money little homey to established solo artist to bonafide superstar, he has occupied every step on the ladder. Most frustratingly, he has been stuck in artistic limbo the last half-decade or so due to conflicts with his label and his former mentor – Cash Money and Baby, respectively – and as a result, we haven’t gotten a proper Lil Wayne album since 2011’s Tha Carter IV. Yeah, he dropped I Am Not A Human Being II and Free Wayne in the interim, but those felt more like side projects and holdovers while we waited for the main course, which was the long-overdue Carter V project we were all craving.
In the years since Tha Carter IV, Wayne has still been active, recording and releasing one-offs with other artists like Drake and 2 Chainz (including what I consider the vastly underrated Collegrove), but Carter V has been supposedly finished and promised to the fans for so long that it was starting to look like it might never see the light of day. That’s why when it finally hit The Interwebs a couple weeks ago it ignited the rap world. We were all dying to see if it could live up to the standards set by its predecessors, or even hopefully exceed the somewhat disappointing Carter IV album. Considering how long this thing had been gestating, it felt like he needed to deliver in a big way. Continue reading “Stuff I Like: Lil Wayne – Tha Carter V Review”
