#giving nicky credit where its due and giving nicky shit where its due

[ionlydrinkhotwater]

Rainbowcrate AFTG Spoilers

"On Monday Ichirou Moriyama had chosen Neil over his own family and bought the Perfect Court. One of these days Aaron would love to know what about that mouthy liar had people bending over backwards for him"

-The Kings Men AFTG rainbow crate special edition bonus

[shredomatic]

BROKE WITH EXPENSIVE TASTE BY AZEALIA BANKS

This is one of the greatest female hip-hop album of all time, it experiences with different styles and sounds. It spawned the mega-hit ‘212′, no songs are fillers or give you the urge to skip (apart from ‘Nude Beach a Go-Go’). Banks puts different genres together and in my opinion is considered a masterpiece and easily beats any Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Lil’ Kim, Iggy Azalea or Remy Ma album (no shade, just facts). 

The Pinkprint?                                                                                                       Hardcore?                                                                                                               The New Classic?                                                                                                   Invasion Of Privacy?

Sorry.. never heard of them only ‘Broke with expensive taste’

TRACK BY TRACK BREAKDOWN:

1. Idle Deliah

This track starts the album of with a electro style beat and lyrics that draw your attention. 

Credit: Banks Twitter “Idle Delilah is the the daughter of a famed white slave owner in the 1900’s who was killed by her own father’s slaves. One day, the white man’s slaves grow tired of his bad treatment and decide to kill his favorite daughter Delilah as payback. So the dead Idle Delilah, the one I’m singing of in the song, is defined as a spirit of time. She represents procrastination. She lives behind doors and hides in garbage cans.”

2. Gimme a Chance’

starts of with a old school beat, lyrics “That's the way that our love can grow” which is directly sampled from Enon’s ‘Knock that door’ The song continues, Banks raps in Spanish and the outro features a male voice talking in Spanish. 

This track was first shown on Banks' earliest mixtape, (’Fantasea’) Before the Expensive Taste, but with different verses. Both versions of the song sample ‘Knock That Door’ by indie rock band Enon.

3. Desperado

is my personal favourite, simply because of the hardcore rap, a perfect beat that fits and electronic effects. The beat and hook are from MJ Cole’s ‘Bandelero Desperado’, which is taken from his album Sincere. 

Lyrics ‘Seductive Pup’ plays on one of the albums themes, which is referencing men as dogs, i.e. ‘Wallace’ and Album Outro ‘Miss Camaraderie’

4. JFK

is like a sequel to her previous song ‘Fierce’ found of her earlier mixtape ‘Fantasea’ this song starts with a mesmerising beat, seconds later Banks’ raps about looking and feeling expensive. 

‘Lady in the floor’ is a vogue ball reference. She pays homage to her song ‘Fierce’ in the lyrics ‘it’s a ball, not a prom’

5. 212′

the debut song that sparked her career and made her a pioneer for female rap to this day, the catchy chorus ‘What you gon' do when I appear? When I premiere? Bitch the end of your lives are near This shit been mine!’ is about Banks telling her “competition” that their careers are over when she comes out. 

watch the official music video here

6. Wallace 

is a step up and can be consider one of her most catchy songs yet- at least in till her second studio album is released (confirmed release 2019) the continuation of her earlier mixtape ‘Fantasea’. 

7. Heavy Metal and Reflective

is nasty (in a good way) provocative song, it symbolises her personality and the music video does not disappoint. 

The starting lyrics ‘Fridgy Froze Kept It's that fresh bitch’ means she is a young and modern rapper; shes new to the game. The chorus ‘Ayo, you know well I'm with that Get Rich’ confirms that she gets money of her music. Lyrics ‘Find me in the borough If you thorough and that bread flip’ means you can find her in New York.

8. BBD

starts with a quick beat and she starts rapping about showing off her riches and styles on people who dislike her because of her status, She’s a high ranking money maker. The song is a anthem for strong and confident women. 

The story behind this song is Banks posted this track online in January 2013. But at the time it was not confirmed for Broke with Expensive Taste, late the next year it ended up on the track listing.

9. Ice Princess

is probably the second song I heard of Banks, and I instantly fell in love. The song talks about stealing men and being a princess, its a simple ballad. The backing almost speaks to you, it has a winter vibe and could feels like it fits in a ‘Frozen’ film- well without the rapping. 

Fact: This isn’t the only time Banks has made a winter themed song, in December 2018 she released her EP ‘Icy Colours Change’ on Streaming Services, Vinyl and CD.

10. Yung Rapunzel

is one of the more memorable tracks, It has a beat that draws you in followed with fast verses that make you want to dance. The chorus features extreme shouting, 50% may hate it, but the other 50% may think it fits. 

I’m the second option, I'm a very hyper person and the chorus only hypes me more- it could due to yours personality or style of music.

11. Soda

Where do I start with this song? The music video is AMAZING! feels very 90′s. The Chrous makes me want to dance- well every song does. 

WARNING: The song may not be about sodas but it will make you dance like a MAD MAN, usually like what a soda does to you.

12 Chasing Time

charted high on the BBH100 but popularity never measures true talent, something this song both goes above and beyond with. The lyrics I nay opinion, sounds like being stuck in some type of emotional degrading relationship, doesn’t matter what type it is Emotional, Physical, Sexual, Neglect it speaks to ANY negative relationship. 

The chorus is catchy and makes me think, the raps are emotion (YES! with years of listening to hip-hop I have never heard of a rap that affects me emotionally).

13. Luxury 

has shockingly amazing notes, (WHO KNEW SHE COULD ALSO SING) The chorus is odd, and makes an odds sound at the end, I copy it every time! 

14. Nude Beach A Go-Go

ok, so I know she was experimenting but this song deserve to be fired into the sun, along with Cardi B’s mixtapes (once again, no shade just facts.) It sounds like a Pepsi advert, and not in a good way, I would never listen to this on a beach, this is an instant skip.

15. Miss Amor

is an easily forgettable song in the Azealia Banks library, but does not for a SECOND deserve to be discredited, the song had a great premise. When Miss Amor was going to be a single, its B-side was to be ‘Miss Camaraderie’ while that never happened, the two songs were still paired together as the last two tracks on Broke with Expensive Taste.

Credit: Banks Twitter “Miss Amor’ was about love post-heartbreak”

Fact: “Miss Amor” was to be the first single from Azealia Banks' debut album, Broke with Expensive Tastebut, according to Banks, after her record label Interscope heard the track “Yung Rapunxel,”, they made it the first single instead.

This song fits perfectly with the final song on the album:

16. Miss Camaraderie

The whole song is catchy and (once again) makes you want to dance. The song is pure bliss and happiness, the song deals with falling in love again. 

Following from ‘Miss Amor’ story of being able to date after a heartbreak, ‘Miss Camaraderie’ is about being able to fall in love again post-breakup.

Song Ranking:

Heavy Metal and Reflective 10/10 Yung Rapunxel 10/10 Chasing Time  9/10 Miss Camaraderie  9//10 Desperado 9/10  212 ft. Lazy Jay 8/10 Ice Princess 8/10 Soda 7/10 Luxury 7/10 Miss Amor 7/10 Wallace 7//10 BBD 6//10 JFK 5//10 Idle Delilah 6.5/10 Gimme a Chance 6/10 Nude Beach A-Go-Go 1/10

Overall:

Overall, this album is high on my favourite albums of all time and I will have on repeat for years to come, this album is a pure piece of art, nobody is on Azealia’s level in the rap game eat the moment, nobody’s pen is better then hers (at least In female rap). Well, lets she if Banks can top this off with her high acclaimed second studio album ‘Fantasea II: A New Wave’.

The second half of the album step out of it’s shell and uses unique sounds from different genres and it manages to fit. Second half is a lot better then the first half. I do recommend this album to Hip-Hop fans, or even people who just want some songs to dance to.

Stream the album here.

[tinymixtapes]

Feature: Insomniac Focus

Drew McDowall’s work extends well before Coil’s 1998 album Time Machines, but his major releases from that work to now is more than enough to explore. Coil fans, I know you’re set. It’s partly you who I had in mind when I welched on my assignment for his latest solo album, The Third Helix. You likely have alerts on this guy, and no amount of critical descriptors (“harrowing,” “cavernous,” “dreamscape,” “hallucinatory,” “bleak,” “trance-inducing,” etc.) are going to make any difference to you. And, as for neophytes, McDowall is not only an easy sell, but one who you likely have to get to ass backwards. And in these diffuse, cherry pick-enabling internet times, that’s something. We tend to keep our paths of discovery close to the vest against the snotty record store clerk in our heads. I say “we,” because I’m a newbie myself at 38. I did meet a classmate in my junior year of college who tried to help me with my post-NIN fan, small town ignorance, but it was to little effect. I don’t wanna admit I got into Blackest Ever Black and PAN artists before McDowall, but it’s true. There is no tomorrow, so allow me to show my ass in this regard. It took time — and a closer friend with a staggering record collection — to show me the way. I won’t blame blowing my assignment on anything but me, but I will offer the assertion that Drew McDowall’s music is alive in ways that language is not. Although McDowall, John Balance, and Peter Christopherson collaborated on Time Machines, you could hardly call it a conversation. It feels more like an unstable, massive hum, with the creative instinct of human interference put in restraints. It’s the sound of artists getting out of their own way, carving out a path for something that doesn’t sing so much as surge like blood or water or electricity (it resists analogy, so I’m inclined to reach for more elementary terms). If the intention was to induce the loss of a sense of time, it dissolved critical faculties in the process as well. It is sound happening to you. Whatever a train does to you when you hear it, before you even begin to get to the typical leitmotifs. Whatever a tuning orchestra makes you feel, before you remind yourself not to feel anything about it. There is suspense, sure, but there’s also the flat pulse of pure sensation. Time Machines hunkers down and dispels reaction in favor of presence. Of true immersion. Of rote and unquestioning self-sacrifice to a sensorily consuming source. The tracks being named after psychotropic drugs and the perhaps unavoidable (there’s always “repeat all”) reality of their finiteness are the only things stopping this machine. It has you without a hello. Time Machines hunkers down and dispels reaction in favor of presence. Of true immersion. It’s curious that this towering, uncompromisingly minimal work is collaborative, while his eventual solo material doesn’t shy from a comparatively genre-friendly, kitchen-sink aesthetic. But more on that in a bit. First, a decade-plus later, some more from the creative alliance dept. Having familiarized myself with Psychic Ills, McDowall’s collaboration with Tres Warren as Compound Eye was on my 2013 radar. Their music intrigued in ways that the sturdy psych rawk of Psychic Ills never did. I liked it enough to save it, but never got too deep. So McDowall’s presence didn’t properly register until researching him this year, even after the aforementioned friend gave me his free download code for 2017’s Unnatural Channel. Having familiarized myself with McDowall, it’s easy to see that the man never quite got triggering-then-getting-out-the-way-of-strong-currents out of his system in the intervening years. It contains that blissful, sci-fi pastoral modular babbling that is really nothing to turn off, but the album is balanced with the (watch me writhe, beset by stultifying magnetic poetry adjectives) vast, impassive coursings of McDowall’s high water mark material. The album title, Journey From Anywhere, reinforces the notion of not ruining vital elements of sonic procession with basic human shit. Both are men, with presumable communication skills, but never does conversation seem like an apt analogy. Their collaboration is a numb sort of cooperative sentience, toiling as a vessel for steady, sluicing flow. Destiny being God and human’s favorite crap joke alike, the void really deserves more credit. Compound Eye’s shimmering, delicate, 69-minute reverie comes across like a humble attempt to give the nothing its due. It simmers in rote bodily function reality, even as it attempts to merge with the least dense, most windless air it can manage to breathe. Another collaborative work, The Ghost of Georges Bataille (released on Bank earlier this year), is less of a curious animal, but enticing nonetheless. Hiro Kone (a.k.a. Nicky Mao) specializes in elegant digital snowdrift downtempo. She, like McDowall, is a friend to contemplative melancholy as a default mode. But similarly to McDowall, she’s careful to augment her traditional rainstreaked Aphex brooding with character-rich textures that teeter on the brink of encroachment. Here, McDowall pushes this bordering that much closer. Each haunted progression is enshrouded with warm yet disorienting clamor. Similarly to the post-Boards re-tooling of Dalhous, Bataille takes away the head-nod in favor of a swirled sort of distance. This blithe obfuscation renders that tradition of pastoral, half-remembered dream progressions that much more affecting. McDowall excels as a bit player as well. In 2015, he featured on Ben Greenberg’s (Sacred Bones engineer, Men) debut with Michael Berdan (York Factory Complaint) as Uniform. As much as the album is a scorcher par excellence and far superior (and I’m edging on apples/oranges territory here), what “Death Star” is to The Future of War, “Lost Causes” is to Perfect World. McDowall’s hermetic throb steals the show on an album of showstoppers. Then, ably displaying his adaptability to ambient techno, McDowall lent his modular chops to another album highlight on Hiro Kone’s 2017 album, Love is the Capital. “Rukhsana” is a shorter track, but it still bears the unmistakable fingerprints of McDowalls absorptive approach. With these drop ins, McDowall redeems the notion of the guest spot from mere name-dropping and seamlessly applies his methodology rather than his personal stamp. Now, back to 2015 and Drew McDowall’s first official solo release under his own name, Collapse. As I mentioned, McDowall wound up being decidedly less reductive once left to his own devices. Similarly to Prurient’s later output, there is a concerted effort to tacitly merge monophonic direness with monolithic earthen beast-sloughing reverbations, whelmed to the edge of over. Dark monophony has retained a lasting power, even if the grubby fingers of branding-obsessed metal aestheticians have rendered its keenings almost cute. These are the ones who cry “false metal,” which in and of itself is false. It’s no different than complaining about how football has changed or how a comic book adaptation oughta be. True artisans of inner and outer darkness are not beholden to purist genre fetishism. They survive, thrive, and die by their virtue in this exploration. By their unwaveringly limitless drive, we are able to imbibe the vast shimmering terror innate to existence. While Collapse may not be the most chilling thing out there, its black satin bug eyes affix you to where you are and evaporate your culture-soaked lunges for contextual asidery. Collapse by Drew McDowall True artisans of inner and outer darkness are not beholden to purist genre fetishism. They survive, thrive, and die by their virtue in this exploration. Things only seemed to get better with 2017’s Unnatural Channel, though it’s of a piece enough that “seem” might be the operative word. There are two tracks featuring words/vocals from Roxy Farman (of superb NYC duo Wetware, also a guest on the Hiro Kone album), but the key adjustment is a Vanity Records-like focus on the embracing of silent rests. Of course, the fidelity is higher, but the unrelenting hesitation of that legendary label’s best material (namely, Tolerance’s 1981 LP, Divin) is a curious early precedent. Even with the presence of a singer, Farman’s recitation of “this is what it’s like, sleep deprived” is just as innately infused as the “I convulsed” sample on the last record. And her whooping and schizo mutterances on closer “Recognition” are essential but unshowy bits of punctuation. All spaciousness aside, the tetanus textured throb of “Unnatural Channel (Part 2)” is a sort of head-nodder, but even this winds up being more of a cautious slink through a confusing party (boring? bad scene? twisted? brilliant?) than a departure. Although the bowstring bouncing on The Third Helix opener echoes Unnatural Channel’s “Tell Me The Name,” “Rhizome” initially feels like a proper departure. Not unlike the airy skittering of Actress’s R.I.P, this tune initially seemed like a wrong turn. It’s lovely, especially when the “Sinking of the Titanic” strings come in, but it feels almost lateral rather than expansive. The touchstones come too easy. It’s a fascinating track, the way it swells and glitches out abruptly, but it’s also strangely on-the-nose for this artist. Things get better and back to the same (“Proximity” sounds cut from the same cloth) from there, but one couldn’t be blamed for mistaking Third Helix for a Helm, Fis, or post-Virgins Tim Hecker album. Of course, he is a sort of godfather to said touchstones, but similarly to the atemporal realm of Time Machines, this sort of sine wave slippage reads more familiar than it actually is. And, for what it’s worth, why shouldn’t masters be genuinely influenced by their descendants (beyond tokenistic exaggerations)? Chances are, they are beholden to a lot of the same technology anyway. Taken another way, McDowall’s newest is a sort of long-distance collaboration with those who’ve been inspired by him and his rarefied peer group. Conscious or not, its blending with the aesthetics of younger, like-minded artists could be seen as a rejection of the notion of hierarchy in musical succession, one way or the other. The Third Helix is an endearingly solid listen, and it deserves a place among the heralded releases of 2018. Similarly to the previous two (all on Dais), the album’s tracks don’t stray too far past the five-minute mark. Despite this, they stretch out in the ears like ancient aural cobwebs, making one feel as lived-in as the planet itself. I’ve tried not to use the word “innovation” here. Too often, the notion of innovation is whittled down to novelty, and reinventing the wheel is not what makes McDowall’s third-act material so worthwhile. More so, it’s the sense of earnest drive. The deep affinity for life’s rich tangent. That it’s darkly fixated is no more material than that the blues are despondent. Actually, the best of that long deracinated-to-pilloried genre has much of the same turning-oneself-inside-out quality. Even if Drew McDowall never tops himself or others in this quietly industrious field of wide-eyed abstraction, he is set to remain a stirring essential to every cerebral wandering ear, regardless of prerequisites or lack thereof. http://j.mp/2RBEqkz

[blacknbougiee]

I really have nothing to say except the fact that Cardi has come a long way, I just get annoyed with people being up irrelevant shit aka Nicki. Her album did extremely well, and so did her singles. Is she the greatest rapper? Na but we’re in a different time and shit is changing. Teenagers love her and oh yeah she’s a Afro Latino rapper so that’s helps too. I honestly don’t care for Cardi but she’s making money moves literally.

And please let’s not pretend that Nicki hasn’t had a long and very successful run for years and she’s still going minus the drama. Give credit where’s its due period.

SB: Cardi also benefitted from the Remy & Nicki beef. While they were feuding she was reaping the benefits 😭. Also Bodak Yellow came out early June, that shit took a min to pop off I most definitely remember I don’t know what the fuck made that shit blow though 🤔

I had to get receipts cause I clearly remember her other single with Offset, then she came out with Bodak Yellow. Like I know by the end of the summer is was a hit and all over the radio.

Cardi might be getting a Grammy tonight

Interesting… very interesting

[wopcalmetacritic]

Rolling Stone Review: The Bronx Project by Cardi B

56/100

Cardi B is one of the main girls changing the rap scene in the last few months, and now she released her first album, "The Bronx Project". Filled with - allegedly - personal tracks, the singer wanted to reach her fanbase by making them feel closer than they were beforem after hitting the top of the charts with the bouncing "Bodak Yellow". But did she?

The album opens up with a trap urban song, "Bronx Season", a short (less than 3 min) song, but with countless words and rhymes that gives it a really nice flow. The composition talks about her journey, her reputation, her independence and stardom - which is really nice, but kind of weird when it's about a newbie artist that just hit success with one song.

"Spent A Little Doe", the second song, brings up an incredible 90's vibe, reminding us some classic Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott and even Salt-N-Pepa. Completely dated, but in some kind of good way, the song has incredible and uncredited vocals to legendary Mary J. Blige - give her the goddamn credits, Cardi.

The same 90's feeling comes up with "That Thing", featuring Beyoncé (yes, she got her credits). A extremely catchy song with woops and turns and a jamming groovy feeling, that gets tiring after three times singing it in your head. Beyoncé did great but Cardi verses are the best on the song ("Money taking and heart breaking, now you wonder why women hate men / The sneaky, silent men / The punk, domestic violence men / Quick to shoot the semen, stop acting like boys and be men").

"Whatta Man" is another dated song, straight outta 90's, but not in a good way this time. Even though Ariana really tried to save this, it's a bubblegum flash rap song that loses its fun at after 1 min and a half - it gets boring and tacky.

And we thought we'd might get some freshing new song, Cardi serves us "Queen Bitch", another song to praise her independence, her journey, her independence and fame... At another 90's dated song. The verses are great, her flow is fantastic, but the lyrical content doesn't goes far much than caressing her own ego. We got it, Cardi, you like to talk about fame while being a new girl in the stardom - who are we to judge? We'll just have to wait for the future Cardi to feel embarrassed for speaking with no property.

"Bodak Yellow", her #1 single, is the sixth single. Gangster style, in a looping hyponitc instrumental that makes you feeling yourself; it's impossible not to enjoy this, even if you're not into rap: the beat is incredible, the chorus' melody gets stuck in your head and makes you want to be just a little bit swagger like Cardi. The best song off the album so far, although it's lyrics doesn't goes that far as the subjects she talked in the previous songs.

The seventh track, "Red Barz", finally brings up the modern fresh style we've been waiting. After the smashing hit, "Bodak Yellow", we wonder why Cardi haven't released this yet - an upbeat catchy song with mid-east influences at its instrumental, and a terrific flow as Cardi speaks and curses, but, again, in a too short song - 2 minutes and 7 seconds, really? This could be a highlight but when you're getting into the song, it's over.

"Pop Off", featuring Casanova, is the eighth track, bringing up a messy instrumental as Cardi raps along with it in a fast rhyming game, in a song a bit different from the others, but still talking about how fierce she is, how big she is and that she won't take no offense home, "b****". Casanova verses lights up the song, even though the song gets annoyingly unhearable after 50% of it, due to it's extremely messy and noisy instrumental. Sounds unfinished and amateur, with a great potential lost.

Time to get some Pharrell production with "Icy Girl", the ninth track off the album. Serving Snoop Dogg realness, the song could be a pair to his classic "Beautiful" or Missy Elliott's bastard daughter. It's a great jamming song that goes along with an easy listening (and mimicking) and a nice flow - "Cash money mama that be dining in Bahamas / Eating Fettucini pasta with the scallops and the lobsters" is what you're going to get from the 1 minute song. For real, not even 2 minutes. Oh, and a classic line: "Huh, I don’t got no time for these hoes". Absolutely non-Cardi. But in the opposite way.

"Pull Up" takes the number 10 track place, in a similar song to "Bodak Yellow", but in a mediocre production and a composition that should've stayed at the demo drawers. "So much people think they know my pussy / But no one can say they fucked" is one of the verses. Just to mention. One more? "You try to play me, that's confirmation / But it's all good 'cause when you see my face / Shit don't come out like it's constipation". Let's pretend this never happened.

Pharrell is back at "The Jump Off", along with Timbaland (yes, he's alive!), in a boucing song that makes us remember from classic Missy Elliott - "Work It" - which is great, and it lifts us up after a great stumble from the previous track. A trap hip-hop track that samples "Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz", uncredited as well, that doesn't gets tiring, doesn't lose it's groove and makes you entertained in a catchy chorus and a smooth verse flow. Along with "Bodak Yellow" and "That Thing", the song is one of the best off the album, no doubt about it.

Spending her pennies in a electro-influenced song, Cardi sounds unrecognizable at the chorus of "Rolling", the twelfth song from the tracklist. Unpretentious as in 90% of the songs so far, the track doesn't change much of what we've heard so far when it's about its melody and composition; it starts as a great jamming song, smooth, but it turns into flat quickly, and gets boring after the second chorus. T-Pain would be proud of this song, specially at it's vocoder-ed vocals, we must observe.

The standard version of the album closes with "Never Give Up", a duet with Josh X, a Bronx fellow to Cardi; it sounds like something Rihanna would release in 2009, probably featuring Ne-Yo or someone like it, but hey, this isn't a bad thing. Its lyrics are inspirational, almost cliché "Never give up / We're almost at the top of the hill now", and it might not the best song, not even fantastic, but it can be memorable. It's a great song to close the album, it gives you the feeling of wanting more - 'cause after all, we didn't get much highlights from this tracklist so far.

The first from the three tracks from deluxe version & Apple Music exclusive, "Hectic", is the perfect definition of a filler bonus track. Life could've go on without it, but it's not that bad; not a fan favorite, but it can be the track that a few like and enjoy when she sings it, by surprise, at a conert. The bass beat reminds us from a few previous songs of the album, keeping up the coesion of the songlist, and that's good. A point to Cardi for that!

"Leave That Bitch Alone", the second bonus track, is a apparent powerful song at first, but we get it why it wasn't picked for the standard selection of tracks when you keep listening to it: it starts like an extremely good song, but it loses its power before it reaches the chorus after the first verse. No surprises on it, it's enjoyable and probably will be a fan favorite due to its "i'm the right girl for you" vibe, which we've seen before on the album.

The last track off the record, the last bonus, "Focus", should be at the tracklist, being a hightlight on the tracklist. It plays with an insane bass beat that could easily be played out loud in cars and parties. The fierce composition makes it even better and it might serve as an empowerment song, specially to girls - "Any n**** play or disrespect me, he regret me, wish he kept me / People question how they lost me, make it hard, they can't forget me", and obviously: "Can't no n**** disrespect you, keep these h*** up in they place", to keep the Cardi style.

In an overview, Cardi B might have released a fierce strong album to show off how she won't take no trash and no negative talking, and even though she might be a new in the music game, she's not a newbie in life. And life's hard. Growing up as a black girl, in the Bronx, takes guts to fill the cup. Confidence at its best, in a ego that sounds bigger than her humility, it doesn't take much to notice that Cardi B is here to play the fame game: if you know how to spell the words fast, and make yourself as the best on it, you're gonna be praised - but what is she saying though? As the songs have a few parts about her lifestory, they lose its power by mixing up to superficial self-praising lines. Some have a really nice rhythm and you get the flow wishing you could be good at rap like her - we can't deny her amazing skills on rap and at a few writing - but the content of the songs, in its total, are most all the same: the "i'm the motherf***** fiercest b**** and you're all h***, haters" type of thing that we're tired and that should've kept with Nicki Minaj way back in 2013. She's been through "Love & Hip Hop", she got herself in a gang, she made her ways to escape poverty and violence, and we admire her for that, but if Cardi wants to show that you want to get close to the people and mostly your fans, you have to disarm yourself - i guess you wouldn't want to hurt the ones that love you, right? You don't have that much haters, Cardi, trust us when we say that. Maybe getting off the narcissism and the armed position ready for the attack would match the humble personality hardly noticed in the show-off Bronx girl songs that fought hard to be where she is now.

[lexieduranyoung-blog]

Reality Television - The 411

There is "Reality TV" and then there is REALITY TV! What exactly is Reality TV? Most people would say that they are television programs, in which real people are continuously filmed, designed to be entertaining rather than informative. In all honesty, that's the route that most of the Reality Television shows are headed - causing drama induced blank stares, just for the sake of ratings.  There are, of course, some informative styled ones too. Maybe I'm getting old? Or maybe I just appreciate the originals and better television! The old formats that all of these shows used, in the beginning, still work. I can handle big change, on some shows. I get it - production has to continuously adhere to the newer generation, in order to ensure new viewers... but the original viewers are still here, too! The classics, the pillars of Reality TV, those are the ones we watch religiously and the ones we are worried will conform to the new era of unimaginable twists, boring casts, and production induced controversies. The three complaints that I see most often are: 1. There are too many young people cast. 2. We don't want to see returning players; give someone else a chance. 3. The casts' ethnicity is not diverse enough. You know the face you make when you are thinking to yourself, "Really?!" The face where your mouth is straight lined and your eyes are rolled so far back in your head that you can see your hair follicles? That's the face I make when I see people complain about the things, listed above. Of course, all these things have been the case since Reality TV began, over twenty years ago. The bigger social media gets, though, the more complaints we actually see - and in some shows' cases, we've seen the change and it's hurt their ratings with original viewers. We are already seeing it with Survivor (2000). Survivor started out as a show, where the goal was to "Outwit. Outplay. Outlast". They dropped them in some remote area and they were initially left to fend for themselves. Their shelters were bare and so were their stomachs. It's been numerous seasons since I've seen a discussion about how the rice and beans would be rationed! Survivor has given us some of the most notorious reality stars, including one of my very favorites - "Boston Rob". Over the last few seasons, though, I seem to be forgetting more and more of the so-called "dynamic players". They can't be that dynamic, if no one can remember them. This show, in particular, I have seen the most complaints about there not being enough "older people" cast. This last season's theme was conveniently titled , "Gen X vs. Millennials". Let me say this (which by the way I will still say when I am sixty years old): If you put a bunch of senior citizens on Survivor, you're going to need about 20 ambulances on stand-by. I realize that there are some older people out there who've "still got it" and if they're interested, they've submitted an application. Let's face it, though. The majority of our elders are going to get out there and either break a hip or die from undernourishment. When is the last time you actually saw one of the elder cast members get out in a physical competition and just kick ass? The problem is, most complaining people don't stop to think; just because they've aged with the show, doesn't mean the show's cast should age with you. When you were twenty years old, you had no problems watching a show that included mainly twenty year olds.  Personally, I don't want to watch shuffleboard immunity challenges - no thank you! This year, Big Brother (2000) became the first major cable reality show to move their season to online viewing (costing viewers $6/month). I didn't pay for it and I'm not sorry that I didn't. Big Brother is one of the few reality shows that still only airs, on cable, once a year! Every summer, we look forward to watching the June premiere. I'm somewhat of a spoilers buff - so we even stay up late and watch the free "After Dark" live feeds, for clues as to what may happen in the coming episode. A lot of viewers don't care to see returning house guests. I live for it! I could watch Dr. Will and Mike Boogie over and over - there will never be another alliance, in all of Reality TV, like "Chill Town". There is a reason that all of those alliances and house guests are still talked about, today. This last season, four past house guests were brought back - Thank God. If I had to sit through another season of the whole house voting together, every single eviction, I may have begun to boycott. What happened to the alliances? What happened to the sneakiness and making big game moves? In the words of  Rachel Reilly, "you better grab a life vest, floaters" - because that is what seems to be the plan for most new house guests. Snooze fest! That's not what viewers want to see - yet they also complain that they want new house guests. News Flash, these new players don't have the balls. For the first time, in four seasons, they finally brought back some old house guests and finally we got to see some action! It is a serious long time coming for a Big Brother All Stars season. I hope that one is in our near future. It seems like every major channel now has some type of dating show - mimicking the original dating show, The Bachelor (2002). However, that's a show that I do not dabble in. From the reviews that I've read on this season's contestant, Corinne, I'm still thankful that I never got into this one. Both Survivor and Big Brother are shows that I started watching, as a family, with my parents and siblings. Then there is the show that most 90's teenagers quietly watched, hoping their parents wouldn't notice - MTV's The Real World (1992) - "The true story of seven strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives taped. Find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. The Real World..." Who cannot recite that intro?! Probably not most young millennials and definitely not the even newer generation - because beginning four seasons ago (after twenty eight seasons) they changed the intro to some sort of awful techno beat. It's gone from a show that mainly focused on getting to know the seven strangers, to a show mainly focused on fabricated drama - due to the stereotype casting that the liberal station produces. The intro is no more, no longer do they show the jobs of the house guests, and if they still take a vacation then I have yet to notice. They even did away with the show's logo! Yet, still, they're managing to produce some serious conflicts between the roommates - but that seems to be all that they're producing. They've listened to their viewers, asking for more a more diverse cast. They've cast more African Americans, yet put them in the houses with the biggest redneck's they could find - and during election season, at that. Coincidence? Unfortunately I think The Real World is slowly losing viewers, but maybe production can pull it from the grave in the following seasons. With The Real World, comes MTV's The Challenge (1998) - a show where they combined members from The Real World casts with cast members from Road Rules (1995). Unfortunately, Road Rules is no longer a running show. This means that The Challenge is slowly losing its number of participants to choose from - and having to resort to picking from the Are You The One? (2014) pool, a show where 20 people are put in a house and try to find their "perfect match" in order to win some cash. The Challenge just happens to be my favorite Reality show, of all time. I'll save the full description and review for another day and another blog - I have lots to say about it, of course. Moving on, to some other somewhat famous (and favorite) Reality shows... Even some of the talent shows are trying out new and improved techniques, but those may actually be for the betterment of the contestants! American Idol (2002)was the first talent show that I can remember watching. The contestants were full of talent and the judges were pretty spot on about weeding out those who didn't have "it". Each year, the Top 12 were all different and diverse - and that was appreciated. The crown wasn't going to the same Britney Spears wanna-be, every season. In 2010, American Idol lost its most honest judge, Simon Cowell. From there, it was "bring in the mainstream". Unfortunately we got judges, like Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, who were more focused on the in-house conflicts rather than the actual contestants. Let's just say it like it is - that season was a shit show. Year after year, they kept crowning a winner, but no singles were making it. Then there was Phillip Phillips, a southern boy, with a rock and roll rasp, and a comfy wardrobe. I think his season (season 11) made a lot of loyal viewers realize that American Idol had become more about raking in viewers with the mainstream look, rather than actually seeking out true talent. Phillip Phillips went on to win, but not without letting the world know how American Idol truly worked. How they dressed you up to "fit the part" and took more than their fair share of credit. Thus, The Voice (2011) was created - a show where the judges can't see the contestants, they can only hear your voice. After a few years of The Voice, American Idol finally stopped rolling. "Praise the Lort" for shows like The Amazing Race (2001), TLC's Little People Big World (2006), HGTV's House Hunters (1999), and MasterChef (2010). All four of these shows still hold true to their original formats and  not surprisingly, they're all still big hits on television! The Amazing Race is still one of my favorites, as well - even to the point that I have applied several times (yes, I'm that woman). Travel the world, compete in culture-based tasks, and be with someone you're closest to? Count me in! Another Reality show that is near and dear to our heart, due to the little bit of red that we have in our necks - History Channel's Swamp People (2010). There is nothing better than some good ol' Southern accents and nature. That could be the reason we also took a liking to CMT's Party Down South (2014) and MTV's BuckWild (2013)... those are our types of people! RIP - Shaine Gandee VH1 did have one long-running reality show, that I watched each season of (although I had to Google it to recall the title), The Surreal Life (2003). The Surreal Life was kind of like The Real World, but for washed up celebrities. From The Surreal Life, VH1 then used lots of previous cast members to create short-lived spin offs: Flavor of Love (2006), Rock of Love (2007), and I Love New York (2007) - all of which bit the dust after just a season or two, Did that really surprise anyone though? How long can you actually stand to watch Flavor Flave swing that clock around his neck or put up with Brett Michaels' eye liner? Another breakout network, known for it's Reality TV shows, is BRAVO! They of course house The Real Housewives franchise (2006). The franchise began with Orange County and now runs seasons for New York, Atlanta, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, Potomac, and Dallas. Both Miami and DC were cancelled. If you don't watch The Real Housewives, you might be missing out on some laughter. Of course the show is nothing but a bunch of rich women and the stories of their lives - but some of the ladies' character just kills me. The Real Housewives has produced fourteen spin-offs, on Bravo. Some spin-offs were just one time deals. Others, likeVanderpump Rules (2013) and Don't be Tardy (2012), are still raking in the viewers! If you like the drama of The Real Housewives, then you'll love what Oxygen's Bad Girls Club (2006) brings to the screen. A group of self-proclaimed "bad girls" put in one house - cuss words, hands, and short dresses are sure to be thrown around often. I've actually applied for this show, more than once, and made it into the later application rounds. The questions that production asks you are "deep", you could say. That's not always the case for the women that they actually cast. I will have to get that application uploaded, for all that are curious, in the future! Wrapping it up with a few more teenage-hood favorites, from MTV. One of MTV's longest running shows, True Life (1998), follows a particular topic each episode - such as drug addiction, homosexuality, or pursuing a specific career. Over the years I think they've slowly ran out of things to document. My husband and I were looking for something to watch, recently, and settled on True Life. The episode was titled "Being a Feeder", a phrase we has never heard of. For those of you who don't know, this seems to be an obsession, that obese women have, with being fed. It also documented a woman who recorded sexual videos, of herself farting, for those with an obsession. After a few blank stares and each of us asking "what in the actual hell is this?' - we changed the channel. Something a bit more mainstream: What teenage girl didn't watch Laguna Beach (2004) or The Hills (2006)? Both shows focused on the life of high school graduate, Lauren Conrad. If you watched the show, you know of the infamous reality couple, "Speidy", and anytime you hear the pronunciation of the name "Steven" prolonged, you cringe. They recently did the 10 year reunion for The Hills and needless to say, it made me feel old; as do all of the growing babies, from Teen Mom OG (2009) and Teen Mom 2 (2011). These two shows originated from the series 16 and Pregnant (2009), where underage teens and their pregnancy drama was documented for the world to see. Clearly Reality TV is taking over the television world, slowly but surely. I don't mind it, as most of our regular cable television shows are getting more monotonous by the minute - but my message to productions is: Please don't ruin our pillars! Leave those for the die-hard fans and start something new for all of the whiny viewers. By now you should be able to tell that I am a nerd for Reality Television! January is off-season for most television shows. So if you're a fan of spoilers, like me (and just cannot wait) check out Vevmo.com - those should hold you off until the premieres and blog reviews begin!