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blackpinkofficial · 6 years ago

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On a modest stage inside a tent in downtown Los Angeles, the four members of the South Korean girl group Blackpink assume a diamond formation and aim their fingers like guns at the audience as they launch into the chorus of their breakout hit, “Ddu-du Ddu-du”: “Wait till I do what I ... Hit you with that ddu-du ddu-du du!”

It’s the afternoon before the Grammys at Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge’s annual showcase, where he presents the company’s prospective superstars to a crowd of record executives and industry types. (Past performers have included Ariana Grande, Halsey and Shawn Mendes.) With their intense choreography, dance-heavy beats and Clueless-esque high-fashion looks, the four women offer the kind of bells-and-whistles pop production that makes them an anomaly not just on today’s lineup, where rappers like 2 Chainz and Lil Baby abound, but also on the charts, where women like Grande serve up their divadom with an extra dose of realness.

The showcase marks Blackpink’s first stateside performance, though the band made history long before: “Ddu-du Ddu-du” became the highest-charting single by a Korean girl group on the Billboard Hot 100 when it peaked at No. 55 last June, and this April the act will be the first Korean girl group to play Coachella, before embarking on a North American arena tour. “Ddu-du Ddu-du,” sung mostly in Korean, is a boastful warning to those who underestimate Blackpink, with a hook (meant to imitate the sound of bullets flying) that’s also a canny invitation to non-Korean listeners -- anyone can sing the words. The buttoned-up UMG crowd seems a little unsure, but also intrigued: Just as Blackpink’s Jennie -- soft-spoken in person, but onstage a fierce singer and rapper -- slides into a rat-tat-tat flow in the second verse, more and more audience members whip out their phones to capture video.

There’s no longer any question that K-pop is happening in America. BTS, the seven-member South Korean boy band, scored two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in 2018 and became the first K-pop group to sell out an American stadium when it played New York’s Citi Field in October. Yet despite the group’s visibility here, K-pop remains somewhat detached from the mainstream: It receives relatively little top 40 airplay despite fan-army pressure on radio stations, its artists rarely tour with non-K-pop acts, and outside of its intensely passionate fan groups, K-pop stars hardly drive the wider “conversation” that someone like Grande can dominate with a single tweet.

Blackpink represents Korean music’s latest, greatest hope at breaking out of the American K-pop box. The group believes its multinational identity gives it global appeal: Sweet-voiced Jisoo, 24, is a South Korean native; buoyant rapper Lisa, 21, is from Thailand; guitar-playing Rosé, 22, grew up in Australia; and Jennie, 23, was born in South Korea but spent some formative years in New Zealand. “You don’t have to understand Korean to understand the music, the visuals, the vibe,” says Jisoo, through a translator. (Rosé and Jennie are fluent in English; Lisa alternates between English and Korean during our interview.) “We’ve got so much Korean culture and so much Western culture in us,” adds Rosé, her Australian accent still pronounced.

And though occasional English lyrics already pepper their tracks, Jennie notes that recording all-English songs is something they “definitely want to do” in the future. (They’re focused on making their debut album first.) Even their sound -- an omnivorous fusion of fist-pumping EDM and booming hip-hop beats with flashes of house, ’80s pop and harmonica-driven folk -- seems conceived for the widest possible audience. “I was immediately drawn to their fierce and empowering energy,” says Dua Lipa, who asked the group to guest on last year’s bilingual banger “Kiss and Make Up.” “They are not just giving you hit songs -- they are sending a message that resonates beyond the lyrics.”

Last fall, Blackpink signed to Interscope Records, which will serve as both a creative and business partner to YG Entertainment, the group’s Korean home and one of South Korea’s three main music companies along with SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. These companies serve as label, management firm and production studio, controlling almost every aspect of their artists’ careers. Interscope chairman/CEO John Janick says that YG’s leadership -- Hyunsuk “YG” Yang, its founder, and Teddy Park, Blackpink’s main producer and creative director -- “runs the show,” but the relationship is collaborative: Sam Riback, Interscope’s pop-rock A&R head, has made multiple trips to YG’s Seoul headquarters and “has been sending them lots of different ideas,” according to Janick. “Our goal,” he says, “is to amplify what YG has been doing globally.”

If Interscope can help turn Blackpink into a truly global superstar act, the partnership could become a model for other labels looking to invest in K-pop and even pave the way for joint imprints. “This deal could be a benchmark,” says YG’s Joojong “JJ” Joe, who heads the company’s U.S. operations from a small house near Los Angeles’ Echo Park. It will also confirm Interscope’s foresight about K-pop. In 2011, the label signed the group Girls’ Generation during one of the earlier waves of K-pop imports, when artists like BoA and Wonder Girls worked with Western producers and companies.

At the time, those artists barely made a dent on the mainstream charts, and their backers took a hit: Despite high-profile promotional appearances, Girls’ Generation’sThe Boys LP sold only 1,000 copies in the United States during its first week in 2012, according to Nielsen Music. Since then, however, streaming platforms have made it easier for fans to discover and support Korean music, while the growth of social media has also allowed them to forge deep connections with artists everywhere. “In this era, people find their music and their talented artists on the internet,” says Susan Rosenbluth, senior vp at AEG Presents/Goldenvoice, who helped book Blackpink’s North American tour and notes that K-pop’s stateside audience “does not follow along ethnic lines.”

To Janick, the success of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s chart-topping Latin hit, “Despacito,” aided by a Justin Bieber remix, made English-speaking listeners more open-minded in general to music in other languages. “We’re going to have hits from all different territories -- more of them, and more often than we’ve seen in the past,” he says.

But the onus isn’t just on listeners to embrace Korean music -- it’s on industry gatekeepers too. At the UMG showcase, the reaction to Blackpink is enthusiastic, but it feels muted compared with the rousing ovation the crowd gives classic-rock revivalists Greta Van Fleet, whose 2018 debut album was notoriously panned by some critics as derivative. The response to Blackpink’s Interscope deal, however, suggests that attitude could change.

“So many artists on our roster started calling, saying, ‘I want to work with these girls.’ Radio stations were asking when new music was going to be out,” says Interscope executive vp business development Jeremy Erlich, who facilitated early conversations between the label and YG (he and Joe attended business school together). “The industry’s ready. When the music comes out, I don’t think there’s going to be many people saying, ‘This is just a fad.’”

The day before the showcase, the ladies of Blackpink are ensconced in a hotel suite high above downtown L.A. Lisa, dressed in a gray fleece and a checkered coat, spies the Hollywood sign through a corner window and bounds off a couch for a closer look. Her bandmates, cozied up in brightly colored sweatshirts and cardigans, admit they weren’t expecting Los Angeles in February to be so chilly. During some rare downtime the previous day, they went shopping in Santa Monica. “It was supposed to be for fashion,” says Jennie, “but we ended up just grabbing anything that was warm.”

This is Blackpink’s first trip to L.A., but it has been almost a decade in the making. The group’s members came to Seoul from all over the world starting in 2010 to take part in YG’s rigorous recruitment and training process. The company and its competitors hold tryouts both within and far beyond Korea (Rosé traveled to Sydney from her home in Melbourne), seeking recruits who are typically preteens or teens, ethnically Korean and fluent in the language, though these qualities are not mandatory. Lisa, who auditioned in her native Thailand in 2010, didn’t speak any Korean when she began training in Seoul in 2011.

For all four women, joining YG meant enrolling in a kind of full-time pop-star academy that Jennie calls “more strict than school” and that Rosé likens to The X Factor with dorm rooms. For 12 hours a day, seven days a week, the future members of Blackpink -- along with, by Jennie’s estimate, 10-20 other aspiring singers who cycled through the project -- studied singing, dancing and rapping, taking part in monthly tests designed to identify their strengths and weed out subpar trainees. “Somebody would come in with a piece of paper and stick it on a wall, and it would say who did best, who did worst, who’s going home,” recalls Jennie, whom YG initially steered toward rapping because she spoke fluent English. “You get a score -- A, B, C,” Lisa explains. “Lisa would always get A’s for everything,” adds Jennie with a laugh.

The process was lengthy. Before Blackpink debuted in 2016, Jennie spent six years in training, Lisa and Jisoo five and Rosé four. For the members who had left behind life outside South Korea, the pace of training on top of the culture shock was sometimes tough. “I’d call my parents crying,” recalls Rosé. “But as much as it was hard for me to cope with all of that, it made me more hungry. I remember my mom would be like, ‘If it’s so hard for you, just come back home.’ But I’d be like” -- she mimics a surly teen’s glare, much to the others’ amusement -- “‘That’s not what I’m talking about!’” Lisa credits her future bandmates with easing her transition. “Jennie would speak English to me, and Jisoo helped me out with my Korean,” she says. Rosé was the last of the bunch to enter training, but she remembers the four of them bonding during an all-night jam session when she arrived. “We just clicked,” she says.

That’s clearly still the case: Rosé sometimes puts her hand on Lisa’s knee when translating for her, and at one point Jennie and Jisoo huddle close together to silently adjust one of their necklaces, displaying the intimacy of close friends. “We don’t really have a day off,” says Lisa. (Once every two weeks, Rosé clarifies.) And because their families are so far-flung, they often spend their time off with each other anyway. “We’re stuck together,” says Rosé, laughing.

While K-pop companies have a reputation for packaging groups assembly line-style, Blackpink’s members insist they have plenty of creative input, despite having no official writing credits on their tracks. Park plays them music he’s working on and “really tries to put our thoughts into our songs,” says Jennie. “He really gets his inspirations from us.”

“It’s important as recording artists that they actually truly own their songs,” says Park. The women all make suggestions about who should sing what, and if a part doesn’t feel right to someone, he will make adjustments. “He doesn’t just bring us a song, like, ‘Go practice,’” says Rosé.

Besides, the members of Blackpink have another creative outlet: Last fall, YG announced that they would all release solo material, starting with Jennie, whose debut single, “Solo,” topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart in December. Though the music is still created and put out by YG, the idea that group longevity and solo success aren’t mutually exclusive is a radical development in girl-group history -- one that Janick says only “makes the brand stronger.”

Stars who come through companies like YG are called “idols” in Korea and have historically been expected to maintain a squeaky-clean image. When Blackpink debuted, Jennie says YG was very selective about its promotional appearances: “We were trained to be a little more...” “Closed in?” Rosé suggests.

“Closed in” is exactly what the outspoken women ruling the U.S. charts now, from Grande to Halsey, are not -- they make deeply personal, even raw, music. But while Blackpink may well find success catering to an audience craving its kind of TRL-era pop spectacle -- Interscope’s Erlich calls the group “the modern Spice Girls” -- lately the band has been less concerned with appearing perfect, both onstage and off. “We always wanted to be out there, to be more true to ourselves and a little more free,” says Jennie. “Even we can get things wrong sometimes. We want to just show them the real us.”

Jennie and Lisa do just that when I ask how they expect to be received as rappers in America. Lisa lets out an embarrassed groan, withdrawing into her fleece. She has loved hip-hop since childhood and is obsessed with Tyga (“I love his swag,” she says, blushing). But she and Jennie seem well aware that a group of Asian women adopting a style pioneered by black American artists might be a hard sell for some stateside listeners who are keenly attuned to debates about cultural appropriation.

“Me and Lisa don’t talk about it out loud, but I know we have this big pressure,” says Jennie, who adds that she studied artists like Lauryn Hill and TLC when she first started rapping. She looks across the room at Lisa: “She’s going to kill it.” Lisa just scrunches up her face.

That kind of vulnerability may be what ultimately endears Blackpink to an American pop audience. “The artists that are the most successful in these situations are really authentic with how they can relate to a coming-of-age experience” in their music, says Goldenvoice’s Rosenbluth. “There’s a certain amount of authenticity to Blackpink that I really love. The dedication is heartfelt.”

Back at the showcase, the band finishes its set with the reggaetón-tinged “Forever Young,” featuring an intricately choreographed, hair-flipping dance break. As the beat reaches its booming climax, the bandmembers whip toward each other and strike a statuesque pose with their hands on their hips, just in time for the music to stop. They hold still for a moment as the lights dim, then drop their arms and turn toward each other, catching their breath and grinning like four young women who can’t quite believe they’re here.

#blackpink #ot4 #m:billboard #press #090103

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rapuvdayear · 5 years ago

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2000: “Ghetto Qu’ran (Forgive Me)” 50 Cent (Trackmaster Ent./Columbia)

It’s been over a year since I teased the idea of doing a post about my favorite 50 Cent tracks, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to get around to it!

With the exception of maybe Kanye, I can’t think of another rapper with more raw talent whose career has been more disappointing. Obviously both Ye and Fiddy have been monstrously successful, but IMO they either burned brightly before descending into white supremacy apologia (Kanye) or never achieved their best possible trajectory (50). It’s not an accident to put them together in this way, either; just 12 years ago next month they faced off in what turned out to be a very underwhelming battle over whose album would sell better (this was back when album sales, not streaming numbers, still meant something). In many ways, it was a crossroads for each artist: Kanye dropped what I believe was his magnum opus, then followed it up with his fourth-best album, third-best album, and second-best album, before dropping off a cliff, while 50′s release basically removed him from the conversation about who was relevant in rap (“My Gun Go Off” and “I Get Money” are honorable mentions for the list below, but otherwise Curtis is entirely forgettable).

These days, 50 has gone the Ice Cube route and is probably more recognizable as an actor than as a rapper. So, it’s hard to remember that once upon a time he was the savior of gangsta rap and (co-)author of one of the 25 greatest albums of all time. He beat the odds to survive a shooting, link up with the two heaviest hitters (at the time) in the rap game, and even be included on some GOAT lists. He also essentially established the “flood the streets with mixtapes before your album drops” strategy of self-promotion that Gucci, Weezy, and even Drake would follow in the days before Soundcloud was the go-to resource for building a rep. He singlehandedly destroyed a rival’s career, launched a clothing line, video game, and music label, and made a halfway-decent biopic. And then... he just sort of petered out.

But! 50 is also responsible for some of my all-time favorite raps, which is why it’s so frustrating to me that he never lived up to the buzz surrounding him back in 2003. These are my five favorites, listed chronologically, with some commentary:

1) “Ghetto Qu’ran (Forgive Me)” (2000) Before the G-Unit days and before Eminem and Dre helped launch him to superstardom, Curtis Jackson was an up and coming rapper from Queens who had attracted the attention of another rap legend, Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay. A mutual friend introduced 19 year-old 50 to Jay back in 1996, and the veteran producer/DJ gave him a crash course in how to write songs and signed him to his fledgling label. The business relationship didn’t work out, but it helped lead 50 to Columbia Records’ Trackmasters imprint where he recorded Power of the Dollar in 1999. However, this debut album would never see the light of day after 50 was shot nine times while sitting in a friend’s car and subsequently dropped by Columbia. In the wake of the shooting--and then later, after 50 blew the fuck up in 2003--it became a sort of “lost cult classic” among rap fans. “How To Rob” got the most attention at the time, a funny-yet-vicious song demonstrating 50′s hunger through fantasies about sticking up famous rappers and R&B stars (the song was also clearly an homage to Biggie’s unreleased “Dreams,” and provoked an oblique diss from Ghostface). But “Ghetto Qu’ran” has had a more lasting impact, primarily because of how it was rumored to be the source of 50′s shooting, Jam Master Jay’s murder, and the Ja Rule/Murder Inc. beef. While all of that intrigue is important to rap lore, it distracts from the fact that it’s a near perfect rap song from a technical perspective: a catchy hook, a fantastic beat and sample, an effortless flow, and a well-crafted story that is equal parts celebration of the Queens underworld and subtle shots at street legends. Seriously, this is akin to what traveling bards used to do in medieval Europe, what poets in Ancient Greece wrote, what west African griots did/do, and what narcocorrido artists do now. If you want to learn about the Supreme Team, Pappy Mason, the Corley Family, and the Rich Porter/Alpo crew in Harlem, then this is a good place to start; as 50 puts it, “consider this the first chapter of the ghetto’s Qu’ran.” The secondary title to this track--“Forgive Me”--has a double meaning now. It was initially a plea to forgive 50 for the pain he caused in his criminal life but in retrospect an appeal to the figures whose names he drops. Also, it’s interesting to listen to this first and then compare 50′s voice with the next four tracks: this was recorded before the shooting, which left a bullet fragment lodged in his tongue that affected his speech and gave him his now-distinctive flow.

2) “Heat” (2003) There are several standouts on Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (“Many Men,” “Back Down,” “What Up Gangsta,” “Patiently Waiting,” and “Poor Lil’ Rich” spring to mind, and I will always love “21 Questions” for the “I love you like a fat kid loves cake” line alone) but this one has always been my fave. It’s a perfect distillation of the image that 50 was trying to project when he burst onto the scene: a hood-hardened gangster who wouldn’t hesitate to do his enemies harm. And given his recent history, you could believe him, too! There’s really nothing about this song that should be praised in any way, but I’ve been thinking about the gravity of the following line a lot in the past month or so: “The summertime is a killing season/ It’s hot out this bitch, that’s a good enough reason.” Also, 50′s boast “the DA can play this motherfucking tape in court” *has* to be one of the inspirations behind this great Key & Peele sketch, right?

3) “A Baltimore Love Thing” (2005) The Massacre was incredibly disappointing on the whole. I can remember clearly sitting around with my friends in a dorm room at the Shoreland listening to it all the way through the day that it dropped, wanting to love it but slowly realizing that it wasn’t going to live up to our expectations. “Ski Mask Way” could be an honorable mention on this list, and “Piggy Bank” is kind of funny, but otherwise it’s a steaming pile of shit. “Baltimore Love Thing,” though, is a masterpiece. It’s incredibly dark, rapped from the perspective of heroin itself (sort of like what Nas’s “I Gave You Power” does for guns) in order to detail the destruction that addiction--and, by extension, drug trafficking--leaves in its wake. Even more fucked up, 50-as-heroin voices an abusive partner addressing a woman, threatening her should she ever try to leave him. For my money, “You broke my heart, you dirty bitch, I won’t forget what you did/ If you give birth, I’ll already be in love with your kids” is one of the coldest lines in the annals of rap, full stop. In the second verse, he switches to the flip side of an abuser’s mindset: “I never steer you wrong, if you hyper I make you calm/ I’ll be your incentive, your reason for you to move forward.” All in all, it’s a great concept song that shows off 50′s range as a rapper... and is a testament to what he could have been.

4) “Hustler’s Ambition” (2005) Goddamn, I fucking love everything about this song! The beat is fantastic (great sample, btw), prefiguring the sound on a future great mixtape from the G-Unit crew. 50′s flow here is flawless, arguably the best, smoothest he’s ever been. This was basically the “theme” for 2005′s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ film, and tells the story of his come up in the drug game (or, at least, 50′s version of his carefully constructed hagiography). The lyrics are the true gems here, so I’ll just let a few of the standouts speak for themselves:

“Check my logic: fiends don’t like seeds in they weed, shit/ Send me them seeds, I’ll grow ‘em what they need”

“I sell anything, I’m a hustler, I know how to grind/ Step on grapes, put it in water, and tell you it’s wine”

“I made plans to make it, a prisoner of the state/ Now I can invite your ass out to my estate”

“Pour Cristal in the blender, make a protein shake”

and finally

“The feds watch me, icy, they can’t stop me/ Racists pointing at me, ‘Look at *****race’: Hello!”

5) “Ghetto Like A Motherfucker” (2011) I remember first encountering this track on a Tumblr compilation (I think?) called Don’t Fuck This Up, Curtis! and allowing myself to get excited that the old 50 was back! As the compilation’s name implies, around that time 50 had been releasing a string of online-only singles that were better than anything he’d put out in five or so years, and so there was some hope that he’d soon be making a triumphant return to the rap game. Sadly, this was not to be. But I still bang this track every month or so. The idea here was that 50 had written something, set it to a very sparse, stripped-down beat, and posted it online as an invitation for DIY rap producers to play with it and layer their own compositions on top of it. In that sense, it represented a melange of rap’s earliest roots--dudes spitting over vinyl cuts in basements and parks, just fucking around and having fun--and the possibilities afforded by the digital age and rap’s embrace of online platforms for mixing and remixing material (on a side note, I like to think of this as part of 21st century rap’s “punk rock” aesthetic, and would argue that this genre has done it better than any other). As with “Hustler’s Ambition,” “Baltimore Love Thing,” and “Ghetto Qu’ran,” this track gives 50 a chance to really showcase his talents as a writer and a rapper. The lyrics are as grimy as the beat, painting a picture of urban poverty and pre-fame 50, and 50 switches up his flow at multiple points throughout. Here are some of my favorite lines:

“Slim chance I’ma go back to killing roaches/ Be quiet, you can hear the rats in the wall/ Make you wanna pump crack ‘til you stack racks”

“Dice game, shake ‘em up, praying’ for a 6/ The wolves out there hungry, they lookin’ for a lick”

“****** pissed on the staircase, in the elevator/ Now I’m pissed cuz I’m starting to smell like piss, player”

and

“All a ***** need is a block and a connect/ And a box of 9 MMs to load in the TEC.”

50′s last two studio albums--Before I Self Destruct and Animal Ambition--honestly weren’t half-bad; I would venture so far as to say that they were both better than The Massacre and Curtis. But for 50 it was too little, too late, really. Too many rappers had come along since then doing what he did, only better and fresher. This is a Migos world now; we’re just living in it. And so, I’m left to ponder what could have been.

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experiencepop · 6 years ago

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Week Ending Jan 12

10. Better Now - Post Malone

So I’ve said before I don’t like Post Malone. I don’t like this song much either, but sometimes I like listening to it. This song means even less to me than Sunflower, it’s even more hollow and pointless. It also wallows in a mediocre sadness rather than having the pleasant cheer of that song. It’s a drifting melancholy track that appeals to me when i feel melancholy. But there are songs that tackle their sadness head on while this track just seems content to dip its feet in and sit there. This song makes me feel the way lying in bed and looking at youtube videos when i have no reason to get up does. It keeps me occupied for a little while, but when i finally move on I feel awful. I feel like I’m wasting my life.

9. ZEZE - Kodak Black Feat. Travis Scott and Offset

The steel drum in this beat appeals to me, but I feel like I’ve heard a million popular raps songs that sound like this. Not exactly obviously, there’s some interesting stuff happening here, but it almost feels like hit rap songs for the most part are a twist on a formula rather than all original. To be fair there’s a lot of pop music that doesn’t even twist the formula. Interesting beat, good hook, whatever verses. I don’t think this song has staying power but it’s fine for now.

8. Drip too hard - Lil baby Feat. Gunna

This is mumble rap right. I don’t like. This is the most out of touch I’ve felt so far. This doesn’t appeal to me in any way. The beat is bland and bot the rappers just sound bored. I know that this is a bad take. I know that this is what old people say about this music. But I just don’t get it and I never will.

7. Girls Like you - Maroon 5 Feat. Cardi B

Have I ever liked a Maroon 5 song? No. So I came into this one with a bias. I mostly like Cardi B, so i kind of hoped she could save this one. She doesn’t but I’m not sure that’s her fault. Her verse is fine, but Maroon 5 are such a sucking void of charisma that there probably isn’t any saving anything they do. I’ve called other songs bland, but this is beyond that. It’s sanded down to the point of total smoothness. There is somehow no emotion here at all.Is this a love song? I think so, but the vocals sound apathetic. There’s no strong appeal to object of the song. If this song was sung directly to you it would barely have any impact, making it even more flaccid as a radio song.

6. Happier - Marshmello Feat Bastille

Our first repeat. On this listen I found myself getting more into it, but I still maintain that the vocals are bland. Their more interesting than some of the other songs we’ve covered, but vocals are still just another instrument. The lyrics on this song could be anything and it wouldn’t really change much.

5. High hopes - Panic! At the disco

From here on out we’re all repeats so I’m going to have to think of new things to say. So I guess it’s time to talk about manifest destiny. The first chorus mentions that term while talking about the narrator's mother encouraging him. Hearing it brings me back to Us History in high school. There’s a loit of stuff that just taught as neutral and disconnected from the bad parts of US History - and I think manifest destiny is one of those things. If you’re unfamiliar it’s the part of US colonization where the conquering of the “wilderness” was destined, that we were entitled to that. It was the cause of a whole lot of evil. And like, I’m obviously not calling this song evil or anything but...it’s mentioned glibly and off hand, with no thought. It makes me a little uncomfortable to hear and I’m in a position where that belief probably benefited me, so I’m not even feeling the whole brunt here. Definitely worth thinking lyrics through more than that.

4. Sicko Mode - Travis Scott Feat. Drake

Okay we’re back to a song I like. One touch that separates this song from the rest of what we’ve covered is that first beat switch. We start with Drake and a synth pulse of some sort, basically a sound gradient sliding through. As Drake raps his intro we get the introduction of a drum to the beat, signalling that the spareness will start to build into more. We’re going to add layers. Then Drake invokes the name of the track and everything drops and we start over with a new beat and Travis Scott. That subversion of expectations matters a lot in context of the other tracks we’ve heard. With Zeze we get that steel drum and it sticks with us the whole way through. With High Hopes we’re told right at the beginning of the song what we’re supposed to be paying attention to. Here a lot more faith is put in the listener.

3. Sunflower - Post Malone and Swae Lee

Is junk food music bad for you? I certainly think Better Now is, but i’m not so sure about this one. Maybe this song is in a more insidious way. This is eating a bag of chips while Better Now is smoking some cigs. You know that’s bad for you, but sometimes you overlook the chips. You’re on a diet, but a party’s a party. If the snacks are out there, why not indulge a little bit. But in the end they’re still not what you should be doing.

2. thank u, next - Ariana Grande

This is a better love song than Girls Like You, because it has a definite object who the singer actually cares about. Sure it’s a love song to herself, but that doesn’t diminish it. I feel like people talk about self care a lot these days, but they don’t always articulate what kind of self care is actually useful and healthy. Here Ariana is recontextualizing her past, present, and future to better understand and process those experiences. This is useful self care, as she is strengthening her emotional tool set while processing real experiences. So often self care is indulgence without real use, but this feels solid and substantial.

1. Without me - Halsey

Let’s talk about the lack of teeth on this one a little more. The lyrics in the bridge into the chorus clearly sound vindictive, they sound angry. She is at once reaffirming that this person needed her, and once they didn’t they moved one - and she’s pissed off. But if anything her voice just gets a little louder. If there was anything sharp here production sanded it away. Lyrically I kind of like this, but I feel like some of that meaning is lost in its translation into sound. The best songs grow.

#pop music #music #billboard

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 30th June 2019

The reason there wasn’t a top 20 ranking today is I have an unwritten rule that if there’s more than three debuts in the top 20, I’ll keep a surprise until I release the chart episode, and, yeah, it’s one of those weeks and I am more tired than I think I’ve ever been writing one of these episodes so if I make mistakes or don’t seem passionate, I’m sorry, I’m just trying to get through this as quick as possible, and this episode might even end up a bit late, so I apologise if so.

Top 10

For the seventh week since its debut, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber are still at the top spot with their drowsy hit “I Don’t Care”, which I still don’t see the appeal in other than starpower.

At number-two, we have our highest of eight overall Top 40 debuts and two top five debuts, “Senorita” by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, assumingly from Mendes’ newest upcoming third album. It’s also debuted at #2 in the US, blocked by “Old Town Road”, because of course it is. This is his ninth UK Top 40 hit, and his seventh top 10, as well as Cabello’s ninth UK Top 40 hit, and her third Top 10.

At number-three, we have “Vossi Bop” by Stormzy, a spot down from last week.

At number-four, however, up four full spaces from last week, we have Ed Sheeran once again, this time with Chance the Rapper and PNB Rock, for “Cross Me”.

Stormzy has also launched two songs in the top five as his new arrival “Crown” debuts at number-five, becoming his sixteenth UK Top 40 hit and seventh Top 10. We’ll talk more about this song and “Senorita” later.

“Hold Me While You Wait” by Lewis Capaldi is thankfully down two spaces to number-six since last week.

Surprisingly, “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X didn’t rebound as successfully as I figured it would because of the EP release, instead it stays still at number-seven.

“No Guidance” by Chris Brown featuring Drake is down two spaces to number-eight.

The late Avicii’s “SOS” featuring Aloe Blacc is not moving at number-nine.

Finally, Taylor Swift’s debut from last week barely clings onto the top 10 as “You Need to Calm Down” falls five spaces already to #10, but I suppose it’s not as bad as the 11-space loss to #13 in the US.

Climbers

There’s none to speak of, and that’s not even an over-exaggeration really, since there is not a single boost bigger than three spaces up for a song in the top 40, but I guess it’s good to see “Mad Love” by Mabel in the top 15, so that’s something, although it should probably be in the top 10.

Fallers

Well, damn near everything. Let’s sort by genre.

Fallers for pop and “rock” outside of the top 10 with a fall down three spots or more included “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi down three to #14, “Bounce Back” by Little Mix collapsing down seven to #17, “bad guy” by Billie Eilish having a streaming cut down 15 spaces to #19, “Grace” by Lewis Capaldi down five to #22, “3 Nights” by Dominic Fike unfortunately down five to #26, “ME!” by Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco also in freefall down 12 to #30 and “Mother’s Daughter” by Miley Cyrus down four to #40.

Fallers for EDM under the same criteria include “One Touch” by Jax Jones and Jess Glynne down four to #23, “Piece of Your Heart” by MEDUZA and Goodboys down four to #24 and “Heaven” by the late Avicii featuring Chris Martin down 10 to #38.

Fallers for hip-hop and R&B also under the same criteria include “The London” by Young Thug featuring J. Cole and Travis Scott down five to #29, “OT Bop” by NSG down five to #35, “Shine Girl” by MoStack featuring Stormzy completely disbanding 14 spaces down to #36 and “Location” by Dave featuring Burna Boy down seven to #39, and that’s all.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

The biggest story here is the one I expected the most. “Omerta” by Drake is completely out of the UK Singles Chart from #33, mostly because it’s inaccessible and only got big briefly because of Drake’s existence and starpower. Other than Drake, our top 40 dropouts are plenty. We have “All Day and Night” by Jax Jones and Martin Solveig presenting EUROPA featuring Madison Beer out from #34, “Giant” by Calvin Harris and Rag’n’Bone Man out from #40, “Late Night Feelings” by Mark Ronson featuring Lykke Li is out from #35, “Falling Like the Stars” by James Arthur out from #38, and “Sixteen” by Ellie Goulding out from #27, sadly never reaching a peak of #16. Oh, and Skepta’s two hits are gone, with “Greaze Mode” featuring Nafe Smallz and “What Do You Mean?” featuring Skepta out from #37 and #39 respectively, and because it’s a very busy week, there’s pretty obviously no returning entries, so now it’s time to face the beast.

NEW ARRIVALS

#37 – “Find U Again” – Mark Ronson featuring Camila Cabello

Produced by Mark Ronson and Tame Impala – Peaked at #24 in Ireland

I’m going to be doing this in a slightly different but not optimal setting. I’ll listen to the new arrivals in a room without being chained up to my headphones on a chair but instead draining my thoughts on here with the song out loud. Sorry if I don’t notice any little details because of that but I think I’ll be able to make up what I think of a song with that and I’m boiling so we’ll have a little shake-up of the formula for once, and I’m boiling and exhausted so let’s get through it. Anyway, this is our first of two Cabello features this week, and this one is from the recently-released Late Night Feelings album by Mark Ronson, with this song debuting in the top 40, becoming Ronson’s twelth UK Top 40 and Cabello’s eighth, and well, it’s pretty okay. I’ve never liked Camila’s voice but she’s tamed down here and sounds pretty great in this multi-tracked falsetto, especially over a VERY 90s R&B instrumental (Which by the way is beautiful). The instrumental is very twinkly and incredibly synth-heavy, with a lot of fun groove in the verses, where Camila goes for a pretty quirky delivery that works very well, despite an abrupt and pretty janky drop. The lyrical content is nonexistent, really, but the 808s in the bridge especially deliver that emotion of never being able to cling onto something you previously had, in this case an ex, and while this can be repetitive, and perhaps somewhat undercooked in terms of songwriting, this instrumental is perfectly crafted and Camila stays in her comfort zone, thankfully, so I can forgive a couple lyrical issues. This is pretty damn good, and I’m suddenly much more excited to check out that album – this is much less spacey and actually delivers the mood it intends to, which is the problem I had with the title track weeks before.

#34 – “MEGATRON” – Nicki Minaj

Produced by Pop Wansel – Peaked at #9 in Hungary and #20 in the US

For Nicki Minaj’s damage-control lead single produced by a generic pop executive with no signature style and her 39th(!) UK Top 40 single, I’m expecting a complete trainwreck with no redeemable qualities.

Yup. This is terrible, so much that I almost felt embarrassed listening to it that I had to put Private Session on. The worst thing about this is that it had potential, I do like that pumping sampled guitar riff, but I can’t forgive the badly-mixed snares and incessant nonsense words yelled and stuttering effects that got old in 2010, as well as pretty aggravating and cheap Auto-Tune in the janky pre-chorus, not forgetting the chorus which is not only just “when I’m drinkin’” rhymed several times without an internal rhyme, but it only stops when she decides not to finish her line and awfully segue by a few “brat-dat-dat”s over to the next section of the song. The lyrical content in the miniscule verses that are here, is pretty standard Nicki fare about “clapping on the D”, but watered-down to fit for a radio that will definitely not put this mess in rotation. It doesn’t have a climax, or a bridge other than... a minimal instrumental forcing you to listen to Nicki and it’s just one corny bar repeated with pointless vocal effects filling time. Mrs. Minaj, do you know how a bridge or middle-eight works? The outro is maddening and honestly this whole track is an absolute disasterpiece. I would call it a stretch for it to be encapsulated madness but this really is a ridiculous listen. PNTHN did it better.

#28 – “Mr Sheeen” – Digga D and Russ splash

Produced by Gotcha Bxtch

Digga D, we’ve seen twice before, Russ splash (No, not Russ from the US as someone on Twitter suspected), we’ve seen twice before, and this song title intrigues me. I suspect it’s about Charlie Sheen, and I damn well hope it is, he’s an intriguing man, we need a Charlie Sheen concept album. Somehow I doubt it, and I’m right, it’s about using a gun as a cleaning product.. or a cleaning product as a gun. Probably both, but they’re also cleverly using an extra “E” to avoid copyright infringement. Subtle. Is the song any good? Well, the menacing synth reminds me of more EDM-influenced trap and while monotonous and repetitive, it is intimidating and this instrumental does build up as it goes. Something isn’t clicking, and I think it’s Russ. Digga D has some decent wordplay and provides most of the content here, handling half the hook and two full verses, which are both pretty good although his flow is often a bit janky to co-operate with the beat, and does sound offbeat at times when the beat’s still developing in the first verse. I feel like it should have been one verse between two choruses instead, then Russ comes in, so structure’s a bit off there. The chorus is also pretty iffy, with a lot of blank space on the beat between Russ’ nasal flows snabbed from his OTHER hits “Gun Lean” and “Keisha & Becky”, and the transition between his verse and his chorus is non-existent and lazy, much like Russ’ second verse which didn’t need to happen. The beat is pretty okay but they have no idea how to approach it. Ideally, I would have no chorus on this song, as it just seems to have screwed up their plans a bit, since the hook is especially rushed. Russ brings nothing to the song at all, so I’d cut him off in an ideal world, but how about make the chorus the intro while the beat’s still building up into the drop, then have Digga D and Russ deliver back-to-back verses, with the hook MAYBE coming back for an outro? That just seems to be a better way to approach it in my opinion, but the song’s not bad on its own and I commend it for that to an extent, it just needs a bit of reworking.

#25 – “Panini” – Lil Nas X

Produced by Take a Daytrip – Peaked at #12 in Canada and Slovakia, and #16 in the US

This is Lil Nas X’s second Top 40 hit since “Old Town Road” in the UK and I’m just going to copy-paste what I said in my review of his (Expectedly) mediocre yet somewhat impressively versatile EP 7 (a light 5/10) and while I have warmed up to it now because of how infectious and short it is, these words still hold up pretty well in terms of my opinion on the song, which is it’s a lazy label-manufactured follow-up.

So, “Old Town Road” is genius because it’s not even two minutes and has so much energy and charisma, as well as being a massive smash hit and also kind of a bop. It worked, so he deleted all of his older music and paid rent off of “Road” and “Road” alone. It’s captivating because of its brevity. How, then, do you ask, is he going to make a song more than two and a half minutes captivating, intriguing, interesting? Answer is, he doesn't. “Panini”, two seconds longer than the original “Old Town Road”, has some pretty bland sloshy trap production, where Lil Nas X, previously seemingly rejecting Auto-Tune on OTR, croons catchy pop-rap choruses that just drones on, with miniscule verses that lead into odd, abrupt emo-rap breakdowns including an unrecognisable interpolation of Nirvana's "In Bloom"? Oh, yeah, and whistling worked the first time, but when it's not Billy Ray, it's not working, and the song ends up not feeling unfinished but definitely missing a third verse or bridge because it is short as all hell, and adds up to nothing without having that same punch as “Old Town Road”. In conclusion, it’s probably the best Travis Scott reference track I’ve ever heard.

#20 – “Kilos” – Bugzy Malone featuring Aitch

Produced by Swifta Beater and B. Somebody

Bugzy Malone is a pretty respected British rapper out of Manchester, and he’s been bubbling and buzzing on the scene for a while now but he’s just started recently to have all that much chart success, specifically in the Top 40. So, he teams up with newcomer Aitch for a second Top 40 hit for the both of them (Bugzy only having leads, Aitch only having features, coincidentally), a first top 20 hit for the both of them, and both Bugzy and Aitch’s highest-charting song, so it’s clearly one the public has latched onto if the other songs didn’t have enough of it to chart this high. When first putting it on, I knew exactly why, it’s that Latin trap instrumentation, with some pretty plastic brass and surprisingly bouncy Latin guitar that isn’t as stiff as you’d expect, Bugzy Malone delivering an insane verse, with a couple flow switches and story-telling that is unseen from most mainstream rappers, despite an offbeat chorus, detailing his story with a somewhat generic trail but a powerful convincing delivery. Aitch tries to do the same but he’s way too generic with no quirks at all that make him interesting. He’s just listing off typical British hip hop subjects and lines I swear I’ve heard before in one flow and one flow only, and it gets pretty boring, despite his charisma. Thankfully, Bugzy comes back with a short third verse book-ending the story and the beat is incredible, so without Aitch, I’m pretty sure this would have been near-perfect. I like how the chorus and first verse focuses on what they were getting themselves into before the come-up as a hip-hop artist, specifically drug trafficking, Aitch’s is how people react to the come-up, and the final verse is Bugzy celebrating fame by mentioning three-piece suits and such. There’s a nice scale there and I think this is actually pretty good, despite Aitch wasting a lot of time, so it’s a shame he’s on here, it feels like wasted potential, although I understand the purpose of his performance here, it doesn’t come close to Bugzy’s bars and feels a bit lacklustre. Congratulations on your hit though, guys, especially Swifta Beater and B. Somebody because this slaps hard.

#19 – “Mocking It” – JAY1

Produced by Nastylgia

Now for this dude again. God, I hated that last Top 20 hit he had, “Your Mrs”, and I haven’t heard anything since, so I was dreading this, and yeah, it’s pretty bad. If you can even dignify the instrumental as a “beat”, then the beat is pretty awful. It’s an off-beat synth bleep sound and a sub-bass, except this time it’s distorted and there’s some badly-mixed percussion, much like a DJ Mustard beat with all of the charm cut out. This sounds just like “Your Mrs”... except it’s good. See, Nastylgia knows how to sound intimidating with minimalist beats, and how to elevate a song’s energy, while the producer for “Your Mrs”, Coolie was a bit of a hack, so no matter what JAY1 says, this song will be better because it has the basics on how to make an interesting beat, which his last hit lacks. The beat here is actually pretty good because of its minimalism which is intimidating yet bouncy because of the 808s having so much fun in the background. However, once that gets boring, there’s a rapid-fire 808 jab until the beat suddenly picks up some pace, with Jay here switching up his flow for the third time in the first 30 minutes for the chorus, in a more melodic flow without autotune and instead sounding pretty mocking as the percussion just goes at it, but then the climax isn’t there yet? Maybe the basics aren’t here, because immediately after there isn’t a big climax, instead a post-chorus without percussion the beat cuts off and then returns in normal form, with odd 808-jab transitions excusing making the beat sound smoothly cobbled together. Then an incredibly repetitive bridge initiates with dumb chipmunk vocals, and there’s a final post-chorus with some female moaning, but then a fourth (or fifth?) freaking verse, where a cheap flute comes in and everyone’s confused. Yeah, I overestimated this guy because this still kind of sucks, I can see improvement though, but the beat work (Yes, I am nitpicking this a lot) really bothers me, especially since nothing Jay says warrants the experimentation or menace this beat tries to give him

#5 – “Crown” – Stormzy

Produced by Jimmy Napes and MJ Cole

Now it’s time for what are supposed to be the “big” debuts this week, but honestly I don’t see much in these two songs that require this much attention and success other than starpower. First, we have a non-explicit song from rapper Stormzy, and since I’m quite a fan I checked this out when it was first released a week or two ago, and while some may see the all-singing route as new ground for Stormz, this should have been pretty evident from the gospel-tinged tracks on Gang Signs & Prayer, and this has of course an influence from that genre but this is mostly reminiscent of a lot of British pop and soft rock from people like Ed Sheeran and... Lewis Capaldi. In fact, it sounds like one of Tinie Tempah’s pop crossover singles from back in 2010, like that one with Eric Turner, but this rendition is so much better and more genuine, with the gentle vintage lo-fi piano loop providing Stormzy’s surpisingly good singing voice (Of course it’s not amazing but it’s not supposed to be incredible, and it fulfils its purpose). The piano loop is used in a completely different way when it’s flipped to a hip-hop beat, which hilariously is just a clean brag-rap for the kiddies, but it works well, as he acknowledges “heavy is the head that wears the crown” and how hypocritical this verse is in comparison to the soulful chorus. I’d love to see this in an album context, as I’m curious to who is being honest here, the hardcore rapper or the gospel (Children’s?) choir. The lyrics are also pretty funny, the line ending off the first verse in particular. The climax of strings and vocal samples and an 808 are a great way of ending the chorus, and the elevation of the verses with gospel vocalising is pretty great. This is excellent, I’m excited to see where this goes, success-wise and in the album, and I’m happy this is here.

#2 – “Senorita” – Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello

Produced by watt, benny blanco and Cashmere Cat – Peaked at #1 in Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Slovakia, and #2 in the US

Okay, this is kind of disappointing. I hated the last Mendes single, which I thought was overproduced trite without any sense of passion, so surely a stripped-back seductive Latin song would be up my street and what I would want out of Mendes’ upcoming album, but no, this really is undercooked. I don’t have much to say, but the slick guitar here, despite somewhat bouncy with the finger-snaps, really doesn’t work as a backing against Camila’s squealing, and Mendes’ falsetto doesn’t sound great here either, with a surprising lack of chemistry between them. The chorus is undercooked in that it’s filled to the brim with “la, la, la” repetitions that get on my nerves instead of all that much interesting lyrical content and substance. I mean, I should look at the verses for that and I shouldn’t care about the poetic structure of a pop song, but I can’t help but feel this chorus, although incredibly catchy, is a very rushed part of the song. I don’t mind this, but it does feel very lightweight, especially for Camila, both of whose vocals sound great on the outro when it’s just subtly Auto-Tuned riffing. The song itself is just about an obsessive, sensual love, that they can’t take themselves away from. Apart from seemingly being released in pretty rushed form to fend off “Does Shawn Mendes is gay?” rumours, I can’t really get too mad at this, but I feel it could have been a lot better.

Conclusion

Best of the Week goes to Stormzy, no question, for “Crown”, with Honourable Mention going to Camila Cabello and Mark Ronson for “Find U Again”. Worst of the Week, I’m left with a lot of options, but there’s no way in hell it’s going to anyone but Nicki Minaj for “MEGATRON”, God, that’s a trashy song. Dishonourable Mention goes to JAY1 for “Mocking It”, but that’s all I have to say really about this week. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank for more musical ramblings and I’ll see you next week!

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thankguard · 8 years ago

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RECAP: OUR TOP 50 AUSTRALIAN HIP-HOP/R&B TRACKS OF 2016

2016 was the year that this scene was finally accepted by mainstream media outlets, played regularly on Triple J and given the opportunity to throw mad rap events at some of the countries’ best live music venues. The number of local rap: artists, releases, managers, parties, radio shows, even blogs exploded too. MANU CROOKS was put on BEATS1 rotation & posted on The FADER. SAMPA THE GREAT racked up over half a million streams on “BLUE BOSS”. BARO blurred cultural/sonic boundaries. TKAY MAIDZA dropped a huge album + landed that KILLER MIKE collab. MIDAS.GOLD, CULT SHOTTA, BIG SKEEZ, I AM D, NICO GHOST & SAVOUR THE RATIONS all dominated live-stages across the country. The GREMLNS, PLAYBACK 808, 1 HUNNID RECORDS & TREXON WAVE showed us the future. These squads are all barely out of high-school, have a strong African heritage and are blowing up against the odds. Almost all of the above was soundtracked by producers: DOPAMINE, MIRACLE, JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS, MITCH GRUANKE & HARVEY who don’t get enough credit. JUNOR launched his AUD$ radio show on SYN which is legit. The PROPHECY BOYZ launched SAUCE - a new brand that will probs do huge things in 2K17. RARE FLOW TV, provided an essential piece-to-the-puzzle, bringing this all to life in quality music videos. Australian rap music is at an all time high. But tbh, it’s going to take another miracle to push it any further. Now that there’s money to be made here, cashed-up copy-cat rappers/labels/magazines/venues with no imagination will find a way to suck the life out of your music for a quick profit. Historically, this has happened many times over, preventing Australians from truly impacting music culture on a global scale. WTF is the diff between us and: Canada, England or America? Terrible artists will succeed if you let them. Donald Trump was elected president. We’re always a stones-throw away from making the next generation of AUS rap fans (and the rest of the world) cringe at us. Question everyone. Even THANK GUARD. Oh, btw. This blog still doesn’t make money. Here’s 50 songs that inspired us to keep hustling in 2016 in between dem long-ass shifts. 50. “VIEWS UP” - NYUON (MELB)

NYUON - an essential character in the MELB rap scene - stretches out the parameters of his sound a little more with each release. “VIEWS UP” saw him lean back towards centre after the experimentally hazy, lilting vibe of his ’15 BYMYSELF tape. With the help of producer ROOKIEPRO he pooled that self-effacing, conscious rap-swagger into his most polished track do-date. 49. “SORROWS” - BLESSED (SYD)

Taking cues from CUDI, UK alternative-pop and their own minds, BLESSED managed to instantly stand out from the rest of the trap-heavy SYD scene last year. Their output in ‘16 was super consistent, and “SORROWS” (our fav) has already amassed over 127K plays on Soundcloud. Early days, but their potential for global appeal is already proven. 48. “I.D.C.A” - 18K (BRIS)

“I.D.C.A” gives you a real wow moment the second those bars come in. 18K’s on that: modern-day BONE,THUGZ & HARMONY/vaguely MIGOS ATL, super-quick flow. His beats are perfect too. Hard hitting, modern trap sounds AND a hint of like CLAMS CASINO cloud-rap as well. 47. “30 DAYS” - DENNIS (MELB)

Mysterious producer/singer DENNIS dropped this one to no reception whatsoever. The mastering isn’t professional, but the song itself and the man’s vocals are world class. You gotta pump the volume ride it to the peak for full-effect fam. Like some new BON IVER shit without the cringe, pretty sure this came out first too. 46. “PRESSURE (ft. JACE XL)” - BILLY DAVIS (MELB)

BILLY DAVIS & JACE XL (RYTHYM SECTION) are both heavily associated with THE OPERATIVES (who monopolised vibes in MELB the last decade). JACE shows off his life-changing soul crooning over some classic BILLY DAVIS instrumentation. This would be a lot higher if it were more relevant to our needs. 45. “NO MORE” - DEEVILLA (SYD)

With this track alone, SYDNEY-based DEEVILLA proved he can write the type of song this scene needs. His flow, lyrics and overall mood on “NO MORE” summed up 2016 perfectly in terms of music & vibe. FLIP TRILL’s production on this one did all the above and more. 44. “RUN UP (ft. FLYBOII & L.U.I)” - LIL SPACELY (SYD)

Got the vibe that BLACK DANNA head honcho SPACELY had a tough 2016. But, being an essential SYDNEY rap-character that he is, the dude still managed to drop some of the livest AUS rap tracks of 2016. On “RUN UP”, he took the chunky, horn-filled instrumental from FAT JOE and REMY MA’s “ALL THE WAY UP”, puffed out his chest, and along with a couple talented homies delivered a growling, arrogant battle track that signalled his readiness to take his music national. He’s already dropped several tracks in ’17. Stay woke. 43. “FIRE” - SQUIDGENINI (MELB)

SQUIDGENINI a.k.a Bella, is one of Melbourne’s better-kept secrets right now. She’s been honing her craft for some time: playing in bands, producing solo tracks and supporting huge artists. “FIRE”, one of her only releases in 2016, instantly put her on our radar. This highly ambitious track features no-bullshit lyrisicm, eccentric production and some straight up vocal-fire. 42. “NAH BRUH, THIS IS WAGE GANG!” - VEENO (SYD)

When BABY VEENO dropped this insane freestyle in October it was criminally over-looked by many (including us). Choosing YOUNG THUG’S timeless “SEE YOU” beat from that G.O.A.T RICH GANG tape proved to us that the man has taste. The ensuing bars instilled visions of VEENO becoming SYDNEY’s trap-SKEPTA in ’17. 41. “CLAP BACK” - SAVOUR THE RATIONS (SYD)

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SAVOUR THE RATIONS were one of the most influential, pro-active and entertaining AUSTRALIAN rap crews of 2016 (especially towards the end). KWAME, DOMBA, JAYJAY ASSASSIN, GYBRYLLAH SHYNE & RAJ MAHAL made their biggest moves via videos/live performances. “CLAP BACK” which was dropped on Jan 2nd, 2016 showed the boys doing their ting for their own entertainment. This year they’ll be doing it for thousands no doubt. 40. “BEST FRIEND (YOUNG THUG REMIX)” - BIG SKEEZ (SYD)

This was probably the local track we played most last year. BIG SKEEZ really stood out in ‘16 for his song-writing hustle & originality (highlighted on his S.A.T.T mixtape). Remixing such a familiar, iconic song allowed SKEEZ to let loose in the booth more than ever before, resulting in 3:14 of explosive, feverish trap-fury filled with icy-cold local references/flips. 39. “ALIVE REMIX (ft. BARO & CAZEAUX O.S.L.O)” - ESESE (MELB)

Couldn’t think of a more suitable 2016 MELBOURNE summer-rap anthem than this BARO remix if I tried. It feature local pillars: CAEZEUX O.S.L.O, SKOMES and the ESESE crew - and oozes those heavenly FITZROY day-party vibes. Hearing HENOQ and O.S.L.O both spit new-gen AUS boom-bap masterpieces in rapid succession would’ve brought a tear to the eye of every true BURN-CITY rap-fan this year. 38. “NO MORALS (ft. $KINNY DOM)” - BLACK NAPOLEON (WA)

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On “NO MORALS”, BLACK NAPOLEON brought equal parts: slow, deliberate and estatic D double E style booth raps - the kind you’d hear on some UK Pirate radio set to the table. LUCHII, another PERTH-based genius jumped into the mix sounding more like a 6K Gucci, nailing the perfect guest verse. The CAMERON PARK directed-visuals for this one featured no guns, knives or punches thrown, but it still stands as one of the most violent local vids of ’16. #HOMEBAKED. 37. “FUCK THE JUDGE (ft. REMI)” - BARO (MELB)

When BARO dropped the second taste of his soon-TBR JPYNTK tape about 6 months ago, the world was torn in half by the racial violence sweeping the US. It was literally with you everywhere you went, no matter ur skin colour. “FUCK THE JUDGE”, which was released at the very hight of this chaos featured inspired verses from REMI + BARO and was accompanied by the statement: “They're killing my people. They're killing PEOPLE.” The song itself also made another (less important statement) about BARO’s unflinching confidence as a dude/rapper. It was his first absolute crystal clear “fuck u” to industry/fan expectations - a sign that he might be giving the typical AUS rap-sound a much needed kick up-the-butt in 2017. 36. “POTENTIAL (I SEE)” - LORD LEVI (MELB)

When it comes to MELB underground anthems in 2016, LORD LEVI’s “POTENTIAL (I SEE)” is practically unrivalled. The hook, flow and production on this one truly encapsulates the rise of the BURN-CITY outer-suburb high-school trap scene in 2016. LEVI and the GREMLN squad built a dedicated following last year on the back of songs like this. Trek thru any BURN-CITY suburb and “I SEE POTENTIAL” follows u through the streets. 35. “FLEX MODE” - ERIK SANDERS (BRIS)

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Brisbane’s ERIK SANDERS blew up out of nowhere last year on the back of several highly-polished, US-influence nu-trap singles. “FLEX MODE” bursts out of the gate with a series of auto-tune inflected bars that twist-and-turn, merging multitudes of impressive melodies in quick succession. This one gets real wild at the end too. 34. “RIDE (ft. REZT)” - LUCHII (WA)

LUCHII has always struck us as an interesting character, but we still slept on the man in ’16. When he dropped “RIDE” like a month ago, we swore to stay woke on the PERTH creative forevermore. This one rides an island trap wave that reminded us of CHILDISH GAMBINO’s “CALIFORNIA” and MAC MILLERS new stuff, but it also hits on something completely new. The vocals reference ATL rhythms/tones AND something else, which MUST have been born in a cloud of green smoke on one of those pristine PERTH beaches. 33. “PULL UP (ft. CIDI, LORD BRAVO, DUT BOL & RANDOLPH)” - BONKI CHOL (ADEL)

In 2016, the TREXON WAVE squad was our guilty pleasure. We legit found ourselves rinsing their proficiently rugged trap cuts more than CHANCE or FRANK. “PULL UP” is the song that started the whole affair. I remember being high af on a Tuesday at like 2PM about 8 months ago just blasting this enchanting MIGOS-style cut on my speakers for an hour straight. Jut listen to BONKI CHOI and homies: CIDI, LORD BRAVO, DUT BOL, RANDOLPH bring the sauce one time. They all flaunt separate styles, personalities and lyrical tendencies on this one, but their skills/delivery are at 100 throughout. 32. “HOW U FEEL” - NICO GHOST (MELB)

Close your eyes and “HOW U FEEL” will take you to a dark, nondescript club setting. Smoke settles in over those eerie trap bells - the calm before the storm. That amazing harpsichord removes any sense of time/location. Your mind is finally empty. Nico spits that FB generation mantra: “I couldn’t really give a fuck how you feel”, lulling you into a false sense of security before ruining your life with intensity. NICO’s 2016 was pretty-much dominated by his wild live-show. But in between sets he found the time to gift us with this the premiere for this one. Was a huge step forward for us. The man’s legit. 31. “MONSTER TRUCK” - ALLDAY (MELB)

ALLDAY is huge - has been for years now. In 2016, he went through a bit of a sonic evolution and we fucked with it heavy. “MONSTER TRUCK” is a song that pushed Australian rap to places in the world it rarely reaches. This one features earnest lyrics, euphoric melodies and a skin-tight flow - years of work/experience all coming together. ALLDAY made some serious global waves last year as unique voice in the world of post-OVO rap music. 30. “LIONA” - NASTY MARS (MELB)

On “LIONA”, future-star NASTY MARS took warm, wavy, lo-fi production ripped straight from a SOULECTION cassette and crafted his own rap/soul-experiment around the peaks and flows of the beat. Although, hardly representative of this guy’s unreleased material, live show and overall position in the AUSTRALIAN rap/soul scene - “LIONA” still managed to take on a life of it’s own… just suss the comments. 29. “BLOOD THICKER THAN WATER” - LUTHER (BRIS)

One of BRISBANE’s most charismatic up-and-comers, LUTHER teamed up with AUS production royalty JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS early last year for a YOUNG THUG/LIL WAYNE style cut that blew us away. The production bangs. LUTHER’s wild, warbling trap-jitterings are fierce, crunchy and at times hilarious. Everything you want in a track like this. The dude is associated with the WORLDWIDE BOYS who will blow up this year. 28. “THIRSTY” - ANFA ROSE (SYD)

“THIRSTY” came last year amidst a never-ending avalanche of consistently jaw-dropping ANFA ROSE & DOPAMINE joint-efforts. Everything on this one from the samples, to ROSE’s perfectly structured verses - to those 808 snares cutting thru your entire being - to the lyrics enforced our theory that these dudes aren’t human. They are computer programs or clones or holograms or something. 27. “MARIA MARIA” - GEEK, CHARLES X & SELASIE WUSSAH (SYD)

This one - easily top 3 most iconic “THANK GUARD” anthems in our entire history. Seeing it live at one of our BONEY parties inspired some of the most emotional dabs ever dabbed. When it dropped back in Jan, it brought out some of our best writing ever too… so I’m just gonna quote myself here.  “On the most polished THANK GUARD Premiere to-date, a dynamic trio of epileptic acid-rappers exchange contrasting melodic flows - in a bid to win a Spanish bae’s heart.” If you don’t know GEEK, CHARLES X (of CULT SHOTTA) or SELASIE WUSSAH by now we don’t trust u. 26. “1 3 1 6” - E L K (ADL)

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Adelaide teen E L K bursted onto the scene with last year with “TUTEN KARMEN”, which would have easily made the top 10 if he didn’t remove it from SC. “1 3 1 6”, a different (but equally impressive) joint also blew us away. This one brings guys like MF DOOM & JAY ELECTRONICA to mind instantly, but channeled thru the purity of a fresh, young mind with the voice of a rap-god. In 2016 alone, E L K and his PLAYBACK 808 crew went from bedroom rappers, to the creators of a legit AUS rap movement that looks poised to climb mountains in 2017. 25. “FEELING GOOD FEELING GREAT” - TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI (WA)

2 months ago, FourAM head-honcho TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI teamed up with producer SNOWEE for a sun-drenched 6K anthem. Some rare RAE SCHREMMURD vibes (if they were slightly more sober). Truly peaks at the end. TOYOTOMI is another young dude whose influence on the culture went beyond rapping last year. From short films, events to supporting those around him - this kid did it all in 2016. 24. “DOPER THAN DOPE (MACHINEDRUM REMIX)” - SK SIMEON (MELB)

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One of AUSTRALIA’s best rhythmic-vocalists had a huge 2016. SK SIMEON has been a worldwide reggae force for a minute now. Born in Uganda, recorded his first song at a studio in Dandenong… But last year “DOPE THAN DOPE” - one of his best tracks to-date was remixed by MACHINEDRUM. This version (which sounds good anywhere) took SK’s insane rapid-fire singing and infectious tongue-in-cheek delivery to dance-floors around the world. 23. “NULIFE” - MAIA (BRIS)

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BRISBANE neo-neo-soul singer/producer MAÏA returned to form in 2016 with her nostalgic, intimate “LOFI” Mixtape. “NULIFE” - a definite standout will swallow you up whole in a blanket of warm, jazzy melodies and pulsating rimshots. Coming very early in the year, this track really pre-empted a lot of trends that are dominating American music culture as we speak. We predict huge things for MAIA in 2017. 22. “$AUCE” - GREMLNS (MELB)

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2016 was the year of the GREMLN in the suburbs of MELB. No other underground AUS rap squad made more of an impact than these guys in the last 12 months. This “SAUCE” video came about after months of anticipation and was defs worth the wait. It showed the GREMSQUAD more polished-than-ever, a bunch of real young talents standing at the crossroads between street-fame and industry acceptance. The video itself is like a cross between an old-school Tarantino movie and a London GRIME vid, but set in some unmistakably murky Burn-city graffiti spots. 21. “BERETTA” - MATT BLACK (SYD)

SYDNEY-based vocalist MATT BLACK exploded out of the blocks last year with a series of MIRACLE/DOPAMINE produced R&B/SOUL singles - the type big labels dream about every night. “BERETTA” is the whole package. A high-concept, slow-burning, futuristic love-song which cleverly compares a lover to a pistol. Two things that (depending on the circumstances) can save you or destroy you, make u feel like a man or a mouse. 20. “EVERYDAY” - DREAM$TEAM (ADEL)

So much love for duo’s with vastly different voices. When you listen to a DREAM$TEAM you got no time for boredom. You’ve got CHARLTON on the first verse who always goes in with this SHAKE070-style flow and A-grade emotionally-charged lyricism, then the other G comes in riding world-class auto-tune vibes that sit somewhere between YACHTY & TRAVI$ SCOTT. The production, which features ZAYTOVEN-style piano, is the opposite of corny… bounces hard & leaves plenty of room for vocals. These guys are insanely talented for their age-bracket. Anythings possible for them in 2017 19. “TENNIES” - TKAY MAIDZA (ADEL)

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TKAY MAIDZA, easily one of the most successful artists on this list had a huge 2016. She was spun on SKRILLEX’s OWSLA radio show, played a tonne of festivals in AUS & FRANCE, but most importantly dropped a huge studio album, TKAY, which featured guest verse from KILLER MIKE (Run The Jewels). “TENNIES” was our favourite track from the album, because it combined her signature worldly sugar-rap with some hella uplifting footwork vibes. How often is boundary-pushing music this much fun? 18. “LAPUTA (TAYLOR MCFERRIN REMIX ft. ANDERSON PAAK)” - HIATUS KAIYOTE (MELB)

The one and only MELB-based GRAMMY-nominated future-soul quartet that we probs should have posted by now had to have a presence on this list, at least to show you all what’s possible. Their second album “CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON” is a must listen, but was released waybach in 2015. Last year, TAYLOR MCFERRIN recruited ANDERSON PAAK to rework standout single “LAPUTA” for a remix EP. The results speak for themselves. 17. “PEACEWALKER” - GALLU$, RAIDER KING (BRIS)

GALLU$ was real cult-force down in BRISBANE last year. His influence on the scene transcended his recordings - a huge statement considering the quality of songs like “PEACEWALKER”. This one features some heavy statements screamed with a natural Aussie accent over “GLASSSS” by PYRMDPLAZA.   “THIS INDUSTRY’S FAKE & THE PEOPLE TALK BULLSHIT // THAT SOUNDS PRETTY OBVIOUS // SO WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING? // QUESTIONING MY OWN MUSIC LIKE // EVERY LINE THAT I WRITE // CAN’T HELP BUT FEEL STUPID.” - nuff said. 16. “ALL OF MI LIFE (MACHINEDRUM REMIX)” - YAW FASO (MELB)

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2016 was a year where artists like POPCAAN & J HUS were getting love on THE FADER + DRAKE/BIEBER/SKRILLEX were jacking sounds from the Caribbean and breaking billboard records. When our own YAW FASO shared this MACHINEDRUM remix of his sun-drenched single “ALL OF MI LIFE” the timing was perfect, but as the hook declares, he wasn’t riding any trends. Reggae is one of the few genres that makes you smile, dance and forget about all your issues. This song, bursting with: FASO’s highly motivational reggae mantras, sugary buildups and super-refreshing production does all the above. 15. “IDK” - GILL BATES (BRIS)

With his LESS STRESS, MORE SUCCESS EP, GILL BATES showed a whole new side of himself to the world in 2016. Standout cut “IDK” took the catchier side of AUS rap into unknown territory: substance & self-awareness. Above all tho, it’s just a great song. That larger-than-life JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS production grabs you from 0:01… GILL’s opening line “BEEN DROWNING MY SORROWS // BOTTLE AFTER BOTTLE” takes you into his psyche… Then GILL & JAMES drag you deeper and deeper into darkness before flipping things with a bittersweet xylophone-driven hook. A world-class highlight from one of the best local releases in 2016. 14. “NEVER BEEN” - TYRØNE (SYD)

In the last 12 months, few local artists worked harder than TYRØNE. The SYDNEY rapper/producer legit dropped a full EP Trilogy, brimming with GOAT Australian rap lyricism. Song, after song the guy managed to craft a unique aesthetic for himself and his music – darkness that isn’t fake. “NEVER BEEN”, a real standout encapsulates this dedication to his craft more than any other. That skin-tight baritone flow just doesn’t stop on this one. “I SAY LIFE IS EVERYTHING YOU MAKE IT // ONE THING DAMN RIGHT I AIN’T NEVER BEEN FAKE BITCH” 13. “HIT EM” - I AM D (BRIS)

BRISBANE one-man-movement I AM D flew way under our radar until we heard this one. “HIT EM” showcased D’s near iconic nu-AUSSIE rap tone, through a stream of SKEPTA-like vocal punches that explained every move he would make in the local scene. Little did we know at the time, but he actually went on to achieve everything he rapped on this track. In a matter of months after its release: he got signed to a major label, dropped a hugely successful EP, landed a national tour and stamped his influence on the local culture. 12. “NO FATIGUE (ft. GEEK & SELASIE WUSSAH)” - CULT SHØTTA (SYD)

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The video for “NO FATIGUE” really set the tone for CULT SHØTTA season in 2016. They were always a truly unique presence in the Australian rap game, but on this track, they toned things down, unleashing line-after-line of vibrant acid-raps over a relatively sparse bass-driven trap beat. As per usual, CHARLES X, GEEK & SELASIE WUSSAH each brought their A-game, showing off vastly different styles/personas, each challenging different “AUSTRALIAN RAP” taboos in the process. It also marked the beginning of director RUFFY’s much-needed string of ambitious video-work that helped elevate many-a local rapper last year. 11. “FOR GOOD (ft. SAMPA THE GREAT)” - REMI (MELB)

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Couldn’t think of a better ’16 feel-good Aus-rap summer anthem than REMI and SAMPA’s “FOR GOOD” if I tried. When your air-con breaks on a 35 degree day, this song could actually save ur life. The production, hook and overall vibe really feels like a classic Triple J anthem, the type that soundtracked our lives. But, obviously everything has been re-worked for the next-generation, creating a crisper, more sonically diverse hit than we’re used to. 10. “EXISTENTIALITY” - OJIKAE (MELB)

“EXISTENTIALITY” is a lovesick vision that’s refreshingly different from the over-saturated BILLBOARD TOP 100-style R&B that the likes of TORY LANEZ and BRYSON TILLER put out. It was also the very first track released by 17 y.o VCE student Matt Cicero, which blew us away immediately last JULY. The guy wrote something original, produced the track himself and whipped out a spine-tingling vocal performance that singlehandedly dragged his ass all the way to the top 10 of this list. 9. “ASSUMPTIONS” - MANU CROOKS (SYD)

“ASSUMPTIONS” was premiered on ZANE LOWE’s BEATS1RADIO show… got our mag a global shoutout AND tore stages apart across the country in 2016. We heard more sides of Sydney game-changer MANU CROOKS than ever before on this one. With help from production masterminds DOPAMINE & MIRACLE, CROOKS departed from them brooding Toronto vibes to show Australia & the world that he can can TURN UP like the best of them. 8. “CALL ME” - DEVARN (MELB)

This song is what THANK GUARD is all about. Sonically, it’s right up our alley… but more importantly it came from a creative young dude who: thinks for himself and punches well-above his weight considering the resources/money some people on this list have at their disposal. It also tells a story we have witnessed for years now…  “ALL OF MY N*GGAS THEY WORK IN THE SUN // WAITING FOR LABELS TO HIT UP THEY PHONE // I WANT SOME MONEY TO GET ME A PHONE” Few rappers can get you on their side like Melbourne’s DEVARN. His vocals are earnest, intimate - when he raps, it feels like he’s letting you into his world. He doesn’t slur his words, or smother them in auto-tune either - you can hear every word the man is saying. Also, huge props for referencing some of our fav underground anthems >> SAUCE (GREMLNS) >> MOOSHAMAD // I HAD A DREAM WE GON’ MAKE IT. Damn. 7. “000000” - MIDAS.GOLD (BRIS)

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Last year, Brisbane’s MIDAS.GOLD elevated himself to the Mount Rushmore of this new-wave. Of all the wild trap releases & intimate soul-searching cuts on his huge FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH EP, “000000” had the biggest impact on the scene. It dropped all the way back in JANUARY when local rappers were all bumping FUTURE & YOUNG THUG 24/7, but still didn’t truly believe that an Aussie could incorporate these sounds into their music so convincingly. MIDAS truly made this quality JAMES DAMIAN ANGUS/MO LIASON beat his bitch from 0:01, before abruptly taking the track down a notch in its last third, flipping the beat and creating a Schoolboy Q-esque bleary-eyed, kushed-out vibe that eased the track out from its original energy. 6. “WHIP IT” - BIG SKEEZ

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We’ve been huge supporters of BIG SKEEZ for a long time. Every track he dropped in 2016 wreaked of originality in both vision and character. SKEEZ, a dude climbing his way up a ladder of: elegant email signatures, cut-throat managers and concrete industry rules, often collaborated with us thru a simple fb message - or just bumping into him in the city. This made us question the likelihood of his success to some extent, but when this video for “WHIP IT” dropped, it turned all our dreams into a reality. The WAVY BADMON, along with his SYDNEY crew absolutely owned the big screen, turning up like a pro to one of the standout tracks from his under-rated debut mixtape. Seeing this whole evolution transpire before our very eyes gave this CERNE STUDIOS production a real sentimental value for the whole THANK GUARD team. 5. “ABSURD” - ANFA ROSE (SYD)

ANFA ROSE and DOPAMINE’S magnum opus will make you cry like a Canadian watching Drake sing the national anthem. The silky smooth, “Absurd” is a beautifully executed blend of 808s, pianos and harmonies. When it comes to polish, no local track released in 2016 comes close to this one. DOPAMINE stripped back that instrumental, focusing on an ethereal and ominous beat with a chordal pattern that slides effortlessly from note to note. ROSE’s delicate melodies fuse perfectly with the instrumental and his lyrics, which are reminiscent of DRAKE’s odes to RIHANNA, or THE WEEKND’s odes to drugs. 4. “RUN IT (ft. LEVI, PHANTOM & KMALITH)” - MIKE WANG (MELB)

When low-key GREMLN MICHAEL WANG dropped this fire squad track all borders between Australia & America went up in flames. The MELBOURNE underground literally outshone the AUSTRALIAN i-Tunes charts. Nothing would make sense ever again. In terms of flow, lyricism and local impact… this was without a doubt one of the best Australian rap tracks released in 2016. WANG, LEVI, PHANTOM & KMALITH came out, guns blazing with their own jaw-dropping take on that MIGOS-style flow (and this was all before “BAD & BOUJEE” blew up). That little OVO-style hook/breakdown “I GOT BANDS…” really added a whole other dimension to the song too. Don’t even get me started on the message behind these lyrics and their relevancy to our scene, the city of MELBOURNE and the racial/cultural tensions often overlooked by most Australians. 3. “BLOWIN’ UP (ft. MIRACLE)” - MANU CROOKS (SYD)

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“BLOWIN UP” was MANU CROOKS flipping the switch and making a statement: his rise to success is about much more than bangerz. Being able to rap and record full-time is any local rapper’s dream and seeing the SYDNEY rapper get premiered on The FADER must have motivated thousands of Australian teenagers to keep hustling in 2016. Honestly, didn’t think someone from this new AUS rap-scene would make the pages of a mag like The FADER for at least another year. That stamp of approval means a lot. Manu’s tuned-up, magnetically charismatic vocals definitely stole the show on this one…Dude just seems to know exactly what to rap and when. But, none of this would have been possible without his equally talented bros: DOPAMINE & MIRACLE who both shined, bright as ever on this one.  DOPAMINE always knows just the right amount of syrupy autotune to sprinkle over his mates vocals & this beat speaks for itself. MIRACLE’S production and vocals contributions always help bring a track to the next-level. All 3 of these guys will no-doubt make even more Australian-rap history in 2017. 2. “WDUBI (ft. NASTY MARS & MARCUS)” - BARO (MELB)

When the mind of a black sheep is re-configured to entertain the mindless masses, an artist has reached their final frontier. BARO (NASTY MARS & MARCUS) did this last year with “WDUBI” - the first taste from his eagerly-awaited JPYNTK tape. On first encounter, it plays as the perfect Australian new-gen rap jam. But on further inspection, everything about it: the production, vocal stylings and somber sonic undertones expose it for the beautiful alien it really is. All three verses loosely acknowledge US 2K16 rap (CHANCE, GAMBINO etc), but overall this track really does’t follow the rules set by the American market at all - which is why we love it so much. That NIC MARTIN production plays a huge roll in this also. Something about those double-timed snares/claps and the tempo made this one feel so damn refreshing. We really played the fuck out of this one last year. THANK GUARD. Oh btw “AND IF WE HAVE A SON I THINK WE’LL NAME HIM STEVEN” - line O.T.Y 1. “BLUE BOSS” - SAMPA THE GREAT (SYD)

LMAO. In 2016, a lot of local bro’s hyped their shit like crazy. Walking around like the TUPAC reincarnate, talking smack online & sharing videos on FB 10 times a day… and SAMPA THE GREAT quietly drops a song that makes them all look foolish, raising her to instant-legend status. SAMPA is emotionally mature, intellectually elegant, socially conscious. Her words can fight wars or comfort a child. She is the type of person you’d want running for president, let alone running the local rap scene. “BLUE BOSS” is like a world-class 2K16 surprise rap-hit, but also feels timeless. Unlike kindred spirits NONAME & KAMAIYAH, SAMPA keeps her production and overall-vibe as earthy as possible, creating her own unique place in the rap-world. Considering the desperate need for more female rappers in this country, the quality of SAMPA’s vocals and her all-too-rare modest demeanour, we had to give “BLUE BOSS” the #1 spot. Posted by PAULINE HANSON

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drippeddaily · 7 years ago

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Album of the Year 2017 #02: GoldLink - At What Cost

Artist: GoldLink

Album: At What Cost

Label: RCA Records

Release Date: March 24, 2017

Listen:

Spotify

YouTube

Apple Music

Tidal

Soundcloud

Background

Despite being among the most populous metro areas in the United States, Washington D.C. has yet to make a name for itself within the hip hop genre. While it has seen its share of homegrown rappers make it big, the DMV area is still a young and growing region in the hip hop community.

Enter GoldLink, né D’Anthony Carlos, a rapper/singer/songwriter from the aforementioned DMV area who, on March 24th, released his third full length project and his first under a major record label titled At What Cost. GoldLink released his 2014 mixtape The God Complex under a shadow of anonymity, not revealing his real name or face. This project then went on become excellently received by critics and fans alike, earning him a spot on the 2015 XXL Freshman List. Using his position as a freshman as momentum, in November 2015 GoldLink released his 2nd mixtape titled ...And After That, We Didn’t Talk. This spur of releases was followed by a little bit of radio silence by GoldLink throughout the better part of 2016, which was broken by the release of a single featuring Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy titled Crew, which peaked at 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. After the release of another single titled Meditation in March, it was announced that GoldLink’s debut studio album At What Cost would be released later that month.

GoldLink’s artistic direction seemed to almost be up in the air for this album. The God Complex was this fast, energetic upbeat project from a new artist that displayed rays of potential. This was followed by a more romance-centric And After That, We Didn’t Talk that seemed to tap into more R&B sounds as we saw the once-exciting rapper take a more chill turn, so the expectations for At What Cost were almost non-existent. After all, it would be only his 3rd full length project, and with so much left to explore in terms of artistry, the possibilities were endless. At What Cost became GoldLink’s coming of age, his realization of where he should be as an artist, and it was an appealing location indeed.

Review

I would like the preface this write up by saying that upon the release of this album, I had never listened to any work of GoldLink’s. I had never heard his previous projects, I hadn’t heard any praise or criticisms of him on any platform, I hadn’t even heard his XXL Freshman Cypher. So, coming into this album I was subjected to no personal or exterior biases, and my choice to listen to this album was solely due to the fact that the cover looked cool. Yep, that’s how I came to meet my album of the year. Whether or not my clean slate of pure lack of prejudice upon first listen of this album affected my reception of this project positively or negatively could be a topic of debate, however I feel my open mindedness towards this, or any album for that matter, allows for a more honest and pure consumption of a musical project. Perhaps my expectations, or lack thereof, were skewed by GoldLink’s professional name which may have subconsciously led me to believe that the album I was about to indulge in was more towards the subcategory of gangster rap, a conception that the album art would have supported. However, despite my blind entry into an unfamiliar artist’s album, I was without a doubt pleasantly surprised by the content with which I was met.

What stood out to me most after my first listen was how quickly I fell in love with the project. Usually projects take ample time for me to truly appreciate them in any aspect, yet after first listen I found myself desiring to return to the album again and again, which I would argue is largely thanks to the production on the project. While GoldLink himself obviously isn’t doing the production, in reference to the project as a whole, the production was thoroughly enjoyable, consistent, and most importantly: fun. When I say fun I’m not referring to Lil Yachty “just having fun”, I mean it’s the kind of production that makes an album fun to listen to. It’s what provides immense replay value, it’s what gets you moving, and instrumentation is a huge part of music so it really plays a big role into the creation of a good album. GoldLink seemed to take a somewhat unconventional, risky approach to the production on this project and it paid off. The choice of production was perfect for pairing with the nature of the album and I felt perfectly helped emphasize the theme GoldLink was trying to convey on this album. GoldLink brings in an elite array of producers for this album, such as Kaytranada, Matt Martians of the Internet and Odd Future, Steve Lacy, and Syk Sense. This collection of well-established producers became the architects of this D.C. album GoldLink had envisioned and incorporated aspects of 70s disco and funk music (Kaytranada especially) that were essential to GoldLink’s attempt to bring the listener to the District of Columbia through the power of his music.

Perhaps my favorite example of the production on this album is that of Meditation featuring Philadelphia’s Jazmine Sullivan as well as the aforementioned Kaytranada on production. This track catapults off from the vibrant 70s-esque interlude that is Hands On Your Knees as Kaytranada samples his own track off his 99.9% mixtape and creates what was the second single off of the album. I am absolutely infatuated by how amazing the production from Kaytra was on this track. It starts off with light and airy synth chords which sets itself up for the distinctive bassline of the track. This track is the most perfect embodiment of the production of the album. The funky, light, happy, upbeat, beat on this song is really what helps GoldLink pack a punch with his music. I feel like the best word to describe it would be groovy, but I know that sounds sort of cliché when speaking about hip hop. Potentially my favorite thing about this style of production is that the possibilities are endless, and GoldLink definitely exploits this trait on this project. The ability to create a cohesive album where every song is clearly distinguishable is something hip hop artists strive for, and on At What Cost it was almost seamless for GoldLink. Even on the song Herside Story, originally a Hare Squead song where GoldLink had merely added rapping, it blends unsuspectingly into the album like it was there in the first place and GoldLink manages to improve an already great song with his additional verses. This is just a general description of the sensory feel of the album if no thought was given to any particular aspect, despite my numerous praises of the production. Overall, I felt the album was very well constructed and felt very fluid throughout. These aspects seem to be underappreciated or seldomly mentioned when referencing hip hop music yet play a massive role in the overall enjoyment of a given project.

I haven’t even touched on GoldLink himself yet, and to the unfamiliar reader this write-up could almost be interpreted as an in depth review of a beat tape. But bear with me here, there does happen to be rap on this rap album. One striking thing to me about GoldLink’s rap style (on this project at the very least) is that GoldLink raps exactly like you’d think he raps if you were to just look at him. Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but GoldLink’s rapping is similar to his appearance in the sense that they’re both mellow-yet-confident. Surprisingly enough, GoldLink isn’t even the first person rapping on his own album. That title belongs to fellow D.C. rapper Ciscero on the track Same Clothes As Yesterday. However, GoldLink’s entrance to this album feels almost cinematic. In fact, there’s something about how this entire album is constructed that makes it feel cinematic. GoldLink manages to build anticipation for his big debut on At What Cost, with the Opening Credit intro followed by the transition into Same Clothes as well as Ciscero’s verse. And without a doubt, GoldLink capitalizes on the anticipation, while spitting these amusing bars after he performs the hook:

Ridin' 'round and my car's low, nigga, what you waitin' for?

Big dick in her tonsils, yeah, I got a big ego, hoe

Ridin' 'round and my bitch high and grip her thighs, I might fuck that right

Wildin' out, I might make her mine, might fuck around, I might blow her high

-GoldLink on Same Clothes As Yesterday

Going back to my cinematic point, this entrance and first lines by GoldLink really makes you feel like you’re at a concert. That’s how good of a job he does at building anticipation and then making that big arrival like the main act does at a big show. This is the kind of sentiment you want to receive when you’re listening to an album, you want that grand feeling when listening to music, after all in my opinion I don’t think music is very good if it doesn’t provoke some sort of emotion from you, the emotion here being the resulting excitement from an energy crescendo. This aspect isn’t exclusive to GoldLink of course, it’s a pretty common practice in hip hop to give an album a somewhat movie-like delivery, and in good reason. It’s very effective at creating an album that is truly fun and interesting to listen to front to back. It’s this cinema-effect that GoldLink uses to transport you to Washington D.C. through his music. This was demonstrated very tastefully with the ending to Meditation and the transition to Herside Story - that being the “oh shit!” followed by the gunshots and ensuite the light intro to the dreamlike Herside Story. The concluding track Pray Everyday really captures this concept in what almost seems like the roll credits of the album, and even with the transformation to the light and happy Have You Seen That Girl? at the beginning of the album to the more hopelessly romantic Some Girl near the conclusion. This allows GoldLink to create the illusion that, despite there being no underlying theme or story, it almost feels as if there is.

Going back to the the mellow-yet-confident rapping style, GoldLink’s flow and delivery on this project are really what pulls everything all together. After all, there is absolutely nothing on At What Cost that could at all salvage its album of the year status if GoldLink’s performance fell short. There’s something so satisfying and melodic about the flows used on this project, it almost gives the feeling of comfort and relaxation. GoldLink has a deep, smooth voice that he uses to his advantage when accompanying his cloudy intoxicating production and every line on this album seems effortless (in the good sense). GoldLink flows in this cohesive stream of words that provides an easy listen while simultaneously bringing personality and charisma to every track. Probably the best analogy I can come up with to GoldLink’s rap style is that he raps as if he’s gonna smoke the whole squad out on blunts but will still kick your ass if you don’t puff-puff-pass. He contrasts these two elements pretty clearly if you were to compare the tracks Have You Seen That Girl? and Kokamoe Freestyle.

We shot a nigga at the go-go last week

We don't really care who got shot last week

Ridin' up the meter, plug 'ya village bumpin' Migos

I'm past shit, you don't want no problems with a GED

Peep G, I'm the king of the streets

I never had to struggle with the gangs in a beef

Always ten toes so it's hard to defeat

And trust me nigga, I been lookin' hard for a beat, huh

-GoldLink on Kokamoe Freestyle

God I really want to avoid the word ‘versatile’ just because of the negative connotations associated with it now and how it’s almost a buzzword for bad artists, and, in complete honesty, GoldLink really isn’t that versatile with his rapping style, but I’m gonna make an exception here. It’s not exactly a standout trait on this album, however I did find it important that to some degree he did diversify the thematic topics of his songs and the general mood of them without straying too far from the overall sound of the album. Which allows me to transition into my next topic which is the featured artists. This is actually an aspect of the album I really enjoyed, since GoldLink almost took an unconventional approach to featured artists. I feel like I’ve used the word unconventional a lot without really explaining myself so allow me to; the features were reminiscent of the To Pimp a Butterfly features. I.e. features for the sake of the art and not for the sake of the money, which, unfortunately, happens to be unconventional in popular hip hop nowadays. There aren’t any out of place features on this project (although some may argue Shy Glizzy). It’s quite evident that GoldLink was really focused on maintaining the integrity of this album as he didn’t bring in any features that, while they might’ve increased sales, generally didn’t fit onto the album (see: Crew Remix). In total, there are 11 artists who have guest vocals on this album, 9 of which are from the DMV area (Jazmine Sullivan & Steve Lacy being the exceptions). Not only is GoldLink putting local artists on the radar despite being big enough to outsource nationally, but he’s selecting artists that suit his music style. Not only that, but a lot of his features are featured on the hook so as to save us from GoldLink’s unfortunately atrocious singing that he subjected us to on ...And After That, We Didn’t Talk. He features everyone from the necessary (Wale) to the who-the-fuck? (Lil Dude). Sometimes albums can definitely be oversaturated with features, take Coloring Book by Chance for an example. Sometimes I feel albums can be undersaturated with features, such as Issa Album by 21 Savage. So, artists often need to evaluate what they are capable of doing solo, and what necessitates the need for guest artists. GoldLink (hopefully) learned from the missteps on his past project and brought in a tasteful amount of features, some for the purpose of performing the hook, some for the purpose of providing some verses that differ from that of GoldLink’s. Wale spits an entertaining flow on Summatime, Steve Lacy provides a fitting hook on Some Girl, Shy Glizzy brings character to Crew. I felt this album in general was an excellent portrayal of the perfect amount of features, so that we hear a very good amount of GoldLink and what he has to say while also being introduced to new DMV artists and being given a nice contrast to GoldLink’s own rapping. It all ties back to the general theme of having the album truly feel like a D.C. album.

Throughout the course of the write up, I’ve gone on about how At What Cost brings you to D.C. or sounds like a D.C. album without really elaborating on it. In order to form a more complete comprehension of the sound GoldLink is borrowing from and taking inspiration from, I need to give a brief overview of the D.C. music scene from the 60s to the 90s, where the majority of GoldLink’s influences on this project would’ve came from. Perhaps the earliest direct influence on this project is that of the Go-go music scene in Washington D.C., a fusion of funk, R&B, and old school hip-hop, which was popular within the African American population of the DMV area and likely would’ve been the music GoldLink’s parents grew up on. This influence is probably the most obvious on the Hands On Your Knees interlude where Washington MC Kokayi is featured on a heavily funk & go-go inspired beat giving GoldLink an intro before the start of Meditation. This go-go influence (which is also prevalent on tracks like Summatime, Kokamoe Freestyle, and Roll Call) combined with the funk and R&B aspects on the album are essentially to achieving the goal of creating this hip hop album that brings you to D.C. sonically. I honestly wish I could go into more detail about this influence but to be honest I’m not too knowledgeable on that topic and nothing has really been written about it, so I’m going to stop this section here before I start spewing nonsense.

I believe I’ve sufficiently covered the macros of this album and explained why the album is so appealing to me, so I would now like to go into the micros and look at specific parts of the album I particularly enjoyed.

The most obvious and most popular part of the album: Crew. Crew is the first single from At What Cost and the only song from the project to chart, reaching all the way up to 45. Despite being one of the songs that fits less into the theme of the album, it is without a doubt one of the best. Brent Faiyaz, DMV R&B singer (whose project Sonder Son is excellent) kills it on one of the best hooks of 2017 and GoldLink delivers an effortless and smooth verse. Shy Glizzy, fellow D.C. native, comes through with an eccentric and exciting verse to lead back into the hook and outro. Another personal favorite of mine is Roll Call featuring legendary D.C. singer Mya. This song has one of the heaviest go-go influences with the bouncy bassline and the almost nostalgic symphonic post-hook breakdown. Mya delivers an excellent hook, singing “so no matter where I go around the world it’s back to D.C.” as GoldLink nails down the consistent sound on this project. GoldLink goes solo on Kokamoe Freestyle where he gets to put his bars and flow on display, not stopping throughout his one, long, hookless verse. This song contains probably some of my favorite bars of the entire album. Finally, we have the Steve Lacy produced Some Girl, which is my favorite track on the entire album. Steve Lacy killed the production on this song that paired with GoldLink’s mellow bars perfectly. Lacy delivers an excellent, softly-sung hook to contrast GoldLink’s energetic rapping. I literally cannot find anywhere who the girl on this track is (even Genius has her as ‘female’), but she comes in near the end of the song to join GoldLink in a sung “I don’t know why I care about ya, care about ya / I don’t wanna motherfucking care about ya, care about ya,” a duo of lines we can all relate to. Lacy switches up the beat at the end to provide a perfect intro to the outro track, Pray Everyday.

I’ve truly loved this project straight from first listen. Somehow, despite repeated and repeated listens, it just doesn’t get old. GoldLink has shot from someone I didn’t even know existed to one of my favorite hip hop artists. To me, this album has very few flaws. It’s such a smooth and thorough listen with a unique and captivating theme combined with the swagger that oozes from GoldLink’s rapping, and the light and groovy production, combined with a stellar array of features handpicked from the DMV. From the classic braggadocious lines to more reflective bars, GoldLink delivers an excellent performance on this project and will keep me interested in everything he does from this point forward. I hope that everyone can come to love this album as much as I do and appreciate the very subtle theme incorporated into it, and if not, just appreciate some of the smooth and relaxing tracks. If anything, acknowledge GoldLink’s different take on hip hop and taking the path less traveled in order to create an album that is unique and individual, because that is how GoldLink succeeded at making At What Cost my album of the year.

Favorite Lyrics

Ridin' 'round and my car's low, nigga, what you waitin' for?

Big dick in her tonsils, yeah, I got a big ego, hoe

Ridin' 'round and my bitch high and grip her thighs, I might fuck that right

Wildin' out, I might make her mine, might fuck around, I might blow her high

“Same Clothes as Yesterday”

I was out Clay Terrace, feelin' better than all the guys

Bad white joined, fat ass hips and thighs

Talkin' 'bout kill moe, all you do is lie

I ain't lyin' when I tell you that you fine as wine

Lemme get a lil' sip, lemme get a lil' bit

Lemme grab on your ass, I mean grab you the gas

Talkin' 'bout goddamn

Have you seen that girl?

“Have You Seen That Girl”

I got a light-skinned bitch who look like Beige Loaf

And she fight and fuck me in the same clothes

But when I put that daddy, baby daddy, papa stroke

She curl her toes and close her eyes

I finish up, she adios

“Meditation”

Aye, she call me on her early, she yearnin' for it from California

I don't got no girlfriend, but got some workers in California

I be in that Rover with cannabis, California

And I be the prince of my city, bitch, where my Apollonia?

Wale on “Summatime”

She see money all around me

I look like I'm the man, yeah

But I was down and out like last week

Tell me where have you been?

You came out of hiding, girl

Don't act like I'm your man

You just a fan, you don't hold rank

Don't hold no rank

Brent Faiyaz on “Crew”

DMV nigga, hunnid niggas under ya

Leggin', leggin', leggin', third leggin' with my peers

Rappin' ass nigga, but I'm quiet when I'm here

I'm always plottin' on a bitch, pretend I'm plottin' on my fears

“Kokamoe Freestyle”

Met her in the summer, started with a kiss

And she fucked so good that I had to flood her wrist

Two days in and I wanna have her kid

Then she told me she belong to the city and her boy

“Some Girl”

Discussion

How did you feel about the production on this project? Should GoldLink stay with some variation of it on his next project or change it up?

Did you find the project too feature heavy or was it just right?

Where do you rank this album in GoldLink’s discography?

What’s your favorite song on the album?

What significance do you think the title has?

What direction do you want to see GoldLink go next?

Is this newfound fame from “Crew” sustainable? Can GoldLink make himself a household name in the rap community?

Thanks for reading! If you haven’t already, please check out this album!

Artist: GoldLinkAlbum: At What CostLabel: RCA RecordsRelease Date: March 24, 2017Listen:SpotifyYouTubeApple MusicTidalSoundcloudBackgroundDespite being among the most populous metro areas in the United States, Washington D.C. has yet to make a name for itself within the hip hop genre. While it has seen its share of homegrown rappers make it big, the DMV area is still a young and growing region in the hip hop community.Enter GoldLink, né D’Anthony Carlos, a rapper/singer/songwriter from the aforementioned DMV area who, on March 24th, released his third full length project and his first under a major record label titled At What Cost. GoldLink released his 2014 mixtape The God Complex under a shadow of anonymity, not revealing his real name or face. This project then went on become excellently received by critics and fans alike, earning him a spot on the 2015 XXL Freshman List. Using his position as a freshman as momentum, in November 2015 GoldLink released his 2nd mixtape titled ...And After That, We Didn’t Talk. This spur of releases was followed by a little bit of radio silence by GoldLink throughout the better part of 2016, which was broken by the release of a single featuring Brent Faiyaz and Shy Glizzy titled Crew, which peaked at 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. After the release of another single titled Meditation in March, it was announced that GoldLink’s debut studio album At What Cost would be released later that month.GoldLink’s artistic direction seemed to almost be up in the air for this album. The God Complex was this fast, energetic upbeat project from a new artist that displayed rays of potential. This was followed by a more romance-centric And After That, We Didn’t Talk that seemed to tap into more R&B sounds as we saw the once-exciting rapper take a more chill turn, so the expectations for At What Cost were almost non-existent. After all, it would be only his 3rd full length project, and with so much left to explore in terms of artistry, the possibilities were endless. At What Cost became GoldLink’s coming of age, his realization of where he should be as an artist, and it was an appealing location indeed.ReviewI would like the preface this write up by saying that upon the release of this album, I had never listened to any work of GoldLink’s. I had never heard his previous projects, I hadn’t heard any praise or criticisms of him on any platform, I hadn’t even heard his XXL Freshman Cypher. So, coming into this album I was subjected to no personal or exterior biases, and my choice to listen to this album was solely due to the fact that the cover looked cool. Yep, that’s how I came to meet my album of the year. Whether or not my clean slate of pure lack of prejudice upon first listen of this album affected my reception of this project positively or negatively could be a topic of debate, however I feel my open mindedness towards this, or any album for that matter, allows for a more honest and pure consumption of a musical project. Perhaps my expectations, or lack thereof, were skewed by GoldLink’s professional name which may have subconsciously led me to believe that the album I was about to indulge in was more towards the subcategory of gangster rap, a conception that the album art would have supported. However, despite my blind entry into an unfamiliar artist’s album, I was without a doubt pleasantly surprised by the content with which I was met.What stood out to me most after my first listen was how quickly I fell in love with the project. Usually projects take ample time for me to truly appreciate them in any aspect, yet after first listen I found myself desiring to return to the album again and again, which I would argue is largely thanks to the production on the project. While GoldLink himself obviously isn’t doing the production, in reference to the project as a whole, the production was thoroughly enjoyable, consistent, and most importantly: fun. When I say fun I’m not referring to Lil Yachty “just having fun”, I mean it’s the kind of production that makes an album fun to listen to. It’s what provides immense replay value, it’s what gets you moving, and instrumentation is a huge part of music so it really plays a big role into the creation of a good album. GoldLink seemed to take a somewhat unconventional, risky approach to the production on this project and it paid off. The choice of production was perfect for pairing with the nature of the album and I felt perfectly helped emphasize the theme GoldLink was trying to convey on this album. GoldLink brings in an elite array of producers for this album, such as Kaytranada, Matt Martians of the Internet and Odd Future, Steve Lacy, and Syk Sense. This collection of well-established producers became the architects of this D.C. album GoldLink had envisioned and incorporated aspects of 70s disco and funk music (Kaytranada especially) that were essential to GoldLink’s attempt to bring the listener to the District of Columbia through the power of his music.Perhaps my favorite example of the production on this album is that of Meditation featuring Philadelphia’s Jazmine Sullivan as well as the aforementioned Kaytranada on production. This track catapults off from the vibrant 70s-esque interlude that is Hands On Your Knees as Kaytranada samples his own track off his 99.9% mixtape and creates what was the second single off of the album. I am absolutely infatuated by how amazing the production from Kaytra was on this track. It starts off with light and airy synth chords which sets itself up for the distinctive bassline of the track. This track is the most perfect embodiment of the production of the album. The funky, light, happy, upbeat, beat on this song is really what helps GoldLink pack a punch with his music. I feel like the best word to describe it would be groovy, but I know that sounds sort of cliché when speaking about hip hop. Potentially my favorite thing about this style of production is that the possibilities are endless, and GoldLink definitely exploits this trait on this project. The ability to create a cohesive album where every song is clearly distinguishable is something hip hop artists strive for, and on At What Cost it was almost seamless for GoldLink. Even on the song Herside Story, originally a Hare Squead song where GoldLink had merely added rapping, it blends unsuspectingly into the album like it was there in the first place and GoldLink manages to improve an already great song with his additional verses. This is just a general description of the sensory feel of the album if no thought was given to any particular aspect, despite my numerous praises of the production. Overall, I felt the album was very well constructed and felt very fluid throughout. These aspects seem to be underappreciated or seldomly mentioned when referencing hip hop music yet play a massive role in the overall enjoyment of a given project.I haven’t even touched on GoldLink himself yet, and to the unfamiliar reader this write-up could almost be interpreted as an in depth review of a beat tape. But bear with me here, there does happen to be rap on this rap album. One striking thing to me about GoldLink’s rap style (on this project at the very least) is that GoldLink raps exactly like you’d think he raps if you were to just look at him. Maybe I’m grasping at straws here, but GoldLink’s rapping is similar to his appearance in the sense that they’re both mellow-yet-confident. Surprisingly enough, GoldLink isn’t even the first person rapping on his own album. That title belongs to fellow D.C. rapper Ciscero on the track Same Clothes As Yesterday. However, GoldLink’s entrance to this album feels almost cinematic. In fact, there’s something about how this entire album is constructed that makes it feel cinematic. GoldLink manages to build anticipation for his big debut on At What Cost, with the Opening Credit intro followed by the transition into Same Clothes as well as Ciscero’s verse. And without a doubt, GoldLink capitalizes on the anticipation, while spitting these amusing bars after he performs the hook:Ridin' 'round and my car's low, nigga, what you waitin' for?Big dick in her tonsils, yeah, I got a big ego, hoeRidin' 'round and my bitch high and grip her thighs, I might fuck that rightWildin' out, I might make her mine, might fuck around, I might blow her high-GoldLink on Same Clothes As YesterdayGoing back to my cinematic point, this entrance and first lines by GoldLink really makes you feel like you’re at a concert. That’s how good of a job he does at building anticipation and then making that big arrival like the main act does at a big show. This is the kind of sentiment you want to receive when you’re listening to an album, you want that grand feeling when listening to music, after all in my opinion I don’t think music is very good if it doesn’t provoke some sort of emotion from you, the emotion here being the resulting excitement from an energy crescendo. This aspect isn’t exclusive to GoldLink of course, it’s a pretty common practice in hip hop to give an album a somewhat movie-like delivery, and in good reason. It’s very effective at creating an album that is truly fun and interesting to listen to front to back. It’s this cinema-effect that GoldLink uses to transport you to Washington D.C. through his music. This was demonstrated very tastefully with the ending to Meditation and the transition to Herside Story - that being the “oh shit!” followed by the gunshots and ensuite the light intro to the dreamlike Herside Story. The concluding track Pray Everyday really captures this concept in what almost seems like the roll credits of the album, and even with the transformation to the light and happy Have You Seen That Girl? at the beginning of the album to the more hopelessly romantic Some Girl near the conclusion. This allows GoldLink to create the illusion that, despite there being no underlying theme or story, it almost feels as if there is.Going back to the the mellow-yet-confident rapping style, GoldLink’s flow and delivery on this project are really what pulls everything all together. After all, there is absolutely nothing on At What Cost that could at all salvage its album of the year status if GoldLink’s performance fell short. There’s something so satisfying and melodic about the flows used on this project, it almost gives the feeling of comfort and relaxation. GoldLink has a deep, smooth voice that he uses to his advantage when accompanying his cloudy intoxicating production and every line on this album seems effortless (in the good sense). GoldLink flows in this cohesive stream of words that provides an easy listen while simultaneously bringing personality and charisma to every track. Probably the best analogy I can come up with to GoldLink’s rap style is that he raps as if he’s gonna smoke the whole squad out on blunts but will still kick your ass if you don’t puff-puff-pass. He contrasts these two elements pretty clearly if you were to compare the tracks Have You Seen That Girl? and Kokamoe Freestyle.We shot a nigga at the go-go last weekWe don't really care who got shot last weekRidin' up the meter, plug 'ya village bumpin' MigosI'm past shit, you don't want no problems with a GEDPeep G, I'm the king of the streetsI never had to struggle with the gangs in a beefAlways ten toes so it's hard to defeatAnd trust me nigga, I been lookin' hard for a beat, huh-GoldLink on Kokamoe FreestyleGod I really want to avoid the word ‘versatile’ just because of the negative connotations associated with it now and how it’s almost a buzzword for bad artists, and, in complete honesty, GoldLink really isn’t that versatile with his rapping style, but I’m gonna make an exception here. It’s not exactly a standout trait on this album, however I did find it important that to some degree he did diversify the thematic topics of his songs and the general mood of them without straying too far from the overall sound of the album. Which allows me to transition into my next topic which is the featured artists. This is actually an aspect of the album I really enjoyed, since GoldLink almost took an unconventional approach to featured artists. I feel like I’ve used the word unconventional a lot without really explaining myself so allow me to; the features were reminiscent of the To Pimp a Butterfly features. I.e. features for the sake of the art and not for the sake of the money, which, unfortunately, happens to be unconventional in popular hip hop nowadays. There aren’t any out of place features on this project (although some may argue Shy Glizzy). It’s quite evident that GoldLink was really focused on maintaining the integrity of this album as he didn’t bring in any features that, while they might’ve increased sales, generally didn’t fit onto the album (see: Crew Remix). In total, there are 11 artists who have guest vocals on this album, 9 of which are from the DMV area (Jazmine Sullivan & Steve Lacy being the exceptions). Not only is GoldLink putting local artists on the radar despite being big enough to outsource nationally, but he’s selecting artists that suit his music style. Not only that, but a lot of his features are featured on the hook so as to save us from GoldLink’s unfortunately atrocious singing that he subjected us to on ...And After That, We Didn’t Talk. He features everyone from the necessary (Wale) to the who-the-fuck? (Lil Dude). Sometimes albums can definitely be oversaturated with features, take Coloring Book by Chance for an example. Sometimes I feel albums can be undersaturated with features, such as Issa Album by 21 Savage. So, artists often need to evaluate what they are capable of doing solo, and what necessitates the need for guest artists. GoldLink (hopefully) learned from the missteps on his past project and brought in a tasteful amount of features, some for the purpose of performing the hook, some for the purpose of providing some verses that differ from that of GoldLink’s. Wale spits an entertaining flow on Summatime, Steve Lacy provides a fitting hook on Some Girl, Shy Glizzy brings character to Crew. I felt this album in general was an excellent portrayal of the perfect amount of features, so that we hear a very good amount of GoldLink and what he has to say while also being introduced to new DMV artists and being given a nice contrast to GoldLink’s own rapping. It all ties back to the general theme of having the album truly feel like a D.C. album.Throughout the course of the write up, I’ve gone on about how At What Cost brings you to D.C. or sounds like a D.C. album without really elaborating on it. In order to form a more complete comprehension of the sound GoldLink is borrowing from and taking inspiration from, I need to give a brief overview of the D.C. music scene from the 60s to the 90s, where the majority of GoldLink’s influences on this project would’ve came from. Perhaps the earliest direct influence on this project is that of the Go-go music scene in Washington D.C., a fusion of funk, R&B, and old school hip-hop, which was popular within the African American population of the DMV area and likely would’ve been the music GoldLink’s parents grew up on. This influence is probably the most obvious on the Hands On Your Knees interlude where Washington MC Kokayi is featured on a heavily funk & go-go inspired beat giving GoldLink an intro before the start of Meditation. This go-go influence (which is also prevalent on tracks like Summatime, Kokamoe Freestyle, and Roll Call) combined with the funk and R&B aspects on the album are essentially to achieving the goal of creating this hip hop album that brings you to D.C. sonically. I honestly wish I could go into more detail about this influence but to be honest I’m not too knowledgeable on that topic and nothing has really been written about it, so I’m going to stop this section here before I start spewing nonsense.I believe I’ve sufficiently covered the macros of this album and explained why the album is so appealing to me, so I would now like to go into the micros and look at specific parts of the album I particularly enjoyed.The most obvious and most popular part of the album: Crew. Crew is the first single from At What Cost and the only song from the project to chart, reaching all the way up to 45. Despite being one of the songs that fits less into the theme of the album, it is without a doubt one of the best. Brent Faiyaz, DMV R&B singer (whose project Sonder Son is excellent) kills it on one of the best hooks of 2017 and GoldLink delivers an effortless and smooth verse. Shy Glizzy, fellow D.C. native, comes through with an eccentric and exciting verse to lead back into the hook and outro. Another personal favorite of mine is Roll Call featuring legendary D.C. singer Mya. This song has one of the heaviest go-go influences with the bouncy bassline and the almost nostalgic symphonic post-hook breakdown. Mya delivers an excellent hook, singing “so no matter where I go around the world it’s back to D.C.” as GoldLink nails down the consistent sound on this project. GoldLink goes solo on Kokamoe Freestyle where he gets to put his bars and flow on display, not stopping throughout his one, long, hookless verse. This song contains probably some of my favorite bars of the entire album. Finally, we have the Steve Lacy produced Some Girl, which is my favorite track on the entire album. Steve Lacy killed the production on this song that paired with GoldLink’s mellow bars perfectly. Lacy delivers an excellent, softly-sung hook to contrast GoldLink’s energetic rapping. I literally cannot find anywhere who the girl on this track is (even Genius has her as ‘female’), but she comes in near the end of the song to join GoldLink in a sung “I don’t know why I care about ya, care about ya / I don’t wanna motherfucking care about ya, care about ya,” a duo of lines we can all relate to. Lacy switches up the beat at the end to provide a perfect intro to the outro track, Pray Everyday.I’ve truly loved this project straight from first listen. Somehow, despite repeated and repeated listens, it just doesn’t get old. GoldLink has shot from someone I didn’t even know existed to one of my favorite hip hop artists. To me, this album has very few flaws. It’s such a smooth and thorough listen with a unique and captivating theme combined with the swagger that oozes from GoldLink’s rapping, and the light and groovy production, combined with a stellar array of features handpicked from the DMV. From the classic braggadocious lines to more reflective bars, GoldLink delivers an excellent performance on this project and will keep me interested in everything he does from this point forward. I hope that everyone can come to love this album as much as I do and appreciate the very subtle theme incorporated into it, and if not, just appreciate some of the smooth and relaxing tracks. If anything, acknowledge GoldLink’s different take on hip hop and taking the path less traveled in order to create an album that is unique and individual, because that is how GoldLink succeeded at making At What Cost my album of the year.Favorite LyricsRidin' 'round and my car's low, nigga, what you waitin' for?Big dick in her tonsils, yeah, I got a big ego, hoeRidin' 'round and my bitch high and grip her thighs, I might fuck that rightWildin' out, I might make her mine, might fuck around, I might blow her high“Same Clothes as Yesterday”I was out Clay Terrace, feelin' better than all the guysBad white joined, fat ass hips and thighsTalkin' 'bout kill moe, all you do is lieI ain't lyin' when I tell you that you fine as wineLemme get a lil' sip, lemme get a lil' bitLemme grab on your ass, I mean grab you the gasTalkin' 'bout goddamnHave you seen that girl?“Have You Seen That Girl”I got a light-skinned bitch who look like Beige LoafAnd she fight and fuck me in the same clothesBut when I put that daddy, baby daddy, papa strokeShe curl her toes and close her eyesI finish up, she adios“Meditation”Aye, she call me on her early, she yearnin' for it from CaliforniaI don't got no girlfriend, but got some workers in CaliforniaI be in that Rover with cannabis, CaliforniaAnd I be the prince of my city, bitch, where my Apollonia?Wale on “Summatime”She see money all around meI look like I'm the man, yeahBut I was down and out like last weekTell me where have you been?You came out of hiding, girlDon't act like I'm your manYou just a fan, you don't hold rankDon't hold no rankBrent Faiyaz on “Crew”DMV nigga, hunnid niggas under yaLeggin', leggin', leggin', third leggin' with my peersRappin' ass nigga, but I'm quiet when I'm hereI'm always plottin' on a bitch, pretend I'm plottin' on my fears“Kokamoe Freestyle”Met her in the summer, started with a kissAnd she fucked so good that I had to flood her wristTwo days in and I wanna have her kidThen she told me she belong to the city and her boy“Some Girl”DiscussionHow did you feel about the production on this project? Should GoldLink stay with some variation of it on his next project or change it up?Did you find the project too feature heavy or was it just right?Where do you rank this album in GoldLink’s discography?What’s your favorite song on the album?What significance do you think the title has?What direction do you want to see GoldLink go next?Is this newfound fame from “Crew” sustainable? Can GoldLink make himself a household name in the rap community?Thanks for reading! If you haven’t already, please check out this album!

#IFTTT #reddit

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bartarb · 8 years ago

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RECAP: OUR TOP 50 AUSTRALIAN HIP-HOP/R&B TRACKS OF 2016

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 17th March 2019 - Dave’s ‘PSYCHODRAMA’ Edition

We have six new arrivals this week, not because a lot of interesting pop releases but because of Dave’s PSYCHODRAMA. This album is fantastic, and is currently one of my favourites of the year; we’ll get more into that later, but I didn’t expect it to have this much of an impact. Since the UK only allows three songs from each artist on the chart, if we have three new arrivals from one artist and one album, I’d consider that an “Album bomb” even if it’s not as big as most bombs in the US. Anyway, let’s get into the top 10, where you wouldn’t really realise anything changed.

Top 10

“Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi spends its second week at the top spot since gaining the position last week.

Calvin Harris and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s “Giant” also has not moved since last week at number-two.

Neither has Mabel, as “Don’t Call Me Up” has not budged from its position last week, still at number-three.

Ariana Grande’s “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” is still at number-four.

Sam Smith and Normani have a slight boost up two spots with “Dancing with a Stranger”, back at number-five.

Down one spot this week is “7 rings” by Ariana Grande, at number-six.

At its second week on the chart, I’m shocked that the Jonas Brothers actually climbed one spot with “Sucker” at number-seven. Will this actually have some longevity?

Oh, and now we have the first of three new arrivals from Dave’s number-one album (Two of which are in the top 10), with “Disaster” featuring J Hus debuting at number-eight, becoming Dave’s seventh top 40 hit and his third top 10; It’s J Hus’ fifth top 40 and his second top 10.

At number-nine, we have “Streatham”, another track premiering from PSYCHODRAMA, becoming Dave’s eighth top 40 hit and his fourth top 10. I figured “Black” would return last week but I was wrong and due to chart rules, that can never happen.

Oh, and “Just You and I” by Tom Walker is down two spots to #10 but that song is painfully uninteresting.

Climbers

Off the debut last week and the album boost, the only noticeable climber this week is “Don’t Feel Like Crying” by Sigrid, moving up 14 spaces to #20, making it Sigrid’s second Top 20 hit.

Fallers

We definitely have a few more here, as “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper collapses 11 spaces down to #23 after a short rebound period, “How it Is” by Roddy Ricch, Chip and Yxng Bane featuring the Plug is down nine spaces to #27 off the debut (Let’s hope it goes away pretty quickly), “Think About Us” by Little Mix and remixed by Ty Dolla $ign (Who I’m pretty sure isn’t actually serving those 15 years in prison for cocaine possession) is down seven positions to #29, “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” by Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus continues its gradual plunge down eight spots to #35, “Kitchen Kings” by D-Block Europe decides to stop wasting everybody’s time as it’s down 10 spaces to #36, and finally “Bally” by Swarmz featuring Tion Wayne is down eight positions to #40 off of the debut – Why does the most charismatic of this sickly faux-dancehall UK hip hop fail to catch on?

Dropouts

First of all, some long-running hip hop songs have had the UK chart’s typical streaming cuts leading to their untimely fall, such as “Going Bad” by Meek Mill featuring Drake out from #23 and “Advice” by Cadet and Deno Driz out from #24. Otherwise, we just have a few songs barely still hanging on lose their grip, like “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande dropping out from #36, “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker dropping out AGAIN from #37 (Let’s hope this one is for long), “Thursday” by Jess Glynne out from #39 and “Breathe” by CamelPhat and Cristoph featuring Jem Cooke out from #40.

FEATURED SINGLE

“King James” – Anderson .Paak

Produced by Callum and Kiefer

If you follow me on Twitter, you’d know I’m pretty obsessed with this guy. Anderson .Paak is someone I’m sure you all know, but for the sake of introductions, .Paak is a Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, rapper and musician, specialising in drumming as his instrument of choice. He dropped the great Dr. Dre-produced album Oxnard in November, so when he announced his counterpart album that had less input from Dre and a sound more reminiscent of his older Malibu album from 2016, which was funkier and more soulful, would be releasing in April of this year, with features from people like the late Nate Dogg and the rare appearance of André 3000 from OutKast, I was hyped, and it’s safe to say that this lead single doesn’t disappoint in any sense of the word, mostly because it seems like a perfect mixture of both albums. It has the rich instrumentation of Malibu alongside the soulful backing vocals from a small choir – of mostly other multi-tracked Anderson .Paaks – that back up .Paak’s politically-themed lyrics from Oxnard where he talks about how if Trump builds a wall, he’s jumping over the fence, with a groovy bassline that characterises both records. The lyrics take a similar side to 2 Chainz and his album Rap or Go to the League, as .Paak salutes LeBron James for his charitable acts and how this can uplift the black community. The music itself is a fun, jazzy romp including some epic trumpet blasts and I love the random whistle blowing that definitely adds a perfectly fitting Afrobeat influence to the beat, relating to the Afro-centric content, and I thought this would be a sure-fire hit, but it doesn’t seem to be doing as well as I thought it would. That’s not an issue, though, because unlike the “Tints” lead single off of Oxnard I don’t think this was made commercially and was instead a gift for the fans missing his more traditional sound. This is fantastic, check it out.

NEW ARRIVALS

#39 – “Robbery” – Juice WRLD

Produced by Nick Mira – Peaked at #20 in Belgium, #27 in the US

Juice WRLD. Oh, Juice WRLD. Real name Jarad Higgins, Juice WRLD is a emo-rapper and now international superstar off of the song “Lucid Dreams”, and while I don’t see why “Lean wit Me” didn’t catch on instead, it happened and now Juice is bigger than ever, releasing his 22-track album Death Race for Love – it has a runtime of one hour and 12 minutes, with only one track being an interlude, and two other features – both of which are awful – hidden in the tracklist which is a polluted ocean of trashy Juice WRLD tracks where he moans over type beats. You’ve got the black hole in place of his soul on “Empty”, the fact that he even dared to call a track “HeMotions”, the borderline country rap effort “Flaws and Sins”, Young Thug on autopilot with “ON GOD”, and overall, it’s a pretty exhaustingly terrible album, with a pile of some of the most questionable lyrics I think I’ve ever heard. Somewhere throughout his light 2/10 album, there are one or two tracks where his nasal whining actually reminds me of his influence, notably the 2000s emo-pop trend. “Robbery”, his second Top 40 hit, is the best of the two: the piano melody is melancholy yet catchy and Juice WRLD yelling on the track without much noticeable autotune but a lot and I mean a lot of reverb, multi-tracking and vocal edits that do nothing because he still sounds awful, but I like that because it reminds me of those singers back in the day who really couldn’t sing so they just kind of yelled in their nasal voice and it worked – hell, it works here because he quite literally ties his vocal performance in with the content, because as the video further proves, this song is probably about Juice WRLD interrupting a wedding whilst drunk to moan about his ex-girlfriend publically in front of all the guests, with some lines that make clear-cut reference this like “And now I’m drinking too much, so I’mma talk with a slur” and the pretty hilarious one-liner “I love to do drugs, so mind my manners”. In the first verse, he talks about how his father told him to “flex on a hoe” every time he’s insecure, which is advice he takes and hence he tries to sing with as much soul as he can (And as much as he has, which is very little), about how he put Gucci on the fuuurrrrr and he put his wrist on iceberrrrrrrg, but nothing can compete with that pathetic hook that is yelled as if it is the most profound freaking chorus ever written.

She told me put my heart in the bag (In the bag), and nobody gets hurt (Nobody) / Now I’m running from her love, I’m not fast (Fast) so I’m making it worse (Making it worse)

“I’m running from her love but I’m not fast so I’m making it worse”. Yeah, this really is a flashback to the lyrics that the later scene or emo-pop bands would spout off, equally nonsensical and equally embarrassing, but I still love it because it’s the one Juice WRLD song that knows why emo was appealing in the first place, or at least the poppier nonsense that kind of sucked in retrospect. This is “The Curse of Curves” by Cute is What We Aim For over a trap beat, change my mind.

#33 – “Boasty” – Wiley featuring Idris Elba, Sean Paul and Stefflon Don

Produced by Mucky

So “Boasty” is a song released by UK grime rapper Wiley in August of last year, and it’s recently got a single push for the remix featuring dancehall legend Sean Paul, known for how seamlessly he crosses over to the pop scene with features on songs like “Rockabye” – also the dude seems omnipresent in society and I kind of love having this one person that isn’t in his prime but is still here being entertaining. Seriously, I miss Lil Jon. Stefflon Don is an XXL Freshman of 2018, and she’s a pretty cool rapper although her big hits so far have been pretty dreadful, especially “Hurtin Me” with that hack French Montana. Idris Elba is a very famous actor with an OBE in fact, but I wasn’t necessarily aware if he was known as a rapper, but he does seem to have a side job as a DJ so that’s something, although this is Elba’s first crossover hit. Wiley on the other hand has a #1 hit under his belt, this song being his thirteenth Top 40 hit and first since 2013. This is Sean Paul’s, who also has three #1s, 27th UK Top 40 hit single (Which is an insane amount) and Stefflon Don’s third. So what about the song itself? Well, it’s pretty boastful to say the least, but I expected that, and I didn’t think the lyrical content would be anything to care about. I kind of love how dumb this beat is, it sounds like a video game and after one measure just has a bit of a seizure with so many sound effects playing at once, and when Sean Paul ad-libs over that part, it’s hilarious, but the song isn’t charming or joyful enough to make up for odd mixing, a lazy hook and some simplistic flows from Stefflon Don... until Sean Paul’s verse... because I never thought I’d say that in my life, but Sean Paul absolutely bodies this song, with a great flow and not much content but he rides the beat excellently, seriously, can this dude actually RAP-rap more? Idris Elba is kind of funny, I guess, and I love how his verse is introduced with the freaking airhorn sound effect YouTubers used for MLG parodies a few years back, reminds me of Drake’s “Forever” in that respect, although in that song everyone wanted to one-up each other while here, it’s just Wiley organising a cypher between three rappers, all of which speak in semi-Patois and semi-British English throughout, that seems pretty fun although the main bassline doesn’t really have enough power to really bump this up to great for me. It’s cool, though.

#26 – “wish you were gay” – Billie Eilish

Produced by FINNEAS – Peaked at #7 in New Zealand and #59 in the US

Billie Eilish, huh? The emo-lite girl who makes odd, somewhat Gothic pop music that does feel quite maddening yet somewhat immature and sometimes underdeveloped, which I can mostly blame FINNEAS for, although I do like his often experimental approach to producing catchy pop tunes. This new song was first revealed when the tracklist for her album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? was announced, and I was initially sceptical – although to be fair, I was also sceptical of the track names “!!!!!!!!”, “ilomilo” and “my strange addiction”. The song has since been explained and is instead critical of herself and her ignorant teenage beliefs instead of being as problematic as some Twitter users seemed to think (Although I’m not going to rule out Eilish using this story to deflect criticism). Apparently, it’s about Eilish when she was 14 years old being madly in love and since the boy didn’t respond or feel mutually, she hurried to think of an excuse for that so she wouldn’t feel bad for herself, hence, “wish you were gay”, and, I mean, it seems okay. I think the acoustic guitar strumming is nice yet I’d argue the instrumentation, crowd cheering sound effects withstanding, is a bit generic for Eilish. The trap-influenced percussion in the drop is nice, I suppose, but it doesn’t hit nearly as much as the menacing “you should see me in a crown”. I think overall this is just a complete re-tread of what Eilish has done before, as both her and her brother FINNEAS are on complete auto-pilot here, and I am somewhat disappointed, especially with the janky writing during the bridge. It’s about a minute too long, I’d say, as well, it really drags on for no reason and I feel this is definitely album filler that got rushed out for another single release. It could possibly grow on me, though.

#11 – “Location” – Dave featuring Burna Boy

Produced by Fraser T Smith, Jae5 and Omoregie

Now, we have the three remaining new arrivals, all from Dave’s album, PSYCHODRAMA, so I’ll try and blast through them pretty quickly. First, we have Dave’s ninth top 40 hit, “Location”, located in the middle of the album and probably my least favourite track, although that definitely doesn’t mean it’s bad by any means. The beat is just pretty generic, mostly because it is the one track that is rooted in that faux-dancehall style from people like AJ Tracey, although it definitely has more to it than songs by people like Tion Wayne, due to the sweet vocal sample and the distant trumpet blasting in the background which I actually really appreciate, at least there’s some effort into making it sound different from its contemporaries, and while Burna Boy’s chorus is pretty boring, everything I love about Dave is still here, despite him being on auto-pilot and definitely sounding just as tired as Burna Boy, when he says he’s a playboy who doesn’t need a Carti (Ha, ha). Yeah, there’s not much attempts at wordplay here, as there isn’t throughout the album but he usually has a blunt, emotional and no-nonsense delivery that he actually does present in the second verse, before these cool synths kick in for Burna Boy to deliver his verse or bridge or whatever you want to call it, I wouldn’t call it anything other than a waste of time that kind of sounds like a British Ty Dolla $ign without enough of the polish. It definitely isn’t the best track on the album, but isn’t bad, just in that safe ‘okay’ range. On the other hand...

#9 – “Streatham” – Dave

Produced by Rogues, Fraser T Smith and Omoregie

Now we’re in territory that can lead me into talking about the album as a whole, because it’s presented as a radio interview with some British radio presenter asking about his life as a black man in England and evaluating his answers, of course given through song, although because of the name of PSYCHODRAMA, I’m tempted to believe that the conversations being had between the presenter and Dave are conversations between himself and his psyche when he wants to express himself on the track, and that each question the “Presenter” asks is an idea of what to write about, presenting his music as not only a stress relief but a way of improving communication with your own thoughts, almost as if it were a relaxed therapy session with a chilled British dude and a posh Radio One presenter. “Streatham” is not my favourite track on the album, that would go to either “Black” or the 11-minute epic “Lesley” featuring Ruelle, but it is close, mostly due to the multi-tracked vocal sample that starts the whole thing off, and I think is a better opener than the actual opener because it presents the same menacing yet introspective atmosphere the entire album uses, especially in this song as it focuses on his childhood and how far he has come from the southern London district he went to school in, talking about how he’ll never remember the day he found his girl who he now has a baby out of wedlock with as said in the second verse while constantly being pressured by both exams and... naked pictures from other women, I guess. The chorus and flow is pretty catchy throughout and the switch-up of the flow in the second verse to adhere to the suddenly added synth that enhances the already glistening pianos, keys and especially the violins that make the song feel grander than it probably should be considering its grimy content (Also referencing Ramz for some reason in wordplay that admittedly falls pretty flat, although the lines straight after more than make up for it with some triple-entendres). Also, I love Dave’s “Look” ad-lib. Just saying.

#8 – “Disaster” – Dave featuring J Hus

Produced by IO and TobiShyBoy

It’s no surprise that the song featuring a chorus from J Hus, who is one of the biggest UK rappers as well as currently in prison for holding a 10cm blade, would be the most popular out of all the tracks on the album, especially since Dave reserved J Hus’ feature for the token absolute banger on the track listing. The beat is pretty simple, with a really nice, upbeat synth that just kind of plounds its way through across some static, before the 808s kick in and J Hus’ interestingly mixed hook comes in (He doesn’t have a full verse for obvious reasons), with a falsetto that’s so amateur that it’s almost cute, I’d say, especially when he says he’s “Smiling like a nice person”. Then Dave comes in and bodies it with some of his best flows and rhyme schemes on the album, especially when trading bars with J Hus throughout, both of which are just bragging about their current lifestyle, with J Hus especially bringing some really violent personality, sometimes borderline yelling. The synth melodies are absolute hypnotic and Dave and J Hus ride it like it’s nothing, with the iconic “Think (About It)” vocal sample appearing every few bars. It’s a pretty simple track, with a pretty simple flow, but some of the greatest personality and charisma in UK rap, especially J Hus’ occasional bars in the verse that are delivered insanely well. The chorus is hilarious as well, and although I feel like it ends too abruptly, I think it’s already at a perfect length, especially since that verse seems like it’s never going to stop, it’s pretty mesmerising.

Conclusion

Best of the Week goes to Dave for “Streatham”... as well as “Disaster” with J Hus, but I don’t really consider this a tie since it’s an album bomb. Honourable Mention goes to Juice WRLD, and I can’t believe I’m saying that, for “Robbery” and I suppose Worst of the Week goes to Billie Eilish for “wish you were gay” but it’s only by default because it’s the sole weak offering here in a pretty great week. See you next time.

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 6th January 2019

The twelve pop songs that weren’t Christmas are all in the top 13 along with a new arrival, so, yeah, essentially this week is the same as last week without a holiday. Everything that was below the top 40 just came back in spades, hence...

Returning Entries

There’s a ton. Let’s get all of the returning entries and drop-outs in our first, very busy week of 2019, done first. Let’s go, starting from what’s at the top to what’s at the bottom. “Hold My Girl” by George Ezra is back at #14, “Baby” by Clean Bandit, Marina and Luis Fonsi is back at #15, “This is Me” by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble is back at #16, “A Million Dreams” by P!nk is back at #17, “Woman Like Me” by Little Mix featuring Nicki Minaj is back at #18, “imagine” by Ariana Grande is back at #20, “Promises” by Calvin Harris and Sam Smith is back at #21, “Going Bad” by Meek Mill and Drake is back at #22, “Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora is back at #23, “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is at #24, “The Greatest Show” by Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zac Efron, Zendaya and the Greatest Showman Ensemble returns to #25 (this was the first song I ever reviewed on this series so it’s crazy to see it back pretty much exactly a year later), “Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille is back to #26, “Advice” by Cadet and Deno Driz is at #27, “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes is at #28 (and while I’m at it, “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott featuring Drake, Swae Lee and Big Hawk is back at #33), “Eastside” by benny blanco, Halsey and Khalid is at #29, “A Million Dreams” by Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams comes back to #30, “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker lights up at #31, “KIKA” by 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez jumps back to #32, “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B rears its ugly head at #34, “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa, the biggest song of the year in the UK (yes, the year-end has been released, and I’ll rank it on my Twitter), “Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo is at #38 (that one’s growing on me too...), “Body” by Loud Luxury and brando is at #39, and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran rounds off the Top 40. Well, since all of these have had their own reviews on this series before, I might leave links on each song to where they’ve been reviewed or something, although my opinions have already changed. Oh, “Perfect” and “Mo Bamba” don’t have proper reviews yet but it’ll be redundant doing it now because I’ll just be covering them more in-depth on my best list anyway (sorry, spoilers). Now...

Dropouts

Oh, my goodness. Okay, so, every single Christmas song is out. “All I Want for Christmas for You” by Mariah Carey from #2, “Last Christmas” by WHAM! from #3, “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl from #4, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid from #6, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas” by Michael Bublé from #7, “One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis from #8, “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens from #9, “Step into Christmas” by Elton John from #10, and the episode’s already half of a 1,000 words. Listen, sorry about all the changes in structure with the series, especially in this episode, but I asked on Twitter if you would rather have me review more songs and not bother with anything else, and no, it was decided by 80% to continue with the standard format in the poll, so, yeah, I guess I’ll have to do it like this for another year. Anyways, back to this nonsense. “Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea is out from #11, “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard from #12, “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande from #13, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee from #16, “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade from #17, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band featuring the Harlem Community Choir from #18 (God, that is a chore to type every week), “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney from #20 – may you rest in peace, you gorgeous novelty – “We Built this City on Sausage Rolls” by LadBaby from #21, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love from #22, “Cozy Little Christmas” by Katy Perry from #23, “Santa’s Coming for Us” by Sia from #24, “Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord” by Boney M. from #26, “Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber from #28, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams from #29, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Jackson 5 from #30, “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby from #31, “Stay Another Day” by East 17 from #36 – still not a Christmas song – “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson from #37, “Lonely this Christmas” by Mud from #38, and finally, “Baby it’s Cold Outside” by Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé is out from #39. That felt oddly therapeutic.

Now, there’s not a single song that fell this week, obviously, but there are a few that climbed outside of the Top 10, and they’re all rebounds from the avalanche.

Climbers

“Without Me” by Halsey is up three spots to #11, “Lost Without You” by Freya Ridings is up 20 spaces to #12, and finally, “Thursday” by Jess Glynne is up a whopping 27 positions to #13. Now, with the chart finally rid of those pesky Christmas songs, welcome to 2019, everyone, and this is the state of British pop as the year turns around.

Top 10

“Sweet but Psycho” by Ava Max is spending its second week at #1 today, which is cool, I guess, but i don’t imagine it holding on for that long.

Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” is up three spaces from last week to number-two, but now we’ve got some massive jumps from scattered within the top 40 straight to the top 10.

“Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is up 16 positions to number-three.

At number-four, we have an 11-space increase for Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus’ “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”.

Finally, in what feels like ages, we have a top 5 debut, with Post Malone having his ninth top 40 hit and sixth top 10 hit this week, as his new song “Wow.” enters at #5. We’ll talk about it at length later on.

At number-six, Lord help us, we have “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong up 21 spaces from last week. This is the best proof we’ve had since Mr. Blobby that the charts are ran by children.

“Shotgun” by George Ezra rebounds by 26 spots to number-seven for no good reason. Go away, please, for my own sanity.

Oh, joy, James Arthur too, with Anne-Marie for “Rewrite the Stars” up 17 spaces to number-eight.

Zara Larsson creeps her head into the top 10 as well after a 26-spot boost up to number-nine, making “Ruin My Life” her sixth top 10 hit in the UK.

Finally, Kodak Black’s “ZEZE” featuring Travis Scott and Offset is up an undeservedly high 24 places up to #10, rounding off our top 10 at way too many words for an episode that has yet to have any song reviews. I’ll try to keep them brief.

NEW ARRIVALS

#36 – “Gun Lean” – Russ

R-R-Russ? Huh... Never expected that name to ever pop up on here, to be honest. Russ seems to only be kind of big in the US but he’s never hit the top 40, and he’s pretty much just a running joke or meme in the hip hop community so I honestly never expected any Brits to take him seriously either but this is his new single, I guess, and it’s not great. It starts with a menacing piano line that could be kind of interesting but then Russ comes in with a British accent and—oh.

#36 – “Gun Lean” – Russ splash

BBC has called new UK rapper Russ splash “Russ” instead, but who really cares? He might as well be Russ because he doesn’t say anything of substance either, with a painfully simplistic hook and chorus that doesn’t really help his lyrical ability shine (if it exists). The heavy bass is obviously trying to be have that energetic old Lil Pump energy, but it doesn’t work when your song is three and a half minutes because this song is tiring as all hell. This is generic British rap that follows the formula to a T, and I hope it doesn’t rise. Speaking of following a formula...

#35 – “Money” – Cardi B

Sigh, I do like Cardi B, but she seems to have stopped bothering and that’s a big issue because that’s the main reason anyone liked her. It’s definitely not the lyrics and while it may be the beat, she always rides it with that loud, straightforward and powerful delivery she is known for, and when you stop trying in the booth, I feel like that appeal is going to squander, and this is her ninth top 40 hit in less than two years, so the fact that it’s going quick is an issue. Anyways, this is absolute garbage. The beats is literally like two piano notes just being violently played under trap percussion and bass, with a recurring high-pitched “Money” ad-lib that is trying to break up the monotony but, no, it’s just annoying. Cardi B sounds more ruthless on the verses, which may actually be kind of unfitting, but it works, although then she gets bored on the chorus. In fact, the transition is actually pretty abrupt and forced here. At least it’s shorter and has a few good flow switches, so it’s definitely better than “Gun Lean” in that respect, but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

#19 – “Play” – Jax Jones featuring Years & Years

This is listed as a returning entry on BBC’s UK Top 40 page but this came out last year and I never reviewed so it’s safe to assume it’s new; I apologise if it isn’t, but I mean, would you care? The lead singer from Years & Years keeps up with a tiring atmospheric house beat, with meaningless lyrics and weak, radio-friendly drops that kind of take away its EDM properties immediately, I mean, the hook here isn’t that crazy of a vocal manipulation either like “One Kiss” or “Solo”, it’s just a pretty comprehensible phrase repeated and edited to sound a tad more distant. It’s so weak and pathetic, although the dude from Years & Years is trying so hard to fit on this beat, it’s kind of funny in that regard. Otherwise, yeah, who cares?

#5 – “Wow.” – Post Malone

Let me put it this way: my sister loves Post Malone for many reasons, one of which being his music, and she’s consistently loved a lot of what I’ve hated from Post like “I Fall Apart” (which is still a gruelling and confusing song to this day, read my worst list if you want to see me go into depth), but not even she could dig this, but I think I know why – she took it seriously. The tuneless keys is the only real build-up we get until Post comes in and there’s a cool noisy melody that ends with a high-pitched screech, and yeah, it’s a pretty awesomely minimal and menacing beat, so surely Post should add a lot to this... well, he literally has a whole line that is just “G-Wagon, G-Wagon, G-Wagon, G-Wagon”, but otherwise his delivery is on-point (I love his voice right at the end at the second verse), his flows are catchy, his lyrics are serviceable and sometimes pretty funny, and every single beat drop here is beautiful, seriously, that’s some perfect production from Frank Dukes and Louis Bell. After Post stops rapping, there’s a period of time where it’s just the distorted melody over some reverb-drowned drums with a chipmunk vocal coming in and him just ad-libbing “wow”, and it’s stunning. It’s not going to replace Beck’s song of the same title and in the same vein (seriously, it’s a trap-rap song too), but this is cool.

Conclusion

This week was mostly trap, huh? Well, Post Malone gets Best of the Week for “Wow.” but Russ splash is definitely bagging Worst of the Week for the dreadful “Gun Lean”. Dishonourable Mention is tied, and goes to Jax Jones, Years & Years and Cardi B for “Play” and “Money”, respectively. Not a great start, guys. See you next week!

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 21st October 2018

Ughhhhhhhh

Okay so we have an episode of REVIEWING THE CHARTS. All this week I’ve not been in either the right physical state or mental state (and I’m probably still not in either of those) to do basically anything and I’ve felt like keeping up with this is a chore. It’s late as all hell, but here is a shorter – and probably crappier-written – episode of RTC. There’s going to be a Halloween special on a Charlie Brown special sometime near Halloween so check that out but let’s just stop wasting time.

Top 10

To my nonexistent surprise, “Promises” by Calvin Harris and Sam Smith replaces last week’s debut and returns to the number-one spot for what I believe is its seventh week.

“Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo, however, has not moved as much as I thought it would have, dropping only one space down to the runner-up spot.

“Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille, however, is not moving at all at number-three.

“Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper moves up two spaces to the top five at number-four.

There’s a debut at number-five – yep, that’s “Woman Like Me” by Little Mix featuring Nicki Minaj, the lead single from their upcoming fifth album, also the first time their lead single hasn’t gone to #1 initially in a while.

“Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora, meanwhile, is down a position to number-six.

The meme seems to be wearing off at number-seven, fortunately, where “I Love It” by Kanye West and Lil Pump featuring Adele Givens is down three spots, although it may rebound soon due to either YANDHI or Harverd Dropout, whenever the hell they’re dropping that is.

“In My Mind” by Dynoro and Gigi D’Agostino is down a spot to number-eight.

As is “Electricity” by Silk City and Dua Lipa at number-nine.

Finishing off the consecutive trio of one-downers is “All I Am” by Jess Glynne at number-ten.

Climbers

There aren’t many, but they’re bigger than I expected, actually. “Always Remember Us this Way” by Lady Gaga is up eight spots to #31 – I think this may be because of a video? That’s also probably why “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B is up six to #25, after God knows how many weeks. “Taki Taki” by DJ Snake, Ozuna, Cardi B and Selena Gomez, the Godawful trash volcano that it is, is up 12 spots to #21. Meanwhile, “No Stylist” by French Montana featuring Drake inexplicably has a 10-space boost into the top 20 at #19. Guess the Drake verse is all you need these days.

Fallers

Fallers, on the other hand? Oh, trust me, we had plenty. Let’s start with pop and dance:

“Eastside” by benny blanco, Halsey and Khalid is down five to #16, “breathin” by Ariana Grande is down eight to #26, “Thunderclouds” by LSD (Labrinth, Sia and Diplo) is down 12 spots to #29, right next to “Body” by Loud Luxury and brando down 11 to #30.

We had a pretty sizeable handful of rock or rock-adjacent hits getting hurt too, like “High Hopes” by Panic! at the Disco is down five to #18, “Shotgun” by George Ezra is shot down six spots to #20 and “Falling Down” by Lil Peep and XXXTENTACION is doing just that to #33.

Hip-hop and R&B suffered too: “Venom” by Eminem is down seven to #23, “Best Life” by Hardy Caprio and One Acen is down five to #35, right next to “Drip Too Hard” by Lil Baby and Gunna down eight to #36, as well as “Lucky You” by Eminem featuring Joyner Lucas down 14 to #37, and “Taste” by Tyga and Offset down 13 to #38.

Dropouts

We didn’t have any returning entries this week, and I don’t know if we had any dropouts either, to be honest, because the website that I can quickly extract that info from has yet to update in weeks. I can tell for a definite “KILLSHOT” by Eminem is gone but otherwise I’d just be guessing or checking other websites and examining the info and I don’t want to do that, I have some common sense, and I don’t want this episode to be out any later. New arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#40 – “Advice” – Cadet and Deno Driz

For our weekly dose of tropical faux-dancehall faux-grime, we have a dude who sounds like a mixture of Swae Lee, Sean Kingston and MC Smally, and his more aggressive friend and/or dodgy uncle who relies on ad-libs to finish his rhyme scheme. Honestly, despite the nonsensical premise of roadman Sean Kingston and his uncle talking about girls they get on Instagram, I kind of like this actually. I love how they trade bars in the pre-chorus, and they’re giving each other advice about picking up women, kind of like “Without Me” by Shaggy and RikRok but British, if that makes sense. The steel pans and cheap synths can’t back up the admittedly pretty fun content and energetic flows from both Cadet and Deno Driz (no, I don’t know which one is which and I don’t care), however, and it ends incredibly abruptly. If these guys got better production, I can see myself enjoying them in the future. For now, well... Cal Chuchesta and Rob Scallon did it better. Just saying.

#24 – “Thursday” – Jess Glynne

So this is the break-out track from Jess Glynne’s sophomore effort, Always in Between, and what I imagine she’s pushing as the next single due to its success. I figured it would be a dance track like Glynne does best, but no, the label seems to be pushing a strong almost ballad-type song, with an incessant acoustic guitar riff that just continues in a building up of airy, foamy synths, until after the first chorus, we get a cheap-sounding but effectively nonexistent instrumental; yes, I complain about production being so bland it’s basically not there, but here, it works, putting more emphasis on Jess Glynne’s powerful vocals here. They’re not fantastic or even pushing her voice to any limits as such, but they feel raw, fitting in with the desperate lyrics, with the chorus reading “I just want to feel beautiful”. Yes, it’s kind of cheesy, yes, it’s kind of “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten (that should always be your go-to adjective for this type of song), but you know what, it just clicks. I don’t appreciate the “oh, oh, oh” repetition in the hook because it feels unnatural despite all of what I just said, so that kind of disappoints me, but if there were any empty spaces for the instrumental here, this wouldn’t exactly feel like a song. It’s on very thin ice and I feel like with just one more touch, this could easily be made either awful or awesome, but for what it is as it was released, it’s pretty good. Maybe I should check out that album after all, I mean, I heard “These Days” is on it and I loved that.

#13 – “MIA” – Bad Bunny featuring Drake

A Drake debut not in the top 10? Preposterous.

Okay, when I first saw this song, I figured it meant MIA as in a member of the armed services, because Drake likes to make up this little “gangsta” persona for himself. Then I saw “MIA” and thought maybe Bad Bunny and Drake were going to compare their girl to an independent, strong, not afraid to experiment (I figured Bad Bunny wasn’t above making Katy Perry references, I guess) and incredible woman and artist, M.I.A., the rapper we all know for “Paper Planes”... although, then I looked into it, “Mia” is a female first-name, right? Is Bad Bunny seriously just name-dropping his real-life girlfriend or ex in the song? No, well, “mia” means “my” in Italian, so it’s just about “everyone wants my girl, but she’s my girl, so step off, fellas”. Maybe I thought too much into the title but damn, it has so many possible meanings, and hell it could mean all of those things but I highly doubt Bugs and Daffy put that much thought into it. This whole title ramble is me trying to covering up how I have nothing to say about the song other than I think I actually really like it. It has a pretty nice groove, albeit almost completely drowned-out by the watery synths (which, yes, I like to). Bad Bunny’s voice has always appealed to me, especially his little “I’m a dog who just went out in the rain and I’m washing it off by just spreading it and flapping my fur” ad-lib. You know the one, the “bgdrrrhr!” Mostly, however, they’re gone, instead he has a really sweet high-pitched vocal harmonising with him and Drake, who sounds beautiful on the hook, by the way. Yeah, didn’t expect to like this one, but maybe I should check out more Bad Bunny. His song “Amorfoda” is one I dig too, check it out, I’ll be talking about it on my worst list as almost a comparison piece for what my #1 did wrong, hopefully that doesn’t spoil my incredibly predictable choice or anything.

#11 – “ZEZE” – Kodak Black, Travis Scott and Offset

“ZEZE, do you love me?” No, frankly, you’re quite boring, although D.A. Doman’s production is pretty competent, at least. I guess the steel pans don’t do as much for me because I hear them every week on this show, but it’s still alright, I’m pretty sure he produced “Taste” too so I’ll check out what he does nowadays, he can be pretty good. Everyone else ruins it, though. How can you get such a cleanly-produced, airy-sounding beat and just puke all over on it with ad-lib madness? Seriously, with the vocals, this feels cluttered as all hell. The bass is overpowering but Travis and Kodak Black’s autotune both make everything so hard to listen to, especially with the amount of reverb-addict ad-libs throughout. In Kodak’s typically off-beat verse, there’s extra vocal harmonisations as well, that I think are the same guy from “Taste”, to be completely honest. Offset raps well but the ad-libs, again, are too much, it’s just way too much in so little time, like a shoddy BTS song by a rapist and a homophobe. Oh, yeah, and it was a meme three weeks before it released, leading it to debut at number-one in Canada, because Canadians seem to have lost their capability to both make AND listen to good music this year. Sad.

#5 – “Woman Like Me” – Little Mix featuring Nicki Minaj

This new album by Little Mix, (lazily) titled LM5, is going to be women and women only! Just female stars and vocal powerhouses on this record, baby... until you realise two frat boy-looking dudes are on the bonus track and this song was written by Ed Sheeran. It’s safe to say I’m never excited that much for a Little Mix album, and the addition of Nicki Minaj as a feature has never given me much to write home about since “Monster” by Kanye West, so expectations were low, and somehow I was still disappointed... because it leads me in with that sassy guitar and intro, before immediately plunging me into suck. The trap beat kicks in, with a badly-mixed autotuned Jesy rapping pretty awfully, to say the least, before sloppily cutting to the pre-chorus with that guitar, but also the trap percussion and “whoop!” vocal effects, and that ear-piercing falsetto note that acts like a synth during the drop, where the bass overpowers everything. Hell, everything about this song is sloppy. They take vocals from other takes and make no effort to connect them together in any comprehensible manner. The autotune constantly put on Jesy is not only unnecessary because she and all of the girls have great voices but it feels cheap. When Nicki Minaj comes in, it actually gives me some space to breath with the empty space between “b****es is my sons” punchlines and a blunt, boring flow as she simply states, “I want all the money”, without any jokes or any wordplay or anything, just she wants all the money. Why does Nicki have to come in during the last chorus and outro, too? Why is everything so all over the place in this song? This is an atrocity. What a half-hearted failure. Steve Mac produced this? What—actually, no, that explains a lot, in fact, it makes me believe anyone on this song tried, because when Steve Mac doesn’t try the end result is listenable (i.e., “What About Us”, “Shape of You”) but when he does we get stuff like “Alarm” by Anne-Marie, “Rockabye” by Clean Bandit and this? Wait, Steve Mac also produced “Thursday”? Well, that explains the shoddy vocal mixing present in both, but God, he’s not having the best of weeks. Take a few months off, Mac. You need it, and maybe during then, don’t try at all so you get into the habit of phoning everything in. That’s the only thing you’re good at.

Conclusion

Little Mix and Nicki Minaj get Worst of the Week for “Woman Like Me”, no question, but I didn’t expect to give Best of the Week to Bad Bunny and Drake for “MIA”, with Honourable Mention going to Jess Glynne for “Thursday” and Dishonourable Mention to Kodak Black, Travis Scott and Offset for “ZEZE”. What a messy week, and quite a few pretty messy songs, actually. Few of these songs feel like they were made by competent producers, honestly. See ya next week!

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deadcactuswalking · 6 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 16th September 2018

Pretty uninteresting week on the charts today so maybe this episode might be short. I hope not but on the weekend you’ll be getting BLAST TO THE PAST so maybe Snoop Dogg will be a bit more interesting and provide me with some more material. Anyway, top 10.

Top 10

“Promises” by Calvin Harris and Sam Smith stays still at the number-one spot, and if that’s not a pretty apt depiction of the charts this week, I don’t know what is; that song feels like it lasts 10 times the actual length.

Also not moving is “Eastside” by benny blanco, Khalid and Halsey, at the runner-up spot, an equally worthless song.

We have a debut at number-three today, fuelled by the YouTube streams (it’s probably only here because they have recently started to count on the UK Singles Chart) and YouTube memes. That song would be “I Love It” by Lil Pump and Kanye West featuring additional vocals from Adele Givens. I’ll talk about this song more when we get to the new arrivals.

At number-four, we have a one-space increase for “Body” by Loud Luxury and brando, and I’m not exactly bothered by that, although a closer look at the lyrics reveal them as pretty... dodgy.

Talking about dodgy men, we have “Taste” by Tyga and Offset moving up three spots to number-five.

“Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille has gone up nine spaces to enter the top 10 at number-six, for some reason.

“Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B is also up three spots to number-seven.

Oh, remember the three Eminem songs we had in the top 10 last week? Well, they’re still there, and now they’re consecutive. “Fall” featuring Justin Vernon is up a spot to number-eight... why?!

“Lucky You” featuring Joyner Lucas is down three spots to number- nine.

Finally, “The Ringer” is a whopping six spaces down to number-ten. Oof.

Climbers

There is only a single climber here. Yeah, yikes, it was quite boring here. Other than the top 10 and a couple small climbers for songs by Freya Ridings, Jess Glynne and a couple others, that aren’t worth mentioning, we have “Be Alright” by Dean Lewis moving up eight positions to #27. Nice song.

Fallers

We don’t even have much of these... there are quite a lot of fallers at about one space or two down but otherwise, yeah, there are just a few worthwhile decreases here. “Shotgun” gets its streaming cut in half as part of a chart rule, forcing it down 14 spaces to #17, “In My Feelings” by Drake featuring City Girls is collapsing down the charts, with a whopping 14-spot decrease right to #21, whilst “Rise” by Jonas Blue and Jack & Jack is down eight positions to #32, as is “Solo” by Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato down to #36. There are also two five-spot falls for “Youngblood” by 5 Seconds of Summer and “Jackie Chan” by Tiesto and Dzeko featuring Preme and Post Malone, down to #30 and #38 respectively.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

We don’t have all too many big dropouts this week, but there are a lot of smaller ones that were pretty expected like “If You’re Over Me” by Years & Years out from #34, “Ring Ring” by Jax Jones featuring Mabel and Rich the Kid from #37, “LO(V/S)ER” by AJ Tracey off the debut from #38, “Only You” by Cheat Codes and Little Mix from #39 and “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” by the 1975 from #40 (please, stay out!).

As for returning entries, we have “This is Me” by Keala Settle and the Greatest Showman Ensemble because it can’t leave the freaking charts apparently to #40, as well as that confusingly-credited “Ay Caramba” song by Fredo, Young T & Bugsey and their weirdly-titled record label Stay Free Get Lizzy back to #39.

IN MEMORIAM

“What’s the Use?” – Mac Miller featuring Snoop Dogg, Thundercat, Dam-Funk and Syd

I’m sure you all know of Mac Miller’s tragic death on September 7th due to what I believe is a drug overdose. I was never a massive fan of his music, his lazy flow never appealed to me and personally his production could be hit-and-miss. At 26 though, a clearly great talent with a lot of musical growth and potential, who touched a lot of peoples’ hearts with his songwriting, being lost, is awfully sad, and one of the recent musical deaths I’ve actually taken to heart and cared a great deal for, enough to check out more of his stuff at least. I’m not covering the song that charted on the UK Singles Chart – it didn’t get into the top 40, and I’m rather indifferent on it – so, instead, I figured I’d talk just a little bit about one of my favourites off of Swimming, “What’s the Use?” featuring uncredited vocals from Snoop Dogg, Thundercat, Dam-Funk and Syd. The track, produced by Pomo, also the man behind Anderson .Paak’s “Am I Wrong” (one of my favourite songs of the decade), has some of the essential elements of synth-funk, with a smooth falsetto vocal from Mac Miller in the hook, a freaking great bassline, and really pretty synths serving as the base for the handclaps that perfectly encapsulate Mac’s lyrics and performance – they’re not energetic, in fact, they’re just kind of there... with very little effort or charisma, like Mac’s vocals, where he’s clearly hopeless and careless about what he’s singing about, which is, shocker of the century, drug addiction, which he has since grown numb to, and it’s just become part of the routine. Oh, and I love how is flow is ever slightly off throughout, it adds a more natural touch. Thundercat’s bridge is pretty heavenly too, and the ever-so-subtle Snoop Dogg vocals are quirky and do their job well; if you add Snoop Dogg to a track, you will most likely never fail, he just has too much charisma to ever ruin a song, I love him for that. Great track, check it out. Rest easy, Mac.

NEW ARRIVALS

#31 – “RAP DEVIL” – Machine Gun Kelly

Okay, so, I’ve heard “KILLSHOT”. Eminem, basically on auto-pilot, still destroyed Kelly, and that’s because Kelly doesn’t seem to be able to stir up the anger that is clearly being felt from how Em’s disappointed him as a fan (trust me, I’ve been there) in any way that seems visceral or even interesting compared to Eminem’s thirsty verse in “KILLSHOT” that even Em sounded bored recording. The beat is actually pretty good, with the simple guitar strumming being covered by a lot of distortion and some skittering trap percussion, as with Ronny J’s typical style, but it’s pretty effective, especially when the distortion and drums cuts out in the intro and bridge. Meanwhile, Kelly has an autotuned hook where he rhymed “let’s talk about it” with itself, petty and moronic references to how Eminem’s beard is weird and how he’s named after confectionary (really, Kelly? That’s the best you could come up with?), an admittedly nice delivery at some points (especially during the “f**k the Rap God, I’m the Rap Devil” passage, where he flows pretty nicely and the lines are actually pretty hard; not hard-hitting but work very well with Kelly’s aggressive and faster style), backing vocals desperately trying to prove anything Kelly says is worth listening to by repeating “facts!”, and finally, how the real Slim Shady can’t stand up. Yeah, that’s a hilariously pathetic line, not in concept but how the beat cuts out for such an uninteresting line, and that’s how he ends the second verse. It’s pretty funny, but the song itself? Not exactly worth it. Sorry.

#15 – “Electricity” – Silk City and Dua Lipa

So, this is a song featuring vocals from Dua Lipa, and partly written by Mark Ronson, Florence Welch and Diplo. Recipe for success, right? Well, not exactly, but it’s awful at all, in fact I’d argue it’s pretty damn good for what it is. Yes, it’s a tad underwritten, but do these dancefloor-filler house tracks need much of that to be fun, energetic bops? No, of course, they don’t, and this song succeeds in being just that, with some beautiful vocals from Dua Lipa, who proves to be a perfect base for the deeper pitch-shifted vocals in the drop, and a pretty nice piano melody, with a great bassline to boot, as well as some pretty interesting vocal samples in the bridge that appear alongside some cloudy synths. Much like the last song I reviewed by EDM producers that featured Dua Lipa, “One Kiss”, it’s a good song, but it’s not anything I’m able to really talk much about. It’s not void of any discussion, and I expect this to stick around on the charts for a while (at least in the UK), but it doesn’t exactly give me much material. Oh, and the outro with the “woo-hoo!” ad-lib and the funky guitar strumming is such a great ending, albeit slightly unfitting. It’s alright and I’d definitely recommend it for someone looking for these types of tracks, but that’s as much as I can say about it.

#3 – “I Love It” – Lil Pump and Kanye West featuring Adele Givens

This is “I Love It”, a song presumably taken from both Pump and Kanye’s upcoming albums, featuring a sample (and a video cameo) from comedian Adele Givens, and a video featuring Kanye and Pump being trapped in blocky ROBLOX suits and overly-large shoes while following Givens, dressed somewhat like an angel, in a grey hallway, that premiered at the Pornhub Awards, which Kanye creatively directed. Can’t make this up, folks.

The song that was pretty blatantly rushed last minute so that the video would serve any purpose, and in an attempt for Kanye to get some more chart success after how ye performed, is also pretty humorous, actually, and it’s not like it’s all that terrible, either. It’s got a nice enough bassline – possibly stolen from T-Pain but that’s besides the point - but that’s all it has, and I’m not over exaggerating all that much here; other than the percussion and the vocals, starting off with a decent enough introduction from Adele Givens, sampled from a Def Jam comedy special, that is actually kind of funny to be fair to Givens here, but then it continues down the road to an awful feature from Lil Pump, where he ditches his yelling for a more melodic, autotuned style as he croons about how his girl is such a hoe and he loves it. That’s completely fine, until he talks about telling her cousin that he’s with her, and then banging that cousin, or her sister as he’s apparently oblivious because he does so much Xans or whatever, and then, in shock and pure disgust, he exclaims what I’m pretty sure is the ROBLOX death sound and the beat cuts out to show his genuine anger at how “she take lines”. I thought you loved her (or her cousin, or her sister) because she was a freak, what’s wrong with her taking cocaine? Man, I didn’t think I’d be able to find plot holes in a Lil Pump song this easily considering the lack of even trying for any substance in the subject matter but anyway, after Pump makes up some words, shouts out both London and Smokepurrp and repeats the chorus again, we get a skit from Kanye which is just there to fill out the runtime... as is the mind-numbing repetition of “I’m a sick f**k, I like a quick f**k, whoop!” After about four or five takes at the line, he starts rapping about how if you perform oral sex with him, he’ll buy you a sick truck... and he delivers on his promise, Kim got a green Mercedes-Benz back in August. To be fair to Ye here, he puts more effort in comedic delivery than Pump, so some of his lines can actually pass off as at least partly humorous, like “How you start a family? The condom slipped up”. And after a few filler lines that rhyme “hoe s**t” and “more s**t” with itself two or three times, Kanye’s done and basically the song’s done. It’s really not worth your time unless you’re watching the video. The official clean version on Spotify is somehow even more incompetent than the song though, it’s bloody hilarious.

Conclusion

Best of the Week goes to Silk City and Dua Lipa for “Electricity”, because at least they tried, and Worst of the Week goes to Kanye West, Lil Pump and Adele Givens for “I Love It”. I like all three of these guys, I just wish they were able to come out with something more worth my time combining all their strengths. See ya next time!

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