#not everything needs a HYPER HARDCORE REMIX

[gay-yosuke]

yknow how it is sometimes when you hear a remix of somethign and youre like. this doesnt add anything to the original. this is nothing.

[1null2]

So I’ve decided to take my work back underground … to stop it falling into the wrong hands

[theteenagetrickster]

21 Savage's R&B Love Affair Is A ReflectIon Of The Evolved "Gangster Rapper"

In November of 2019, artist 21 Savage spoke to hundreds of Atlanta students about the dangers of gun violence. The speech was part of Fulton county’s “Guns Down, Heads Up” program. An initiative to curtail the rising number of illegal firearms in the community. During a local news feature, he explained that urging area youth to be wise in not resorting to guns was his mission. However, his single “Immortal” which was released just 20 days prior had a different message. “Brand new Mac-90 with the drum attached, you a shit talker we got drums for that. Tryna fist fight boy you dumb for that. You gone catch a bullet in yo long for that.”

Can a hardcore rapper grow as a person, as a man, as a member of his community - yet still let his music promote the darkness of his past? 

What happens when a man with a troubled past embraces his mortality and refuses to wallow in the same mentality that resulted in the very pain he once sought to escape?

Is society receptive to the duality of a black man finding the silver lining in his suffering, dealing with the convolution and weight of surviving life in the hood? 

If you never cared to learn more about 21 Savage you may have these and other questions. Yet, given the effort, you’d quickly find that the man behind the microphone is more complex than can be understood simply by taking his music at face value. It requires a fair analysis of the environment in which he was born. The environment he references in music. Through his words, though sometimes corrupt, Savage has constructed a platform. In the 27-year old’s maturation, he continues to use that platform to make a change, perhaps the only way he knows how. This while still healing from a past that likely haunts him.

Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter presents 21 Savage with an award at the NILC Courageous Luminaires Awards, October 2019 - Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for NILC

In an interview with Genius, 21 Savage said, “Words are powerful. You have to be mindful of how you use them. I’m a rapper, so yeah, I’m going to rap about certain shit - but that’s entertainment. That’s music. That’s my past life. When it comes to what I’m doing in these streets as like a man. Fuck a rapper. Just me as a man and what I stand for, don’t throw dirt on that because that’s like a big accomplishment.”

21 Savage leaped onto hip-hop’s proverbial stage, the light finally shimmering on a sound once dimly lit in almost hidden crevices of SoundCloud. If The Slaughter Tape catapulted Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph onto that stage his soon-to-follow EP Savage Mode was the crowd surfing frog splash off of it. The hip-hop community had embraced him. Each project he’s released since has pitted him deeper and deeper into the modern-day pop-culture lexicon. The Slaughter Tape featured a hardcore, gritty production style, heavily fleeced with 808s and a dark ominous undertone. Listening to the early Savage catalog feels like you’re walking into the belly of the slums. His menacing voice and catchy ad-libs rattle your eardrums from start to finish as he uniquely tells his story.

Back in the early days of his emergence, 21 Savage was lauded for his hardcore street, oftentimes violence ladened lyrics. Praising the gang lifestyle and endorsing problematic behavior. Behavior young men feel forced into because of the realities of living in a socioeconomically challenged neighborhood. As time fell through the hourglass on 21 Savage’s career, his tune has started to shift. Both in his outward demeanor and in his music. Perhaps it even softened.

On his most recent album, I am > I was, he goes in-depth about the tumultuous relationship with his father, losing loved ones and the pain of heartbreak. As the title would suggest Savage’s second studio album signifies a turning point in his life. Seeking to be a better artist and a better man than he once was. For his endeavors in proliferation the rapper was rewarded with a Grammy nomination for Rap Album of the Year.

“I just feel like I’m becoming a better person. My music is just getting better. Learning the game better, learning how to move, learning how to create - everything’s just growing.”

 “I might rap about a lot of stuff, but that’s just a reflection about what I’ve been through. But in real life, everything I do is positive.” 

For someone who has been through so much, it’s great to see a man able to freely express himself. His ups and downs. Both his unrestrained joy and his pain. On a 2018 Breakfast Club interview, Savage admitted that “sometimes he cries” when reflecting on the passing of a friend. DJ Envy followed his statement up by saying “the fact that you said you cry is good because a lot of people will never admit that they cry.” The Atlanta-raised rapper then says “That Jeezy and Keisha Cole song, "Dreaming," I don’t care where I’m at if that song comes on I’m going to cry.”

It was here that we realized 21 Savage, like many of us, uses music to mend emotional scars - which would explain his love affair with singing R&B. Music often acts as an emotional ointment, just as 21 Savaged described in this interview. It helps us to process our traumas. For black people, music is sometimes the only therapy we ever had. In many cases, it is the only way we were able to process the things we went through. Have you ever been to a party or a gathering and that classic R&B song plays that calls up so many emotions? We, as African-Americans, don’t simply experience music - we escape into it. Losing ourselves in the words and the melody. Hoping for a momentary fix from reality. For black men, we deserve the chance to be free of the stereotypes that chain us to a nonexpressive mascot-like existence.  

21 Savage at his "Hot Boyz" Birthday Bash, October 2019 - Carmen Mandato/Getty Images 

In the same interview, Savage admitted that he had been to therapy. Imagine a 90’s gangster rapper talking about therapy in a radio interview. As we’ve become a more conscious and progressive community in hip-hop, much of the facade has melted away and we accept these men as human beings who have experienced real things that take a toll on them - not these beacons of hyper-masculinity. We see evidence of this in today’s “gangster rapper.” 

Savage speaks on this candidly in his writings:

“I done did a lot in these streets and that’s facts. PTSD like I came from Iraq.”

“I lost all my friends countin' bands in the Bentley coupe

Diamonds on me doin' handstands, Rosé on my tooth

If she wanna dance, let her dance for the money, ooh

I don't need no friends if you really wanna know the truth.” 

In the Summer of 2018 Savage began frequently posting himself singing on Instagram’s Story feature. He sang everything from The Weeknd to R. Kelly to SWV. Bellowing his heart out. The selection a testament to his wide range of musical tastes. This past Summer the rapper claimed “I’m singing R&B this time on tour,” in an Instagram post. Savage stated that singing clears his mind. So, these internet karaoke sessions may be part medicine, part liberation. Signs of his internal cultivation. 

Men are freer now to express themselves. To be open with their feelings and show a softer side. 21 Savage is an example of this. We as a society have moved toward allowing men the opportunity to be human. To be tender and vulnerable creatures, while still endorsing their masculinity. Breaking down the barriers of masculinity has been tougher than knocking down the Berlin Wall within the tribe of hip-hop. Misconceptions of male identity have long contributed to a hyper-aggressive culture of male behavior. Many times men are incredibly pensive because they’re asked by society to partake in this play where their role is merely the beast. 21 Savage's exterior may present a hardcore gangster rapper. Now we’re seeing a softer side of Savage. Growth is the companion of time and 21 Savage isn’t the same person that scrapped and crawled his way out of the trenches. He’s a greater version of that.

21 Savage’s journey exemplifies the dichotomy that exists in rap. He wants desperately to help his community and his actions show that. But his music is still filled with violence and belligerence. The Grammy nominee’s infatuation with R&B is a sign that he’s torn about the content in his music. On one hand, it propelled him to stardom, on the other hand, it goes against the things he seems to stand for. But the stories in his music make up who he is. Without the horrors of his past, Savage may not be here to share the journey.

Savage takes his fandom of R&B to the next level by more frequently singing on his music, too. Issa Album explored this on tracks "Facetime" and "Special." In "Special," thanks to auto-tuning, he gifts us with a silky vocal arrangement. On his 2019 album, I am > I was, 21 Savage had a few tracks on which he sings in a contemporary R&B style. He later hopped on several prominent R&B remixes; Jhene Aiko's "Triggered," a song in November with Alicia Keys and Miguel titled "Show Me Love," as well as Normani's "Motivation." There may be more of an audience for 21 Savage ballads than there were for former generations of gangster rap. In what many call the golden era of hip-hop, for two decades, gangster rappers really carried the genre. But I would argue, few of the most influential artists in the past 10 years have been hardcore rap artists. Gangster rappers have had to evolve and adjust with the times in order to survive. 

21 Savage isn't alone either. Other rappers known for abrasive style and content like NBA YoungBoy and Kodak Black are showing their more vulnerable sides nowadays. Last year Kodak released HeartBreak Kodak, a project filled with songs of love's enmity. HipHopDX called the album "808s & Heartbreak meets the trap." Needless to say, it was heavily R&B influenced. NBA YoungBoy made waves with his release of "Dirty Iyanna," Michael Jackon’s "Dirty Diana" reimagined. The track features YoungBoy singing feverishly in auto-tune under the iconic baseline. Social changes and advancements in technology have made creatives that never would’ve sung in generations past empowered to give it a shot.

21 Savage gives out a plate of food during his YMCA Thanksgiving Dinner, November 2019 - Prince Williams/Wireimage/Getty Images

It's a proverb of the duplicity that exists in hip-hop and the evolution of the "gangster" rapper. Savage has several different community initiatives where he focuses on giving back. From hosting charity dinners to giving away school supplies in his old neighborhood. After his run-in with ICE and threat of deportation, Savage is now even advocating for immigrant children. It also highlights the line between art and reality. To quote 21 Savage one final time, “This is art, so how the fuck you gone tell me how to express myself - it ain’t no right or wrong way to be a hip-hop artist.”'

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This content was originally published here.

[joemuggs]

Nina Simone ‘Pastel Blues’

I found a “classic album review” I did for a Noisey offshoot a few years back. It’s not online any more so here it is again.

'Pastel Blues' starts with almost complete abstraction. Four tiny, distant taps then a massive clap and cymbal that lurch in off-beat in a way that can still surprise you no matter how many times you've heard the album. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It could almost be all electronic, so indeterminate in their origin yet exact in their placing are the sounds. Then in comes Nina Simone's voice – also stuck in a loop, repeating “be my husband and I'll be your wife”, and also so mannered that it feels slightly inhuman. It's not processed or reverbed like the percussion sounds, just made alien by her extraordinary control: each note bends, twists or cracks into a slight whoop, but always in a way that you can instantly tell is extraordinarily deliberate. Each note is a sculpture, both monumental and minutely precise, and every singer who's tried to go somewhere new with their voice, from Diamanda Galas to Thom Yorke, Jarboe to John Lydon, owes it big time.

This is, as the title suggests, essentially a blues album. But it is the blues as high science: in an era when the Stones and all who followed had codified it into pop music, romanticising (or fetishising) its poor, rural roots with a kind of musical raggedness, Simone made it hyper-modern, even futuristic. This is the blues as both urban and urbane, delivered with full knowledge of and passion for its history, and with all the guts and power that white rockers could ever muster, but with all the finesse, sophistication and abstraction that her Juilliard School classical training could bring to bear on it. She was able to channel the raw experimentalism of John Lee Hooker or Bessie Smith, but with the full understanding that this music was not some noble-savage instinctive outpouring, but music with its own detailed rulesets which she was able to mesh with those of jazz and classical, with the blues standing as their equal.

The subject matter, too, is that of the blues through and through. It's failure ('Nobody Knows you When you're Down and Out'), it's forlorn hope ('Trouble in Mind') and it's yearning (every single song on the album vibrates with unmet need). But this isn't a gloomy record – it's shot through with wit, catharsis and even fun ('Trouble...' is as jaunty a party tune as anything in Simone's catalogue). And there's something more than personal trouble being expressed in the standard blues lyrical tropes, too. This is Nina Simone, hardcore civil rights activist, speaking – the woman who a year earlier had written the blisteringly furious 'Mississippi Goddam' in response to deep south racist murders – and you don't need her raging version of 'Strange Fruit' (“black bodies hanging from southern trees”) here to get the sense that this is the blues as collective suffering, hopes and fears, not those of an individual. 

Throughout, everything is as stripped as that freakishly bare intro. Simone's piano and voice, a brush-stroked jazz drumkit, maybe a lick of harmonica here and there – all close-mic'ed to show the terrifying precision and intense feeling of the playing. This closeness is not exactly intimacy; Simone is not interested in YOU, after all. But it brings you right up close with the power, rage, feeling and technique of her playing. So by the time you do get to that rendition of 'Strange Fruit' (better than Billie Holliday's by a country mile, for my money, because it is furious rather than desolate), its power is brutal. And when the closing traditional spiritual 'Sinnerman' follows, it doesn't exactly let you off the hook, but at least leaves you with a way forward from that brutality: a rhythmic shakedown still beloved of DJs, once remixed by Felix Da Housecat, it provides not redemption but focus for the rage. It is a voodoo-gospel groove that pulls all the yearning of the album together and turns it into movement, sex and funk. This album is one of the most talented musicians of the 20th century at the height of her powers, and using those powers to ask hard questions and tell hard truths. It is very addictive, but like most addictions can be deeply troubling.

[joonsea]

college yoongi

min yoongi, the college’s resident music theory major (see also: genius)

seriously though, almost everyone thinks he’s a genius and his professors gush over him but not when he’s around bc they think he’s indifferent

but he’s not indifferent bc it’s easy to notice the little smile on his face whenever he overhears someone mention that he has mad skills or something and he just shakes his head and continues to walk

and if anyone ever stops him to talk about something of his that they heard he just shrugs and it’s good-naturedly and replies with “ah, i was only messing around you know”

so he’s obviously very humble which kinda gives people whiplash bc they didn’t that at all like most people just thought he knew how amazing he is but nope he’s actually really chill

there’s always flyers in like every department saying that people should listen to his soundcloud and follow him

the number of followers and plays that his tracks have is insane but not really bc he’s a genius and his username is min genius so i mean yeah

he has this really nice, chill style that’s kinda a hybrid of tomppabeats and it’s great and sometimes he uploads remixes and they’re also great

even uploads some of his soft rapping tracks to keep like this chill theme but if you’re into like hardcore rapping, he has another account for that

like the baristas in the café on campus asked if it was cool to play some (all) of his tracks and he’s like yeah sure why not

he even has a few eps on itunes and the ratings always surprise bc “wow people actually like my stuff??” and it’s one source of income so

but more about his rapping tracks. like, the lyrics are so deep and meaningful and are one of the main reasons people enjoy them

bc he talks about a lot of relevant stuff that he felt like he wasn’t able to talk about and they really add on to the “only few will understand” idea

yeah twenty one pilots are one of his many inspirations amazing i know

another thing that confuses people is the fact that he’s best friends with the kinda hyper sophomore & kinesiology major, junghoseok

like they’re kinda opposites but they’ve known each other since like middle school and they’re still really close

hoseok was the one they helped yoongi decide what to minor in bc he knows how much his best pal loves photography so it was a pretty easy decision to make

he also helped yoongi with his major bc there’s always those majors that people don’t see as being stable but yoongi defied all the odds that were stacked against him bc he already has companies reaching out to him about his composing skills

it was mentioned on the music theroy’s major website about students having things published and having companies contact them before graduation and he didn’t really believe it until it happened to him and it’s so cool but he doesn’t brag about it bc he’s super humble

okay about him minoring in photography

he loves taking nature pics bc it’s so nice and has such a nice aesthetic that you can’t find anywhere else

he studied abroad the year before in florence, italy and took a thousand pictures there bc everything was so captivating

so when he’s not making music or playing basketball (which he also does), he’s snapping some quality pictures of forests and sunsets and etc. and those that know him are like wow he’s so multi-talented

sometimes you see him sitting under a tree in the park not too far from campus with his headphones on while he works on his laptop and you can see his camera peeking out of his backpack

he calls the camera his life bc he was saving up forever to buy it but people buying his eps on itunes helped out a lot

yeah so you see him a lot in the park when you’re studying or whatever and it’s nice to watch him work even though you feel kinda creepy when you do but he’s really nice to look at and his mannerisms are so gentle idk if that makes sense but yeah

so you make it a habit to go to the park a few times a week and sometimes yoongi’s playing basketball with his friends and that kid jungkook tries to throw the ball a bit too hard and you’re kinda close by so it almost hits you

and yoongi’s rushing over to make sure you’re okay an dyou’re yeah i’m fine while clutching your chest and jungkook just stands there wide-eyed before he apologizes 20 times

and yoongi notices that the ball knocked over your coffee and even though he’s not all that sociable, he offers to buy you another one and you’re like nah it’s fine and he’s like okay and you’re :/ ?? bc you kinda hoped he would insist but nope

one of his friends, hoseok, calls him back over to finish the game but he doesn’t call him yoongi but min genius and the cogs are turning in your head bc that sounds familiar and yoongi checks that you’re okay before he gets the ball and continues playing

and after that you grab your things and head to your class but it’s hard to concentrate bc you know that you saw min genius somewhere so when you get back to your dorm you look it up and yoongi’ssoundcloud and itunes comes up and it clicks bc you remember seeing flyers with min genius on them

when you see him again a few days later you tell him that you really like his stuff and he just smiles and thanks you and he shyly asks if you’d want to grab a coffee with him bc hoseok gave him a lecture the night before about him asking you out or something

yeah so you agree and while the two of you are waiting for your coffee, you realize that his music is playing and you’re like wow and yoongi just smiles his gummy smile and it’s cute and he finds you cute and it turns out that you’re taking intro to digital photography and he’s like i took it last semester and i can help if you ever need it

the two of you hang out sometimes whether that’s meeting up in the café or at the park when he’s editing some of his music and he shows you his pictures and tricks to help you with class and they’re really amazing

esp the ones from florence and you think it’s so cool that he studied abroad and he tells you about it and it sounded like a lot of fun

he even made these little short films and they’re so nice and aesthetic with some of his tracks playing in the background and it’s so chill

then sometimes you find yourself making playlists for him bc the way he talks about music, you know it’s important to him and when you meet up again you let him listen to them and he has a smile on his face bc it’s good music

before either of you can really process it, you realize how deep the feelings you have for each other run like it’s way past just friends

when he realized that he likes you he wasn’t !! it was just okay so like i them in that way and it took him a while to mull it over and he doesn’t tell you right away or at all

since he’s been helping you with photography, you take pictures of him when he’s working on music or playing basketball with the rest of bts and create this little collection that you posted on vsco and show him and he’s like wow these are nice without really noticing that it’s him then he’s oh and kinda blushes bc you titled it ‘i like you’

and within a few weeks, you’re officially a thing and the rest of bangtan are so happy for you guys

lots of really chill dates where you watch him edit his music and photos and your bf min yoongi, well, min genius is just that: a genius that has a soft heart and cares about you and his friends a lot