The purpose built next generation interstellar Dawn Richard thread

SMOKE WEED LISTEN TO SADE

btw

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/04/dawn_richard_kalenna_dirty_money.php

(lol at me and rev having a mindmeld on the phrase 'greek chorus')

nice

lol at "For the album's fervent cult of patient motherfuckers"

thumbs up 4 the piece shipz

Great piece; and a good gateway to the joys of Dawn Richard for people who aren't already on the DDM train (i.e non-ilxors)

hey bigger fanbases have been built on smaller foundations than an album that almost went gold

That was great too sd

Loving this stream of excellent journalism on Dawn!

i really hope we can actually get some traction going on dawn and kalenna. i've had a few too many experiences of trying to talk about r&b to other music critics and when i bring up dawn and kalenna it's like they don't even hear the names, and then they say "so! the weeknd!"

and then i stab them

I think one of the potentials with Dawn is that her genre dabbling does provide an "in" for stabworthy people - you can sell it as "not just R&B" in a similar fashion to how The Weeknd or even The-Dream are sold to that kind of audience.

Although of course in truth what Dawn does with drum & bass, house, etc. is to make it function precisely as R&B sui generis and par excellence (though of course her own individualised take on it). So it's not meaningfully different from a 2002 tune with a pseudo-dancehall beat or a tabla.

One of the things I tried to do in my own review (i'm not sure how successfully) is to try express both the above points while not making them contradict each other, so each audience gets the point I want them to get. The difficulty with this is that 9 out of 10 readers only pick up on these things if you beat them over the head with it, so the more likely outcome is to end up falling between two stools.

Kalenna's probably a lost cause though - Chamber of Diaries is the kind of R&B that only gets critical traction if there's a hit (preferably a string of them). Not that I would object to "Matte Black Truck" being number one forever of course.

Tim, where is this review of yours?

Kalenna definitely is doomed to get less buzz in general but i hope peope itt aren't sleeping on her tape since DR's record dropped, "Poison" is so killer

I think it'll be up in a few days. Let's talk about the awesomeness of both rev and some dude instead.

Some dude totally spot on when he refers to Dawn's "heavily armored vulnerability". I think perhaps the most interesting aspect of the EP's uh "theme" is that the title "Armor On" is less about fortifying oneself for battle per se than it is about the possibility of being wounded - Dawn's "armor" is really scar tissue.

And yes "Poison" is great.

yeah i mean i make fun of the superhero/military stuff but i have come to respect the way it's woven into the whole thing and isn't just the repetitive employment of a cliched metaphor

I think the superman meme in particular does merit some fun-making. Especially the whole S on your/my chest thing.

I imagine one of Dawn or Kalenna jumping on this first and getting really mad each time the other tries to pass it off as her own.

lol it is so totally Dawn's

^^

also i think people into the new wave of **dark & moody* indie r&b or w/e could find something to like in dawn's stuff

lol it is so totally Dawn's

I'm inclined to agree of course.

It'd be more amusing though if Kalenna concocted it and then Dawn started using it (to the point of nearly building her entire persona around it) before she got a chance to.

I do wonder what they think of each other actually. Has there been anything juicy post DM breakup?

I think this board seriously underestimates what a tough sell Dawn Richard is to non-converts. On the surface, her resume looks pretty dire. Danity Kane was not a well-respected band, and the Diddy association is a turnoff to a lot of people who haven't actually heard the DDM album (or who only heard that one moronic Skylar Grey single)

xp Dawn (at least publicly) seems totally cool with whatever happened and Kalenna seems more bitter about it.

I think this board seriously underestimates what a tough sell Dawn Richard is to non-converts. On the surface, her resume looks pretty dire. Danity Kane was not a well-respected band, and the Diddy association is a turnoff to a lot of people who haven't actually heard the DDM album (or who only heard that one moronic Skylar Grey single)

― Evan R, Tuesday, 10 April 2012 3:15 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think anything can be spun.

Weeknd fans who want to embrace this can convince themselves that she is busting out of the constraints of major label R&B and that Diddy wasn't smart enough to realise her genius.

though if they didn't realise how LTTP was hugely sonically innovative...

if kalenna goes down the "go to work" route enough, that could sell her from a character (rather than beats) perspective in a similar way to how nicki and WAKA cross over to non-rap audiences. we'll see what her official material sounds like if/when it emerges. have to say i am slightly disappointed that dawn and kalenna don't even see each other as allies in the vaguest sense.

anyway yeah anything can be spun but apart from our own articles that doesn't seem to be happening on anything like last year's initial weeknd level. i blame whoever the fuck the tastemakers and gatekeepers actually are.

re: armour, what you all say is true of course but what i love about the way dawn uses that imagery is how armour is less of a protective necessity and more of a badge of honour, and a natural development of being in love; she makes becoming superhuman via the process of love sound like an organic process. there's def a religious association at work here - echoes of how the concept of armour is used in a scriptural sense.

Weeknd fans who want to embrace this can convince themselves that she is busting out of the constraints of major label R&B and that Diddy wasn't smart enough to realise her genius.

― Tim F, Tuesday, April 10, 2012 12:29 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

it's funny because that's totally going to be the narrative when it's really just that right or wrong she didn't want to sit and wait in line behind French Montana. it's kind of a shame that Bad Boy is so focused on rebuilding their rap roster right now because Diddy could've made Dawn and Janelle and Cassie the front line of an artsy R&B movement.

it's kind of a shame that Bad Boy is so focused on rebuilding their rap roster right now because Diddy could've made Dawn and Janelle and Cassie the front line of an artsy R&B movement.

It'd be awesome to see this happen anyway (though as a business model French Montana and co. probably offer a better return on investment)

i dunno, pretty girls are still more bankable than dopey stuffed animals last time i checked

http://www.radiostreetbuzz.com/wethebuzz/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/French-Montana1.jpg

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16486-armor-on-ep/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZPdRPReWeY

scanning diddy, brandy, and drumnbass there belatedly reminded me of the existence of this and its overlooked relevance here

duh

not an unreasonable surmise that mario winans had a strong even maybe dominant hand in the lttp vision imo

"sounding like she's watching her lover's execution" from tim's bit there is spot on

grousing about the mastering quality of tell-tale heart always seemed like a failure of imagination when 'bulletproof' sounded so much as if dawn was pouring out her devotion to you holding a pillow over your head as your life ebbed away

lol

lol I didn't peg you for a lo-fi authenticist xp

that brandy track is one of my faves off of press play

it is my fave off press play full stop

1. last night 2. thought you said

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onZRgDeLA_k

btw it occurred to me last night how strange it is that no one's drawn a "i'll be missing you"-"coming home" link.

emotional puffy songs really are the best thing ever.

jaw is agape at that youtube btw

yeah the inadequacy of didy's emotional tenor in emotional puffy songs invites the listener to color in the lines with their own xp

otm!

I don't think that quite applies to "Coming Home" tho. He really does sell that one all the way.

erm if anyone has press play in 320 i would be v appreciative if you could let me know?

fucking hard drive crash leaving me without 90% of my music collection, i can't even bear to open the 90s r&b thread because of this. anyway press play is, remarkably, not on the internet :(

idk if mine is in 320

Armor On is on Spotify now

so... this is great, huh

btw it occurred to me last night how strange it is that no one's drawn a "i'll be missing you"-"coming home" link.

― The Reverend, Friday, April 13, 2012 11:55 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark

if my piece wasn't pegged to Dawn and Kalenna i probably would've gotten into my Sad Puffy timeline, post-J. Lo "I Need A Girl" weepers and all

I know it's a style but I do wish the autotune was dialed down on this

i don't think i even really noticed it just because it's so much less ubiquitous on Armor On than it was on Tell Tale Heart