Yelawolf: Trunk Muzik/ TM 0-60 / Radioactive

Obviously we've discussed Yelawolf here and there on ILM, but dude needs his own thread. Debut album's out now. Can't speak to the whole thing yet, but everything I've heard has been fantastic. Anyway... C/D, S/D, whatever, have at it guys.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/512rLyh79TL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

out now? wow there was a lack of hype over this.

no kidding!

It's really fucking good, although many of the best tracks were on the Trunk Muzik mixtape.

The first five tracks are all fantastic, I tend to lose interest after that. I like that there's a sense of underlying sadness beneath the bluster, and the production is excellent and quite original.

out now? wow there was a lack of hype over this.

― wheezy f baby (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 9:22 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

no kidding!

― in a merzbow world, how is kanye ambitious?? (ilxor), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 9:23 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

? it was discussed in fruity swag thread

Had no idea this was out! I get pretty overwhelmed by the swag thread though.

I don't think the fruity swag thread constitutes "hype" dudes.

the 'lack of hype' is mainly because this is one of those "EP/mixtape/sampler" things labels are doing with new rappers a lot these days where they just throw something out there to see if it sticks before going all out with a proper debut album of all new material. kind of like the EP version of the Drake mixtape that they released before Thank Me Later, although he obviously already had a higher commercial profile.

the 'lack of hype' also has to do w/ the fact that this dude isnt 'famous' & so far is known to most ppl as 'that dude who rapped fast & opened for wiz khalifa when i saw him'. his fame until that point was primarily blog-oriented

I find the swag thread hard to keep up with at times deej, what with the 3 new youtubes and 4 new whiney-deej beefs a day.

I don't think the fruity swag thread constitutes "hype" dudes.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 9:54 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

for rappers being mentioned on ilx who arent big boi ?

I find the swag thread hard to keep up with at times deej, what with the 3 new youtubes and 4 new whiney-deej beefs a day.

― wheezy f baby (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 10:01 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol, zings

anyway i like 'pop the trunk' but still think this dude is mad overrated

Yeah, but you also defended a Chris Rock skit in 2010, so, grain of salt and all.

(insert your preferred emoticon to express friendly jokiness implied)

yeah the new songs aren't very good

I just assumed trunk muzik was the album

anyway, loved that and will get this

kind of wish he'd put "f.u.", "lick the cat" and "stage lights" on the album proper, maybe instead of "i wish" - i guess i see why "mixin' up the medicine" couldn't be on it, even though that was my favourite on the mixtape. still, a great album, i think all six new tracks are must-haves - as well as being prob my fav hip-hop album of the year, it's also my favourite rock album in years.

this overlooked yelawolf verse from earlier in the year is u&k:

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

the only good jim jonsin beat in years tbh

no stage lights? grumble grumble

fantasia - falling in love tonight
lloyd - night & day
lloyd ft. bun b - like me
young dro - on fire
soulja boy - kiss me thru the phone
beyoncé - sweet dreams

^^will rep for these 08-10 jim jonsin productions too

only one of those is really a rap song which is what i was thinking of

the sb song is basically just an R&B chorus imo

Vaguely relieved by the album cover after the look he's been rocking in recent interview pics and the "Drop The Trunk" video clip (which is awesome btw).

im in a weird place w/ this dude, because i dont really like him that much, but i cant really articulate why yet, & so far anything i say wd sound mad contrarian & a bit ridiculous, especially considering how basically everyone around here is into his stuff -- i mean, tim f, noz, lex, j0rdan, rev, all u need is an rtc cosign & im alone :O

theres some covert falseness i cant identify. something that sounds forced or ... idk. put on. i can work it out

I suspect rtc wouldn't be into yelawolf if it's any consolation...

keep it real deej, we can't be listening to anyone who is not "themselves" after all can we

I suspect rtc wouldn't be into yelawolf if it's any consolation...

― Tim F, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 12:33 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha this actually makes me feel more alone tbh

upon reflection

"in a kanye world, how is yelawolf ambitious??"

i think the second song on this, in which yela sweet-talks a cali girl so he can get to her dad's awesome car, will always endear him to me

"in a kanye world, how is yelawolf ambitious??"

― in a merzbow world, how is kanye ambitious?? (ilxor), Tuesday, 23 November 2010 18:57 (19 minutes ago) Permalink

zings need work son.

haha this actually makes me feel more alone tbh

ha ha yeah that occurred to me too.

Not surprisingly the google image search for "contraristan" throws up some very ilx images.

im in a weird place w/ this dude, because i dont really like him that much, but i cant really articulate why yet, & so far anything i say wd sound mad contrarian & a bit ridiculous, especially considering how basically everyone around here is into his stuff -- i mean, tim f, noz, lex, j0rdan, rev, all u need is an rtc cosign & im alone :O

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 1:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

theres some covert falseness i cant identify. something that sounds forced or ... idk. put on. i can work it out

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 1:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah i mean i like the mixtape a lot and am checking for dude, but i can't say i'm totally sold, it's more just something i enjoy than i'm really arguing for his greatness or promise or anything. i just like doubletime raps and think the production is dope, all the neo-Kid Rock "check out how mindblowing my white trash rap culture clash is!" schtick is whatever.

yeah tbh that stuff is almost too distracting for me somehow. like i cant help but feel like ppl are latching onto that as a big part of his worth & if anything i think his rapping style doesnt sound v. country at all

sd otm

which is why i was kinda bummed with these new joints b/c the production was subpar imo

i guess its like, his 'persona' visually feels put-on & try-hard, like, his personality as a rapper is strong but doesnt really reflect his style or something. when i try to envision what dude looks like i dont even remember his face, just a trucker hat, some tats & country props (cheap beer or camo pants??)

his hair hides his face half the time

something to hide

his schtick reminds me a little of the drive-by truckers, that kind of revisionist white southern life thing that just ends up feeling fake cause he/they rides it so hard. hes a good rapper tho.

yeah i mean bubba sparxx was a much better bubba sparxx idg why he needed that persona -- even from a marketing standpoint it feels redundent

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:29 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark

i feel like you guys are being kind of cynical -- of course the white trash thing is a good marketing tool & since he grew up poor (as far as we know) & not like asher roth there's no real card checking going on, but what is the guy supposed to do? act like he's not white trash from alabama? what 'persona' do you want him to 'assume' deej?

i mean there's definitely a double standard here -- like, no one is grading (ahem) various black gangster rappers on the curve of 'redundant personas', so i'm not sure why yelawolf is getting this intense scrutiny & skepticism?

no one is grading (ahem) various black gangster rappers on the curve of 'redundant personas'

i should definitely clarify that i can see where rappers we DON'T like would get criticized for being redundant -- thinking of mad nyc rappers & drake being a knock off of wayne and now people being knock offs of drake -- but i mean certainly we were praising waka, for instance, for reviving a persona

idk how real yelawolf's "persona" is but on record he convinces - he evokes that persona and that environment really well in the language he uses and his voice; it doesn't become a cliché in his hands, he comes at it from varying angles; and he doesn't limit himself to it, either.

He feels pretty different to Bubba to me. Bubba constructs and then fake-hides-behind his down home ignance to a much greater degree - i.e. Bubba and Kid Rock are closer to each other than Yelawolf is to either I reckon (obv this schtick works really well for Bubba; I feel rather more ambivalent re Kid Rock).

In his actual rapping Yelawolf doesn't seem to be flaunting his white southernness topically or stylistically to nearly the same extent. To the extent it bleeds through on tunes like "Pop The Trunk" or "I Wish" or "Love Is Not Enough" the "set up" feels pretty minimal, if only because he almost always strains the issue through descriptive storytelling.

Like, after seeing the "Pop The Trunk" clip I can see how the track plays the old white dad's violence of the first verse against the violence of his mostly black friendship circle in the second, but it would never have occurred to me think that or to go "YES I SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING".

TBH if there's a "character" I associate Yelawolf with it's the younger partner-in-crime in Breaking Bad.

i feel like you guys are being kind of cynical -- of course the white trash thing is a good marketing tool & since he grew up poor (as far as we know) & not like asher roth there's no real card checking going on, but what is the guy supposed to do? act like he's not white trash from alabama? what 'persona' do you want him to 'assume' deej?

i mean there's definitely a double standard here -- like, no one is grading (ahem) various black gangster rappers on the curve of 'redundant personas', so i'm not sure why yelawolf is getting this intense scrutiny & skepticism?

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:34 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

we totally grade black rappers this way too! we hate drake remember? i like waka because he does feel unique

i think yela is getting it bcuz of the video/clothing/projected image not matching the rapping style...not saying its fair i just cant help but feel like fans are latching onto some projected country-ness/real-ness that doesnt exist. i liked yela a lot more when he was anonymous white dude from the g-side album! bcuz, like, it was all about his rapping. the theatricality of rap is v important imo

also i really like 'pop the trunk' so i cant really say its the 'problem' here

also some personas, like anono-thug from queensbridge, play themselves better as archetypal things than others do. i dunno, i feel like lee harvey from lapdance sold this better even if he was 6000x worse rapper.

yela is, like, to adept for the image his projecting. it still feels contradictory

i would like to note i observed early on my argument itt would be somewhat weird & challopy

yela is, like, too adept for the image hes projecting.

Was kinda surprised by the emergent great white hope of country-ness angle because initially I thought yela's visual style was more of a straight skater thing, which seems pretty solidly suburban to me. At any rate his actual look seems to project "trenchcoat dude listening to linkin park" rather than "country-ness" to me.

i'm kinda lolling now just at the words "harvey from lapdance"

also some personas, like anono-thug from queensbridge, play themselves better as archetypal things than others do.

i don't think this is true

TBH if there's a "character" I associate Yelawolf with it's the younger partner-in-crime in Breaking Bad.

Hah, I had this too, might just be all the meth references though.

yela doesn't code as country at all to me, there are no sonic signifiers and he doesn't affect it at all (on record) - i don't think he feels suburban either but i'm not really sure how to break down the various poor white trailer park demographics in the US. if he's attached to anything outside of hip-hop it's obviously hard rock - this album is basically rock in places and he's spoken of it in interviews.

i just cant help but feel like fans are latching onto some projected country-ness/real-ness that doesnt exist

who are "yelawolf fans" now?!

i feel like you guys are being kind of cynical -- of course the white trash thing is a good marketing tool & since he grew up poor (as far as we know) & not like asher roth there's no real card checking going on, but what is the guy supposed to do? act like he's not white trash from alabama? what 'persona' do you want him to 'assume' deej?

i mean there's definitely a double standard here -- like, no one is grading (ahem) various black gangster rappers on the curve of 'redundant personas', so i'm not sure why yelawolf is getting this intense scrutiny & skepticism?

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:34 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

can't speak for anyone else but i'm not really concerned with the validity of the image or persona or anything -- i'm just saying even as a marketing tool it's kind of like jeez dude you've got skills, maybe don't work so hard to play up an angle Kid Rock and Bubba Sparxxx already did in a broader and more pop context

who knows what is truth & what is projection but i still can't help but see that as asking him to wash away his identity -- what would he rap about?

i don't mean that at all -- i'm just saying stuff like the Lynyrd Skynyrd verse trying to tie that into rap or the Bob Dylan hook, it's all kind of a cutesy clever heavyhanded way of him working the same "I have a foot in two different worlds!!!" thing that pretty much every white rapper has to grapple with on some level or another.

yeah theres something just stilted to me about the presentation, its not at all about authenticity or lack thereof -- bubba could be a corporate ceo for all i care if he was making songs like 'nowhere'

honestly i think some of what al & i are talking about is stuff that, if smoothed over, would make him a more popular artist!

except you're being pretty vague -- wearing trucker hats?

This what I have:
http://www.2dopeboyz.com/2010/01/01/yelawolf-trunk-muzik-mixtape/

I assumed it was the album proper, but apparently not?

do i need to like go dig up lyrics and interview quotes? we're obviously talking about more than just his look.

"Trunk Muzik" is the mixtape that was released for free in January, "Trunk Muzik 0-60" is the major label EP that was released commercially this week that features about half the same songs as the mixtape with some new stuff.

an EP with 12 tracks is not an EP! do they just want to sell it cheap/not give it the same weight as an album statement? or are the new tracks "bonus"?

major label hip hop has been really big on "EPs" that are actually album-length, it's been a big mystifying trend for the last year or so. it's basically just a weird way of them being able to release an album without calling it an album so that it doesn't have all the commercial expectations that an album would have.

the other day i saw an artist i know refer to his new release as an "EPixtape," which, just, barf

12 tracks is a little on the short side for a rap album!

didn't erykah badu insist on referring to worldwide underground as an EP?

whatevz to both of them, if it looks and sounds and is as long as an album...

i don't mean that at all -- i'm just saying stuff like the Lynyrd Skynyrd verse trying to tie that into rap or the Bob Dylan hook, it's all kind of a cutesy clever heavyhanded way of him working the same "I have a foot in two different worlds!!!" thing that pretty much every white rapper has to grapple with on some level or another.

Maybe I'm misreading you al, but surely the Lyndard Skynard verse is about how irrelevant LS is to people like him (not to mention rap). I guess you could argue that there's a performative contradiction there because by mentioning LS even to dismiss them still establishes you know who they are, but short of deciding it would be better for him never to reference such things, I can't see how he could go about grappling with this stuff in a less egregious manner.

i know the thrust of the verse isn't explicitly "rap is like Lynyrd Skynyrd", i'm just saying that kind of heavyhanded "i'm a white rapper from hickville, let me tell you a bit about that" isn't really what i go to his music to hear.

let an ep be an ep

free the ep

xxp but that's pretty much what he raps about...

unless he's rapping about eating pussy

not on every song

xpost i prefer the eating pussy songs

i mean, didn't bubba already do a really awesome album about that same exact subject matter better?

(i like yelawolf but i don't find him that fascinating as dude)

i don't understand how all of a sudden bubba sparxxx levels yelawolf's music irrelevant

we have room in our lives for hundreds of black rappers rapping about being poor black dudes but only room for one white rapper rapping about being a poor white dude

can't speak for anyone else but that wasn't at all what i was getting at

i was referring to m@tt's post

not that i really understand your POV either

it doesn't make him irrelevant, but i guess cuz there are so few i feel like that's gonna be the main gist of all the coverage...and a lot of it will act like bubba never happened

(again i LIKE yelawolf i think he makes good music and is good at rapping which i like)

xp i mean i understand it from the angle that it might hurt his ability to be successful, but artistically i don't

honestly i'm not hating at all, i just feel like i'm gonna have to read hella annoying non-rap outlet personality pieces about yelawolf basically

i feel like that's gonna be the main gist of all the coverage...and a lot of it will act like bubba never happened

well this isn't anything that yelawolf can control

well yeah probably xp

isn't it CRAZY, he'S WHITE and self defines as a REDNECK and but he LIKES RAP WHICH IS "BLACK" MUSIC what a paradox

i have room in my life for rappers whether they are black white green or purple

does yelawolf pass the delmar test?

yelawolf is a better and more entertaining rapper than bubba sparxxx

we have room in our lives for hundreds of black rappers rapping about being poor black dudes but only room for one white rapper rapping about being a poor white dude

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude havent i been criticizing big krit for the exact same topical genericism that has been done before cf country shit basically being nappy roots as far as subject matter??

yelawolf is a better and more entertaining rapper than bubba sparxxx

― based lord sotosyn (The Reverend), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:26 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ban the rev

xpost i prefer the eating pussy songs

― some dude, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

dude havent i been criticizing big krit for the exact same topical genericism that has been done before cf country shit basically being nappy roots as far as subject matter??

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:32 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i said i was referring to m@tt's post

well this isn't anything that yelawolf can control

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:36 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it seems like hes trying v hard to control how hes perceived that way imo

Confederate flags, I see u
on the truck with the windows down, why’s he playin Beanie Sigel?
cause his daddy was a dopeman
Lynrd Skynrd didn’t talk about movin’ keys of coke, man

bad example, this is one of the most natural verses on the trunk muzik mixtape. it's a visual observation followed by social one in just the way the mind works.

some of the other things feel a bit too deliberately signifying but are still dope imo -- fallin' off his dirt bike in cargo pants, pbr bottles -- tho i'm left cold by the dylan crossover whiney loves so much.

he lays it on with a trowel in "pop the trunk" -- momma choppin early mornin hog with a hatchet etc.; "this ain't a figment of imagination buddy, this is where i live, 'bama" -- but obv it works really well there with a whole southern gothic thing going on.

it seems like hes trying v hard to control how hes perceived that way imo

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:38 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

how else would he want to be perceived -- i mean he's supposed to, what, say "hey y'all i'm just some dude that raps. check me out!"

i mean if you believe that he's rapping about how he grew up & his life etc then what else do you want?

if that bores you than its just taste etc but otherwise you're arguing that he should distort his image & persona so he's less of who he is

i'm pretty sure dark days and deliverance are still dope btw xpost to rev

i mean he's supposed to, what, say "hey y'all i'm just some dude that raps. check me out!"

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 7:41 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i personally would strongly identify with music with that message

well that's nice, i hope you're able to buy 200,000 yelawolf albums

he's def got a super theatrical streak so his played-up persona doesn't really bother me

he's just a good rapper; ep is fun. i am not gonna overthink, need to save that for kanye

dude what were saying is that theres something forced-seeming about his 'just telling it how it is' storyline. i def dont think yelawolf is the only dude guilty of doing this, but sometimes rappers are trying hard to sound authentic & real & it comes across as kind of stagey

& i dont dislike dude or think hes the worst at this by any means! its just what keeps me from loving everything he does. & to be clear, its not about whether or not hes real -- its about whether his persona is performed in a way that suspends that question from my mind

but i think he is stagey and it works!

agreed.

re: bubba, i like but don't love deliverance, it's is pretty much half-great and half-ok, but i like it more for the production than for bubba. my problem with him is i find him kind of plainspoken to the point of boringness. like, it's good that dude is hella earnest when he's in that mode, but he seems to take little joy in words or in entertainment. and when he does do something more lighthearted, he seems kinda uninvested.

glad this thread is around cause i gave up on reading the kanye thread

but i think he is stagey and it works!

^^^^

Obv there will be critics who salivate over authenticity and the like but these critics are always wrong about everything and should not be allowed to ruin good music with their bs.

re: bubba, i like but don't love deliverance, it's is pretty much half-great and half-ok, but i like it more for the production than for bubba. my problem with him is i find him kind of plainspoken to the point of boringness. like, it's good that dude is hella earnest when he's in that mode, but he seems to take little joy in words or in entertainment. and when he does do something more lighthearted, he seems kinda uninvested.

― based lord sotosyn (The Reverend), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 7:14 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh man ... i think i look at this exactly oppositely of u!!

except for "wanna party" i don't like any of the new songs nearly as much as i like the old songs

the classic rock shit that pops up on like half the new tracks is not what makes him enjoyable imo

This thread is pretty odd considering I thought Yela was pretty good on the first tape and few verses at playing down the 'lol whitey' thing. Hell, wasn't the Dylan thing originally done by Santana? Anyway I think this guy has potential and that we are doing that inane thing again of overanalysing a rapper before they even put out their first proper record.

But as gangsta rap struggles to find fresh angles, maybe Jesse Pinkman isn't a bad place to go if done properly. It is certainly more interesting to me to hear about those stuck in the trenches than the big man Scarface thing these days.

Also Bubba sucks.

the whole "let's not think tooo much about a new artist until they've been around a while and aren't new anymore" thing has always seemed odd to me, weird reasoning for wanting to discourage discussion.

me 2

also bubba does not suck

yela did the hook on the og santana joint, he just didn't take a verse. remix is the worst song on the og trunk muzik tho. usually turn it off after "love is not enough"

some dude otm

imagine if we never talked about nicki minaj and then all gathered around the judges table as 'pink friday' drops

imagine a world without leaks and youtubes

no thanks

trying to figure out j0rdan's point and ??????

not that post, the one before it

i think the idea is to breathe for a moment and appreciate an interesting new artist before deciding if he has a valid persona or not.

obv this doesn't work here, in particular

naw, pretty much everyond itt heard the og trunk muzik, right?

eh unless it's oddfuture i don't give dl'ed shit more than a cursory listen to see if it seems cool

trying to figure out j0rdan's point and ??????

― princess tamtam swag (The Reverend), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 9:46 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

my post about minaj?

yeah that one

i'm kinda tipsy so maybe it does make sense but not me right now

i was referring to this part of a hoy hoy's post

Anyway I think this guy has potential and that we are doing that inane thing again of overanalysing a rapper before they even put out their first proper record.

ah ok

imagine alll the people

didn't like the new songs at first but they're growing on me

really like how he rides "that's what we on now" with a slight swing thats not present in the beat

The Minaj point is an odd one because she is the only new rapper where she is involved in trying to do something different and people are actively wanting to do so. Yela has an interesting take that hasn't really been done often before and people are calling him out on it before he's really been given a chance to show how he can use it. Seems like part of that sped up blog cycle of hype-then-hate.

nah i think now's exactly the right time to start analysing yelawolf - i'm far from convinced by deej's argument but it's always good to see an artist move out of the "rolling [x] thread" pack where everyone just nods along to the mixtape or random track. yelawolf def has something TO analyse now.

bubba does not suck - i love this yelawolf album but it's nowhere near as great as deliverance imo - but i don't hear them as particularly comparable; if we're gonna pull out the white rapper comparisons, eminem springs to mind far more, it's that sharp-elbowed and slightly scrawny me-against-the-world tone to yela's flow. though where eminem was sociopathic, i'm getting a hint of southern gentleman beneath yela's rowdiness (that i've just realised can't totally be backed up, it's just a slight vibe i get).

This guy doesn't make me think of Em or Bubba tbh

or the beasties, 3rd bass or anyone on def jux

dude is more 'calm busta with song ideas instead of crazy shit'

The rock aspects are being way overemphasised here, there are like what two tracks with guitar samples here?

yeah this is pretty amazing. boy's skilled.

http://yourstru.ly/2010/11/29/yelawolf-the-boy-who-cried-wolf/

good shit -- would like to hear a better recording of the version he did w/ the roots a few weeks back

second verse of "pop the trunk" is the fucking shit

of the new songs i really dig the opener & "i just wanna party" (might make my p&j ballot) & even "marijuana"

but the OG trunk muzik is better by virtue of having "lick the cat" & "speak her sex"

i love "love is not enough" as well -- sonically it reminds me of 'aquemini'

chorus is hella impressive too -- the way he slips seamlessly from double time rapping into the crooning of the chorus always catches my heart a beat the first time

also mixtape cover >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> this cover

performing "daddy's lambo" on mo'nique's tv show, shirtless, wearing a russian fur hat and stupid glasses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nd3UjympFM

got this a few days after it dropped. I really love Yela's style. the Twista influence is obvious, love his voice too. the imagery of "Pop the Trunk" is fantastic. love his dexterity.

dude knows how to write a hook too. I find myself going back to this one a lot -- one of my favorites of the year.

people always reference Twista re: Yelawolf but his doubletime style sounds way more like Bone Thugs to me

after spending some time with both i gotta say i still like the mixtape version way more than the EP

d/ling the Trunk Music mixtape as we speak.

one thing i'm really enjoying about it, is how he uses the familiar language of rap to sound like a gangster rapper but is never posturing. Two examples

1. Pop The Trunk sounds exactly like a brusque exploration of gunplay, but notice that Yela never actually holds a gun in the song. He's just got a short-tempered dad (verse 1) and a vengeful friend (verse 2)

2. Also love when he says to Bun B something like, "Yeah I got a POCKET FULL OF STONES... when I fell of my dirtbike"

The mastering is so dope on 0-60 that I'll never so back to the mixtape as much as I miss "Fuck You" and "Medicine (Remix)." Making a bonus CD-R of the 6 missing mixtape tracks and the "Lemonade" freestyle and the Unplugged "Pop The Trunk" that I'm gonna keep in my CD case

one time for ya boy pimp c
pocket fulla stoooooones
igottapocketfullastones cuzifelloffmydirtbike in cargo pants

yeah

1. Pop The Trunk sounds exactly like a brusque exploration of gunplay, but notice that Yela never actually holds a gun in the song. He's just got a short-tempered dad (verse 1) and a vengeful friend (verse 2)

his verses in this are basically my favourite thing ever.

I still don't really care that much for the new songs on 0-60 except "I Just Wanna Party".

I love Get The Fuck Up. and yea, I Just WAnna Party is tight.

'i just wanna party' is growing on me tbh

yelawolf gucci collabo song being about getting drunk makes sense in a way that when you've had a few you make bros w/ folks you might not normally hang w/ out of drunken stupid camaraderie, imo it helps the collab make sense.

otm

i've found 'that's what we on now' and 'billy crystal' to be the best of the new tracks so ymmv i guess

oh and daddy's lambo of course

"daddy's lambo" is growing on me

billy crystal is the jam

GO BILLAY

honestly he sounds straight-up great on 'go crazy'

like, converts me to an all out fan almost

keep the sweat drippin from ya girlfriend's pores

i like this slowed down flow, its intense, rhythmically in the pocket. reminds me of my favorite husalah verses that way. When he switches into double-time it feels more like part of the structure of the track

rather than overly technical

"i just wanna party" is probably gonna be in my top 10 -- would've been a hit in 2002

thats one i will rep for too -- i think i posted about that somewhere else tho too

it was up thread?

possible, cant be 'arsed' to look

it was a huge pain for me to scroll up 7 posts to find this

yelawolf gucci collabo song being about getting drunk makes sense in a way that when you've had a few you make bros w/ folks you might not normally hang w/ out of drunken stupid camaraderie, imo it helps the collab make sense.

― *plop*ism rules (deej), Saturday, December 18, 2010 7:03 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

thnx, yr like my fonzworth bentley

keep the sweat drippin from ya girlfriend's pores

Perhaps this should go on the goons using google thread but all year I've heard this as "keep the sweat drippin from ya girlfriend's paws" and not been quite sure what Yelawolf was implying.

When he switches into double-time it feels more like part of the structure of the track

― classic fat joe face (deej), Wednesday, December 22, 2010 6:17 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is one of the things that immediately impressed me about "trunk muzik"

OTM - he is *amazing* when it comes to using the tone and momentum of his voice to suit the dramatic tension of the track. He can do sinister in a way that you don't hear very often. Like... it wouldn't surprise me if it emerged that Yelawolf was actually a professional actor who'd created this rap persona?

Great as 'Marijuana' is, I really hope his label allows him to focus on dark storytelling shit rather than route-one stoner-friendly rock-rap.

Like... it wouldn't surprise me if it emerged that Yelawolf was actually a professional actor who'd created this rap persona?

http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/Diddy-Joaquin-Phoenix.jpg

I am really, really liking this. I'm finding him much more exciting and engaging than Gucci, Waka, or most of the other big, new hyped guys. Still on early listens, so I haven't exactly solidified why I like it so much, but I think it has a lot to with his delivery and persona.

1. Pop The Trunk sounds exactly like a brusque exploration of gunplay, but notice that Yela never actually holds a gun in the song. He's just got a short-tempered dad (verse 1) and a vengeful friend (verse 2)

Yeah, this is really key. I feel like Yelawolf harkens back to some sort of outlaw country strain in a way that even Bubba never did, at least topically. As Whiney points out, the substance of "Pop the Trunk" doesn't sound very far off of some of Shooter Jennings or Hank Jr. (And now I get sb'd for that comparison, but it totally makes sense to me).

comparing him favorably to gucci & waka does u no favors

except that he's right

hes not, but at least hes contributing anything resembling 'content' to ilx discussions which is more than i can say for you

"content" ≠ having beef with lots of ppl on ilx and derailing thread w/ inane arguments

anyway... this yelawolf. so good.

are you for fuckin real

ilxor actually does contribute pretty decently to some of the metal threads and stuff, but i have no idea why he comes across as str8 trollin' in so many other ones

Anyway, because I want deej to have more reason to not take my opinion seriously (and bcz someone else asked me), here's my top 10 rap records of the year:

1. Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
2. E-40 - Revenue Retrievin': Day Shift/Night Shift
3. The Roots - How I Got Over
4. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
5. Rick Ross - Teflon Don
6. Freeway & Jake One - The Stimulus Package
7. Yelawolf - Trunk Muzik 0-60
8. Bun B - Trill O.G.
9. B.o.B. - The Adventures of Bobby Ray
10. Diddy-Dirty Money - Last Train to Paris

(I know #1 will right away make deej hate this, #9 will make everyone on ilx hate this, and #10 keeps on growin on me)

i will rep for 1, 3, 4, 5, 7

need to hear 2, 6, 10

don't much care for 8, 9

Can anyone post anything with numbers on it without you giving a fucking play-by-play?

You really really need to hear the E-40. I had been sleeping on his recent stuff, hadn't really listened to him in years, but I am so glad that I jumped back on with this one.

Like when ilxor goes out to the Chinese restaurant with his friends is he all, "i will rep for 1, 5, 7; I still need to taste 2, 6, 10; don't much care for 8, 9; the 3 and 4 are a little spicy but good"

okay, I don't want to lol at that, but I will anyway

i really just posted my list so the swag cru could now how completely to ignore my thoughts on rap

could "know" jesus christ

chinese food is overrated, it's all about thai imo, also, will rep for anything spicy having tasted it or not

Is ilxor the sb equivalent of a revolving door prisoner?

wtf does that even mean?

i really just posted my list so the swag cru could now how completely to ignore my thoughts on rap

― one pretty obvious guy in the obvious (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, December 30, 2010 12:05 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

your #2 is my #1 fyi

are we allowed to vote for those as 1 album in the year-end poll

i dont hate yr #1 i just think its kinda milquestoast, which, whatever, for an ilx poster

its lame for publications w/ music focus ... nothing wrong w/ liking a big boi album in & of itself

milquetoast

8. Bun B - Trill O.G.
9. B.o.B. - The Adventures of Bobby Ray

these two are grosser, tho, and i think rick ross is mad overrated

I totally get why you would (and do) hate B.o.B., but I'm not sure why you don't like the Bun B. I'm pretty sure we had a discussion back when it came out that, yeah, he has totally fallen off, but its still my favorite thing he's done since Underground Kingz. The only "gross" thing about it is all the Drake bullshit.

you mean the fact that his rap style is all of a sudden Drake bullshit?

No the fact that Drake appears on it plus that awful intro thing with Bun claiming Drake.

I knew thats what you meant. I was using sarcasm to help drive home the point that the album sucks shit.

I knew you knew, but was deciding to ignore your obvious trolling.

the pimp c record was better i thought

I knew you knew, but was deciding to ignore your obvious trolling.

― one pretty obvious guy in the obvious (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, December 30, 2010 3:14 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how is "trolling" to point out that a legendary and gifted MC is audibly changing his style to sound more like a popular lowest-common-denominator flavor of the month cheesecake TeenBeat "rapper"

good thing he's doing all them hashtags raps now. teenage girls are gonna get weak in the knees when they see this fuckin guy

http://www.nodjzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/bunb.jpg

bun's always regarded rap as a business first so godspeed you black emperor but after listening to a little of the new bun album i think i'll just keep warm with my memories of what was

how is "trolling" to point out that a legendary and gifted MC is audibly changing his style to sound more like a popular lowest-common-denominator flavor of the month cheesecake TeenBeat "rapper"

oh come on dude, you pretend like you never post purposefully inflammatory shit to rile people up, but at the risk of being stupid and taking you at face value, I do not hear that at all, I don't think he sounds anything like Drake, he's slowed down, sure, but I just don't hear what you do

tho i suppose a closer listen couldn't hurt.
I'm currently sort of immersing myself in this year's top of the pop hip hop albums to get caught up, one more is fine

I saw Yelawolf here in town the other night. He put on an energetic, brief set. I was satisfied.

"good thing he's doing all them hashtags raps now. teenage girls editors at the source are gonna get weak in the knees when they see this fuckin guy"

haaah

does anyone really view drake as a sex symbol though? i mean, plies and the-dream have done popular love songs too, but its obv not about looks in their cases

lol dude was on a soap opera like rick springfield and shit, come on son

he shoulda used his first name instead. more appropo if he was goin around under the moniker "Aubrey"

i understand drake being seen as a sex symbol even less than i understand drake being seen as an adequate singer/rapper

what is WRONG with people in this world

yelawolf on the other hand!

drake is just kind of conventionally handsome?

conventionally average. he looks like a slob.

I don't think Drake is particularly attractive but it doesn't surprise me that he's seen that way by young folx.

I thought Yelawolf was hott on the front of the mixtape and he looks pretty good on the new one too, but his black trenchcoat haircut concerns me.

lol otm

there's just nothing remarkable about drake's look. he's joe schmoe, mr average. with eyes set too far apart, like a dolphin/like justine henin. no angles to his face at all.

yeah yelawolf's longer hair is really not good but he has a pretty amazing face beneath all that.

conventionally average. he looks like a slob.

― lex diamonds (lex pretend), Friday, December 31, 2010 12:44 AM Bookmark

i think his lack of stylishness is part of his appeal to women tbh. it codes him as hetero-masculine in a jockish way (which offsets his otherwise wimpy non-aggressiveness) in a way he wouldn't if he was fashion-obsessed like kanye or whoever. i mean, you can get away with that if you're as suave and macho as t.i., but drake is neither of those things.

^^^ I think this is spot on. Lex i think what you see as "mr average" a lot of ladies would see as "dude next door" who'd maybe be able to fix their drain pipe.

i guess, but he doesn't have that physically prepossessing alpha male quality of most jockish sex symbols (whether "fake jock" celebrities like, idk, channing tatum, or actual sportsmen)

http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/spotlight/bet-blog/assets/2010/06/Drake.jpg

slouching, unshaven, thick-necked, unstylish, pig-eyed. what no i cannot accept this as a sex symbol.

ha, i'm going to draw a distinction here that doesn't apply to drake because he is neither of these things: kanye west is fashionable; t.i. is stylish

lex this may blow your mind to itty bitty pieces but women don't necessarily love their men super-groomed

i think his eyebrows have something to do with it tbh

lex this may blow your mind to itty bitty pieces but women don't necessarily love their men super-groomed

yeah neither do i, necessarily, but there has to be SOMETHING there

drake basically just looks like a less flamboyant jersey shore dude

thanks for the new display name lex

loving this discussion
he's like vin diesel's scrawny developmentally disabled besweatered cousin

...via lex

The latest signing to Eminem’s Shady Records label, Yelawolf will play his debut UK shows in Manchester and London this June.

Envision a humid world of slow-rolling Monte Carlos and slaughter houses; meth labs and rusting Mossberg’s, inked up arms and haircuts that look like they’ve been chopped by hatchets. Trunk muzik. Southern Pine trees, smoking pine, and pine boxes. Call him Catfish Billy or Yelawolf; just don’t go make him go pop the trunk on you.

http://www.xoyo.co.uk/events/gigdetails/8-jun-11-yelawolf-xoyo/

!!!

This is pretty #based:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d-92CIrd-Q&feature=related

The ending still makes me smile though.

Also this is way better and yeller than the billing would suggest. Gives me some hope that the Eminem helmed album won't be a disaster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6KnoTIvois&NR=1

that bizarre is p. good! cool beat and w/ a mercifully short bizarre verse

lol @ use of yeller in tims post\

how is this ft. yelawolf? begrudging contractual obligation to bizarre?

Holy shit at that alien love! real devin influence at play
"playing with rap like driftwood in an otter's paws" =!!!!

this knocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM6AWhV7xsg

He's playing in London next month, kinda wondering if he's worth seeing live.

Yes, from what I've heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=borbCqM43ps

Never heard this before. Super fun imo.

Saw him in London the other week and he's really got this total nailed-down intensity live. Like, total command of his voice, whether he's doing double-time or when he's being more dramatic, on Pop The Trunk etc. Also he managed to totally nail the bruised fake defiance at the start of 'Love Is Not Enough' - the whole "I got me, bitch..." when you can hear he's saying the exact opposite.

Also for all the lol Jesse Pinkman jokes, everyone in the audience seemingly looked like Combo or Badger.

i can't believe i didn't get in and go HOLY FUCK THAT WAS AMAZING all over this thread after that show - i swear i actually remember doing that but it must have been twitter

yelawolf fans are very tall

yeah i went to that show it was awesome and kinda lol @ at the face of uk hip hop

Also he walked past us in the queue and said hello like 2mins before he went onstage. No nonsense.

also he would totally get it

i think there's a little WS going on around here too re: yelawolf

― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Monday, January 4, 2010 12:27 PM Bookmark

what would he totally get?

Is this insane-great or insane-corny or insane-corny-great?

http://rapradar.com/2011/08/03/new-music-yelawolf-x-lil-jon-hard-white-up-in-the-club/

Dude's definitely going for them "9 X Outta 10" plaudits.

Okay I am officially corny fuxx but I have decided that i love this.

of course i like this.

oh i fuck with this

did lil jon do this beat

i guess i could've read the post huh

well obv this has no potential as an actual single

it's def dope tho

i love this

this song fucking sucks.

jk it's great

wtf r u so angry abt yelawolf

http://mauricegarland.com/2011/09/yelawolf-celebrates-the-completion-of-radioactive/

Sounds promising...

looking forward to this

This is pretty much my most eagerly anticipating album of the year. When's it actually out?

24 oct, says his PR

"an unexpected guest is on the same song too and she, yes I said she, kills it."

presumably minaj wouldnt be unexpected. any ideas? will light a candle for 'uptown girl' cover ft ke$ha.

anyone seen him

somehow i've missed him like six times

There are no songs with him complaining about being compared to Eminem because he is white.

*breathes out*

There are no songs with him complaining about being compared to Eminem because he signed to Eminem's label and clearly would have no problem with that.

I'm more concerned that he will just ramp up the aggro white skater-punk vibe given he seems to be acquring so many fans in that category.

I didn't really like the tracks which tended in that direction on 0-60 - or not as much as his other material at any rate.

I'm more concerned hoping that he will just ramp up the aggro white skater-punk vibe given he seems to be acquring so many fans in that category.

Would much prefer another "Daddy's Lambo" to another "Get The F*** Up" or "Marijuana".

I bet "Marijuana" sounded amazing with the real cobain sample

Basically I prefer

http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/blogs/files/2010/05/breaking-bad-jesse.jpg

over

http://www.modopo.com/fileadmin/modopo/wallpapers/240x320/Music/Fred_Durst.jpg

... but ymmv.

is that first photo supposed to be strickland banks or something?

i take it u havent seen breaking bad

sorry am i kicked out of the hipster club for not being up on the new "wah the wire's not on anymore" tee vee show?

defensive much

praise from caesar himself

never change bros

feel like whiney should lighten up to balance al's turn to the dark side earlier today

good idea http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

wait feel like you didn't read my post

anyone seen him

he's great

i saw him at warped tour. best thing there, which isn't saying much, but he was awesome. stage-dived twice. in a row.

He is FANTASTIC live. I should point out that when he played London he didn't play any of the rock guitar/Beastie Boys type songs - make of that what you will.

I like the rock tracks okay, not as much as some of the rest of his stuff. That's not really the fault of the guitars though (they sound great), it's because he simplifies and strips down his flow so much to accommodate them. Daddy's Lambo is amazing but it's ALL ABOUT him, production-wise it could be one of dozens of rent-a-beat rap producers from the last couple of years.

Actually want I really want to hear more of (and would prefer to more big guitars) is Mixing Up The Medicine-style country rap.

anyone seen him

― runaway (Matt P), Wednesday, 7 September 2011 18:22 (Yesterday) Bookmark

the posts from mdc and i following his last london show aren't that far up the page

Big gothic cinematic meth-dealer-in-way-over-his-head tracks >>>> all others, obviously.

Actually he might have played Marijuana, but I didn't get the sense he was pandering to the crowd with it, more just playing it because it rocks.

feel like whiney should lighten up to balance al's turn to the dark side earlier today

― D-40, Thursday, September 8, 2011 12:58 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-28aExCW9co

http://rcrdlbl.com/2011/09/13/rcrd_lbl_mixtapes_yelawolf

^not a yelawolf mixtape btw, just a mix by yelawolf so don't get too excited

fefe dobson is gonna be on the album?!

i'm flying to LA tomorrow to interview him btw - relistening to his stuff and getting pretty excited

fuck, i just wanna party and pop the trunk are so awesome

just getting into this guy, which trunk muzik should i get though?

I prefer the original but they share a lot of tracks in common.

Original version.

^^

both duh

there are 100% essential tracks on the original that aren't on 0-60 and vice versa

dude is super-chill and nice btw, though possibly some of the chillness could have been ascribed to the painkillers he was on after injuring his back diving from some stage scaffolding at his show last night

gangsta boo is on the album!!!!!

oh yeah and the fefe dobson track is produced by...diplo

feeling some goodwill towards Diplo after "End of Time"

Diplo's never been a bad producer, just a real d-bag.

The version I have on my ipod now is the official album in order followed by Stage Lights, FU, Lick The Cat, Speak Her Sex, In This Club and Mixin' Up The Medicine.

Together that's a pretty amazing album - the sound is better on the official release but yeah I agree that if you get either version you're missing on on some essential stuff. I'd probably lean towards the official album due to the presence of Daddy's Lambo and Billy Crystal.

Also are people really still surprised that Diplo can make great productions? His problem has usually been poor choice of collaborators.

Official album

bummed that this got bumped to Nov, but still can't wait. rap release dates are ridiculously elastic in this day and age.

this is gonna be dope tho. now if Jeezy would just drop his in December, would make for a killer hip hop fall.

(radioactive that is)

http://www.yelawolf.com/splash/images/cover-letsroll.jpg

I had deep-seated fears on approaching this but it sounds pretty great.

http://soundcloud.com/igamusic/yelawolf-lets-roll-feat-kid/s-8JANQ

THIS IS GREAT

i was kinda hoping that it would be super yeehaw deliverancy but this rules

smh

brainwasher otm

the beat is kinda generic -- altho it's dope how it switches into that real deep organ for the second verse -- but the chorus is the shit, fuck y'all

bad

"i might pee in the lake"

:-(

it's almost like Yelawolf saw every critic's attempt in 2010 to explain why he's unique and not just Eminem 2.0 or Kid Rock 2.0 and deliberately set out to prove them wrong

What a stinker.

Maybe he's trying to crossover into the country scene cos that's where the $ is at?

gawd, the kid rock guest is enough to make me avoid, i'm gonna wait until i can't wait anymore i guess

Shoulda gone with Hank Williams III.

i'm so happy that yela already has his own "lemme see the booty"

Yela himself is comfortably the best thing about that track, the production and chorus are lazy arse.

otm

Yeah I'm trending that way now too - was so relieved to hear him rapping in usual form on it that I initially overrated.

ALABAMA'S UNANIMOUS ANIMAL YELAWOLF ON THE 808 COME IN FADE AWAY AIN'T NO BETTER WAY TO GET DOWN

(seriously, i just go around some days trying to say this as fast as Yela does)

guess I'm challop-ing with jOrd here? I think this chorus is great, eff a hate

like, i care a bit abt yela and all, but just really, nothin you can throw at that Kroq hook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3G5NpKu3c8&feature=related

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

best yela song since "i just wanna party"

siick

New track with gangsta boo is SO AMAZING

She dominates the track, all fine by me

On bberry so can't get link but I tweeted it earlier

http://soundcloud.com/fadermedia/yelawolf-f-gangsta-boo-eminem

1. Radioactive (Intro)
2. Get Away (Feat. Shawty Fatt & Mystikal)
3. Let’s Roll (Feat. Kid Rock)
4. Hard White (Up In The Club) (Feat. Lil Jon)
5. Growin’ Up In The Gutter (Feat. Rittz)
6. Throw It Up (Feat. Gangsta Boo & Eminem)
7. Good Girl
8. Made In The U.S.A.
9. Animal (Feat. Fefe Dobson)
10. The Hardest Love Song In The World
11. Write Your Name
12. Everything I Love The Most
13. Radio
14. Slumerican Shitizen (Feat. Killer Mike)
15. The Last Song

Slumerican Shitizen (Feat. Killer Mike)

lol

still not feelin dude. i dont get it

that had to be the track featuring killer mike

wait, so 'no hands' isn't on the album?

Gangsta Boo! Overshadowing Em!
Really looking forward to this album.

also really wanna hear him with mystikal

"growin up in the gutter" O_O

there's some incredible stuff on this, mostly in the first half (mystikal goes HAM on his track). some kinda dubious stuff too, like "radio".

actually i'm too tired to write any more

has this leaked or do you have the promo

a promo

a stream that has arrived on the day i have to file my piece

that logs me out automatically every three songs

and is only valid for 5 log-ins

i'm so tired i woke up in russia and LORD GIVE ME STRENGTH TO DEAL WITH MORONIC MAJOR LABELS

i have used up all my log-ins now, anyway.

He was so Eminem-like in his phrasing and angry tone in the video I just saw on some cable channel last night. I guess there's more to him than that.

Radioactive....

The hard parts go harder than ever. The soft parts are Glee-rap Bruno Marred.

Shady didn't exactly change our dude, but it's definitely not as [the one...] cohesive

let's roll sounds like he's going for that mainstream southern t.i.-ish anthemic sound for radio play... but why shouldn't he? his flow is very different from most peoples, no reason he can't rap on top of a mainstream beat, we all gotta eat and shit.

trunk muzik had cooler beats than what i've heard of his new stuff so far tho. hope the new album isn't 100% mainstream beats-by-the-number

actually throw it up has a pretty nice blend of huge bass and melancholy piano

Okay first time thru,

Loved - Radioactive, Throw It Up (messiahwannabe otm about the piano), Good Girl, Slumerican Shitizen
Liked but could grow to Love - Made In The USA, Animal, Write Your Name, Everything I Love The Most
Liked Despite Myself - Radio (which is not good at all but has the line "you'll never hear black star cos the programme director's mostly deaf")
Meh/Hated - Let's Roll, Hardest Love Song In The World, Hard White, Get Away
Really Really Hated - Growin' up In The Gutter

Actually 'Get Away' just came on again and it sounded better than I thought at first.

Still wish 'No Hands' and 'Shit I Seen' were on this.

Growin Up In The Gutter is like one of the three best songs on this!

I will give it another chance whiney!

I fully admit it may not just be radio programmers who are mostly deaf

ha yeah "growin' up in the gutter" was the immediate standout of the tracks i hadn't heard before!

"shit i seen" should definitely have been on it, he told me that no songs given away for free were ever going to be on the album though. kind of annoyed that no hq mp3 of it ever emerged.

man i wish i didn't actually like Let's Roll
Album's growing on me pretty quickly; agree with lex that the exclusion of multiple great circulating tracks is mystifying

Ha, okay listened to 'growin' up in the gutter' 3 more times. I retract my previous opinion. Initially I was a bit taken aback by how harshly it stood out both musically ( thought I'd stepped into a Cannibal Ox record) and Yela's vocal performance (anger turned up to eleven), in comparison with the rest of the album. It works tho.

it took a few listens for me too.
Throw it up is likely my current fave

Everything I Love The Most uses the riff from 'Movin' Out'

<3 <3 <3

gangsta boo on "throw it up" slays everyone

I SEE YOU BITCHES TALKIN LOUD BUT U AIN'T SAYIN SHIT
GET THE FUCK FROM ROUND HERE YOU DON'T REP MY SHIT

there is no one in the world better at yelling YEAH HO! and it reflects very well on yelawolf that he gave her so much room to do that

the real surprise for me is how great "animal" is - diplo's beat is probably the closest we get to yelawolf's old willpower beats

there is no one in the world better at yelling YEAH HO! and it reflects very well on yelawolf that he gave her so much room to do that

this is v. otm. she kills this track.

i would actually prefer a new gangsta boo album if we're being honest here

**checks spotify, discovers she's got a new mixtape and starts playing that instead**

not gonna say much about this till later but i still unabashedly love the song w/ kid rock, i hope they do an entire album together

As awful as Eminem's verse is on "Throw It Up," he sounds like he's strangling the beat a little less than he usually does these days.

xpost otm

my man

em has his moments on that verse, some of it is kinda o_O tho

agreed on basically the last 12 posts.

"let's roll sounds like he's going for that mainstream southern t.i.-ish anthemic sound for radio play... but why shouldn't he?"

Because it's played out and boring and every journeyman is doing it.

Psyched for hearing this though.

I don't want to hear Em rap about "whap[ping a girl] in the head with a Whopper."

That's just a waste of a perfectly good Whopper.

i don't understand how after hearing "throw it up" anyone would think of talking about the eminem verse

otm. replace em's verse with more gangsta boo

'throw it up' is terrible. eminem is unlistenable in 2011

IT'S NOT ABOUT EMINEM IT'S ABOUT GANGSTA BOO

good god people listen to the right thing

she sounds fine i guess but the production is weak too.

haha kelis pretend is so bossy these days :)

Well he is becoming the "R&B Alex in NYC." Love ya lex.

i love the production on "throw it up", love that spare piano. tbh eminem doesn't bother me at all, mostly cuz he just shows up at the end, while i'm still reeling from gangsta boo

i wouldn't have to be bossy if people would just act right

i don't ask for much

i wouldn't have to be bossy if people would just act right

i don't ask for much

The thing is no one knows what you consider to be "right."

i find lex's temper tantrums oddly endearing

They aren't endearing when they are directed towards you.

Lex dude the Gangsta Boo verse isn't even that good - Yela's is loads better.

aw, they've been directed at me on more than one occasion!

Also I get the goodwill towards this album after everything that Yelawolf came out with last year but come on, 3/4 of this is seriously piss-weak. It's like mainstream rap is so terrified of flopping that it continues to cling the same three or four tricks that make everyone sound almost exactly the same.

Like I don't even know what all these watery sung choruses are doing here. You'd think that making a commercially successful or even potentially successful Yelawolf album would be a fucking no-brainer, the hard tracks here with the soft stuff replaced with a load of rap-rock or country beats would surely do better than this desperate grab for the middle-ground.

Not heard this yet but I've kinda resigned myself to the fact that this guy's career is gonna be a long downhill plummet from 'Trunk Muzik'.

Matt OTM

matt i kinda hear you, but i like this too.
would take trunk muzik 5 times out of 5 over radioactive tho

Not heard this yet but I've kinda resigned myself to the fact that this guy's career is gonna be a long downhill plummet from 'Trunk Muzik'.

― Tim F, Thursday, November 17, 2011 5:17 PM (4 minutes ago)

yeah

Like, I really hate it when artists sell out in such a himfisted way when a much better and cooler way of selling out is staring them bare in the face.

again, the album is not bad!

Not heard this yet but I've kinda resigned myself to the fact that this guy's career is gonna be a long downhill plummet from 'Trunk Muzik'.

so cynical! and on no evidence apart from superimposing other artists' career trajectories on to someone who's shown no actual slipping of his skills.

about one-quarter of this is weak, not three quarters, and there are only two outright stinkers.

Everything after Throw It Up is lame and the previous stretch contains Let's Roll.

The Kid Rock track actually sounds better in the context of the album. I'll give it that much

i have such fond memories of first discovering trunk muzik

jus' sittin there listenin' to it

not lame: made in the usa, animal, everything i love the most, slumerican shitizen, the last song

Made in the U.S.A. is the lamest

Well I really like roughly half of Trunk Muzik and don't really listen to the other half anymore and I like about half of Radioactive. 'Trunk Muzik' the track is still my favourite tho.

"Made in the USA" coulda been great but wow is that chorus ever awful.

slumerican shitizen

lol

if songs with names like that are what i have to look forward to i am lowering my expectations

\oO/ you should all be listening to Tree lol

slumerican shitizen

^this is seriously never going to stop making me lol

The "feat. Killer Mike" is the cherry on top

i love killer mike so much, why would he do that?

Song is great fuiud

yeah it's also a good song

i haven't heard it! lex told me not to

this katy b is great tho

i dont want a world where m@tt listens to what lex tells him. no diss to either of you but

I love Mike too (and his record from this year is better than this) but the album he's doing with El-P is gonna be called R.A.P. (which stands for Rebellious African Peoples) Music, so he's not averse to bad titles. And the Slumerican Shitizen thing fits pretty well with his persona

i think "slumerican shitizen" is a bit more knowing than Rebellious African Peoples Music

Suggest Ban Permalink

i dont want a world where m@tt listens to what lex tells him. no diss to either of you but

― Regional Thug (D-40), Thursday, November 17, 2011 6:20 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol i'm really listening to the new Future of the Left EP and Cosmic Slop today

check M@tt's recent Spotify activity, if Notorious K.I.M. and Pink Friday aren't back-to-back every day for the last two weeks, I'd say he's free from lexfluence

lex was suggesting we /do/ listen to slumerican shitizen

whats this album called again?

Not heard this yet but I've kinda resigned myself to the fact that this guy's career is gonna be a long downhill plummet from 'Trunk Muzik'.

so cynical! and on no evidence apart from superimposing other artists' career trajectories on to someone who's shown no actual slipping of his skills.

Evidence: Trunk Muzik is better than Trunk Muzik 0-60 is (mostly) better than "Hard White" is better than the Kid Rock track is better than the vibe I'm getting off people's reactions to the whole album in this thread.

But I will obviously wait to hear this album and then decide.

if dude can at least throw out the occasional mixtape that has a more street sound to it, I can forgive his occasional mainstream sins. course on Shady's label, who knows....

My record store had this out today. So I bought it.

Loved Trunk Muzik, only liked 0-60. Am hoping for the best with this. But boy does it just *look* cluttered with junk from the outside.

trunk muzik 0-60 isn't significantly worse than its predecessor and definitely doesn't contain any "warning sign" change of directions. "daddy's lambo" is one of the best songs yelawolf has done. "shit i seen" was another promising track this year, that ended up in my top 10 tracks of the year which is no mean feat.

writing yelawolf off like this kind of smacks of "i only liked him before he was signed" tbh.

check M@tt's recent Spotify activity, if Notorious K.I.M. and Pink Friday aren't back-to-back every day for the last two weeks, I'd say he's free from lexfluence

i don't even like pink friday that much! the bulk of the non-bonus tracks are not very necessary

In fairness Yela does well with what he's given here and most of the problems stem from bad advice probably. The two Trunk Muziks are about as good as one another but I don't see any reason why he couldn't make another awesome mixtape or even an album with people who weren't intent on sucking all the personality out of him.

Also I suppose now is the time to say something hopeful about bonus tracks?

"Fulla Shit" by Rittz would be another good unofficial bonus track

There was some talk recently of Yela and KRIT potentially doing a whole project together, which I wholeheartedly endorse.

Also (most of) the second half of this isn't outright terrible, just boring, and the tracks don't suit Yela's personality really. He's already shown he make amazing songs about girls (Love Is Not Enough ffs) but these aren't among them. I miss the storytelling Yelawolf, either of the songs-about-girls variety or the Lynyrd-Skynyrd-listening-meth-dealer-way-over-his-head-variety.

Also also it seems like the predominant school of rap production on show here is generally way down the path that the duller end of post-Coldplay rock music went down years ago, this lack of attention played to any rhythmic interest in favour of a constant 4x4 plod. It's not always terrible but it means the beats just kind of slug along the floor rather than bounce - good rappers can do amazing things over the top of them but they're virtually impossible to sing over which is why you end up with choruses that just sound like stupid lazy musical platitudes.

is this gonna sell like lupe's lasers? which i imagine most of us hated. or is it a commercial AND creative bomb

i still havent heard it fwiw

It sounds pretty radio friendly to me, or what I imagine gets played on the radio as I haven't been a radio listener for ages.

internet killed the radio star tho

is the hook on animal brostep?

is this gonna sell like lupe's lasers?

how is a dude who has never had one song played on the radio gonna sell 200k

in one week?

i think you're not understanding my question

is this a 'bad pop album' in the sense that its a flop, or in the sense that ilx doesn't like it but it will sell boatloads with a normal eminem audience

im not actually saying its going to do exactly lupe's numbers (although i don't see how thats ruled out with a shady records affiliation)

trunk muzik 0-60 isn't significantly worse than its predecessor and definitely doesn't contain any "warning sign" change of directions.

this one has "marijuana" on it, right?

also yeah no one knows who yelawolf is, he is not doing 6 figures

omg dudes. we need to stop tearing each other down this is getting ridic

i'd like to come out against negativity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxyYP_bS_6s

(although i don't see how thats ruled out with a shady records affiliation)

― Regional Thug (D-40), Friday, November 18, 2011 3:47 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

for someone who pays more attention to rap than anyone i know you say some curious things sometimes

what would indicate that a yelawolf album would sell "boatloads"

trunk muzik 0-60 is a pretty good album btw they should've followed that blueprint - "marijuana" is such a dope song

what would indicate that a yelawolf album would sell "boatloads"

― yo zuccotti (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 18, 2011 3:08 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

obviously there's a strain of bland 'lyrically lyrical' rap that will sell boatloads, i.e. eminem. there's also the fact that this is obv a 'sell out' attempt, so the thing i'm trying to ascertain in asking about this record is, is this a failed crossover attempt, or is it just failed creatively.

you guys are being unnecessarily condescending chill the fuck out

second and third paragraph there are really funny side by side.

so the thing i'm trying to ascertain in asking about this record is, is this a failed crossover attempt, or is it just failed creatively.

how are these two different things? is it a failed crossover attempt? probably, idk we can all look at yelawolf's numbers and probably ascertain that. is it failed creatively? probably, i guess how much it's failed creatively is up to the listener.

"how are these two different things? "

lupe fiasco, lasers, referred to in my very first post on this particular subject

i'm curious if you guys think this has charting potential or not. this isn't a complicated question.

yes, this will likely chart but that is largely dependent on snagging some sort of single with radio play and i dunno what the single is atm
clearly he can get radio play if he really wants to; getting yr song on a WWE intro is a nice accomplishment.

clearly he can get radio play if he really wants to

hold on, what evidence is there of this

i'm curious if you guys think this has charting potential or not. this isn't a complicated question.

― Regional Thug (D-40), Friday, November 18, 2011 5:26 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

well "charting potential" and doing lupe fiasco lasers numbers are two very different things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8iMlDpqk2Q
Jordan, you don't think stations that play staind or limp bizkit won't give this airplay if the mountain dew drenched hoi polloi dig on it?

well "charting potential" and doing lupe fiasco lasers numbers are two very different things

― yo zuccotti (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 18, 2011 4:35 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well, two largely overlapping things. the lupe comparison was just intended to highlight the difference between 'ilx hates this & it feels creatively bankrupt but charts anyway' vs. 'a flop any way you look at it' but keep assuming i'm just a total idiot who thinks that yelawolf will sell exactly lupe numbers if you'd like to continue bogging this thread down in entirely unnecessary sniping & general grumpiness

what a fiasco

forks what radio stations in 2011 are playing limp bizkit

haha sorry that you asked if yelawolf was going to sell 200k albums this week

no what you did was drag down the discussion in semantic point-missing & entirely fail to answer the q

xxp kroq and FMU i guess
but i guess really i mean people who would played limp bizkit in the day will not be hard to sell on this. could also become a regional thing.

like, literally the first response to my post understood what i was asking

It sounds pretty radio friendly to me, or what I imagine gets played on the radio as I haven't been a radio listener for ages.

― pandemic, Friday, November 18, 2011 5:18 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah this was a great first post

again, i'm sorry that you decided to muck up your incredibly simple question with a horrible example

but anyway i already answered your question

yeah this was a great first post

― yo zuccotti (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 18, 2011 4:49 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

??? i never said it was a 'great first post' i said he understood wtf i was asking & i don't know why you're having so much trouble with it

and no you didn't answer it

Radioactive.

is it a failed crossover attempt? probably, idk we can all look at yelawolf's numbers and probably ascertain that. is it failed creatively? probably, i guess how much it's failed creatively is up to the listener.

― yo zuccotti (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 18, 2011 5:22 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lmfuckingo

congrats on your total non-answer

well it's a stupid question, sorry

is it a failed crossover attempt? probably, idk we can all look at yelawolf's numbers and probably ascertain that. is it failed creatively? probably, i guess how much it's failed creatively is up to the listener.

― yo zuccotti (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 18, 2011 5:22 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― yo zuccotti (J0rdan S.), Friday, November 18, 2011 4:52 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"do you think it will crossover. are there any tracks on it you could see charting." "i don't know i guess we'll find out when it happens" -- i don't need you to tell me that in the future, i'll know what happens in the future

how is it a stupid question exactly? it pertains directly w/ what we're discussing?

i mean, we do this kind of chart prognostication all the time? why is it suddenly stupid?

idk what kind of answer you're looking for? it's probably a failed crossover attempt! seeing as they've basically put out one single, i'm not sure how anyone can say for certain that it is or isn't. is it failed creatively? yeah probably! i think everyone thinks it's by far his worst album, but ppl like me & lex seem to like it more than others.

you guys.

"do you think it will crossover. are there any tracks on it you could see charting."

my answer was "probably not. yelawolf has never had a charting single before."

"i don't think this is likely to be successful because" "i do think this will be likely to be successful because" "i'm not sure, because"

or just admit that this argument was a result of kneejerk condescension that had nothing to do w/ my question being supposedly 'stupid'

well when you asked if he was going to sell lupe fiasco numbers, that part was stupid

Radioactive

is this, like, hipster music like DB The General?

j0rdan wasnt trolling he was just being condescending

i'm not a hater i just troll a lot

you guys.

― Tim F, Friday, November 18, 2011 10:57 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is what they're always like

that's why the gun sounds thread is unreadable basically

i knew exactly what was going on in here before i clicked it smh

http://notesfromachair.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/heath-ledger-joker-golden-globes-6435336.jpeg

http://blogs.theobr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/hines-ward-crying.gif

why do iiiii....say goodbye....to what we haaaaaaaaaaaaaad

this is what they're always like

― all i see is angels in my eyes (lex pretend), Friday, November 18, 2011 5:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's why the gun sounds thread is unreadable basically

― all i see is angels in my eyes (lex pretend), Friday, November 18, 2011 5:47 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/glasshouse07.jpg

people who live in glass houses probably failed Intro to Architecture

guys! yelawolf! new album! etc

so what's wrong with em's verse? i thought he kinda killed, what with all that stuttery dancing around the beat and stuff.

eh, he's not bad on the verse exactly just so badly outclassed by GANGSTA BOO

so what's wrong with em's verse? i thought he kinda killed, what with all that stuttery dancing around the beat and stuff.

― messiahwannabe, Friday, November 18, 2011 11:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

its not cool to like em because he's lyrically lyrical instead of aw man cuz man we here to stay ay, welcome to ilx

no wonder I like all the shit ILX won't go to back for (like Slaine)

i have a physical copy on order (lol buying music). disappointed that he didn't absolutely kill this release cuz this was probably my most anticipated drop of the year, but I guess it's better than nothing.

oh well, one month until Jeezy once again pushes back TM103!

there's good 'lyrical' and bad 'lyrical.' eminem in 2011 is the latter.

I kinda lost interest in Em once he downsized the humor quotient of his music after Marshall Mathers LP

so what's wrong with em's verse?

as far as i can tell he says diarrhea two times in a row

Eminem also sounds completely aggressively aggrieved all the time, which is almost as annoying as clumsy whiney zings

i think everyone thinks it's by far his worst album, but ppl like me & lex seem to like it more than others.

as far as i can see, you, me, maura and whiney like it, mdc doesn't, deej didn't like yelawolf anyway and tim f is prejudging it before hearing.

http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/1271955219-weingartendontcare.jpg

xpost