Yo P&J, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but ILX had the greatest 2009 poll of all time! All time! (2009 ILX Trax Poll Results: TOP TEN TODAY)

the video that musically posted at the top of the thread is actually really dope! better than like half the songs it samples

― waka shame (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:46 PM (5 hours ago)

it's suuuper sappy but besides that it's actually...really inspired! and i hate mashups

ohhhh man i love these threads! This year I am resolved to actually take the time to listen to all the youtubes, as invariably like 95% of this is shit I've never heard and it can be really interesting (for me). Thanks as always to musically. Here comes mass blurbing of shit I just heard for the first time, so I can laugh at myself years from now.

50 (Royksopp) - eh - - listened to this earlier today, can't remember anything about it

49 (Kid Cudi) - Forksclovetofu OTM. Wake me up when the guy singing the song wakes up.

48 (Animal Collective) - nice overall sound, lyrics seem promising, gawd the effect on that guy's voice is really annoying though! I should check out this band more.

47 (Elektrik Red) - OK, this is nice. Kind of wanders all over the place but I like that. Not the best hook I've ever heard but great beat - could def. have a great time dancing to this.

46 (Memory Tapes) - not as soporific as Kid Cudi. If this was playing in a record store I'd ask what it was and then immediately forget. Seems to go interesting places as it meanders along but not really my kinda thing.

45 (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) - hey, this is nice! Probably the nicest-sounding thing I've heard by this band - I eventually warmed up to "Maps" and have a soft spot for "Gold Lion" but this is a better use of their bag of tricks I think. If Gold Lion was them realizing they should sound more like an alt-rock band covering "Play That Funky Music White Boy," this is them realizing they should sound more like Coldplay and I'm sold - great fucking chorus.

44a (Fever Ray) - i was with them on the big orbiting evil synth sounds but is this a comedy band? why do their vocals sound like Gregorian monks going on about Wookies? Next please.

44b (Basement Jaxx) - oh hell yeah! This is really cool. I should check these guys out more, I've liked basically everything I've heard by them and the chorus on this is just killer, closest thing I've heard from a non-mashup artist (I think?) to the Girl Talk payoff of a bunch of shit banging together to release your favorite song for the hook.

42 (Guido) - that there's a discussion over which sub-post-genre this belongs to is probably a sign that this isn't for me - I always stumble on these acts which as far as my brain is concerned get filed under Electronic. I like the synth sounds in this but I lose touch quickly when there's no vocals. I would probably get a lot more done if I liked music like this more. Toe-tapper though.

41 (Pill) - really liking this. Did he just say he's got pies flying at the sky?! I appreciate how the mix NEVER lets up, there's always this tension-inducing layer of buried yelling and stuff underneath the plinky-plonky sounds which are under the dude rambling about pies and the intermittent Beastie Boys sample. I genuinely have no clue what any of this is about but I'm feeling it.

i'm white btw

lol Gregorian monks going on about Wookies

Enigma's difficult second album iirc

it's "pies flying out the spot" and he is referring to the sale of illegal drugs but you can pretend he's discussing pastry if you want. i sometimes do.

a couple reactions to DC's reactions: i think the casual vibe of the Kid Cudi's vocals go perfectly with music, the flatness and simplicity of his delivery highlights the music, whereas more aggressive or bombastic vocals would put the focus on his "rapping" and wouldn't serve the song as well imo (though this just might be my predilection for dance music over rap talking.) can't even begin to see the appeal of that Basement Jaxx song. you should give Fever Ray's album a chance, i think that song is a bizarre choice as a single as it doesn't make much sense to me separated from the album; i'm gonna go ahead and predict that her album will top the ILX album poll or come close.

I think I would sort of give the Kid Cudi thing a pass if the hook had a little more going on. Not my sorta thing overall, I guess - too laid-back for me to find anywhere to exist in the song. (But I do prefer rap talking to dance music so maybe this guy is just a good litmus test for that.)

Nice to see the Guido place. This was one of many tracks that I didn't get around to checking out until the last minute and grew on me just in time to make my ballot.

― Not brilliant, but nice enough (lou), Thursday, 28 January 2010 00:27 (7 hours ago) Permalink

always forget that one of my favourite parts of these threads is seeing the reactions of people who didn't hear these songs before! guido and pill, my first two votes, great tracks.

"way u make me feel" was the b-side of "orchestral lab", which is just as beautiful - have pretty much always listened to them back to back. guido's got such a strong sense of melody and ability to evoke emotion. not gonna clutter up this thread w/youtubes but if you like that, definitely check out "orchestral lab", "cat in the window" (knife sharp strings), "beautiful complication" as mentioned earlier and this excellent article on guido's little bristol scene.

oh yeah for anyone hearing "so good" for the first time off that youtube clip, the best thing about the album version is how much swearier it is. "i thought i wouldn't really give a fuck / but now a bitch all in love" = line of the year.

really like that fever ray track - easily the best tune on the album too. was never a knife fan, so it took me a while to check FR out. glad I did.

second-best thing so far is kid cudi, but I too find the vocals really dreary and have to tune him out.

not much beyond that tickles me, but trap goin' ham is pretty forthright.

holy shit, that Guido track

^ i know!! so superlative that it's kinda right that no one really knows what to call it / genre it should be.

Love seeing that Guido track in there.

"Trap Goin Ham" is severely depressing.

I think I voted for "Summertime Clothes" and "Raindrops," glad to see those place (though the latter should really be top 20 material...).

Any suggestions as to what "Trap Goin Ham" is *about*? I remember when this first popped up on ILX, but I forgot to follow up on it. Now that it appeared on this list, I have been listening to & enjoying it, but I can't make out a lot of the lyrics, save for the recurring "flying pies" theme. Could this really be a celebration of keeping ones community well-stocked with various foodstuffs, disguised as a coke-rap anthem, or is the store just a front (or metaphor) for the usual assortment of illicit activities? We got yams, dammit?

Er, that was supposed to read: We got yams, dammit!

You tell us, PILLbox.

lol

Yeah, I'm kinda with Pillbox. I kinda like the idea of a rap song just about how they're more or less breaking even running this convenience store. Baloney meat! Hostess Fruit Pies! Step right up, folks!

In my search for answers, I came across this, a captivating account of the filming of the Trap Goin Ham video shoot.

uh, just the "video shoot," not the "filming of the video shoot."

Umm yeah watch the video. Personally would not let ppl smoke crack in my imaginary corner shop

here we go, 40-39, the lineup today includes one artist with two entries and the placing with the lowest average vote...

40 -- Big Boi feat. Gucci Mane - Shine Blockas (9 votes, 98.5 points, 1 #1 vote/s) (22 in P&J, 7 in p4k)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwdU7I_1R9o

xpost - tbh, the video doesn't offer much in the way of thematic info & seems to simply be a warts-and-all depiction of a neighborhood and its inhabitants, an impression which is validated by the blog post I linked to upthread.

OK, I'll shut up about Trap Goin Ham now.

shine blockas is ace, btw.

"Trap Goin Ham" is severely depressing.

― _Rudipherous_, Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:01 AM (1 hour ago)

whaaat

low rating for a track which seemed big out there on the internets. this and "Exhibit C" came out late in the year and seemed to appeal to not just the usual suspects who follow rap releases but also older heads who've given up checking for new rap and generalist music fans. I guess because they're quite traditional sounding in production, it felt like these were huge consensus records.

shine blockas i mean

there better be like 3 Gucci songs and 10 other rap songs in the top 40, or this list is as lame w/r/t hip hop as PF and P&J

shine blockas is a great song but did not end up voting for it. pretty good placement, the other two polls overrated it imo

xp al otm

This list already has like twice as many hip-hop songs as the ones from the last couple years, I *think*? Don't quote me on that.

Oh, and the first time response -

40 (Big Boi) - Not unpleasant on the ears. Kinda don't remember it now that it's over, will give it another spin later in the day and see if it's a grower.

i mean tho dude tbh i only voted for 3 or 4 rap songs...one of my criteria was how often i hear the song on the radio and not having rap radio well....i'm not voting hova

xp

easy to see why trap goin ham vid could be depressing, surely? but in the track there's also exhilaration in the craziness which counters that.

Shine Blockas should be #1. Sad thing is, I have never heard it on the R&B/Hip Hop radio station here. What a fuckin jam. I would have loved to hear it over and over again in my car. Instead I get "Bedrock".

there better be like 3 Gucci songs - the problem w/ Gucci is that ppls votes will be spread among the various tracks. I mean, dude released 7 singles in 09. "Wasted" is sure to be up there, at any rate.

^i think the same thing, it's anthemic the way certain mid-00's hip hop songs are imo. it took a few months for it to click for me though tbh. 1st of my votes to show up. xp

"Shine Blockas" hasn't got even enough of a flicker of airplay to get into the top 100 of the Billboard R&B chart. i'm not even sure the label is pushing it as an official single.

xpost -- yeah but even vote-splitting aside, "Lemonade" deserves votes so much more and I don't expect to see that here

i voted for "lemonade"

i get the pill = depressing thing, that's part and parcel of the whole "gritty street life" angle he works so well (and he makes it a lot more explicit on some of his other tracks), though it's not JUST depressing by any means

"shine blockas" is excellent, and it's great to hear gucci mane in such a different context than usual, but it's just nowhere near my FAVOURITE rap tracks of the year or something i'd consider voting for.

can't remember if i voted for a gucci track or just the mixtape but if i had it would've been "my shadow"

aw don't spoil the suspense by telling what yr votes were plz

Trap goin Ham (for the uninitiated):

trap house - Term used to define a crack house, or the surroundings in which a drug dealer or(trap star) would use to make their profit.

ham - When a person is unstoppable or just in the zone in any type sport or competition setting; It can also be defined as going crazy and buying up everything in a store; or even doing something beast like

So much for selling yams & pies then..

actually relistening, i can really see how "shine blockas" would only be improved by hearing it in public, on the radio &c - that piano and that descending bass are pretty perfect and the chorus just rollllls out like a red carpet

Thanks for the facts, Pillbox!

Shine Blockas and TGH coming so low makes me think that this poll isn't going to be very rap heavy. Can't exactly see anything other than Gucci/9x/10 coming higher than them. Was hoping for Glass low, TGH high.

cheers for doing this musically