Is SPIN really circling the drain?

fwiw keef has zero buzz among non-pitchfork-reading rap fans on the east coast afaict, he's just a guy who does the hook on a kanye record to a lot of people

― some dude, Monday, August 27, 2012 4:45 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

according to brainwasher this isn't the case, but i wouldn't know personally, obv

haha well clearly i'm going off of preview of the matrix 12's "A$AP IS AN ARMY" hype posts (xpost)

lol

the idea of non-rap publications driving rap discourse is fairly new and mostly has to do w/ the flip of power to the internet. i don't think anything in rock music ever resonated as clearly as rappers rapping about wanting '5 mics' or being 'unsigned hype', and you still sometimes hear those terms trickling into the vernacular. was there any rock band that sung about getting an A- in the consumer's guide?

let's also not forget that music magazines as a whole really aren't doing criticism anymore. vibe, xxl & the source don't have critical discourse, but rolling stone, SPIN and the fader have just as little at least if you're talking the actual in-print magazines. i think when you look at websites that have in the last ~8 years have begun to drive taste/discussion more than mags, pitchfork is the one major outlier that has really fostered criticism over everything. stereogum has started to lean more towards criticism in the last year or so, and SPIN in its newest incarnation has begun to find a critical voice again. complex is the same way, and still isn't very critical. but steregum used to be just an mp3 blog. there's wasn't much difference between it and nah right. there isn't much difference between rap radar and gorilla vs bear. the tastemaking processes were often the same -- drake blew up through nah right and other blogs the same way plenty of indie rock acts have.

there's certainly more of a hivemind and publications covering their bases (vibe putting azealia banks and diplo on their cover) now that the game is so cutthroat, but the lack of critical discourse in traditional rap arenas is a new phenomenon, and i'd like to think that's it mostly a blip until the the media world shakes itself out.

otm

"was there any rock band that sung about getting an A- in the consumer's guide?"

http://www.doctorhook.com/images/tn_rollingstonecover.jpg

and Sonic Youth sang about getting C's and D's from Christgau.

brit bands loved to moan about nme and melody maker and critics but nobody really listened to them.

this is so much conversation in a glass jar
ASAP has a legit harlem fanbase and that's where he started and got his interest
he happens to live in a media heavy town; it's easy for him to get to shoots and get paid and fuck women because of it
your possessive nature with this stuff really does confound me

whereas Americans want to be loved by NME:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf-ONpLXzGs

brit bands loved to moan about nme and melody maker and critics but nobody really listened to them.

― scott seward, Monday, August 27, 2012 6:10 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

truth -- if anything the relationship b/w criticism and artists in rap is as close as it was in rock

maybe that's what's behind the rise of the term "hater" -- tastemaking is more faceless now, so rappers just have to call out the big strawman

how am i being 'possessive'? i'm describing how i see the dynamics of the situation. you seem to disagree, but i don't really believe that forks is keeping his ear to the harlem mixtape trade, sorry

forks is out in these streets every day

is there still a mixtape trade in most cities? i still know tons of cats in Baltimore who sell CDs out of their cars and don't even upload their shit to datpiff but i kind of assume they're just out of touch/set in their ways.

the cover of the ASAP mob album is a gif, if that tells you precisely where they're aiming

the gif and the curse

lol, i think i've told you this like a half dozen times deej but my interest and awareness in this stuff is germane to my livelihood. i'm not listening to it on the corner or on the web; i'm hearing about it through booking.

xxp that's actually really great news

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7gzuzCsjX1qd1swho2_500.jpg

lol, i think i've told you this like a half dozen times deej but my interest and awareness in this stuff is germane to my livelihood. i'm not listening to it on the corner or on the web; i'm hearing about it through booking.

― This cad needs a cordial introduction to Eugene of Oxbow. (forksclovetofu), Monday, August 27, 2012 5:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how many asap rocky shows did you book prior to the tumblr release of 'peso' and 'purple swag'.

album cover stream or whatever it's called, on iphones, would look so much more beautiful if they were all gifs too

http://www.missinfo.tv/index.php/asap-rockys-first-major-show-at-nycs-alife-store-is-he-the-real-deal/

is that a snuggie? (xpost)

asap snuggie

haha that post reads so much like dylannn's classic catchdubs parody

that guy got into an exclusive sneaker store music concert i heard

'populist rapper' is kind of an artificial designation anyway, i dont really care to parse this to its dna or anything & who knows where keef ends up, but asap rocky just covered vogue homme japan, so i would still hesitate to describe him as a archetypal street populist.

*hommes

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-lupe-fiasco-on-tupac-album-leaks-and-leaving-the-game-20120827

lol, i think i've told you this like a half dozen times deej but my interest and awareness in this stuff is germane to my livelihood. i'm not listening to it on the corner or on the web; i'm hearing about it through booking.

― This cad needs a cordial introduction to Eugene of Oxbow. (forksclovetofu), Monday, August 27, 2012 5:20 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how many asap rocky shows did you book prior to the tumblr release of 'peso' and 'purple swag'.

― The rain in Spin circles mainly on the mansplain (D-40), Monday, August 27, 2012 5:22 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean, deej for how much you like to play "how popular is X rapper in this crazy new internet age age what does popularity even *mean* now" games, forks is right that bookers have to have a very concrete, dollars & sense view of popularity, like how many ppl can they bring?

would be curious to know what inputs forks uses to make these calculations

i mean, deej for how much you like to play "how popular is X rapper in this crazy new internet age age what does popularity even *mean* now" games, forks is right that bookers have to have a very concrete, dollars & sense view of popularity, like how many ppl can they bring?

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, August 27, 2012 5:53 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

im not questioning that he does, im questioning that he ever booked a show for asap or even heard of him prior to the media buzz which i maintain was primarily responsible for his career

i'm not at all arguing that asap isn't popular, btw

populism is a political ideology and does not mean "beloved by the people," I feel uselessly compelled to point out

It wasn't like, "World Star Hip-Hop is the worst thing ever because they show naked women!" Picasso painted naked women. Was he the worst thing ever? Which would be World Star's response to somebody who would say that.

very tickled that Lupe thinks WSHH would compare itself to Pablo Picasso as its first defense of what it does

i see what hes getting at there though, which is that everyone can pass the buck b/c its bigger than anyone, systemic power relations etc

i dont think lupe is dumb, i just think he's not a good artist

well, at this point. he's had great moments too, but typically they're the ones that are most direct, imo

i dunno, a lot of the things he's said in interviews over the years, i think he's a little dumb. or at least too far gone into a libertarian tinfoil hat headspace to actually say anything perceptive or smart about most of the topics he thinks he has something important to say about.

yeah, unlike some of the other stuff i've said itt, i don't really feel strongly enough about whether or not lupe's smart to stick to my guns on that one

ill concede the pt

deej bad, some dude better

some dude otm a few posts ago

lupe fiasco

poopé peeassco

im not questioning that he does, im questioning that he ever booked a show for asap or even heard of him prior to the media buzz which i maintain was primarily responsible for his career

it's mostly true tho

okeydoke.

"tried and true" is a bit of a dog whistle but the way they built up their fanbases is fundamentally different

well the subtext is that one is "real" and the other is not and that type of shit it happens everyday but it never ceases to get me annoyed.