rae sremmurd - sremmlife (6 jan 2015)

I only listened to the two tracks linked to the pfork review but they sounded pretty spare to me. "No Type" is basically just the piano at the beginning and then autotuned/reverbed-vocal + snare/claps.

also lol at the terrible last line of that review btw

echoing piano, the stuttering bass, the piano bit really only hits on chorus

the initial bit, that is

the beats are cool, it sounds really nice and pro altogether from a production standpoint imo

I watched a bit of an interview they did with Peter Rosenberg on Youtube because I was curious about what Swae Lee's speaking voice sounded like. Early on he told them people have been calling the the 2015 Kriss Kross and asked how they felt about it. Not only did they seem to take it as a compliment, they kinda seemed like they didn't see how it wouldn't be a compliment. I thought that was cool.

Ha I swear I read something else where they were really tired of the comparison.

that was when people were comparing them to Christopher Cross

xp Could be! That could even be why they reacted the way the did. Rather than fight it, they just act like it's a favorable thing and move on.

At 1:35:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq1vJ6rcU3o

They're full of detail, the consistency of tempo just bores me shitless, I keep wanting more momentum and bounce.

Like, it's fine, I recognise this stuff isn't for me and I have no right to dictate what it 'should' be like, I just don't want to listen to it, which is a shame because I like these guys and would like to hear them in other rhythmic contexts.

haha wut http://instagram.com/p/x7fj_rCi1y

Matt DC in still not understanding cut time shock. Like in what world is "No Flex Zone" anything other than full of bounce and momentum?

Dude I only studied music for fifteen years, I know how cut time works. It's just that other rhythmic choices made on a lot of double-time trap beats (chiefly when the bass hits, and a general lack of syncopation outside the hi-hats) mean I *hear* them as slow rather than fast. Like one of those pictures that are designed to look like two different things to two different people. That's why I'm framing this as "I know this isn't for me" rather than "why are you all listening to this bullshit?". In general a really technically great MC can make me forget this but the more nonchalant or goofy the vocals the more my brain goes back to default.

Actually I fuck with No Flex Zone (and elsewhere I also like Hookah and Lifestyle so I'm not totally immune to stuff in this vein), I just don't want to hear it in the context of seven or eight other tracks taking a very similar approach (the old difference between disrupting a groove vs being the groove again).

I keep meaning to start a thread about how people respond differently to the same rhythm or physicality in music because it comes up a lot but often it's not worth the derail.

Basically (and without wanting to get all maths and physics about it) if the bass is only hitting every four or even eight beats, and there's minimal syncopation in other areas, I'm going to hear it as a slow and draggy 4/4 rather than a fast 2/2.

Haha it's an interesting area though, for sure, although I tend to frame it in terms of dancing -- e.g. I was born in '87 & my peer group learned to bump&grind in middle-school; I have noticed many 90s babies lack this skill, but are much more comfortable getting busy to 4-on-the-floor eurotrance stuff that makes me confused & awkward (when I was a kid & Alice Deejay or w/e came on we either did the "Jump Around" dance or, at best, badly pantomimed glowsticking)

sremmurd is slow of course, but not draggy, there's so much space the way they emphasise the offbeat making it hang in the air for a second. in no flex zone it's built into the hook, the pause between 'flex....zone' is delicious, it changes the phrasing, I love it. the bass is more like a diving board to get it airborne, badoinging underneath.

the kick drum on "No Flex Zone" is some fantastic syncopated shit

I keep meaning to start a thread about how people respond differently to the same rhythm or physicality in music because it comes up a lot but often it's not worth the derail.

― Matt DC, Saturday, January 17, 2015 7:11 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Basically (and without wanting to get all maths and physics about it) if the bass is only hitting every four or even eight beats, and there's minimal syncopation in other areas, I'm going to hear it as a slow and draggy 4/4 rather than a fast 2/2.

― Matt DC, Saturday, January 17, 2015 7:40 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is very interesting thank u, u shd start that thread

otm, appreciate your insights, Matt

I encourage you to start that thread, Matt!

(and elsewhere I also like Hookah and Lifestyle so I'm not totally immune to stuff in this vein)

fwiw, neither of these songs are half-time. 95/89 bpm respectively

Haha it's an interesting area though, for sure, although I tend to frame it in terms of dancing -- e.g. I was born in '87 & my peer group learned to bump&grind in middle-school; I have noticed many 90s babies lack this skill, but are much more comfortable getting busy to 4-on-the-floor eurotrance stuff that makes me confused & awkward (when I was a kid & Alice Deejay or w/e came on we either did the "Jump Around" dance or, at best, badly pantomimed glowsticking)

― Eman Srebmud (bernard snowy), Saturday, January 17, 2015 5:51 AM Bookmark

this is way more true of witekids than the young black youth ime

Oh yeah, my frame of reference here is like 100% suburban tumblrwhites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02h49p7

i lolled

still loling @ dayo's Ree Drummond pic

i liked this album way more than i thought i would. it's maybe still the best album i've heard all month

are these guys piss freaks?

all my blunts, they stink like pee ("Unlock the Swag")
bitch uh pee... you so foul ("My X")

yes

are you playing dumb or are you now just catching onto rappers' obsession w/ scatalogical similies for weed smell

tbf its urological

well i'm roping shit/fart/piss/B.O. into one general umbrella here

https://twitter.com/youngthug/status/149946952107298816

the one w/out the no homo is funnier

anyway, timely discussion
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-future-song-peacoat-is-about-fashion-and-peeing-o-1681127546/+leshorn

great, informative post

Unreviewed Annotation 1 Contributor ?
He drinks Codeine so much he pees it out

Pee Mode.

Unlock the Swag is more fun if you hear it as "Allah, the swag. The swag, Allah"
― quan voice (voodoo chili)

am i wrong to think "unlock the swag" is a direct reference to
http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.33406272.0220/ap%2C550x550%2C16x12%2C1%2Ctransparent%2Ct.u2.png

yes.

enlighten me hawaiian swami

Idk they strike me as dudes who would play a lot of xbox

yeah but does their ghostwriter play xbox

(prob)

Sitting in a doctors office in Manhattan and the receptionist is plAying throw some mo on her phone

This is pretty much all I want in life

its a great song

yah I know

Sitting in a doctors office in Manhattan and the receptionist is plAying throw some mo on her phone

This is pretty much all I want in life

― 龜, Friday, February 6, 2015 5:41 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You want to be in a doctor's office?

waiting room swag

the dr will be with you shortly i said MAKE IT WORTH MY WHIAAAAIILLE

of all the beats ever made in human history to hear in a waiting room 'tsm' is so thoroughly appropriate i kinda almost wanna call bullshit on this anecdote