After a couple listens this is probably my AOTY so far.
Putting aside the religious overtones, a lot of black people are very suspicious of planned parenthood which is entirely understandable given American history, and the wealth of misinformation available on the net.
While the suppression of the black population via family planning holds no water as a coordinated conspiracy, it manifests as a social reality when a hugely disproportionate number of aborted foetuses have always been black even when controlling for income. You don't have to be pro-life to believe that this is a problem.
Always thought the great thing about Common's Retrospective for Life was that it was reconcilable with a pro-choice stance.
― Hikikomori Povich (tsrobodo), Friday, 3 July 2015 14:48 (eight years ago) link
I haven't given this a long concentrated listen yet which it kind of demands
i suspect ill end up liking it but i do find his voice non-dynamic in short bursts, and i wish his rapping showed more of the personality that he shows in interviews.
I suspect that I'm liable to treat this more like a 3/4 star album & come around more fully as he evolves as an artist. i don't want to sound down on it, it's "obviously" good, but i think in part i'm also just allergic to consensus
― supreme problematics (D-40), Saturday, 4 July 2015 00:25 (eight years ago) link
lol maybe just listen to it until you can say something that isn't speculating on the arc of your own future opinions then
that said, i do agree that he's a hilariously funny guy who rarely puts that into his lyrics and it maybe wouldn't hurt if he tried it here and there. there's wit on the album but it's a very dry wit, he makes you work for it, for better or worse.
― some dude, Saturday, 4 July 2015 00:34 (eight years ago) link
Al, give David a break. I've listened to this album twice and I know exactly what he means (and feel the same). It's an album to live with.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 4 July 2015 03:15 (eight years ago) link
lmao
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CJPypOZWUAAuLvG.png
― lag∞n, Monday, 6 July 2015 17:11 (eight years ago) link
getting an early Shabazz Palaces vibe from some of the beats on this
― lil urbane (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 July 2015 15:41 (eight years ago) link
yeah that 50 cent line freaked me out!!!
this is still holding up well
Cali has been killing it the past couple years IMO when you think about it
― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 8 July 2015 15:54 (eight years ago) link
boy this album gets better w/each play
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 9 July 2015 00:30 (eight years ago) link
http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/2015/media/202210/_original/1436372645/1035x1555-GettyImages-479419748.jpg
― just sayin, Thursday, 9 July 2015 00:35 (eight years ago) link
Listened to this all the way through on my commute. Would have listened again if I hadn't arrived at stupid work.
― cod latin (dog latin), Thursday, 9 July 2015 08:29 (eight years ago) link
Feel like there's less digging to do with this album than To Pimp a Butterfly. All of its appeal is right in your face. Not that Kendrick's album isn't easy to get into, but it feels more like you're supposed to meditate on what it all means while you're listening to it. Whatever it is I'm trying to say, they're two of the best things I've heard this year.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 9 July 2015 08:42 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I get that totally. The Kendrick album is great but I feel like I'm still 'reading' it after having heard it months ago. It's like the Moby Dick of rap albums or something: very enjoyable, but lots to analyse and unravel, which can get exhausting at times. Sometimes I wonder if I respect it intellectually more than I actually enjoy listening to it on a visceral level. I find myself dipping in and out but rarely have the patience to listen all the way through in one sitting.
But this album's so easy to get through, even as a double album it really flies by. It's so much fun and yeah the beats (and BASS) just don't allow for dull or overcomplicated moments.
― cod latin (dog latin), Thursday, 9 July 2015 09:49 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kgz1WGiXDc
great rapper but i now worry his music is keeping us from what could be one of the best comedians of our time
― soyrev, Thursday, 9 July 2015 11:18 (eight years ago) link
(srsly the roll he hits at around 1:10 is unreal)
― soyrev, Thursday, 9 July 2015 11:19 (eight years ago) link
lol
― A swarm of antipathy (Re-Make/Re-Model), Thursday, 9 July 2015 11:48 (eight years ago) link
"tom cruise is underrated""why""cause the mission is impossible. and he pulled it off. three times."
― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 9 July 2015 19:58 (eight years ago) link
so thankful Vince Staples doesn't try to be funny-funny on his albums
― Evan R, Thursday, 9 July 2015 20:35 (eight years ago) link
Just got the album today so have nothing useful to say about it (it's good, duh), but the Rolling Stone interview is pretty sharp. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/vince-staples-q-a-the-most-exciting-man-in-rap-drops-knowledge-20150708?page=3
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Friday, 10 July 2015 02:04 (eight years ago) link
Been listening to this all weekend. It's seriously good.
Been trying to figure out if Jump Off the Roof samples 'I Will' from Hail To The Thief or if they just sound a bit similar.
― cod latin (dog latin), Sunday, 12 July 2015 10:44 (eight years ago) link
well this is where the main sample is from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_yA02FY7KU
― Number None, Sunday, 12 July 2015 11:03 (eight years ago) link
ah right cool.
― cod latin (dog latin), Monday, 13 July 2015 12:59 (eight years ago) link
god, the production on this album is just what i want to hear. i could listen to 'Lemme Know' all day.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Monday, 13 July 2015 15:13 (eight years ago) link
I agree, though my favorite beat is the last track that gets cut off with static after like a minute. Frustrating!
― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, 13 July 2015 15:27 (eight years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/arts/music/vince-staples-and-j-cole-outsiders-in-the-middle-of-hip-hop.html
― curmudgeon, Monday, 13 July 2015 15:48 (eight years ago) link
Mr. Cole, who produces as well as raps, feels like more of a deliberate conscientious objector than Mr. Lamar, who doesn’t have much of an ear for the accessible.
what?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 July 2015 15:50 (eight years ago) link
I agree, though my favorite beat is the last track that gets cut off with static after like a minute. Frustrating!― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, July 13, 2015 4:27 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, July 13, 2015 4:27 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Argh OTMx100. Just as it's about to go full-on too. Maybe that's going to be the start of his next record. Hope so.
― cod latin (dog latin), Monday, 13 July 2015 15:55 (eight years ago) link
weird. that sentence sure is presuming a lot (after reading it a couple times, that j. cole could write hits but chooses not to, but kendrick can't do anything except what he shows on his records).
― lil urbane (Jordan), Monday, 13 July 2015 17:04 (eight years ago) link
there's a lot of "what" in that piece
― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, 13 July 2015 17:12 (eight years ago) link
perhaps chief among the "what" is that the fucking lede is a discussion of the j. cole jacking off song, lol
― slothroprhymes, Monday, 13 July 2015 17:24 (eight years ago) link
btw i've never knowingly heard j. cole, but when i hear about him i think of j-zone and j-live.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Monday, 13 July 2015 17:59 (eight years ago) link
I don't know wtf a "deliberate conscientious objector" is. Is there an undeliberate one?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 13 July 2015 18:02 (eight years ago) link
Ha, spot on
― Evan R, Monday, 13 July 2015 18:38 (eight years ago) link
An unconscientious objector
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Monday, 13 July 2015 20:12 (eight years ago) link
Accidental Objector (J. Cole ft. John Mayer)
― Evan R, Monday, 13 July 2015 20:17 (eight years ago) link
Jzone and Jlive >>> Jcole
― Spottie, Monday, 13 July 2015 20:36 (eight years ago) link
^^^^^^
― like a giraffe of nah (forksclovetofu), Monday, 13 July 2015 20:40 (eight years ago) link
What kind of sound did you tell him you were looking for?Honestly, I didn't really tell him. I showed him pictures. I'd say like, "You know how Downtown L.A. looks?" I was like, "Make it sound like 5th and Hill, but up at the top of the hill."
― alpine static, Tuesday, 14 July 2015 05:05 (eight years ago) link
just realized i've been conflating No I.D. and Oh No :(
― lil urbane (Jordan), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 15:38 (eight years ago) link
i'm having rap music alzheimer's or something
― lil urbane (Jordan), Wednesday, 15 July 2015 15:39 (eight years ago) link
in the hood like a dollar sweet tea is a good line
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 2 August 2015 16:09 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9H8TLM_5q8
This just popped up on the Spotify Fresh Finds playlist for the week, pretty damn good!
― Windsor Davies, Thursday, 13 August 2015 12:02 (eight years ago) link
http://www.factmag.com/2015/08/13/vince-staples-fake-hip-hop-heads/i like dude and don't even disagree with him but he's getting damn close to trenchant social commentary
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Friday, 14 August 2015 00:27 (eight years ago) link
a mistake you'll never make
― some dude, Saturday, 15 August 2015 08:39 (eight years ago) link
what a weird ad hominem sideswipe
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 22 August 2015 20:52 (eight years ago) link
thx, i heard this in the wild the other day and was wondering where it came from.
― lil urbane (Jordan), Saturday, 22 August 2015 23:54 (eight years ago) link
not ad hominem so much as an easy zing to make since saying someone is making 'trenchant social commentary' like it's a bad thing is such an ilx-specific inside joke
― some dude, Sunday, 23 August 2015 00:42 (eight years ago) link
i coulda just as easily have said "corny" tbh
― Meta Forksclove-Liebeskind (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 23 August 2015 03:06 (eight years ago) link
is there better bass on an actual good record this year? if so i wanna hear it
― alpine static, Sunday, 23 August 2015 04:11 (eight years ago) link
arguably ds2 but that's about it
― slothroprhymes, Sunday, 23 August 2015 05:24 (eight years ago) link
Great performance. Even this album's second-tier tracks are gold
http://www.illroots.com/read/vince-staples-lemme-know-ft-jhen-aiko-live-on-jimmy-fallon
― Evan R, Friday, 4 September 2015 16:03 (eight years ago) link