Pitchfork's P2k: The Decade in Music

I can't believe J0rdan is gone. He had such a discernable posting style and personality.

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Thanks, Al! I've added the Nels Cline thread to my bookmark toolbar in Firefox and will be posting there very soon.

I hope J0rdan was just kidding. I think he'll be back. :-)

Its a forum... who "retires" from a forum? Who cares?
Why don't people talk more about music?

Well coming back to the music... Pitchfork has just published part 200-101 and this time it does have reviews of each track.

Fucking lala player with its stubborn registration announcement and US only elitist bullshit.

Hmmm what a coincidence there's still saliva in my carpet from the first time I heard 'Leaf House' too, if you know what I mean.

how is 'touch the sky' head of 'ante up' 'in da club' 'southern hospitality' 'sippin on syrup' -- its like a 5th tier kanye single & it ruined the curtis track for me for a good couple years

With Southern crunk still then a dominant force on hip-hop radio, it's hard to remember a time when a combination of the genre's trunk-rattling grit with sleek modern R&B would be considered groundbreaking. But so it was when Usher unveiled "Yeah" in early 2004. "Yeah" was the dirtiest-sounding thing Usher had done to date, but the real draw was Lil Jon's ferocious-but-slippery production, featuring that crazy keyboard vamp that still sounds thrilling today. It also contains fantastic moments of unintentional hilarity, with lyrics dovetailing with Dave Chappelle's loving TV mimicry of Lil Jon and the best guest-spot mispronunciation (Ludacris' "Ursher") since cats were calling Kanye "Cain" on his own records. --Joe Colly

what in god's name is this

i really remember back in 04 when i was like "this 'yeah' song wouldn't be as good if it didn't perfectly dovetail with dave chappelle's mimicry of the song's producer! also 'ursher'! lmao" jeezus

i remember when i gained a newfound appreciation for the KKK when a slight rise in their popularity dovetailed with dave chappelle's loving mimicry of their rallies

I want to know what "Crunk" is. I want someone to show me.

I like The Hold Steady a lot, but I'm surprised to see The Swish as high as No. 108 on Pitchfork's list.

(BTW, I really don't know what Crunk is. I sort of know it when I hear it.)

Crunk is an euphemism which was born with the Dirty South rappers and stands for being crazy and fucked up on alcohol and marihuana. Unfortunately I'm afraid I can't show you what it means.

Thanks. What I get from Wiki isn't very helpful:

Crunk is a style of music that originated from southern hip hop and electronic dance music in the early 1990s. . . . Looped, stripped-down drum machine rhythms are usually used. . . . The drum machines are usually accompanied by simple, repeated synthesizer melodies and heavy bass stabs. The tempo of the music is somewhat slower than hip-hop, around the speed of reggaeton.

The focal point of crunk is more often the beats and music than the lyrics therein. Crunk rappers, however, often shout and scream their lyrics, creating an aggressive, almost heavy, style of hip-hop. While other subgenres of hip-hop address sociopolitical or personal concerns, crunk is almost exclusively party music, favoring call and response hip-hop slogans in lieu of more substantive approaches.

The first known use of the word "crunk" was in 1972 by Dr. Seuss in his book Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

I didn't know Crunk began in the 90s. I thought it was basically a 00s development.

You know I have a link that might be useful for understanding where the genre comes from: http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/
Under the breakbeat section you'll find Crunk with some sound examples and a small description.

I'm loving that site! Plus, many lols. Ex. A: Their description of "Speed Garage, AKA, The Worst Music In The World"

How did this music get past the censors? Who greenlighted this project at the Official Electronic Music Genre Standards and Classifications Consortium? I'm still at a loss as to what it's trying to do. Is it funky? No. Those dulled basslines sound like someone farting into a pillow. Or like the school teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons scolding some child for his inability to spit, sing and gargle at the same time. Is it soulful? No. Time-stretched vocals never had any appeal, ever. There's no real hook, no real melody. It doesn't even pay any decent homage to Classic Garage. So what the hell is this stuff doing?! Sucking, by the sounds of it. But as bad as it sounds, it has actually managed to find a way to get WORSE over the years, dumping the time-stretched vocals in favour of......you guessed it: those annoying, crooning Mariah Carey wannabe diva hooks. Oh, fucking hell.

the "More Human Than Human" loop under "Industrial Rock" is how I'm going to annoy the world from now on

i'm not really sure how 'dovetail' is being used in that sentence but the first Chappelle's Show skit about Lil Jon aired a few months after "Yeah!" hit

i think as a verb

but i mean..."with lyrics dovetailing with Dave Chappelle's loving TV mimicry of Lil Jon" -- does that just mean 'haha he's saying Yeah! and Okay! just like he did on Chappelle's Show'? whatever the meaning, it's poorly phrased.

i think he's saying they appeared around the same time...

I think you're wrong, btw about "Yeah" happening after. I remember Jon REALLY embracing the "OK... Yeah" thing AFTER the sketch, and i think "Yeah" might have been a result of that

"Yeah" debuted February 3, 2004
A Day In The Life Of Lil Jon appeared February 25, 2004
"Yeah topped Billboard February 28, 2004

I think that ducktales pretty nicely

MONTHS AFTER

no, i'm right. the first "A Moment In The Life" sketch aired on 2/25/04 -- "Yeah!" hit #1 the same week but had been out and popular since late '03

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anyway you just said "'Yeah!' might have been a result of" the sketch, so stfu and eat crow for once

are you deejing me where you're claiming because some leak blog put an unmastered version of single on their site or something it was mad popular for months?

The video didn't appear on MTV until Feburary 18

step down, little man

...

you're talking about pretty much the biggest chart hit of the decade, dude, not a song on a "leak blog" (did those even exist in 2003?)

it didn't just leap to #1 the moment it was released. this was a year or so before iTunes had any effect on the Hot 100.

The single debuted on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at number fifty-three on January 13, 2004

a whole month!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG

I was there... When Usher recorded "Yeah"... with Faust in 1972

dude, you just said 15 minutes ago that you thought the song may have been a reaction to the Chappelle sketch -- so far i have yet to say anything nearly as inaccurate

I said "might have been" because I wasn't sure. You're definitvely stating "Yeah" was the first rock n roll song since it came out before "Rocket 88"

btw ty 4 "step down, little man"

:)

ts: "stfu and eat some crow for once" vs. "step down, little man"

stfu and eat some crow 2: city of angels

i think we've settled that the lyrics did "dovetail" (definition: fit together tightly) with the chappelle skit (seeing as how the song hit #1 the week the sketch came out) but that al didn't "say anything nearly as inaccurate" as whiney's belief the song was a result of the skit so everyone's a winner. now we can go back to

did you guys finish talking about Radiohead while I was off drinking last night

i'm glad anthony declared we could move on 10 minutes after people stopped posting about it

like i said before, the Radiohead talk was just a jump start, we'll come back to them when they occupy the top 5 of both lists

stfu and eat some crow for once

did you guys finish talking about Radiohead while I was off drinking last night

I did the exact same thing and now look at this thread: it's full of crows and shit.

200 - 111 are really good .. the first 9 pages.
- I didn't know "Get By" had a remix.. I've heard the original version 100 times but never once heard this Mos Def Jay-Z thing.
- A lot of these album track choices do seem kinda random from time to time, but the Fugazi choice is tremendous. I don't have my hopes up for it, but seeing another Argument track in the top 100 would be gratifying.
- "The Middle" is fine I guess.. "Bleed American" is such a great song tho.. always overlooked.
- Party hard.

hey monday night drinkers: what do u think of testosterone in music?

balls

I heard they mix musical testosterone in jaeger.

i knew "Get By" had a remix, but it isn't very good, and its inclusion instead of the original is the same crap we were complaining about upthread. but yeah "The Middle" is by far my least favorite of the 4 singles off that JEW album.