luckily for his greatness he's also released more than a few great albums. i'll admit, though, that his verse on the nas track might be the highlight of his career for me. listening to a whole az album is a grand pleasure, but there's something about the way dude just comes out of nowhere three tracks in and drops the best verse on the entire album only to disappear leaving nas to take care of the rest that's kind of magical. like "we now interrupt regular programming for something that will blow your fucking mind, nas resumes at 9:15."
― samosa gibreel, Friday, 23 October 2009 01:40 (fourteen years ago) link
hahah true life's a bitch is a great song, and az probably steals the show from nas and i will be sure to check out his albums, is there one anyone would recommend?
― FACK, Friday, 23 October 2009 02:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Like AZ, but ever time I love his flow I'm reminded of his average lyrics. But love Cormega. So fragile, so expressive. More than Tragedy Khadaffi, or Capone: why was he never more loved?
― paulhw, Friday, 23 October 2009 02:11 (fourteen years ago) link
mega has a new album dropping, excited abt it
― i got nothin (deej), Friday, 23 October 2009 02:14 (fourteen years ago) link
word ive been meaning to listen to that
― k3vin k., Friday, 23 October 2009 02:16 (fourteen years ago) link
when i listen to az stuff that's PERFECT, i get a feeling like, damn this is good WHY AREN'T PEOPLE WRITING BOOKS ABOUT THIS and why isn't he-- you know, japan has that living national treasure title, 人間国宝. i feel like az needs to get some shit like that. that song there, "never change" is like... it's a perfect rap song but it does all these other things that are great outside of rap. not sure how to say this, but it's like a perfect short story, too. all these careful details and every line necessary and fitted in. he has a perfect eye for little colorful bits to stick in, and he can stay on the narrative like nobody else. to me, it's sort of self-evident that he's fucking amazing and there should be BOOKS about this guy, but he sells like 12 cds, but i guess it's enough to keep him in gucci sneakers and givenchy backpacks from the sounds of that raekwon song, so, aight, i'm cool with that.
i spend all day reading chinese literature, contemporary chinese literature, and writing about it, and i get the same feeling, like, damn, why is 99% of the shit i love completely inaccessible to the rest of the world? like, why is this kid from qinghai that nobody's ever heard of, writing stories about lamb meat soup and getting wasted, and he's got this perfect knowledge of how a short story should be constructed and it's all so SOUND, (which a lot of writing is, right?) but at the same time, fucking invigorating and exciting. and it's basically inaccessible to the world at large, even if they can read it. you DIG? why am i stuck explaining why jia pingwa is better than delilo OR ANYONE ELSE, and writes these dense fucked up books about sex and masculinity and impotence and it's really good, when i don't even give a shit about anybody but jia pingwa and his shit and his deal, and i want to say, "yo, jia pingwa, guys." but i get that it's just one of those things.
common to people that love music or poetry or whatever and want to tell people why they're passionate about it, and it's all very subjective, what makes people flip out or bores them to death, and they end up making tshirts that say LISTEN TO BOB MARLEY because they were listening to could you be loved and it made them cry and, so it's not very interesting in that respect but...
i used to really dig on that aspect, though! like, pouring out my heart on how perfect and passionate a cormega song is, but i really can't do it anymore. i'm content to say this is dope this is some bullshit, whatever. with literature, it's a lot more satisfying and i can actually... well, it's the same thing, finding shit that i like and pitching it and making the case for why it's good (and nobody cares about it, so it's the same there), but there's the final concrete aspect of translating it into another language, which i guess is SORT OF missing from writing about music, you get the final say over how it's received, in a way. i wish i could translate az songs into another language and somehow communicate: THIS IS HOW THIS SONG MAKES ME FEEL AND LOOK AT HOW PERFECT IT IS, LOOK AT HOW IT'S PUT TOGETHER. when you translate something, you kinda get to do that, because you're almost tearing down the structure and building it again, in another context, another language, but trying to maintain the same emotion, you dig. this isn't even the craziest shit i've ever put on ilx, so it's aight.
what i'm saying is. this is very frustrating. just listen to az.
― dylannn, Friday, 23 October 2009 04:16 (fourteen years ago) link
^^^such a real post
― holy lolson (deej), Thursday, 4 November 2010 04:58 (thirteen years ago) link
jeezis, yeah. why isn't that dude here everyday to set shit right?
― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Thursday, 4 November 2010 06:18 (thirteen years ago) link
The post has me interested in Jia Pingwa as well so there's this link to share:
http://paper-republic.org/dylanking/jia-pingwa-records-album-of-jazz-standards-writes-cultural-revolution-novel/
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 4 November 2010 06:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Still one of my favorite of the rappers
― a verbatim quote from AdamRL! (admrl), Tuesday, 21 December 2010 22:32 (thirteen years ago) link
man dylann was the best
― in my world of Hmong ppl (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 22 December 2010 00:00 (thirteen years ago) link
so what you're facin, is realism in the activationlivin off land with five honeys playin my handme and fam sippin off guiness stout and eatin clams
― flopson, Thursday, 20 January 2011 04:21 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm recognized by the illest of individualskillers and criminals, even willies thats really into jewels
― flopson, Thursday, 20 January 2011 04:23 (thirteen years ago) link
so in god i trusti lust for a 850 deluxe
― flopson, Thursday, 20 January 2011 04:24 (thirteen years ago) link
az is the best rapper ever
― flopson, Thursday, 20 January 2011 04:29 (thirteen years ago) link
just bought vinyl version of aziatic for like 4 bucks
― *gets the power* (deej), Thursday, 20 January 2011 04:29 (thirteen years ago) link
;)
― flopson, Thursday, 20 January 2011 04:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Aziatic is pretty much my favourite rap album of the 00s.
― Tuomas, Thursday, 20 January 2011 07:49 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=covkh9ShXz4
you know the happenings, homies just yappin andhand shaking, laughing and exchanging all they math againyou usually lose touch when you travelinga few dudes bruise up in the battlingparked on madison across from the radissonwe talked about the tattlin some niggas did in marylandplus discussed old homicides unravelingi asked was he dabbling he laughed and said he managinghis carti frames was as clear as a camera lenshe hardly changed, i was near in comparisonwe joked about how police choked him outand he claimed as far as fame i had enough to bust in oprah's mouthin other words i was up in cloutand from the curb i need to pull a larry bird before i'm up and outwithout a sound, snatched my guinness off the groundrose up, gave him a pound and told him, homie, hold it down
i know i've written about this song before but i like it a lot and i think it might be approaching my idea of perfection, when it comes to this sort of writing. i've said this before, too: i think az writes better than anyone else. and as much as i don't give a fuck at all about this, if you give a fuck about reading rap lyrics, his come off the best because they preserve so much of his appeal. what do i mean here? i guess i mean that passively reading them in your head, they still have great little details and rhythmic things going on. beyond the rhythmic shit, there's the storytelling, the arc. nobody else has that (other people have it too but this is about az and he's almost the best).
i've been listening to supreme clientele recently and the same longform storytelling shit is in there but it's so cartoonish visual to me PULL OUT BLACK BURNERS LIKE TONSILS but when i listen to az, i think i just picture the words in my head. even when he's trying to go for detailed visual scenes, like in 'never change,' in my head, i just see it as text. i think part of it is the dull, clear voice. droning.
― dylannn, Saturday, 5 February 2011 06:26 (thirteen years ago) link
teddy p pumpin out of the gtin 9-3, niggas had it jumpin in dc
― dylannn, Saturday, 5 February 2011 06:28 (thirteen years ago) link
could give a fuck, got a whole lotta doughPLUS i'm on the lowgot a whole lot of hoes YUPsuckin and fuckin, got me huffin and puffincussin for nothin, clutchin heat buckin and duckin
― dylannn, Saturday, 5 February 2011 06:32 (thirteen years ago) link
"Never Change" is really one of the best songs ever. (It's on A.W.O.L. tho, not "the Format")
― President Keyes, Sunday, 6 February 2011 22:56 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R08-HyLNuM
Youtube upthread wasn't working
― President Keyes, Sunday, 6 February 2011 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
Something really accurate about running into a friend you haven't seen in years,
― President Keyes, Sunday, 6 February 2011 23:02 (thirteen years ago) link
a few months ago i found out about an az live show about a week too late. still kills me to think about missing that, this guy never fucking tours!
― am0n, Sunday, 6 February 2011 23:06 (thirteen years ago) link
az got me drinking guiness for weeks
― flopson, Sunday, 6 February 2011 23:12 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KWViwwWHdI
first track sets it up and then it's the sweepy sped up drums on magic hour and az
take paper til they close the door
― dylannn, Wednesday, 31 August 2011 07:45 (twelve years ago) link
never saw this video
― sorry for party blogging (D-40), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 08:09 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gwtCEtnm6g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFFpFeTZXFA
az's one of those guys who actually made jiggy music that i could stomach.
"how ya livin" makes me want to spill champagne on a boat somewhere.
― san lazaro, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 21:23 (twelve years ago) link
i'm standing on my balconyworking thw qaction on 1 glock 19listening to az
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 18:50 (six years ago) link
so testin' is wrong cause once guns is drawn, that's it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhDb8LoScpI
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 18:53 (six years ago) link
appropriate this was one of the last things prodigy did, 3 legends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qk9i4KM46Y
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 27 June 2017 18:56 (six years ago) link
https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=khi5oy68tL0
FOR GOOODNESS SAKEWHAT YOU THINK YOU THE MAN YOU GOT A PLATINUM CHAINWE SOLD SO MANY GRAMS WE GOT PLATINUM HANDS NIGGAWHEN THE COKE WENT UP WE HAD IT FOR 27WHEN WE WAS IN THESE STREETS IT WAS LIKE GOD IN HEAVEN
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 18:57 (six years ago) link
RIP PRODIGYTRUE LEGEND
why does he like guinness so much
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Tuesday, 27 June 2017 18:57 (six years ago) link
black people like guiness ime
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 18:59 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbkNmf8rGPI
african people (ime south africa, uganda, kenya) love black beer
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:02 (six years ago) link
does he mention guiness in this?
i think like nigeria consumes a huge amount of guinness consumed worldwide but too drunk to google it, ime jamaicans drink guiness too
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:04 (six years ago) link
having solddrugs does it fuck up your appreciateion of coke lyrics
prodigy is such a ag
never swung like new york rap called fornever fit with formal constrained iof new york raptrue uyntil the nednamed an ealbum hegelain dialectss
truest n word alive
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:05 (six years ago) link
i want to behead some motherucker too
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:06 (six years ago) link
4:11 Az最終的なコール別名真実
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khi5oy68tL0
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:07 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akEC4UGX-8g
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:14 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6RMIB-6hHQ
― dylannn, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 19:14 (six years ago) link
Yo it's hard to shake this feeling that I might get knocked
― brimstead, Tuesday, 27 June 2017 22:49 (six years ago) link
Son you know it don't stop, we can't close up shop
digging Doe or Die IIhe still comes correct lyrically
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 13 September 2021 19:56 (two years ago) link
Top 5 MC voice for me
― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 18 November 2021 18:55 (two years ago) link