Yelawolf: Trunk Muzik/ TM 0-60 / Radioactive

"Trunk Muzik" is the mixtape that was released for free in January, "Trunk Muzik 0-60" is the major label EP that was released commercially this week that features about half the same songs as the mixtape with some new stuff.

an EP with 12 tracks is not an EP! do they just want to sell it cheap/not give it the same weight as an album statement? or are the new tracks "bonus"?

major label hip hop has been really big on "EPs" that are actually album-length, it's been a big mystifying trend for the last year or so. it's basically just a weird way of them being able to release an album without calling it an album so that it doesn't have all the commercial expectations that an album would have.

the other day i saw an artist i know refer to his new release as an "EPixtape," which, just, barf

12 tracks is a little on the short side for a rap album!

didn't erykah badu insist on referring to worldwide underground as an EP?

whatevz to both of them, if it looks and sounds and is as long as an album...

i don't mean that at all -- i'm just saying stuff like the Lynyrd Skynyrd verse trying to tie that into rap or the Bob Dylan hook, it's all kind of a cutesy clever heavyhanded way of him working the same "I have a foot in two different worlds!!!" thing that pretty much every white rapper has to grapple with on some level or another.

Maybe I'm misreading you al, but surely the Lyndard Skynard verse is about how irrelevant LS is to people like him (not to mention rap). I guess you could argue that there's a performative contradiction there because by mentioning LS even to dismiss them still establishes you know who they are, but short of deciding it would be better for him never to reference such things, I can't see how he could go about grappling with this stuff in a less egregious manner.

i know the thrust of the verse isn't explicitly "rap is like Lynyrd Skynyrd", i'm just saying that kind of heavyhanded "i'm a white rapper from hickville, let me tell you a bit about that" isn't really what i go to his music to hear.

let an ep be an ep

free the ep

xxp but that's pretty much what he raps about...

unless he's rapping about eating pussy

not on every song

xpost i prefer the eating pussy songs

i mean, didn't bubba already do a really awesome album about that same exact subject matter better?

(i like yelawolf but i don't find him that fascinating as dude)

i don't understand how all of a sudden bubba sparxxx levels yelawolf's music irrelevant

we have room in our lives for hundreds of black rappers rapping about being poor black dudes but only room for one white rapper rapping about being a poor white dude

can't speak for anyone else but that wasn't at all what i was getting at

i was referring to m@tt's post

not that i really understand your POV either

it doesn't make him irrelevant, but i guess cuz there are so few i feel like that's gonna be the main gist of all the coverage...and a lot of it will act like bubba never happened

(again i LIKE yelawolf i think he makes good music and is good at rapping which i like)

xp i mean i understand it from the angle that it might hurt his ability to be successful, but artistically i don't

honestly i'm not hating at all, i just feel like i'm gonna have to read hella annoying non-rap outlet personality pieces about yelawolf basically

i feel like that's gonna be the main gist of all the coverage...and a lot of it will act like bubba never happened

well this isn't anything that yelawolf can control

well yeah probably xp

isn't it CRAZY, he'S WHITE and self defines as a REDNECK and but he LIKES RAP WHICH IS "BLACK" MUSIC what a paradox

i have room in my life for rappers whether they are black white green or purple

does yelawolf pass the delmar test?

yelawolf is a better and more entertaining rapper than bubba sparxxx

we have room in our lives for hundreds of black rappers rapping about being poor black dudes but only room for one white rapper rapping about being a poor white dude

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude havent i been criticizing big krit for the exact same topical genericism that has been done before cf country shit basically being nappy roots as far as subject matter??

yelawolf is a better and more entertaining rapper than bubba sparxxx

― based lord sotosyn (The Reverend), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:26 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ban the rev

xpost i prefer the eating pussy songs

― some dude, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

dude havent i been criticizing big krit for the exact same topical genericism that has been done before cf country shit basically being nappy roots as far as subject matter??

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:32 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i said i was referring to m@tt's post

well this isn't anything that yelawolf can control

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:36 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it seems like hes trying v hard to control how hes perceived that way imo

Confederate flags, I see u
on the truck with the windows down, why’s he playin Beanie Sigel?
cause his daddy was a dopeman
Lynrd Skynrd didn’t talk about movin’ keys of coke, man

bad example, this is one of the most natural verses on the trunk muzik mixtape. it's a visual observation followed by social one in just the way the mind works.

some of the other things feel a bit too deliberately signifying but are still dope imo -- fallin' off his dirt bike in cargo pants, pbr bottles -- tho i'm left cold by the dylan crossover whiney loves so much.

he lays it on with a trowel in "pop the trunk" -- momma choppin early mornin hog with a hatchet etc.; "this ain't a figment of imagination buddy, this is where i live, 'bama" -- but obv it works really well there with a whole southern gothic thing going on.

it seems like hes trying v hard to control how hes perceived that way imo

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:38 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

how else would he want to be perceived -- i mean he's supposed to, what, say "hey y'all i'm just some dude that raps. check me out!"

i mean if you believe that he's rapping about how he grew up & his life etc then what else do you want?

if that bores you than its just taste etc but otherwise you're arguing that he should distort his image & persona so he's less of who he is

i'm pretty sure dark days and deliverance are still dope btw xpost to rev

i mean he's supposed to, what, say "hey y'all i'm just some dude that raps. check me out!"

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 7:41 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i personally would strongly identify with music with that message

well that's nice, i hope you're able to buy 200,000 yelawolf albums

he's def got a super theatrical streak so his played-up persona doesn't really bother me

he's just a good rapper; ep is fun. i am not gonna overthink, need to save that for kanye

dude what were saying is that theres something forced-seeming about his 'just telling it how it is' storyline. i def dont think yelawolf is the only dude guilty of doing this, but sometimes rappers are trying hard to sound authentic & real & it comes across as kind of stagey

& i dont dislike dude or think hes the worst at this by any means! its just what keeps me from loving everything he does. & to be clear, its not about whether or not hes real -- its about whether his persona is performed in a way that suspends that question from my mind

but i think he is stagey and it works!

agreed.

re: bubba, i like but don't love deliverance, it's is pretty much half-great and half-ok, but i like it more for the production than for bubba. my problem with him is i find him kind of plainspoken to the point of boringness. like, it's good that dude is hella earnest when he's in that mode, but he seems to take little joy in words or in entertainment. and when he does do something more lighthearted, he seems kinda uninvested.

glad this thread is around cause i gave up on reading the kanye thread

but i think he is stagey and it works!

^^^^

Obv there will be critics who salivate over authenticity and the like but these critics are always wrong about everything and should not be allowed to ruin good music with their bs.

re: bubba, i like but don't love deliverance, it's is pretty much half-great and half-ok, but i like it more for the production than for bubba. my problem with him is i find him kind of plainspoken to the point of boringness. like, it's good that dude is hella earnest when he's in that mode, but he seems to take little joy in words or in entertainment. and when he does do something more lighthearted, he seems kinda uninvested.

― based lord sotosyn (The Reverend), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 7:14 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh man ... i think i look at this exactly oppositely of u!!