NEW AMERYKAH, POLL 1 (4th World War)

if i heard a remix that only added some pitch shifted talking over the top, i would be like "hey that's a pretty lame remix"

and yet this track ends up being really really great, so go figure

Judging "Amerykahn Promise" against the original, as opposed to for it's function in the context of this album is a willful fool's errand.

i know what you guys are saying here, i mean i like lil wayne's version of "shooter" way more than the robin thicke original, and that uses the original track in its entirety. but in this case it's not really an improvement imo, and i like the original better.

And most of the rest of us on this thread disagree, and that is what makes this world a beautiful place.

you guys are weirdos. the song isnt better as a throwaway intro track

i dont even like the ramp album that much and im kinda in the 'overrated' camp (i actually prefer that 12" that was just reissued this/last? year to pretty much any of the songs on the album) but she just jacked the song wholesale and stuck it at the front of her album w/ talking over it. its not a 'remix'

you know whats really great? that remix of the wildstyle theme at the beginning of illmatic ^__^

i hate the fact i have to sit through georgia annes shite to get through to the (infinitely better) second part of master teachers each time.

Need to revisit the whole album--looking back it seems like I felt it was 2/3 fantastic, 1/3 filler, and just when it would get going perfect (like "The Healer,") it seems like it would meander greatly. . . and the RAMP cover would've been a stronger opening without all the talk over it. 'Mama's Gun' is certainly a top 5 or 10 album of the 2000s for me; seems like if there'd been no Part 1 and Part 2 for this, but just the strongest work from both, this album might have been top 10, too. As a loving tribute to J-D, though, it's beautiful even as is.

the ramp cover is not a cover, it is the ramp song.

ie without the talk over it, would've been another artist's cut from another album

also there is no filler on this album, to my ears, tho the mileage can and obviously does vary

also georgia anne ROCKS

i hate the fact i have to sit through georgia annes shite to get through to the (infinitely better) second part of master teachers each time.

I hate that I have to hit skip about 3-minutes into "Master Teacher." Oh well.

first part of master teacher VERSUS even better sly stone groove second part of master teacher would be a better poll.

does anyone hating the ramp track ever listen to those ghostface records where he pushes play and raps on top? how do you live with yourselves?

The second half of "Master Teacher" sounds a lot like an auto-accompaniment setting on this Casio I used to have. (NB: This is awesome.)

didn't she record some of the album on garageband, appara?

I've heard that she wrote a lot of it on Garageband (like, as demos), but I don't know how much of that made it onto the album proper.

quite a bit of it, id say. a lot of it has that slightly headphone masterpiece-y, getting these ideas down and not bothering to change them afterwards feel to it.

saying 'filler' feels very wrong. you can say songs you dont like or whatever but when a project is so self-aware + 'artiste'-ish "filler" just feels like the totally wrong word to indicate what you're trying to say here. "I need to fill up this album to be released from my record contract!"??? really?

yeah..."filler" is a pretty abstract concept in general, but when you're talking about an album that's the first in a series of 2 or 3 albums that the artist made in the same timeframe, it's an even more amorphous idea.

does anyone hating the ramp track ever listen to those ghostface records where he pushes play and raps on top? how do you live with yourselves?

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― schlump, Monday, January 5, 2009 9:05 AM Bookmark

I keep wondering this. As for the "filler" charges, the album is FAR FAR MORE than the sum of its parts. Each song greatly effects the context of the others and this goes for the weaker songs as well as for the stronger. Also, those you don't like part 1 of "Master Teacher" are utter raving lunatics.

erykah's pitch-shifted voices don't add anywhere near as much as a ghostface rap

Yes they do. It sets up the whole album, and is pretty damn funny to boot.

I always skip the intro but I don't hate it; I just always want to start out on "The Healer".

(then usually I skip back to the beginning of "The Healer" and listen to it again)

^this (rev). they still make me smile/loosen me up/get me ready for the record even now

"does anyone hating the ramp track ever listen to those ghostface records where he pushes play and raps on top? how do you live with yourselves?"

i hate those too actually, although i prefer erykahs song more, just cos its still a great song. but soul and hip hop have diff rules. its not even the same thing actually - erykah isnt singing over the vocals of the ramp song like ghostface was, just the instrumental parts.

Okay, now you've gone from RONG (opinion-wise) to RONG (factually). She does talk over the vocals from the RAMP song.

Also, neither soul or hiphop have rules.

first track is really my favourite because of the impact on first listen and yeah it's the most FUN(k) thing on this

^^^

Some people on this thread sound like:

I refuse to accept recontexualisation.

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― Geir Hongro, Monday, October 6, 2008 8:33 AM Bookmark

I like every last thing on this album. If I denigrate the second half of "Master Teacher," it's only to counteract the bizarre anti-first-half sentiment.

ok i cant remember right now if she talks over the original vocals or not. either way, that song just felt a bit 'hammy' (despite being one of my fave songs on the album, flaws and all, just cos its so fierce and as said above, FUNKY). sort of like the neosoul equivalent of a tarantino film. its amazing live though. she should have done it with the band on the record. the reason i said rules is cos neo soul artists always pride themselves on continuing in the tradition of the greats, but i dont really equate singing over old funk/soul loops as being in that tradition. but then i remember erykahs been singing over loops since the first album, as have several other, so, hey, that little bug bear of mine doesnt really mean much.

the 1st half of master teacher is fine, i like the woozy loop, but the second half is divine.

Yes, the first half has a bizarre half-dreamy, half-clumsy lope that I love.

I don't think (m)any people here are saying that track 1 sucks, just that it being heavily sample-based makes it harder to call it a "song" rather than an "intro," or at least not one of the best songs or a favorite.

georgia anne still sucks though lol. i like the fact that theres someone singing so fucking weirdly, just not the actual singing.

dudes it's not like i don't get sampling/recontextualization, come on. i just think it's a really lazy track and i wish she would have done more to make it her own.

xp

I have no problem with that. I more or less regard it as an intro myself, but DAMN WHAT AN INTRO. xxp

Georgia Anne rox u r all gay.

The effort isn't the point, the point is that it does what it does, which is set the record off in tremendous fashion.

okay. maybe i will just kick off my next album off with a prince track.

That would be awesome!

if you can make it that funny and enjoyable then GLHF! xp

Blatant reducto ad absurdium.

Reductio ad absurdum, rather. lol malapropism

(now i'm just being a dick, sorry)

xp

not any more reductionist than comparing me to geir because i don't like this particular track

fair enough

i disagree but calling something the neosoul equivalent of a tarantino film deserves an otm. it just has to be applied to something else first. and i was having trouble believing anyone could really summon any hatred for master teacher pt 2. part one is great. it pops up on that jank random record someone mentioned here a while back.

i never knew the first song was ramp, but it's funny, because i always used to think it was a good example of something new drawing on old stuff without being too indebted. like it's obviously some kinda drells sly stone groove track, but it didn't seem too reverent or retro. maybe it's because of everything on top.