Finally Rich - Chief Keef

the interview with donald glover a few months back was so awkward

if you read the comments its a lot of people saying keef is stupid and some people saying that donald glover is 'fake'. they dont mean he's not gangster, they mean something else, imo, and its part of the reason that interview was so awkward

who knows, i think taking youtube comments at that kind of value is dangerous, either way i was cringing through that whole interview, and you could tell glover was trying to spark some conversation

im explaining how keef's fans regard glover. i think they mean that glover was being disingenuous / making fun of him

ahh well it certainly did feel like that with the fart-as-lyric bit, even though i think it was meant to be a joke...

realized i posted this in the wrong thread but i think this album is actually p great & im even comin around on 'ballin'

It's interesting to me that the label meddling seems to have come strictly in the form of guest appearances but they didn't try to mess with his sound at all.

i don't sense any meddling at all aside from 50 & wiz being shoehorned into "hate being sober" and maybe the rick ross verse but that happens all the time... the rest of the guests (jeezy, french) are pretty sensible

'no tomorrow' was the big one but ive come around on that track in particular in a big way

mike will's stuff is so subtle sometimes. that bassline ~!

yeah i've come around to "no tomorrow" too

the keef interview bit at the beginning of "ballin'" is so awesome

the only tracks i dislike are "laughing to the bank" (actively skip it) and "got them bands" (too busy and repetitive makes for a headache)

laughin to the bank is classic for sure

yeah that's one of my favorite songs... i think it really works -- "got them bands" isn't very good

I always get the feeling that the call/response part No Tomorrow is ever so slightly out of sync. Like when you're mixing together two records and you're just a tad off. Can't seem to pinpoint where it actually happens, but it makes me woozy in the same way. I like the song though. The beat is great.

*of

There are a few minutes that don't work as well as others or that overstay their welcome, but I don't think anything here ever breaks the mood. That's an impressive feat.

Should this go here or that worst music writing thread?

Jim DeRogatis's take. UGH

oof

Of course, saying that carries the risk of being dismissed as clueless and chronically out of touch—a “rockist” (code for “racist”) who doesn’t understand hip-hop culture unless it’s of the positive (code for “boring,” “feel-good” and “phony”) variety that, as noted here before, previously characterized much of the rap music that brought the national spotlight to Chicago in the past, courtesy of artists such as Kanye, Common, Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco and Kid Sister.

i cant believe i wasn't feeling 'no tomorrow' at first. its quickly becoming one of my favorite tracks

also lmao @ calling gbe the 'bang brothers'

album is whatever

gonna predict 35k for first week

"no tomorrow" is great, but the whole thing is pretty hit and miss

i think it's funny that people complain that he's not on the beat on that song because that's my problem with EVERY song

like honestly i'm no lyrically lyrical rap snob but if you've got a simple straightforward style you better be in the fuckin pocket as a vocalist imo

i wonder if thats the appeal tho. Lil B raps like there's not even a song in headphones sometimes

rap game farrah abraham

i have a lot to say about this album but i don't want to spoil my review :-/

one thing that i think is interesting is that this album feels sort of like a landmark for me just from an influence perspective. like as basically the youngest dude in the game this album is essentially a stew of every major southern rapper of the last handful of years... wayne/gucci/soulja/waka/future etc. there's not even a trace of T.I. in here or anything... it's almost as if no other music exists besides post-ringtone rap. i think that's kind of great and i also think that keef emerges as some sort of singular pop monster machine but that's just imo.

i don't understand where "pop" keeps entering this equation, though. it doesn't seem like any of his singles are gonna go further than the modest peak of "i don't like."

well you can def tell this is a kid who grew up on 50 though does he count as pre-ringtone rap?

i don't really hear any 50, kinda wonder if that'd even occur to anyone if 50 didn't appear on the record and talk about keef in interviews

it doesn't seem like any of his singles are gonna go further than the modest peak of "i don't like."

― some dude, Tuesday, December 18, 2012 11:03 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i love "love sosa" is well on the way to becoming more ubiquitous than "i don't like" if it hasn't already

"hate being sober" is another huge pop moment

see people keep saying that about "hate being sober" as if it's already happened but until it actually does numbers it's just a prediction

i'm talking purely in terms of form... "i don't like" was a pop hit (sorta) but it wasn't a pop song. idk if "hate being sober" or w/e is gonna hit but that aims to be a pop song (or pop-rap) imo & i think that's true for a lot of the stuff here

i think you can trace 50's flow out of keef on stuff like "hate being sober" or "love sosa" but it's filtered through years of rap. wayne is more of a direct influence but with him it's also, like, his stoned autotune experiments as filtered thru soulja boy youtubes

It's true that he's often offbeat, but it only really bothers me on No Tomorrow because the beat is so woozy and when you get woozy vocals on top of that the whole thing nearly topples. I kinda like the double wooziness though. It feels brave in a way.

that's definitely one song where the beat kind of draws attention but also kinda works with it. bothers me much more on other tracks.

http://thequietus.com/articles/11011-chief-keef-finally-rich-review

why do they feel the need to review this ?

50 comparison to me is more overarching similarities & meta stuff than direct ->influence

he's definitely extremely rhythmically loose but i don't think 'off-beat' at all

such as? no parallels leap out at me aside from 'gangsta rapper who has definitely actually held a gun at some point in his life'. (xp)

i dont mean there's some great resonance to it or anything, but melodic rapper w/ great hooks bankrolled by interscope & whose career is based upon narrative/biography of authenticity etc

Quietus dude repping for the wiz verse on 'sober' was a lil' strange.

haha "is on interscope" how uncanny

haha "is on interscope" how uncanny

― some dude, Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:37 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jimmy iovine dropping serious $$$ on this sort of thing cant be a surprise right

not picking on spin cuz everyone's doing this but its weird to me how after years of no one noticing that rappers are talking about guns suddenly it bears mentioning in every keef post http://www.spin.com/articles/chief-keef-ftr-drama-go-video-nsfw

i hung w/ brainwasher last night & he said it seemed like they were rushing the release of the album b/c to him 'love sosa' was just starting to build, which feels right I think. this album coming out now is some kreayshawn-driven insecurity at some level. maybe a lil too worried that he wouldn't be able to follow up "i dont like" when they scheduled the release. keef isnt really doing promotion for it — he isnt doing any release parties and is already recording new material for his next album. meanwhile, i heard from a friend that 'love sosa' is being played constantly in atlanta right now

the other thing w/ the 50 cent parallel is — 'they like me i want em to love me like they love pac' would be keef's 'they like me i want em to love me like they love wayne'

idk i think there's some interesting parallels w/ keef & 50 although MUSICALLY i don't think there is much—jordan's theory about keef's recombination of influences seems otm to me

these days release dates don't seem to be as reliant on radio spins. although obv different kinds of artists/careers, kendrick and j. cole got their release dates and did good first week numbers and THEN the singles really rose up the charts. which used to be the standard, and is probably healthier in the long run.

i mean maybe CK will surprise me and move some units and get a serious radio-hit. all of his fame feels so media-driven on a national level, though, like he's definitely a big deal to certain kinds of rap fans but not really in the conversation at all for a lot of demographics.

talking about louie again?

haha