While this Danny album is very good, I can't bring myself to care for it that much right now.

The Weeknd - STARBOY video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na4j8AVgA

Finally grabbed that Feature Magnetic.. its not like all time great or anything but definitely a solid Kool Keith-esque record. I am glad to have some new hip hop even if not from a "new" artist.. Indeed aside from Earl and MC Tree I don't think I have ANY new artists records, just plenty of "new" stuff from all the same artists I have been listening to since the 1990s.. I philosophically am not sure how to feel about this, am I trapped as an anachronism or is it all good since its still technically "new" music?

Ironically most of "ebonics" is not a "bastardization" of English at all, its just a regional accent with some aspects of a regional dialect. In particular, "nigga" is NOT a different word than "nigger" its simply pronouncing it with a Southern drawl and twang. However, in modern context it has become a different word in casual use, nigger is still a racist pejorative, nigga has become a term of endearments of sorts and in general a generic pronoun.

With a lot of "ebonics" its just an accented English, however there are some regional dialect rules added in some instances. Its still "English" and in no way "bastardized" just different.

Also I speak and read an African language, nothing similar to Ebonics at all.

Most new acts of the last 5 years do not release albums.

Remember when "ebonics" was called "jive?"

i think jive is different, jive was built way more on a sophisticated system of slang, inuendo, and entendre. Ebonics again is more or less a dialect with an accent

I think ... we'll, I think you should listen to what you want to listen to. Personally, I think I'd kinda die a little if I stopped buying new music. It's a big part of my life, finding the best stuff out there (in my opinion) each year, so I can't really speak to your way of doing things. But certainly there's nothing wrong with listening to what makes your brain feel good and saying fuck it to everything else.

Now, I do think it's important to at least keep an ear open for new things. If you just listened to the same stuff because you refused to give anything new the time of day, that would be kind of sad. Still totally acceptable, but I wouldn't really encourage it.

I don't think you do that though. I think you check stuff out and it usually doesn't do much for you, so you stick with the stuff you know you like. And that's totally fine.

What bothers me is when people say "there's no good (rock, rap, electronic, whatever) out there" and then they ignore any recommendations people give them, and continue to just act as though the world is somehow less dead and lifeless now than it was in the '90s. That irks me.

I am glad you like Feature Magnetic. And no, it's not a revolutionary album at all, but it's solid and it gets the job done better than a lot of what's out there.

I do wish you'd dive into ScHoolboy Q's new album a bit. I think there's a lot ther that you would like. Same goes for Isaiah Rashad's The Sun's Tirade. Good fresh albums, both. And they contain plenty of the elements of the hip hop you seem to like.
But I'm honestly not sure if you've really even tried Kendrick yet. Which would really be a shame.

remember i don't ignore new shit, i check it out, and i just don't like it

Yeah I know, that's why I said I didn't think it was a big deal in your case.

But for the record, how much play have you given Kendrick and Schoolboy? Have you ever, like, listened to good kid mAAd city or To Pimp a Butterfly all the way through? Maybe you've already talked about this but I forget.

Based on your taste in hip hop (gangsta rap and philosophical shit like Killah Priest), it seems like you'd absolutely devour Kendrick. There's nothing about his music that I didn't think you would like.

New Solange and Bon Iver albums are incredible.

I have to say, I am pretty disturbed by the quickness of your turnaround on this one. I was just about to buy the thing based on your first post, then I read this and hesitated. Again, it must be an age thing, because I can't even fathom how someone can possibly form an opinion of something so quickly, and then form another opinion a few hours later. I didn't not the timestamps from your posts, but is it even mathematically possible that you listenedbto the album more than once?

I listened to a couple tracks and they sounded damn good but maybe a bit too spastic and intense for my current mindset.

It is a very good album like I said I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot later, but there's just so much music out right now. Get on that Solange ASAP.

So... Kanye West. Caught him live. Been holding off on talking about it because I wanted to process the experience (it was a hell of an experience), but you know me... my misguidedly over-analytical thinking tends to get cyclical as hell, sometimes even preventing me from saying anything on the indented subject, as my head starts to putter and I lose interest in what I'm thinking about (see my never finished top 50 albums of 2014... and 2015 for that matter).

BUT... it was an extremely good show, and I have at least a few thoughts I can safely share.

• The crowd was unbelievable. It was so diverse.. MUCH moreso than I expected. There were a lot of college age kids, but also a huge number of 30- and 49-somethings. There were some "thug" types and some frat types, but there were also some obvious punk and goth types.
There was a very noticeable representation of queer culture. Boys and girls, young and not so young, holding hands openly, which my girlfriend and I both found very heartwarming. We were one of several "old" couples, and we sat between two other couples that were about our age. It was great! To see all these different people come together, black, white, gay, straight, Asian, Latino. And it was one of the most "cool" crowds I've ever seen at a big show. There were no fights, no overly zealous drunkards hollering insults at people, no bullying, no flaring tempers. Just a really positive group.

• Kanye was on a floating stage, but somehow it wasn't corny or cheesy. He steppped onto the thing and did the show almost completely by himself. There was some synth and guitar and DJ accompaniment from a soundstage, but really he was bearing the weight of the show. As far as I could tell, he stayed on that stage for an hour and a half before it dropped him right onto the floor.

• the visuals were AMAZING but very sparse and minimal. Lights lined the stage, and smoke was pumped out in varying amounts, making the color and atmosphere of the show change a bit from song to song. There were actually TWO floating stages. In addition to the one Ye Was on, there was a MUCH larger one. There were a couple short "breaks" during which the larger stage would shift and turn and slide apart, with some crazy 2001: A Space Odyssey - reminiscent ominous grace. Like leviathans, shifting and transforming with some REALLY heady synth music playing. It sounds over the top, but t was fucking extraordinary, and very tasteful.

- The stage pumped out orange light for most of the show, switching to grey/white for some songs like "Only one," and changing to a hellish red for MBDTF songs.
- FADE was one of the show-stoppers. That song has gained a lot of traction with fans since that video dropped, and it's finally getting recognition as more than just a short closing track, but an absolute masterwork of engineering, representing some of Kanye's most intense work to date.
When FADE played, just before the end, the lighting changed up completely and the place when BLACK. Then a line of red laser lights shot straight from the front of the arena to the back, and Kanye moved through them, just a shadow interrupting these blazing lights. It was really fucking something.

• It was LOUD. Some of the nuances of the music were a bit lost in the sheer volume of it all. Holy fuck but it was loud as hell.

• Highlights: "Runaway," "Blood on the Leaves," "Fade," "Ultralight Beam," "Stronger," "Heartless," "Famous," and "Father Stretch my hands" 1 and 2, which were the opening songs. He performed extended versions of both, and it was awesome. He played ALMOST everything I wanted him to play, but there was no "Robocop" or "Gone" and there was no "Real friends" or "Bound 2"... oh well.

We had great seats. Worth it.

I haven't been to a big concert like this in a long time, but it was definitely one of the best arena shows I've ever seen. Dog tired the next day. Getting a bit long in the tooth for late night drive, exhausting shows, and working the next morning. But I wouldn't have missed it.

More thoughts later perhaps, though I'm sure nobody cares.

Also - he was charming and coherent and said nothing crazy or offensive. That was cool.

Amazing. :) I really hope I'll get to see him live again soon, with the floating stage and all. By the way, I still find TLOP to be Kanye's weakest and wish it wasn't so rushed and messy, but I've finally grown an appreciation for MOST of the songs on it.

YAY!!! Best news I've heard in a while.
I do understand, because it is messy. It's like he captured a bunch of disparate, emotionally charged moments and that's not his usual character at of doing things. He usually makes album-albums, focused more on cohesion and overall effect than on the individual parts.

But the white album comparison makes it work for me. White Album is my favorite Beatles album by far, and it's similarly component-focused. And, you know, Kanye never wants to repeat himself, so it's a new thing for him to make an album like this.

And, the more I listened to the album straight through the more it made sense in its sequence. Now it's hard to imagine anything else.

AND let me tell you, those songs REALLY come alive in concert. Father stretch my hands is so epic that the asshole line doesn't even really register. And Freestyle 4... man, he turned that thing into a straight up banger.

I love Kanye segues so well into that heavenly intro to Waves that the two are inseparable in my mind. He actually played that intro twice, to the delight of everyone.

Glad to hear you're liking it at least kind of... er whatever

I can finally hear the "gospel rap" sound he was going for on a lot of these songs. But then there are some straight bangers that have no business on an album like this. And I don't like the skits either. With some trimming it might've been on par with Yeezus for me.

I can't believe how much I love FACTS now. Man. That one KILLED live. I love it!

Both "Noisefield" and I did find ourselves wishing that we'd seen Kanye during he Graduation and 808's era. Just because the moments of, like, tenderness (only one) were so powerful, but kind of few and far between.
I'd love to see him play the whole 808's album. He's a fiery and energetic performer, but he's really good at the softer gentler stuff too.

But still, awesome awesome awesome. In my mind, perhaps the best show I've seen since my favorite Sonic Youth show.

And it was SO vindicating and liberating to be part of such a massive crowd of people who knew all the words to all of these songs. No haters, no bullshit. Just people loving the music, just like me. :)

I finally get what he was going for lyrically now too.. as you pointed out, he's always had absurd lines even back in the College Dropout days ("I always had a Ph.D.: a Pretty Huge Dick" could've easily made it to TLOP), but they were often blended with some other shit. This is the first album where he finally said "fuck it" to trying to appeal to the average listener and deliver a message, and just decided to be himself the whole way through without fear. Yeezus served as the bridge because it still had New Slaves. This album is basically a journey through Kanye's craziest/darkest thoughts.

Also, I think Kanye realized that when he simplifies his lyrics, it gives him more room to spaz out and do some crazy shit on a song, and while performing live too.