what exactly did Illmatic steal from Prince Paul? If anything I think of Paul's productions as this huge epic pieces patchworked with lots of guests and humor and skits and changing motifs... Illmatic is 9 songs, no skits, no guests... really simplified.

That's such an odd statement, I'm starting to think willful ignorance/trolling a la Sev.

You think that's all Prince Paul did? Dang, someone else needs to go study some hip hop history! ;)

 

hahaha, funny.

Meh. I've probably put more energy into publicly slamming Donald Trump in the past year than I jabrninto praising Kanye over the past four. Pretty cool t sure I hate Trump as much or more than anyone on this board (skim the Trump thread for months of proof).

But this has no impact on how I feel about his music. Doesn't change a thing, is not relevant.

No he's right. You're demonstrating what I can only describe as a fundamental lack of knowledge and understanding of what you're talking about. You're either doing it on purpose or you're clueless.

I assume he is trying to reference Stetsasonic... but...

Is that an actual Kanye quote? Because that's actually really cohesive for him. I think, as I've said before, that he's on the Autism disorder spectrum. He "communicates" extremely well through music, making songs and albums that come across as clearly as statements of intent. But he is openly obsessive and clearly impulsive and he's a synesthesiac with numerous social instabilities, so autism is not out of the picture by any means.

But ^ that's pretty good. Better than I would expect, and I expect a great deal from him.

Prince Paul did some cool work on the Gravediggaz album. of course early De La Soul.

does Illmatic have anything to do with Prince Paul. eh, not really.

Well, Prince Paul has done a lot over a long career. Gravediggaz, HBMS, De La... but I don't think there's any truth to the claim that Illmatic somehow is guilty of aping these or any of Paul's other projects.

I agree. If anything Illlmatic was born from Main Source, Tribe and Pete Rock. No idea where the Paul thing came from. Guess I dont know much about hip hop or that album...

Nonsense. I'm pretty sure you know more about '90s hip-hop and hip-hop as a whole than I do. And Illmatic? Forgetaboutit.

My tongue was firmly in cheek ;)

Midnight Marauders begat Illmatic which begat The Infamous... a holy trinity.

Yup. I see that.

Btw: in Time's person of the year issue, the editorial staff used the words "undeniable genius" to describe Kanye West (specifically "Famous," which made their top 10 songs of the year. :D

In fairness to rob, when I first heard Kanye's feature on "THat Part," I thought it was possibly the weakest feature he'd ever done.

But after listening to the Blank Face LP a bunch, it became clear that without the double dose of Kanye, it's nothing but an good but redundant beat and a lazy chorus. Kanye's frantic energy (especially at the end) makes it. And it's a standout track because of it. Nice to hear Kanye go absolutely rogue on a verse like that.

I don't know exactly my top ten hip-hop albums list is gonna go down for 2016. I know what's on top, and what's at no. 2, but after that I'm really not sure.

Revisiting Blank Face and Atrocity Exhibition and Black America Again to sort this shit out.

Pretty sure I'm close to having an all-genres list though.

Pitchfork didn't do a bad job on their top 10 this year. Obviously I would have preferred another choice for no. 1, but A Seat at the Table is definitely a great album. Pretty much everything in the top ten is pretty goddamn good.

I've come to realize Kodak Black is pretty fucking great. Definitely the best "newschool" rapper in terms of skill, lyrics and he has the best mixtape (Lil Big Pac). I enjoy his early Cash Money vibes a lot more than all the Uzi's and Yachty's of 2016.

His new vid "There He Go" got 7 million views in 7 days. And "Too Many Years" and "Can I" off Lil Big Pac blew up without promotion while he was in jail.

I like Lil Big Pac, but I'm not over the moon about it. It's a bit redundant vocally.

I agree that Kodak is WAY better than Yachty (who does ok on features but his full songs put me to fucking sleep), but I actually don't hate Lil Uzi Vert. :confused: He has made a few songs that I've liked this year.

ALL of these "new school" kids are making poor production choices. Their songs are all FILLED with yelps and triplets punctuated by WHOAH! or RAH! or BLAH! or YO! like the entire genre is just one giant Mike Will produced Gucci Mane track. Seriously. That is a PROBLEM for these new guys, and even some of the not so new ones. How can anyone be expected to listen to an hour of the same time signature and the same cadence chopped up at the same intervals by the same sounds?

This is why Chance and Kanye owned hip-hop's ass this year. I agree that the "gospel" elements on Coloring Book were VERY heavy-handed, and it's hard to listen to the whole thing, but it's clear Chance understands the value of sonic diversity and production that stands out from the crowd.
Pablo's MUCH more sonically varied than Coloring Book, and succeeds without being dragged down by the heaviness of its "gospel" sound of any singular theme loyalty.

These kids need to learn how to approach music as more than just an opportunity to peacock over someone's tired beat. Luckily Kanye and Tribe and Common and Danny are all still around to — hopefully — rub off on the kids a bit.

By the way I listened to some of 4 Your Eyez Only today.

You're right, it's really quite bad. Not Drake bad, but not good. It sounds like Cole has given up on trying to be Ye and is now determined to be the poor man's Kendrick. What's worse, Kendrick seems to like the guy, and I just saw something about that collar album between them still happening. Yuck. I do not want that. Kendrick has gone 4 for 4 with his albums (I'm counting untitled unmastered. an album). This would fuck his streak up.

Honestly, I think Born Sinner is better than this new one. At least that one was bouncy and you could hear BIG on it. ;)