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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
hardly! Chance is cool, but MC Tree comes across as a more authentic "MC" than Chance, his is a bit too much "art rap" so it borders more on the Janelle Monae style of hip-hop, whereas MC Tree is totally, utterly, almost throw-back version of hip-hop. MC Tree reminds me totally of what would happened if the best of the 1980s rappers combined with the best of the 1990s rappers to form some kind of super-rap hybrid! Chance is cool, but MC Tree kills it in every way.
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I am totally with SuchFriends on this one. I think Chance is probably (definitely) the popular choice, but Tree made a better record this year. Acid Rap is great, but sounds so familiar. Tribe beats, graduation-era Ye sensibility, and an unapologetically "backpacker" approach, almost like Lootpack on ecstasy.
That's all fine and good, but we've already see this show. Many times. I think Tree challenges listeners in a major way. Not only is his voice almost intolerable at first, but with time you realize that he's remarkably versatile as a performer, with a range that spans from soul I street.
To me, Tree is almost like a Marvin Gaye figure. Socially conscious and "above" the darkness and violence of hood life, but definitely someone who has experienced the urban ghetto lifestyle. Chance sounds almost like a well-to- do hipster who can't speak to that particular experience. And unfortunately, this makes him sound oddly detached from his own genre. Almost disingenuous and unrealistic.
"What's better than trippin is bein in love"
Really, Chance? That's great that you've lived the kind of 20 year lifetime that would bring you to that concision, but you are talking shit. 90% of your fan base probably wishes they knew what the fuck you meant by that. I'm talking about high school kids who are entrenched in violence and drug culture; girls whose closest experience to "love" has been hesitantly consensual sex with older boys who terrify them into saying "yes;" and teenage street hustlers who sell drugs because its the only way they can bring money home to their families.
I'm officially in tirade mode now, I guess. I just think Chance is a shining example of what people can do when they have support and opportunity. Tree (MC TREE?) seems like a more realistic take on the "smart/bright/special" hoodlum, rising above the negativity in his surroundings, but still representing the demographic that he's speaking to.
Now, unfortunately, Neither artist had the best mixtape of the year. Nope. That went to Doley Bernays, who I don't think anyone else has commented on yet. Now that kid has seen shit. His tape will make you cry, even while making your chest vibrate with heady beats and stellar production. His stories sound painful real in a way that neither Tree's purposeful grit, nor Chance's prep-school sheen can match. Just in Case is a fucking street record, and it goes hard as hell.
I'm still working on my best of my best of the year lists. I hope it's not 2014 by the time I get them posted.