September 2007 Archives
Jay-Z's New DVD: Shockingly Good
There's plenty of chatter about Jay-Z's forthcoming American Gangster album. But there hasn't been much talk about the upcoming Eagle Rock production of The Making of Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, the latest addition to their stellar Classic Albums DVD series.
The episode is scheduled to air next week, October 3 or VH1, but I have an advance here (I wish I had some video to post — the above is an unrelated video Ski put on YouTube earlier this year) and needless to say it's incredible. With full involvement and original interviews from Jay, Irv Gotti, Ski, DJ Premier, Clark Kent, Foxy Bronw, Mary J. Blige and others, there's so much insight. Ski recreates "Dead Presidents" alongside Jay, Hov breaks down lyrics bar by bar, Irv Gotti pretends to know how to operate an MPC, Damon Dash dances a lot. It's a bit too literal at times — for "D'Evils" Jay quotes the song and then explains "'We used to fight for building blocks' — you know the little things you used to build with." Thanks for breaking that down, homie. Still seeing Ski and Jay or Premier and Jay sitting beside each other laughing, so proud of their work, is surprising considering talk of unspoken bad blood.
There's also unseen footage from '95/'96, live home video, early EPK stuff, footage from the 10th Anniversary concert at Radio City Music Hall, etc. — all dope and also surprising considering previous recipients of the Eagle Rock Classic Albums treatment include Phil Collins, Cream, Def Leppard, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and The Who. This is the first rap installment. Sorry to go all press release-y here, but this shocked me when I dropped it in — I'm not exactly sure why Def Jam didn't blow this out and make it a full-scale DVD release. It needs more exposure than it's going to get.
Mary J. Blige: Back Again
Mary J. Blige: "Just Fine"
from the forthcoming Growing Pains
This song feels like some shit my Mom might say.
Related: My Mom is cool.
Edit: Right audio up now.
OK, Maybe I Spoke Too Soon About will.i.am
will.i.am: "I Got It From My Mama (Remix)"
This Daft Punk-rap thing has to stop now. Thankfully, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter rejected the sample clearance of their "Around the World" for this remix. After will.i.am made this elaborate, seemingly Tron-inspired vid. Poor bastard.
will.i.am's Songs About Girls: The Best Sounding Album of the Year
will.i.am: "Over"
from Songs About Girls
will.i.am: "She's a Star"
from Songs About Girls
When will.i.am came to the office to play his Songs About Girls a few months back the small crew of staffers present were decidedly nonplussed by "Got It From My Mama" and "The Donque Song," maybe the two worst songs and future singles on the album. But there were tracks that captured our attention — "She's a Star," "Fantastic," the sweeping "Over." At times, some of the editors found ourselves looking at each other in shocked surprised that the man who graciously graced us with "My Humps" had such a deft songwriting hand, incorporating '80s R&B and '70s pop so easily into his glossy rap formula. Eventually will also wowed us with his grasp of the industry and I wrote a feature (one out of about 13 others floating in the journalistic vortex right now) about THE FUTURE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. The piece was fine and will knows what he's talking about and has ideas, a rarity right now. But I can't help but be more interested in the music than the message once again.
There are dashes of Thriller-era Michael, Hall & Oates, Guy, Steely Dan (I'm as surprised as you), Elton John and lots and lots of Timbaland here. The sunkissed harmonies on the chorus of "Over" from above is pure H&O, splashed with some Beatles-esque chord changes and an Electric Light Orchestra-style coda. "She's a Star," meanwhile, sounds like a case study in Timbaland inteprolation: The skittering rhythms, the swaying orchestra, the "O-oh!" on the hook. And it's beautiful. And now the web has begun talking about will's decision to lift M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Booka Shade's 2005 electrohouse anthem "Body Language" for the pulsing "Get Your Money" — on which will actually raps "Watch out boy, she'll chew you up." So add another overt influence to the mix. Say this about will: He's made choices indebted to good taste. Aside from the horrifically obvious "Mama," and some regularly questionable lyrics, this is a shockingly good album, sonically coherent, even challenging in places. Who da thunk it?
Blue In the Face
Jay-Z ft. Pharrell: "Blue Magic"
from the forthcoming American Gangster
Geekness: Kanye and Timbaland in the Studio
Stronger Revisited from Kanye West on Vimeo.
More please.
George Bush-ing The Button: Jay-Z's New Album
The other shoe dropped, just one day after Kanye West was allowed to be the most famous rapper in America with a still sort of staggering 957,000 albums sold in one week, when Jay-Z announced he'd be releasing his companion album "inspired by" the forthcoming Denzel Washington film American Gangster this fall. It's been just hours since the announcement and "cash-in" and "sell-out" and "4th quarter Hail Mary" are already floating around the web, critical catcalls at the ready in the wake of the fairly horrendous Kingdom Come, which Jay had the gall to call too "sophisticated" for some listeners in the piece. Thanks, man! Good lookin' on respecting your audience! Maybe next time we don't pander to the Monday Night Football crowd, k?
That said, from where I sit, just six weeks away from the proposed November 6 release date set to line up with the film's release, this feels like the inverse of Kingdom Come. It seems like even less people will buy this album, with less exposure and less hype. And by all accounts, by which I mean Jay's and Brian Fucking Grazer's (So glad Grazer gets to hear Jay's album before some people who knew who Jay was 5 years ago), this is an art record, fueled by Jay's understandable connection to the story of noted '70s drug kingpin Frank Lucas -- and may become a motivating factor in Jay's decision to come back to music full-time. If Jay does make an album that becomes acclaimed and beloved by fans, it's not likely it's going to be a mega-hit. Hard Knock Life is historically one of the the biggest winners in the sales category for Jay, but it's hardly as beloved as Reasonable Doubt.
Just a sidenote: Jay tells Billboard with regard to the Kanye/50 battle (which only happened 8 days ago, but feels like an eon):
"Artistry wins. If you're going to emulate something, then emulate art. Because you can emulate a record or a trend, but that doesn't win at the end of the day."
Like I said: Art.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
This is going to sound like hyperbole and needless boosterism no matter how you slice it, but if there is one thing I wish I could do right now, it's post the "Intro" to Soulja Boy's souljaboytellem.com, out in October.
My best description: A brief exchange between Mr. Collipark and Soulja Boy opens things.
Soulja Boy: What we gon do today Mr. Collipark?
Mr. Collipark: Same thing we do everyday Soulja Boy. Try and crank the world.
The following 53 seconds are syncopated "Ahhhh"s and "Yooooouh"s from "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)" chopped up, coupled with huge, booming bass hits and dashes of Collipark's post-bounce keyboards.
Then Soulja Boy shouts "From the Internet to mainstream!"
And closes with "Soulja Boy Tell 'em, the movement! You better get with it."
Ext. into "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)."
That's how you open a fucking album! Gotta love this kid. The Internet will eat us all alive.
I Wouldn't Want to Be Outside the Bubble on This One
50 Cent feat. Akon: "I'll Still Kill"
from Curtis
50 Cent feat. Diddy & Jay-Z: "I Get Money (Forbes 1,2,3 Billion Dollar Remix)"
It's out of fashion to like anything about 50 Cent these days. He's allowed himself to be perceived purely as enemy, capitalistic bully and artless vampire; fair charges if myopic. The reason we buy it is because it's essentially what he's selling. In nearly every interview he's given he's been happy to bulldoze his way through the softball questions about last week's showdown and the larger questions about his musical career — does music matter to him anymore, will he continue to make it, if so why, etc. — with little insight and a hard-charging "I am the best" arrogance. His apparent "loss" (if you can call upwards of 600K albums sold in one week a loss) has revealed that devilish, cannibalistic impulse we have with stumbling celebrities, disinterested in the minutiae of fame, eager merely to watch them fall. The media, in some ways, appears ready to declare America done with 50 Cent as a cultural force.
Still, despite all the vilifying there is a strange moment on the absolutely entertaining Forbes 1,2,3, Billion Dollar Remix of "I Get Money." After 50 finishes his second verse he announces Jay-Z's verse with "Fuck wit 'em Jay" and at that point you sort of realize, "Oh yeah, Jay laid a verse for this song. He doesn't hate 50 — maybe they're even friends." Sure, it's good business to get on the remix of the best New York rap record in years, but 50 still had to pull it off, getting Diddy and Jay to record their verses. Diddy is obviously game for anything. He must be thrilled to be wedged in between these two. But getting Jay took more clout, perhaps more than we remember 50 having now that he is an insta-memory of the 2003-2007 half-decade of glittering gangsta-pop decadence. Some want this to be a turning point of sorts. A time when the only rappers selling product are thoughtful veteran MCs like Common, UGK and Kanye.
But the Forbes Remix, which exists almost strictly as event, made me want to hear Curtis again. And while an "event" is a dubious honor, it did reveal "I'll Still Kill" to me. The violent Akon-featured song won't be a single but it is easily my favorite Curtis song, after "I Get Money," which directly follows it. It's a stark reminder that before the onstage teenage humping, the Verizon sponsorship dropping, the horrible love songs, the pop success, etc. — Akon was a cold motherfucker exuding an intensity that matched his musicality. 50, in many ways, is his sonic equal: Calculating, precise, endlessly listenable, vicious if in the mood. And sure, there's no "Baltimore Love Thing" or "Get In My Car" or "Ryder Music" or "Hate It Our Love It" on Curtis. And he's about to be outsold by 212,000 copies. And his artists hate him. And America wants him to fail. But is 50 Cent really the enemy? Listen to Curtis again and ask yourself the same question.
For Clipse Nerds
Clipse: "Flashing Lights (Benzi Refix)"
Old verses tacked onto one of the year's best beats. Not mad. Thanks to DJ Benzi.
T.I. Did Himself a Favor...
T.I. feat. Ciara: "Goodbye My Dear"
...by not releasing this self-produced ballad. Ooph. Tip came to the office to play T.I. vs. T.I.P. for the VIBE staff while he was finishing the recording process. Without pulling the knives out, I'll say people weren't feeling this one — some even vocally expressed their distaste during the session, which is not par for the course during those sorts of things. Ciara sounds tinny but sweet here, T.I., um, less so. Unsurprisingly it didn't make the final cut.
Slim Thug Isn't Growing
Slim Thug: "Theme Song (Hoggs on da Grind)"
from the forthcoming Boss of All Bosses
I Am More Than Happy To Overreact About The VMAs
I know you're drowning in recaps, reconsiderations and rectitudinals (not a word) about last night's (One and Only! but not really) airing of MTV's Video Music Awards in HOLYSHITWE'RENOTKIDDINGTHEREARESLOTMACHINESHERE Las Vegas. And still, I write these words, because I'm compelled.
*I'd be remiss not to start with the Britney Spears debacle, already the hottest talking point on street corners and alleyways at 2:14 am in New York City. It bears mentioning that "Toxic" -- Britney's artistic (?) high watermark -- came out less than four years ago. I mean, I know we're all moving very fast these days and can't tell our Soulja Boys from our Aunt Jackies, and in four years people change their jobs, spouses and sexuality without a blink. But, boy, what a sad, soul-crushing moment we saw as Britney lifelessly writhed and heartlessly swiveled to her new sorta-OK, maybe good single "Gimme More." On what looked like a combo of Quaaludes and Vicodin, Britney was zonked for her entire performance letting men grab her breasts (smashed together in a lousy, sequined bra) and ass (hanging out of a similarly unflattering undergarment), allowing MTV to shoot her profile tight on her stomach, which -- not to be crass and raise the stakes on the fucked female image in this country, but let's be real -- was not taut. At all. She looked like a girl from Louisiana who hadn't graduated high school and dropped out two babies before 25. So there's that. I feel bad about even recalling this moment.
*I think Sarah Silverman is great, even saw her do a very early version of the set that ended up in Jesus is Magic at Joe's Pub when I was still in high school. And she's great at putting bulletholes in famous people's heads to their face. But what exactly is MTV doing allowing her to do such a thing? Her 5-minute quasi-routine made no sense in hindsight. She showed up, insulted Paris Hilton, meekly joked around 50 Cent and cracked about diarrhea. Mean and funny and a nice change of pace from the Britney joy-punch, but I'm not sure what that was about.
*I'm generally suspicious of Mark Ronson and all he does. Something seems robotic and unenthusiastic about his reaction to his minor fame, despite the fact almost no one knows, exactly, what he does. Still, the set-up for the show, wherein he played the segues (on guitar) in and out of the broadcast with the Dap Kings was generally a hit. Completely unknown but talented guys like Wale and Daniel Merriweather got to be famous for a minute, Adam Levine got to sound and look weirdly Jagger-ian during a short song with the crew and Akon performed the first-ever not-horrible version of "Smack That," thanks to a new live arrangement. In reality, Ronson was more "maestro" than Timbaland, who was granted that phony title. And he got some huge looks for songs from his own 2007 album, Version.
*I don't give a damn about any of the awards handed out or any of the acceptance speeches. They were all uninteresting and meaningless. Except the time when Justin Timberlake, in a pit of central casting flesh, wearing the smile of a man who has it all completely figured out, urged MTV to "play more videos." Cute thought. Then they ran a promo for the new Tila Tequila bi-sexual dating reality show that featured hair-pulling women, fist-throwing dudes and a bikini clad MySpace phenom. Not sure I need to see a fucking JT video if that show is gonna be on, just for the record. And as an aside, all of the the-sky-is-falling-at-MTV chatter is sorta funny to me. MTV, like Saturday Night Live and Hot 97 and in some cases this web site's magazine among other namebrand titans of "youth culture" always feel a step behind or out of touch inevitably because they are. It's a conscious move. If these brands were faster than you and cooler than you they couldn't be popular to everyone. I think the New York Times knows this, though I'm not sure why they keep fanning the MTV-is-burning flame.
**Real talk: I never really liked "Umbrella."
*The decision to merge performances in the suites, like Cee-Lo/Foo Fighters duetting on "Darling Nikki," the Fall Out Boy/Gym Class Heroes/Ne-Yo rendition of "Clothes Off," Rihanna and FOB's "Shut Up and Drive," Serj and Foos on "Holiday in Cambodia" and others was actually pretty interesting and often good. Too bad we got it in about 38 second intervals.
*The whole suites concept was a mess, poorly-lit and disorganized. You also couldn't get much of a feel for how great those suites are. The Maloofs are smart guys and The Palms is pretty much perfect. This show didn't do much to show that.
**During the pre-show John Norris looked like Tom Cruise in Interview With the Vampire. Just putting that out there.
*Chris Brown: Keep doing you. I wish he hadn't reverted back to the MJ stuff near the end, because it's getting to the point where he needs his own moment if he's going to be the mega-star we're all really hoping he's gonna be, but until then, that dude can dance his face off.
*Dr. Dre's very random, markedly underdressed, bizarrely unexciting (and muscular) cameo at night's end was one of two things: The start of a real return for Dre wherein he starts showing up on new songs, drops a single and Detox shows up on the schedule. Or, it's a desperate grab by a guy who realizes it's been nigh a half-decade since he meant anything to young music fans and is suddenly irrelevant to 14-years-old in Atlanta, Miami, Tuscaloosa and elsewhere.Dre looks like he's aged quite a bit in that decade. He also looks like he shares a weight training program with Timbaland, who prior to Linkin's Park horrendous performance looked like he was going to go Bruce Banner our collective asses, Grey Hulk-style.
*Didn't it seem like there were only about 40 people in the audience sitting at neon tables? And among those 40 people were Diddy, Yung Joc and Kid Rock and Tommy Lee, who apparently punched each other out. This is great stuff and we saw none of it.
*Also in the pre-show, Lil Wayne destroyed Nicole Scherzinger's "Whatever U Like" with a typically weird, about-nothing-and-loving-it verse. During his 16 Nicole did her best to look seduced and intrigued by Wayne. I'm not certain she wasn't vomiting in her mouth the entire time. Also, that song needs help if Interscope wants her to rule the 4th quarter roost. Expect the Wayne remix leak any day now.
*Are Gym Class Heroes actually as famous as they appear to be? Furthermore, are Fall Out Boy as famous as they appear to be? I struggle with this.
*I haven't written much about Kanye West and 50 Cent because I'm generally bored by a completely fabricated feud between two guys working for the same company (Universal Music Group). Especially because both men are about to release the worst albums of their respective careers, 50 by a wide margin, Kanye less so, but still not wondrous. But West's performance of the obvious and terrific "Good Life" featuring T-Pain (who is God, in case you haven't heard), running up and down the suite stairs, mugging to the camera, the audience, the strategically-positioned models and the viewers at home (and, ahem, well-placed publicists), was legitimately the only time all night I thought to myself "That looks like a lot of fun, I wish I was there." Incredible, considering the whole thing took place in a casino filled with beautiful women and rappers.
"The Way I Are" is jamming. Even more jamming with a lazer-light show.
*About that Alicia Keys performance: I already wrote about "No One," which at first felt like Janis Joplin, then a blues song, then Stevie Wonder and now, after a friend pointed it out, an early Bob Marley/ska ode -- it's a terrific song, really one of my absolute favorite things of the year. It feels not of this time and not in a forced way either. Alicia is a little too "respectable" to be doing her soul sister act for teenagers who don't give a shit on MTV, but that was a helluva performance. As does most every person that works in our office, I mess with George Michael (pause, yeah, whatever) and that riff on "Freedom '90" was weirdly transforming for what had otherwise been a complete and utter shitshow of an event. She probably should've saved that (and the backup singers) for the Grammys.
*It's been about a decade we've all had with him and I can't decide if Jamie Foxx is a brilliant ad-libbing, party-owning genius or the lamest d-bag to roam a stage. Coin flip on that one.
*The Justin Timberlake-Nelly Furtado-Timbaland victory lap at night's end felt like a reasonable end to a bizarre show and a bad year for MTV and pop. Not musically, things have actually been pretty good, with loads of pop receiving critical acclaim, and in some cases, mega-sales. But as the channel weathers their all-The Hills, all-the-time tropical storm, the VMAs felt more desperate footnote than season-closing smash. Oh well, do you even remember what happened anyway?
Straight Shooter
R. Kelly: "Real Talk (Darkroom Productions Remix)"
This isn't new by any means, but I heard it for the first time today. As I played it in the office, almost everyone who walked by or heard it rumbling on my factory Apple speakers whipped their head around, wondering aloud if it was a new Kells song. It's not, the original "Real Talk" appeared on his Double Up from this year. This remix was commissioned by JIVE as the flip to the song's vinyl. The men behind it, Baltimore's Darkroom Productions, are best known as the production team that's done some work scoring for HBO's The Wire, adding some musical gravitas to a show that's already deeply thoughtful and nuanced.
This remix isn't really about nuance, though. It opens with a screwed Young Jeezy sample and a spacious, moody arrangement. This is probably the best vocal performance on the utterly ridiculous, just-OK Double Up — Kelly's stream-of-consciousness rap-singing sounds free-flowing and weirdly naturalistic. I love it. By giving him the space to let his singing breathe, mixed with the might of some hard snare snaps, Juan Donovan and Jamal Roberts have crafted one of the year's very best remixes.
Sheryl Crow is the New T-Pain
Yelawolf feat. Sheryl Crow: "Beer Buzz" (Produced by Jim Jonsin)
Producer Jim Jonsin, best known for work with Trina and Pitbull, is about to have a moment. And it may involve a white Alabama hillbilly-skateboard rapper named Yelawulf, a spacey Atlanta MC named B.O.B. and the white, metal-fashioned, pop-minded Jonsin's bizarre, unpredictable production. Brace yourselves.
I found this track, which inexplicably samples Sheryl Crow's once-ubiquitous "All I Wanna Do," on Jonsin's MySpace page and frankly I like it. Can Sheryl Crow get a royalty check? Where are the Jewel-David Banner collaborations? Shawn Colvin will come to your house and rob you if you don't holler about that "Sunny Came Home" interpolation. Mid-'90s gentle lady rock and Southern rap = the new "Party Like a Rock Star."
