What Are You Listening To II: Whole Lotta Music

[Mustang]

Motorhead - Line in the Sand

I'm not into metal at all, but my goodness WWE/WCW has some good tunes back then. Makes me go down memory lane (4 horsemen theme is epic).

[Mustang]

NF
I don't know if any of you heard of him, and I didn't know he was from Michigan, but at the moment he got me about ready to get rid of the majority of the rap and r&b music with no content I used to listen to (even 90's - early 2000's) that's on my phone. The guy doesn't curse at all and he's putting all of his emotions into every song.

[RacattackForce]

So, back in the summer of 2018, Zach Callison (voice of Steven on Steven Universe) released an album called A Picture Perfect Hollywood Heartbreak. Finally got around to listening to it the other week, and I thought it was pretty good. It has a mid-2000s alt rock vibe in the vein of My Chemical Romance that I shamelessly enjoy, and is also host to this loose rock opera narrative that I feel flowed well enough. My favourite song is either She Don't Know or Interlude IV, the latter of which is admittedly more slam poetry than a full-on song. My least favourite, though it has started to grow on me after repeated listens, is War. It has a different feel than the rest of the album (feels less emo, for lack of a better in-the-moment descriptor), so it sticks out on the track list. It also happens to be the last track on the album, meaning the entire thing ends on a weak note. But like I said, I found it an enjoyable listening experience overall.

I've also been listening to the Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Season 1 OST while working on a soapstone sculpture for class.

[Avaitor]

I haven't done one of these in a while!

Dynfari- "3rd Door: Madness"

I've been listening to the albums that were meant to be played in full at this year's Roadburn Festival, and thus far this is a favorite of the ones that are new to me. It's a concept album melding the theories of author Patrick Rothfuss and poet Jóhann Sigurjónsson. While it gets close to meandering bullshit, what makes it work for me are the compositions. It's a similar blend of post rock's bitterness and black metal's beauty, into a one-of-a-kind sound.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Not exactly music, but I've been listening to Liam Gallagher interviews. He sounds like a complete dick, but he's fun to hear. Kinda like John Lydon. Even when John got old, and turned out to be a sellout, his interviews are always funny to watch.

[Mustang]

3 years and some change.

I haven't changed much from what I usually listen to (r&b, rap, gospel, jazz), but I have added a bit of rock into the rotation along with lo-fi. I wish I had given lo-fi a shot way back when Samurai Champloo first aired. I could've used it to try and go to sleep to. And then it just calms me down.

Now in terms of new folks in the industry. I've listened to some of these younger and up and coming rap artists. Without trying to be too harsh on them, the talent is there. Some of these 19-25 year olds can actually rap-rap. It's just too much street/gang culture involved and you can see it's becoming stagnant. This "Drill" music is out of hand and it can't be supported or marketed. They only got YouTube reactors going for them which is cool but at the same time, sad, because these YouTubers are condoning the music unintentionally. Like I said, some of them can actually rap-rap, but Drill is literally, going out and killing "ops", which is what the younger generation is rapping about and actually doing. Unless they change it up, they're in a no win situation.

I've also tried listening to Drake for the first time. Still don't like his music. I'm not one of those that listen for "bars" and lyrics like some of your hip hop heads. I'm more of a cadence, flow, and substance kinda guy. Sure, if you can actually do schemes, double/triple entendres that's a plus, but flow first for me. That being said, J.Cole and Kendrick has been added to the playlist.

Anyway, anymore music heads still around?

[Mustang]

Kendrick vs Drake

Just about everyone will tell you that we were witnessing history this past weekend when it comes to hip-hop. Personally, I'm not so sure. It could've been great had this whole concept of "receipts" not been brought into the picture. These idiotic fans made it no better because if any of what either is saying turns out to be true (Drake is a accused of being a pedo and Kendrick, a woman beater) could be career threatening (good riddance if true), but the fans were just egging it on. Luckily this didn't escalate as well, because of these allegations on both sides this could've turned left real quick.

That being said, I'm still not a fan of Drake and while I got Kendrick winning the overall battle, Drake did hold his own. I'll give him that. If this was kept within the music, meaning better bars, flow, making me have that stank face, etc, Kendrick no question.

One more thing I've noticed from the fans. They were treating this like Battle Rap, and that's a huge mistake. Battle Rap is a competition where people are paid (nowadays) to put on a show dissing the opponent. Beef is legitimate a back and forth between folks that don't like each other (and they clearly don't like each other). Nothings off limit in both, BUT things can escalate and turn left real quick with Beef. Tupac vs Biggie, 50 vs Ja/Game.

Was this battle needed? Not really, but it did get hip-hop a spark again. To me, neither be considered this generation GOAT, nor J.Cole. I'd probably give that title to someone like King Los or Cyhi the Prince, but both are past 40 so I can't call them this gen GOAT. Now if only we can get away from this Drill stuff.