Saturday, March 26, 2011

Swag Me Out

OFWGKTA
Decent, but kind of annoying.

Up

Tyler, the Creator; Domo Genesis & Hodgy Beats
pretty good, but gets weird at the end

Songs of the Day

Leather Head by Wolf Haley:  I find the beat to this track really interesting.  It's all trippy n shit... awesome.  But it's kind of unfortunate, beacuse the beat is pretty overbearing on this one - I can barely hear anything Wolf is saying.  What I do catch sounds pretty dope though, so I would call this a solid song.

Up by Tyler, the Creator, Domo Genesis & Hodgy Beats:  This song uses one of my favorite beats ("Up" by Wiz Khalifa), so I already have a kind of bias towards it.  Regardless, it's overall a pretty good drug song.  I feel like it's pretty uncommon to hear about ecstasy, coke and shrooms in  rap songs (especially with such young rappers...), but I found that they did it in an intriguing way for the most part.  I don't like the remix they did to the beat in the middle, it's weird and low grade.  That's kind of where the song kind of goes downhill.  Not to say that it gets bad, but it just gets strange lyrically.  Hmmm... Solid song up til 3:43.

Swag Me Out:  OFWGKTA appropriately ended their mixtape with a collective song.  It's kind of catchy, but it's also kind of obnoxious.  It sounds like this is, for the most part, freestyle, but regardless, it's just kind of weird.  Too much rape shit again, not necessary.  The "oh"s also start to get irritating after the first verse.  Understandable ending to the mixtape, but not exactly the best.

Leather Head

Wolf Haley
dude's got swag.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Cool

Earl Sweatshirt & Mike G
best from Mike G, but worst from Earl

Oblivion

Tyler, the Creator
best of the day.

Alright

Hodgy Beats
eh.

Songs of the Day

Cool by Earl Sweatshirt & Mike G:  This again is a group of songs that really didn't do much for me.  This song's got a decent club beat, but I didn't think that either of these guys said anything that made me go "whoa."  Disappointing coming from Earl Sweatshirt, he'd had such a good rep til now!  Mike G was already pretty decent, steppin his game up a lil.  Decent.


Oblivion by Tyler, the Creator:  This is definitely the best song of the day, but it's not my favorite from Tyler, the Creator.  There's a lil too much rape imagery goin on in the beginning, which isn't exactly my taste.  Granted, this is just his persona, but still, I'm not tryna have that all up in my ears.  "I've ejaculated enough semen to sink a boat" hahahaha!  Not a new word play, but still creative.  I like how the beat on this one ("I Promise I Lied" by James Pants) and the way it evolves at the end.  Good.


Alright by Hodgy Beats:  Dig the"Kill Bill Vol. I" sample in the beginning!  Aside from that, and the cool beat, this song is lyrically kind of forgettable.  Maybe it's its short length, but I didn't find any lines particularly intriguing or exciting.  Eh.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Domo Genesis & Wolf Haley
oh hey there Mr. Wolf, nice ta meetcha

Round and Round

Hodgy Beats, Jasper & Mike G
dig the beat

Orange Juice

Earl Sweatshirt/Wolf Haley
on point.

Songs of the Day

Double Cheeseburger by Domo Genesis & Wolf Haley:  Well, this is an improvement from yesterday.  Domo proved to me that he does, in fact, have swag - congrats.  I wish this had been my introduction instead of "Salute."  But I must say that I was mainly focused on Wolf Haley on this track.  He's got a similar style to Tyler, the Creator, which I definitely dig.  His flow is really on point, really smooth transitions.  "That's why I traded R. Kelly my sister for a new hit" - woo!  So terrible, yet so, so awesome.  Solid.

Round and Round by Hodgy Beats, Jasper & Mike G:  This is the most commercial sounding song so far, and it's not in a bad way.  The beat is very much aimed towards the ladies, along with the lyrical content.  But are they talking about fat chicks the whole time?  Feeding a lady seems to be the main subject... well hey, big girls need love too.  I think my favorite part about this song is the beat, it distracts me from the fact that there's nothing particularly spectacular about the rhymes.


Ugly Girls:  This is just an interlude, and there isn't much to say about it aside from it's silly content.  Glad OFWGKTA thinks about all the ladies :)


Orange Juice by Earl Sweatshirt & Wolf Haley:  Along with Tyler, the Creator, these guys are my favorite rappers.  Dirty flow, older tone.  Maybe that's what I don't like about the others - you can hear their age in their voice.  Wolf kinda takes over on this track, and it really can only be explained with a listen, so.... do that.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Salute

Domo Genesis
decent, nothing special.

Everything That's Yours

Mike G
eh.

Blade

Earl Sweatshirt
I like him.

Songs of the Day

Salute by Domo Genesis:  Must say, can't say that I'm all that impressed with today's songs.  This one in particular - I dig the beat, but something about Domo's tone doesn't work for me.  I think he has a good flow, but there was nothing in particular that stood out to me, unlike the previous tracks.  It's a decent track, but there's no "wow" factor to it.

Everything That's Yours by Mike G:  I feel the same way about Mike G that a do about Domo.  Decent flow, but nothing special to it.  This is one of the longest songs and I didn't write down a single line in my notes that I thought stood out.  I really like the beat though, my kind of sample (didn't Wiz use this on K&O?)  But aside from that, I'm not feelin the swag all that much. 

Blade by Earl Sweatshirt:  Now Earl, I do not feel the same way about him - he's sick.  The whole first school section of this track is pretty awesome.  I really like his lyricism - he weaves everything together pretty seamlessly.  I don't get why this track is so short and "Everything That's Yours" was so long, definitely shoulda been the other way around.  Solid.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Splatter

Tyler, the Creator
This dude is insane.  I'm scared.

Songs of the Day

Splatter by Tyler, The Creator:  Ok, so Tyler the Creator knows what the fuck he's doing.  I'm not gonna lie, he kind of scares me... they all do, but it's the best kind of musical fear.  His voice matches the disturbing things he raps about, and only at 20.  Granted, I'm not a fan of a lot of his imagery, but in this case it's not about the picture he's painting, but how put it all together.  Kind of went insane over "let's consider me a little peacan that'll get your chest nutted on with an acorn/they swore that i was all fuckin nuts like a gay porn."  Whaaaat?  Ridiculous.  Ridiculously good.

Turnt Down by Hodgy Beats:  By now, I'm sure we've heard this beat ("All The Way Turnt Up" by Travis Porter) in just about every mix tape, but I dig what Hodgy Beats did with it.  Interesting that he came out the gate with a vocal effect, but it works.  My favorite line was "my minds in a race cause my time's in a hurry."  Solid track, but lacks a little following "Splatter."

Drop by Earl Sweatshirt:  I really dig Earl Sweatshirt's flow.  He's only 17!  Ridiculous.  He definitely raps harder than any 17 year-old I know.  His dark imagery, like Tyler's, is super disturbing, and pretty heavy for such a young MC, but he delivers it incredibly.  "Show me a rapper my age that say he nice as this/and I'll show you a f****t that say he hate Barbra Streisand flicks."  That is impressive.  On point.

Turnt Down

Hodgy Beats

Drop

Earl Sweatshirt
this fool is ridiculous.

Album Factoids

Radical


Released: May 17, 2010
Genre: Rap
Label: Self Released (mixtape)

Tyler the Creator, Hodgy Beats, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Mike G, Frank Ocean, left Brain, Syd, The Super 3, Jasper Dolphin, David Parker

Monday, March 21, 2011

Week 25: Odd Future

The end of this album will make me a quarter of the way through my goal!  Craziness.  Anyway, everybody and their mamas have been talking about OFWGKTA (which stands for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) and I think it's about time I fully checked them out.  What I've heard so far online, I really dig.  It's really raw and dirty.  This is the kind of mood I'm in, so I'm ready to dive in.

This Weeks Album...

I think it's time I see what the boys of OFWGKTA are all about

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Final Grade: A-

This album kicks ass.  I'm definitely a new member aboard the Portishead fan ship.  What I really like about this album is the fact that every song gets better with each listen.  They're all individual tracks, yet work great as an album, and isn't that the goal of any album?  Dig the trip-hop sound for sure.  This will probably be a CD I end up keeping in my car, it's definitely great cruisin music.  Great sound, I highly recommend checking Dummy out!