Ghost Voices, Gypsy Cabs & Cellphones

Hi. I'm Maxwell Cavaseno. When I'm not being a normal person and/or writing for NoJumper.com, I'm wasting everyone elses's time.

gunshotmeansfwd:

Castro - All Hallows

Prod. By Skywlkr of Bruiser Brigade fame.

In 2012, the former Castro Saint’s comeback was one of the highlights of Grime Nostalgia that had nothing to do with Grime Nostalgia. Acts from Flirta D to Ears to Hitman Hyper all returned to some relative success, capitalizing on the near-decade long existence of their legendary bars and sets on pirate radios such as Rinse, Deja, etc. But aside from a few MP3s, a shitty video of a freestyle, and the briefest snippet of a live set, what legacy did the Tottenham-based MC leave behind to come back to be welcomed with open arms?

So instead, the comeback was mounted. He started wearing a serial killer like mask to play up his seeming anonymous identity. He’d already been one of the first grime MCs to explicitly rap about cocaine, but now had a synth/trap-leaning sound to compliment it.

Over time however, the goals shifted… CAS now appeared to be evolving into a more post-internet artist, as songs ranged from anti-drug tales, to Curren$y-esque weed odes, to this… a horrorcore themed regular rap record. More and more, it’s not easy to qualify CAS as a grime artist the same way his early material fit, no matter how many old JME instrumentals he freestyles to.

The output of CAS hasn’t let me down yet in any way, so I can’t complain; but I can remark on the lost opportunity .. For producer Skywlkr has made a name for himself with Danny Brown for the ability to emulate the slinkiness of Dizzee Rascal’s take on grime, and Brown himself has been able to bridge the gap with Grime Producer Darq E Freaker into newfound territory… Appropriate, given Danny’s oft-cited Grime influences.

So why then, does CAS seem to be getting less and less ‘grimy’ as time goes on? Will it really benefit us to lose one of the best talents in a ever fluctuating scene to the ratrace of tumblrwave and meme rappers?

Timbaland Worship has now finally come full circle into the Rap Nostalgia World.

Should this producer help make Troy (“Powder!”) Ave turn into 50 Cent on “Ayo Technology” instead of 50 Cent on mixtapes a good decade too early, I will be content.

(Source: julianahuxtable, via julianahuxtable)

Over the last year, all the various Spaceghostpurrp fans who were once impressed by the sonically captivating though braindead efforts of our young protagonist, have suffered the saga known as “Raider Klan”. What started as one young man’s carving of an identity in a new rap climate driven by personas, characters, crews and traditions devolved into a pretty lame parody of 90s rap cults, be they G-Funk, Memphis, or Wu-Tang performed by a bunch of teenagers aspiring for rap status with a rebellious attitude and a loathing of the current mainstream. The problem was, that for every person like a Robb Bank$ who could demonstrate hints of promise, you had lunkheaded bores like Amber London, Denzel Curry and so on getting nowhere in particular that their idol SGP didn’t already repeat again and again for several mixtapes.

Such is the case of Ethelwulf. Not only is he bearer of one of the least intimidating names in rap, but with a body type and voice that seems reminiscent of video game 90’s rap parody OG Loc (I can’t be the only one who’s noticed this), Ethelwulf’s actual Memphis-native status strikes me in the fact that he has never joined up with actual Memphis veterans like producer/rapper J-Green did, but went straight for internet success. What’s more remarkable is that while his other crew associates all have some backgrounds rapping with other former trends (London’s Hypebeast-era and Metro Zu’s initial forrays as a slightly less evolved Lil’ B/Odd Future/Outkast hybrid) to my knowledge, Ethelwulf was the only member of Raider Klan who ever attempted regular generic trap rap besides Purrp’s initial Muney Jordan forrays.

More interesting enough is Ethel. During the Memphis Nostalgiafest on the internet of the last few years, many people forgot that the ones who made it out of the foray of those murky tapes were usually the ones with their own identity, characteristics, SOME scraps of individuality. Were that not the case, Project Pat never would’ve made his way out of the miasmic sludge of boredom that was the Kaze LP (The whole Memphis thing is dead by now, right guys? We can stop pretending Tommy Wright III albums are good?).

Take Ethel’s hook on this song. His partner, Eddy Baker offers very little unique qualities from his dozens and dozens of Raider Klan peers. Double-timed chops a la Lord Infamous, anodyne pimping/gangster bars, lazy references to Three Six Mafia and Lil’ B, he could really be anyone. Especially with his muted and unenthusiastic performance… When out of the blue, comes the hysterical coyote yelps of young Ethelwulf. To be entirely honest, I am not even sure if it’s good, but to hear someone in Raider Klan not lifelessly obsessed with copying a lifeless copy of DJ Paul’s lost mumbles from 20 years ago is endearing! Plus, the fact that someone in the Klan managed to break out of the mold and utilize a dumbed-down Spice-1 flow, thereby completely abandoning the double-time chop muck making everyone around him turn into a blob of flashy raps…

It’s not my favorite song of the year, and I’m still ridiculously unsatisfied from the Raiders whenever they pop up in my world. But it’s a start for one of them, should he ever decide he WANTS to be more than a costume. It’s his call.

(Source: gxldlife, via defenderofyourface)

As we proceed through 2012, it appears as if the Ca$h Out hysteria is one of those things that never was meant to be. Like it or not, his tape appears to have failed to provide another recognizable hit, his remix was not a serious event, but more of a capitalization opportunity for every bloodsucker in the industry. A shame too. Originally when he arrived, I considered him a derivative of Future, for people who didn’t like Future… But ‘lo and behold, I then remembered this gem.

“I Got It” is basically an excellent stunted ‘futuristic’ jam of Ca$h’s, also featuring the man with the worst name in rap, Young Thug. Thug and Ca$h are a very complimentary pair… trappers who specialize more in post-Futuristic swag-rap anthems, with both of them showing a penchant for hook writing. The big difference though is that Ca$h’s hooks are catchy in a sort of sing-a-long quality, has great adlibs, and zilch going on in his bars. Thugga, on the other hand, is ridiculously derivative of Lil’ Wayne in 2007-08, to the point you wonder if he still thinks Wayne is in jail. However, despite the constant modeling after Mr. Carter, he provides decent rapping, married to a penchant for startlingly weird autotuned crooning and yelping. A friend of mine once compared him to Future and Danny Brown and, well… IT ALMOST WORKS!

This gem, a 2010 banger, shows both Ca$h and Thug working to their best, sharing verses and hook duties with equal glee. Tragically, Ca$h appears to have “REMADE” this song by doing a new video where he lip-syncs to a half of the hook he does not sing (and involves him clearly calling out to Thug to finish it off), and replace Thug’s verse with another under-performing verse. More disappointingly, all collaborations the two may have done had one not done this appears to have ceased. A real shame, considering the chemistry these two ATL oddballs were demonstrating.

—

somanyshrimp:

andyhutchins:

tumblinerb:

Trouble - “Molly World” (Duct Tape, 2012)

This is good and all but when exactly did Trouble become Future? (He yoinked the dude’s mixtape title too!) I cannot approve of this rise in hip hop ecstasy use if it means that even the angriest rappers are going to start giving out hugs and shit. It was cool that time when Gunplay temporarily turned into Billy Ocean but this is too much. Soon there will be no rap left to listen to when we punch walls.

Gunplay turning into Billy Ocean was more than cool. This is a shark bite.

You guys are tripping, melodic autotune jams are di rigueur now. & Future may have mastered the craft but he sure didn’t invent it. I’m just glad this song is so well written & I doubt that Trouble’s entire album is gonna sound like this. He’s always had a well-rounded sound, a diversity of styles and approaches.

May we also not forget that Trouble was trying to sound like Drake at one point on his first tape (which he did rather successfully); this guy does these things beyond the meatheaded muscle-trapper corner people try to fence him into.

D'Angelo

—Ex To The Next

andgoawaywiththem:

maxwellmixtapes:

Ex To The Next - D’Angelo covering Gangstarr

Back when I was a kid, and MP3s were raining from the heavens like so many gems, and I was finally able to really start to learn about music, and what I liked, and disliked, covers were the most amazing thing in the world to me.

There is a falsified myth of sanctity about ‘originals’. Everyone in the world would like to believe that a band who writes their own songs is the greatest thing in the world, and no disrespect to those bands who are skilled song-smiths… but it’s a bit of bullshit. Songs are written, but then they become malleable, open to interpretation, and serve the needs of the user. Remember, back in the day, a song would be written, but few and far-between cared about the original songwriter and their enfeebled demos, preferring the ‘star’ and his dramatic reinterpretation. This is totally true in the right situation… No offense to Carole King fans, but if you’re trying to tell me the Tapestry version of “Will You Still Love Me, Tomorrow” trumps the original… Well, you’re dumb! Seriously though!

At the same time, you’re not. The whole point of the fact that these songs are malleable is that they are able to be reorganized in ways that maybe the listener DOES prefer the crusty acetate demos of legendary standards to the versions that people know and cherish. Maybe you actually think “Huh. Y’know, I like The Beatles’ version of “Hello, Mr. Postman” better than the original (The Carpenters version, for me personally, is the shit) or maybe you can actually get into beef with your parents and say that *insert newer apsiring band*’s cover of *insert long gone rock band of lore*’s *insert the song in question* is better. It doesn’t matter, no opinion’s wrong.

Covers, and all the mess involved served as a wonder for me, because there was so much to call into question. Was there some weird significance that both the aformentioned Beatles and Metallica had massive stockpiles of covers recorded, demonstrating just how far-fetched their influences reigned; (In the cases of The Beatles, their amazing understanding of the raw yet glistening pop of Early Motown. In Metallica, their almost encyclopedia-like documentation of obscure strains of British heavy metal that made even some of their peers look ignorant of their lineage)? Did simple vocal delivery or even intent send a song spiraling into a whole other direction (Keelhaul’s invitation of Matt Pike whilst covering The Melvins’ ‘Oven’, who’s stoner croon turned an already unusual burst of off-key metal into an even more deranged record. Or Nirvana taking both 70’s stoner rock and 80’s twee-pop and turning them into leaden arena rock jams)? And just how many versions of “Paint It Black” were too many?

Covers were excellent, in which they connected the dots and exposed me to so many bands I wouldn’t have ever investigated without their seemingly distant connections; German industrialists Einsturzende Neubauten changed Nancy Sinatra’s Lee Hazlewood duet “Sand” from kitsch 60’s stuff to sinister fantasies not unlike The Velvet Underground, and now full of accompanying horror noises to boot. Metalcore dorks turned space-rock dorks Cave-In made Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.” take flight and become a Beach Boys styled prog opus, before diving back into it’s crunchy riff-stew. And Mike Patton’s fantomas turned the theme song from ‘Cape Fear’ into a more gaudily malignant version of an already creepy classic of cinema soundtracks.

The point is, covers are amazing, so long as they make you rethink about the songs you like/love/hate.

(Source: maxwellmixtapes, via defenderofyourface)

Coming up: Lil Wayne

oneweekoneband:

Thank you, Daniella! That was quite something.

We’ll have our long-overdue return to hip-hop next week and take a look at “best rapper alive” Lil Wayne.

Taking you through this will be David Turner, who blogs about music on his tumblr and at So Many Shrimp.

See you tomorrow.

— Hendrik

*Polow Da Don Voice* OH SNAP!!!

occupiedterritories: Mike Watt, of legendary punk group Minutemen, just tweeted about K-pop. My brain is exploding! (For the record, it’s a RT, but everything after “I like the K-Pop Boy Group bands” is Watt.) I like how we ignore Raymond (EVERY FUCKING AMAZING BLACK FLAG TOUR POSTER, THE “GOO” COVER, etc.) Pettibon is into K-Pop. The world is… very different now.

occupiedterritories:

Mike Watt, of legendary punk group Minutemen, just tweeted about K-pop. My brain is exploding!

(For the record, it’s a RT, but everything after “I like the K-Pop Boy Group bands” is Watt.)

I like how we ignore Raymond (EVERY FUCKING AMAZING BLACK FLAG TOUR POSTER, THE “GOO” COVER, etc.) Pettibon is into K-Pop. The world is… very different now.

Gucci Mane

—Brick Fair feat Future (Produced by Zaytoven) (DatPiff Exclusive)

errrr-errrr:

robbatussin:

Brick Fair- Gucci Mane/Future.

Anyone who tells me this isn’t Future’s best verse ever is a damn liar.

Fukk a Mike Will; this song involves Future intricately bemoaning the fact that he has a friend who can kill people for him at whim, and seems to actually fiend for the prospect of murder so much that Future pays him ‘an extra 5’ to make sure he gets shot in the head. Future is actually conflicted that he’s earned the loyalty of people who lack empathy for other people’s suffering, but knows he has to ‘keep it real’ and still remain loyal to his friend.

Earlier in this year’s XXL Freshmen 10 Roundtable, Future described an analogy of two friends, riding bicycles together as kids. That they would live different lives, and go different places as people, but they would invariably still remain the people who were once friends who rode bicycles together as kids. Compared to Iggy Azalea’s rambling about Cotton Candy, French Montana’s Pseudo-Biggie King Of New York posturing, and Macklemore not deserving any sort of recognition he’s ever gotten in his damn life, it was a rather odd splash of philosophy; Hardly surprising when considering the Dungeon Family background he shares, but not as well considered when you view Future as a prankster/troll/idiot of Trap Rap, depending on your ability to understand and appreciate him. Because yeah, “Tony Montana” and “Same Damn Time” are obvious jokes as well as brags. In fact, if anything, Future might be more in the vein of Dipset’s Weird Al-esque hood absurdist mentality than any Dipset fan in the last 5 years.

If anyone’s paid attention to Atlanta recently, you know that DTE is a scum-sucking cancer who looks good because of their ability to extort travelers and bully the shit out of the futuristic movement. Let’s consider the fact, however, that the futuristic movement is made of mostly teenagers from middle-class homes. Yes, they occasionally claim things in their raps that they don’t have any experience with whatsoever, and that’s not something I am particularly fond of. But save Yung L.A.’s brief last bi-polar career failings before DTE went and made a household name for themselves by stomping a teenager into a couch, this is a movement of teen boys making songs for other teens. I don’t get how anyone doesn’t see Trouble hanging around Rich Kidz making gang signs in videos, only for the camera to turn to the Rich Kidz, all looking in terror at the presence of the man who’d had his first music video involving enough guns to raise a small army, and feel some sort of… conflict.

To me, Future has walked the tightrope between these two parties with class and elegance. Yes, he makes street anthems based on experiences he may or may not have gone through, involving illicit activities. But sometimes, he makes simple pop-songs that reveal a great instinct (and forget about “Pluto”, this guy has been making pop-style ballads since his “True Story” mixtape.) only limited by the strength of his singing abilities. And sometimes, he can even combine all of these at once to dazzling effect. Because Navyvadius Cash is one of the few rappers who actually doesn’t belong with any of his peers. He is too mature to belong with the hyper-active brats of the futuristic movement, yet he’s too ‘human’ to belong with the mechanical urge to violence of the post-Flockavelli trap world.

Oh, also, this is probably the flashiest amount of technique Future’s ever displayed in such a limited amount of time. And prior to this song, all of his collabs with Gucci weren’t really good.

For the record, I don’t know what the point is of me having a writing blog if I can’t remember to post elegant posts like this on it. But that’s life Snoopy.

(via defenderofyourface)