Posted by We were blessed with an absolute trough of good music this week and for that reason I’m basically gonna skip an intro here and just let you dive into the tunes. We’re talking the new Big Sean song, Brockhampton’s Ginger, the Old Town Road rip-off you’re going to see everywhere soon, Kanye’s Sunday Service in Dayton, Ohio, what song was the song of the summer for 2019, and of course, the new T-Swizzle album.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
What’s Good?
“Berzerk” -Big Sean, A$AP Ferg, & Hit-Boy
I’ve enjoyed some of the singles that Big Sean has released since coming out of hiding in the past few months, but this might be my favorite. People forget that Sean can SPIT when he wants to. I think an upbeat song like this is where he really thrives. Songs like “I Don’t F*ck With You” and “Moves” are where his flow really takes off and finds a home and I think this Hit-Boy joint is a perfect platform for him to go in. He and A$AP Ferg are passing bars back and forth and having a great time. Really liking this track and excited to see that Sean’s still got some chops on him.
He debuted the song on the VMA’s last night (which we’ll get in to later), and then went straight to Funk Flex apparently to deliver us some FIRE freestyles over Young Thug, Cole and Travis Scott’s “The London” AND over Kanye’s “Through the Wire”. I mean, 2 incredible beats and he killed both of them. Makes me think his new album could really be something special.
“I Don’t Think I Can Do This Again” -Mura Masa feat. Clairo
This song is fresh. I’m a big fan of Mura Masa’s and think he blends EDM, with alternative and rap extremely well. “What If I Go?” and “Love$ick” are amazing songs, and he shows he’s still got it in this collab with rising star, Clairo.
I haven’t listened to Clairo but I can tell from this music video she’s a cool yet sad 17 year old who shops at Savers and dyes her own hair and I’m with it. These kind of artists always make me feel way too old but I usually like their music. I’m like sharing google docs with coworkers while she’s off playing with stray dogs in windmills and shit. Good for her. Cherish it Clair-bear. Cool song. Fun drop. I’m into it.
“People” -The 1975
Yup. I’m all in.
This is a surprising change of sound for the 1975 who has definitely experimented with different styles before. Their last album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships was incredible and also experimented with different sounds from their more tropical poppy dancehall “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” (yup, had to copy and paste that) to their more passionate 80’s alt-rock ballad “Love It If We Made It” they really showed they can master any genre they want and this song is no different.
Most 1975 fans I talked to about this song didn’t like it, which I understand, but I loved it. I think the best way to describe it is if someone poured a vat of gasoline on Love It If We Made It and took a flamethrower to it. The message of both songs is similar…the world is f*cked. While LIIWMI is more of a hopeful tune, “People” is telling people to literally WAKE UP. If we don’t do something we’re all going to end up dead. I think this especially hit home with the fires in the Amazon being in the news. The forest provides 20% of the world’s oxygen and is burning at a rate of a soccer field and a half PER MINUTE yet it took several days for the most powerful countries in the world to pledge a mere 20 million dollars to save it. To put that in perspective, a billion dollars was given to the Catholic Church when Notre Dame was on fire. And last time I checked, the Amazon Rainforest has never had a history of having sex with little boys.
What I’m sympathizing with is the band’s frustration in the complacency and intentional ignorance of people watching the world’s lungs literally collapse. I think it’s an important song, it gets me angry, and I think a little scream-o wake-up call is what a lot of us need right now.
Ginger -BROCKHAMPTON
Ok honestly I wrote most of this blog on tuesday and I’m revisiting on Wednesday to do this part and I just don’t have the energy to write too much about this. It’s good. In my opinion it might be the worst Brockhampton album but that’s not saying much. All of the Saturation albums are unbelievable and I liked the raw emotion of Iridescence. This album was still lingering on some of the emotions and themes of Iridescence which was kind of disappointing as I would’ve liked to see them go back to the bangers of their Saturation days like “Gold” and my favorite song of theirs “Boogie” but hey, still a good album for sure and worth listening to as they’re a creative and revolutionary group in the hip hop game. If you want to dip your toes in I’d listen to “Dearly Departed”, “No Halo”, “St. Percy”, and my favorite “Sugar”.
Eve -Rapsody
This is probably the most pleasantly surprised I’ve been by an album so far in 2019. I say that because I didn’t know who Rapsody was until about 3 days ago and this is one of my favorite rap albums of the year already.
The concept alone is very cool. Eve is in reference to the first woman from the bible and each track on this album is referencing one of Rapsody’s personal heroes. She hits everyone from Oprah to Serena Williams and each song has a little bit of a vibe that the figure gives off. For example, one of my favorite songs is “Michelle” that is a dancefloor magnet and an ode to women with “big ol’ butts”.
So we get these more fun songs that you can have a good time to, but you’ve also got some real high-brow mental tracks on this album too on songs like “Maya”, “Nina” and the J.Cole assisted “Sojourner”.
This song works so well because she comes off to me like the female J. Cole in a way. Some really awesome smart bars commenting on a lot of her own struggles and the systematic issues that would keep someone like her from succeeding. This album has such a cool concept, some awesome features (like J.I.D., GZA, and Queen Latifah), and the production is no joke some of the best I’ve heard all year. The beats are so reminiscent of the more soulful beats you’d hear in the 90s, and Rapsody’s conscious lyrics over them work beautifully. This is an automatic full-download for any rap fans.
Lover -Taylor Swift
Ever since “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was the first single from Red, I have been slowly piling more and more of a negative opinion of Taylor. I thought she was a sell-out when Red came out because the songs were too poppy. I then heard 1989 which followed the same trend of generic pop songs profiting off the nostalgic sounds of the 80s, and then of course Reputation an off-brand complete waste of an album directed at all of the “haters”. She crossed my king Kanye and I don’t think I would ever turn the tide in my feelings for her since that moment…and then this album came along.
It’s good. It’s a good time. Her best project as a whole since Fearless in my opinion. The wild part about this is that the singles were arguably the worst songs on the album. “Me!” was trash and she knew it. She literally removed the “Hey kids spelling is fun” line on the album version because it was so cringe-worthy. Then “You Need To Calm Down” came out and basically confirmed it was going to be another pandering album self-centered in the unrelatable world of Taylor. And while some of that still existed in this album, obviously, it was pretty damn enjoyable.
The album kicks off with “I Forgot That You Existed” which was a nice change of pace for her hater-directed songs. It wasn’t a hate song about the haters, which I think is what ruined Reputation and has plagued a lot of artists as they sky-rocketed to fame *cough* LOGIC *cough*, but this seemed like an actual place of acceptance all over a wicked fun bop of production.
And there’s a lot of other really fun cute songs on this album with songs like “Death By A Thousand Cuts” and “Paper Rings” that I LOVE.
Again, this is Taylor having fun but it seems more genuine than it has on any other album since the Fearless days. Even Shake It Off (which I admittedly like) seemed a little forced so this actually makes me smile and wanna dance in a genuine way. This is nicely balanced with more emotional songs like the title track “Lover” and “Soon You’ll Get Better” which features the Dixie Chicks and I was BEGGING for a full verse from them, but despite not getting one it’s still pretty dope.
The songs I’ve already mentioned were ones that have sounded like previous Taylor tracks, but the song that excited me most was “It’s Nice To Have Friend”. It’s totally different for her and I can’t even really put a finger on the genre. It’s got like steel drums over a humming that sounds like the Big Little Lies theme song? What I do know is that it’s a very cool song and one of the most experimental I think Taylor’s done in a long long time.
Are there songs that annoy me for regular T-Swift reasons on this album? Of course. Whenever Taylor is complaining about how hard her life is or being super unrelatable because of how rich and famous she is, it annoys me. Look at what you have AND what you’ve HAD since you were like 16 before whining about stuff please Taylor. I mean, according to Forbes, she made DOUBLE what BEYONCE made in 2019.
DOUBLE. BEYONCE. The woman who was in the LION KING which made like a billion dollars at the box office AND dropped an album coinciding with it AND was on tour with her husband Jay-Z who is another one of the most popular musicians of our generation. Taylor made MORE THAN DOUBLE that amount of money. That’s just such an astronomical amount of money that it puts a sour taste in my mouth when Taylor talks about her struggles with the “haters”. That’s all. The stuff I didn’t like is honestly probably mostly suppressed jealousy and repressed hatred from the Kanye incident, but moving on.
To finalize my thoughts on Taylor Swift’s Lover:
- Great Songs: “I Forgot That You Existed”, “Lover”, “Paper Rings”, “Soon You’ll Get Better”, “Cornelia Street” and “It’s Nice To Have A Friend”.
- Good Songs: “Cruel Summer”, “The Archer” and “Death By A Thousand Cuts”
- Ok songs: “The Man”, “False God”, “Afterglow”, “You Need To Calm Down”, “I Think He Knows” and “Daylight”
- Bad songs: “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince”, “London Boy”, and “Me!”
If I missed any just toss them in the OK category. 18 songs is too long and if she cut out the worst 5 songs it would’ve been an amazing album, but now it’s just really good. I’m a fan of it. Please don’t hate me for saying the few negative comments Swifties I am terrified of all of you.
Speaking of Swifties getting angry…
Kanye’s Sunday Service at Dayton, Ohio Looked Like One of His Best Yet
Ye has been chopping it UP lately at his Sunday Service’s and this week’s in Dayton, Ohio was no exception. He is taking soul samples and just absolutely cutting them up the way he would’ve back in the Dropout days. The first song in this is a dope house flip that I’m super into, the second sample is just GORGEOUS and I hope gets flipped into a track for Yandhi, and of course him finishing off with Family Feud is gas.
He came out to Dayton in order to support the victims and community surrounding the mass shooting that took place there a few weeks ago. Dave Chappelle is from Dayton and has always been good to the city and he and Kanye have a great relationship so them coming out to make a positive change in support of the fallen is just beautiful. Listen to Dave’s speech below and get the chills.
In a world where politicians are all tweeting at each other and everyone has way too big of an opinion on everything but never does anything about it, this is what I love to see. People who have massive platforms like Dave and Kanye going out to the community and trying to make an impact. An emotional one but also a physical one. I think with the way politics is going, this is what we need more of. People outside of politics using their power to positively connect with other people who are hurting. In the same way the 1975 got me heated, this made me hopeful.
Also, if anyone can send me a presumably much cheaper version of Kanye’s sunglasses in this video I’d greatly appreciate it. I’ve never wanted an accessory more in my life than I’ve wanted those.
I’m Unnecessarily Mad About This Blatant “Old Town Road” Rip-Off
I’ve seen this floating around twitter lately and it just makes me irrationally angry.
I don’t want to linger on this but it’s the most blatant rip-off of a song I’ve ever seen. What made “Old Town Road” popular? A goofier chorus, trap drums over a country beat, and a drop that was made to be used in Tik Tok videos. I think Lil Nas X did it first almost on accident and then he went on to make better music (check out his EP), but I think Yung Gravy here saw it slipping and decided to do the exact same thing to fill that void.
Yung Gravy isn’t bad necessarily. The beat for this song is actually really fun if you don’t compare it to anything, and same goes for his lyrics. Something just feels wrong about him being a white dude stealing this sound that Lil Nas X sort of made wildly popular so quickly. Like directly after he made this new hybrid genre song we get another one. But he’s also in this new weird group of white rappers that aren’t good enough at rapping to take it seriously but also aren’t funny enough to really do it in a funny way? Like he gave himself a funny name and he dresses funny but there’s nothing really funny about these songs rather than them having stupid lyrics. There’s no jokes they’re just stupid. People like Oliver Tree and bbno$ come to mind as other white artists who just aren’t funny or good but they base their music off social media fame and gimmicks to make money.
I just want them to pick a side honestly. Either be funny and double down on it like Tiny Meat Gang does, or actually try and be a good rapper and make good music like the road Rich Brian went down. If you think this was a stupid rant to make just read the title of this section again. I’m aware it’s not needed, but I had to get it out of my system.
Lizzo Brought A Giant Ass On Stage For Her VMAs Performance And It Absolutely Ruled
The VMAs as an award show is useless. No one cares about having a Video Music Award. Even if one of my friends from home had a Video Music Award I’d be like “aight weird brag man” as if he was talking about winning his track meet Senior year of high school.
It means nothing as far as clout goes, but it’s great to show off your live performance swag and concert abilities. And people BROUGH IT this year. The Jo Bros were live from the Stone Pony and brought the house down, Missy Elliot was given an achievement award and had a sick medley of songs, Taylor Swift performed “Lover” and it was awesome, but the real show stopper was the woman who has been absolutely owning 2019: Lizzo. Who brought a humungous ASS out on stage for her performance.
I get how basic it is saying Lizzo was the best but she truly was. She played her bangers, had wild stage presence, gave an absolutely LIT speech, and genuinely set the venue on FIRE. It was ELECTRIC. I loved it and despite my 23 years of completely despising myself for a split second I felt a lil morsel of self-love. Why? I think it’s because of “Truth Hurts”, the most feel-good banger we’ve gotten in a while. It absolutely OWNED my summer. Whenever I went to a bar and heard it I got hype and so did the crowd, and with summer winding down it got me thinking….was Truth Hurts the Song of the Summer?
I have 3 criteria for song of the summer:
1.) It’s a Fun Song √
2.) Everyone Knows It √
3.) It’s Peak Popularity Was During The Summer √
The only argument I can think against it is that it came out in 2017 but genuinely it didn’t pop off until the heat of the summer 2019. For that reason, I think “Truth Hurts” might be the Song of the Summer 2019. But in the spirit of debate, that makes me wonder about the question of the week.
What was the Song of the Summer 2019?
I think it’s Truth Hurts by Lizzo, and really can’t think of other contenders. So whoever you think deserves the title, let me know. Hit me up on Instagram, Twitter, and whatever else and let me know your thoughts.
As always, if you made it this far on this extremely long drawn out post I really appreciate it. And everyone who let me know they read last week with a fire emoji on IG or a text message you guys are the real MVP. This shit takes a lot out of me every week despite me loving doing it and seeing even the slightest reaction means the world. Thanks fam.
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