Hip hop strikes again

Jesus. The new Kanye West album is so bad that it is making my head ache. With the minor exception of “Stronger,” though I like that song significantly less than the “sampled” song, every song has terrible production… not to mention the abundance of terrible slant rhymes and downbeat fuck ups that permeate the whole project. Maybe my hatred is amplified by seeing him disputing a bill at Mercer Kitchen a few months ago. He was wearing a while, patent leather backpack -- yes... in the restaurant – which was bouncing hither and tither like it was full of newspaper wadding. Needless to say, while I guess I appreciate his thoughtful version of hip hop, he is just a fucking hack as an emcee.

I pair this today with the return album of Talib Kweli. My hip hop experience in the last few (2?) years (I am sure there are exceptions which you can feel free to posit) has been centered about all my older albums. My love for them – and I thus connect my like of hip hop – has not faltered in the slightest. Not so with every new artist and album I am hearing… I exclude the producers, mashers, etc., from this criticism, but L’il Wayne? People whose names came and went the first time I heard their one hit song? Same old some old tired shit, epitomized by toddler-weight backpack man above. However, the Kweli album below is a breath of fresh air. While certainly not perfect, it is reminiscent (if not entirely derivative) of the Black Star, Reflection Eternal era Kweli, and I just really enjoyed listening to it for the first time. It almost saved my shitty mood… almost.

DOWNLOAD BOTH HERE