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(05/29/17 8:04pm)
It may be Memorial Day, but I'm convinced that Migos never rest so neither will I!
Following their SNL performance along side Katy Perry, World Of Wonder, the company who produces RuPaul's Drag Race and creates many drag queen interest pieces, published an article claiming that the members of Migos held up rehearsals after they refused to perform alongside drag queens. The story was picked up by several news, music, and LGBTQ+ blogs and sites and spread also like wildfire across Twitter. Fans were rightfully upset as this isolates their LGBTQ+ fans and is disappointing after they claimed that they "love all people" following iLoveMakonnen coming out earlier this year. However, the SNL story was quickly debunked as several drag queens who were featured in the story came forward saying that it was not true and representatives for both Migos and Katy Perry said that the story was misconstrued.
Mondays may be for Migos, but this Thursday was specifically for Takeoff as he released his first solo tune. Although the group said they are not breaking up, they announced they have no plans to end working on solo projects and Takeoff finally felt the need to begin his own. "Intruder" is a two minute long tune (Thursday, Takeoff, two... there is a lot of alliteration happening here that seems almost too good to be true) that serves as a crude warning that Takeoff is not afraid to defend himself with a firearm.
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In the midst of their tour with Future, Migos took Solange's spot at Boston Calling after she had to cancel due to unforeseen technical and production issues on Friday. Taking up this major festival set in the middle of their biggest tour yet proves that these boys don't know how to take a day off.
I also couldn't mention this tour without including this ICONIC video of the Cavs getting down to Future's classic "March Madness" during the tour's stop in Ohio this week.
(05/22/17 9:22pm)
This week in Migos history was messy and I'm only going to cover one part of it: Katy Perry trying to get right with our favorite boys and turn the trio into a quartet.
As mentioned on last week's edition of "Bad and Newsie", Katy Perry released a new single titled "Bon Apetit" that features all three members of Migos. The song is a subpar pop tune that is really carried by the rap verse, like most Katy Perry singles, with a video that had to turn Katy Perry into a literal meal to make anyone even halfway care which is pretty much as harmless as all other Top 40 songs. The issue arrises in the fact that Katy Perry now thinks she is the fourth member of the iconic rap trio... AND WE CANNOT LET THIS GO WITHOUT CRITICISM.
Saturday night Migos appeared as a guest during Katy Perry's "Saturday Night Live" performance. I'm going to include the video here, so anyone who is blessed and has not seen it yet will have to suffer like the rest of us.
My reaction to this performance is very similar to Migos' in the thumbnail: I'm not impressed. It's all very Miley Cyrus circa "23": the haircut, the horrible trendy dancing, and the unfortunate attempt to be down with hip hop culture.
Let's start with the haircut. I think this is the haircut that every young celebrity gets when they decide that they want to try to fit in with hip hop culture in a questionable manner. We've seen it before with Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Halsey. All I'm saying is that it's not a coincidence and I think that if we can all agree on one piece of legislation it is the national ban of this haircut.
I'm no Mikhail Baryshnikov, but I feel very comfortable saying that there have been few things more awkward this year than Katy Perry attempting to dance around while the trio rapped. Not only was it incredibly distracting, but the awful, offbeat slander of trendy dance moves was just plain sad. If someone could please text her and let her know that the dab has not been cool since 2015, I'd be really grateful.
And then we have the picture taken post performance that I'm including here:
(05/15/17 10:49pm)
It's Monday which means it is time to catch up on what those rascals in Migos have been up to this week!
The week started off strong with DJ Khaled's tune "I'm the One" featuring Migos' Quavo hit number 1 on the Billboard charts. This isn't a first for any member of Migos, but it was historic because it was Chance the Rapper's first number 1 single and it sparked rumors of a Migos breakup.
The internet goes insane every time that Quavo does something without the other two amigos, but after the release of his collaboration with Calvin Harris, "Slide", the success of "I'm the One", and Quavo's catchy, brand new release of "Paper Over Here" ... the internet has really been on a new level. Creating everything from the infamous mocking SpongeBob meme referring to Quavo being the most successful of the group to just straight arguments about if and when a break up will occur. However, these rumors have no truth behind them as Migos prepare to embark on their tour with Future as a trio.
Migos also released a new line of clothing (although I saw the long sleeve at Urban Outfitters two weeks ago so I'm not sure it's fair to call it new) on Wednesday. The all black line features a long sleeve, a hoodie, and a baseball cap that range from $30 to $98. These Tron inspired designs can be purchased at yungrichnation.com.
In a very weird collaboration, the boys wrapped up the week being featured in Katy Perry's new music video for her song "Bon Appetit". The meaning of the very suggestive song because obvious in the NSFW video where Katy Perry is being prepped like a five course meal and our favorite men throw money her way at the club... It's all just very weird to me.
(05/09/17 3:35am)
Raindrop. Drop top. These boys in Migos work non-stop.
There's no one in the entertainment industry right now working harder than Migos and it's often cumbersome to attempt to stay down with the culture and keep up with them. I'm here to do all the hard work for you and deliver you with a weekly dose of Migos for your Mondays.
Migos started off the week strong at the Met Gala in New York City last Monday. The Atlanta based trio actually made history by being the first rap group who has ever performed at the Met Gala as they performed alongside Katy Perry. Of course, it wouldn't be a Migos feature without them being extra and playing their own tune, so they then made every person over the age of forty very uncomfortable by getting incredibly turnt up to "Bad and Boujee" (which they performed in trench coats and was absolutely wild). The group also made red carpet history by showing up in matching Versace suits, draped in chains that included their matching "culture" chains. The historical part comes in when you look a little closer and realize that Quavo is wearing his Remy from Ratatoullie chain which is probably the first time a rat has ever been to the Met Gala.
(04/30/17 10:39pm)
5/7
Released 4/21/2017
You'd think by his third studio release Blackbear would realize that it's time to lay off the drugs and club girls, but he hasn't changed a bit... and I'm not mad about it. Heartbreak, drugs, sickness, and sadness make the perfect cocktail for the sadboy album of the summer.
The album title Digital Druglord is no joke. Every single song references some sort of mood altering substance and the girls using. Blackbear himself only seems to have two moods (though he has a whole song describing a multitude of two moods): sipping Hennessy and doing "enough lines to spell your first and last name" in a single sitting. Despite this heavy focus on substance abuse, and perhaps because the emotions this helps Blackbear explore, this album is an emotional and comprehensive release.
"hell is where i dreamt of u and woke up alone" opens up the album with Blackbear exploring what it's like to be in love with someone who no longer occupies your bed, as well as if his lifestyle that's fueled by this emptiness is going to kill him. This song is an outlier on the album, not in subject matter, but in tone. It's a very melodic and calming compared to what is to come.
Three minutes later, we finally get the first beat of the album with "moodz", and it's a punch in the face. The bass heavy drumbeats call for you to pay attention to Blackbear's struggle with being the kind of guy who says "sleep is for the weak", but also is "sleeping for a week". The rest of the album continues at this level of self-deprecation and back and forth between being sad that the woman he perhaps loved is gone and being happy that she is.
As if his prior two releases didn't give us enough insight into the type of girl who's ruining his life, Blackbear delves into who she is, and what he misses about her, in "i miss the old u". The ballad that wouldn't be out of place at any dance club in the country describes a very ungrateful girl who can only be viewed as "the more the baddie, the more the bratty". This becomes repetitive as we continue through the album to "do re mi": another dance ballad about moving on from the same ol' girl and onto "wish u the best" where he tells her that she won't ever do better than him (quite the ironic statement from someone who constantly talks about how much of a piece of shit he is, but I digress). The same theme occurs throughout the rest of the album, and at some point it does become tiresome. It gets old to hear about a guy being so hurt by the same type of person over and over again and looking to drugs and Hennessy to numb his pain, but I guess there's not much of a reason to listen to Blackbear if you can't relate.
The album does have two saving graces: Juicy J and "if i could i would feel nothing". Juicy J makes an appearance on a track aptly titled "juicy sweatsuits" and we're incredibly blessed for it. If there's any time that we need to have more Juicy J appearances, it's 2017. The world is better for Juicy J appearing on this track, because it goes from being another dance track with the same beat as the one before to being another dance track with the same beat as the one before WITH A SHORT JUICY J VERSE... You can't really complain about that. "if i could i would feel nothing" is by far the stand out track on the album. It's an incredibly raw track about the desire to silence your feelings and become completely numb to the world. We see this vulnerable part of Blackbear where, in a very rare instance, he acknowledges the fact that he is actually incredibly ill and death is knocking at his door and how that actually affects his life ("I'm so sick of being tired. I'm so tired of being sick"). It's not like seeing Blackbear's emotion is a rare thing, but this level of honesty is the kind that makes you say "oh shit" and think about what's really going on in this man's life and how the toll the women and the weed are really taking on him.
It wouldn't be a Blackbear album if it wasn't focused on sadness, bad bitches, and copious amounts of drugs in a way that made you feel like your booty should be shaking the entire time and Blackbear definitely delivers, yet again.
(04/28/17 3:16am)
Morgan Hunt sat down with New York Times best selling author and Twitter celebrity Shea Serrano to talk about his books, the power of having an army of followers on Twitter, and, of course, Kanye West.
[embed]https://soundcloud.com/user-564557051/shea-serrano-interview[/embed]
This interview was recorded on a cell phone. The audio quality may be fuzzy; it has been edited for clarity.
Morgan: So, The Rap Yearbook is a chronological best rap song of every year. How did that idea come about? Because there's nothing like that.
Shea Serrano: That actually wasn't my idea is the crazy part. I was working with this publisher called Abrams Books and we had done a book together previously. It was a rap coloring book, like a filthy little thing we just did and put together real fast. It ended up doing ok- you know, it didn't sell a ton of copies. But, it did enough where they wanted to do another book together. I didn't want to do another coloring book so I was trying to figure out something to write and an editor there, this woman named Samantha who is super smart and very insightful, had the idea for the book. It was her idea- one-hundred percent. She said "hey, you should do a book where you write about the most important song from every year and every chapter is just a different year and you focus on just that". I didn't want to do that. It sounded super boring to me when she told me because I was picturing, in my head, a straight-up textbook. So, I passed on it. I said "no, I don't want to do that". A month or two pass, and my wife and I decided we were going to try move into a house, we were living a town home at the time, so we needed the money. I called Samantha back and I was like "that was a pretty good idea you had". Once I started working on it is when I figured out it could be something cool. They agreed to make it full color, which is a big thing. They agreed to let me put all of the art in it. They basically said "just do what you want" and I said cool. They let me make it how I wanted to make it. But, yeah It was all Samantha's idea.
M: Oh, that's very cool. When you were choosing the songs for each year, was it a matter of personal opinion or did you look at charts? How did you choose those?
S: The way that we handled that is: for every year I put together a list of the fifteen biggest songs of the year, the fifteen songs that came out that year that were memorable. Then we would take each of those and try to distill it down into a one or two sentence blurb about why this song was important and once you do that you were able to see which songs were more important than the other ones. You look at something like "The Breaks", the 1980 Kurtis Blow song, and the blurb for that one I remember very clearly. It said "this was the first rap song to have a chorus in it" and all of the other ones said what they said, but they didn't hit that. Then every rap song, for the most part had a chorus in it, so that was the most important one. You just do that for every year, try to figure out which one figured out what happened after it and that's all it was. It wasn't super hard once we had the criteria set up. It wasn't a thing like "what was the best song" or "what song sold the most copies"... which lead and had forward thinking... That's what we were looking for.
M: Have you caught any flack for any of your choices?
S: I mean, yeah. People will mention things every once in awhile. It's gotten to the point now where who can say anything? If you called me right now and said "I'd like to argue with you about this song in your book", I'd be like "Cool... What are your credentials? Because I'm a New York Times Best Selling Author of this book so I know what I'm talking about and you're just a dude on Twitter who's angry at me". So yeah, every once in awhile I hear something, but for the most part, no. People will read the chapter, and they'll see the argument, and even if they don't agree they'll say "I see why you picked this song".
M: Before we move on, and are still on the topic of hip hop, I need to ask you two very important questions. First one is... Do you Drake is actually a good rapper?
S: Yeah, he's a fantastic rapper.
M: Interesting. And two, what do you think the best Kanye West album is?
S: I have a personal connection to Graduation, so I would pick that one. That's my favorite Kanye album. But the best, if we're just talking objectively the best, is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
M: Yeah, we're on the same page with that one. Actually, in middle school, my best friend had to carry Graduation around in his backpack because he didn't want to be away from it, so he had to carry it around with him.
S: *laughs*
M: It feels really weird and unconventional to be asking about a book that doesn't come out for another 6 months, but now you're working on Basketball And Other Things and that's where the interesting part about your Twitter comes in. There's a big push to get you X amount of presales, what's that number up to now?
S: I haven't checked recently. It's somewhere right around 8,000.. That's where it was last time. We usually do around a couple hundred a week if I'm pushing it, but I haven't been pushing it, so I'm guessing somewhere around 8,000.
M: Why do you think people are ordering so many copies in a world where people don't always reach for a book and digital books are becoming so popular?
S: Most of it is just that people are nice. They say "oh! I follow this guy on Twitter and he makes me laugh every once in a while, so if he has a book, let me buy the book". That's really all it is, because nobody has seen a thing. People have seen the cover, maybe, but beyond that nobody has read anything. Nobody knows if it's good or not. The only reason that they would be pre-ordering this, or buying this thing, is because they like me. That's the only reason anybody would do it right now.
M: I have seen the cover. How did you get to put a giant squid on the cover of your book about basketball?
S: The squid makes an appearance inside the book. He's part of a different piece of art. We knew we wanted to do the basketball game for the cover, and I knew I wanted to be representative of what the book is, so there should be a couple of things on there that make you think "why is this on here". That's all it is. I thought it looked cool.
M: No, it does look very cool. It's just very funny for a basketball book. So, you have this personal and twitter philosophy that has to do with basketball. It's "Shoot Your Shot". Can you explain to people who don't know what that means what "Shoot Your Shot" is?
S: That's just a thing that they say. It boils down to just trying to do the thing you want to do. Just try it. That's all that it means. People really like saying it, it's like a funny thing to say. I wish I had a better answer for you, but that's all it is.
M: So, now that I've brought up the FOH Army, when did that grow into what it is now?
S: That started when The Rap Yearbook was coming out. Someone who follows me gave it the name FOH Army after we started causing a little trouble on the internet. We crashed one store's website and sold out the rest of the book. Somebody gave it the name and then we just started using it anytime I was talking about a group of people who were hanging out on Twitter. It's grown the same way that the writing career has grown: it's grown slowly. It's gotten a little more serious recently. We started doing more charity and donation situations. But, that started when the book was coming out, in October of 2015, and it's just gotten stronger ever since then.
M: You brought up the charity thing, that's incredible. How did that begin? Did people come to you with things they want to rally around or are they more just things that are personal to you?
S: For the most part, they have been personal to me. The way that the charity thing started was that Arthur and I were doing the newsletter, Basketball and Other Things. I was in between writing at Grantland and writing at The Ringer, I was just kind of doing my own thing. So, we're doing the newsletter and we're offering it for free and somebody along the way mentioned that they wanted to pay for it. "Let me send you a dollar or 5 dollars". It just started happening more and more often. They kept prying, so finally after like 4 or 5 newsletters I posted a link in there and said "Okay, if you want to send me some money, if you want to donate to the newsletter: send it here and Arthur and I are going to spend it". We did that and people sent in several thousand dollars.
M: Oh my gosh!
S: Oh, it was crazy. This was over the course of 2 hours that a few thousand bucks came in. So, I turned the thing off and we just took that money. I didn't want to spend it, because I didn't need it. I was collecting a check because I had a job. So, we took that money and we donated it to a women's shelter where when Arthur was younger he and his family lived for awhile. That place was meaningful for him, so we took that money and donated it there. We didn't tell anyone that we were doing that ahead of time so we just said "haha, look what we did with your money" and that's how it started. We did it again after that for a Meals on Wheels type thing for kids that's in Houston. We did it again around thanksgiving and bought a bunch of turkeys for people. That's how it started. It's just grown since then. They get a little bigger each time. The last one we did was for Planned Parenthood. It was like twelve thousand bucks we donated which was cool. I got a special email from the president of Planned Parenthood. They just get a little bigger every time.
M: That's really awesome. You don't really think of Twitter as a platform where people are able to give back, so that's really cool. Aside from being an author and a writer and a Twitter celebrity, I suppose, you're also a parent. I just want to throw it out there that I think your next move should be a parenting book solely because of your tweet about when your kids brought home the recorder and you said you were going to teach them to play a Future song, which I think is incredible. Do your kids color exclusively in your rapper coloring book?
S: No, they don't care about it. They don't care about and are not impressed by any of the stuff I do. It's just like whatever. We were at a bookstore when the rap book came out and I was like "hey, look, they've got my book up on the shelf" and the boys were just like "who fucking cares? I wanna go home".
M: I guess we can go ahead and wrap this up with one last question: what are you listening to right now?
S: The Kendrick album that just came out.
M: Yeah, we didn't get the second part to that. There was that rumor about the second part that was supposed to come out Sunday.
S: That was just you young people being selfish and not appreciating the one thing you got. You're just looking for more.
M: I guess that's true.
S: Yeah, I was hoping for that. I'm always just hoping for new Kendrick music, but that's what I'm listening to right now.
(03/07/17 2:36am)
Back in June, I made my first adult decision and adopted a dog. Little did I know that I was also adopting a music critic fit for Billboard Magazine. Dee, or Deezy as she's been nicknamed since her love for music surfaced, has a unique taste in music and honestly after the hour she hosted during the WIUX Pledge-a-thon, we all need to take her opinions seriously.
Her very favorite song in the world is just an ironic choice. Dee can't help but to wag and "smile" every time Drake's "Child's Play" comes on. She'll chase you around and jump up to try to get you to dance while questioning why his girl likes to fight at restaurants famous for their delicious dessert.
Dee, like every girl who's ever dated any men who'd never take off from work, gets emotional when "Runaway" by Kanye West comes on. She spends day in and day out with me, so she's listened to a lot of Kanye and she's made it very clear that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is her favorite Ye album. However, "Runaway" really gets her into her feels. Dee will always stare out a window, droop her head, and stare and contemplate why her baby's dad ran away for the entirety of the song (even the 9 minute version).
Unsurprisingly, Dee is a huge Mac Demarco fan. Somethin about those gap teeth really draws her in. On any given night you can find us dancing in the kitchen to "My Kind of Woman" while dinner is cooking.
Dee is not a fan of all music though. Dee hates Joy Division, The Smiths, and T-Pain. It's quite unfortunate, but it's something we have to deal with, and we will work through together. She also hates country music which is incredibly ironic for a dog that is from Liberty, IN, but it's not as big of an issue as hating T-Pain.
Here's a playlist of Dee the Dog's favorite tunes:
(01/24/17 3:29am)
It’s only the third week of 2017, but I’m comfortable going on the record and calling Young Thug’s “Wyclef Jean” video the best video of the year.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9L3j-lVLwk[/embed]
However, it’s probably not even fair to call it Thugger’s video.
If you haven’t seen “Wyclef Jean”, the premise is simple. Young Thug contacted Pomp&Clout about directing his music video and sent them an audio clip of himself discussing his video with his team. Ryan Staake brought Thugger’s vision of bad bitches and Power Wheels only to have the star never show to any of the shoots. The only footage that features the star is a short clip that he shot himself featuring a private jet and Cheetos.
The way the video was handled after this is absolutely iconic. Rather than trashing the video, Staake takes it upon himself to use the money he was commissioned and the tune to tell the story of how his shoot fell apart using the b-roll shots he was able to shoot, paired with visuals of where he would have put Thugger if he ever showed up… and it’s far better than it would have been if the shoots had actually taken place.
There is something so simply hilarious about this concept. The viewer never once sees Staake get angry or frustrated with the situation (although in an interview with Pigeons and Planes he admits that he was). You solely get to watch what was supposed to be a very simple, yet epic, video go up in flames, which is ironic since Saake mentions that lighting the budget on fire was his original video concept.
Saake sprinkles in simple, dry humor throughout the video too. There’s a spot where he points out a bat that is bending in the air, only to let us know that the bat was rubber and bats in fact do not bend like that. He tells us that the cute little kid cop was flown in from Mississippi on Young Thug’s dime, but that we should watch out for the actual cops that tried to shut down the shoot late in the video. Saake even includes footage that a behind the scenes crew from Vice filmed: a simple blank screen with the title “label rep screaming” going across it. He also points out that he was asked to take out a scene where girls were wearing leashes and pulling along Thugger in his Power Wheels vehicle because of “impressionable children." The humor in this lies not in the fact that it causes you to imagine some kid riding on his school bus, in a fake Bape hoodie and fake Yeezys, with “Jeffery” uploaded onto his iPhone: it’s quite an image. What I think is that it’s so genius that while Saake could have thrown the video away, or pieced together b-roll to make a very boring video, he used simple humor to create a piece of art. This video is an actual entertaining music video, and one of the few of the past decade that has actually held my attention and I see myself revisiting again and again.
In a world of visual albums and high production videos, “Wyclef Jean” is the breath of fresh air we’ve been craving. There’s quality production in this video, but unlike any Beyonce video, it’s not trying to portray a bigger message. It’s so simple and that’s what makes it so iconic. It’s easily more entertaining that Kanye West’s “Fade” and Drake’s “Hotline Bling." There hasn’t been a video like it, and it’s just what the industry has been in need of.
In conclusion, if “Wyclef Jean” doesn’t win every video of the year award then we know the system is rigged.
(08/01/16 8:48pm)
There are a few things in this world that make me nostalgic for my glory days as a moody, yet helplessly romantic young teen. Among them are Warped Tour, rubber bracelets with band names printed on them, and any song from my Myspace playlist. Friday, all three came together when I saw a post celebrating the 8th anniversary of the release of the nevershoutnever! (known as Never Shout Never since the end of the Myspace era) EP, The Yippee. Memories of shrieking at the top of my lungs at the sight of Christofer Drew in a Boy Scout button down, my high school boyfriends sending me NSN lyrics in numerous attempts to win my affection and be cute, and trying to learn the ukulele so I could play “Trouble” all came rushing back to me. While anyone who was into the Warped Tour scene knew NSN, they were so much more to me and my best friend while we were navigating through the most awkward points of our lives thus far. Driving up the coast of California with this same best friend last week--while screaming the lyrics to NSN’s greatest hits--I realized how important these songs were to me then, and the relevance they have in my life now, though I hate to admit it. The first four songs I stumbled upon on Myspace, and that still find their way onto my playlists from time to time are from The Yippee because they’re still catchy and relevant. So, for the 8th anniversary of The Yippee, I am going to summarize the entire EP in eight sentences (two sentences for each tune).
“heregoesnothin”
An absolute bop that will cause you to bounce around your room every time it comes up on your playlist that is titled “2009 Warped Tour” that you listen to sometimes when you’re getting ready for work. The lyrics are extremely reminiscent of my first high school relationship because he was annoying and I was bored and naïve.
“Bigcitydreams”
Going through middle school, I always thought I would become the girl in this song when I moved out of the suburbs and headed for the big city. I think I still feel this way, and I still listen to it every time I land in NYC.
“Smelyalata”
This is a very sweet song to listen to when you’re breaking up or moving on from someone, and it will make you shake your booty when the beat drops. There’s also a line that seems like a sample from a System of a Down song which is really, super cool.
“dare4distance”
There is no argument that this is one of the best songs of 2008, as well as the best song from NSN’s discography. I listened to this song at least once a week during my freshman year when I felt like I may still have a crush on that really cute boy from high school who listened to my radio show once.
If you’ve never listened to The Yippee, then I don’t know where you were while we were all teasing our hair and shuffling our iPods between Bring Me The Horizon and nevershoutnever!. Whether you’re listening for the first time or the thousandth, there is no denying the catchiness of this EP. There’s a possibility that if you’re from the Midwest like Christofer Drew and me, you’ll relate to the lyrics even eight years later. You can still enjoy the jams even if you don’t…. and I suggest you do… no matter how lame it may seem to enjoy a band that got famous from Myspace.
(04/30/16 10:56pm)
With the hype surrounding "Slime Season 3", I knew a slew of reviews would be pouring onto the internet with many unique viewpoints. However, I also knew that one viewpoint and music taste would not be represented: midwestern parents. I recruited my two, wholesome parents to take on the task of reviewing Young Thug's new album.
My parents knew absolutely nothing about Young Thug. My dad's favorite band is the Foo Fighters and his favorite rapper is Snoop Dogg, so it's pretty obvious he had no idea about what he was about to get into. My mom, on the other hand, has attended a Childish Gambino concert and is relatively up to date on her Kanye from riding around in the car with me. So, I thought she'd be able to handle it a bit better.
I told my parents the bare minimum about Young Thug: he does have a pretty popular song on the radio called "Best Friend", he's known for his eccentric and gender bending style, and Elton John thinks he is the best rapper in the game. I set them up with Rap Genius on their phones so they could read along with the songs and we were ready to go.
First, I showed them the cover to get their reaction and let them know what Young Thug looked like. My parents were far from impressed. While my mom just stated bluntly that it was disgusting, my dad had a much more developed opinion. Steve could not comprehend what it had to do with the title or what artistic value there was in the gory photograph. After stating this opinion he followed it with: "What is Young Thug saying? I ain't got no damn eye? That's the dopiest album cover ever. Okay, now I'm being a smart ass."
We began the album with "With Them". Neither of my parents enjoyed it at all. My mom was extremely lost though she had the lyrics right in front of her face. "What???? It just doesn't make any sense. 'I just went hunting and found a rabbit' that makes literally no sense," Kim said. My dad looked up with an extremely concerned look on his face and said he didn't like it because it was very degrading to women.
Moving on to "Memo", Steve was still not enjoying it, and Kim was still no less confused. "I hate autotune, however 'I do my shopping at Fairy, no tooth' did make me laugh. Nonetheless, the autotune ruined it for me. Anyone can do autotune. Also, all he does is brag which is not very nice," Steve said. My mom was a little more hung up on the title rather than the lyrics: "I don't know. I didn't like it. It still just makes no sense. I mean do you think he's ever even written a memo".
"Drippin" garnered the most attention, interest, and questions from my lovely parents. Before the song even began my dad stated, "I don't think dripping means you just got out of the shower." After listening to the tune, they had much more to say. Steve found some humor in the song and became a true rap genius himself: "Six golds in my mouth like an Olde English can...have you ever seen an Olde English can, Morgan? They're all gold, so he's saying he's got a lot of gold in there. Also, if his dick is dripping that much, he may want to go see a doctor." Kim was left with one simple observation: "He sure likes the word 'dick' a lot."
"I'm just thinking about what I think 'Drippin' was about, so 'Slime Shit' is going to be very interesting," my dad said laughing as we switched to the next track. "Slime Shit" was a little more enjoyable for these tough critics, but they were left with questions still. "It had less autotune so it was a little better, not that I liked the lyrics or anything," Kim said, "But what is 'slime boogie'? That's like something you say to a toddler when they have a booger in their nose!".
Next up was "Digits" which made my dad question if Young Thug was looking for an endorsement from YSL since he shouts it out at the beginning of the song, but the rap genius in him quickly figured out that it was obviously an acronym for something else. My mom remained very confused by Young Thug's choice of slang: "Why is he talking about farting? That's just stupid. I don't think he put much thought into this song. I really didn't like this one. It was too repetitive."
"I know the song is called 'Worth It', but is it really going to be worth it?" Kim questioned as the next song begin. There really wasn't much commentary on this track as both my mom and dad found Young Thug to be very hard to understand. "I don't know if it was him or the autotune but he was just mumbling and whining and I didn't understand a word of it," Steve said.
"Tattoos" referenced several things my parents actually knew of which created quite the discussion in our living room. "'Boat life like Gilligan': is he really referencing a 60s sitcom? He also mentioned that he gets his weed from Snoop Dogg and I've never smoked weed so I wouldn't know, but I've heard Snoop Dogg has some pretty good stuff so he's probably smart if he does that," my dad commented. Kim didn't catch any of the references because again she had the same comment: "I didn't understand what he was saying".
"Problem" was the song where my mom finally decided to try to decipher what Young Thug was talking about. "He talks about boogers a lot. It's just boogers this and boogers that," Kim said. When my dad pointed out that boogers may stand for bling or diamonds of some sort, Kim became a certified rap genius: "Why would you call diamonds boogers? Boogers are disgusting! I guess when you're picking your nose they do say that you're digging for gold so maybe that's where he got it from".
At the end of the album, I asked for their final thoughts and based on their previous commentary they were not very shocking. Kim commented that Young Thug might be talented if he would just sing because she didn't think the music was bad. She wants readers to know that she's not saying this because she hates rap because she doesn't, she think's Childish Gambino is talented and he really sings. My dad thought he could cut down on the autotune and disrespect towards others. Steve's final comment: "You can't really be a badass thug if you're referencing Gilligan's Island".
Slime Season 3:
(02/10/16 5:46pm)
When I was 12, my best friend, a four-and-a-half foot tall, eighty-five pound boy with the same haircut Justin Bieber had when “Baby” was released but with a lot more highlights in it, came to me with a confession. I had no idea if he was going to confess to me that he was madly in love with me or if he was going to admit that he was actually into boys (a confession that would come much later), but what really came out was far more shocking.
We were sitting on the floor of our mutual friend’s bedroom when he admitted to needing to tell me something. He reached across the room and grabbed his backpack. I started sweating, thinking he was going to pull out a water bottle full of liquor that he’d stolen from his parents which was something I had heard that kids who were much cooler than us had been doing recently, but that wasn’t at all the case. What he pulled out of his backpack shocked me, and ultimately shaped the person I would become.
Kenton grabbed something and slowly removed it from his backpack. Even though my iTunes library at the time was composed solely of bands who would have played the 2010 Warped Tour, I immediately recognized what Kenton was showing me: Kanye West’s “Graduation” album. My mind was immediately filled with questions, but before I could get any out Kenton began to talk. “This is Kanye West’s album,” he said, “I carry it in my backpack because I can’t stand to be without it for the entirety of the school day”. I asked if he carried a CD player with him, he said no. I asked if he’d downloaded it on his iPod, the answer was yes. I was confused, but after a few more minutes of conversation I began to understand: Kenton was leaps and bounds ahead of me on his journey to discovering and understanding good music, and the genius of Yeezy was something he had discovered before he was even technically a teenager.
We slipped the album into a CD player on the opposite side of the room and let it play while Kenton further explained to me why this album was so important. Although it was plagued with the trash that is “Barry Bonds”, it was also home to “Homecoming”, “Good Life”, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”, and “Flashing Lights” which are indisputably great Kanye tracks, but it was truly far more than that to us. We talked for the duration of the 51 minute long album, and by the end I truly understood why Kenton loved Kanye so much: he was everything we weren’t, but everything we wanted to be. There was no doubt that Kanye was a well dressed bad ass who couldn’t care less what anyone said about him and we were two seventh grade dweebs who never quite fit in.
Although “Graduation” is no “808s and Hearbreak”, finding out my best friend carried it in his backpack every day changed my life. I began to unapologetically jam to “Stronger” every time it came on the radio, much to my mom’s dismay, and I began to delve deeper into the genius that Kanye had produced prior to “Graduation”. My life became a whirlwind of shutter shades and not giving a damn. As Kanye evolved, I remained a fan and noticed that I evolved too. I found myself immersed in high-end fashion, again to the dismay of my mom and her wallet, and being a more confident individual with a fine taste in music. (My mom is always pleased with my growing confidence, and has come to love Kanye, but another thing she really hated was the fact that I played the “Graduation” album on a constant loop for the majority of my graduation open house. She’s a good sport and deserves a little shout out for putting up with me listening to some of his more inappropriate songs too loudly in her car, scoring me an authentic shirt from the Yeezy tour, and listening to me bitch about how much I disliked Season 2. Thanks Lil’ Kim)
From time to time, Kenton and I will still listen to “Graduation” in our Jeeps and sing along or reminisce on the fact that he carried in his backpack and laugh, but we really should be grateful. I’m sure some other artist or celebrity or opportunity would have come around and taught us how to carry our awkward selves with a little more confidence and style, but it’s a really great story to be able to say that it was all because Kenton couldn’t stand to leave his “Graduation” CD unattended for 8 hours a day.
(Below, for your entertainment and the embarrassment of Kenton and I, I decided to include a photo of the two of us around the time of the Kanye epiphany. I am on the far left and Kenton is perhaps obviously on the right.)
(11/19/15 4:24pm)
Everyone has a crazy uncle who they know has been watching the news every day since last Thanksgiving to stock up on controversial topics to bring up and divide the table just as everyone is taking their first bite of turkey. However, do not fear, you can take it upon yourself to combat this and make this Thanksgiving the first one where your family watches the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade together in peace. Here are a few super neutral topics to bring up at the dinner table that will not only shut up your crazy uncle, but also make you the star of Turkeytown (which is what I'm petitioning to rename Thanksgiving).
The blister you got on your heel the first week of classes…
After sitting around on your lazy ass all summer, it took your feet awhile to get used to the grueling walk that it takes to get to any class on campus. Remember that blister you got right where your sock and shoe met on the back of your heel that took way too long to go away? Bring him up! Someone at the table is bound to know some remedy for blisters that you can bring back to school and share with your friends. Plus, who doesn’t love talking about feet while they’re trying to eat??!
The best dogs you follow on social media…
Instagram, Vine, and Tumblr are flooded with all of the cutest dogs this world has to offer and now is your chance to let your family in on the gold. Of course your Aunt Tina will try to argue that her little Spot is cuter than any other dog in the world, but as soon as she sees marniethedog, she’s going to fall under the spell as well. Go ahead and pass your phone around the table as you pull up some of the most adorable pets known to man. Just be sure to divert the conversation back to the canines if anyone tries to start an iPhone vs. Android debate while they scroll through the feeds. (This conversation topic can work for cats too if your family happens to swing that way)
That time you bumped into your ex on campus….
Your family loved Todd and they’re surely sad he’s not making an appearance at your family’s Thanksgiving again this year, so why not bring him into the conversation?! Just because he’s gone, doesn’t mean he has to be forgotten. Let them in on the time that you were walking through Dunn Meadow, minding your own business, and he accidentally shoulder checked you. They’ll all try to convince you that the love isn’t dead even though the two of you haven’t talked in a few months and you know from his Instagram that he’s talking to the girl who lived on the dorm floor above you your freshman year, but at least that’s better than talking about Donald Trump’s policies for three hours.
The flop of Yeezy Season 2….
It as a disappointment for everyone, I’m sure even your Grandma Carol agrees. We all thought Kanye was going to pull something new out of the bag this New York Fashion week, but the same colors and styles made an appearance yet again. You and your cousin Brad can bond over your desire to own anything from the collection, no matter how much you claim to dislike it, and it’ll be great fun trying to explain to your Great Uncle Jim what a Kanye West is.
How the “Goosebumps” movie wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be…
Yeah, it could have been more reminiscent of the 90s and the romantic subplot was so unnecessary, but did you see the special effects? How fun was it to see all of your favorite characters come to life on screen again? Even though it’s universally known that Jack Black only killed it in “School of Rock”, and you were super anxious he was going to ruin perhaps the most nostalgic thing to happen to you all year, his performance in “Goosebumps” is to be admired. Bring it up at the table and you’re sure to start the best Thanksgiving debate of all time as everyone talks about their favorite Goosebumps book and discusses their excitement for the return of R.L. Stine.
(11/15/15 6:17pm)
My best friend and I awoke a few hours too early on the floor of my bedroom back at my parents’ house in Indianapolis last Saturday with pounding headaches and heavy eyelids, but it was okay because we were about to do something wild: take a three hour ride on a too hot, too full Megabus to see Mac DeMarco at his sold out show at Metro in Chicago.
When we found out Mac was going to be so close, it took about three minutes of deliberation to decide if we were going to buy tickets for the sold out date, even though tickets cost 3x their face value. I chose to sacrifice my two-day pass to EDC Orlando and buy the ticket to the show as well as a round trip ticket on the ever glamorous Megabus.
We woke up, made ourselves presentable enough to sit on a way too long bus ride, and piled our stuff into the back of my parent’s Jeep. I do not want to offend anyone who likes traveling by Megabus, although I am not sure if there is anyone out there who actually does, but that thing is actually a double-decker hell on wheels. By the end of my three hours, I had heard a bus driver scream at a passenger, heard a passenger curse out her child, and listened to two guys talk about a live roast they were attending for far too long. I exited the bus feeling exhausted and hungry. I was drenched in sweat from the heater being on too high on the top level and wondering if seeing Mac DeMarco was worth it.
It was.
After a 25 minute Uber ride to Wrigleyville in a car that smelled quite a bit like skunk where the cab driver only talked to us about the new James Bond movie and the best movie theaters in Chicago, we made it to Metro: a small venue that is on a strip of bars and pizza parlors would have been easily missed if it were not for all the twentysomethings lining the block waiting for to have their ID checked for admission. I could barely wait for my Uber driver to open his child-locked back door before I jumped out into the crowded street, grabbed my best friend’s hand, and ran around the corner to the end of the long line of beanies and Goodwill flannels.
The cold started hitting right as I was standing face to face with man who looked too much like a stereotypical bouncer for me to not sweat a little bit when he was checking my ID, even though it was an 18+ venue and I just recently turned 19. After reading the Yelp! reviews, I knew to bypass the lines for merch and alcohol wristbands and head straight upstairs to the balcony. The nice thing about Metro is that there are two levels, with the top level being only big enough for barricade standers and one row behind them, which is way better than standing behind twelve rows of men who are over six feet tall.
A little after 9 p.m., everything began. The Courtneys, an all-girl trio from Canada, took the stage first. Their fast, hard-hitting drum beats paired with vocal harmonization gave them a really 80s girl band feel that got old after one too many songs that sounded exactly the same. This prompted the guy next to me to become the type of guy that everyone hates at sporting events who just yells out obnoxious obvious facts far too many times, so when the set was over and The Coutneys left the stage, and that guy shut the hell up, a great wave of relief washed over me.
The next opener was Alex Calder and it was probably one of the most boring sets I have ever seen in my life. I hate being on my phone during shows, but I could not help but grab it out of my pocket so I did not fall asleep right there. The most entertaining part of that entire half hour was when Andy, Mac DeMarco’s guitar player, came out and sang a cover with them while prancing around the stage in a way you would imagine only the person who plays guitar for Mac DeMarco would.
Finally, at a little after 11 p.m., the chords to Haddaway’s “What is Love?” rang out through the small venue and a very wide, gap toothed smile trotted on stage. After some very Hotline Bling-esque dance moves, the band began playing “The Way You’d Love Her” and the content I rode on a damn MegaBus for was finally beginning. DeMarco puts on an absolutely incredible show. I had seen him twice before, both in festival settings, so I was really interested to see what a show was like with him in a small venue and I was far from disappointed.
Everything from the crowd singing that annoying “la la la” part in “Salad Days” to Mac laying on the ground to play a Steeley Dan cover was amazing. Even in a room of 1,000 people, I felt like the show was a personal and intimate experience and, well, it was wild as hell. There was no shortage of Mac and his crew crowd surfing and there was even a time when Mac climbed on the balcony and jumped off onto the crowd below (which was entertaining but seems like a huge liability that I am shocked the venue was okay with). The crowd was engaged from the first note until the encore of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” where the band was throwing cookies into the crowd. Aside from the entertainment value being through the roof, the set list was also nearly perfect. Mac found the perfect mix between Another One and his older albums so fans heard some new songs as well as their old favorites. There was a lot of unity in the crowd too. I do not think I have ever seen so many people just dancing and high fiving to their favorite tunes.
Although the band often admitted to improvising while playing, everything about Mac’s incredible voice (especially on those high notes in “Still Together”) and the band crab walking around the stage sounded and looked perfect. I also feel that it’s worth mentioning that even though I got a beer poured on my foot during it, “Chamber of Reflection” is an absolutely life changing song to hear live.
What I’m getting at here is this: Mac DeMarco is a true artist who is easily one of the best people I have ever had the pleasure of seeing live. If you ever get the chance to see him, take it and run, even if you have to ride a MegaBus to do so.
(11/09/15 3:30pm)
The second half of 2015 has brought listeners a slew of new music from many established and up-and-coming artists, but among the most notable releases are Mac DeMarco, Mac Miller, and Macklemore. This brings up an interesting question to ponder: out of these three men sharing the same root name, who is the “Mac Daddy” of music?
I decided to take on this tedious task and make the decision myself. Using a very complicated algorithm (5 categories that I chose myself with a winner that I also chose myself based solely on internet research and personal opinion), I spent weeks (maybe partially due to procrastination) calculating who would win the grand title of 2015’s “Mac Daddy of Music”. See below who won when I put these three artists head to head to head in five crucial categories.
Fan Interactions
None of these artists are on an untouchable level like Kanye or Elton John, so the way they interact with their fans is still a make or break part of their career. I really delved into the internet trying to find fan experiences with all of these artists, but there really was not much on the web about fans getting to meet Macklemore or Mac Miller beyond selfies posted and super fansites talking about touching their hands during shows. However, Mac DeMarco has a much different tale to tell. At the end of his new album, he rattled off his address and told fans to come see him at his house for a cup of coffee. This is pretty cool, but it’s even better when he actually made good on his offer. DeMarco has described up to 60 kids coming to his house in a day, and he always makes coffee for them if he is home. DeMarco also has fans over for BBQs at his home, and once a male fan even jumped on stage and kissed DeMarco while he was singing, and he had no problem reciprocating the kiss.
Winner: Mac Demarco – There’s truly not much better than inviting fans to your house for a cup of coffee and locking lips with male fans on stage.
Critical Acclaim
As much as I want to act like it does not matter what awards you have, or what Rolling Stone writes about you, success often lies in the hands of the critics. Mac DeMarco has received praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and many other media outlets and had an album reach the top ¼ of the Billboard Hot 100, but has yet to win any notable awards. Mac Miller falls along the same lines. While he has had several Billboard ranked albums and singles, and won a couple of MTV Woodies, there’s still someone who is surprisingly levels above him: Macklemore. Any causal hip hop fan remembers the time that Mackemore went on to win 4 out of his 7 Grammy nominations beating out Kendrick Lamar in perhaps the most upsetting award win of the year. Macklemore saw great success in the light of “The Heist” by finding nominations at the Kid’s Choice Awards, AMAs, and even winning a BET Award.
Winner: Macklemore- It pains my bones to write that sentence, but being the only one of the three to win a Grammy, I have to give it to the man.
Mainstream Relevance
College radio is not the mainstream, so I am going to have to step out of our little box for a second and let my personal bias against overplayed Top 40 Hits go for a minute. Macklemore has seen extreme mainstream success. There was an entire summer where you were genuinely afraid to turn on the radio and hear him rapping about discount clothes that smell like R. Kelly’s piss. Macklemore won huge music industry awards and is still one of the most overplayed artists on the radio with that damn “Downtown” song. Mac Miller has also seen quite a bit of mainstream success. Beyond being played from time to time on your local hip hop station, Mac Miller found his niche in an MTV show. Mac DeMarco has seen little to no mainstream success beyond appearing on late night TV, as the other two competitors also have, and drawing crowds to his shows, like the others as well.
Winner: TIE- Macklemore & Mac Miller- Both have seen their time in the limelight through TV appearances, TV shows, and award show appearances along with consistently selling out venues and their music seeing mainstream radio airplay.
Style
If there’s one thing I admire in a man, it’s his personal style and there’s only one Mac that I think actually brings this to the table. You may think Macklemore brought the pompadour haircut back into style, but let’s all just look at any high fashion ads of the past 10 years before we jump to that conclusion because that hairstyle never stopped being cool. Mac Miller has absolutely no personal style and dresses like every kid you went to high school with that drooled all year over the Wiz Khalifa concert that was without a doubt coming to town in the summer. Mac DeMarco: now that’s a man with some personal style. Aside from constantly looking like he just crawled out of a trash can, the dude has got some hats, button downs, and Simpsons tee shirts to be envious of. His greasy hair, cuffed jeans, and gap teeth that are often utilized for holding lit cigarettes, in place of his hands, have become such a trademark of who he is.
Winner: Mac DeMarco- The garbage king of fashion is the only one with a signature style (and the only one who can put a cigarette between his front teeth and smoke it which is pretty cool, if you ask me)
Live Performance
No matter how good, or even how bad, an album is, live performances can be the opposite and make an impression on the audience if you have good stage presence. Out of the three, I have only seen Mac DeMarco live so I’m basing the rest on videos and stories I have heard from friends. Both times I saw DeMarco were in festival settings: once at WIUX’s very own Culture Shock and once at Bonnaroo. Though the size for the two shows were extremely different, DeMarco made it an intimate experience both times. His sound quality and entertainment value are to be envied and among the best I have seen. Macklemore appears to be a giant waste of money. Every concert video I saw looked like a bunch of spring breakers who dragged themselves down to the local venue just to bounce around to “Thrift Shop” for three minutes and then be bored to death for the remaining hour. The quality and energy of the band was just not there for me either. Mac Miller’s live performances seem to be quite an experience, if you’re into that whole scene. Fans are treated to surprise performances from other artists and Miller always gets the crowd hyped up to the level he desires and makes sure they have a good time.
Winner: TIE- Mac Miller & Mac DeMarco- I couldn’t really make the decision because while Mac DeMarco puts on an entertaining show with incredible sound quality, the videos of Mac Miller’s shows are wild and out.
Official Mac Daddy of Music 2015: Mac DeMarco
Despite his lack of mainstream relevance and accolades from critics, Mac DeMarco unsurprisingly wins the title of Mac Daddy of Music 2015. Style, unique interactions with fans, and not to mention the best release of the year from the three, bring him straight to the top.
(09/22/15 4:43pm)
In a world where all we hear about are Lamborghinis, bottle service, and jewelry that costs more than a semester at IU, Lil Dicky has become a rap revolutionary. Collaborating with Fetty Wap and, quite ironically, Rich Homie Quan, Dicky produced an anthem all college kids who are balling on a budget will relate to, but he then he took it to another level: he created an incredible rap video for “$ave Dat Money” for absolutely no money.
Since the song is all about pinching pennies, and most of Dicky’s fame has come from his hysterical music videos, the concept of this video was hilarious and fitting. In the video, we see Dicky traveling around Beverly Hills, knocking on doors and asking to borrow houses, asking to borrow exotic cars, and asking to board yachts for just 15 minutes at a time, until Dicky gets every key puzzle piece to creating a stereotypical rap video for no money at all.
When the video was released Thursday, I was skeptical, but as a connoisseur of quality music videos in a world where MTV is dead, I hooked my computer up to our dorm TV and my roommate and I had a “$ave Dat Money” screening. I was the furthest thing from disappointed. Aside from the production value being incredible for something produced with less money than I currently have in my wallet, the plethora of celebrity cameos seen in the video were jaw dropping. Dillon Francis, Tom Petty, and IU’s own Mark Cuban all appeared in the video singing along to the catchy chorus. T-Pain even appears in the video via text message and lets Lil Dicky use his video shoot like it’s his own. The antics pulled off in this video are the product of Dicky’s innocent face, smooth talking, and stroke of genius and it all works together in a charmingly funny manner.
Personally, this video is one of my favorites rap videos since Kanye’s “Runaway” movie, because the concept paired with the support received in both the making of the video and the release of it are incredible. (Even Playboy reached out and told Dicky they wished he would have stopped by the mansion and recorded a bit there.) I hope this video serves as inspiration for every kid recording a video for their favorite track off their “fire mixtape” filmed by the kid that sits next to them in media class to do big things.