Who the fuck was Eminem?
i've been thinking that this frozen glow i've chosen is a candidate to lead me to a very sudden end / another room up in the tombs of lovely substance where the gravediggers are shoveling that dirt up in their heads / the very fact is i am sitting here with zombies talking endlessly but couldn't tell you one thing that was said / i get surrounded by the friendliest of strangers who would sooner kill themselves that give a fuck if i were dead
- "The League of Extraordinary Nobodies" from El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead
I don't listen to a lot of "new" hip hop these days. Frankly, I think it blows. Sometimes I dare myself to pick up an album to at least have examples of production styles (for when I sport the engineering hat) but then run away screaming. Have you heard the shit that they spew on the radio today? It's pretty bad.
I even broke down and bought Eminem's The Eminem Show because I liked some of the singles. I was sorely disappointed with the rest of it. I also bought the soundtrack to 8 Mile. Eventually, I got rid of that and The Eminem Show. I can only take so much shitty music. His previous work was superior probably due in part to Dre. In fact, I bought and actually still own The Marshall Mathers LP (but I won't openly admit it). I'm still not sure how Em lasted as long as he did. "Oh, he's so controversial!" I guess. Dude, join a Norwegian black metal band and go roam the countryside burning down churches. Kinda ups the ante on Em, no? I also wasn't very impressed with his delivery when he grew more and more political with his lyrics.
(I have a few other "new" hip hop albums but they're more along the lines of um...Cartoon Network related stuff [DANGERDOOM] so I'm not even going to go into it. I also have Gnarls Barkley and it's a good album but it also gets a little old. I also dig AIM.)
Obviously, I don't dig most of the new stuff. Whatever I've kept in my collection had some sort of redeeming factor or had Meatwad singing backup. As of yesterday, I've added my first hip hop album of 2007. After an enjoyable three hours plus watching Grindhouse, my friend and I hit Borders. On a whim, I looked up a particular album to see if they had it in stock. No one else in the area had it. I thought about picking it up when it came out last month but changed my mind. Hell, at that point, I had only heard one song and while I liked it a lot, we've all been duped by the super-cool-single-trick. Fuckers!
Oh, what was I looking for? I'll Sleep When You're Dead by El-P.
Borders had it and on sale. Price was good too. So, there I was standing there with it in my hands trying to decide whether or not to just break down and buy it. I must have picked up and put it back on the rack 30 times before deciding to take the risk and buy it.
I'm glad I did. It's really really good. In fact, "dis shit is off da hook." The lyrics are just awesome and the angstiness is pure unlike the majority of today's "angry" music. He's also not slapping his bitch nor piling on the bling. In fact, he just hops in his hooptie and screams, "Freedom is mine!" and then continues to tell the story about our country's sick and dark dystopian (near) future involving nasty prison ships, braindead celebs, and crazy fundies (who ride with the Jesus of Nascareth). In fact, I'll Sleep When You're Dead feels like the hip hop sister album of NIN's Year Zero (funny thing as Reznor also appears on the single "Flyentology").
This is definitely an album to be blasted in the car.
*EDIT*
So, out of morbid curiousity, I broke out The Marshall Mathers LP. After listening to El-P, boy does Em suck. TMMLP seriously pales in comparison to I'll Sleep When You're Dead. Looks like I have another one for the trade pile!
- "The League of Extraordinary Nobodies" from El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead
I don't listen to a lot of "new" hip hop these days. Frankly, I think it blows. Sometimes I dare myself to pick up an album to at least have examples of production styles (for when I sport the engineering hat) but then run away screaming. Have you heard the shit that they spew on the radio today? It's pretty bad.
I even broke down and bought Eminem's The Eminem Show because I liked some of the singles. I was sorely disappointed with the rest of it. I also bought the soundtrack to 8 Mile. Eventually, I got rid of that and The Eminem Show. I can only take so much shitty music. His previous work was superior probably due in part to Dre. In fact, I bought and actually still own The Marshall Mathers LP (but I won't openly admit it). I'm still not sure how Em lasted as long as he did. "Oh, he's so controversial!" I guess. Dude, join a Norwegian black metal band and go roam the countryside burning down churches. Kinda ups the ante on Em, no? I also wasn't very impressed with his delivery when he grew more and more political with his lyrics.
(I have a few other "new" hip hop albums but they're more along the lines of um...Cartoon Network related stuff [DANGERDOOM] so I'm not even going to go into it. I also have Gnarls Barkley and it's a good album but it also gets a little old. I also dig AIM.)
Obviously, I don't dig most of the new stuff. Whatever I've kept in my collection had some sort of redeeming factor or had Meatwad singing backup. As of yesterday, I've added my first hip hop album of 2007. After an enjoyable three hours plus watching Grindhouse, my friend and I hit Borders. On a whim, I looked up a particular album to see if they had it in stock. No one else in the area had it. I thought about picking it up when it came out last month but changed my mind. Hell, at that point, I had only heard one song and while I liked it a lot, we've all been duped by the super-cool-single-trick. Fuckers!
Oh, what was I looking for? I'll Sleep When You're Dead by El-P.
Borders had it and on sale. Price was good too. So, there I was standing there with it in my hands trying to decide whether or not to just break down and buy it. I must have picked up and put it back on the rack 30 times before deciding to take the risk and buy it.
I'm glad I did. It's really really good. In fact, "dis shit is off da hook." The lyrics are just awesome and the angstiness is pure unlike the majority of today's "angry" music. He's also not slapping his bitch nor piling on the bling. In fact, he just hops in his hooptie and screams, "Freedom is mine!" and then continues to tell the story about our country's sick and dark dystopian (near) future involving nasty prison ships, braindead celebs, and crazy fundies (who ride with the Jesus of Nascareth). In fact, I'll Sleep When You're Dead feels like the hip hop sister album of NIN's Year Zero (funny thing as Reznor also appears on the single "Flyentology").
This is definitely an album to be blasted in the car.
*EDIT*
So, out of morbid curiousity, I broke out The Marshall Mathers LP. After listening to El-P, boy does Em suck. TMMLP seriously pales in comparison to I'll Sleep When You're Dead. Looks like I have another one for the trade pile!