[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

Mhmm... Yeah, I know that was kind of a rambling mess of incomplete thoughts and answers to unasked questions... Sorry about dat.

i don't know why you apologize if you're doing me a favor! all i meant by "okay" was, hm, "copy that" or "message acknowledged", see.

Originally Posted by Severian

All I was trying to say was that if Tetsuo & Youth is your cup o' tea, then I'm not sure why you're not a Kanye fan.
(I'm not sure you're not a Kanye fan, but I feel like we would have had a seriously bromantic bonding session over it long ago if you were.)

i'm not a kanye fan because as i implied before i wrote off hiphop a long time ago. a loooooooooooong time ago. gansta rap was the kissoff-- i really find nouveau riche drug dealer values repellent.

and then there was this worship of brands and money and every time i hear some fucker say "cristal" i want to put a bullet in the speakers. or better yet on their forehead. to silence them forever.

and then it's all yo nigga this, yo nigga that (i don't wanna be called yo nigga.)

and throwing money at women. so ghetto & depressing. the poor stay poor.

so eventually i simply dismissed all hiphop outright. well almost all. but i just wasn't interested in it just like one wouldn't be interested in, say, boy bands. when is the last time you paid attention to a boy band? exactly.

so the first time i found out about kanye (i have very big filters to keep shit out) was through his public persona i didn't give a shit about. just like finding out about justin bieber-- my mom probably knew that justin bieber existed before i did. (now the clips of his roast are out-- i love natasha leggero).

so i might listen, but i can't promise i won't break out in hives if he starts talking about how he married a dinosaur. or whatever animal she was? or if he starts to advertise/glorify name brands. i fucking hate name brands. and that grotesque wedding.

Originally Posted by Severian

I think Tetsuo & Youth is most sonically reminiscent of Late Registration, which was Ye's "baroque pop" album... Filled with strings and chamber instruments, jazz and gospel influences, morose minor key orchestrations, and some seriously dramatic choruses. Tetsuo... isn't Baroque, but it's Jazzy... Sounds like Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Miles Davis's take on "Porgy & Bess," set against a more singular concept than LR.
The conceptual elements are closer to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Tetsuo also reminds me of MBDTF because of the song lengths, the story arc, and the very deliberate combination of samples, arrangements, beats, cover art and video design that all have the same feel and mood.
Also, it's Lupe's biggest and most ambitious, daring project to date, and it follows what many consider his weakest release... Just like MBDTF, only nobody's daft enough to think 808's is weak anymore.

Ahh, Kanye talk.

ha ha ha ha.

i had no idea. i'll have to explore-- but carefully. i don't wanna drive a splitting ax into my stereo amp. i really have a good one-- i mean ax. i know i said "i hate name brands" but stihl makes a really good forestry ax. it would pulverize the amp.

[eta: e.g., ridiculousness like this turned me away from hiphop]

hence, in my attempted rapprochement with the genre, the request first for better values. because i knew they had to be there i jsut didn't know where to find them.

and i still think "lupe fiasco" is the name of an all-female mexican punk band. it HAS TO be. it's the best name for a mexican punk band. LUPE. short for guadalupe. THE quintessential mexican name-- maría may be more common but lupe is more mexican. fiasco... well it's just very punk ha ha ha. like a band you'd find in the pages of "love & rockets".

Originally Posted by Severian

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A M*****F****N' Butterfly, of course.

Seriously, one of the best hip-hop albums I've heard this decade. I still think I prefer good kid, mAAd city... but that's almost as unbeatable a record as MBDTF.

Anyway, we're talking about one of the best albums in recent memory here. Nothing else can even compete.

But that will change when So Help Me God comes out. Yikes!!

i synced it and was listening to it on the background-- a kind of first splash, but i had to stop to do emails-- too many verbal streams in my head.

he's got a funny high-pitched voice. but appears listenable. WAY WAY TOO FAST for me to understand so i'll need to read the lyrics. fucking shit it's like he's on coke. i'll have to complete that later & report. i won't say more until i give it a serious listen.