For some reason, I just wanted to re-listen to old music again, and I did. Sometimes I like the comfort of old things. I had a vague recollection of liking the music from Kid Cudi’s excellent film Entergalactic, so I re-listened to the entire album. I got stuck on the gem of Willing to Trust which features Ty $ign. In my humble opinion, this is the best album Kid Cudi has done since Man on The Moon and I don’t care. I’m not the biggest Cudi fan, so I’m OK with that statement, but what stuck out to me on this album is that he was all shades of vulnerable and nowhere was this more evident than on Willing to Trust. In addition, the best part of the song is the very end, in which he says
I got you, don't worry, love (oh, hold on me) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, just lay with me) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, you're so sweet) I got you, don't worry, love (right here is where I'll be) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, hold on me) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, just lay with me) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, you're so sweet) I got you, don't worry, love (right here is where I'll be) I got you, don't worry, love (all this time, I thought I'd never find) I got you, don't worry, love (someone golden that I can call mine) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, so silly of me) I got you, don't worry, love (oh, just hold on me)
Later on, for whatever reason, I was listening to Nobody (in
light of the Diddy allegations, the tirade at the beginning takes on a
different dimension) by Rick Ross (which I love) and decided to re-listen to
the original.
I fell in love. It’s a fucking great song. First off, I don’t think Biggie
knows how to be vulnerable on this album. He left all that with Ready
to Die, and that’s fine in all honesty. That vulnerability lets Ready
to Die edge Life After Death as a better album, but
not by much. On You’re Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You), he
is spitting the truth and it’s ironic that it happened to him. This does lend
some pathos to the song, which might be a big part of why the song resonates,
but apart from that, it’s just a fucking good rap from one of the greatest to
ever do it. I mean,
Silly cat wore suede in the rain
is such a dismissive line that you almost feel the nigga deserved to die. This song stands as a great song despite him living it, because Biggie was somebody before they killed him and this song proved it. While in that spirit, I re-listened to Suicidal Thoughts which has all the vulnerability of a young Biggie (he was 22 at the time), most likely grappling with thoughts I can’t even imagine. This song is deep on a whole other whole fucking level I can’t even lie. The level of defeatism is oddly inspiring, but you are also struck by how good a storyteller this guy is. I think that’s what I miss most about his raps. People don’t really weave stories anymore. Sometimes all I want is to be told a good yarn, and Bigge did that like no one else.
After that, I heard that SchooBoy Q was dropping a new album and the excitement that hit me was crazy. I had heard a couple of singles and one in particular hit me and so I decided to go back and revisit his old albums. I started with Habits and Contradictions which is just a phenomenal album. I regularly bump Hands on the Wheel, but this time I got sucked into the warped beat that is Druggys Wit Hoes Again and the sheer amount of shit talking that he and Ab-Soul get into. It’s a fascinating study of how friends can elevate themselves in rap. It’s raw but brilliant. I think Q has some of the best back and forth energy ever as evidenced by songs like Brand New Guy. This song isn’t for everyone, but if its for you, lets fucking go. Then we get to Blessed which features Kendrick Lamar. This song is as different in tone and tempo and I understand how a nigga like Q might feel like that, because according to him he came from nothing, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, he looks at where he is. The chorus makes me realise how lucky I am in all honesty, and I do my best not to take that for granted.
Finally, I decided to listen to Lana Del Rey’s (my baby) last album. Her greatest album is Norman Fucking Rockwell, but my best album is Born to Die because Video Games is a song of such fucking beauty that you would be forgiven for thinking it came from heaven. I got stuck on Fishtail and I’m still stuck on it. It’s such a Lana song that I should automatically know how it goes, but that’s the thing; all my best songs from her are such Lana songs – from Video Games to Ride to Brooklyn Baby to Young and Beautiful to Venice Bitch and now Fishtail. Over a gorgeous sample of Wanderlust by Aljosha Frederick Konstanty, she does what she does very fucking well, and one can never hate a master of their craft – one can be jealous, but one cannot hate. And she has crafted something that right now sounds beautiful to me. At the end of the song she says:
I say that’s a lie. And she knows it's a lie. It's there in that pause. She’s a bonafide genius and she should say all she wants to say.
I
tried hard not to make this a review (though I will probably definitely do one for Fishtail) and I think I succeeded. It's just songs
that I have connected with after not giving them a proper chance the first
time.
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