New Rap Music
Gucci Mane – “Wonderful” FUCKWMG
Make no mistake, Gucci Mane loves language. He’s a classical rap thesaurus addict but not in the Jahru (sp) the Damaja super scientifical find the biggest most obscure synonym sense. (Shouts to the Shrimp, who suggested similar language expansion skills in their massive ‘08 Gucci wrap up.) Phrases like “gorgeous” or “wonderful” aren’t remotely obscure words in the english language but they aren’t all that common in the hip hop lexicon. Maybe they would be used to describe a woman, but rarely on some first person braggadocio. Then again, I might be overthinking things completely and Gooch is probably just a big Bubba Sparxxx fan. Either way this song goes hard. (via Dirty Glove Bastard)
Poison Pen f/ M.O.P. – “Magnifique“
from The Money Shot (Gold Dust, Available 8/4/09)
I haven’t heard Poison Pen’s name since the late 90s NYC underground boom. I certainly don’t remember him being “swagnificent.” But this record features M.O.P. rapping over mechanical Terminator crunches. What more could you possibly ask for?
Jackie Chain – “Diamonds & Cadillacs“
The latest from Huntsville’s great half-asian hope. The first time I heard it I thought the hook was “Dollar Vans & Caravans” which would be a lot better subject, though I’m not sure either of those things exist in Alabama. But this is still cool. Shredding guitar solos are the new autotune.
Yameen f/ Casual & Georgia Ann Muldrow – “Fire (Blockhead Remix)“
Here the last competent Hieroglyphics emcee tones down his flow for some sensitive battle rap. The Georgia vocals could are sort of annoying in an Esthero way but whatever. (via Philaflava)
Kevin Gates f/ Mouse & Novakane – “Nasty“
New one from Baton Rouge. It’s nice to know Gates and Mouse are holding down the shameless Louisiana party vibe since Boosie went emo and Mannie went awol(ish).
Freddie Gibbs – “Boxframe Cadillac“
Another song about Cadillacs. Did I mention that Gibbs was good at rapping? (via Smoking Section)
Dodigatie f/ Slimm Calhoun – “I’d Rather Be With You“
More 2nd Gen Dungeon Family resurrections. Here Savannah newcomer Dodigate calls on Slimm Cutta for this Bootsy flipping summer jam. Slimm sounds like he never left. If ID3 tags are to be trusted then this comes from Killer Mike’s forthcoming Underground Atlanta compilation. (via BLVDST)
Fabo – “Geeked Pop“
Strictly archival selection, as I am only one of two people on the internet still acknowledging Fabo’s existence. While “Geeked Pop” bears some phonetic similarity to the best song of his career, that’s about where the similarities end. This is a weirdly cold record for the D4L record, almost seeming like he’s striving to be more of a Lil Jon style party starter than the coked out post-Kilo weirdo he truly is. One day he will get the formula right.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
All this po-mo analysis of Gucci seems a little reaching. Why the blogs have decided to vaunt Gucci as some idiot-savant, Jonathan Swift-like manipulator of the English language is beyond me. I would guess that reality of Gucci’s writing process is probably a lot less intriguing however.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Freddie gibbs is killin it still.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
“All this po-mo analysis of Gucci seems a little reaching”
/\
Or… and I may be “reaching” here, you might just be a hater who does not get it.
Either way dont forget to wipe off your Mos Def cds
June 10th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Love the Diamonds & Cadillacs beat, but I’m not a fan of Jackie Chain. Would love to hear someone else rapping over it. Like Boosie, for example.
And oh yeah, that Gucci track is sick as fuck.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Is it really po-mo to say that he has a wide vocabulary?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Man, it’s a sad state of affairs when a rapper is accalimed for having a huge vocabulary for using words like “wonderful” and “gorgeous”. Save that for somebody like E-40 who comes with the ignorant shit but does it in such a way that it is genius. How many songs can come from the south talking about driving foreign cars and smoking weed? It is the simplicity that has everyone going nuts because they don’t actually have to think and process what is being said. This type of music is one of the the tools that the devil is using to futher dumb down the black and hispanic communities. Everyone walking around in a smoked out haze, chasing big chains and material items. What better way to fatten the pockets of the white man but to promote consumerism? Pull the wool from your eyes muthafuckas!
June 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Folks have been making posts like that about every hot gangsta rapper to come out doing something fresh since fukkin rap began
June 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Using huge words and having a wide vocabulary are two different things entirely.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
well, except before the internet they would post these diatribes on street lamps or yell them into megaphones in the park
June 10th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
juiceman is way more fun than gucci …. ‘ay! ay! ay! okay!’……can’t front on that
June 10th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
praising mediocrity is the new elitism
June 10th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Gucci does use SOME words that you don’t hear from many other rappers’ raps, but wonderful isn’t one of them. Or maybe it is but if so I don’t care. I mean, sometimes I find it interesting when rappers use words that aren’t terribly obscure but are unusually formal, if you know what I mean, for a rap song. For example, on an early song on Thug Motivation, Jeezy complains that “you got me misconstrued.” That’s different, especially given the context. Wonderful? Not so much.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Word? I heard 2-3 Gucci joints and didnt notice anything too special apart from the fact that he holds his own. Who is effin with weezy’s eloquence though?
The judge tryin to hit me with everythin’ but the sink
but I won’t sink
I cant
I aint
That’s off Breaktime, for which he should get a hip hop quotable in the source if that shit still mattered.
June 10th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
have any of you actually listened to gucci’s first verse on this song? shit is next level
June 10th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Gucci is brilliant, gorgeous, wonderful.
June 10th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
“have any of you actually listened to gucci’s first verse on this song? shit is next level”
^^ Seriously, shit like “Red bezel on my jacob/ look like a sliced tomato” and “Purple bud look like an orchid/ can’t afford it?/ watch me torch it” are proof enough for me. I’ll admit, it took me a while to figure out what it was about Gucci that has everyone so amped, but if you listen to that Swede Most Valuable Gucci mix you become a believer. Sure, most of it isn’t for “conscious rap” fans (whatever the fuck that means anyway), but don’t say he ain’t talented!
June 10th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Notice that the only rapper being discussed is Gucci? No one else matters right now. He’s next to blow, he might be the last rapper to go double platinum. Hopefully he does it with more gorgeous-type tracks and less of this.
June 10th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
BUBBA SPARXXX IS FUCKING GREAT
Let me just say that before I listen to any of these. That is clearly the thing that most urgently needs saying at the moment. Because it is true.
June 10th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
As for Poison Pen, I was under the impression that he had been running with Tonedeff, who is a great rapper.
June 10th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I am sick to fucking death of region-hating rapper racists. East Coast lyrical lyricism is still the shit but I’m tired of puritanical motherfuckers hatin’ the South for getting all this shine when most of them boys is putting out quality rap music. And ditto folks trying to act like NY-type shit is moribund and we should all forget about the boom bap. Gucci Mane and Lil’ Boosie are dope fucking rappers but so are Phonte and Elzhi and Brother Ali. Rap fans quit yer bitchin’.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Oh yeah, the song is great, but not because it uses the word wonderful. Although a lot of that shit, the red bezel that looks like a sliced tomato and so on, looks a lot better on paper than in his mealymouthed delivery. For me anyway.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:18 am
@ Sonny Cheeba
No need to create that false dichotomy, though. A man can dig both Mos Def and Gucci.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:05 am
It’s a pretty tired argument to suggest that if one did not like Gucci, it was because he was some backpack rap aficionado, listening to nothing but Dilated Peoples in his folks basement. I think people who read this site tend to have tastes that cross the spectrum.
It just seems that in the absence of any really truly intriguing artist worth our attention, everyone has been turning to the most extreme example in Gucci whose genius is his ignorance. Don’t get me wrong, there are many who do the ignorant rap thing well, but those who do are decidedly in on the joke. Have you ever read an interview with Gucci? It’s excruciating.
Gucci is raps answer to the god complex. In absence of a true answer we chose the most improbable one.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:32 am
Why can’t people like these artists without trying to make them holders of some kind of primal ghetto intelligence?
The shit is condescending and borderline racist.
Really, take a step back for a second. You’re touting “wonderful” and “gorgeous” as markers of a broad vocabulary in someone who’s pushing 30! I have 6 year old nieces and nephews who use those words.
It’s not fair that people assume these artists to be idiots, but exaggerating in the other direction just makes you lose credibility.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:00 am
casual>>>>new york lyricism
June 11th, 2009 at 9:05 am
@ Gordon
I think the idea is more that these words are odd to hear in rap, rather than that they are markers of a sophisticated vocabulary. For me the jury’s out. I think the dude could be pretty ignorant, but I still enjoy the music.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:34 am
“Why can’t people like these artists without trying to make them holders of some kind of primal ghetto intelligence?
The shit is condescending and borderline racist. ”
Oh come the fuck on.
I’m wondering how many of you freaking out here have really listened to any Gucci at all. Maybe the word “wonderful” wasn’t the best example, admittedly this whole post was sort of rushed. (i had originally wanted to tie it more explicitly what appears to be a series of song titles like this – “gorgeous”, “ridiculous”, “failure” ) but just listen to his raps on this song. “driving solitaire,” “stilted like a mannequin” these are phrases that are consciously unique. They aren’t super complex SAT words, but they are uncommon ones. It’s pretty clear that he sat down and thought to himself “what would be an original way to express this idea?” Dude is a writer and that kind of subtlety is a lot harder to pull off than flair.
What’s condescending and borderline racist is the assumption that a southern/dope boy/street rapper couldn’t be so purposely nuanced.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:53 am
>yea i ‘mean the mos def line was just me being a meanie. But seriously do i have to gauge a rappers intellingence to enjoy his music. No,Gucci has pretty great music, do i wish he would talk about something other than his Jacob? Probably but thats like wishing Mingus had more happy uptempo recordings.
Also to the Harvard grad, who said Gucci interviews are painful, dude grow up.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Gucci is raps answer to the god complex. In absence of a true answer we chose the most improbable one.
/\
Also this sentence is probably the worse use of a Master degree I have ever seen in a regional rap blog forum.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:32 am
Maybe the true problem could be that Gucci is over saturating the market with one track minded records. If he truly does have a unique grasp of the language, it would be refreshing to see him use different avenues of expression. It can’t all be about ice and chains, ah, fuck it. His beats do rock though.
June 11th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
DEEJ
have any of you actually listened to gucci’s first verse on this song? shit is next level
^^^^^^^^^Major Cosign.
“My bud look like a orchid/can’t afford it/ watch me torch it”
Gucci is raps answer to the god complex. In absence of a true answer we chose the most improbable one.
^^^^^
Who’s reaching now?
June 11th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
ah mayn.
juss ta add mah two cents, i ont necesarrily agree wit Noz about Gucci mayn or even his take on “Wonderful”, but i thank de whole argument here seems ta be on some “you overthinking this” tip. Nah mayn, Noz wun uv de only wunz left on de net breaking shit down in a non pitchfork way where de boi actually listen to de RAP an give an informed interetsing if nuttin else take on it. Dis much different den dressin up bullshit thoughts wit empty adjectives a la Tom Breihan mayn. stay breaking it down noz.
Lost is all dis fuckery is dat dis wun uv de better New Rap Musics i seen in a minute, specially de Gibbs and Blockhead (aha!) tracks mayn
June 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Also Characterizing Gucci’s rise being due to blogs is pretty far off.
If anything the tastemaking blogs were late to the party, were ignoring Gucci’s success until they couldn’t any longer.
Gucci is / was a hood phenomenon first & foremost.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
I’m sorta tired of the “Gucci doesn’t rap about anything but cash and chains” argument. Gucci, like a lot of good rappers, weaves more personal stuff around the same rote topics (which he’s found about a zillion ways to express and keep interesting), so he’ll drop some detail of his past or something in there and then go back to his chain.
If that’s not enough, there’s “Neva Had Shit” (as its called on ‘Murder Was the Case’, it’s got 20 other names), which is pretty much your classic touching autobiographical rap tale (rich kids made fun of me, step-dad was an alcoholic, abuse, family falling apart, etc) that anybody should be able to get behind.
“Real” rap critics/fan/bloggers need to stop separating themselves from the “Pitchfork set though–especially Breihan who hasn’t written on hip-hop for more than a year now….
June 11th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
ay mayn cant pass up a appurtunity ta hate on de boi Tom “Synth Gurgles” Breihan aha!
June 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Co-sign Soderberg re: “Neva Had Shit.” Come to think of it, it’s a pretty good comeback to all the hate being directed at Gucci.
Also, bloggers just put a bunch of crackers (like my crackety-cracker ass) who don’t have an ear to the ATL streets onto Gucci. If they’re responsible for anything, it’s getting white people to listen to good music they otherwise might have ignored.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Man, we’ve come a long way from the days when Pitchfork included Young Jeezy albums on their best of the year lists, praising his “simplicity,” whatever that means. I guess with all this skinny jean shit starting to dominate the airwaves and blogs, you can’t make a weed smoking, pussy popping mixtape track without being labeled ignant.
What separates Gucci is the way in which he weaves together his signature cadence and gravely southern voice around his words, which I have to agree with noz are much more carefully chosen then one might believe at first glance. Example, off “17 Brick Squad”: “I’m dumb off that stupid, someone please gimme a toota / Yo daughta is a snarta so I give the cocaine to’uh.” If Weezy rhymed daughter and snorter, people would go fucking nuts over it, but because Gucci is slower and doesn’t annunciate quite as much (and I mean that in the best way possible), people call it bad rap.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
“Never Had Shit” is the exception to the rule though.
The great thing about Gucci is that he really does rhyme mostly about drugs/women/material possessions but he’s constantly innovating in how he goes about it. To me, finding new ways to say old things is the epitome of hip hop.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
“What’s condescending and borderline racist is the assumption that a southern/dope boy/street rapper couldn’t be so purposely nuanced.”
You’re damn right it is. That’s why I explicitly stated that it’s unfair to assume these guys are stupid.
That doesn’t change the fact that it’s also borderline racist to reward something as mediocre as “wonderful.” It’s the equivalent of saying that they’re not really intelligent, only “surprisingly intelligent (for them).” I understand that you didn’t have the best examples on hand. It happens. The ones in your response are much better.
My point was not to trash Gucci; it was to say that in defending him from borderline racists, there’s no need to adopt borderline racist condescension.
And just to silence the retards who only see a Southern dopeboy / east coast-influenced rapper dichotomy:
Mos Def, Common, Kanye, and Nas are not smart people.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
“Mos Def, Common, Kanye, and Nas are not smart people.”
Mos Def is kinda smart, but yeah, otherwise I’m down with this sentiment.
I love this. It is the latest fucktarded shitstorm we can all get down with. Gucci Mane is brilliant! Gucci Mane is a retard! You’re a retard for thinking Gucci Mane is brilliant! You’re a racist for thinking Gucci Mane is retarded! You’re a racist for saying he’s brilliant! My six-year-old can say “wonderful!” This is exactly the kind of shit Internet hip hop needs.
Noz, you admit this post is hurried — it sounds it, though I’m always excited for a “New Rap Music” post, so I don’t care — but callling him a “thesaurus addict” is, no question, reaching. The man does love language, that’s true enough.
Otherwise, my take on this guy after multiple spins through the Gucci Sosa mixtape: his “big rap leap” was from someone who wouldn’t have stood in in USDA to a goofily entertaining, intermittently hilarious moron who raps like he’s been freshly smacked in the mouth with a sock full of quarters.
June 11th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
“Tom “Synth Gurgles” Breihan ”
Oh man, that’s priceless.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
If any young male I knew, regardless of race, started unironically referring to things as “wonderful” that would be pretty notable. I’m not sure where race comes into play here?
Who the fuck says “i feel wonderful”?
June 11th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Yeah “Neva” is the exception, it’s why I started with it–it’s a place you’d think we could all meet up on, “Gucci is a retard” camp or “Gucci is a genius” camp, but yeah, most of the time he’s saying quote-unquote “nothing” in very awesome, new, weird ways, which is all most of us ask from a rapper.
What I find depressing about all this Gucci arguing is that pretty much any time something of a consensus builds in this blogging world–something a decent amount of us pithy warring retards can jump up and down together about–it’s not enough, and is shot down by a bunch of commenters and hard-headed bloggers who don’t ever stick it out and praise anything new or “new”.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Brandon –
Not sure what you mean by “it’s not enough”…..Gucci seems to be doing more than fine these days. And three of the bigger rap blogs right now — you, Noz, and Drake over at Shrimp — are evangelizing hard for this guy. God forbid there was something approaching uniformity of consensus on rap blogs. They wouldn’t be rap blogs! If I recall, you think (thought?) that Wale, circa Mixtape About Nothing, was a boring, no-charisma Weezy rip-off. He was pretty close to a consensus fave last summer around that time. And look at him now — he’s got a shitty single with Lady Gaga. Success story.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
“And three of the bigger rap blogs right now — you, Noz, and Drake over at Shrimp — are evangelizing hard for this guy.”
LOL. You must be reading a different Alexa than I am.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Word to that comment about Common not being smart. It should be noted that there are a load of ‘conscious’ rappers out there who can’t string a sentence together. Watching Common in between Russell and Kevin Lyles on Oprah showed how out of his depth he was. But what is smart anyways? Nas on Illmatic could definitely be seen as smart for his intrinsic wordplay and vivid imagery, but what about Nas on Hate Me Now? Was he smart for acting up in a shiny suit with Diddy pulling a Gucci Mane?
The real issue with Gucci is probably that he is one dimensional. He should strive for balance, something David Banner was doing until he fell off and said fuck it, I need to get paid.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Common did a Gap commercial. Case closed.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Jayson-
I’m genuinely into the fact that you read enough to recall my sort of wrong Wale comments or that you’d think my 216 visitors a day blogger ass is “one of the most popular” ones out there. Praising Wale isn’t exactly daring or challenging to much of anything the way praising Gucci is though…
June 12th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Why is it that people so often misguidedly look to artists to be “smart”? Their job is to be creative and make good art, not be a fucking scientist.
And wanting a “gangsta” rapper to rap about “non-material” things is so played out. It’s like asking John Ford not to have made westerns. Great rappers, like great filmmakers, find a way to innovate and breathe life into genre conventions.
Besides, how many great rap songs can you name where a rapper is just talking straightforwardly about some serious/”important” topic in a “smart” way that actually work? It seems like what half the people really want from a rapper is some kind of academic, not really a rapper.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Sooo tired of people listening to a few seconds of Gucci and dismissing him because they are too simple to realize how amazing he is. Best mixtape of ‘08: Gucci and Drama -The Movie. if you listen to Bachelor Pad or Add it Up and pay attention, you realize Gucci is genius.
I read in an interview that his mom was a school teacher, I think thats where he gets his vocab and perspective on language. Plus, that video of him jumping from the stage to punch a lady in the face kills.
June 12th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
noz: you should really peep the vid for this new kurious track featuring serch and doom, vid is really hilarious, serch is on some karate kid stylin. cant believe you havent posted a link about it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAJT5E48jn0
June 13th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
“a goofily entertaining, intermittently hilarious moron who raps like he’s been freshly smacked in the mouth with a sock full of quarters.”
Seriously, especially the sock full of quarters part. Even on his better songs, the effect is kinda like if a talented ghostwriter handed his shit to an affable dude with down’s syndrome and asked him to recite it. As Guru (ironically) once said…
June 13th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
You’re kidding about that Jackie Chain track, Right?
Right?
June 13th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
goddamn! that jackie chan is off the hizook.
June 13th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Wow! you guys make good rap. Your flow are so fine. Keep it p and nice simpson bling. Peace!
June 14th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I didn’t like Gucci at first ’cause his mushmouthed delivery put me off, but now I can definitely consider myself a fan. However, isn’t the whole “finding new and original ways to talk about the same few subjects” (I fuck hoes, I make cash, I have cars and jewelry that are all sorts of different colors, I sell coke) thing something that about 8 million rappers from the south and elsewhere have been doing since Jeezy blew up (and before, obviously, but it didn’t become a legit trend until the past few years)? I will admit that I don’t really understand it when people try to say that dudes like Young Dro, Gucci, etc are some sort of lyrical gods either.
What makes Gucci more special than most, for me, is the sheer amount of music he releases that actually manages to keep a pretty high level of quality, how well him and Zaytoven work together as a producer/MC team, and that he seems to be better at actual songwriting (not necessarily lyricism) than most of his contemporaries.
June 14th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Common did a Gap commercial AND a song with the Jonas Brothers AND that played-out Universal Mind Control junk. Lonnie is done.
“BUBBA SPARXXX IS FUCKING GREAT
Let me just say that before I listen to any of these. That is clearly the thing that most urgently needs saying at the moment. Because it is true.”
Cosign on this, mostly. Too bad he dumbed down hard after Deliverance. That album was bananas.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:13 am
“Otherwise, my take on this guy after multiple spins through the Gucci Sosa mixtape: his “big rap leap” was from someone who wouldn’t have stood in in USDA to a goofily entertaining, intermittently hilarious moron who raps like he’s been freshly smacked in the mouth with a sock full of quarters.”
this is embarrassing bro
June 15th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I give up.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
“this is embarrassing bro”
I like “Wonderful!”
June 15th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
im just saying, u act like were saying this bcuz he needs to be ‘evangelized’ — ask anyone who listens to rap right now who the hottest rapper out is & they all tell you the same thing … no evangelism needed. & its like, either i can tell you “hey pay attention” or i can look the other way & wait ten years before the pfork crowd finally catches on. sonic gentrification.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
No evangelism needed? Really?
That seems like an odd thing for someone running a blog that posts about him almost every day to say. I don’t mean anything negative by that — I read your blog, and enjoy it. But if you’re not evangelizing on your blog, trying to convince people, when you say: “People who aren’t realizing/understanding this are either stigmatizing and/or just plain not paying attention.” well, then — what exactly are you doing? Isn’t that what we’re all doing with the shit we love when we post songs and write about them and them argue about them?
Oh, and it’s kind of weird for you to use “the pfork crowd” as some kind of outdated straw man considering how often you have written for them.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Despite all the other bullshit, “Wonderful” is in fact a great song and I’ve been listening to it like 15 times a day since it leaked.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I enjoy covering & writing about his music because it is interesting, & despite the Vibe mag summary that we supposedly translate southern rap for northern elites or whatever, im definitely getting to the point where i dont really care whether or not ppl are willing to give him a chance. at this point, its pretty embarrassing that no major critics — where is SFJ on this? — have actually even tried to engage with this stuff. (Wishing Kelefa was still with the Times right now).
I enjoy writing about Gucci’s shit because its interesting. Since I first posted the o.g. gucci post, ive pretty much avoided any attempts to convince & convert and shifted to purely descriptive writing, personally. (cant speak for Jordan, who also posts about Gucci at the shrimp). It seems incredibly obvious to me that Gucci’s a singular talent & leagues ahead of whatever else is going on in rap right now. Im not interested in writing for people who allow their biases to keep them from acknowledging true originality when its staring them right in the face, this far into it.
in my opinion its a lot more interesting to talk about what it is gucci’s doing that is interesting than trying to ‘convert’ ppl with hyperbole. it shouldnt even be necessary at this pt; im not doing ‘btw rappers are, in fact, performing!!!’ remedial art appreciation posts to explain that maybe its not in spite of his slurred style that hes dope, but because of it
June 15th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
“where i dont really care whether or not ppl are willing to give him a chance. ”
^^^by this i mean fruit fly commentators & late-to-the-party blog posters or ppl so biased against gangster rap we shouldnt even be paying attention to them in the first place — obviously tons of people give him a chance & think hes interesting.
in fact im also very tired of this kind of boring criticism that pushes some pretend-objective value judgments and parades that around as ’serious music crit’ instead of looking at, functionally, what it is about the music that is working and the mechanisms/structure/logic of how it makes it work the way it does. your opinion on gucci’s worth on a scale of Flo Rida to Illmatic is worthless to me.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Ugh. Okay, let’s both just back away slowly now….no one wins once we enter the level-Five Comments-section nerd vortex.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Gucci going in WAY deeper with the concept of being a “dog” in his hook and first verse of this song than anyone has ever done before actually does kind of make a convincing argument for his lyrical ability:
http://dirtyglovebastard.blogspot.com/2009/04/audio-dg-yola-ft-gucci-mane-im-dog-prod.html
That also has to be one of the nicest Zaytoven beats ever.
June 16th, 2009 at 6:10 am
[...] posting this song so I can jump off what Noz said about Gucci and his love of language in this post. First, though: “Wonderful” is a great example of how Gucci’s become one of the [...]
June 16th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Anyone heard the new Jeezy diss of Gucci and OJ? Thug Motivation103 is shaping up to be hot.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Dunno man, I thought that was a pretty weak diss.
I’m not as in love with the last Jeezy tape as the rest of the world is either.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
I didn’t think that diss was that good either. I mean you’re one of the hottest rappers out right now, you’re dissing Gucci Mane and a guy calling himself “OJ Da Juiceman” and that’s all you can come up with?
June 16th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
yeah that diss was a slow pitch … w gucci ascendant i feel like everyones excited about this cuz they want to hear what gucci says back, not because they actually think jeezy’s track was worth hearing
June 16th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
“Dunno man, I thought that was a pretty weak diss.”
^^ I never said it was a great diss or anything, it’s just kind of funny that five years ago when Jeezy and Gucci were dissing each other nobody cared, and now it’s like what the fuck does Jeezy think he’s doing? (Maybe no one cares this time around either, but Gucci has made much more of a name for himself since then). Still, I’m psyched for 103, but then again I even liked The Inspiration, so…
June 18th, 2009 at 1:07 am
[...] *You didn’t think I could alliterate Pharoahe Monch’s name in the middle of the week, huh? I guess I’m just a classical rap thesaurus addict like that (……). [...]
June 18th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I dont know, anything everyone does lyrically right now is sub-wayne.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:11 am
no