CLASSICS: Wu-Tang Clan-Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) ALBUM REVIEW

   There is hip-hop, and then there is this masterpiece of the highest degree. In my opinion, this is the greatest album in the genre's history due to how aggressive, raw, and just flat out enjoyable it is above almost all other hip-hop. There are a select few albums I'd put on about the same level as this gem (Fugees-The Score, Viktor Vaughn Vaudeville Villain) but 36 Chambers gets the edge for how important it was to the development of hip-hop as a whole. It literally changed the game and, at the time, defied categorization. It wasn't jazz rap, gangsta rap, conscious rap, or even traditional old school rap, it was just...a new sound for hip-hop entirely that came out of left field to ensnare everyone who would listen to its greatness, and I'm one of those people. In fact, this was the album that got the ball rolling for me when it came to hip-hop; it turned me from a jaded rap-hating rocker into to a fan of music well outside the rock spectrum.

CLASSICS: Gorillaz-Demon Days: ALBUM REVIEW

  

   Broadening your musical tastes can often times be very rewarding, after all, it implies finding enjoyment in areas of the musical spectrum that you previously wouldn't have given the time of day to. I experienced this with hip-hop, indie rock, and this gem, a mixture of the two.

IN DEFENSE: Why I Like Odd Future

  

    Liek, omigod! #OFWGKTA is da shit thay have soo much $WAG seeriusley I want too looze my job becuz Odd Fuchur has a lot of $WAG maeks no sense but wuteva da Wu Tang Klan IS sumthing to fuck wit now holee shit fuck 2 doe boyz thay can suck sum pimpul coverd dicks like Tyler sed it will onlee give him mor $WAG

$WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG $WAG

Kendrick Lamar-good kid m.A.A.d. city: ALBUM REVIEW

   Hip-hop after the mid-'90s has never ever appealed to me. Ever. MF DOOM is an exception, a big exception at that, and I also really enjoy the Odd Future guys (an opinion piece on them will be posted tomorrow) but other than that, it looks to me like hip-hop has plummeted into a well of cliches and boring predictability; lazy flows, cringe-inducing lyrics and a dull and boring image of gold chains and wealth without much substance to back it up. Seriously, just look at these fucking mixtape covers! (here and here)  And yes, I do realize that the bling and bravado is all part of the definitive hip-hop aesthetic, and it would be wrong for those elements, as tired out as they are, to disappear from hip-hop entirely. The thing is, I just wish modern hip-hop could be filled with more innovators and less traditionalists, basically, more people "zigging" and less people "zagging". DOOM (who's album Vaudeville Villain I reviewed here) is one of those "ziggers" with his esoteric oddball rhymes, avoidance of generic rap topics, and penchant for bypassing catchy hooks almost entirely. But I digress. Recently, a relatively new rapper came to my attention who has garnered great praise with his last two albums, and even hard-to-please critics Anthony Fantano and Pitchfork Media gave his latest, good kid m.A.A.d. city, very high scores (both of them gave the album a 9 out of 10.) And of course, the young rapper I am speaking of is Kendrick Lamar.

CLASSICS: Viktor Vaughn-Vaudeville Villain: ALBUM REVIEW

   Apparently, God was fed up with hip-hop in 2003 and divinely inspired Daniel Dumile-then known as MF DOOM-to team up with a team of talented producers and create one of the most exciting, hard-hitting, and thoroughly satisfying underground hip-hop albums of all time: Vaudeville Villain.