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Looking back on it the progression for If Looks Could Kill and its character Look Killa was insane. It all started with the Fashion Demon snippet going viral on TikTok. That snippet ended up getting released as a full song called If Looks Could Kill. That song ended up being the lead single off an album of the same title and that album spawned Destroy Lonely's character Look Killa. Part of me thinks this was all planned out especially since he did a very similar thing for his previous album No Stylist. It started with a song going viral on TikTok which turned into a full-length project. Still, I wonder how much influence Destroy Lonely actually has over this. I lived through the rollout of both projects and actively saw both songs go viral on TikTok. I can personally say that the growth of those songs seemed very organic and not like a massive label campaign which makes me doubt the theory of it being a deliberate attempt from a label. Another part of me thinks Destroy Lonely is taking a more reactive approach to things. Waiting for one of his songs to go viral and then releasing a body of work to accompany that single and take advantage of its virality. This could very well be said for No Stylist but it seems unlikely that he'd be able to film a short film, design a character, and build a universe in the time it took for If Looks Could Kill to go viral. Maybe it's just a coincidence that all this happened in perfect order but that seems just as unlikely. Regardless, No Stylist is a great album.

Anyone who has ever tried to do anything creative has likely experienced "creative block". Even writing this now is a struggle for me. I haven't felt like I had much to write about recently but I want to explore this topic. The first question we must answer is what it means to be creative and what is the job of an artist. In its simplest form creating art is merely taking one's experiences and influences and turning them into a tangible product. All artists do this, knowingly or not. All artists make things they desire to see outside of their heads. The things they desire to make are a direct result of their own personal experiences causing them to favor certain things. By examining the output of an artist we are able to get a greater picture of what life was like for that creator and what they were going through when they created their work. I think on some level all creators are aware of this. They know deep down that what they make reflects them and their life in some way. Even when they aren't making work that would be categorized as "serious" or "deep". People don't ever stop having experiences, people don't ever stop picking up new influences. But at some point, we don't know how to express these things and feel like we have nothing to express at all. Creative Block often times manifests itself as a lack of motivation but I think it's deeper than that. When someone experiences Creative Block it isn't because they don't know what to make, the answer is often right in their face. It's due to discomfort in wanting to share their experiences with the world. To bring this back to Kendrick Lamar, I think there's a lot we can learn from seeing his experience with Creative Block. There was a 5-year gap between Kendrick Lamars Damn and Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers. Obviously, Kendrick Lamar's life didn't stop in those 5 years. He was still learning and growing as a person so what prevented him from coming out with a new album sooner? For the first time since the early days of his career, he had to write about his present life. Every major release from Kendrick Lamar leading up to this album spoke about a past event in his life. While surely traumatic, the events Kendrick Lamar chooses to explore in his previous work are all topics he's already processed. He is able to see them clearly and make connections that he likely wouldn't have been able to make in the past. Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers was different, it explored issues that Kendrick Lamar was actively living through and will likely continue to live through for the rest of his life. Making such a large project about something so vulnerable where you know there will be millions of eyes examining every aspect of it is a tall task. Coming to the conclusion that the life in front of you is the story you have to tell is an even taller order, especially when everyone around you thinks you've made it. This likely caused a large sense of discomfort for Kendrick Lamar and lead him to believe he didn't have a story to tell. A great example of this is his leaked track Hooligans where he flat out says "I got something to say, which is nothing to say". Listening to the plethora of Kendrick Lamar leaks and demo tracks in between Damn and Mr. Moral and the Big Steppers might make you think he didn't know what direction to go in for his next project. You, the person reading this, might not know what direction to take for your next project. I can assure you, the answer is almost always right in front of you.

They need to make a version of munchies with no pretzels

This is a bug I'm all to familiar with. This is the second Linux machine of mine to experience it. To explain what happens is that sporadically my save file/ open file dialog box will stop appearing, completely blocking from uploading or saving any kind of file from the internet. I still don't know what causes the issue, especially since both times it cropped up after a fresh install. I hope at some point Canonical can fix this. Thank you to the random user on stack overflow who happened to have the solution after many minutes of Googling. If you're reading this and find value in what I'm talking about you should go upvote their solution. The solution is to just run the following command in your terminal sudo apt install xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/1438476/ubuntu-22-04-save-as-dialog-box-not-showing

First, I'd like to express my gratitude that he didn't label this a "deluxe". Although it's practically the same thing, it is refreshing to hear a new term. Of all of Tyler's albums, this one seems the most fitting to receive a deluxe version. The main album is about luxury and Tyler celebrating his success after his last smash-hit project. It's maximalist and decadent, two aspects that perfectly warrant a deluxe. My sincerest apologies for not reviewing Call Me If You Get Lost when it came out. Before entering the deluxe I want to speak about the main album. CMIYGL immediately enthralled me with its loud and confident rap production. Initially, songs like Juggernaut, Lemonhead, Hot Wind Blows, and Lumberjack had my attention in a chokehold. The rest of the album was largely lost on me until I decided to listen to the whole project. I love the production shift on this album from Igor. It is nice to hear Tyler rapping more. There were a couple of dull moments on this album. Specifically tracks 11 through 13 didn't move me much along with a couple of other tracks across the project. Overall though I'd say it was an excellent project, I couldn't think of a better follow-up to Igor. The deluxe was truly great. It was the perfect send-off for this era of Tyler. It had all of the braggadocious bars and heartfelt moments of CMIYGL while at the same time feeling like a sincere goodbye from this era of Tyler. I still wonder why Tyler chose to keep some of these songs off of the main album. To be completely honest there isn't a single skip in the deluxe. I do feel like we could have gotten a more substantial performance from A$AP Rocky on Warf Talk. I also would have loved to hear Kanye on Heaven to Me. I can't wait to see what direction Tyler goes next. Favorite songs The main album Sir Baudelaire - I love Michael Irvin by Westside Gunn. When I heard that beat as the intro to the album it was a great surprise. Shout out to my air fryer Hot Wind Blows - I love this Lil Wayne verse. This beat sounds like fresh linen Sweet / I thought you wanted to dance Juggernaut - I love the Lil Uzi verse and the Pharrell verse The Deluxe Stuntman - Really fun song Dogtooth - Funner song Heaven to me - The production on this song is amazing. Like "What a Day" but better. I love the storytelling in this song. Sorry not sorry - Just a great ending Songs I really liked at one point but had to stop listening to Wasyaname Runitup Lumberjack Lemonhead

The way it currently stands, Uzi is at a crossroads in their career. Everyone wants the old Uzi back, and with his EP Red+White, that seems to be the direction they're headed. My concern is with the long-term effect of that. While Uzi might be able to win over old-time fans temporarily, how will their music hold up as rap itself evolve and as Uzi, themself, ages? Uzi has been rapping since they were in High School, and their music has hardly changed in that time period. Uzi is almost 30 now. If their music doesn't evolve, their music won't reflect where they are in life and will feel outdated and inauthentic. We have heard statements from Uzi that they plan on experimenting a lot more on their next project The Pink Tape. Even more recently Uzi stated that he plans on making more thoughtful songs rather than rapping about "random stuff". Hopefully, this means we get a more meaningful and forward-thinking Uzi project. Hopefully, the Red+White EP was just a sample of Uzi's old sound to placate old-time fans. Only time will tell. The only thing that's certain is that I'm going to listen to it the day it comes out.

Green Eyes & Window Seat - Erykah Badu I finally started going through her discography and these songs have stuck with me like no other Worth It & Tomorrow 'Til Infinity - Young Thug The chorus on both of these songs is so good and I love Thug's emotional vulnerability on both Seigfried - Frank Ocean Need I say more. Thank you Layla for making me revisit this song. Kant Nobody Lil Wayne on a swizz beat is something to behold. Definitely stand out in Lil Wayne's modern discography Private Landing - Don Toliver Justin Beiber's verse on this song is unironically good and is honestly my favorite part of the song

I just wanted to provide some important resources for Opium including our GitHub repository, our terms and conditions, and our privacy policy. For any inquiries, we can be reached at contact@opium.press.

• https://github.com/jadens-arc/opium.press
• https://opium.press/terms-and-conditions
• https://opium.press/privacy-policy

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(and modern Eminem, Dax, Joyner Lucas, and a whole bunch more) Amongst hardcore rap fans, all of these rappers tend to be categorized under one umbrella term known as "corny". Despite being hugely popular, most of their success comes from people outside the rap community. It isn't productive to just give an artist a label and then entirely disregard them so I want to elaborate on what makes these rappers corny. Corniness means a lot of different things in different contexts but specifically within rap corniness can be equated to inauthenticity. Recently, I listened to a good portion of NF's discography and there are a few attributes I noticed throughout his work. His flows, melodies, and beat selection are all very generic. The perspective his music is told from doesn't feel authentic. The topics and concepts he chooses to explore throughout his work are all very generic and not thought-provoking. To be clear this isn't meant to bash NF in any way, I'm aiming to define the divide between corny rappers and other rappers as well as hopefully gain a better understanding as to why I don't like his music beyond "it's corny, I don't like it". My first point of his music sounding generic is highly subjective. NF in particular seems to have a very strong affinity for very plastic-sounding "orchestral" instrumentals. It's very clear that most of this music is produced using some kind of DAW rather than live instruments. There's nothing wrong with using a DAW but NF's producers don't seem to leverage the benefits of their tools. The beats that NF raps on use very little layering of instruments, simplistic drum patterns, and common chord progressions. Overall this leaves the instrumentals feeling hollow and almost fake in a way, like plastic. Compared to the ever-changing and evermore elaborate beats found in today's current rap landscape, NF's production doesn't hold up. His music speaks about him, not from him. There's an aspect of his lyrics that feels detached from who he is. A lot of this seems to be an unfortunate byproduct of his writing style. Everything he talks about seems to be in the wrong tense. He never speaks about how he currently feels or what he's currently doing. It seems to be a past event that triggers past emotions. Then in the song, he's contemplating future decisions. Which on paper sounds like the correct way to tell a story but in practice, it comes off as detached from the scenario. Combine that with the generic production and his very forced-sounding delivery and it sounds like he isn't truly living what he's talking about. Contrast this to most other rappers who speak in the direct present tense first person "I am this", "I'm doing this", and "is this what you want". The vast majority of his songs are about sadness and depression, unfortunately, he doesn't give a unique perspective on any of these serious issues or express them in a unique way. There's a plethora of depressed rappers out there, merely coming out and saying "I am depressed" isn't enough to separate your art from the rest of the pack. Admittedly to the casual listener, this might not be much of an issue. If you haven't listened to a good portion of this style of music then it is understandable how his work could move you. The question remains. Why are these artists so popular in the first place? The answer to that question lies in their fanbases. The majority of these people are not into rap music and thus the slightest hint of rapping sounds special enough to catch their ear. Even if the themes or presentation are all very generic to most rap fans. For us, when we want to hear something different we seek out the creative deliveries of a Young Thug, the witty punch lines of a Lil Wayne, the sporadic and unpredictable melodies of Baby Keem, the complex storytelling of Kendrick Lamar, or the experimental stage presence of Playboi Carti. For most non-rap fans all of these artists are too far of a departure from what they normally enjoy to find listenable. NF makes a very tamed version of rap music for people who don't really like rap.