Jonah Numbers

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 If their music doesn't evolve, their music won't reflect where they are in life and will feel outdated and inauthentic.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

(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.

I know I'm late to the party when it comes to this review. I wanted to live with this album for a while and see how well it ages. Easily the most stand-out feature of this album is the production. From front to back, this album sounds like a masterpiece of progressive rock production. What impressed me the most about this was the fact that on nearly every song, Lil Yachty himself has a production credit. In addition to that, a plethora of other artists were credited for their production contributions. While it's easy to count that against yachty with the mindset of "why didn't he produce the whole thing himself", it takes an incredible amount of talent to gather that many artists and coordinate them to make one cohesive project. It's very clear his time spent working with Kanye on Donda paid off drastically. This whole album seems like a true labor of love. The thought that captivated my mind throughout the whole listening experience was "Why did he do this? Lil Yachty didn't have to do this". In truth he didn't, he's seen more success in his career than most people ever will yet still he had the passion to completely reinvent himself. The build-up to this album was crazy to experience firsthand. It started with the Poland leak. At the time I remember thinking "this is a fun Lil Yachty song", not knowing that the vocal effects he experimented with in that song would play a central role in his next album. Then Drake's album 'Her Loss' released with Lil Yachty having production credit on arguably 3 of the best songs on the album. If anything I expected Lil Yachty to continue that sound that he struck gold with. Then the album was released and it was a complete departure from anything I expected. There's something so beautiful about that. Like a magician carefully using misdirection to guide the audience's focus away from the reality of things only to finally reveal the true outcome of the trick. I feel bamboozled, hoodwinked, and hornswoggled in the best way possible. I've heard a lot of criticisms of this album specifically in regard to Lil Yachty's voice. I simply just disagree, I like his voice throughout the album. I will say that the album is a little lacking in replay value to me although that could be a personal preference. I feel like this album is best enjoyed all together in one listen rather than listening to individual songs but that's extremely subjective. Other than that I feel like the message told throughout the album comes off a little forced at times but that's clearly not the main focus. Overall I'm extremely impressed. I've gained a new respect for Lil Yachty as an artist and I can't wait to see what he puts out next. Favorite Songs - the BLACK seminole. - pRETTy - IVE OFFICIALLY LOST ViSiON!!!!

• https://open.spotify.com/album/6Per97deaWqrJlKQNX8RGK?si=ggrgJAfMTjySUQZDOI5b3Q

1. To Pimp a Butterfly 2. Good Kid M.a.a.d City 3. Mr Moral and The Big Steppers 4. Damn 5. Section 80

1. Life of Pablo 2. Yeezus 3. 808s 4. Ye 5. My beautiful dark twisted fantasy 6. Graduation 7. Donda 8. Jesus is King 9. College drop out 10. Late registration

there are two fundamental manifestations of emotional health the music and the colors the music is your emotional connection to the world around you. the better the music sounds the stronger the connection the colors are your emotional connections to a specific subject; like a person, place, or thing. the better the colors look the stronger the connection similar to the psychological concepts of divergent and convergent thinking; the two concepts are different sides of the same coin there are two fundamental manifestations of emotional health: the music and the colors. the music is your emotional connection to the world around you. the better the music sounds the stronger the connection. the colors are your emotional connections to a specific subject, like a person, place, or thing. the better the colors look the stronger the connection similar to the psychological concepts of divergent and convergent thinking; the two concepts are different sides of the same coin

i think the word deluxe has beef overused as of recently and has largely become a trend but i think what baby keem did here was a good application of the word. while technically being new material, the 7 additional songs don’t expand of any of the themes of the main album and they don’t experiment sonically(relative to the main album). these songs do seem to tell their own story but this story definitely exists in the universe created by the rest of the album. this is why i think baby keem chose to make it a deluxe and not a separate ep. one thing that immediately stood out to me was the arrangement of these songs. the moment i saw 7 songs my mind went back to Kanye’s Ye album. Kanye’s album makes use of a Chiastic structure which seems to also be the case in baby keems deluxe. Chiastic patterns are biblical literary devices that tells a story that “mirrors” it self like a palindrome. listening to the deluxe this way reveals just how many parallels there are from the front of the deluxe to the back. this was a refreshing take on an old concept. favorite songs - bank account (i’ve been listening to the snippet for months) - highway 95 (i drive that highway everyday and i don’t take lauryn hill samples lightly) - a life of pain (the piano arpeggios create this indescribable tension)

I encountered a really interesting theory on TikTok regarding the storytelling devices used on Kendrick Lamar's first two albums and I wanted to expand it to the rest of his discography. To paraphrase the existing portion of the theory Section. 80 is a book (the campfire motif), Good Kid Maad City is a movie (the linear story telling), and To Pimp a Butterfly is a poem which I shouldn't have to explain. That leaves Kendrick's two newest albums to examine. Mr Moral and the Big Steppers is a play centered around therapy, most evident in songs like We Cry Together, Worldwide Steppers, and Auntie Diaries. Despite arguably being his most approachable album, Damn was the hardest for be to figure out. Initially I thought of it as a journal taking a deep dive into each of Kendrick's emotions. Unfortunately the lack of a linear story-line largely ruled this device out. Each song on this album seems to live in it's own self-contained world. The only thing comparable to this style of story-telling is a TV Show.

ive lived with this album for the past two years. listening to this album is truly a transformative experience. The album has the ability to build these psychedelic environments for each of its tracks to exist in. In large part I think this is due to NAV’s ability as a producer and less to do with his rapping ability. Which brings me to the reason I was so hesitant to review this album. A lot of rap fans don’t like this album due to NAV’s rapping ability and his vocal performance. While those are both legitimate hindrances to the album, I’d be disingenuous if I said I still didn’t enjoy it. NAV’s delivery is stiff and robotic and the occasional cliche lines do take you out of the experience of the album (shoot a 30 no curry). But in a very strange sense I feel like this almost adds to the character of the album. NAV’s delivery has a very interesting contrast to the atmospheric beats he raps on and the corny lines add a sense of humor. Overall, a very good listen Favorite tracks: - Myself (the outdo is heavenly) - My mind - Nav (Nav by Nav on Nav[the album]) - Some way (Justin beiber diss track) - Up