Makaya McCraven's "Deciphering the Message" is out this week --- go listen now!!! McCraven's doing his normal digging/live instrumentation hybrid but with access to Blue Note records here and the end result is exceptional, as expected. Probably my big release for the week.

Other interesting release is a special edition of MED/Madlib/Blu's "Bad Neighbor" -- I think some of the original is remastered here but also some unreleased material. Haven't looked too deep into it but glad this is getting a second life.

Besides that, it actually looks like a bit of a spotty week...

Isaiah Rashad dropped something that looks like a companion to The House is Burning.

Apollo Brown and Stalley, "Blacklight" is out. Maybe I'm in a contrarian mood but I'm listening now and ... eh, nevermind, lol, i'll share opinions later.

Anyhow, sure there's a lot more out there. What's everyone checking for?


-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

Didn't know about that MED/Madlib/Blu unreleased stuff.
Might check that.

>Apollo Brown and Stalley, "Blacklight" is out. Maybe I'm in a
>contrarian mood but I'm listening now and ... eh, nevermind,
>lol, i'll share opinions later.

Ha. I have a "producer" playlist folder on my iTunes (yeah I still use it).
So I group an entire producers work all together (Jay Dee, Primo, Q-Tip, etc).
I have an Apollo Brown folder and like...there's some great stuff there,
but I'm beginning to feel like it all sounds the same.
I got an email notification about this release and just like you I"m like "eh..."
AND I LIKE DUDE! Is this due to music exhaustion?
Would we be hype about this release had there not been 10 others just like it?

This was originally part of my reply #2 but I didn't want to come off too negative.

The other day I was listening to a new album (forget which one) and a song came on and I immediately was like "oh Apollo Brown produced this" and man can I do that with like 95% accuracy. I'm getting Apollo Brown fatigue both due to him working predominantly with rappers I'm not into but also because his beats rarely stray from the formula.

The record static at the beginning of his beats may as well be his producer tag at this point.

>Ha. I have a "producer" playlist folder on my iTunes (yeah I
>still use it).
>So I group an entire producers work all together (Jay Dee,
>Primo, Q-Tip, etc).
>I have an Apollo Brown folder and like...there's some great
>stuff there,
>but I'm beginning to feel like it all sounds the same.
>I got an email notification about this release and just like
>you I"m like "eh..."
>AND I LIKE DUDE! Is this due to music exhaustion?
>Would we be hype about this release had there not been 10
>others just like it?
>

>The record static at the beginning of his beats may as well be
>his producer tag at this point.

Yes!

>Ha. I have a "producer" playlist folder on my iTunes (yeah I
>still use it).
>So I group an entire producers work all together (Jay Dee,
>Primo, Q-Tip, etc).

I only *just* started doing this on Spotify and I don't know why it's taken me so long... also started making playlists for emcee features because I often forget about that stuff.

>I have an Apollo Brown folder and like...there's some great
>stuff there,
>but I'm beginning to feel like it all sounds the same.
>I got an email notification about this release and just like
>you I"m like "eh..."
>AND I LIKE DUDE! Is this due to music exhaustion?
>Would we be hype about this release had there not been 10
>others just like it?

Like anything, I think it's complicated. In this case, my first reaction was that Stalley's rapping is just plain lazy. I don't know his stuff very well, I know I've heard some good stuff in the past yet he's never wowed me, but this just feels super generic and with no real energy.

Then as others have suggested here and as you're getting at, Apollo's beats just aren't doing a lot for me right now. I've always appreciated him but, kind of like you're saying, I think I'd struggle to make a list of absolute favorite beats from him (and most of them would older).

I didn't listen to the whole Pharoahe Monch interview on QLS but I remember he commented on how *much* real emcee talent there is out there now and it's something I've been thinking about a lot. Not just in terms of rapping but even in production. Listening fatigue might be real but so is that fact that there's just a ton of genuinely *good* stuff out there that mediocre shit shows itself a bit more.

One more aside: I don't think every rapper has to be gunning for top 10 status by any stretch but yesterday I listened to two of this year's releases from Rome Streetz and he had more interesting lines, wordplay, and straight-up energy in the FIRST CUT than Stalley showed on this whole record. It just makes me wonder who greenlights some of this shit, lol.

BUT I'm not trying to diss anyone's taste. Like Ishwip said, it works for him and that's cool. I can even kind of understand it, it's just not doing it for me.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

I really wish the venn diagram of "rappers I want to listen to" and "rappers Apollo Brown makes album with" had a larger intersection.

I'm hoping for a follow-up of Mona Lisa with Joell Ortiz.

>Apollo Brown and Stalley, "Blacklight" is out. Maybe I'm in a
>contrarian mood but I'm listening now and ... eh, nevermind,
>lol, i'll share opinions later.

Listened last night and this morning and I knew exactly what the criticisms were going to be. It is pretty one note, similar tempo/feel/groove song after song.

I don't mind this, it's comfort food for my ears, but I completely understand if someone says it's boring or one-dimensional. I've copped to liking "boring" music before and this is a dimension I like.

I do feel like up until this album Apollo had been making a strong effort to expand his sound so I wonder if Stalley just really wanted to roll with this very specific Apollo lane this go round.

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

>I do feel like up until this album Apollo had been making a
>strong effort to expand his sound so I wonder if Stalley just
>really wanted to roll with this very specific Apollo lane this
>go round.
>

It didn't get a lot of love on here but I really enjoyed the Raheem DeVaughn album. It was cool to see Apollo step out of the rap lane if for just a quick moment.

Napoleon da Legend - The World Changed
* He's pretty new to me, just started listening to him this year through is "Whole in My Heart" series ... he's still green but very okayplayer-ish, lol. Beats here are by Amerigo Gazaway and they're pretty solid on first listen. I'll come back to this and spend a bit more time soon I think. Skyzoo feature on one of the closing tracks.

Noveliss & Dixon Hill - Book of Changes
* Haven't listened yet.

DJ Muggs - Winter 2
* Has Muggs always been this prolific? He literally has 7 releases to his name this year. I think this is a more general mixtape-type collection though. Listened to his project with Rome Streetz yesterday and enjoyed a lot of the production, fitting for the season - will probably check.



-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

https://open.spotify.com/track/3HicZmZQqn09gi8xG7v9iZ?si=535cbb070d0e424e

She stayed away far too long, but this EP is pretty damn good.

This is album titled song....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVhbG5x_5Lk

Fantastic!

even my 16 year old nephew was digging this and he thinks Mike Will Made it is fricken Stevie Wonder level genius



<=========================================
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/PYzh4v9cSf4FDnq3yMQyqNqh79o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4079674/jlio.0.gif

https://youtu.be/JUKh7Cj_3Fo

Not mad at this at all, just a little weird this 2021 version has a lot of the same songs but in a different order with some new/unreleased stuff added in. Both versions are titled the same from what I'm seeing on YouTube Music (Google Play) with slightly different album covers (red buildings vs. gray).


__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)