>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 ~