"Trap = derived from southern "gangsta" rap; particularly mid-2000s stuff like gucci mane, young jeezy, t.i. lots of intricate, rattling 808 percussion & snare sounds along with booming kick drums and bass. a lot of the original producers used a lot of big wall-of-sound, gothic sounding synths and there was a noticeable influence from electronic genres like trance and electro, but filtered through a rap production aesthetic. now a huge influence on rap, r&b and electronic music, and the production is often a lot sleeker and less bombastic."
"Ratchet = term for the recent production style that draws on hyphy (e-40, keak da sneak, mistah fab etc), jerk music, crunk and g-funk. lots of simple rhythms, kicks and claps, squelchy synth bass. i think the term was originally used by lil boosie in Louisiana but now usually refers to west coast rap and r&b stuff like dj mustard, yg, ty dolla sign etc."
*This was left by an anonymous commenter. Thanks Anonymous I think you know your shit!
They've intermingled and cross-pollinated though haven't they and not just with each other but most other forms of 90s electronic music and some 90s rap ie. 666 Mafia, right?
More Sex, Drugs & Ratchet. I think Beatking's music is the most fully realised confluence of 90s rave culture and 10s rap so far and it's such an addictive sound. This one from last year's got rave horns, talk of mixing Es with codeine and echoes of 4 Hero's (Mr Kirk's Nightmare and Where's The Boy?) cautionary tales. Beatking says "These Molly's are gonna kill you in 5 years. But it's not 5 years right now so mix that shit with codeine." Not quite the same but 5 years is a long way off so party on right?
This is pretty much a Drake version of 2 On and it's pretty good but not really bettering the original. After the first minute of Tinashe's original he takes it over and makes it his own for the rest of the tune.
Then there's this which is pretty odd but this stays Tinashe's track. Although the whole vibe of the tune is moved to somewhere else not as compelling. The rap ain't anywhere near as good as the original Schoolboy Q cameo though. What was Vado thinking? How on earth was he gonna top one of the great rap cameos of all time? He shouldn't have even bothered. I imagine Schoolboy Q being not too threatened by its lameness. I love that string loop thing though, nice. Remixes: What were they for again?
Here's another killah tune from Beatking's mixtape Gangsta Stripper Music 2. Echoes of Darkside Hardcore, Gabba, Marc Arcadipane and more. This could be the tune of 2014!
Similar influences here as well as a bit of 90s Dutch, Belgian and the omnipresent 666 Mafia.
This one is incredible too. Haunted, disorientated and faded!
This has been on a couple of DJ Mustard 2014 mixtapes. I know I've seen a couple of videos from Iggy Azalea* so I was a little surprised that this one was her. I'm not sure if this even made it onto her album. The intro (and pretty much the rest) is pure Kraftwerk, goin back to hip hop's roots. Mustard doesn't put his usual "Mustard On The Beat Hoe" trademark on this tune which makes me wonder if it's him at all? His other sonic trademarks are here though but he's got imitators who are according to him are"Fucking up the Money!"
*Ok I can see the contradiction here (ie. she be an Aussie) and no I'm not currently listening to Andre Rieu. But here's a funny picture for you all, if you missed it last year on Twitter. Have a good look. I can't get enough of this!
Mustard On The Beat (at) Ho(me) still. Love the bass pressure in this one. Doesn't August Alsina (and Mustard brings his a game on the beat) just capture losing it perfectly, that point where you're so wasted (sorry faded), just when it's all gonna go pear shaped. Cough mixture be the drink of choice among this lot, Reynolds reliably informs me. I was comparing the wasted sound of this scene' tunes to being sonically akin to mixing painkillaz (and by that I mean codeine or Oxycontin) with alcohol & whatever else. Dextromethorphan is a popular ingredient in cough medicine in America, which in high doses can causes hallucinations. But the cough mixture of choice is the one containing codeine and promethazine. It all reminds me of a story Jim Carroll wrote in his book Forced Entries, if memory serves, about the New York scene in the early 70s. When there was a heroin shortage they'd get into the cough syrup with the codeine in it, just get it over the counter at the Chemist (Aussie term for drugstore) no questions asked. There was a great Townes Van Zandt track too, Waitin' around to die, that was a love song of sorts to one his many drugs of choice codeine. Now kids and the rappers mix these syrups with soda and call it lean which my brother in law told me about last year. I think I was asking him "what do you reckon is in those red polystyrene cups in all these music videos?" He then said "You mean lean." I went "right" thinking it was something like what the Peruvian musicians have been into since the 60s, Chicha. Chicha being an old Inca alcoholic drink that was used in rituals and festivals. Anyway I was a bit off the mark. Actavis (the pharmaceutical company) even pulled the plug on production on their Promethazine Codeine syrup a month ago due to its growing cult and the way it's being abused. Lean apparently causes euphoria along with motor skill impairment and a dissociative feeling from other parts of the body("I can't feel my face, I'm so numb") . Some rappers have even been overdose victims of Lean mixed with other substances. The promethazine is the catalyst for intensifying the euphoric effects of the codeine in your system. There's a whole list of other slang names for Lean: Purple Drank, Sizzurp, Texas Tea etc.
A cumbia/Chica tune from 1970. Sex Drugs & Tropical Chicha! Good vibes on this one man.
Well here Drake sets us straight with what's up with his sex, drugs & Rap. Who knows what they're smokin though? It's not something I've probably even heard of, let alone seen, let alone smoked (getting old). Sex high on pot was always a pretty dodgy and preposterous proposition, usually completely out of the question, so I'm guessing it's not that.
On another tangent has anyone ever noticed some of Drake's trax are a lot like Burial. They seem to have remnants of the hardcore continuum scattered throughout, is that just me? Never read a review on him so I wouldn't know if people are hip to that. Burial could have produced Nothing Was The Same for all I know. It's probably just both artists using the same musical equipment and coming up with a similar feel despite being from different traditions. I must admit the only Drake tune I knew before listening to this album was this really bloody annoying video that was on channel V every 5 minutes. So I couldn't stand him. In fact I would switch the telly off if it came on. Sonically diggin this LP a lot. Dunno 'bout the words yet though. He doesn't seem very cool but hey that hasn't stopped Kanye being an erratic genius.
