"Rebels" (With Footnotes)

Here is the second in my series of lyrical examinations of the songs of my second mixtape, "Core Nerd II."

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "Rebels." This song has a very specific origin, it's a response song to the tune "Accidental Racist," by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J. While I get what they were trying to do, and I applaud the goal, I think they failed. Oversimplifying racism and slavery (and its aftereffects) and equating slavery with hip hop style is not exactly a valid approach and it probably does more harm than help. So this was my response song, written the day I first heard of the original song. The beat decided the way the song sounded, even though I wrote the words first. In the original creation, it was a much slower song, but once I started recording, it got faster and I loved the new sound.

Accidental racist? Man kiss my ass

I start off explicitly rejecting Paisley's concept of "accidental" racism. It's a bullshit concept. Wearing a Confederate flag or putting in on your vehicle or something like that is an active decision to endorse racism. It's impossible to grow up in the South and not have people complain about it, so if you ignore those complaints, you aren't engaging in an accident, you've made a decision.

The bell ain't ringing and you get no hall pass

Rex is gonna take you to class

Let's talk a little bit about the past

Switching over to an intro that sets my credentials as a Professor by throwing out a few academic metaphors that are largely literal with me, as a former college professor who taught American history. The idea was to use the song as a jumping off point to address the lies and distortions used by Southerners. Beyond the basic premise, I wasn't really going after LL or Paisley, but the people who fly that evil, evil flag.

The rebel flag was a sign of treason

Starting with a very clear premise here that is 100% backed up by the historical record. The U.S. was the country that all of these racists were citizens of, then they engaged in treason against it in order to keep owning black people. None of this is debatable.

The reason you fly it doesn't matter

Some people give other reasons for why they fly the flag like "I'm not racist, it's about Southern history" and other such bullshit. But that doesn't matter, it's still a flag that represents treason and racism. I can't grab a Swastika and say that I'm wearing it to represent my paganism, it represents Nazis. Period. And the rebel flag represents the Confederacy, which was 100% a pro-slavery, anti-American institution.

Let me shatter that thought process

Your nonsense notions, let me address

It wasn't about slavery?

Man you must be joking

That flag's not racist?

Man what are you smoking?

It's all about Southern pride?

Man you must be toking

Fighting for a noble cause?

You gotta be joking

This section is all about actual quotes that I've had people tell me many times over the years. And not just from conservatives. Actual moderate, and even some liberal, white people believe these nonsensical lies that were made up after the fact to justify the evil of the Confederacy.

You think you're a rebel

But you side with the devil

You brag about your flag

But you're hanging with the scum bags

You think you're a rebel
But you side with the devil
You brag about your flag
But you're hanging with the scum bags

The chorus takes on the idea that Confederate sympathizers think of themselves as being against tyranny, when, in reality, they are siding with the tyrants.

States rights is just a code

Opening the door for Jim Crow

States rights to own slaves

To put millions in their graves

States rights to breed hate

To treat people like real estate

The second verse gets into some of the specific history, particularly the states' rights argument. But while many now talk about states rights in generic term, as if a piece of land can have a right, the reality is that states rights is dogwhistle language created to signal racism (amongst other evil things) without some people catching on. I'm not one of those who doesn't catch on. I know what you're doing and I'm going to call you out on it. During the Civil War, the only state right that was being fought for was the state's right to keep slavery legal.

Your state has no right

In this fight might wasn't right

I'm a firm believer that "might makes right" is not only invalid, it's immoral. And it's particularly immoral in connection with slavery.

This didn't all happen in the past

Southern racism was built to last

Here today and here tomorrow

Another massive misconception that white people toss out is the idea that all this racism stuff is in the distant past. It's nonsensical for many reasons, most notably that many racists are still running around out there saying racist things. Check YouTube comments, Twitter, Facebook, WorldNetDaily, any Southern local Republican Party, the Tea Party, etc.

Trail of tears, trail of sorrow

Here, I'm tying in slavery to the same kind of mindset that led to violence against Native Americans, another key factor in Southern history.

You think it ended in 1865?

That it didn't happen while you were alive

Wrong again, you need to know

This shit is now, not a long time ago

Summing up the basic argument that racism persists, which I expand upon in the next verse.

You think you're a rebel

But you side with the devil

You brag about your flag

But you're hanging with the scum bags

You think you're a rebel
But you side with the devil
You brag about your flag
But you're hanging with the scum bags

The chorus again.

Slavery ended but not so you'd notice

Bogus ferocious laws focused on the perpetuation

Of bondage and destitution, new institutions

Like peonage, sharecropping, the prison-lease system

Segregation, lynching, kept a race in their place

As defined by white men, it didn't end

Cycle of poverty, separate but equal

Slavery was part one, but there were many sequels

Basic history lesson of post-slavery racial domination by the white (male) majority. I'm tracing the throughline from slavery to the present, with the last two concepts, the cycle of poverty and separate but equal being things we still deal with in the present. "Separate but equal" here is absolutely NOT limited to old school segregation, even though that's where it started. Segregation is still widespread now, it's just done through different channels, many of them still legal.

Your history is a history of hate

You can't reform your past, it's too late

This is a shot at revisionist historians, starting with the post-Civil War era Southern historians who are the source of much of the revisionism that is still used today, all the way down the years to people in the present who have never studied history and try to say that it is whatever makes them look better and helps them get away with perpetuating hate.

Drop those old ideas and thoughts

Veneration of evil has got to stop

Tradition is often lauded as a good thing. Most of the time it isn't. Most of the time the "old ways" involved racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., and those things are never valid. Any tradition that venerates such ideas is wrong and should be eliminated, no matter how much people love it.

You lost, get over it

You were wrong and you know it

The first part of this is a bumper sticker I've seen a few times that has the Confederate flag crossed out like Ghostbusters. The idea being that those Southern Confederate ideas were tried out, people rejected them, it's time to move on. And the idea that, deep down, these people, on some level, have to know that they're wrong to be racist.

White power and white pride

Your cause has already died

Progress marches on, regardless of what conservatives think. This is a battle they can't win. Racism is widely recognized as an evil and we'll never move significantly back in that direction.

You think you're a rebel

But you side with the devil

You brag about your flag

But you're hanging with the scum bags

You think you're a rebel
But you side with the devil
You brag about your flag
But you're hanging with the scum bags

The chorus again.

Alexander Stephens was a traitor

Braxton Bragg was a traitor

Pierre Beauregard was a traitor

Nathan Bedford Forrest was a traitor

Stonewall Jackson was a traitor

Jefferson Davis was a traitor

Robert E. Lee was a traitor

All Confederates were traitors

This segment was specifically to call out the biggest and most well-known members of the Confederate Army, all of whom are still venerated in the South, through statues, building names, school names, etc. I wanted to go directly at the racists and call out their heroes by name, tossing one of the biggest insults in the right-wing lexicon: traitor.

The stars and bars were a sign of treason

The Blood Stained Banner was a sign of treason

The Bonnie Blue flag was a sign of treason

The Stainless Banner was a sign of treason

Similarly, you still see the stars and bars in the South all the time, including over some state capitols and incorporated into some state flags. This means that we have state governments in the South still endorsing treason and racism. Explicitly.

And they still are, they still are

It was important to reiterate that the racism of these people and symbols doesn't go away with time, it's just as strong now as it ever was.

Treason based on hate and subjugation of a race

Treason based on hate and subjugation of a race

Treason based on hate and subjugation of a race

Treason based on hate and subjugation of a race

This one was to make sure that I wasn't beating around the bush, to make sure listeners knew just how strongly I felt on the topic and to pound it into their heads. And, to me, there's absolutely no doubt that the South were traitors who engaged in treason so they could own black people. No debate is allowed on that topic, the historical record is so strong.

"3 Feet High and Rising" by De La Soul (HHES Review)

Here's my review of "3 Feet High and Rising" by De La Soul using the Hip Hop Evaluation System (HHES).

The album that is credited with inventing the hip hop skit is also one of the best ever. Starting with the "Intro" and it's absurdist game show set-up, the skits all fit and work together in a humorous and entertaining way.

"The Magic Number" is one of my all time favorite songs, with it's mash-up of Johnny Cash, Schoolhouse Rock, and alternative rap. The song just totally encapsulates my state of mind in a way that few other songs ever do.

"Change in Speak" has one of the better beats on an album filled with perfect beats. You HAVE to dance when this comes on.

"Cool Breeze on the Rocks" is one of the more mainstream sonic experiments on the album, with its throwback to Grandmaster Flash "Wheels of Steel"-type of construction.

"Can U Keep a Secret" is maybe the funniest dis track ever, with its whispered vocals, its inside jokes that make outsiders laugh, and its creative use of words like "scrub" that me and my friends used to no end when we had this album on in constant rotation in 89-90.

"Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge)" has the most compulsively danceable beat on the album, thrown in with adolescent sexual exploration, chopsticks and more of the amazing humor and eclecticism that dominates this album.

"Ghetto Thang" shows that De La can be serious, too, and take a look at social ills in a way that still makes you bob your head.

"Transmitting Live from Mars" was a revelation for me. The idea that you could take the Turtles and an old French instructional album and mash them together on a hip hop album changed the way I looked at the world.

"Eye Know" is one of the most danceable and original love songs ever. It's also one of the few times I haven't hated anything that had a Steely Dan connection.

"Take It Off" is another one of my all-time dis tracks, listing a series of cultural don'ts in a humorous and poetic structure that still makes me laugh 25 years later.

"A Little Bit of Soap" was another revelatory track for me. The basic topic was little more than a continuation of the previous track, criticizing people for less than perfect hygiene, but they did it to a Jarmels track that was always one of my favorite oldies and in a way that made me laugh endlessly.

"Tread Water" and "Potholes in My Lawn" are two companion songs, it seems, that really give you a look into the radically different way that De La looks at the world. Talking animals, "problems" that most people don't think about, and words that nobody else had used in that way at the time make these two unique pop culture elements, with one of them even being an MTV hit.

"Say No Go" shows that you can take something really out of what you would consider the norm for hip hop, a Hall & Oates sample, and make a amazingly compelling and entertaining song.

"Do as De La Does" is another interesting interlude, recreating the feel of a live De La soul with it's oddball call-and-response and the hilarious end rant by Popmaster Hight.

Even now, I'm not totally sure what "Plug Tunin' (Last Chance to Comprehend)" is talking about, but I know that the song still grabs at my heartstrings in a way I can't explain. It has a bluesy feel that you can't deny. The alternative version that ends the album is one of the rare times that a different mix works well on an album and not as a bonus track, as it seems to close out the album on a note of completion and not just fading out.

"De La Orgee" is silly but once again is a track that you wouldn't expect on any album, much less this one, which keeps the surprisingness of the album going.

"Buddy" is an interesting enough take on De La's mythology, as it comes to women, but most importantly it has one of the few songs with outside vocalists on it, which works out great, since it's the Jungle Brothers and Q-Tip, who make just about any song better.

"Description" takes one of the common ideas in hip hop, the posse intro track, and does it with a style that fits this album, but probably doesn't fit anywhere else.

"Me Myself and I" has some of the best scratching and use of the backing track on any hip hop song ever and is a perfect introduction to the band (it was on the radio quite a bit).

"This Is a Recording 4 Living in a Fulltime Era (L.I.F.E.)" and "I Can Do Anything (Delacratic)" are a pretty good summary of the De La outlook on life. And they explain it in a unique way that still makes you want to dance.

"D.A.I.S.Y. Age" seems to continue the big description of the De La outlook on the world in the previous songs, although, it's hard to tell, since the lyrics are a little dense. Even Rap Genius doesn't have much to say about what the Plugs are talking about here. Either way, it sounds great.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 10. De La Soul's members have some of the most original and creative flows ever, and this is the album where they used them their best. They got enough negative feedback from some in the hip hop community that they changed things on later albums.

Lyrics: 10. While some of these lyrics are difficult to comprehend, they are totally unique, even amongst De La albums. There just aren't other lyrics like this anywhere, in any form of music or literature.

Message: 10. There are few more coherent messages in any form of music, much less hip hop. De La Soul presents their view of the world in such an entertaining and eclectic way they had no choice but to go in a different direction on their next album.

Technical: 10. I defy you to try to even understand most of the lyrics on this album, much less try to perform them aloud. Difficult stuff abounds.

Production: 10. Few albums have ever been more adventurous or original than this one, and the production, which always makes you want to dance, is a big part of that.

Versatility: 8. I could see how people who don't love this sound could find it a little repetitive, but even they would have a hard time denying the greatness within.

Collaborators: 10. Q-Tip. Prince Paul. The Jungle Brothers. That's all you need for a great album. And there's more.

History: 10. De La Soul knows more about music history than you do.

References: 10. De La Soul knows more about pop culture than you do.

Originality: 10. I'd be hard pressed to say that this album didn't invent originality.

Total Score: 98. This is, hands down, my all-time favorite hip hop album and maybe my favorite album ever. It changed the way I look at music, art, and the world. And I'm better off for it.

10 Best Devo Songs in Honor of Bob Casale

Founding Devo member Bob Casale passed away yesterday. The band is criminally under-rated, with most people thinking of them as a one-hit (or few-hit) wonder. That's just ridiculous and a great reason why judging a band based on their "hits" is nonsense. Here are my 10 favorite songs by the band, noticeably leaving out hits "Whip It" and "Girl U Want."

10. Please Baby Please: They were still making good music in recent years.

9. Head Like A Hole: They had a lot of good covers, but none better than this one.

8. Peek-A-Boo: A perfect example of the band's instrumental and vocal experimentation.

7. Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA: A perfect example of the band's lyrical experimentalism.

6. Beautiful World: The band were also masters of irony, particularly on this song and video, which could also be taken straightforward if you weren't paying attention.

5. The Day My Baby Gave Me A Surprise: Even when a song of theirs hints at something darker, like this one, it can still be a beautiful song.

4. Come Back Jonee: Devo's version of a "death rock" song from the 50s/60s is brilliant music on multiple levels.

3. Jocko Homo: One of Devo's most quotable songs is also one of its harshest criticisms of the failures of people and society.

The acoustic live version is surprisingly soulful.

2. Freedom of Choice: Is a powerful political song, with it's closing switch of "freedom from choice is what you want." I saw the band mention this live that even this many years later, people still misunderstand this song and don't catch the irony.

1. Gates of Steel: Is a bit surreal, but is one of my all-time favorite songs by any artist. It's even better live than on record.

Bonus: I just learned that "Turnaround," which I knew from Nirvana's "Incesticide" was actually a Devo B-side. Wow.

Double Bonus: Dr. Detroit wasn't a great movie, but the directly-connected theme song by Devo was. I have very fond memories of both the movie and the song as key parts of my youth.

"Top 40" (With Footnotes)

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "Top 40." This song is the first of my tracks that fits the concept of "lyrical collage." The idea behind a lyrical collage is to take the original lyrics of a variety of different songs and fit them into a coherent rap song with a new sound and feel. In this case, the theme is my favorite 40 hip hop artists. At least that was the original concept. I realized afterwards that my actual #1 favorite artist, Public Enemy, didn't make it into this track. That was an accident. There isn't much more to add, other than to give you the citations for each of the lyrics...

What's the matter with your life

Why you gotta mess with mine

Salt-N-Pepa, "None of Your Business"

Now I rock a house party at the drop of a hat

I'll beat a biter down with an aluminum bat

Beastie Boys, "Shake Your Rump"

There's no one syllable or phrase

That can adequately describe this new craze

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, "As We Go"

Get me on the court and I'm trouble

Last week fucked around and got a triple double

Ice Cube, "It Was A Good Day"

Not from the old school or the new

Applaud the boom, do what you want to

Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock, "Joy and Pain"

I get money, money I got

Stunts call me honey if they feel real hot

Audio Two, "Top Billin'"

Peace to this one and that one and them

That's the way I shout and I didn't miss one friend

Naughty By Nature, "Hip Hop Hooray"

I'm like the second plane that made the towers face off

That shit that let you know its really not a game dog

Mos Def, "Close Edge"

I am a nightmare walking, psychopath talking

King of my jungle, just a gangster stalking

Ice-T, "Colors"

Have you ever seen a show with fellas on the mic

With one minute rhymes that don't come out right

Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, "The Show"

For any MC in any 52 states

I get psycho killer Norman Bates

Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Shimmy Shimmy Ya"

Do dat do dat do do dat dat dat

Do dat do dat do do dat dat dat

A Tribe Called Quest, "Award Tour"

Your real name is probably Bradworth or Bennett

Your verbal baggage ain't got nothing in it

Digital Underground, "The Way We Swing"

Now Kurtis Blow, Run DMC

You haven't heard a rap till you heard it from me

I'm the baddest rapper in history

And there will be no more after me

Shawn Brown, "Rappin' Duke"

We have no time for suckers

Who bite with their lowers and their uppers

You think that you're rockin, but you're not hip hoppin

So you best stop jockin at the masters

Digital Underground, "The Way We Swing"

Watch out for the medallion, my diamonds are reckless

Feels like a midget is hanging from my necklace

Ludacris, "Stand Up"

Allah o akbar and throw em some hot cars

Things we see on the screen are not ours

Kanye West, "Heard 'Em Say"

How many people die over these dead green guys

Ignorance and greed take their ass by surprise

Dr. Dre, "Been There, Done That"

I'm tired of backstabbing ass snakes with friendly grins

I'm tired of committing so many sins

Eminem, "If I Had"

The fence is too high to jump in jail

Too low to dig I might just touch hell hot

Outkast, "B.O.B."

A firing squad sensed the danger

When they're stung by the rapping ranger

Sugar Hill Gang, "Apache"

Mine eyes have seen the glory

Of the underground category

Afroman, "The American Dream"

Can you feel it, nothin can save you

For this is the season of catching the vapors

Biz Markie, "The Vapors"

I'm here to laugh, love, fuck and drink liquor

And help the damn revolution come quicker

The Coup, "Laugh, Love, Fuck"

I'm like fuck critics, you can kiss my whole asshole

If you don't like my lyrics, you can press fast forward

Jay-Z, "99 Problems"

Criminal minded, you've been blinded

Looking for a style like mine, you can't find it

Boogie Down Productions, "Criminal Minded"

This the kinda beat that go ra-ta-ta-ta

Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta

Missy Elliott, "Work it"

Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right

Cause both black and white are smokin crack tonight

2Pac, "Changes"

Now Kurtis Blow, Run DMC

You haven't heard a rap till you heard it from me

I'm the baddest rapper in history

And there will be no more after me

We have no time for suckers

Who bite with their lowers and their uppers

You think that you're rockin, but you're not hip hoppin

So you best stop jockin at the masters

The chorus again.

Here's a murder rap to keep you dancin

With a crime record like Charles Manson

NWA, "Straight Outta Compton"

Nobody's shootin, my body's made of hand grenade

Girl bled to death while she was tongue-kissin a razor blade

Fugees, "Fu-Gee-La"

E F F E C T

A smooth operator operating correctly

Eric B & Rakim, "Microphone Fiend"

How dare you ever try to step on my Suede shoes

Top Gun shut down your firm like Tom Cruise

Busta Rhymes, "Woo-Hah! Got You All In Check"

E F F E C T

A smooth operator operating correctly

Eric B & Rakim, "Microphone Fiend"

Neon king kong standin on my back

Can't stop to turn around broke my sacrophiliac

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, "The Message"

My oven is on high when I roast the quail

Tell Bill Clinton to go and inhale

Cypress Hill, "I Wanna Get High"

Sour baby ballin like a fetus

Sock on my cock like I'm Anthony Kiedis

Rhymefest, "Jackin' (It Got Ugly)"

The Lord raised Michaelangelo from the dead

So he can make a fresh painting of my head

LL Cool J, "My Rhyme Ain't Done"

Breaks to win and breaks to lose

But these here breaks will rock your shoes

Kurtis Blow, "The Breaks"

It's Christmas time in Hollis, Queens

Mom's cooking chicken and collard greens

Run DMC, "Christmas in Hollis"

Three 14 inch rims is running on the side

They riding on the side

Yeah, they running on the side

Three 14 inch rims is running on the side

They riding on the side

Yeah, they running on the side

Snoop Dogg, "From Tha Chuuuch to Da Palace"

Poppin', sockin', rockin' with a side of hip-hop

Because where we're goin' there ain't no stoppin'

Afrika Bambaataa, "Renegades of Funk" (In the style of Rage Against the Machine)

Dance to this fix and flex every muscle

Space can be filled if you rise like my lumber

Advance to the tune but don't do the hustle

shake, rattle, roll to my magic number

De La Soul, "Magic Number"

Now Kurtis Blow, Run DMC

You haven't heard a rap till you heard it from me

I'm the baddest rapper in history

And there will be no more after me

We have no time for suckers

Who bite with their lowers and their uppers

You think that you're rockin, but you're not hip hoppin

So you best stop jockin at the masters

The chorus again.

MCs, you like the way we swing?

Digital Underground, "The Way We Swing"

1, 2, 3, and to the 4

Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg, "Nuthin' But A G Thang"

Slide, slide, but that's the past, I got something brand new for that ass

Coolio, "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)"

Six minutes, six minutes, six minutes, Doug E. Fresh, you're on, o-o-on

Doug E. Fresh & Slick Rick, "The Show"

"Oi" (With Footnotes)

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "Oi." This song is the second of my tracks that fits the concept of "lyrical collage" and the first recording for the mixtape of that same name. The idea behind a lyrical collage is to take the original lyrics of a variety of different songs and fit them into a coherent rap song with a new sound and feel. In this case, the theme is double, all the songs are punk or ska songs and the lyrics are political/social commentary. There isn't much more to add, other than to give you the citations for each of the lyrics...

I know I'm artificial, But don't put the blame on me

I was reared with appliances, In a consumer society

X-Ray Spex, "Art-I-Ficial"

Go to work, it's such a drag

Face the boss, he's such a nag

The Ramones, "The Job That Ate My Brain"

All my life has been the same

I've learned to live by hate and pain

The Jam, "The Modern World"

I need sex, I need love, I need drink

I need drugs, I need food, I need cash

I need you to love me back

Buzzcocks, "I Need"

Now pass the blame and don't blame me

Just close your eyes and count to three

Madness, "Shut Up"

I see my place in american waste

Faced with choices I can't take

Black Flag, "American Waste"

Some people are bad and they don't give a damn

what they do or who they hurt

They go through their lives and don't apologize

for the shit that they've disturbed

The Vandals, "People That Are Going to Hell"

I got something to say and I’ll say it again

I got something to sing and I’ll sing it again

I got something to scream and I’ll scream it again

Anti-Flag, "Resist"

Screechin' useless martyrs hangin naked upon the cross

They would have you believe the lie they shriek that all is lost

MC5, "Future Now"

Can it be true? They got nothing else to say

Do you think? They want it that way

Johnny Thunders, "Short Lives"

the benevolent and wise are being thwarted, ostracized, what a bummer

the world keeps getting dumber

NOFX, "Idiots Are Taking Over"

I can still see people dying, now who takes the blame?

the numbers are different, the crime is still the same

The Specials, "War Crimes"

And they're planning while I sleep

And even as we speak To strike when I am weak

Reel Big Fish, "Everyone Else Is An Asshole"

All the power's in the hands

Of people rich enough to buy it

While we walk the street

Too chicken to even try it

The Clash, "White Riot"

Illegal to dance forbidden to cry

You do what you're told and never ask why

The Damned, "I Just Can't Be Happy Today"

I got something to say and I’ll say it again

I got something to sing and I’ll sing it again

I got something to scream and I’ll scream it again

The chorus again.

These are all reasons why I'll be exploding tonight

and why this chip on my shoulder feels like a mile wide

Less Than Jake, "Short Fuse Burning"

It's time to taste what you most fear

Right Guard will not help you here

Dead Kennedys, "Holiday in Cambodia"

When you think the night has seen your mind

That inside you're twisted and unkind

Let me stand to show that you are blind

Velvet Underground, "I'll Be Your Mirror"

Rebels with a cause came out of the sun

And spoke the only language they'd been given

Generation X, "Running With the Boss Sound"

And the people have the power, To redeem the work of fools

From the meek the graces shower, It's decreed the people rule

Patti Smith, "People Have the Power"

still you defend the system that perpetuates your hate

your institutions are corrupt, your way of thinking sucks, we've had enough

Against All Authority, "Louder Than Words"

Why can't I ask any questions of what you say is true

Am I supposed to believe anything or just everything said by you?

Suicidal Tendencies, "Pledge Your Allegiance"

I ain't equipment, I ain't automatic

You won't find me just staying static

Sex Pistols, "Problems"

I got something to say and I’ll say it again

I got something to sing and I’ll sing it again

I got something to scream and I’ll scream it again

The chorus again

Not as much but with such intensity

I'd like to be what they would not want me to be

Bad Brains, "I"

To the tension of a world on the wane

I shuffle around on wooden boards Now no longer afraid

Gang of Four, "I Will Be A Good Boy"

and i will not sit on broken glass,

not for you or anyone i will not cut my ass

The Misfits, "Spinal Remains"

I'll be a pharaoh soon, Rule from some golden tomb

Things will be different then, The sun will rise from here

Then I'll be ten feet tall, And you'll be nothing at all

Dead Boys, "Sonic Reducer"

I'm a lexicon devil with a battered brain

And I'm searchin' for a future-the world's my aim

The Germs, "Lexicon Devil"

I'm stubborn as a mule

And nobody breaks my rules

Iggy Pop, "New Values"

And if I'm acting like a king

Well, that's cause I'm a human being

New York Dolls, "Human Being"

I got something to say and I’ll say it again

I got something to sing and I’ll sing it again

I got something to scream and I’ll scream it again

The chorus again.

H-Y-P I'm hypnotised

H-Y-P I'm hypnotised

The Undertones, "Hypnotised"

For you there's just no hope

Get a rope, get a rope

Cock Sparrer, "Get A Rope"

Bikini girls with machine guns

Bikini girls with machine guns

The Cramps, "Bikini Girls With Machine Guns"

Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane,

Don't know when I'll be back again

Since Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, who I love, don't do any original songs, I had to include a cover for them and it was "Leaving On A Jet Plane."

"Born Sinner," by J. Cole (HHES Review)

Here's my review of the J. Cole album "Born Sinner," using the Hip Hop Evaluation System (HHES).

"Villuminati" is a great start. Interesting lyrics, good beat, skillfull flow, good references, bold statements.

"Kerney Sermon (Skit)" is a nice bit of ironic storytelling that illuminates themes on the rest of the album.

"LAnd of the Snakes" is a very interesting track. As with track one, the beat and flow are top-notch. At first glance, the song appears to be a typical "getting laid" track, but the song is much more introspective and uncertain in its moral point of view than most such songs. J. Cole doesn't necessarily love everything he's done in the past, but he also doesn't necessarily trust the motives of the women who want him.

"Power Trip" is one of the standout tracks on the album, with a very entertaining beat and yet another very good flow from J. Cole. The hook leaves a little to be desired, but it's not bad: Miguel has a great voice, but he doesn't always use it well. The song works very well on two levels, in the Common "I Used to Love HER" tradition, speaking about both a woman and hip hop itself.

"Mo Money (Interlude)" is short, but sweet. Another interesting beat, with lyrics that have a great poetic structure that I love.

"Trouble" is kind of the first misstep on the album. The chorus is pretty good, but the hook is weak, the beat is too trap-y for my tastes, and the lyrics and topics are starting to get repetitive at this point.

"Runaway" is the best-produced or performed song on the album, but it has some of the best lyrics. At this point, we're getting to the major theme of the album--men and women and their complicated relationships. And this has some of the best introspection and thoughtfulness on the topic that are on the album.

"She Knows" continues the theme of the last song, a man who is getting approached by women while he's out and about while having a woman at home devoted to him. This one has the biggest earworm on the album with the "she knows" hook and has some of the best production, which is saying something on this album. They personal revelations and deep thoughts aren't as good on this track as on "Runaway," but the cultural and hip hop references are better.

"Rich N*ggaz" goes back into the deeply revealing lyrics of "Runaway," but moves on to topics related to manhood and the industry. It's marred by one of the worst hooks on the album, though.

"Where’s Jermaine? (Skit)" leaves me wondering why it's included.

"Forbidden Fruit" has an interesting sample and drum beat as its underlying sound and this is probably J. Cole's best and most varied flow on the album, but it dips a little too much into a trap sound and the Kendrick Lamar hook isn't k.dot's strongest.

"Chaining Day" is where the album starts to wear down a bit, with repetitive themes, sounds, flow. It's not bad, and might work in another context, but after the previous group of songs, you're left wondering if Cole is out of ideas.

"Ain't That Some Shit (Interlude)" totally turns things back around. It's a totally different sound in every way you can think of. It's upeat, the flow is unique on this album, the theme is different, and it's the first time in a while that the listener is inspired to dance.

"Crooked Smile" and the songs that follow show that J. Cole knows how to end an album. This song is a strong empowerment anthem that you can play for anyone that thinks that rap always hates women. Cole shouts out 2 Pac in the next track, lyrically, but he gives a conceptual shout out to 2 Pac's "Keep Ya Head Up" here and it works well.

"Let Nas Down," to me, is the best track on the album. It not only is built on a great beat and sample, the story and the knowledge it shows of the rap game and its foundations is spot on. It also has some bigger philosophy that really gets across one of the best messages on the album.

"Born Sinner" is another strong track to close out the album, with a great, and unique beat, a solid hook from James Fauntleroy and lyrics that encapsulate the overall message of the album quite well.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 9. J. Cole is good. Very good. He's fast, technically skilled, and varies his flow well.

Lyrics: 9. Other than the excessive use of words that start with N and B, his lyrics are amazing, if a little repetitive as the album moves on.

Message: 8. It's hard not to note some of the contradictions in message from time to time, but for the most part, he's raising big points and nailing his take on them, which is usually a good one.

Technical: 8. He's not in the group of most technically proficient MCs in the game, but he's right below that.

Production: 8. Varied, well-done, repeatably listenable, if a little understated.

Versatility: 4. This is not a strength of Cole or this album. He's very good when he's in his area, but he doesn't wander outside of his main style much.

Collaborators: 6. There are some good collaborators on the album, but for the most part they aren't used very well and they don't add much.

History: 10. This is an album so steeped in history you're bound to learn something about hip hop just by listening.

References: 9. This is another strength of the album, Cole makes good and clever references on almost every song.

Originality: 6. It's original compared to many other current hip hop albums, but doesn't quite get to the level of a Kanye West or Childish Gambino and it repeats its ideas too much, meaning it doesn't have much in the way of internal originality.

Total Score: 77. J. Cole has produced a work to be proud of here, although it isn't loaded with tracks that will be stuck in your head or that you'll come back to over and over again. This is more an album that you'll listen to as a whole from time to time because you like his voice or style, but it falls a bit short of greatness.

"Nothing Was the Same," by Drake (HHES Review)

Here's my review of the Drake album "Nothing Was the Same," using the Hip Hop Evaluation System (HHES).

"Tuscan Leather" has great production and some of the lyrics are pretty tight, but I don't love Drake's flow. He's better here than on some of the other stuff I've heard.

"Furthest Thing" might have my favorite lyrics of the album, particularly the parts of the song that have poetic structures. The beat is kind of mild, but not bad, but the negative, as usual is that Drake is kind of monotone and his flow is largely pedestrian.

"Started from the Bottom" is a song that has so few distinct lyrics it annoys me. It doesn't sound terrible, and he does some interesting vocal things during the song, but it only has like 22-23 distinct lines, with its 8 bar verses and ridiculously repetitive hook. The beat is kinda catchy and I would probably like this song if Drake had actually written some more words for it.

"Wu-Tang Forever" has a misleading title, since other than a couple of references, it doesn't have a lot to do with Wu-Tang, stylistically or lyrically. Drake mixes up his flow here more than on other songs, but his sing-rapping isn't as good as his straight-up rapping, so it's a mixed bag. The beat is, again, so mild as to almost not exist.

"Own It" is kind of embarrassingly bad, lyrically speaking. It doesn't sound much better. If I could forget how dull this song is, and its contradictory pointlessness, I would.

"Worst Behavior" has a bit more upbeat backing track than previous songs, but that isn't particularly a good thing since it's way too trap for my tastes. There are some very interesting lyrical things going on here, though, particularly the Mase shout-out.

"From Time" is mildly pleasant. The beat is solid, if understated, and Jhene Aiko has a beautiful voice. Drake does some of his better rapping on this song.

"Hold On, We're Going Home" is probably the catchiest song on the album, with it's direct attempt to sound like a Michael Jackson song. The beat is maybe the best on the album, but, once again, it's one the laziest songs, lyrically, on an album that is pretty lazy from an artist who is pretty lazy (as a writer).

"Connect" shows some of the contradictions running through this album very clearly. Drake is doing a good thing in singing about topics that are atypical among rappers, but he's throwing around hardcore words that undercut how he's more respectful and sophisticated than other rappers. That, and the song itself, is understatd and monotonous.

"The Language" is a song about how awesome Drake is, using lyrics and beats (and Birdman) that are pretty much exactly like everything else on the radio, so it totally misses the mark.

"305 to My City." I get it, I get it, writing lyrics is hard. Not repeating yourself is hard. Strippers are nice. Next.

"Too Much" contains the best hook on the album, by Sampha. Drake's rapping is pretty solid, too, and for once he tells a story worth listening to.

"Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2" contains the best guest appearance on the album, with Jay-Z, and an entertaining sample from Wu-Tang scratched for the hook. Drake's initial verse on the song is significantly weaker than Jay-Z, but his Paris Morton verse is much better, and is one of his better moments on the album.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 4. I hate Drake's flow. I generally think it's lazy and his shift to sing/rapping hasn't improved that. I have heard him do worse than this album, though, so it could be worse.

Lyrics: 5. This is probably the strong point of the album, but only on certain songs. On others the lyrics are atrocious and lazy.

Message: 4. If there are messages on this album, they're hard to figure out. Not because the lyrics are complex, either, but because it's filled with mixed messages (and NOT in an interesting way) and light on lyrics.

Technical: 3. Drake uses very little technical skill on this album. His raps are easy. His singing isn't difficult.

Production: 4. The beats here aren't terrible, but most of them are so understated as to feel like incomplete ideas. A few of them are solid and almost none of it is horrible, but I won't remember more than 1-2 beats on here.

Versatility: 2. This album is so repetitive, sound-wise, it's hard to listen to for very long, since it sounds like one long song.

Collaborators: 5. Jay-Z, Sampha and Jhene Aiko add a lot to the songs they are on, but they all overshadow Drake, which kind of defeats the point of a guest appearance, right?

History: 4. Drake shows some knowledge of hip hop history on this album, but some of it is misguided and doesn't get the point of the originals, and isn't true to the spirit. I mean, how un-Wu-Tang is "Wu-Tang Forever"?

References: 5. Some songs have quite a few solid and entertaining references, but a number of them miss the point and some songs abandon them altogether.

Originality: 3. There's some credit here for a somewhat cohesive sound and a few nice song concepts, but the last song sounds like the first one and most of this sounds like stuff I've heard before.

Total Score: 39. I gave Drake a chance. I listened to the album with as little prejudice as I could muster. And I was mildly surprised to realize that Drake wasn't as horrible as I thought. He's still bad, but he's no Chief Keef.

Okay, Stop It With the Macklemore Hate

As I have made clear before, I like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. Of the albums nominated for 2013 Grammys, there isn't one that I like more than "The Heist." But ever since I first heard of him, there has been a pretty divided response. Some of that is inevitable because of the fact that Macklemore's a white guy in a traditionally black music form and because their biggest hit, "Thrift Shop," could be seen as a novelty song. Couple that with their song "Same Love," which some have also complained about because Macklemore is straight and the song is about being not straight, and you have a lot of hate coming out for, well, Macklemore, if not Ryan Lewis.

Almost all of the hate is misguided. As a jump off for the key arguments in this fight, I'm going to use this annoying Thought Catalog article that made most of the bad arguments I've seen and collected them all in one convenient place.

But first, let me state my official position, so I'm not holding anything back:

• Both Macklemore and Kendrick lost Album of the Year to Daft Punk. I think both albums were vastly superior to Daft Punk.

• "Same Love" lost Song of the Year to "Royals," by Lorde. While I like both songs, the best song of the year, in my opinion, was "Collard Greens," by Schoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar.

• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won Best New Artist. Kendrick Lamar should've won. While I'll point out below that I thought Macklemore's album was better (slightly) than Kendrick's, k.dot had a bunch of appearances that weren't on his album that rocked the year, most notably the most talked about hip hop moment of the year in his verse on "Control," by Big Sean. Based on the entire body of work, Kendrick both had a better year, musically speaking, he also had more impact on the music and on other artists moving forward.

• In a loaded Best Rap Performance category, one that left out a lot of good songs, "Thrift Shop" beat Kendrick's "Swimming Pools (Drank)." I already said I thought "Collard Greens" was the best song of the year, but there were a number of other songs I would also put ahead of these two, even though I like both.

• "Thrift Shop" won Best Rap Song. Kendrick was nominated for a guest verse on an A$AP Rocky song that didn't really belong. "Collard Greens" was still better, as were songs from Jay-Z & Justin Timberlake and Kanye West that were nominated.

• "The Heist" beat Kendrick Lamar's album as well as good albums from West and Jay-Z. I think this win was deserved.

So, for the record, I think only one of the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis victories would've been one I would've voted for, but only one of those other categories would I have replaced Macklemore with Kendrick.

I'll also note that Kendrick lost Best Rap/Sung Collaboration to Jay-Z & Justin Timberlake and nobody's complaining about that.

So, on to the Thought Catalog article, titled "25 Reasons Macklemore Winning Over Kendrick Lamar Is Complete BS."

"1. Because other than Same Love and Thrift Shop, how many of us actually know any other Macklemore tracks? (And if we’re being honest, it’s the beat that makes Thrift Shop because the rap is mediocre.)"

Well, considering that "Can't Hold Us" hit #1 and was nominated for a Grammy, a BET award, an MTV award and a Teen Choice award, "Cowboy Boots" is a big enough song to have a karaoke version, "White Walls" hit #15, and "Wings" was used for the NBA all-star game weekend promos, I'm guessing people have heard some other songs. As for the rap being mediocre, I'd like to see the author perform it. Macklemore has a distinctive style that isn't easy to do.

"2. Because let’s face it: 90% of Macklemore’s demographic are 12-year-old white girls from the suburbs."

All of the available evidence suggests otherwise. The comment is so far from any kind of evidence as to be laughable.

"3. Because Kendrick Lamar is saving hip hop from future Macklemores (and Drakes, to be perfectly honest.)"

Macklemore, in both content and form, is much closer to Kendrick Lamar than Drake. And there's no conflict between what Macklemore does and what Kendrick does. Many people like both.

"4. Because he is riding his White, heterosexual privileges to the bank and it got annoying real fast once you saw beyond the surface."

If this is true, it has nothing to do with Macklemore (beyond making quality music) and everything to do with a racist media.

"5. Because from a purely academic standpoint, it is actually amazing that people who identify as gay or queer, PoCs, and queer PoCs, have had the same message as Macklemore in popular culture for decades. And all of a sudden it is being recognized because a White, heterosexual male is saying it?"

Again, that's because of a homophobic media and nothing to do with Macklemore.

"6. Because Macklemore is representative of everything that is wrong with the music industry – he is distracting people away from THE MUSIC, with THE PERFORMANCE."

This is utter nonsense. What's wrong with the industry is record companies, Ticketmaster, MTV, BET, the media. Macklemore made his success by ignoring all of these things and doing it independently. He paid his dues, made the music, toured relentlessly, and brought along artists that no one else had heard of and gave them exposure.

"7. Because the fact that there is even a comparison between Macklemore and Kendrick is nauseating. What next? Are we going to compare Taylor Swift’s vocals to Adele’s?"

Terrible analogy. They both rap. People like them. That's the only comparison anyone other than people like this author are making. And I'm starting to sense a lack of substance here that relates only to Macklemore's race.

"8. Because like it or not, his politics likely had something to do with the awards, and while that’s great and all, that should hardly be a substantiating factor for musical acclamation."

Good music with good politics should absolutely be rewarded more than good music with bad politics. Or bad music.

"9. Because even if Kendrick didn’t win, Kanye and Jay-Z were on that list. Like are we actually on planet earth or is this an alternate version of hell?"

You can make arguments that Kendrick's or Kanye's albums. It's much harder to make that case for Jay-Z's album, as much as some of it was pretty good. But, at this point, the author isn't actually giving new reasons, just repeating the old ones.

"10. Because Macklemore is that white guy with a little bit of talent in a particularly Black genre. And if the roles reversed, it would be 1000 times harder to receive that acclamation for such an ordinary artist."

"1000 times" is nonsense and the author knows this (see the Drake comment above). Yes, it was easier for him because was white. He's admitted that, rapped about it, given credit to where it was due, and explicitly avoided saying anything that would make it seem like he is co-opting the artform and not a true devotee.

"11. Because if I hear somebody compare him to Eminem one more time, I am going to scream. Eminem doesn’t need to be the face of “White rappers.” Eminem is a rapper, period. He is one of the greatest; love him or hate him. Sit down with that comparison."

I've actually never heard this comparison and I live on hip hop blogs.

"12. Because somehow Macklemore has FOUR Grammys, and Nas, DMX, and Snoop Dogg COMBINED do not have that total. (And yes, I stole that stat from Twitter and the fun fact is that the above mentioned artists actually have 0 Grammys each.)"

So, the Grammys suck. What does that have to do with hating Macklemore? He didn't cause it.

"13. Because the following text to Kendrick was cool and all but then showing it to the world to portray some kind of pretentious humility pretty much sums up Macklemore in one word: EXTRA."

Absolute BS. Kendrick doesn't need Macklemore's approval. This wasn't important because he sent it to Kendrick. It's important because he said it to the public, that's the only thing that makes the sentiment valid. Now all of Macklemore's fans know who Kendrick is and they know that the artist they respect thinks this guy's album is even better. What do you want to bet k.dot sends Macklemore a thank you for the sales boost.

"14. Because Kendrick is carrying hip hop on his back and preventing it from becoming a shittty genre that was honestly half way to imploding on itself with every other terrible dubstep beat ever made."

Also nonsense. Kendrick is amazing, but we're entering into a new hip hop golden age. The number of all-time greats producing great material is high (Jay-Z, Eminem, Nas all had great albums recently), the young group is so diverse and plentiful, it's ridiculous. I haven't been this excited about the state of hip hop in more than a decade.

"15. Because I have never met a single human being who is a legitimate fan of the hip hop genre and not solely that mainstream crack, who would choose Macklemore over Kendrick."

Now you have. I'll wager I know more about hip hop, particularly old school and underground hip hop, than the author of this post. I was singing Kool Moe Dee songs before the author was born.

"16. Because if we are now choosing what is good and quality work based solely on popularity, especially in the arts, then we as a society have truly lost our way."

Nothing in this sentence is even remotely accurate.

"17. Because WWPS….What Would Pac Say?"

Yes, because Pac is the only voice that counts in hip hop? What would Queen Latifah say? What would Pharrell say? What would Schoolboy Q say? What would Ab-Soul say? What would XXL say? What would Eminem say? What would Angel Haze say? What would Chance the Rapper say? What would Method Man say? What would the Source say? What would Pusha T say? What would Kanye West say? What would French Montana say? What would Mac Miller say? What would Big K.R.I.T. say? What would Meek Mill say? What would Trinidad James say? What would Jay-Z say? What would Questlove say? What would Bun B say? What would A$AP Rocky say? What would Danny Brown say? What would Big Sean say? What would Tyler the Creator say? What would Diddy say? What would Paul Wall say? What would J. Cole say? What would 2 Chainz say? What would DJ Premier say? What would Big Boi say? What would Sir Mix-a-Lot say? What would Wiz Khalifa say? What would Iggy Azalea say? What would the Lox say? What would Wale say? What would Nas say? And, importantly, what would Kendrick Lamar say? The point is that all of these rappers have worked with, endorsed, or in some way given props to Macklemore. That means something.

"18. Because if the future of hip hop rests on Macklemore, we might as well all just quit now. No seriously, put on top 40 and let’s all just go the hell home."

This is a repeat of a previous statement, but the future of hip hop is not Macklemore or Kendrick. It's both of them. And all those guys in the last question. And many others.

"19. Because the Grammys continues to certify that it is an establishment that doesn’t actually know anything about hip hop or rap. I mean if Nas of all people has not won one, there is hardly anything redeeming about this awards show."

While the Grammys have their problems, in almost all of the hip hop categories, the nominees were quite accurate for the best stuff from the past year. Even if you don't like Macklemore, suggesting that he shouldn't be nominated is silly. And, as the author noted, Kendrick was nominated in seven categories. Jay-Z has 19 Grammys at his house. You can't have it both ways.

"20. Because choosing Macklemore over Kendrick is creating a history that hip hop fans will be regretting for decades."

Hip hop fans who like Macklemore won't be. The album stands up and will stand up over time.

"21. Because even while we laud Macklemore for being hyper aware of his White privilege, that means nothing when he’s the one giving the thank you speech and getting the award. (Again, the greater focus must be on the consequences of acts, not the intentions.)"

He lived up to his intentions. Let's assume that the author is right and Macklemore only won because he's white (which isn't true, but whatever), that has NOTHING to do with Macklemore and is NOT a reason to hate him. If this were true, then you'd have to hate the Grammy voters, not the recipient. Besides this doesn't make any sense, logically speaking, since a group of voters doesn't have any intentions, they are individuals.

"22. Because Kendrick Lamar’s style and lyrics are actually grounded in authentic and genuine nuance personal and political talk. Not just politically correct, politically safe, and popular, political talk, like Macklemore’s. Which if you think about the roots and history of hip hop and rap as a whole, it is a damn shame."

While the Kendrick part here is accurate, the rest of this sentence shows, pretty clearly, that the author hasn't even listened to Macklemore's songs because this shit is all false.

"23. Because this prophetic article titled, “Macklemore, White Privilege, and Grammy For The Best Rap Album” sums it all up nicely."

This article that the author links to, while arguing for Kendrick (almost completely on subjective terms), explicitly rejects the Thought Catalog article's very point. Here's an extended excerpt:

Despite all this, Macklemore and his legion of fans don’t deserve such shabby treatment. The Heist deserves its nominations. You don’t have to be a fan of his music to respect Macklemore’s independent hustle, and it’s easy to appreciate his bold stand on social issues like gay rights—a topic about which hip-hop remains woefully behind-the-times.

In fact, Macklemore’s been taking on social issues for years now. Including the issue of white privilege. Way before he was a huge star, before the recent explosions of white rappers, the first song on Macklemore’s 2005 album, The Language of My World, was called "White Privilege.” On it, he rhymed, “Where's my place in a music that's been taken by my race?/Culturally appropriated by the white face/And we don't want to admit that this is existing/So scared to acknowledge the benefits of our white privilege.”

He’s also talked about white privilege in high-profile interviews with Rolling Stone and, quoted below, his CRWN appearance with Elliot Wilson.

"But it's something that I absolutely, not only in terms of society, benefit from my White privilege but being a Hip Hop artist in 2013, I do as well. The people that are coming to shows, the people that are connecting, that are resonating with me, that are like, 'I look like that guy. I have an immediate connection with him.' I benefit from that privilege and I think that mainstream Pop culture has accepted me on a level that they might be reluctant to, in terms of a person of color. They're like, 'Oh, this is safe. This is okay. He's positive.' I'm cussing my ass off in 'Thrift Shop.' Families are like, 'Fucking awesome.' I think that it's an interesting case study and something that I feel, as a White rapper, I have a certain amount of responsibility to speak on the issue of race, knowing that it's uncomfortable, that it's awkward and that, in particular, White people are like, 'Let's just not talk about it. Everyone is equal.' The reality is that...that's bullshit. We absolutely see race. We all do. I think we can evolve as long as we are having discussions about it."

Yeah, that sounds like an entitled artist ripping off hip hop.

"24. Because Macklemore is just not that good people."

This is bullshit slander and has no basis in reality. See the quote just before this.

"25. And lastly, because of that KENDRICK VERSE!"

Which wasn't on the album, so can't be used to support an album of the year award, although it does go towards why I thought Kendrick should've won Best New Artist.

In Defense of Trash Talking and My New Favorite Player, Richard Sherman

So the big online hubbub in the last few days has revolved around a post-game interview with Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman that was, shall we say, a little animated. Immediately the overreaction was in full effect, with plentiful direct racism and even more indirect racism, such as calling the black man with the masters from Stanford a "thug" or saying that Sherman had no "class," despite class in this case not being a thing that is required or defined in the league, or anywhere else for that matter. And many of the people who accused Sherman of having no class said nothing about explicit racism from someone like Richie Incognito, or homophobic comments from any number of players, or any number of obviously more classless things done by white players. So, at best, it's a selective outrage, driven by 49er homers, Seahawk haters, racists and old people who long for the days when players played with more class. Like the guys who tried to intentionally injure Jim Brown back in the day.

Here's the transcript of the rant heard round the league:

Sherman: "I'm the best corner in the game. When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that's the result you going to get. Don't you ever talk about me."

Erin Andrews: "Who was talking about you?"

Sherman: "Crabtree. Don't you open your mouth about the best or I'm going to shut it real quick. LOB!"

Sherman was loud in delivering these lines, but despite what some tell you he wasn't particularly louder than most guys are on field in a massive stadium after a big win. And if that were the whole story and there weren't any further context, that would seem a bit like a dick move to start saying that out of the blue.

But there's lots more.

The Crabtree in question is Michael Crabtree, who according to Sherman and his brother, previously disrespected Sherman at a earlier event, so the two had a history. Sherman beat Crabtree on maybe the play of the year, leading to an interception and his team making it to the Superbowl. Seconds later, Sherman went over to Crabtree, patted him on the butt, saying "hell of a game," tried to shake his hand and repeated himself. Crabtree responded by hitting Sherman in the face. Moments later, a microphone was shoved in Sherman's face and he made the above comments.

Having played lots of sports, been disrespected and been hit by players I beat, I absolutely would have said things much worse than Sherman did. As would many, many other athletes. I'm of the school that you never hit someone except in self defense and, in this case, Crabtree's hit was especially egregious because he was hitting Sherman because he knew Sherman bested him. And it was clear to any neutral source that what Sherman was doing was being the bigger man and congratulating an opponent who he had just bested on playing well. While anti-Shermanites will suggest otherwise, they have no evidence for any bad intentions from Sherman and it's clear that Sherman was respectful towards the 49ers. On the full video from the NFL, he is clearly shown going around and hugging and congratulating other 49ers players, including Quinton Patton and LaMichael James.

Sherman has a reputation for being a trash talker. And it's clear that he does talk to other players a lot. But unlike a lot of trash talk I've seen and heard in my life, Sherman's trash talk is incredibly mild. Sure, he's brash and arrogant by many people's standards, but who cares about those standards, they aren't mine, they aren't Sherman's. I think, and this is vitally important to me, that if you are playing sports and you are arrogant, but accurate, you aren't doing anything wrong. So the question becomes, "was Sherman accurate?" The answer would appear to be mostly, if not completely, "yes."

Is Sherman the best CB in the League? Yes, according to the AP and Sporting News, the two most well-known All-Pro team designators, both of whom named him a first team CB in each of the last two years, the only repeat CB and one of only 3 players to repeat at any defensive position (the others are Houston's JJ Watt and Seattle safety Earl Thomas). That seems to be pretty definitive.

But what do the stats say? During his time in the NFL, Sherman is first among all players in interceptions, passes defended, and lowest opponent QB rating when they target him, a paltry 39.4. Those numbers are kind of ridiculous over a three year span. More than 80 times in those three years, QBs have thrown at Sherman and he did exactly what he did to Crabtree, and said "no."

Take a look at the NFL Hall of Fame. You'll see that one of the standards they use is people who are among the best players on championship teams or teams with dominant units. While the Seahawks aren't champions yet, they came pretty close last year, and are playing for the championship this year. And they are the second youngest Super Bowl team ever, which suggests that they have a really good shot at winning one before Sherman's done. How dominating is the unit that Sherman anchors? They were the number one defense in the NFL this year, including a pass defense (what Sherman does) that allowed 60 yards fewer than the league average, the lowest total of any team during Sherman's time in the league and the lowest in the league since 2009.

So when Sherman says he's the "best doing this right now," he can make a pretty good case.

The one place where Sherman was inaccurate is in his reference to how bad Crabtree is. Crabtree is potentially a upper-tier receiver in the NFL. He hasn't quite proven that yet. He was just inside the top 15 in both touchdowns and yards in 2012, but an injury kept him off those lists this year. In 2011 and 2010, he was solid, a guy you probably want on your team, but certainly not your top guy. So do two solid seasons and one season in the top 15 make him one of the 20 bests receivers in the game? Absolutely not. But they make him far from "sorry."

So I think that what Sherman said is mostly accurate. After that I dug into his supposed "bad boy" persona and found almost all of it is unfounded. People claim he taunted Tom Brady, but most observers of the NFL realize that Brady is a bit of a prick and the full story on that one makes it look like Sherman acted with admirable restraint. A lot of the rest of the criticism of him is people saying things about him without there being any evidence to back it up. For instance, this NFL film on him called "the Trash Talking Cornerback," which makes a lot of claims about Sherman that aren't really backed up much. There's a few quotes that are arrogant by some standards, but almost all of them are responses to other players disrespecting him and him beating them and telling them about it. I absolutely support the idea of not letting people disrespect you, particularly when you're better than them. And almost everything he says is accurate. He is better than that other guy. He did have a mismatch over that weak receiver. As Deion Sanders once said, it ain't bragging if you can back it up.

Digging more into Sherman, I got to like him more and more. He's the son of working class parents in Compton who is the opposite of a thug and graduated from Stanford with a masters in communication and a high GPA. He's drastically underpaid, but you don't hear him whining about it. He self-identifies as a nerd. He's a charitable guy who takes care of kids in his old neighborhood. He's an intellectual ball player. And there are so many video clips of him just being awesome.

• Probably the funniest thing I've ever seen an athlete do, ever.

• Studying the game and plays at a level that few other players are even capable of.

• Eviscerating waste of space Skip Bayless for insulting him and asking dumb questions.

• Hilarious locker room commentary (at 9:24).

So, I've come to the conclusion that Sherman is actually one of the coolest people in the game. He's the type of player I would be if I had that kind of talent and dedication. I don't. And neither does just about anyone else. So a lot of the animosity towards him is jealousy-based and that's a bullshit motivation. I'm a big fan of clever, intellectual athletes and I always root for people are falsely maligned and who are the target of racism and other such nonsense and ignore it to excel (one of my children is named after Jackie Robinson). I'm not aware of any player that combines all of those things better than Sherman. So he's my favorite player now.

A few people said that his antics distracted from his team and were selfish. But that's nonsense. He's a massive promoter for his teammates and talks about them in almost every interview. In the "selfish" interview he gave to Erin Andrews, note that the last thing he said was "LOB," as in "Legion of Boom," as in the nickname for his comrades in the Seahawks secondary. In a short, short rant about how mad he was at Crabtree, he got in a shout-out to his teammates. You might not have known that, but they did. And that's what matters. And if his trash talking, which is nothing new, was so distracting, why is his team playing for the Superbowl title and yours isn't?

Finally, though, there are people complaining that his way of bragging about himself and talking trash is arrogant or makes him an asshole. This is not only a misunderstanding of the way sports works, it's a misunderstanding of how life works.

Trash talking is an integral part of sports. Non-sports people may not understand it or like it, but if you are playing sports, people are going to be talking trash. The first time someone talked trash to me was in junior major league baseball, when I was in middle school. And it totally worked. That pitcher told me he was better than me, and I was afraid of him ever time I went up against him that season. And the only time I got on base was the time he hit me with a pitch, which intimidated me even more. Baseball wasn't my sport.

But the bigger thing is that mental games are part of the way sports works. It is absolutely acceptable and encouraged for players to use any legal tool they can to gain an advantage and win. Getting into someone's head psychologically and make them play worse so you can beat them is so widespread in sports and games that it happens in almost all sports and all games at every level. As long as you aren't being abusive, you're doing exactly what you should do. It's a plot element in almost every sports movie ever. Hell, it's the story of David and Goliath. Use the tools you have against an opponent who is bigger, faster, or stronger in order to equalize things and give yourself a chance to win. Again, as long as the tool you use is legal, you'd be dumb not to use it.

Sherman uses intimidation and trash talk better than most athletes I know of. And people get mad at him because he's better at them in every aspect of the game. They can't equalize things or neutralize his talent and intellect because he's better than them. So they hit him. Or call him names. Or say he has no class. Or say he's a thug. What they don't realize, though, is they're playing right into his hands. When you're worried about the next thing he's going to say, you aren't catching the pass that will beat him. Not that you were going to beat him anyway, but he's using failsafes to make sure he wins. Hence that AFC championship ring.

And before you say, "well the all-time great athletes didn't have to do that to win," I'll remind you that you're wrong. Some of them didn't, but many did. Go look up a list of the greatest trash-talkers of all time. I'll wait. Sure, on whatever list you found, you'll find some assholes. But you'll also find names like Deion Sanders, Charles Barkley, John McEnroe, Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller, Kevin Garnett, Michael Jordan, Satchell Paige, Larry Bird, and Muhammad Ali. Which of these guys is a thug? Or an asshole (not counting McEnroe)? These are some of the greatest and most beloved players in history. And they all trash-talked at a higher level that Sherman. Yet where's the hate for these guys (unless you were on the other team)?

Finally, and I know you're glad to see that word, what is it that Sherman is doing with his trash-talking? For the most part, if you've watched a lot of clips, is he's promoting himself. "I'm the best to be doing this right now." You'll probably say that sounds arrogant. I'll say that you're full of shit. That isn't just sports talk or the type of talk you hear rappers engage in, it's the type of thing most of us say all the time. And we have to. Promoting yourself is a necessary part of life. When you go into a job interview, do you not tell them you are the best person for the job? When you try to date someone that you really like, do you not make the case that you are the best person for them to date? When you perform on stage, do you not try to convince people that seeing you is better than seeing someone else? When you play pick-up basketball, do you not try to win and do you not start off with the assumption you're going to win? When you do favors for your best friend, do you not try to convince them that you are the best friend they have? When you teach classes, don't you want good student evaluations or a "teacher of the year award"? When you try to get a raise at work, do you not tell them that you deserve the raise because you are the shit? Of course you do. We all do at least some of these things and many others. The coffee mug you get from your children doesn't say World's Second-Best Dad. Most of us want to be the best at something. Most of us want recognition for that. Getting that recognition is very difficult if you don't promote yourself. So most of us do the same thing that people are up in arms about with Sherman all the time. Sherman just happens to not be a hypocrite about it.

Go Seahawks.

"Because the Internet," by Childish Gambino (HHES Review)

Here's my review of the Childish Gambino album "Because the Internet," using the Hip Hop Evaluation System (HHES). "The Library (Intro)" is an interesting five seconds, but not sure it deserves a track listing.

"crawl" is amazing. Amazing hook, outstanding rapping from Childish, and a lot of interesting sonic experiments that all seem to work.

"Worldstar" has a very interesting song structure. It's not quite as successful as "crawl," but still works pretty well, particularly when Gambino is rapping. The structure interrupts his flow though in a way that makes it less effective, I think.

"dial up" is apparently part of the soundtrack for the visual version of this concept album. Separate from that visual, I'm not sure how well it works.

"the worst guys" has a mildly interesting hook from Chance the Rapper and Childish, that surrounds more top-notch rapping from Childish.

"shadows" begins a series of songs on the album that, while they have some interesting ideas and some technically solid rapping, they don't amount to solid songs independent of the on-going story cycle on the album. Both "shadows" and "telegraph ave." fail to stand alone as great songs, although the latter is a solid song on its own.

"sweatpants" breaks the cycle, though, and is a solid song regardless of the album's story. The song features several things that make Gambino one of the best rappers in the game: a great sense of humor, strong technical skills, an encyclopedic knowledge of pop and Internet culture. And it keeps up the experimental nature of much of the album and here it all succeeds.

"3005" is not only the centerpiece of the album in terms of quality and songwriting. It's a perfect song and moreso than any other song on the album, it reflects Childish's recent trend of introspection and reflects his insecurities and questioning of the way people act and react to him. The more airplay a song like this gets, the better a place the world will be.

"playing around before the party starts" is an interesting piece of music, but again, I'm not sure it works independent of the film it's supposed to be a part of.

"the party" is awesome, though. Again, really strong vocals from Childish, leading into one of the best jokes on the album and a great addition to the character that the album revolves around. I also love the lyrically creativity here, there's a line where Childish has an obvious opportunity to rhyme party with Bacardi, but decides to use vodka instead, which works really, really well.

"no exist" has a great division to it, between the somewhat upbeat, poppy hook, and the menace of the beat and Childish's delivery. Very effective development of the continuing concept/story of the album.

"death by numbers" apparently connected to the main character of the album attempting suicide. But I don't get that at all from the track, either lyrically (there are only a handful of words here), or sonically.

"flight of the navigator" returns to the cycle that began with "shadows." It's more introspective and experimental, but that doesn't necessarily mean the song is that great. The rest of the album continues in this vein, which means that it isn't as strong as the earlier portions. That being said, it's still stronger than most of what's on the radio.

"zealots of stockholm," "urn," "pink toes," and "earth: the oldest computer" continue the introspective/experimental cycle, so much so that they don't seem to be particularly distinct songs, particularly because they are so focused on similar themes. Some guest appearances from talented women come in here, but they seem to get lost in the shuffle.

"life: the biggest troll" steps it back up a little bit to end the album on a strong note. It's not the best song on the album, but it's better the five songs preceeding it, it's just harder to get through those songs to get to it.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 10. Gambino has one of the most diverse and interesting flows of any rapper in the business. All of that is on ample display here.

Lyrics: 10. These are some of the most thoughtful and introspective lyrics on any album I've heard in years. And they're still loaded with good poetry, good jokes and good wordplay.

Message: 10. This is a message album. Gambino has a lot of thoughts about life, death, love, friendship, fame, the Internet, etc. He doesn't necessarily have all the answers, but that's an important message, too.

Technical: 9. Most of the album is very technically adept, but certain songs are so sparse or so slow as to not be difficult to perform, even if they might be thought-provoking.

Production: 8. Most of it is really good. It's really experimental and doesn't sound like anything else I've heard in a while, but it doesn't all work, particularly on the last third of the album, which gets a little monotonous, sound-wise.

Versatility: 9. There is a pretty wide variety of song structures, sonic ideas, and flows here. They don't all succeed, but none of them fails.

Collaborators: 7. Other than his long-time collaborator Ludwig Göransson, there are very few collaborations here. There are a few hooks sung by others, but not much more than that. This lends to a cohesive vision that is very true to what Childish wants to communicate, but it doesn't allow for other voices in the conversation and doesn't give as much variation as you would like, although the production and samples make up for that quite a bit.

History: 9. There are enough cultural references to show the album knows something of history, but much of the connection to history here is in the production, particularly with a string of choices that reject what's expected and go in new directions.

References: 10. Gambino is a master of references that other rappers either can't make or don't know enough to make. He also writes puns and metaphors that few others can.

Originality: 10. This album is fiercely original. There's nothing like it anywhere and that was the point, I think. Gambino tries more new things per song than just about anyone in the business and they frequently work, much more so than many experimental song creators.

Total Score: 92. On the first few listens, I didn't think I liked this album as much as I did "Camp," but this has so many more layers and ideas that just about anything being produced these days and while it doesn't all work, it gets a lot of credit for trying things that more people should be trying. Gambino has cemented himself as one of the most creative minds working in the realm of hip hop, it's just too bad more hip hop fans don't know this (or if they do know, they don't care).

The Lesson (With Footnotes)

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "The Lesson."

"The Lesson" is the first song I ever wrote. After a Cap City Mob recording session that led to one of the verses that now appears in "Liquid Thunder," I wanted to take a stab at writing a full song. As an introduction to myself, I wanted to do something that talked about my overall beliefs and KRS-One's "My Philosophy" was playing in the background. I was already Professor Rex by that point, so combining the idea from KRS-One with my name, the idea was of "The Lesson" was born. I quickly settled on a structure that would include eight verses of eight bars each, providing an introduction and seven key areas of my personal philosophy. My idea was always that the song would have no chorus, following in the footsteps of the main cover song I did at the time, the Beastie Boys "Paul Revere." During the time I was in Cap City Mob, a chorus and intro were added, but they never quite felt right to me, so when I went solo, they were taken out. I've also struggled to find a backing track for it and have often performed it with only a beat box or totally a capella. The current beat that I use with it won't be the final one.

I step up to the mic and it's time to teach the class

The central metaphor of the song, and of my entire catalog, is me as the teacher. I was an actual college professor for 10 years, so it's not that far-fetched an idea. The idea is that here I can finally teach the things I couldn't teach in the classroom, the real truths.

I'm here to drop some science bout the present, future, past

"Dropping science" was always my favorite hip hop metaphor, so I get it in here at the beginning of my first song.

This is T. Rex's Guide to Life

My nickname in college was T. Rex and my first blog was called "T. Rex's Guide to Life."

This is dedicated to the heroes in my life

This line originally read "this is dedicated to my children and my wife," but I changed it to this once I got divorced. Tributes to my kids appear in other songs.

Professor Rex is here to dispel your illusions

This was always a central philosophy for me, both as a teacher and as a writer (song or otherwise), debunking things that people believe but they shouldn't.

Like Obama's election I'll shatter your delusions

The song was originally written before Obama was running for office and it read "Like the midterm elections...." Prior to the 2006, a lot of Republicans were giddy with recent successes and were starting to talk about becoming a "permanent majority." I knew it was nonsense, but they couldn't see that their victories were shallow and the 2006 elections, where Democrats took control of Congress, were the first sign of that. In 2008, they couldn't believe that the voters soundly rejected their view of the country.

You people get your info from all the wrong places

Give your respect to all the wrong faces

This one is still talking to those Republicans alluded to in the previous lines, but is also broadened to include anybody who gets most of their info from television and the mainstream media.

The first thing you do is turn off your TV

The world wide web is the place you need to be

Freedom of information that's the key

That bland corporate truth will eat you like a zombie

Tying into the previous verse, this one makes my position clear: corporate media, particularly on television, is terrible for you and does not give you good information. Instead, you're much more likely to find the truth somewhere on the Internet, even though a lot of what is on the Internet sucks. And, of course, the more free information is, the better off people are.

28 days later you still don't know the truth

This line plays off the word zombie in the previous line, referencing one of my favorite movies in the genre. Zombie is a term also often used to describe political lies spread by conservatives that won't die no matter how many times they are debunked, which leads into the next few lines.

Bible beaters got you rejecting the proof

Global warming, evolution, science and logic

Ignorant neocons say it's nothing but a trick

Despite the undeniable truth of these things, conservatives still find a way to deny them.

The second thing you need to do is learn to free your mind

There are so many constraints on the way people think and the world (and our lives) would be a lot better if we could get past them.

The history book's written for the blind by the blind

Most of the history that we collectively know is pretty bad and inaccurate and people accept too many historical accounts from people who don't know what they're talking about.

The things they teach you in school in reality

The lies they feed you defy all morality

In much of the country, school curricula are controlled and influenced heavily by small-minded people with religious and political agendas that have little to do with reality and frequently include immoral components that are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc.

They leave out the people who really took a chance

White washing history in ethnocentric rants

Real history is often sanitized and forced to fit into neat narratives that aren't real and that leave out people who don't fit the official story, even if that story is false.

Dumb-ass textbooks are a waste of your day

Never met a textbook that wasn't a piece of crap.

Get with the people, hear what they got to say

Oral history is one of the most important ways to learn about reality. Never take any one person's memory as fact, but gathering lots of memories from lots of people is the best way to get at most history and reality.

The third thing you do is put down your credit card

Close up your wallet, put up your guard

So much of American culture is focused on making us all into consumers, teaching us that, somehow, we're better people the more we spend. I'm saying we need to change that habit.

Quit buying shit that you don't need

And focus on only spending money when we need to or when it contributes to our happiness, not just to show off our status.

Fuck the Joneses, kill the greed

Based on the old-fashioned saying "keeping up with the Joneses," I here reject that concept and greed in general.

The whole world's trying to make you consumer

It's hard to stay away from consumerism when so many people and entities are forcing it upon us.

But that shit'll rot your brain just like a tumor

But we have to do it, because consumerism doesn't serve our purposes or improve our lives. It's all about transferring money from the many to the few, and therefore is evil.

Evil is the root of all money

A play on the traditional saying "money is the root of all evil." This term agrees with that, but flips it to the viewpoint that evil came first and the evil we see emanating from money and consumerism is why money was created in the first place.

Kills more people than crack, this shit ain't funny

While drug abuse is a serious issue, greed kills way more people than any drug ever would (or could).

The fourth thing you need to do is learn to use your power

Maybe the most important line in the song, as most people don't know how much power they have over their own lives and how much power they have to influence the lives of others.

It's democracy, don't vote then you're a coward

There's long been a debate about whether or not voting "matters," I'm obviously coming down on the side of it mattering here.

On election day, get out the vote

And just as important as individually voting is doing something to help make sure that others vote, too.

Shake up the system and rock the boat

And while voting is important, it's also important to do things that go further and shake the system to it's foundations and to ignore the old warning not to rock the boat.

American idiot? Man that's too nice

The line here was a clear statement that Green Day's scathing attack didn't go too far.

George fucking Bush got elected twice

The idea that even one person thought "you know what, George W. Bush would make a good president" is ludicrous, much less the fact that he actually became president.

Don't get started, I know he stole that shit

The vote was too close, that's how he jacked it

While there's very clear evidence that George W. Bush, with help of his brother Jeb and Kathryn Harris, stole the 2000 election, they were only able to do it because the election was too close. Smarter voters would've never allowed the two candidates to be that close together.

The fifth thing you do is kill all that noise

Drop the propaganda, learn some fucking poise

So many people talk so much nonsense about issues they don't really know about or understand. They're mostly just repeating propaganda they've heard from someone who has an agenda that doesn't involve telling the truth.

You spend all day on imaginary problems

Like you're worried bout ogres and goblins

These lines are particularly critical of right-wing politicians and pundits, who talk about things that aren't real problems in order to distract from the fact that not only aren't they solving the real problems, they're creating them.

Communists and terrorists ain't coming to get you

While terrorists, when they exists are a real problem, there just aren't as many of them and they aren't as likely to attack us in the U.S. as the fearmongers would have you to believe. The Communists that are around these days aren't a threat at all. And communism itself was never the problem, totalitarianism was.

Our biggest global problem is your short-sighted views

Racism, sexism, hatred and poverty

All of these problems affect the everyday lives of Americans more than terrorism or Communism did.

Open up your eyes and learn to see

Blindness is the biggest roadblock to Americans having the ability to solve the problems we face.

The next thing you need to do is start making love

Getting love and giving love

People act like sex is a bad thing. It's not, particularly consensual sex between adults. When it happens and people understand what they are doing, it's almost always a positive thing.

If I ruled the world, people'd fuck every day

It wouldn't even matter if you're bi, straight or gay

Again, consensual sex between adults is valid in its many different forms.

Everybody needs to get laid more

The more good things we have in our life, the less bad things we have.

And stop calling sexual women fucking whores

Women have the equal right to want or desire sex and shouldn't be judged negatively for enjoying or wanting sex.

The more sex we get the more relaxed we are

We stop blowing kids up in imperialistic wars

Not a lot of wars and killings are engaged in by people who are getting regular sex.

The last thing you do is get up off your butt

Get out the house, get out of the rut

America needs you, and the world does, too

There's so much shit that we gotta do

We can't leave this mess for future generations

We gotta overcome our doubts and frustrations

We need your help to make the world a better place

The last section doesn't have any deeper meaning, it's just a direct call to action.

Till you get up off your ass, I'm gonna be in your face!

And a reminder that I'm not going anyway and until we solve these problems, I'll be here to remind you about them and your role in solving them.

Why Pearl Jam Is the Best Band In the World

Pearl Jam is the best band in the world. Here's why:

1. Talent. Each of the members is in the top 10 working musicians in popular music at what they do. Matt Cameron and Eddie Vedder might be the best at what they do. Few people can solo like Mike McCready. The others are nearly as good at what they do, too.

2. 23 years together without breaking up, with most of the original lineup still intact. This means they have worked out the dynamic for working and creating with each other, they trust each other, they work well together, and they respect each other. That means

3. Ticketmaster. Yes, they lost that battle, but it was a battle worth fighting and they were the only ones to fight it.

4. Few, if any videos. So many artists over the years complained about how videos spoiled music, then they went out and made them anyway. Not PJ. They said videos distract from the music and they stopped making them, only

5. Variety. Few rock bands are more experimental and try so many different things and have so many of those things succeed. There really aren't any bad Pearl Jam songs and they can play an acoustic show and a heavy show on the same night. They can do arena rock, radio-friendly ballads, experimental music, punk, classic rock, grunge, pop, bluesy, etc. And they do them all well.

6. Live shows. They play a lot. They play nearly their entire catalog. They throw in great cover songs. They rework songs to make them better or to experiment and try new things. They rock.

7. Vs. Almost an entire album where they upset the traditional verse-chorus-verse song structure and it works really, really well.

8. Ten. Few albums from the 90s were more listened to or more influenced everything that came later. Sure, Smells Like Teen Spirit tore down the doors to radio stations, but more bands tried to copy Pearl Jam because Pearl Jam was more accessible. And then Pearl Jam realized that and started getting less accessible and moved on to bigger and better things that the imitators couldn't follow.

9. "Mind Your Manners" and "Sirens." 23 years in, they write one of their best ballads and a song that rocks just as well as their early stuff.

10. "Jeremy." Few songs are more powerful. Few videos are more powerful.

11. "WMA," "Glorified G," "Bushleaguer." Few bands do politics more artfully than PJ.

12. The live bootleg series. They didn't like the way that their fans were getting crappy inferior products from bootleggers or that the copies that they allowed fans to make for themselves weren't as good as they could be, so they started giving the fans every show as recorded at the soundboard.

13. Charity. Few bands have been more involved in trying to change the world and few bands have given more songs to tribute albums.

14. Fan club and Wishlist. PJ is among the best in the business at rewarding their loyal fans with an annual x-mas single, early access to shows, secret shows, etc. And the fan club does charity, too.

15. "Black." This is an incredibly sexy song. I didn't quite lose my virginity to it, but I almost did.

16. "Daughter," "Elderly Woman Behind the Corner In A Small Town." Eddie Vedder has no problem writing from the perspective of a woman because he respects and understands women.

17. "Long Road," "Man of the Hour." Few songs are more poignant examinations of loss than these two.

18. "Yellow Ledbetter." Nobody knows what this song is about, not even the band. And yet we all yell along with it at the top of our lungs because it's just that awesome.

19. "Gremmie Out of Control," "Last Kiss," "Soldier of Love." How many other bands can cover such disparate oldies and make them all sound better than the originals and sound like they wrote the songs.

20. "Lukin." It's short, but damn is it punk. Especially live.

21. "Spin the Black Circle." Yes, I like vinyl, too. Especially when it rocks this hard.

22. Vitalogy, No Code, Yield. There is so much variety and so much good music on these three albums that it'd be silly to try listing the individual highlights. This is some of the most experimental music ever made by a band that sells millions of albums and almost all of it works really well.

23. Survival. They survived the pressure. They survived the media machine. They survived more drummers than Spinal Tap. They survived drugs and addiction. They survived expectations. They survived the pressures of being a band on the road. They survived the Roskilde tragedy. Who else survived as much?

"Slave" (With Footnotes)

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "Slave."

"Slave" is the second song I ever wrote. This was when I was doing my songs mostly a capella at open mic night and it was definitely done in a style that would work well for slam poetry nights. The rhymes are simple and the rhythm primarily comes from repetition, something I over-relied upon in the early days. I still like the sound of it, though, and crowds always seem to like it, even grabbing on to the repetitive chanting.

The premise is pretty simple, I think most people enslave themselves to various things that prevent them from becoming enlightened or evolving or being free or being happy. The second and third verses explain what the cost of that mental slavery is. The song probably most owes its origin to the Public Enemy line from "He Got Game," where Chuck D says: "payin mental rent/to corporate presidents/one outta million residents/bein dissident/who ain't kissin it." The lyrics are pretty simple and don't need a lot of explanation.

You made yourself a slave to the man

"The man" is pretty open-ended here, whether it be a politician, your boss, the police, whatever.

You made yourself a slave to beer can

You made yourself a slave to the crack

Addiction is an obvious slave master.

You made yourself a slave to the payback

This one works in multiple ways, most notably financial debt or revenge.

You made yourself a slave to herd

Groupthink, hive mind, whatever you want to call it when people go along to get along and refuse to think for themselves.

You made yourself a slave to wrong words

This one also could mean many different things: ideology, religion, media, propaganda, etc.

You made yourself a slave to hate

The things we hate often shape us more than the things we love. That's a bad idea.

You made yourself a slave to going rate

The metaphor here alludes to the idea of being resistant to change or to always doing things the same way, even if there might be better ways to do things.

You made yourself a slave to grass

This is for the extreme potheads who do nothing but smoke and watch TV or play videogames or whatever.

You made yourself a slave to wrong ass

You made yourself a slave to vd

Obviously if your life is based around getting laid, you're probably in trouble and VD is just one of the worries you'll have.

You made yourself a slave to tv

Most TV sucks and the worst TV is very, very dangerous to our ways of thinking.

You made yourself a slave to grind

When your life becomes only about work, making money, materialism, keeping up with the Joneses, etc., you have no life.

You made yourself a slave to wrong minds

There are many so-called thinkers, experts, and philosophers who really don't know what they are talking about and the millions of people who follow them, at best, are fooling themselves. At worst, they're killing others.

You made yourself a slave to a fake god

This can mean a literal god or a metaphorical one, but any "god" that teaches you hate, materialism, greed, or other similar sins is false.

You made yourself a slave to the cash wad

Again, if it's all about the Benjamins for you, you have problems, you're focused on the wrong things in life.

Get up, get up, get up, get up

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up

Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up

...and get down

The chorus is telling the listener to break out of their slavery and become free. The "and get down" part is very much performed in a Beastie Boys voice and usually cracks the audience up after the seriousness of the rest of the song.

What's the price you pay for being a slave

The focus of this verse is to ask, now that we've identified what makes people a slave, what does that mean? What is the cost of being a slave to these various things?

What's the price you pay for the roads you don't pave

The failure to invest in infrastructure is a drag on the economy and particularly hurts the lower classes.

What's the price you pay for being cool

As an individual, what problems do you create for yourself based upon your efforts to be "cool" or acceptable to others, particularly when those things aren't part of who you really are?

What's the price you pay for being a fool

What's the price you pay for being dumb

These two are synonyms, of course. They say ignorance is bliss, but is that really the case? Dumb people seem to die a lot younger and they seem to have a host of other problems, higher debt, more jail time, etc. It's easier not to learn things, but how bad does that mess your life up? And how much does that end up meaning that you cost yourself more in the long run?

What's the price you pay for getting some

A lot of people live their lives for sex. Sex with the wrong person or at the wrong time can cause lots of problems and if your only focus is on sex, it's unlikely you can find any happiness that way.

What's the price you pay for being asleep

Many people are smart enough to realize what's going on but turn a blind eye, making them complicit in the wrongness that happens.

What's the price you pay for not making a peep

Similarly, people that know something is wrong and don't speak up about it are complicit.

What's the price you pay for being greedy

What's the price you pay for ignoring the needy

One of the biggest problems we face as a society is greed and the connected ignoring of those in need because of that greed.

What's the price you pay for hating the ladies

Closely connected is widespread sexism and treatment of women as second-class citizens...

What's the price you pay for not feeding the babies

...which goes hand-in-hand with the failure to adequately care for children (as a society).

What's the price you pay for being numb

Many of these problems are interconnected, like the idea of tuning out or ignoring horrors when they happen because they are just too much to deal with. Doesn't matter why you don't act, just that you don't act.

What's the price you pay for dropping the bomb

The idea that we need to drop bombs on countries to save them has to be one of the most ludicrous ideas ever foisted upon the masses.

What's the price you pay for being a slave

Bring it back full circle to the beginning of the verse.

What's the price you pay for the lives you don't save

And tying it all together, the idea that all of these forms of slavery and failure to stand up and fight those forms of slavery lead to many, many lives lost, both literally and metaphorically.

Get up, get up, get up, get up

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up

Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up

...and get down

The chorus again.

It destroys your goals to be such a fool

It steals your soul to be such a fool

It eats your mind to be such a fool

It burns your eyes blind to be such a fool

It ends your schemes to be such a fool

It crushes your dreams to be such a fool

It costs you your name to be such a fool

It makes you lame to be such a fool

It takes all your power to be such a fool
It makes you a coward to be such a fool
It cuts you like a knife to be such a fool
It ends your fucking life to be such a fool
It spends all your ends to be such a fool
It drives away all your friends to be such a fool
It makes you a slave to be such a fool
It drives you to your fucking grave to be such a fool

There really isn't a lot to add to the third verse, it's pretty straightforward and addresses the potential problems with being a blind fool.

Get up, get up, get up, get up

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up

Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up

...and get down

The chorus once again.

"Sorry to Bother You," The Coup (HHES Review)

Here's my review of the Childish Gambino album "Camp," using the Hip Hop Evaluation System (HHES).

If it weren't for Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle," "The Magic Clap" would the hardest banging song of the year, maybe of the decade. It was one my favorite videos of 2012 (although not even the best video from this album). And it is one of the best songs of any year. The lyrics are amazing, it's technically difficult, it challenges both lyrically and musically, and it's pretty damned fun to sing along with and dance too. Just plain perfection. And maybe one of the best ways to start off an album ever.

"Strange Arithmetic" is a great follow-up track, elevating the challenge of the album in terms of politics and critical thinking. Not to mention that it is an artistic song with a great concept. And it's another song you can easily dance to.

Just when you don't think an album can start off any better, along comes one of the most wildly creative songs ever written, "Your Parents' Cocaine." And the video is even better. Leave it to Boots Riley to combine kazoos, Anti-Flag, hardcore social commentary, and drug-using muppets. And it works so amazingly well.

After three songs, the album would already be a success, but Riley is far from done. "The Gods of Science" is one of the better rhyme schemes I saw all year, backed with superb production as every other song on the album is. Then that is followed by "My Murder, My Love," which has probably the best hook and a album filled with great hooks.

"You Are Not A Riot" shows Riley's amazing ability to balance incredibly catchy, danceable, original, unique songwriting with hardcore political commentary that doesn't hold back and pretty much always gets it right. It's a powerful combination and if radio and TV in the U.S. wasn't dominated by evil corporate interests, this was, by far, the catchiest set of songs released in 2012.

At some point, it starts to become repetitive to talk about this album, not because the album is at all repetitive, but because all of the adjectives I've used on previous songs keep applying. "Land of 7 Billion Dances" is original, danceable, political, great production, etc., etc. It's not at all like the rest of the album, sonically, and it has a more casual delivery than earlier songs, but that gives you a great break from the hardcore stuff that came before, so those are compliments.

"Violet" has some of the most beautiful music on the album and Pam the Funkstress' hook is a album highlight on an album filled with highlights. "This Year" brings in Jolie Holland as the vocalist and it helps keep the album very fresh, giving a bit of a break from Riley's voice which wasn't getting tiring at all, but that's how good the album is, it switches gears early enough and often enough that you keep being marveled at where it's going and awed at how it gets there.

"We've Got A Lot To Teach You, Cassius Green" manages to shock you with it's creativity and commentary when you didn't think the album could do that any more. And yet it does. Riley tries yet another approach to songwriting and he just knocks it out of the park in a way that you'd have a hard time thinking of anything else like it. Maybe ever.

For "Long Island Iced Tea, Neat," Riley brings in Japanther and damned if that doesn't work out perfectly, too. He continues to vary song structures as well and the production is varied enough that this is one of the few albums, of any era, that is so consistently listenable. "The Guillotine" comes in as a pretty amazing activist anthem and the album closes out on a lighter note, although still very socially conscious, with "WAVIP" which brings in even more amazing collaborators, Killer Mike and Das Racist.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 10. Riley has an amazing flow and he varies it enough on this album to keep it always interesting.

Lyrics: 10. There aren't many lyricists better than Riley and his metaphors and politically-charged rhetoric are right up my alley.

Message: 10. This album is all about politics and it's all about the right politics. Sometimes Riley is direct, sometimes he's metaphorical, but he's always on point.

Technical: 10. Hard to think of a rapper who more consistently tries to different things vocally and he always pulls them off on this album.

Production: 10. Every song is different and yet, they sound connected enough to be coherent.

Versatility: 10. This album tries to do a lot of great things and each song is significantly different than the others.

Collaborators: 10. Another area that is just plain perfect. There aren't an excessive number of contributors and every one of them is used to perfection.

History: 9. With a rapper as political as Riley, it'd be hard for the album not to be dripping with history. This one is, even if not a lot of it is explicit.

References: 8. There are quite a few, particularly if you also include the music videos, and the ones that exist are good.

Originality: 10. Albums don't get more original than this.

Total Score: 97. It's hard to imagine any album ever getting a higher score than this.

Retroactive Freshmen Classes of the Hip Hop Era

Building on my previous post, I went ahead and built retroactive Freshmen Classes for all of the previous years of the hip hop era. Consider this list a bit of a draft, as some parts of these lists are a little beyond my inherent knowledge and I had to do some research, which isn't a perfect thing in this case, so I might change it based on your feedback.

Also note that each year's list isn't in any particular order.

1979: Melle Mel, Kidd Creole, Rahiem, Wonder Mike, Ron Hunt, Big Bank Hank, Kurtis Blow, Paulette Winley, Tanya Winley, Lady D

1980: Spoonie G, Jimmy Spicer, Brother D, Sister Nancy, Special K, Kool Moe Dee, TJ Swann, Kool Kyle the Starchild, Spyder D, Sicle Cell

1981: Kool Ski, Kid Delight, Disco Dave, Pee Wee Mel, Lovebug Starski, T Ski Valley, Busy Bee, Jimmy Mac, Mr. Nice, Mr. Schick

1982: Boogie Knight, Romeo J.D., Lil Raheim, Fab 5 Freddy, Duke Bootee, Missy Dee, Sweet G, Jalil Hutchins, Ecstasy, Grandmaster Caz

1983: Run, DMC, Man Parrish, Hashim, T La Rock, Jazzy J, Adrock, MCA, Mike D, Ice T

1984: Roxanne Shate, Davy DMX, The Real Roxanne, Egyptian Lover, Doug E. Fresh, LL Cool J, Fresh Kid Ice, Educated Rapper, Prince Markie Dee, Kool Rock-Ski

1985: Slick Rick, Salt, Pepa, Scooly D, Toddy Tee, Kid Frost, Too Short, MC Shan, Sparky D, Steady B

1986: Luke, Brother Marquis, Kool Keith, Ced-Gee, Rakim, KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Biz Markie, Fresh Prince, Dana Dane

1987: Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, KRS-One, Rakim, Erick Sermon, Parrish Smith, Big Daddy Kane, MC Lyte

1988: Queen Latifah, MC Ren, Dr. Dre, Afrika Baby Bam, Mike Gee, Bushwick Bill, Rob Base, Posdnous, Trugoy the Dove, Chubb Rock

1989: Kool G. Rap, Wise Intelligent, Guru, Large Professor, Sadat X, Lord Jamar, Scarface, Shock G, Greg Nice, Smooth B

1990: Lord Finesse, Paris, MC Eiht, Brother J, Professor X the Overseer, Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, D-Nice, K-Solo, Jay-Z

1991: Pharoahe Monch, Busta Rhymes, Tim Dog, B-Real, CL Smooth, 2 Pac, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Bootsy Thornton, Dres, Treach

1992: Snoop Doggy Dogg, Common, A.G., Redman, Bun B, Pimp C, Nas, Everlast, Zev Lov X, Apache

1993: E40, Black Thought, RZA, GZA, Method Man, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Andre 3000, Big Boi, Jeru the Damaja, Notorious B.I.G.

1994: Pras, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Krayzie Bone, Layzie Bone, Bizzy Bone, Craig Mack, Keith Murray, Nate Dogg, Warren G

1995: Big L, Cee-Lo Green, Big Gipp, Khujo, Mack 10, Da Brat, Aceyalone, DJ Paul, Juicy J, Lord Infamous

1996: Lil Kim, Xzibit, Capone, Noreaga, Ras Kass, Master P, Big Shug, Slug, WC, Puff Daddy

1997: Mase, Pusha T, Sonny Cheba, Geechi Suede, Peter Gunz, Canibus, Missy Elliot, Aesop Rock, Murs, Lord Tariq

1998: DMX, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Cappadonna, Big Pun, Eminem, Mystikal, Juvenile, Cam'Ron, Afroman

1999: Lil Wayne, Eve, Bumpy Knuckles, Pastor Troy, RA the Rugged Man, Screwball, Dizzy Dustin, Andy Cat, Young Bleed, No Malice

2000: Black Rob, Ludacris, Nelly, Beanie Sigel, stic.man, M-1, Madlib, Memphis Bleek, Mac Dre, Royce da 5'9"

2001: TI, Proof, Bizarre, Sleepy Brown, MF Doom, Devin the Dude, G. Dep, Fabolous, C-Rayz Walz, Immortal Technique

2002: Edan, Killer Mike, Big Noyd, Styles P, Infamous 2.0, Tragedy Khadafi, Cage, Chamillionaire, Sage Francis, Gift of Gab

2003: 50 Cent, David Banner, Turf Talk, Blaq Poet, Bonecrusher, Juelz Santana, Tony Yayo, D-Roc, Dizzee Rascal, Brother Ali

2004: Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Kanye West, Mannie Fresh, MC Jin, Lil' Flip, Lil' Scrappy, Slim Thug, Keak Da Sneak, Jim Jones

2005: Young Jeezy, The Game, Sean Price, Mac Mall, Mistah F.A.B., Paul Wall, Rhymefest, Rapper Big Pooh, Ohmega Watts, K'Naan

2006: Rick Ross, Sway, Joe Budden, Termanology, Travie McCoy, Lady Sovereign, Blueprint, Obie Trice, Naledge, Double-0

2007: Stat Quo, Rich Boy, Huey, ST 2 Lettaz, Yung Clova, Shawty Lo, Chuck Inglish, Mikey Rocks, Skyzoo, NYOIL

Ranking XXL's Freshmen Classes

So I read XXL Magazine's Freshman Class 2013 issue and I was really fascinated by the idea. For those that don't know what it is, every year for the past six years, the hip hop magazine has released an issue with its Top 10 newcomers for the year, giving them some free press and getting them new audiences. I really like the idea, even if the execution isn't particularly awesome.

This made me think of two things that I'm going to write about. The first is to go over the six freshman classes they've done so far and ranking the artists. It'll be a combination of how much I personally like the artists mixed with some measure of their success and output since they were recognized. A combination of subjective and objective rankings. The second thing would be to do a retroactive list of Freshmen for every year during the rap era. I'll do that second one later, for now I want to rank the classes...

(Take these with a bit of a grain of salt, though, since a lot of these rappers I've only heard a little bit from and some of them I'll be listening to for the first time while writing this. I'll update it in the future as I learn more).

2008

1. Lupe Fiasco: Seemingly, by far, the most successful member of the first class. I like him quite a bit. I like his style and I like songs like "Words I Never Said" and "Kick Push" quite a bit.

2. Papoose: I first heard of Papoose doing a track about a police brutality incident in NY and I loved the track. I've liked some of his other stuff, too, but I wouldn't say I love anything he's done, although I do keep listening, because he's far from whack.

3. Crooked I: Like his flow and his voice. I'm definitely going to listen to more after hearing "Dream Big" and "Pac and Biggie."

4. Saigon: Mostly know of him because of his appearances on "Entourage." The tracks I listened to, "Come on Baby" and "Ryders" were solid, but not spectacular. "Come on Baby" has a great beat and really takes off when Jay-Z comes in, but that's not a spectacular sign for Saigon.

5. Joell Ortiz: Not a bad writer, but his style doesn't stand out to me. He's far from terrible and "Hip Hop" isn't a bad track.

6. Lil Boosie: He's been pretty successful, but I tried listening to "Devils" and it didn't do anything for me.

7. Plies: I can't get past how much I dislike the production on the tracks I heard, "Bust It Baby Part 2" and "Shawty," although "Hypnotized" wasn't terrible. He doesn't seem to be horrible technically.

8. Gorilla Zoe: While I totally respect the idea of releasing a mixtape a day for an entire month, the tracks "Echo" and "Hood N*gga" really left me cold. They're really part of what I call the "lazy" trend in hip hop. Slow, awkward delivery, pointless lyrics that could've been delivered by anyone and nothing to stand out from any other song.

9. Rich Boy: Really don't like the choppy style and run-of-the-mill production on "Throw Some D's" and I hate songs about cars.

10. Young Dro: "FDB" and "Shoulder Lean" are even lazier than Gorilla Zoe.

2009

1. Kid Cudi: I'm not yet a massive fan, but I could be on the way since I've liked quite a few of his tracks, including "Day N Nite," "Poke Her Face," and several tracks off of "Indicud."

2. Blu: A much better sound than most of the 2009 class, I'm really interested in hearing a lot more of his sound, which is influenced by the genre that shares his name. His flow is pretty solid, too.

3. Asher Roth: Silly throwaway stuff, but "I Love College" and "Party Girl" are fun songs.

4. B.o.B: He's obviously massively successful, even if he leans very poppy. Although to be fair, he isn't exactly poppy in a bad way, more Justin Timberlake than Britney Spears. Teaming up with the likes of Eminem, Lupe Fiasco, and Morgan Freeman get him a boost and his response to "Control" was pretty strong, but then again, he did a song with Taylor Swift, so...

5. Charles Hamilton: "Brooklyn Girls" is a pretty awesome track, so it's hard to understand why such a prolific rapper has little to no mainstream stuff out.

6. Mickey Factz: He's pretty good on "Paradise" and as a guest on "I'm So Tall," but he really needs to step up the production schedule or risk being a footnote.

7. Ace Hood: He seems to have a lot of potential, but he's hanging out with people like Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Future, Rick Ross and Wiz Khalifa, all of whom he's better than and bring him down on songs like "Body 2 Body" and "Bugatti," although he does much better when alone, like on "Hustle Hard."

8. Cory Gunz: Hard to say much about someone who has so little output. He did guest on the only Lil Wayne song I can stand "6 Foot, 7 Foot," but I don't get much of a feel for him from "Foreign." Maybe "Colder," which is somewhat better is a better example of what he can do. Remains to be seen.

9. Wale: Really not my type of music. After listening to "Bad" and "Lotus Flower Bomb," I respect the quality of the production and the guest appearances are solid, but they music is just too R&B and light for my tastes.

10. Curren$y: "Jet Life" and "Capitol" both sound kinda dull to me. Not quite in the lazy category, since the production is better than that, but you can see a bit of the Master P/Lil Wayne influence on him and it hurts him when you hear it.

2010

1. Big Sean: The fact that he got Kendrick Lamar to join him for "Control" puts him to close to the top of the 2010 list, but "Hall of Fame" is growing on me, so he's probably at the top of what looks to be the weakest of these lists.

2. Fashawn: He has better production than most of the people on any of these lists and has a flow that is well above average, even if some of his lyrics are a little cliche. "Samsonite Man," "Relaxation" and "Nothin For the Radio" were all well worth listening to more than once. "Life As A Shorty" also has a really great overall sound.

3. J. Cole: Been listening to "Born Sinner" and I definitely don't hate it. It's going to take some additional listens to make me know how much I like it since nothing jumps out at me.

4. Donnis: He's a little too poppy for my tastes, generally speaking, but his stuff is better than most of the pop rappers out there right now. I checked out "Gone," "I Made It," and "Knockout" and while none of them, well, knocked me out, I didn't hate them, either.

5. Nipsey Hussle: His name alone gets him further up the list. His flow isn't bad at all, and "I Need That" and "7 Days a Week" don't sound terrible, although the production is a bit weak and the lyrics are a little cliche.

6. Jay Rock: On "Say Wassup" and "Hood Gone Love It," Jay Rock has solid production and a good enough flow, but the songs just don't grab me. I'm wait and see on this guy.

7. Pill: The first two tracks I listened to, "Pacman" and "Don't Let Go" (a guest verse) were marred by intros that featured Rick Ross and autotune. The lyrics on "Ride Dat Pole" are atrocious. Pill's flow is solid, but I've already heard these songs. Today.

8. Freddie Gibbs: By this point in the list, I'm really coming to the conclusion that the 2010 class is by far the worst in the freshman era. Gibbs' work on "Bout It Bout It," "BFK" and "Eastside Moonwalker," is passable, but, again, sounds just like everything else that is on this list that I've complained about already.

9. OJ da Juiceman: To start off, his name is pretty dumb. "Make That Trap Say Aye" is so annoying that I couldn't listen to anything else he was involved in.

10. Wiz Khalifa: I do not like Khalifa. He's so dull he almost messed up Tyga's "Molly" song and it isn't like Tyga's the best technical rapper in the game, so if you can't hang with Tyga...

2011

1. Kendrick Lamar: Of anybody on this list, he has the profile to launch him into megastardom. "Backseat Freestyle" might be the most banging track of the last decade and I love it when he starts rapping in Spanish. His calling out of pretty much every rapper in the game was a genius move from a marketing standpoint AND from the point of view of trying to elevate the artform.

2. Mac Miller: Just started listening to him, but I really like "Donald Trump," "Knock Knock" and "Goosebumpz." A bit poppy, lyrically dumb and white boy silly, but still well done.

3. Lil B: Unlike most entrants on the list, Lil has a strong sense of humor and a willingness not to take himself so seriously, particularly on standout tracks like "I'm Paris Hilton," "California Boy," and "Barbiie Girl," and, to a lesser extent, "Wonton Soup."

4. Yelawolf: There's a lot of potential here. I really liked the menace of "Pop the Trunk," and "I Just Wanna Party," "Let's Roll," and "Daddy's Lambo" all caught my attention. Definitely will listen to more.

5. Cyhi The Prynce: Prince has some impressive writing credits and guest appearances, but is a little short on his own original songs, although his flow on songs like "Sideways" and "Far Removed" is pretty strong.

6. Meek Mill: Man I hate when the first song I hear someone on involves Rick Ross, as does Mill's "Ima Boss," which is totally forgettable. Much better without Ross is "Dreams and Nightmares" which is a great song. "Levels," with too many lines I've heard before, is somewhere in between.

7. Diggy Simmons: I gather that Diggy has a very high opinion of himself, maybe higher than the rest of this list, which is saying something. I can't say as I agree with him, though. His flow isn't weak, and his voice is somewhat original, but what is he saying? Same old stuff on tracks like "Fall Down" and "You Got Me Now."

8. Big K.R.I.T.: Well, he at least gets some great guests on songs like "Country Shit" and "Money on the Floor," but nothing in either song stands out to me and I'll have to listen more to figure out whether or not he's any good.

9. Fred Tha Godson: I don't really have anything bad to say about "Doing My Thing" and "Work," but I don't really have anything positive to say, either.

10. YG: Really, really dull. Songs like "Snitches Ain't" and "You Broke" could've been written by a crap rap music song generator and while "Toot It and Boot It" sounds a lot better, the name is "Toot It and Boot It."

11. Lil Twist: On "Turn't Up," Twist gets a great guest appearance from Busta that clearly outshines the young rapper. On "Love Affair," you have the opposite situation, where Lil Wayne comes in to suck things up a bit. Twist has a similar voice to Wayne, but he's not as lazy. After listening to "New Money," though it seems the highlight is the Busta Rhymes appearance.

2012

1. Macklemore: Maybe the most successful single and album of any of the freshmen ever, he's already one of my favorite rappers.

2. Hopsin: I didn't think anyone would beat out Danny Brown for second on this list, but after hearing songs like Hopsin's "Ill Mind" series (particularly 4 & 5), it wasn't that close. Hopsin has a lot to say and a lot of very cool ways to say it.

3. Danny Brown: Just started listening to him, but "Radio Song," "Grown Up," "Black Brad Pitt" and several others have already been in heavy rotation for me.

4. Iggy Azalea: She's trying a bit to hard to be one of the guys, but she isn't exactly failing on songs like "My World" and "Work," which are good songs.

5. Don Trip: He's not exceptionally different than anyone else, but he's more honest and songs like "Letter to My Son" and "Rep My Hood" are worth a listen.

6. Roscoe Dash: "All the Way Turnt Up" made me almost immediately want to turn it off, but "Good Good Night," was much better. Still a little bit too similar to everything else out there, but he has some potential and I might listen to more.

7. Machine Gun Kelly: Not a lot of his stuff is freely available online, but "Alice in Wonderland" is a promising start. The beat is somewhat original and his flow is pretty technically difficult.

8. Kid Ink: "Money and Power" and "Hell and Back" are similar enough in title and sound to make me not particularly interested in listening to much more.

9. French Montana: Apparently, after writing the hook to "Ain't Worried 'Bout Nothing," French Montana wasn't worried about writing anything else, as the song only has 16 bars that don't mention all of the hook. If you take out lines that also have the word "nothing" in them, there isn't even a full verse in the whole song. That really, really didn't make me want to listen to anything else he wrote.

10. Future: At the beginning of "Karate Chop," Future uses autotune to talk about how real he is. Then Lil' Wayne comes in. Then Future uses that lazy-ass flow that I hate with a passion. Then I was done with him.

2013

1. Schoolboy Q: What I've heard so far, I love. "Collard Greens" is one of my favorite songs right now.

2. Action Bronson: I love his voice and his delivery, but I haven't heard a lot of truly great tracks from him, beyond "East Bound and Down," which is amazing.

3. Ab-Soul: "Terrorist Threats," "A Rebellion" and "The Book of Soul" were all in my rotation, although none of them quite made my hall of fame.

4. Angel Haze: Listened to her for the first time today and "New York" and "Werkin' Girls" went straight into my rotation. Her voice and flow are great and the production's even better.

5. Joey Bada$$: "Waves" is growing on me and leaves me wanting a bit more, but I haven't heard the other track that I'm gonna listen to a lot.

6. Trinidad James: "All Gold Everything" is pretty solid, but "One More Molly" could've been written by anyone else on this list. Probably better done, too.

7. Logic: I listened to "Young Sinatra II" and it was nice, but it didn't make me fall in love.

8. Dizzy Wright: Seems to be a bit familiar, might even be biting his style. "Cant Trust'em" sounds pretty good, but it also sounds like deja vu. Pretty sure Kanye said "don't let me get in my zone" first.

9. Travi$ Scott: "Upper Echelon" is not in the upper echelon. And can we really, really stop using dollar signs for letters? Please?

10. Kirko Bangz: Am I supposed to stay awake during "Drank In My Cup"? Very hard to do.

11. Chief Keef: "Love Sosa" isn't a terrible song. It's not really a good one, either. And it's all down hill from there.

"Camp," Childish Gambino (HHES Review)

Here's my review of the Childish Gambino album "Camp," using the Hip Hop Evaluation System (HHES).

"Outside" is a strange way to start out the album. It's not a bad song, far from it, it's just not the typical song to start off a hip hop album, particularly one by a popular actor. It's a deeply introspective track where Gambino talks about peeing his pants in school as a kid. I like how revealing he is, but this seems more like a end-of-the-album track, not the lead.

"Fire Fly" is a great song, and yet still sounds a bit off in the sequence. The hook and the guest vocals here are both great and this song really goes into Gambino's ability to provide masterful wordplay and great references. The backing track is also pretty great as well.

"Bonfire" is the song that got me into Gambino in the first place. It really is just simply one of the hardest banging tracks by any artist in the last decade. Both musically and lyrically it is quite ahead of most of what's being produced these days. It's pure nerdcore, but at the same time it's a hard song that any rapper who respects talent would have to appreciate. And, as "street" and "gangsta" as other MCs are, there are few lines in any song delivered any way that hit harder than the "human centipede" and "Casey Anthony" lines in this song.

"All the Shine" is a pretty awesome track as well, opening up about Gambino's music career and the trials and tribulations he's faced based on his style of rap. Very good flow, revealing lyrics, a good backing track. Not much to complain about.

"Letter Home" is a brief aside that gives a pretty good look into Gambino's heart, once again showing that he has a way of approaching lyrics that a lot of other rappers don't. This isn't groundbreaking, but it's another snippet of information that reveals the bigger picture of Childish Gambino.

"Heartbeat" is one of the few rap songs about relationships that isn't a ballad and totally works on every level. Gambino sings a pretty powerful hook that it's hard not to get addicted to. On top of that, the lyrics describe a relationship that is complicated and unsimilar to any other depicted in any song I'm aware of. Pretty much like Gambino himself.

"Backpackers" isn't the best song on the album, but it continues things well enough to sustain the momentum that peaked with "Heart Beat." Another song taking on critics of his music/personality, it is worth a few listens.

"L.E.S." is the first drag on the album. Up to this point, things are mostly upbeat and fast-paced and this not only doesn't fit that, it seems to slow the momentum the album had up to this point.

"Hold You Down" is the second track in a row that doesn't quite match up to the earlier tracks. It's not bad, but it does seem to be getting a bit repetitive at this point. Lyrically, it's impressive, but the sound just doesn't transcend.

"Kids" helps get things back on track with one of the better beats on the album. Gambino's imperfect singing makes the hook more original and catchy than it might otherwise be.

"You See Me" really brings things back with the best beat on the album and some of Gambino's best wordplay and flow. The song is very technically difficult and switches styles frequently enough to catch just about anyone's attention, even if its racial and gender politics is awkward at best.

"Sunrise" is a fun song that has some great lyrics and wordplay in the verses, but probably could've done with a better hook and maybe a loss of some of the jarring backing vocals.

"That Power" is an interesting end to the album, with a initial track that is pretty similar to a number of other tracks on the album, but continuing well past that "song" into a lengthy monologue from Gambino that is loaded with his personality and entertaining, showing that Gambino is a good storyteller.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 10. I love the way Gambino flows. He's probably my favorite rapper right now in terms of the way words come out of his mouth.

Lyrics: 9. Gambino does have a mysterious problem with slipping into stale misogynistic lines from time to time that show a laziness that he doesn't show anywhere else. If it weren't for that, this album would be perfect from a lyrical standpoint.

Message: 9. This album is really about Gambino's personality and the things that make him tic. In that vein, it's pretty amazing. I get a really good feel for the person these lyrics are about.

Technical: 10. Gambino really is trying to do something with the way he raps and he succeeds almost all the time.

Production: 8. It's hard to complain about any of the sounds on this album. They aren't all perfect, but they are close enough to stand up to repeated listens.

Versatility: 7. While there isn't a ton of versatility from song to song, there is so much within the individual songs that

Collaborators: 7. There really aren't too many besides producers. This makes a lot of sense in context, though, since the album is deeply personal and since everyone else does so many songs with guests, he's making a bit of a statement by not having anybody dilute his personal story.

History: 6. Not a lot of history is very obvious here, but there are quire a few pop culture references and some other nods towards what came before.

References: 10. Gambino makes a lot of current and clever references that are both hilarious and powerful.

Originality: 10. If anything else like this exists, I'm not aware of it.0

Total Score: 86. This album is loaded with potential and in quite a few places, it more than exceeds that potential. Gambino is a rapper to watch.

"Meant to Be" (With Footnotes)

<a href="http://professorrex.bandcamp.com/album/core-nerd-mixtape">Core Nerd Mixtape by Professor Rex</a>

Here is the tenth in my series of lyrical examinations of the songs of my debut mixtape, "Core Nerd!"

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "Meant to Be."

This was one of the last songs written for the album and one of the last songs I fully wrote in Tallahassee. It was a straightforward message song that fits in my category of songs that have a very definitive poetic structure. Some people don't like that structure as much, thinking it too repetitive, and considering that I do it more than once, they probably have a bit of a point. But I do really like the specific list of "dos" and "don'ts" listed here and the overall message it sends, so I included it in the first mixtape.

We're not all meant to be a parent

We're not all meant to give our consent

We're not all meant to be a spouse

We're not all meant to own a house

Messages in these four lines: 1. Parenthood isn't for everyone, despite what societal pressures say. 2. Some of us aren't meant to just go with the flow and accept what society tells us to do, some of us are supposed to fight back. 3. Much like marriage, parenthood isn't for everyone. 4. The third in the opening trifecta of what a "good" American is supposed to do. But some of us don't want to and shouldn't become homeowners. We don't all have to dream the same dreams and live the same lives, and we shouldn't.

We're not all meant to join the trends

We're not all meant to break or bend

We're not all meant to wear a uniform

We're not all meant to hide from the storm

Messages in these four lines: 1. Just because something is popular doesn't make it valid. 2. Some of us in life will end up losing because we refused to give in. That may hurt us personally, but it paves the way for future successes by others. 3. Uniforms are never given out for the benefit of the individual. They benefit the organization, if anyone. If we recognize that, sometimes it's better to resist that conformity. 4. The safe bet is to stay inside and bundle up when the storm comes. But there are good things in some of those storms and their are always opportunities for greatness during trying times.

We're not all meant to wear a nametag

We're not all meant to salute your flag

We're not all meant to follow the leader

We're not all meant to be mind readers

Messages in these four lines: 1. Jobs with nametags usually suck. Those of us that have figured out what we want to do and are willing to work hard for it shouldn't be forced to work those jobs. 2. A flag is a very sketchy thing to have allegiance for, while a country is only marginally better. Loyalty is for human beings who have earned it, not abstract concepts. 3. While it's true that we do need some people to follow leaders when we are trying to change the world for the better, we're usually better off with more people trying to be those leaders than we usually have. 4. Communication is one of the biggest problem areas we face in society, where people get mad at others who can't read their mind or anticipate their wants and needs. The reality is that its incumbent upon us to express our desires, not upon others to magically pick up on them.

We're not all meant to do what we're told

We're not all meant to be bought and sold

We're not all meant to act our age

We're not all meant to hold back our rage

Messages in these four lines: 1. Those who speak out against unjust authority are amongst the true heroes in society. 2. We're all marketed to constantly and pressured to sell ourselves out, it takes courage to resist. 3. People telling us to "act our age" is just another way for them to control us. The way I'm "supposed" to act is however I want to act. 4. "Anger is a gift," says Rage Against the Machine, and when injustice is in front of us, anger is the only valid response.

What are we meant to be

What are we meant to see

What are we meant to say

What are we gonna do today

The chorus is meant to ask the questions that the rest of the song is answering. I'm asking these questions first person, but they are questions we should all be asking first person, on a regular basis.

We're not all meant to watch the Superbowl

We're not all meant to jump in the fox hole

We're not all meant to eat a Big Mac

We're not all meant to earn the 20-year plaque

Messages in these four lines: 1. I personally am a sports fan, but I've seen too many people be ridiculed or pressured for not paying attention to games played by adults. 2. We frequently put military service at the top of our list of heroes, yet there are many other forms of heroes who deserve no less attention than our soldiers. 3. It's easy and cheap to eat a fast food diet. There's no standard by which it is good for you, though. 4. The day-to-day, 9-to-5 job lifestyle works for some, but it doesn't work for many others. A lot of us are better off looking for a different way to approach life.

We're not all meant to own a dog

We're not all meant to live in a fog

We're not all meant to wear a tie

We're not all meant to float on till we die

Messages in these four lines: 1. Some of us just aren't dog people and we don't need as much of the condescension that dog people give to non-dog people. 2. Actually, none of us are, but too many of us do. 3. Jobs with ties aren't for everyone. 4. The reference here is not at all a dig at Modest Mouse, whom I like quite a bit, but is a reference to taking a more active role in your own destiny.

We're not all meant to live in a small town

We're not all meant to always back down

We're not all meant to stay in one place

We're not all meant to date only one race

Messages in these four lines: 1. I personally hate small towns and small town values and think they hurt the world more than help it. 2. Some of us are meant to fight for what we believe in. 3. While there are some virtues to living your entire life in one place, it seems to me that moving around makes you a better, smarter, more well-rounded person. 4. There should be no boundaries on whom consenting adults want to date.

We're not all meant to pray to your God

We're not all meant to live on Cape Cod

We're not all meant to shop at Wal-Mart

We're not all meant to play a bit part

Messages in these four lines: 1. Religion is not for everyone and tolerance is necessary both towards other religions, but also towards the non-religious. 2. While wealth has its privileges, it's hardly a positive goal in and of itself. 3. Wal-Mart isn't great for anyone except its owners, although many people are sucked in by the low prices, not understanding the harm those low prices do to other human beings. 4. The world needs more superstars, even if those superstars are only so on small stages.

What are we meant to be

What are we meant to see

What are we meant to say

What are we gonna do today

The chorus again.

We are all meant to have free thought

We are all meant to foil the plot

We are all meant to knock the walls down

We are all meant to become a proper noun

Messages in these four lines: 1. One of the most important things people can do is learn to think for themselves. 2. Someone is always trying to do you or your friends and family or your society some kind of harm. How can they be stopped and what role do you or I play in that? 3. Literal walls are often important and serve valid purposes. Many metaphorical walls don't, they just block progress. 4. Do something in life that makes your name worthy of an entry in Wikipedia.

We are all meant to hop the globe

We are all meant to use our frontal lobe

We are all meant to push the limits

We are all meant to make the pivot

Messages in these four lines: 1. Travel is one of the most important things you can do to expand your mind. 2. Thinking and using one's brain is vital for the world to improve. 3. Most limits we face, even if they are self-imposed, are put there to stop us from succeeding, so we must bust through them. 4. Change is a vital part of life. If you don't change, you stagnate and die. But be careful to change for the better.

We are all meant to expand our minds

We are all meant to taste the wine

We are all meant to dance in the rain

We are all meant to do it again

Messages in these four lines: 1. 2. 3. 4.

We are all meant to run the race

We are all meant for first place/last place

We are all meant to graduate

We are all meant to play with fate

Messages in these four lines: 1. Everyone's life has the potential to be a game-changer, but only if we try. 2. We are all going to have successes and failures in life, neither should be a final judgment on who we are. 3. If not from school (although that, too), we all should progress in wisdom through our lives and "graduate" from the school of life. Many of us don't. 4. Tempting fate is the only way to make massive changes that improve our own lives and the lives of others. Risk is necessary in order to get the better rewards.

What are we meant to be

What are we meant to see

What are we meant to say

What are we gonna do today

The chorus again.

We are all meant to be free

We are all meant to describe what we see

We are all meant to want equality

We are all meant to scream like a banshee

Messages in these four lines: 1. Freedom is the ultimate state a human being can exist in, and we should all have the chance to earn it. 2. Most things we see have some importance and it is our duty to reveal those important things to others. 3. There are many different types of equality, and we should steadfastly pursue equality, unless someone (i.e. a murder or child molester) has forfeited that right to equality. 4. It's not enough to just speak up when injustice happens, we mus cream loudly until it goes away.

We are all meant to help the poor

We are all meant to get up off the floor

We are all meant to break some ground

We are all meant to rebound and rebound

Messages in these four lines: 1. Society should be judged by how it deals with those at the bottom rungs of the ladder. 2. We will all be knocked down, we should be judged by how we respond to that. Those who get up off the floor and fight are more heroic than those who don't. 3. In whatever field it is, we should all strive to leave our mark. 4. Life is a constant struggle and battle and the measure of a person is how much they let hardships or obstacles prevent them from success.

We are all meant to tell our story

We are all meant to strive for glory

We are all meant to wow the crowd

We are all meant to speak real loud

Messages in these four lines: 1. Our story has implications and lessons for others, not just ourselves, so we have a duty to pass our story along. 2. Glory can be defined many different ways, but whatever way we personally define it, we should pursue it. 3. Those of us who are creative or good-hearted always have the possibility of surprising others in positive ways and we should strive to do so. 4. And when we do, we can't do it quietly.

We are all meant to be real odd

We are all meant to be real flawed

We are all meant to change the world

We are all meant to change the world

Messages in these four lines: 1. It's strange to want to change the world or create art or do anything notable. But those things are what are important. 2. Nobody is perfect, but those of us who learn from our mistakes get closer and closer every day. 3. Even if it's in a small way. 4. Seriously.

What are we meant to be

What are we meant to see

What are we meant to say

What are we gonna do today

What are we meant to be
What are we meant to see
What are we meant to say
What are we gonna do today

The chorus two more times.

American Dream (With Footnotes)

<a href="http://professorrex.bandcamp.com/album/core-nerd-mixtape">Core Nerd Mixtape by Professor Rex</a>

Here is the ninth in my series of lyrical examinations of the songs of my debut mixtape, "Core Nerd!"

As I say in the song Liquid Thunder, "My rhymes are so dense you're gonna need footnotes." Here they are...

This time, for the song "American Dream."

Another track with a strong core premise, this time it's the pairing of marketing slogans that were famous and kinda had that earworm thing going for them with military images and language. If you think about it, it's pretty obvious that the two things often come from, if not the same people, the same type of people. War is sold to us the same way that fast food and batteries are sold to us. This song just makes that more explicit.

You can Just Do It. You know I'm lovin' it.

You can just hurt it. You know I'm stabbing it

The first slogan is Nike, the second McDonalds.

A diamond is forever. A little dab'll do ya!

Armor piercing bullets'll run right through ya

The first is De Beers diamonds, the second is Brylcreem, a hair product.

Have it your way. Home of the Whopper.

Both of these are old Burger King slogans.

Get your batteries topped with the copper

They keep going and going and going and going

Our bombs keep blowing and blowing and blowing and blowing

Coppertop batteries are, of course, Duracell, while the "going and going" slogan comes from their competitor with the bunny, Energizer. I really liked the comparison here with the bombs "blowing and blowing."

It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Keep on fighting, keep on kicking

The watch that keeps on ticking is Timex.

Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.

Kill the enemy like you're playing Rock Band

The candy that supposedly melts in your mouth, not in your hands is M&M's, but they always melted in my hands, which became covered with dye. The second line alludes to how much easier it is to kill the enemy with things like drones and long-range missiles where the soldiers sit in booths far from the enemy, effectively playing a war video game. This was something that George Carlin alluded to by calling them "Nintendo pilots," bring the video game reference full circle.

Raid Kills Bugs Dead

Knives kill kids dead

Guns kill men dead

Bombs kill countries dead

The hardness of the Raid slogan was easy to translate to bigger weapons and bigger results.

This is what you're dreaming of

This is what you wanna do

This is what you gotta do

This is what they tell you to

This is what they make you do

This is what you're dreaming of
This is what you wanna do
This is what you gotta do
This is what they tell you to
This is what they make you do

The chorus really gets at the main idea of the song, as you can't tell whether it's referring to the commercials or the war allusions. In reality, it's both.

GE, We bring good things to life.

But not today, hide your kids, hide your wife

The old GE slogan was an obvious one, but pairing it with the Antoine Dodson line was my second favorite line in the song and a little bit of needed comic relief in the middle of a dark song.

Bounty towels, The quick picker upper

Laser-guided bunker-buster

I really like the contrast of the two "problem solvers" mentioned here, from the really soft and friendly Bounty towel to the life-ending bunker-buster bomb.

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids

Silly Rabbit, ak's are for kids

Silly Rabbit, claymores are for kids

Silly Rabbit, its all for the kids

Everything in politics is "for the kids," which makes an obvious connection to Trix and its famous slogan. The implied criticism here is that things that are really important, like war, don't take kids into account at all, whether as collateral damage or for the kids who lose parents in war. There is also an allusion to child soldiers here as well.

Think outside the bun

Think inside the gun

The "bun" slogan is from Taco Bell.

Give a hoot, don't pollute

You surrender, I'm still gonna shoot

"Give a hoot" is the first slogan here that isn't a corporate slogan, but was part of a PSA campaign. I remember it fondly and it helped make me a non-polluter as a kid. The second line is a reference to the fact that soldiers are so heavily trained to kill and that the enemy is so dehumanized that people end up dying even after they stop fighting.

What would you do for a Klondike bar

What would you do for a brand new car

What would you do for a MAC-10

What would you do to make sure that you win

Really the big philosophical question of the song is "what are you willing to do" to win and it is an easy tie-in to the Klondike slogan.

This is what you're dreaming of

This is what you wanna do

This is what you gotta do

This is what they tell you to

This is what they make you do

This is what you're dreaming of
This is what you wanna do
This is what you gotta do
This is what they tell you to
This is what they make you do

The chorus again.

Tastes great, less filling

More death, more killing

The Miller Lite slogan is inherently musical and was featured in a 2 Live Crew song, "If You Believe in Having Sex."

It's Miller time, It's killer time

Miller was an obvious rhyme with killer.

Obey your thirst, do your worst

Sprite wanted you to obey your thirst.

Got Milk? Snap! Crackle! Pop!

White phosphorus, Good to the last drop

This one throws three references in to two lines: the milk campaign, Rice Krispies (where the milk goes), and Maxwell House coffee, supposedly good to the last drop. Also, both the milk and the phosphorous are white.

Be all that you can be

Burn all that you can see

The first line here ties the song together well, since it's a advertising slogan, but since it's for the Army, it hits both of the songs component themes.

Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun

Two hundred dead kids laying on the ground

Rough shots from my big bad gun

This is my favorite line in the song. The old Big Mac song from McDonalds is already a jingle, so very musical, but nothing contrasts more strongly with that song that kids used to sing all the time than the death of those kids.

Betcha can't eat just one

Betcha can't shoot just one

Betcha can't kill just one

Betcha can't drop just one bomb

Lays Potato Chips were the ones you couldn't eat just one of. And it was true, they were addictive. As is the killing and violence of war.

This is what you're dreaming of

This is what you wanna do

This is what you gotta do

This is what they tell you to

This is what they make you do

This is what you're dreaming of
This is what you wanna do
This is what you gotta do
This is what they tell you to
This is what they make you do

This is what you're dreaming of
This is what you wanna do
This is what you gotta do
This is what they tell you to
This is what they make you do

This is what they make you do

The chorus with a repeat until the end.

"Wolf," Tyler, the Creator (HHES Review)

Prior to listening to "Wolf," I had only heard negative things about him. I listened to it a little bit and I found his voice and flow interesting, but wasn't wowed. There were a couple of songs that grabbed me a bit, but I didn't think they were world-changers or anything. Then I saw an interview with him and realized that I grew up with guys like him, so I kinda get where he's coming from, even though I disagree with a lot of his choices.

A eponymous first track is almost completely pointless and offensive. It doesn't sound horrible, but the words are horrible. It's followed by "Jamba," which is catchy and well-produced, but once again, contains enough misogyny and homophobia to detract from its quality. The next track "Cowboy" doesn't differ from "Jamba" in any notable way. "Awkward," is kinda different, particularly since it has an actual topic and it reduces the offensive stuff.

"Domo 23" sounds quite a bit different in terms of the production and flow. The lyrics, however, are totally pointless and go back in the more offensive direction. "Answer" shows the production on the album starting to really vary, but the lyrics and flow have been heard a bunch of times already. On this album.

"Slater" is a song about Tyler riding on his bike, and it isn't as exciting as that sounds. "48" is the first time on the album that Tyler really has consistently good lyrics that tell a real story and reveal something about his actual thought process. It also has the worst production so far, despite the Nas samples. Lyrically, "Colossus" is the best writing on the album, with its tale of fan-artist tensions, and the minimalist beat is more than sufficient, even if he still does include some offensive lyrics.

"PartyIsntOver/Campfire/Bimmer Lyrics" is a old school freestyle jam that is too mundane to be particularly funny or interesting. "IFHY" is another one of the more lyrically revealing and interesting tracks and although the beat is better than "48," it's still not particularly great. The next track is the most similar to "Colossus," a deeply personal track that gives Tyler the chance to bust loose and show both his songwriting and his vocal skills. The beat isn't amazing, but there are a lot worse on this album. "Parking Lot" is a typical crew shout-out jam, but it's not particularly entertaining. Apparently Tyler doesn't even care for it that much and he said if there's a vinyl version of the album, he'll leave it off.

"Rusty" is a pretty good song in terms of finding a creative way to do something that has been done over and over again, this time it's a combination answer song and "inside the game" complaint song. The lyrics are pretty interesting and original, for the most part, but he once again falls into the pattern of using misogyny and homophobia in a way that is supposedly ironic, but there's no real way to know that unless you've seen interviews with him. On "Trashwang," Tyler and his crew are really angry at someone, but it's not really obvious who. Maybe they're angry at the producer(s) of the album where this is one of the more creative beats and it's not exactly groundbreaking. "Treehome95" is announced as an incomplete song when it comes on. And it is. And it's mostly not Tyler. And it's got an above average beat for this album, but it barely sounds like a Tyler song. Next up is "Tamale," which is the best beat and catchiest song on the album, even if, once again, the lyrics devolve into the same pointless "let's offend just to offend" nonsense. The final song, which includes more of the pointless skit parade on the album. The song is over a totally jacked song (not even a sample) and while the lyrics are above average for the album, the delivery doesn't really match the backing track.

Overall Analysis

Flow: 8. Tyler has an interesting flow, but he doesn't vary it enough and doesn't try to do too much that is challenging. He has two basic flows, his normal voice and his raspier voice. They're both pretty good, but very repetitive.

Lyrics: 7. Most of Tyler's lyrics here are pretty good. He makes two mistakes, though, and he makes them over and over again. The first is the totally offensive language he uses towards women and homosexuals. And he does it so much that it becomes lazy and repetitive. The other thing is that quite a bit, he just randomly throws out lines in a way that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and it makes the songs run together and have no real coherence at times.

Message: 3. Most of it doesn't have much of a message and when it does, despite his protestations, it seems like the message is I don't really like gay people (other than Frank Ocean), and I only like women for one thing.

Technical: 6. Sometimes Tyler tries some more advanced rapping techniques, and he usually succeeds, but he doesn't do it too often.

Production: 5. I like minimalism, but it has to be minimal and catchy and connect with the lyrics. That doesn't happen too often.

Versatility: 4. There's only a little bit on the album, most of it is the same thing over and over and over again.

Collaborators: 6. Pretty good people and hot young guys are on the album, but for the most part, they don't stand out and don't add a lot to the album.

History: 7. References: 8. Tyler's a smart guy who has consumed a lot of pop culture (and some history) and that shows throughout the album.

Originality: 6. Tyler's choice of content and his delivery are pretty original, but the rest of what makes up these songs isn't.

Total Score: 63. Tyler has a lot of potential, but he's one of those guys who thinks he's being edgy by using homophobia and misogyny as if that isn't what everyone else is doing. If he got better production and attached as much creativity to the parts of the songs that are anti-woman or anti-gay, he'd be great.