errbody know it ain't trickin' if u got it

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

OMG T.I. IS SO FIIIIINE. Those cheekbones! My knees are weakening just looking at them.

Anyway yes the great thing about T.I.'s amazingly sexy voice is that it works equally well whether he's swaggering hard or doing this singsong romantic croon, this is like a softer flip-reversal of 'What You Know' for the LAYDEEZ and I think I love it.

There hasn't been enough Lil' Wayne talk on poptimists either - he's made probably the best hip-hop album of the year, in a really great year for hip-hop albums (Bun B and Gucci Mane are two other favourites, eagerly anticipating T.I., Lil' Kim and Young Jeezy). Anywhere here is the video for 'A Milli' which has by all accounts eaten America alive, and I really do hope it does the same here.

It looks like the post-'Lollipop' singles off Tha Carter III are going to form some sort of overarching narrative too which is cool - I like the way the 'Got Money' video casts Weezy as, like, some sort of post-Katrina Robin Hood figure redistributing wealth as opposed to just a rapper bragging 'bout $$$$. Anyway as I was saying elsewhere today this track really grew on me, on first listen it's a(nother) cheesy T-Pain club banger but there are so many odd little tics throughout to keep your interest piqued - the handclaps, "I'm a GREAT DANE", the 'Umbrella' riffing, "so much ice they yell SKATE WAYNE", "bitch I'm the bomb like TICK - TICK - BEEYATCH!!!". Sadly half of those tics are in Wayne's third verse which is replaced to no discernibly positive effect on the single version by a Mack Maine guest verse but really you should be going out to buy the album anyway in order to encourage stoopid record companies to release these singles here at all.

Comments

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I like the 'A Milli' video, and Wayne seems reasonably interesting as an MC, but I still can't get with the track much. I'd probably casually dance to it happily enough but really I don't think I've ever liked hip-hop this slow and especially not this sparse.

Sometimes it can be one or the other and I'll enjoy it more (e.g. Drop it Like Its Hot, altho that needed a few months to grow on me) but when its both I find it pretty hard to get excited about. It's been going on a while now and I just don't think rhymes over 808 (or similar) beats is enough and I can't see my attitude changing on this.

Your thing about it (not) blaring from cars is apt here. This trend in hip-hop production really sounds like 'for the car first', particularly cars with huge systems, so that the 808 kickdrum sounds as immense as possible (it can often sound pretty weak otherwise). But this isn't a big stumbling block really (doesn't hurt booty-bass or whatever), it's just the speed/space issue for me.