Recently, it feels like Future has been threatening Drake’s title as the marmite rapper of this generation. Some adore him and herald him as the best thing since sliced bread (to keep in line with the marmite metaphor), some dismiss him as a commercial calamity that will soon be toast (too far?). The main strike that people place against Future’s name is the accusation that he releases way too much music for any of it to be well-constructed or well thought-out. If he can make an entire mixtape in roughly a week, when we are used to artists painstakingly honing the sound of an album over a matter of years, can it truly contain the same quality? Probably not, if we are talking purely musically. But Future’s strategy is actually more astute than simply flooding the market. Artistically, it provides us with a catalogue of projects, which we can then view as a whole and appreciate the evolution of his music. A lot of them are undoubtedly samey, with hooks often consisting of a mind-numbing amount of repeated lines, and subject matter rarely straying out of rap’s typical hedonistic confines. But while the individual songs on each album may be overly derivative, there is definitely progress from project to project. The spasmodic, confusing leaps from each Kanye West album to the next can partially be explained by there being a gap of a few years between each one. Future’s development from album to album is much, much less significant, yet to an extent the subtlety in the changes gives the listener more of an insight into the mind space Future is in at each moment of his artistic and personal progression. He has spoken in interviews of a reluctance to speak about past works, arguing that they show us a snapshot of where his head was when he made that body of music, and that it is no longer relevant to him now. Future makes music that is perfectly tailored to our instagram-infested, twitter-twisted, facebook-frenzied brains, where followers are kept updated through a regular flow of photographs, tweets or posts. This is what Future’s albums do for his listeners, and the intense quantity lets us feel even closer to the action - just how a more frequently updated twitter or instagram account will make followers feel. Furthermore, the rapidity of Future’s musical turnover targets our so-called short attention span generation, where instead of savouring an album for months or years on end, we binge a project in an hour and then are already desperately seeking out our next sonic fix. Future is one of the only artists in the market right now who can satisfy that desire. Okay, perhaps rappers that build up publicity for an album over the course of a year or two may hit bigger first-week sales, but generally we have found that the greater the hype, the greater the disappointment when it actually arrives on our playlists. So yes, in isolation Future’s albums may not be anything spectacular, and by no means can he be called the best artist of the moment. But he has an excellent strategy, both artistically and marketing-wise, and one that epitomises 2018. It’s quick, it’s simple and it’s effective. And hey, I don’t know about you, but I love marmite. Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i’m
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Featuring: LOGIC, BILLIE EILISH, ALICE IN CHAINS AND KENNY CHESNEY
Lyric of the Week - Kenny Chesney, ‘Get Along
He said all your really given is the sunshine and your name Chesney’s knack for storytelling is once again highlighted, as he recounts a tale of a religious man giving him some rather deep advice. The song is of course all about the mantra of getting on with those around you (spoiler alert in the title), with a very unsubtly cloaked reference to the Christian principle of ‘Love thy neighbour’. While I appreciate the message, it is easy for songs like this to come across as overly preachy and self-righteous. But that is why I love these two lines, because they add a touch of self-deprecating humour, as Chesney recalls the profound teaching that fundamentally all we have is ‘the sunshine and our name’, but then as the singer is pondering this it ironically starts to rain. Key lesson to be learnt? Apparently you do need to take an umbrella on that summer Nashville trip you’ve been planning after all. Seriously though, as you well know, over at Maximoco HQ we hate too much seriousness, but we are suckers for a good, loving message - so that’s why these lyrics were bound to be a hit with us. Album Art of the Week - Alice in Chains, Rainier Fog Now, I’m a big fan of bright colours, and I’m not a big fan of rock music. So as I’m staring at this entirely black-and-white, murky album cover from a rock band, part of me wonders what I was thinking choosing this for Album Art of the Week. But for some reason, the image just looks awesome to me - I love the office-style cut-and-paste juxtaposition with the scenes of nature, and the man walking into the ‘eye’ of the storm (quite literally) creates a very ominous vibe. The writing in the bottom left-hand corner adds to the overall mystery, making this look like a poster for an upcoming horror movie, and certainly has a voyage into the unknown feel about it. Just lost out to ‘Performance’ by White Denim.
Title of the Week - ‘you should see me in a crown’, Billie Eilish
Inspired by the famous Moriaty line from BBC’s Sherlock, “In a world of locked rooms, the man with the key is king. And honey, you should see me in a crown.” This song screams confidence compacted into a sassy, pithy punchline. Also poignant because the original quote is about ‘the man’, while Billie switches this to be about herself in an empowering move. And if you’re wondering whether the standard of this blog’s spellchecking is slacking, Billie brands all her song titles without any capitals. Travis Scott did it first. Just saying. Music Video of the Week - ‘One Day’, Logic ft. Ryan Tedder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIZhyifo6Q4
To be honest, I started watching this with a sceptical eye. Logic already played the humanitarian card last year with his National Suicide Prevention hit single ‘1-800-273-8255'. ‘One Day’ dropped out of the blue, following a very thuggish Bobby Tarantino mixtape, and handily just in time for the VMAs. Logic performed, of course, and while it was moving it was also in danger of coming across as an attempt to jump on the anti-Trump bandwagon, and using the well-publicised border crisis to fuel another surge up the charts. But whatever your feelings about the actual track, or his VMA’s performance, the music video is undoubtedly poignant and well-constructed. It begins as expected, with a dramatisation of the separation of a family trying to cross into the USA, and then we fast forward to follow the lives of one of the children who has been separated and given a new home, as well as a boy who grows up to become a neo-Nazi. The plot line is a little convoluted at times, but the conclusion more than makes up for this. The message is one that is very relevant to our times, and you can be as mistrusting of Logic’s motives as you like, and I don’t even really like the song, but viewed as an isolated piece of art, this music video is incredibly inspiring and captures what it is trying to communicate perfectly.
Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i'm
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Usually, if I mention the name ‘Jason Mraz’ to someone, they’ll pause for a while and adopt a quizzical expression, reaching back into the dregs of their memory to find why the name rings a bell. Then the light switches on, and they remember with a smile. He is probably most famous for his motivational hit, ‘I Won’t Give Up’, and the wonderfully playful chart-topper, ‘I’m Yours’.
Having taken a break from producing music to star in Broadway’s Waitress, you could have been forgiven for wondering Mraz would ever return to brighten up the charts with his carefree optimism. But thankfully on Know, his new album, this is exactly what he does. From the introduction to the conclusion, Know plays like the soundtrack to that moment at school where you were finally allowed onto the big field for summer (or maybe that was just one of my countryside childhood quirks). Mraz’s contagious happiness fizzles through the listener, and - call me corny - it’s the first album I’ve listened to in a while that’s actually made me smile to myself at the singer’s innocent humour. The beauty of Know is undoubtedly its message, which is obvious from simply looking at the tracklist - the likes of ‘Better With You’, ‘Might As Well Dance’ and ‘Love Is Still The Answer’ immediately extinguish any doubts that Mraz has become hardened by life since when he first burst onto the scene. If anything, he sounds even happier, now being married and enjoying life in the US. He admits he was tempted to go down a darker path with his music after his last album, partly as a result of the seemingly exponential amount of issues that litter the world today, saying, “I wrote a lot of frustrated, angry, even sad songs between then and now, but nothing I wanted to come forward with; nothing I wanted to sing.” Instead he penned ‘Have It All’, the album’s lead single, inspired by a blessing he received from a Myanmar monk in 2012. It is jam-packed with just about every positive, Pinterest-spawned mantra in existence (“May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows”/“May you always lead from the beating in your chest”, and the more typical Mraz lyric, “May you get a gold star on your next test”). What I love is that you can tell he’s genuinely written the tracks himself, because they’re too off-the-wall and wholesomely ingenuous to have been manufactured by a songwriting team, as lots of modern tracks are. It would be easy for the cheesy punchlines and unbounded joyousness of this record to come across as too much, and perhaps even sickeningly sweet. But Jason Mraz delivers them with enough cheek and playful innocence that it works, and you can’t help but dance along. A lot of motivational, message-heavy projects can entail less attention being paid to the actual melodies, and okay, perhaps Mraz’s style is a bit too dated to really breach the current Top 40. But make no mistake - the songs on Know are as catchy as ever. The buoyant ode to getting lost in the moment with love, ‘Might As Well Dance’, is a clear highlight, while the Meghan Trainor assisted ‘More Than Friends’ adds drive to the generally light-hearted strummings of the rest of the album. The breezy hooks, the twinkling riffs and the lovable lyrics are reminiscent of peak MIKA, where people let their guard down and just enjoyed themselves amongst the bubbly pop of his falsetto anthems. What better antidote could there be to all the sorrow and seriousness of 2018? Yours sincerely, but not seriously, Max.i’m Image by Moses Namkung on Flickr The first of our ‘Rough Diamond’ series, where I will be giving another chance to projects that flopped critically, and seeing if any of these supposedly ugly ducklings are actually just swans in disguise...
Earlier this year, Tyga surprised fans by dropping a singing album. He has always had a distinctive rap flow that has sustained his career for numerous years, so this was certainly a curveball to then produce an all-singing (not quite all-dancing) project. Now, a lot of contemporary music lovers, even those whose Facebook newsfeed is a merry-go-round of Rap-Up, Complex, Genius and HipHopDX stories, won’t have even known Kyoto was released. It went very much under the radar, with Tyga not really holding the same industry presence as he did when the Young Money flagship first set sail - even though there have been signs of a resurgence with the success of his recent single with Offset, ‘Taste’. But the backdrop to Kyoto adds significance to the release, because it was composed amid the rapper’s split from Kylie Jenner, and her quick turn-around and surprise pregnancy with Travis Scott. It has never really been the thing to make love-based or break-up albums in Hip Hop, which is what made Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreak such a game-changer. Emo-Rap is now, of course, a much more widely populated sub-genre, and Juice WRLD’s recent surge into the charts has revitalised it even more. His album, Goodbye and Good Riddance has all the nihilism and soul-searching of 808s, and has propelled him into being the poster boy of this new wave of rap. However, while most critics would scoff at the mere thought of Goodbye and Good Riddance being mentioned in the same sentence as Kyoto, I think the latter offers a lot that Juice WRLD does not. It is much easier to listen to, for one, which would be many a reviewer’s argument for why it holds less artistic value. But why does 21st Century art have to be uncomfortable? Nowadays plays and art exhibitions often seem to have one goal in mind, to take the recipient out of their comfort zone. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m not too fond of feeling uncomfortable. While I appreciate painfully honest works of art that are clearly a therapeutic medium for the creator, I think these pieces are often less constructive for the viewer or listener. I listen to Goodbye and Good Riddance and feel almost guilty that I’m not suffering as badly as Juice WRLD, and if I’m in a good mood and I listen to it, it just puts a downer on the moment. Kyoto is also filled with a lot of pain, but it is a lot less bitter and more eclectic. Tyga conveys the suffering in a much subtler, softer, less angsty manner, and personally, I find the songs a lot catchier. I could listen to any of the tracks on there purely for their beats and melodies, without having to get too involved with the anguish. It is undoubtedly introspective, and also feels as though it has been created to help the artist more than the listener. But because the rhymes feel more uncertain, and the flow is less confident than what we are used to from Tyga, the project still invites the listener’s empathy. He covers such an array of emotions that it is very difficult not to find one that you can connect with, whereas Goodbye and Good Riddance feels more like one long, dark vibe. ‘U Cry’ is undoubtedly the centrepiece, with the pained lyrics fusing magically with the delicate piano sample to create a level of exposure that places Tyga on new ground. He details the feelings of anxiety as his girl keeps partying without him, only to call him afterwards, a narrative not often portrayed in the rap world, which only adds to its poignancy. The alpa male is replaced by a vulnerable lover, and the album benefits from this. Is Kyoto a masterpiece? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it certainly has something to offer that has been overlooked critically. Upon the album’s release, Tyga was ridiculed for changing tack and singing, rather than sticking to his usual, flashy script of brightly coloured cars, pool parties and groupies. Kyoto is understated and underrated, proving that sometimes, less is indeed more. Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i’m LYRIC OF THE WEEK Paranoid, Post Malone - “Killing myself just to make me a life” If you had to sum up the modern Western mentality, this is it. We work ourselves into the ground, ruining our health by getting so stressed about deadlines and being productive, and then we use the money we make from our job to try and get our health back. It is an illogical cycle, but one that is hard not to succumb to. So take Malone’s word of warning - yes, plan for the future, and yes, be dedicated to whatever you pursue. But remember that money isn’t everything - family, health and love is. SONGTITLE OF THE WEEK Love is still the answer, Jason Mraz Ok, so clearly this week we’re all about that ‘peace and love, man’. However, I like this title not only because it’s advocating love being the most important thing in life, which it undoubtedly is, and that it is the best way to fight negativity. This is an awesome message, but not that original in today’s music - what I found most interesting is the ‘still’. It touches on how, in this world that everyone keeps telling us is the worst the human race has ever lived in, it is easy to start reciprocating the hate around us with more hate. We naturally feed off the energy other people emanate, but what Mraz is suggesting is that we still meet hate with love - even though in this day and age the temptation to do otherwise will be stronger than ever. Create your own energy. And if you’re starting to fear that the Maximoco Review is becoming too deep, find reassurance in the fact that I nearly chose Travis Scott’s ‘ASTROTHUNDER’ instead of ‘Love is still the answer’ - for no other reason than I think ‘Astrothunder’ is a really cool word. ALBUM COVER OF THE WEEK Side Effects, The Chainsmokers ft. Emily Warren I’ll be honest with you, I’m not quite sure what this polycephalic tiger is supposed to symbolise. Maybe it’s the head and heart battling against each other, maybe it’s the two lovers being one but fighting against the feeling. I don’t know, but what I do know is I love this drawing. It reminds me of those old-fashioned picture books my grandparents had passed down to my parents, where the art was all very detailed and ornate. Relevant or not, this album cover gave me a Madeleine Moment for my childhood, so this is why it’s tops my list this week. MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK In My Feelings, Drake - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRS_PpOrUZ4 Hold on, hold on, before you criticise my choice, I know it’s not that good a song. And I know it’s only famous because of Shiggy’s dance, and Drake is exploiting this by having him in the video. BUT! As manufactured as it might be, it is still very funny. I know it can be corny at times, but I don’t think Drake’s a terrible actor, and I love that he doesn’t take himself too seriously when he tries to make a cheesy meme-fuelled song into a Romeo and Juliet style love story. Any choices that we missed out? Which would you have gone for? Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i'm Okay, let’s get this straight. Nicki Minaj is not just famous because she is a female rapper, or because she was the first female rapper to really take the industry by storm. She is also not just famous because of her often outrageous fashion sense, and the obvious sex appeal this promotes. It is a discredit to suggest that these alone have propelled her to stardom - they would have made her a flash in the pan. What has ensured her longevity is her undoubted skill as an artist. She can go bar to bar with just about anyone else in the game, she has hooks that wriggle themselves into your head and don’t remove themselves in a hurry, and she has undoubted charisma. Also, in my opinion, her verse on Kanye’s ‘Monster’ is the best rap verse of the modern era, if not of all time. Sue me. But she also has a much greater social role to play, and one which, judging from her recent Beats 1 interview with Zane Lowe, she is very aware of. “There are songs on the album that I feel woman really need right now,” with a message of female empowerment even more relevant amidst the rise of conservatism that has paralleled the ascent of President Trump. Perhaps the pivotal track is the one that has stirred up the most controversy, ‘Barbie Dreams’, on which Nicki hilariously lists all the rappers that want to sleep with her and why she always refuses their advances. The song ironically inverts a sample from Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Just Playing (Dreams)’, which consists of him going through all the female R&B singers he’s attracted to. Nicki toys with Drake before dismissing him for being too emotional, claims the monocular Fetty Was has his eye (get it?) on her, and calls out her ex Meek Mill for still pervading her DMs. She is tempted by Young Thug, who famously broke gender stereotypes by wearing women’s clothes on the cover of his 2017 project JEFFERY, but then jokingly raps that she was turned off when she found him stealing her dresses. This song epitomises what we need more of in 2018 - a woman’s voice in Hip Hop, and good, light-hearted fun. Many were shocked by ‘Barbie Dreams’, thinking it to be a diss track directed towards the various rappers referenced. But this is symptomatic of the problem - artists with their constant introspection and profound musings can end up taking themselves too seriously (rather like I do as a philosophy student, mind you), and here Nicki provides some refreshing relief from this. For too long in the past women who like Hip Hop have had to endure the constant belittling, objectifying and macho domineering that underlies most of the songs atop the genre, which sound as though they are exclusively directed towards a male audience, even if this is not the intention. Nicki Minaj is a role model, someone who embodies the confidence, fearlessness and self-belief that regular Hip Hop can often detract from. On her new album, Queen, she fires innumerable warning shots at her ex, but it comes across as strong rather than bitter, resurgent rather than regretful. The focus is very much on her, and her life, not on those who haven’t been able to keep up with her. And she has fun doing it, with the project peppered with entertaining, tongue-in-cheek punchlines, whilst never losing sight of the album’s defiant cri-de-coeur - "Who the f*** you thought you was, tryna stunt on Nick?” In the strategic chess-board of Hip Hop, the likes of Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West still frantically vie for the throne, but too long have the eyes been trained on the King. For everyone knows the Queen is the most important player. Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i’m
Which is more common out of the following two situations:
Do some people take drugs to lift them out of a depressed or anxious state? Or do drugs in fact often cause these depressed and anxious states? This chicken-or-the-egg dilemma is the question that is perhaps more relevant now than ever. Despite the increasing amount of information detailing the damage drugs can do to the human body, hard drugs are still a central muse for modern music, particularly Hip Hop. The Kid Cudi propelled movement into melodic Hip Hop and Emo-Rap was accompanied not only by a heightened sense of vulnerability coming across in songs, but also a strong theme of dependance on the likes of Marijuana, Cocaine, and now more commonly Lean and Xanax. There’s even a rapper now called Lil Xan. I mean, seriously? Ever since Lil Peep’s well-publicised death from a Xanax-based overdose, many expected drug references to take a backseat in the music world. Yet this has clearly not been the case - with Drake probably being the only major recording artist in the current Hip Hop pantheon not to be looking through whichever online rhyme dictionary rappers use nowadays to find words like panax, hand-axe and Japan Wax. But should we be worried? It is no secret that members of this younger generation idolise their music stars more intensely than ever, due to the accessibility and personality social media offers to fans. Thus, when they hear Post Malone telling them that he pops pills like a rockstar, many will be moved to try and mimic their role model. There is the argument that this is merely the fault of the listener, for as Malone himself has said, he is not actively telling people that ‘You should go and pop pills’, he is just documenting a lifestyle - that may or may not be autobiographical - and does not intend for it to be taken too seriously. Future, who probably holds the record for most drug references in a single career, adopts a similar but interesting line of argument. He admits that he does not actually take that many drugs, and he raps about them so often because he knows a lot of people do live that kind of life. Equally, either in an uber-artistic move or simply a consumer-broadening tactic, he points out that you can have it either way with his music, it can be enjoyed by people who can empathise with what he is saying, or sober people can listen to his hazy croons and feel as though they are drugged-up, without having taken anything. This is linked to the stance that most of this generation seem to adopt, the ‘slippery slope’ argument, that if we stop artists talking about drugs then we are censoring, and censoring is one step towards restricting art altogether and saying you can’t sing about the colour red because the current government dislikes it and would rather everyone sings about blue instead. Personally, I understand this perspective, but I feel it is a biased one. Usually the people that begin asking the questions I have asked come from the starting-point of enjoying music that does reference an ubiquitous amount of drugs, but then they hear their conscience piping up and eventually drowning out the heavy baselines and twinkling hi-hats. I myself am a big fan of Future, Post Malone, Travis Scott and the Migos - all of whom frequently reference drug use. So I, of course, am inclined to follow the argument from censorship, or perhaps Post Malone’s point about poetic license and lyrics not being intended to be taken literally. But either way, there is a part of me left dissatisfied - whether it is my conscience, or my audial desires. Should art be allowed to evade the restrictive clutches of morality? Or should such widely consumed and incredibly influential artforms, such as music, be censored? It seems there is never going to be a solution that will both maintain artistic freedom whilst keeping a strict moral compass. Art places a huge responsibility on the listener, and despite what theatre critics, art curators and those pesky music bloggers (ugh, hate those guys…oh wait) will have you believe, the value of anything that falls under ‘the arts’ is completely subjective. This is the beauty of art, and it is why you can meet one person who is a diehard Metalhead, and another that abhors anything remotely Rocky but is utterly obsessed with K-Pop. There is no objective ‘good art’, there is just art that perhaps more people are fond of than others, but this doesn’t make less popular art any less good. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. Okay…but how does this link to drugs exactly? Well it seems that drug references are just a part of Hip Hop, and it is the listener’s duty to enjoy this kind of art for what it is - art, and art doesn’t need to have some kind of hidden message all the time. Just because Future raps about pouring Lean 24/7, it doesn’t mean he thinks you should do the same. He might just be trying to convey a melancholic mood more vividly through a depicted dependence on drugs. The other key thing to remember, in my opinion, is that it is easy to think that because music generally takes a narrative, first-person format, it means it is always autobiographical. This is simply not the case, and numerous popular artists have their songs written for them, so it is obviously not about their own lives. Art is designed to make you feel something, to move you in any kind of way. To adapt Charles R. Swindoll’s old adage, or maxim… ’Art is 10% the actual song, painting, poem, play, etc., and 90% how you react to it.’ What do you think? Do you agree? Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i’m The recent hype surrounding the upcoming release of Mamma Mia 2 in cinemas may be surprising to some. Indeed, many media outlets have been quite keen to write of musical theatre as the art-form of the older generation, with the number of younger people going to theatres supposedly declining. Young people listen to music and watch films, they don’t want to go and see plays.
Firstly, I want to point out that this is a baseless misconception. A significant number of my fellow students are heavily involved in theatre, in fact I would say it rivals sport as the most popular extracurricular activity in the whole University. A typical response to this would be to say yes, students enjoy participating in theatre, but they won’t go to watch it. Admittedly, the number of students who frequently go to watch productions is mightily eclipsed by the number of students who listen to music, and I am yet to meet anyone at my University who doesn’t have either Spotify or Apple Music. But this, I would argue, is not down to a lack of interest, rather a lack of access. Rather than comparing the amount of young theatre-goers to the amount of young music-listeners, I think it is more accurate to compare the former with the number of young people who frequently go to music concerts. I am not talking about local gigs or club events, I mean arena-standard concerts, because this is the closest equivalent to seeing a play in the West End or on Broadway. The disparity then becomes far less considerable, and I know plenty of students who have been to numerous West End shows with their family, but have never been to a music concert in their life. Just because music is a more accessible form of art, due to its ability to be downloaded and streamed in the comfort of one’s own home, it does not mean it is necessarily more relevant to this generation. The second main point I’d like to make is that West End ticket prices make seeing a play much more of a luxury than it used to be. There has been no attempt to hide the fact that theatre tickets are increasing in price, with a trip to see the likes of Les Miserables or The Lion King setting you back a good £70 a head. In comparison, while the biggest names in music will of course command a similar fee, tickets to one of the biggest music events of the year, Wireless Festival UK, which took place a couple of weeks ago in London, and which boasts some of the biggest names in Hip Hop, including Drake, Big Sean, Post Malone and Stormzy, were sold from the official platform for just over £50. Theatre risks being shut off from younger audiences due to excessive ticket prices - not because of a lack of interest. The 16-25 Railcard scheme in England offers some West End tickets at reduced prices, but we need more policies like this in order to keep this art-form as relevant as it should be, and as students want it to be. Do you agree? Would you like to visit the theatre more often, but find yourself restricted by ticket prices? Or do you think it really is just becoming irrelevant to this generation? Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i’m Migos, Rae Sremmurd, Lil Yachty, Future and Wiz Khalifa have all dropped sequels to the projects that got their careers off the ground. But do fans get more of what they loved about the first instalments, or are disappointing comparisons inevitable? Every successful rapper has the album. And by this I’m not referring to the rather self-explanatory point that in order to be a musician you have to have made music, and this usually manifests itself at some point in that artist’s career in a body of work, usually termed an album. Although, some would actually argue that there are well-known rappers who thrive on mixtapes, which aren’t specifically the same as albums… ANYWAY, ignoring the nit-picky imperfections of my opening statement, it is undoubtedly the case that usually, in any genre, to be a hit recording artist, you need one special album to really propel you into the mainstream consciousness. You need a body of work that epitomises your sound, your style, and that is and probably never won’t be the best album of your career. You need a centrepiece, a ‘Tapestry’, a collection of songs where you can’t talk about the artist without saying ‘Oh yeah, they’re the one who made that album’. You need the album. Many would argue that once you achieve this point in your career, it is a curse to ever release a sequel to this heralded piece of work. It will always fall short of fans’ expectations, because with every year that passes the original album becomes even greater and more of a classic in their minds. It would be the ‘Jaws 2’ of the music world. By contrast, many record label strategists and industry gurus (first of all, how are these even jobs - and secondly, where do I sign up?) sit on the other side of the fence, arguing that you can capitalise on the success of the first album by bringing out a follow-up. Fans of the first will almost definitely devour the second, and even if it is a load of utter codswallop, the money-makers don’t care, because the streams will already be there. Equally, the artistic purists will claim that album sequels should more often than not exceed their predecessor, because if the creator is a true ‘artist’ they will have developed and honed their sound in the time between the releases. In reality, bringing out sequels in Hip Hop is undoubtedly risky business. But it can work, and when it does, it is usually spectacular in its success. If it flops, however, the pedestal the original album had been placed on is very often snatched from beneath the artist’s feet. So in 2018, where a surprisingly large number of artists released sequels - who dropped fire, and who flopped dire? (Ok, it wasn’t that funny, but it rhymed and I couldn’t resist, so lets just move on to our first sequential analysis)… Migos, Culture II For the Migos, it was Culture, the smash hit that spearheaded their charge into rap’s upper echelon and announced themselves as the leaders of this generation’s artistic movement. Is this a valid claim? No. But was Culture a decent album? Definitely. It was fun, it was hectic at points, but it was the Migos through and through. And of course, there was a period in 2017 where you couldn’t turn the radio on and not hear the group’s smash hit ‘Bad and Boujee’, which somehow went overwhelmingly viral. On the surface of Culture II, not much has changed in the year since the first Culture instalment. The excessive amount of ad-libs - a large amount of which are self-promoting name drops - and their supposedly pioneering triplet flow is as pervasive as ever. The guest list is a lot more impressive on Culture II, with contributions from Drake, Post Malone, Big Sean and Kanye West. But as a body of work, it fails to really impress. It has better tracks individually, with ‘Motorsport’, ‘Supastars’, ‘Notice Me’ and ‘Gang Gang’ being personal highlights, but it definitely suffers from being way too long with 24 tracks, as opposed to Culture’s comparably concise 13. There were moments on Culture II that eclipsed the material on the first album, but these came too few and far between to really be called an improvement on the original, and ultimately made many ask whether the Migos are a one-trick pony, and whether they have started to take themselves too seriously. Culture II is overly similar in subject matter to the first Culture, and made many realise that perhaps the original wasn’t the masterpiece it was crowned as. Without ‘Bad and Boujee’s meme-fuelled success, the album probably would have dipped quite heavily under the radar. If this was a film? Taken 2. Not terrible, but too predictable to really be good. We know the guy has to save the girl, just like we know Quavo’s always going to rap about raindrops and droptops. Rae Sremmurd, SR3MM The previous two Rae Sremmurd albums had been met with a fair amount of critical acclaim, but escaped the playlists of many mainstream listeners until the breakout stardom they earned as a result of their own equivalent to ‘Bad and Boujee’ - ‘Black Beatles’. It spawned the viral freeze game, which helped propel the song to number one. However, the rest of the tracks on Sremmlife 1 and 2 remained largely untouched, except by the duo’s existing fanbase. After the failure of Culture II largely because of its length, the announcement that SR3MM would consist of Rae Sremmurd’s two members’ solo albums, alongside the group project, worried many an onlooker. Yet when the 27-track, triple-album behemoth dropped, the three parts complemented each other sublimely. The tropical, melodic croons of Swae Lee, unquestionably the more famous Rae Sremmurd brother, spawned numerous songs that have been mainstays on my summer playlists, while Slim Jxmmi’s hard-hitting raps provided the antithesis. The collaborative first section was the strongest, but as a whole this was, in my view, the best offering yet from the Hip Hop group. If this was a film? Godfather 2. Classy, thrilling, and full of references to criminal activity. Lil Yachty, Lil Boat 2 This sequel is odd in that it sounds nothing like a sequel. Lil Boat showcased Yachty’s sense of humour and his uniquely summery disposition, and was entertaining from start to finish. He weaved between singing and rapping expertly, even more impressive considering his lack of years. Lil Boat 2, on the other hand, contains no such variation, nor humour, which is strange considering these are the artist’s two most distinguishing traits. Its bleariness was excused because Lil Yachty was supposedly aiming to make an album completely unlike his previous release, Teenage Emotions, which received an intensely negative critical response. But personally, I loved Teenage Emotions, as it continued Yachty’s breezy, and admittedly cheesy at times, stroll through youth. Lil Boat 2 is lifeless, and is a perfect example of an artist having his identity swallowed up by the abyss of people-pleasing. If this was a film? Jaws 2. Which is ironic considering this is an album about a Boat. Wiz Khalifa, Rolling Papers 2 I think Wiz has the advantage here in that he left a much more significant amount of time in-between albums, as Rolling Papers was released all of 7 years ago. It was undoubtedly the album for Wiz, partially because after his ‘Black and Yellow’ success he spent a long time away from the charts. He might argue he was experimenting and ‘rediscovering’ his sound, what's more likely is that he simply didn’t produce any amazing material during this period. But then Fast and Furious 7 comes along in 2015 and Khalifa drops ‘See You Again’, which puts him back on the map and suddenly makes him the most streamed artist in the solar system and beyond. Rolling Papers 2 is interesting, and is a testament to how the rapper has managed to sustain his career over so many years, despite most of the artists that were breaking onto the scene at the same time as him being long gone (anyone remember Chipmunk? ). If anything, Khalifa’s patchwork of lackadaisical rapping and even more lackadaisical singing is the most relevant it’s ever been, with the emergence of melodic trap over the past couple of years. In my opinion, though, what sets Wiz Khalifa apart from his fellow sequelists is not the quality of his music, nor his subject matter, which is 90% green with a strong, unmistakable odour. It is the fact that he hasn’t really changed his vibe nor sound for anyone. Even when his flow seemed to be losing favour, he didn’t panic like Lil Yachty and perform a stylistic about-turn. Wiz has always been Wiz, and while there are obvious artistic benefits of being mercurial, fans also like dependable consistency. Rolling Papers 2 has some great tracks, as well as some very forgettable ones, but it never really gets boring, despite still being overly long. It simply serves as a new pool of tracks to dip in and out of, rather than to be enjoyed as a full project. It is what it is - or maybe, it is what it Wiz… If this was a film? Star Wars: The Last Jedi. A lot of people talk down on the franchise for hanging around, but nonetheless it still commands one of the most loyal fanbases out there - and justifiably so. Future, BEASTMODE II Lets get this straight. Future is not a creative genius, pushing the boundaries of art as we know it. But he doesn’t pretend to be, either. What he is, is a business mastermind, and has pinpointed his niche and flooded his market with mixtapes left, right and centre. He is about quantity, rather than quality. The Beastmode mixtape was highly revered among Hip Hop fans when it was released in 2015, but didn’t really offer us much more than the other four mixtapes he dropped in the same year. Producer Zaytoven did a commendable job with his twinkling, trap-balled beats, and he steps up to the mark yet again on BEASTMODE II. In terms of subject matter, Future is still rapping about the thug life, and his flow is still half blistering but static rap, and half crackling croons, so not much has changed on this front either. Some critics want to give the Atlanta phenom credit for ending the sequel on a vulnerable note with ‘HATE THE REAL ME’, on which he lays his troubled conscience out on the table for the world to see. But the aftertaste it leaves is familiar, as we’ve already had this guard-removing, mask-offing apologia from Future on his 2016 studio album, HNDRXX, which was supposed to be a project where he says sorry to those he’s hurt and pledges to make amends. At the time I thought this was a good move, as Future has always shut off a more mainstream, Drake-dominated market because of his intensely explicit and often vulgar subject matter. So HNDRXX was him apologising, but then barely a year later SUPER SLIMEY dropped, on which Future was back to his old misogynistic, drugged-up self. This undoubtedly takes away from the credence of BEASTMODE II’s climax, and it becomes just another one of Future’s throwaway mixtapes - enjoyable for a couple of days, but then grows overwhelmingly mundane because you’re having to block out the wearing lyrics. If this was a film? Fast and Furious 8. Never going to be critically or artistically championed, but nonetheless still makes a heck of a lot of money and has a huge following. Also, it’s possible BEASTMODE II has even more car references on it than any of the Fast and Furious films - and probably even more product placement. So it seems Rae Sremmurd came out trumps in our quest to find the best Hip Hop sequel-makers of 2018. But is it a reliable strategy? Considering the majority of these projects were quite underwhelming, I think the answer is no. It might be a way of gaining some quick streams and adding some extra hype to an album, but generally a sequel is going to fall victim to its predecessor’s success. Or maybe the whole culture of making album sequels is based off a misunderstanding? Perhaps some artists have spent so long tirelessly slaving away in their luxurious studios and mansions that they have already run out of creative energy when it comes to the title, and that’s why when the Publicity Manager comes up to them for the twentieth time that week and asks, ‘Have you decided on the album title yet?’, their keyboard-battered fingers stagger up defensively in an angry two-finger salute. ‘OK, if you say so’, the manager replies, oblivious, ‘We’ll just add a 2 to the previous one…’ In all seriousness, what do you think? Are album sequels a good move? Would you rank any of this year’s sequels higher than Rae Sremmurd’s? Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i’m Her 2018 single 'Tennessee Bound' is raw, uplifting and alluringly catchy, just what any good country song should be 2018's 'One to Watch': Sinead Burgess The Australian signer-songwriter’s career has been bubbling away under the surface for a few years now, but it looks like 2018 is the year she’s finally going to burst through our speakers and leap onto our playlists. Judging from the two singles that have thus far been released off her upcoming album, Damaged Goods, she has developed a rawer, more authentic country sound, and is all the better for it. Her last EP, Wolf, released in 2016, had all the dark atmosphere and drama of a Sia record, but without anything to truly distinguish her from other modern pop artists. Tennessee Bound, her 2018 single, shows how much of a difference two years can make. It’s raw, uplifting - and alluringly catchy, just what any good country song should be. Its more recent counterpart, the album title track, 'Damaged Goods', highlights Sinead’s authenticity and her ability to connect with the listener through her lyrics. It is a moving, vulnerable ode to all those trying to make something of themselves, but who feel as though a certain moment in their past is holding them back. I was fortunate enough to see Burgess perform as a support act on country mainstays The Shires’ Accidentally On Purpose tour earlier this year, and her energy made her an instant hit with the audience. Between songs her chat was fun and engaging, whilst not being overly corny, and by halfway through her performance of 'Tennessee Bound' half of the crowd were already singing along to the chorus. Could 2018 be the year Burgess’ hard work plugging away in bars and clubs comes to fruition? I think so - watch this space. Yours sincerely, but not too seriously, Max.i'm Listen to first: 'Tennessee Bound' Next track out: 'Gonna Be Alright', Expected this Friday (27th July) Sinead Burgess’ Album Damaged Goods is available to pre-order on iTunes, and is expected to drop on all platforms on 17th August |
AuthorHello! I'm currently studying Philosophy & Theology at Oxford University, UK. Having always loved writing and music in equal measure, and having always hated decision-making, I figured hey, why do I need to choose between the two? Archives
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