Earlier this week, it was announced that Kendrick Lamar will be headlining 11Fest. I'd be lying if I said the excitement from that news didn't cause me to spontaneously break out in dance. Multiple times. That excitement has carried into today and has put me in a good mood. And I'm passing that onto you, Cheeseheads, by giving you two re-dic-yu-lus mixtapes. You're welcome.
The Good:
Look at the man in that picture. Enlarge it if you must. Look at all those tattoos. They're everywhere! Even on the middle fingers he's using to cover his eyes. And the title of his album is Support Your Local Drug Dealer. This Hil guy is clearly a bad-ass.
Oh wait. What's that you say? Hil is actually short for something? It's short for what? Hilfiger? Like Tommy Hilfiger? As in, the company that made those salmon-colored shorts I own? That Tommy Hilfiger? He's Tommy Hilfiger's son? Are you serious? Well shit.
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| The Rich Hil of men's fashion |
That's right, that faded-as-fuck individual in that album cover is the son of multi-millionaire fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger. Rich Hil is that classic kid who gets sick and tired of his rich daddy so he starts to rebel because if he falls, his rich daddy will be able to pick him back up. So he got loads of tattoos and started doing loads of drugs. This led him to music and music led him to Warner Brothers. SYLDD was slated to be his debut, but all that label crap that always gets in the way of artists got in his way and he decided to bypass it by being the rich rebel he is and releasing it online for free.
Hil's backstory isn't the typical backstory of a person in the hip-hop scene. This dude belongs in hip-hop as much as salmon-colored pants belong on a dude. But he's making hip-hop music and I'm wearing salmon shorts (I really like those shorts, guys).
Hil is the embodiment of the hip-hop hippie movement (I don't get it, but it's happening). He does copious amounts of drugs, his music is basically R&B but more ambient and more centered around guitars, and he's got an I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude. And his music does a good job of showing it.
The opening song, "Slickville" is the best example of the hippie image Hil has. The beat is a mixture of an acoustic guitar, drums and some ambient synths. Hil sings the first two-thirds of his song in his raspy voice that sounds as if it's been drenched in syrup. He then starts rapping, which isn't really his strong suit, but it's not bad and he mostly sticks to singing throughout the album.
He also has great features from The Weeknd, Leona Lewis and Fat Trel. "Nomads" with The Weeknd is probably one of the best songs, as The Weeknd's silky voice blends perfectly with Hil's song.
Hil's best song has to be "Xanax Bars." Imagine if one of the kids Frank Ocean sang about in "Super Rich Kids" made a song and that's what "Xanax Bars" basically is. When Hil says, "And the people in the street be staring when I walk / Go ahead Mr. Business man you can't dress like me" over the piano and electric guitar beat, it just seems as if Hil is being really self-reflective in a pretty beautiful way.
Even though having a rich daddy and coming from the lap of luxury doesn't seem like good fodder for a mixtape, Hil makes it just that. SYLDD is more than just hippie hip-hop as Hil takes a self-reflective turn. And it turns out well.
The Re-dic-yu-lus 1:
When you think "re-dic-yu-lus," if anyone else pops into your mind before Waka, you're doing it wrong. Waka is the physical manifestation of "re-dic-yu-lus." Honestly, I'm surprised it took ten posts until Waka ended up here. It's about damn time he did.
Waka's been going for a while and, according to his intro on DuFlocka Rant 2, after three years of rapping, he thinks he "made it." I guess he's not wrong. "No Hands" (the only Waka song I like) got some pretty legitimate hype and everyone knows who he is. So what if it's because he's so bad? Better than nothing, I guess.
But unless he's got Wale and Roscoe Dash coming on a song to provide some pretty decent verses, he's still just creating some horrendous hood-rat music.
Let's start with the first official song on DuFlocka Rant 2, "Stay Hood." Waka starts it off by making sure we know that he's "going to stay hood until the day that [he] die[s]." He then starts going off and rapping in his patented mumbling style. And then Lil Wayne comes on for the latter half of the song. Here's a good way to know that a rapper isn't good: Lil Wayne outperforms him. And that's with a Weezy verse that features the line "I'ma walk around wearing Jesus' crown."
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| "Parking in a no-parking zone? That's a no-no." |
"Shit Where You Sleep" is so bad it's laughable. It starts off with the line "He sellin' dope out his grandma's house / That's a no-no." If I ever win the lottery, the first thing I'm going to do is hire Waka Flocka to follow me and every time myself or someone around me does something dumb, he would say, "That's a no-no," because that's hilarious. He then goes on to say, "Stupid nigga, you don't shit where you sleep at," and "click-clack bwoh." Quick question: what does "bwoh" mean? To be fair, Ace Hood does a decent job on this song, but not well enough to make me forget about Waka.
The best thing about Waka Flocka is every time I listen to him, I have something new to say. From "Drunk 2 Much," off the original DuFlocka Rant, I got "uuuhhhhhh." From DuFlocka Rant 2, I get to take away "that's a no-no" and "bwoh." I'll take it.
The Re-dic-yu-lus 2:
We got our first ever two-time Stack That Cheeser! (Curren$y almost made it this week, too.) And I couldn't be happier that it's Lil B.
If you remember back at All Based Day I prayed to the almighty Based God. I think it's only right if we send up another prayer to Lil B. I hope you join me.
Dear Based God,
It's been awhile since we last talked.
We miss you down here on Earth.
I wish you would join us, but you are not mortal.
You are the most supreme being.
You are the reason I wake up in the morning
And the reason I go to bed at night.
You are the wind beneath my swag
The peanut butter to my swag jelly
If you're a bird
Then I'm a bird
Just a bird with less swag and bitches.
I don't ask much of you Based God
So please just grant me this one thing.
Fuck my bitch.
Amen.
Now that we've got that over with, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. And this nitty-gritty isn't very pretty. (Fun fact: that's a more complex rhyme than anything on Pink Flame.) Pink Flame got a fair amount of hype from the track "I'm the Bada$$," which was a diss track on Joey Bada$$. Joey Bada$$ is probably one of the best rappers going on right now. Despite being young, he seems to have a better handle on rapping than a lot of the people who have been doing it longer than he has. Needless to say, Bada$$ is way out of Lil B's league. But that didn't stop the Based God from going after him.
The song really isn't much of a diss track, as Lil B doesn't land any hard blows. The best line he has is probably, "Niggas say you doing bad but you can't get a job." "Bad" of course refers to Joey Bada$$ and by saying he can't get a job, he's comparing himself to Bada$$. This a shout out to the line from the late Capital Steez of Bada$$'s Pro Era in Bada$$'s song "Survival Tactics" in which Steez says, "tell the Based God don't quit his day job" which started the beef in the first place. Other than that, Lil B's pretty soft. Bada$$ of course responded much hotter on "Don't Quit Your Day Job" later on. And that's why Pink Flame was so hyped.
But that doesn't make Pink Flame any different from any other Lil B mixtape. It's still just as hysterically bad as any other of his mixtapes. "Eat" is the funniest/worst track on Pink Flame.
It starts off with an 8-bit snippet of "Pop Goes the Weasel" and then the bass drops. Then the hook starts, where Lil B explains through song how one needs to let him know that one's bitch is good before he fucks her. (I knew I forgot something.) And that's just the beginning. There's two verses of Lil B brilliance on this one. There's "25 bitches wanted me to fuck 'em / I can't do that 'cause I'm conceited." Or how about "You fucked the Based God, bitches love the Based God / 56 bitches and I look like Based God." There's also "You went to sleep at 5, I went to sleep at 6 / My bitch is my alarm clock 'cause she wakes me up." You know what, the last one is my favorite. He goes to bed an hour later and he explains the concept of an alarm clock! Thank you, Based God.
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| My alarm clock isn't a bitch |
And there's many more gems like that on Pink Flame. From "1000 Bitches" to "Love N Hate," there are so many beautiful pieces that I'm even willing to look past the fact that he attempted dissing Joey Bada$$. I'm sorry for ever doubting you, Based God. Please forgive me.
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