Tone Oliver and Tone Deafs

The Good:

Tone Oliver - Live and Let Die

I barely went into Tone Oliver a few weeks ago when I reviewed Mann's The Expansion Tape, a mixtape that I didn't like all that much. To make matters even crazier, Oliver is actually operating with Mann's #PeaceLife movement. And yet, despite working closely with a rapper I wasn't so hot on, Oliver manages to be quite good.

If you remember, my biggest gripe with Mann was his lyrics, or lack thereof. Mann had a pretty good mixtape in just about every other way, though. Especially in terms of production.

Oliver is a much better lyricist and raps over beats similar to those off The Expansion Tape. This makes Tone basically just a good version of Mann. But I'm not complaining.

As I mentioned, beats are very important to the likes of Oliver and Mann. Oliver shows this straight from the get-go. "Dream Last Night," the first non-intro song on Live and Let Die, is a soulful piano-backed song. As soon as the beat hits, so does Oliver, rapping, "I look in the mirror and see a miracle / As my mind travels to new worlds, Americo / There I go again on the the merry-go-round." Paired with Oliver's slick flow, these lyrics come to life.

The title track is another quality beat, sampling Red Hot Chili Pepper's "Under the Bridge." I don't know about you, but there's something about rap sampling the Peppers that just gets my heart racing ("Otherside" by Macklemore, anyone?), so I love this beat as soon as the guitar starts strumming. The song also features a fantastic verse from enimaL, as he spits clever lines like, "And they need their money like ASAP / So it's safe

RHCP make everything better.

to say I have a 'Fucking Problem.'"

Oliver can take on more than just a chill beat. "Drive" features some banging drums and "Fish Tank" gets rowdy towards the end.

Plus, the song "Love is Back" from Mann's mixtape is on Live and Let Die, too. While I don't like hearing a song on two different tapes, this song is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

Tone Oliver proves just how far working on lyrics can take you. Sure, beats are fun, but lyrics are ultimately what tie everything together.

The Bad:

Chris Brown - X Files

Okay, so this is only a six-track mixtape and I usually try to stick to full-lengths, but I just had to cover it. This is a big release and it deserves attention. Plus, how many times can I bust out some violent Chris Brown jokes? Hopefully they hit you in your funny bone.

What's black and read all over? The newspaper the morning after another Chris Brown attack!

buh-duh-chh

How many Chris Browns does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, because Chris Brown would prefer the room to be blacked out!

buh-duh-chh

Why does Chris Brown always leave early for meetings? So he can beat traffic!

buh-duh-chh

Thank you! Thank you! I'm here all week!

Now onto X Files. It's not very good. I guess you knew that at this point. Considering, you know, it's in the bad category.

The problem with X Files is that Chris Brown tries to sound like modern R&B (think Weeknd or Miguel), but waters it down with his pop charm.

C. Breezy looks kind of sinister with
Big Red behind him. Just saying.

Look no further than "Sweet Caroline." He takes pages straight out of The Weeknd's book. Like the falsetto as a climax of the song. Or the heavy vocal synthesizers for emphasis. But it still sounds like "Doublemint Gum," "Forever" Chris Brown. The Weeknd's sound works because it's dark all the way through. Chris Brown just can't pull that off. Luckily, Busta Rhymes comes in for a guest verse and makes the song somewhat tolerable, but it's still far from good.

"Waiting" has more of a Miguel feel, with the hot guitar licks and the overall rock-meets-R&B feel. But there's still that corny pop Chris Brown lurking underneath. And lyrics like, "Baby, look what you do to me / Girl, I've gone crazy / And you just got me waiting" don't help in the slightest.

There are a couple extra features from big names like Ludacris and Kid Ink, but the verses they provide just seem mailed in. Especially when Luda starts his verse with "I wanna li-li-li-lick you from your head to your toes." Sound familiar?

It has to be nice for Chris to know he's not the only one running out of material. At least he's not blatantly ripping bars from past verses. But X Files isn't too much above that.

Honestly, the best part is probably Kid Ink's verse on "Main Chick" when he raps, "KO shawty when I hit her with a punch...line." Whether that irony was intentional or not, I don't care. I still love it. Thank you, Kid Ink. Thank you so goddamn much.

The Re-dic-yu-lus:

Low Debiase - Boss Life City

One of my favorite things about Datpiff is that artists can provide their own description of their mixtape. Low Debiase doesn't do anything worse than any other rappers when it comes to descriptions, but I just felt like sharing it.

"It's finally HERE "Boss Life City" By Low DeBiase .Including Exclusive Boss Freestyles such as Bossed Up Hustla, Keep It G , Make A Flip Off The Rift & Many More"

Yes! It's finally here! I've been waiting forever for this mixtape named after a made up city! And there's even exclusive boss freestyles. I don't know how they're exclusive or even what they are, but I'm still so stoked for this! #BossLife

Maybe that's a little harsh on this little boss, but it doesn't seem so hard anymore once you start listening to the mixtape.

"Grinding" features a generic trap beat with a lot of hype rapping. Plus, Debiase proves he can spell by making a hook with only the letters of the song's title.

In fact, most of the songs follow this pattern. Low Debiase is just so generic. I've heard his flow hundreds of times. His beats, too. And don't get me started on all the "skurr"s. Even his topic seem like they're literally jacked from another rapper. Like the song "100," which is almost exactly like a song I covered last week.

Plus, these "exclusive boss freestyles" he promised aren't even exclusive. Or special. Or a sign of his never-ending love for me. They're exactly the same as the rest of his music. There's only one legitimate freestyle on the whole album and that only lasts a minute and a half (close to a minute after the intro) and is basically a shittier version of all his other songs.

You know what, Low Debiase? You're not a boss. You're not even an employee. You're just a big, fat phony!

-X-Prime, dropping the mic for now

@XavierVeccia

Gold Standard

The Good:

Mary Gold - Sex Hormone'd Druggie

Mary Gold is the latest signee to Jet Life, Curren$y's record label. Curren$y is a damn good rapper and probably has one of the best musical palates of any stoner rapper in the game right now. And the signing of Gold just proves this opinion even more.

One would assume Gold would be yet another laid-back smoker rapping over chill jazz-inspired beats. And while this is half-true, she takes stoner rap to a whole new level.

Curren$y said of his signing, Spitta said, "I can't describe Mary Gold to you, I have to show you Mary Gold." And if the Jet Life founder says so, I should probably do the same thing. Here's her music video for "Prayer," featuring Curren$y himself. Now, this is a rap blog. The idea itself is NSFW (not suited for work), but this puts a whole new meaning to that. Just a heads up.

Did you hear that? It's so hypnotic and tempting. I'm under her spell. And her voice, holy shit. She's like Lily Allen meets Lil Kim. It's too bad the commenters on "Prayer" don't appreciate the beauty of it all. Many people are going to see this as porn, but this is just a talented rapper expressing herself. "Praise the Lord for what you're gonna receive," she says about her body. Her body and, more importantly, her music are gifts that you should be thankful for.

"I like the way you twerk, girl."

And it doesn't stop at "Prayer." "Miley Cyrus" links her a little closer to Curren$y's style, with the stand-up bass and hi-hats commonly heard in jazz. But she quickly distances herself again. Her raspy voice crawls over the drum-heavy beat as she sings about Miley Cyrus and getting "fucked up tonight." Yes, her lyrics are very much like those of other stoner rappers, but the way they're laid out is completely unique to her.

And "Grand Theft" features some deep, deep horns and some heavily synthesized vocals to make the beat one of the biggest stand outs from Sex Hormone'd Druggie as her singsong gently leads the listener down the rabbit hole she's carved out.

It's clear that Mary Gold is something special. She brings just the right amount of druggie influences to pair with her distinct style to make her both approachable and listenable. Kudos to Curren$y for signing her. Even more kudos to Mary Gold for creating something so special.

The Bad:

Reem Riches - Road to Riches

I love how much I hate this. Like this is fantastic. Everything from the DJ's water mark (a girl shouting "Charismaaaa!") to the fact that he sounds like he's still in puberty. This is just beautiful. 

Reem Riches sounds like most rappers out right now, but higher-pitched and less grounded. You ask, "How does one sound less grounded than rappers spending money left and right?" Well, when you rap lines like "I just smoked a hundred blunts / Bout to smoke a hundred sluts," it's hard to sound like you even remotely understand how the world works.

Riches sounds like what a disapproving suburban mom thinks all rap sounds like. He raps about money, drugs and sex and his beats are just too loud. 

That song about a hundred blunts is called, you guessed it, "100." The beat is alright, but it's not used properly. It's just there to make Riches sound tough and intimidating. And I don't even get the lyrics. Why is he so obsessed with the number 100? On the bright side, "I don't give a hundred fucks" is my new catch phrase.

DJ Crikk-It dropping a beat

And what the hell is he doing on "Good Feeling?" No, I'm not talking about his excessive use of Auto-Tune, which is really annoying. Nor am I talking about lyrics like "Are you wit it? / Are you wit it? / I'ma hit it / I'ma hit it," which are incredibly dumb. I'm talking about this ridiculously infuriating high-pitched sample that is penetrating my ear drums the entire song! What is that? A cricket? Sleigh bells? Lucifer's mating call? Stop it! I beg of you!

Now let's play a fun game of "Are These Really Song Titles?" First is "Hoes Got Hoes." If you guessed yes, you'd be super correct! Here's a tricky one: "Fuckshit." What's that? Yes? Oh my good golly gosh you are good at this! Now here's a stumper: "Diamonds & Hoes." You're going to say "no" on this one? Yes, I know, this is just too stupid to be true. But it is! These are all Reem Riches' songs!

I might actually download this mixtape just because it's almost too ign'ant to not love. I probably won't, but I totally could.

The Re-dic-yu-lus:

Capo - G.L.O.N.L.

OMG! I almost dropped Reem Riches down a level, but I'm so glad I didn't because now I get to listen to this.

Capo is part of GBE, a.k.a. Cheif Keef's music group. So this guy is basically Chief Keef without the fame. Meaning, this mixtape is so, so bad.

Sure, I'm a little upset that this has more views on datpiff than Mary Gold's mixtape, but I can't be that mad when this mixtape is this horrible.

I honestly can't tell the difference between Capo and Chief Keef. Neither of them are comprehensible. They sound just about the same. And all of the beats are the essence of ratchet.

G.L.O.N.L. opens with "G.L.O.N.L. Part 2" and it features Sosa himself. A shit ton of Auto-Tune is applied to Capo...I think. And it makes him even more muddled than before. I mostly can just hear them shout the title over again. Other than that, it's complete mush.

Why would anyone think these are shoes?

I feel like Capo can't even understand himself, because on the third track, he tries saying "not yours," but
instead titles the song "Nachos." Which brings a whole new sense of humor to the song. Suddenly it sounds like he's saying, "You acting like they're your shoes / But I know they're nachos."

Or how about "Thotty Party?" Even I know he's shouting/rapping "Let's start a party." But apparently in the editing room, it sounded like "Let's thotty party." What even is a thotty party and why have I never been invited to one?

Now, we joke about how hard it is to understand Capo. But I swear "Hate Me," the second song to feature the Chief, Capo tries his best to create a good chorus. But holy crap, does he fail. I'm going to type exactly what I think I hear, word for word, no exaggeration.

"I know why you niggas hate me / I seen them bitchesbabbityboobabebop hate me."

Can I go back in time and make this my senior quote? Kthx.

I don't understand Capo, but what I really can't understand is why anyone would possibly like this. Why in the world is this more popular than Mary Gold? Why does this even exist? Why am I even questioning this when I know there's nothing I can do to prevent the GBE world takeover? For now, I hate this. But in 15 years when "I Hate Being Sober" is the world's anthem, I'll love this and our new overlords.

-X-Prime, dropping the mic for now
@XavierVeccia

Praise Yeezus

So, I'm going to do something a little different this week. Okay, a lot different. I'm going to see Kanye West live on Friday. I've waited the majority of my life for this moment. So, needless to say, I'm pretty freaking excited. So excited that I'm even willing to sound like a fangirl by dedicating a whole blog post to him.

So, instead of doing the classic "Good, Bad and Re-dic-yu-lus" format of Stack That Cheese, I'm going to rank Kanye West's six solo albums from worst to best. It's too bad Kanye had to come up this week because I was pretty stoked to review Action Bronson's new mixtape, Blue Chips 2. But this is something I've always wanted to do and if I have a platform and reason to do so, I might as well.

6. 808s & Heartbreak

This is probably the easiest decision on the whole list. While I admittedly like this album more than most, it's still clearly the worst thing Kanye's ever put out.

808s & Heartbreak was the album that Kanye put out that's famous (or infamous) for its use of Auto-Tune. The popular vocal synthesizer was just coming down from its peak in popularity. While most Auto-Tune (ab)users tended to use it as just a fun toy to fool around with, Kanye used it as a way to express his emotion. This meant that 808s was not only Kanye's worst album, but saddest, too. Some might even say "sappy."

However, 808s still had its moments of intrigue. "Welcome to Heartbreak" basically helped start Kid Cudi's mainstream career. And when Kanye opens the song with the line "My friend showed me pictures of his kids / And all I could show him was pictures of my cribs," the song instantly became one of the best "first world problems" type songs, which some may hate, but I feel for 'Ye.

And the first two singles, "Love Lockdown" and "Heartless," are among the most memorable Kanye West songs among the masses.

Plus, "RoboCop" is one of the funniest Kanye songs ever, as he compares the female subject of the song to someone from a Stephen King novel.

Above all else is the fact that Kanye really helped spearhead a new movement in the hip-hop community. Drake is still making music reminiscent of 808s. However, no matter how good anyone may think 808s & Heartbreak is, it's hard to argue for the album to be any higher than last among the rest of Kanye's discography.

5. Late Registration

This placement is one of the hardest on the list. I've spent plenty of time considering whether this album or the next was better. After much consideration, I decided to put Late Registration at five because I'm not as well versed in it as I am the rest of Kanye's discography.

I'm aware that's a really weak reason. But whether Late Registration came in at four or five, it would still be astounding that it isn't even in the top half of Kanye's creations. Because this is a good album. This might even be a great album. This might even be a timeless album. But there are still three to four albums better made by the same guy.

There are some songs that are nothing short of brilliant on here. "Roses" is widely regarded as one of the most personable songs that Kanye has ever made and "Hey Mama" is probably one of the only songs that could top that.

"Diamonds from Sierra Leone" has to be one of the best beats Kanye's ever produced and rapped over. "Heard Em Say" is probably the best thing that Adam Levine of Maroon 5 has ever done. "Touch the Sky" put Lupe Fiasco on a golden platter for the public to enjoy him on.

And then there's the ultimate Kanye West hit: "Gold Digger." While there are other songs put out by Kanye that made it big, there are none more a staple of pop culture than "Gold Digger."

And this isn't even one of Kanye's best. Bravo, Mr. West. Bravo.

4. Graduation

If we're ranking these albums by how critically-acclaimed each album is, Graduation would have been Kanye's second worst. Whereas Late Registration got five-star reviews and a 9.5 from Pitchfork, Graduation merely managed four-and-a-half stars and an 8.7 from Pitchfork. Come on, 'Ye, you're better than that.

But for me, Graduation is one of Kanye's most exciting albums. At the time it was released, Graduation felt like it was just a bit too far from typical Kanye to really compete with Late Registration and College Dropout. But over the years, the experimenting that took place on Graduation seems like child's play compared to what he's done on the likes of Yeezus and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

Kanye's later experimentation made Graduation seem more like "normal Kanye" and less like "experimental Kanye." And as it shifted to more of the middle, it seemed to become a little better. At least to me, that is.

Whereas College Dropout and Late Registration took a more Tribe Called Quest path, Graduation felt a little funkier and a little lighter, too.

You can tell Kanye was in a little better mood just from some of the song titles. "Champion." "Good Life." "Stronger." Clearly Kanye had a much better mindset. And that made it a little more fun, which made it stand out a bit among the pretty dark discography of Kanye.

"Homecoming," featuring Coldplay's Chris Martin, was among the highlights of Graduation, as Kanye sang a ballad dedicated to his hometown of Chicago.

And singles "Stronger," "Good Life," and "Flashing Lights" were perfect choices to represent the album.

And yet, there are still three albums better. Kanye's the best.

3. Yeezus

I'm going to keep this light because I went into over 600 words about Kanye's latest here. But I will go into it a bit.

I'm not really sure how Yeezus will stand the test of time. There's been just about as much hate as there has been praise. And I get some of the complaints.

Yes, lyrically this is probably Kanye's worst. And yes, the style he adopted isn't all his own (see: Death Grips). But what really made me fall in love with Yeezus is how introspective it is on Kanye's part.

Kanye uses each song to reflect a different part of his life, from his early days of being an activist-turned-rapper to the current egotistical 'Ye. If you know much about Kanye, it's not easy for him to admit he's wrong. Ever. But on Yeezus, he looked into every era of his lifetime and critiqued it. And that says a lot.

2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The inner debate between MBDTF and Yeezus was intense. There was blood drawn. Deaths tallied. Tears shed. It got messy, to say the least.

Ultimately, I decided on MBDTF because I am a hipster. And this is the Kanye album for hipsters.

While Yeezus is the most outwardly experimental album of Kanye's career, MBDTF is the real most experimental Kanye.

This is due to the crazy orchestration. You don't need to look any further for this than "All of the Lights." Basically every major musician appeared on the track. From Rihanna to Elton John to Kid Cudi to Alicia Keys. This track was stacked. And it was all so beautifully layered.

And "Runaway." That simple piano slowly getting an even simpler drum kit added to it. And Pusha T basically coming out as a solo artist.

And the fact this was the first time Justin Vernon teamed up with Kanye made this album even better.

Plus, he took his music videos to a whole new level, even creating a short film. It's no wonder this is the hipster album of Kanye's.

1. College Dropout

There's no question. This is the best Kanye album of all time. Hell, this might be one of the best rap albums of all time. Definitely one of the best of the aughts.

Kanye debuted with a splash after years of working as a producer and an underground rapper. It was the perfect old-school album with a new-school flare. The best album from a Chicago rapper since Common. It was no wonder that 'Ye got Jay-Z's blessing. Just listen to this shit.

Kanye left everything on the table. Need a song bashing the radio industry? "Jesus Walks." What about a sultry love ballad? "Slow Jamz." Oh, you want probably the best outro of all time? "Last Call." You know how good "Last Call" was as an outro? J. Cole took the beat and used it as his own.

I don't even know what to say about Dropout. I just want to write the title of every single song and say, "this song is awesome." But I'm not going to do this. I'm just going to let you listen to the perfect Kanye album.