Monday Mixtape, Vol. 74

My love of Cousin Stizz dates back to 2015 when he released his debut album, Suffolk County, a pure and sincere rap album with no gimmicks, features, or pop songs, just raw as hell Stizz. He's been getting some buzz recently which would explain how he got Offset (from Migos) to feature on this week's opener. What a beat and a catch hook. 

I'm not exactly sure who Ron Gallo is, but if this song - the first track on 2017's HEAVY META - is any indication, the guy is a throwback. "Young Lady, You're Scaring Me" sounds like a song destined for a scene in a Scorcese movie when someone has done entirely too many drugs - as always happens in his movies - and is on a hotel balcony, teetering on the balcony, their life in the balance.  

Whitney just makes great background music. I put them in the same genre as Real Estate but with a bit more pep and soul. Love these guys. 

Spoon has once again released another really good album. I spoke about this a bit last week, but they are one of the few bands that adapt their sound a bit here and there and continue to make quality music while staying relevant over a timespan that any musician would strive for. 

If you forgot who Taleb Kweli was well shame on you! How could you forget one of the best rap albums of all time, Mos Def and Taleb Kweli Are Black Star, and one of my favorite rap songs:  

Kweli released an album with Styles P and this is my favorite track. Glad to hear he's still after it.

Don't know who Soulwax is, but this is one funky electro song. As for John Mayer making his way back on to the mixtape, I just thought "In the Blood" was a great song on what we have instilled in us from our parents and everything we've been through: Will it wash out in the water or is it always in the blood? 

Finally, Slowdive hasn't made an album since 1996, so we'll say they were due for some new music. If you can't hear their influcene on DIIV, well listen to DIIV again!

The Silent Majority

As with all things, the Internet has helped to flatten hip-hop — more artists and styles are available to more people, obscurity is a relic, subcultural allegiance can quickly become pop fandom.

- Jon Caramanica, "Vince Staples and J. Cole, Outsiders in the Middle of Hip-Hop," New York Times, July 9, 2015.

Years ago, there were severe categorizations of rap that artists rarely overcame - Talib Kweli and Common preached conscious rap, Dilated Peoples' and People Under the Stairs worked the underground, Nas, Biggie, and Jay-Z as the kings of gangsta rap on the East Coast, and Tupac, Dr. Dre, and Snoop sat on their throne out West. No one really veered outside of their lane. But now, Caramanica interestingly argues, the highway of rap has no lanes, and artists take whichever route they want. Drake, for example, is "an omnivore and a chameleon who never met a target demographic he couldn’t appease, or an Instagram post for which a lyric of his wouldn’t make the perfect caption. He’s post-region, post-era, post-ideology, post-genre." It's the post-label era of rap.

In this post-label era, we have a mix of musicians, such as Kendrick Lamar, Vince Staples, and J. Cole, who despite selling a lot of albums "have been largely shut out of hip-hop's celebrity class" because they don't particularly cater to the ostentatious and moneyed. But by creating music their own way, these guys are being rewarded financially and critically for it. "Their staunch commitment to traditionally underground sentiment has turned out to be lucrative," Caramanica writes, "and also necessitates a rethinking of where hip-hop’s current center of power and influence actually resides."

Kendrick Lamar is one of the highest selling artists in rap, selling upwards of 2 million records from his last two albums, yet he has never had a single in the Billboard Top 10. He's come nowhere close to that with any track on his new album. This is a plus for those like me that devalue singles and hits and place more emphasis on the originality and genuineness of an album and artist. Listen to Vince Staples arresting and ominous debut album, Summetime '06, and you will not hear one hit single; instead, you'll hear an album delicately prepared and exquisitely rapped. You'll hear a story and picture life in the eyes of a man expressing himself for himself and not the money or fame.

Although Caramanica's article speaks only of rap, the Internet has helped to flatten all music to provide more artists and styles to more people. Obscurity is a relic across all genres and the underground can become pop within days. The ubiquitous presence of music in our lives is a fortunate byproduct of technology. I can listen to a teenager in Ireland writing somber melodies, an artist from Atlanta creating strange and incomparable rap, a singer/songwriter composing orchestral anomalies, and any other millions of songs, some terrible, some inspiring, all from my couch. If it wasn't for Spotify, I would never have started this blog and certainly could not have listened to 101,976 minutes of music in 2014.

This democratization of music, the ability to hear almost anything in the world with the stroke of a few buttons, has eliminated anonymity. Even more important, the ability to create music is easier than ever. If someone is truly an amazing talent, he or she won't die undiscovered. That's not possible anymore. It's refreshing to know that brilliance will be discovered but also odd that our unknown musical geniuses are fossils buried in plots around the world.

The majority of music is now out there for consumption, silent and undiscovered for hours, days or months, instead of years or lifetimes. Technology, for all its pro and cons, has brought music and artists to our doorstep.

Knock, knock.