Big K.R.I.T./Childish Gambino
Pimps 'n Wimps‑-Not
By Xgau Dec 27, 2011 7:37AM
Big K.R.I.T.: Return of 4Eva (free download)
"I ain't rap about dope nor do I sell it," raps a Mississippi "country boy" who's more mixed about pimping‑-maybe unreadable, maybe of two minds, maybe blurring the pimp sound and the pimp hustle. The sound he's definitely got down: a rich, comfortable funk he transports south from Willie Hutch's The Mack. And as befits someone who believes N.I.G.G.E.R. stands for "Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism" and gets life satisfaction from rotating his tires, his sound equals his hustle. Some may think his rhymes are too simple. I find "Some thangs are forever, nothin' ever last/Like the risin' of the sun or when Big Mama pass" pretty deep myself. B PLUS
"I ain't rap about dope nor do I sell it," raps a Mississippi "country boy" who's more mixed about pimping‑-maybe unreadable, maybe of two minds, maybe blurring the pimp sound and the pimp hustle. The sound he's definitely got down: a rich, comfortable funk he transports south from Willie Hutch's The Mack. And as befits someone who believes N.I.G.G.E.R. stands for "Naive Individual Glorifying Greed and Encouraging Racism" and gets life satisfaction from rotating his tires, his sound equals his hustle. Some may think his rhymes are too simple. I find "Some thangs are forever, nothin' ever last/Like the risin' of the sun or when Big Mama pass" pretty deep myself. B PLUS
Childish Gambino: EP (free download)
"Set the game ablaze I'm an arcade fire," Cheezy boasts, but because he "don't wanna be alone," he joins a clique of "freaks and geeks" where he's "down with the black girls of every single culture/Filipino, Armenian girls on my sofa," only they're not thick enough, so he'll "make music for wack blacks to blast back" until he finds "a small chick with a fat ass" ready to "make out with a Gap ad" who's "not a thug a/k/a what they pretend to be." Of course, the Gap ad in question isn't exactly a geek anymore. He's a stand-up comedian bringing intelligent rap to the masses, one one-liner at a time. B PLUS
98Comments
Dec 30, 2011 1:11PM
Dec 30, 2011 9:36AM
Dec 30, 2011 8:17AM
Dan W.: I started way towards the back end, with the acronym track, and found that the lyrics that the album rolled out on were just what I'd been looking for. As for the sound, I like this description from Tom Breihan, published in Pitch4k.
In a sense, Big K.R.I.T. is like a hip-hop version of a group of rock revivalists. The same way that, say, Band of Horses turns dusty Neil Young guitar epics into something simple and comforting, K.R.I.T. trades on our collective memory of mid-90s Southern rap and turns that into brilliant invitations to nostalgia. At the end of "Sookie Now", we hear a sample of Don Draper philosophizing in "Mad Men": "There is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash-- if they have a sentimental bond with the product." K.R.I.T. included that sample to draw attention to his younger rap peers; he's the type of old soul who still complains about "ringtone rappers" sometimes. But it could just as well describe the Pavlovian attachment some of us have to a beautifully looped-up soul sample. And Return of 4Eva is absolutely packed with cascading looped-up falsetto harmonies.
Dec 30, 2011 1:38AM
Dec 30, 2011 12:15AM
Dec 29, 2011 10:16PM
There's always good stuff -- always.
So true.
But I don't usually listen to MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) here, really. I think it's more a habit issue. And I don't know why I generally listen to music that was produced untill 5/4 years ago. What goes further on it, comes as an exception. I listen more for pleasure, but for sure there was a time I forcibly listened to something for status, when I was younger. But I don't have any problem with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil or Ivete Sangalo. Actually, I always listen to them when I'm somewhere with my parents or friends.
I'm not the right person to say what is the new generation of indie/rock in Brazil, but I know Los Hermanos was a group that popularized over here, mainly in the middle-class genre. The press even said they were the Radiohead of Brazil. So it goes with Thiago Pethit (which sings also in english), Tulipa Ruiz, Móveis Coloniais de Acaju, Mombojó and Marcelo Jeneci. Groups and singers that I listen to sometimes, but honestly aren't my kind, which is electronic, sparse in my country. So it leaves me alone, in reality. 'Cause there is two types: the club thing and the loneliness thing. Synthpop is relatively gay over here - at least from what I experienced when I say I like it, so I don't know any synthpop brazilian group, although Cansei de Ser Sexy comes close, but The Twelves are the most dance/electronic act I can remember.
All of this with a great help of MTV in the last years, which presented to Brazil, Mallu Magalhães, also, a really shy and indie-ish girl, who talked about Bob Dylan and Belle & Sebastian when she came out (on her sixteens, I think) so everyone saw she was different and with an enormous potential. She grew up and became a very beautiful woman, but she's so soft and whimsical that sometimes gives me the nerves. To ilustrate the situation, when Radiohead came to Brazil, Los Hermanos opened the festival and Mallu - now girlfriend of the frontman of it, Marcelo Camelo - sang there too, to anguish of the youth crowd, who really disliked here at the time. Actually, the girl that I loved that I mentioned in the other post was a Radiohead fan and went there, so she talked to me about all this event.
Yesterday I saw the reprise of VMB (Video Music Brazil) here on MTV and the presentation of Caetano Veloso and Criolo of "Não Existe Amor em SP". If anyone is interested, it's here: http://goo.gl/MmglL
Dec 29, 2011 9:38PM
Dec 29, 2011 9:31PM
It's said that as alarm systems become more sophisticated, criminals need to up their game to be able to break into houses and businesses. Pop music is the same way. As the industry becomes more resistant to creativity and spontaneity, good musicians find smart ways to either sneak daring stuff into the mainstream, or find delivery systems outside the industry to peddle their wares. The push and pull between the two is one of the things I find most fascinating about pop music.
You always hear "It's been the worst year for music since..." It was the running gag of all of Christgau's essays. And yet I've been listening to a lot of 1993 lately (cause, why not?) and I'm loving it all. There's always good stuff -- always.
Dec 29, 2011 8:44PM
Dec 29, 2011 8:28PM
Dec 29, 2011 8:13PM
Wow! Childish Gambino looks promising and yet concise. Musically, I find it a bit premature, neutral and too mundane, to say the truth, but still with really interesting lyrics, although I always sense something is missing. Maybe some grooves or melody. Sometimes I think he's so delicate that even the music itself becomes harmless or not powerful enough. He surely looks a complex guy, almost perturbed with who he is. So, how old is he? Let me see... 28 years old! Sure time don't mean much. "My Shine" is the close it comes to a proper song.
The fun thing with him is that he talk about many things differents on each song, but always around sex and bitches. The last one, for example, "Break," it's funny how the tonality of his voice represents how he's feeling about some line which remembers him someone or something. It's sincerity, hashy sincerity, all over again. So this one looks like the "The Ugly Duckling" of hip-hop. Or simple the Owl City of the Coldplay crew.
I'm thinking now what's the veracity of this verse:
"It’s crazy how these labels and these blogs are on my dick
I’m Pryor in his last years: comedian who’s sick
F-ck, but I am sick, seriously, I don’t feel so good
‘Cause I don’t get sleep, and I’m always travelin’
And I don’t go home, and my friends don’t call
‘Cause I turned off my phone"
The music breaks and only his voice states. A disillusioned rapper? So where's the love? I confess I'm pretty stressed about how people treat each other too. So he said "You are the bestest, I will obey you" to a girl while she was with other men. Like I already did. Then I blown up everything, too. But there's no differences between me and her today and I dare to say even before, I was just too much childish. I'm impressed how I never fall in love again after her. But "Sooner or later..." Even my favorite band sounds strange nowadays.
Dec 29, 2011 7:51PM
Dec 29, 2011 7:34PM
Dec 29, 2011 6:31PM
Dec 29, 2011 6:13PM
"The Year When Rock Just Spun Its Wheels"
Well, I always suspect a degree of bitterness and resentment and just-shoot-me comes with the grind of a big daily where you have to Know All Pop Phenomena.
Still, guy has a point.
For example, I plugged a very small hole in the reference library by picking up two albums by founders of '80s hardcore-punk/thrash-metal, Cryptic Slaughter's Convicted and Money Talks. True, they're half-meatheads and half-savvy provocateurs (best: "Nuclear Future" and "Set Your Own Pace"), and I haven't heard a good deal of Caramancia's designated fodder, but I savor the brand of piss 'n' vinegar Cryptic Slaughter is full of and suspect it is off the market for good. Cryptic Slaughter benefit from the essential of ace hardcore -- a drummer that's precise and beyond hyper. And, really, this is all I will need by them. ("Whaddaya mean, stupe? That's half of what they recorded!!" "Shuddup, pickle dick!")
I guess what I'm driving at is that, yeah, I can see the mainstream of rock being more distant from the foundations and of a different kind of impudence these days than ever before.
Yet another thought is how far things had changed since doo-wop groups got together on street corners (junior- and high-school halls really) and Cryptic Slaughter gathering as like-minded soccer teammates.
Still, guy has a point.
For example, I plugged a very small hole in the reference library by picking up two albums by founders of '80s hardcore-punk/thrash-metal, Cryptic Slaughter's Convicted and Money Talks. True, they're half-meatheads and half-savvy provocateurs (best: "Nuclear Future" and "Set Your Own Pace"), and I haven't heard a good deal of Caramancia's designated fodder, but I savor the brand of piss 'n' vinegar Cryptic Slaughter is full of and suspect it is off the market for good. Cryptic Slaughter benefit from the essential of ace hardcore -- a drummer that's precise and beyond hyper. And, really, this is all I will need by them. ("Whaddaya mean, stupe? That's half of what they recorded!!" "Shuddup, pickle dick!")
I guess what I'm driving at is that, yeah, I can see the mainstream of rock being more distant from the foundations and of a different kind of impudence these days than ever before.
Yet another thought is how far things had changed since doo-wop groups got together on street corners (junior- and high-school halls really) and Cryptic Slaughter gathering as like-minded soccer teammates.
Dec 29, 2011 5:28PM
Dec 29, 2011 4:23PM
I saw it too. I'm with Ryan, but also feel bad about faulting the movie for being disappointing. It's obvious that everyone involved loved being a part of the Muppet troupe, but it did point out one thing with some unintended accuracy.
(Spoiler alert!)
(Has anyone else here needed a spoiler alert?)
So, after the Muppets save their theme park with a telethon, what did they do next? The movie doesn't show us, partly because the creators had no idea. While watching the credits, it's nice to see all the costars mugging for the cameras, but even the movie realizes it's a nostalgia act. Even back in the 80s, The Muppet Show was one of few surviving variety shows and its vaudeville roots looks really antiquated now. After seeing The Artist and Hugo, a lot of this year's movies seem to be arguments for film or television preservation and not a revival of older forms to make new films.
Does this argument make sense to those people who saw these movies? This isn't to say I disliked them (I'd give A- to The Artist and Hugo and a low B+ to The Muppets), but I think the current economic environment is giving a lot of original movies (as opposed to sequels or blockbusters) a disturbing lack of faith in the power of their art.
(Spoiler alert!)
(Has anyone else here needed a spoiler alert?)
So, after the Muppets save their theme park with a telethon, what did they do next? The movie doesn't show us, partly because the creators had no idea. While watching the credits, it's nice to see all the costars mugging for the cameras, but even the movie realizes it's a nostalgia act. Even back in the 80s, The Muppet Show was one of few surviving variety shows and its vaudeville roots looks really antiquated now. After seeing The Artist and Hugo, a lot of this year's movies seem to be arguments for film or television preservation and not a revival of older forms to make new films.
Does this argument make sense to those people who saw these movies? This isn't to say I disliked them (I'd give A- to The Artist and Hugo and a low B+ to The Muppets), but I think the current economic environment is giving a lot of original movies (as opposed to sequels or blockbusters) a disturbing lack of faith in the power of their art.
Dec 29, 2011 3:17PM
I saw it a few weeks ago. I didn't think there was nearly enough to it, though I respect most of the people involved. It was especially disappointing considering how good for society the Muppets used to be, even if the 90s movies weren't all that. Also, the sorta-tribute cash-in album they threw together is a hoot and a half for about six songs, until you start realizing that there's not much to that either.
Dec 29, 2011 3:10PM
Dec 29, 2011 2:46PM
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Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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