Listened just now after several respectable posters pulled my coat on how great this would be..
A New Day Begins- The piano riff reminds me of that Queens Get The Money track by Jay Electronica off of Untitled. Lyrics were good. The track is difficult to ride or find a pocket but he did okay.
MARS-Mega's flow started off choppy (always been my gripe with him and I see it hasn't changed). The track sounds kinda generic. Styles P and Redman did their thing.
Industry-Subject matter 10/10 Delivery 4/10. Man these tracks sound dated..The Honorable Minister murdered him on his own sh1t. "Cuz you the sh1t, naw you just doo-doo"
Now I've seen dudes like Big Mel mocking other rappers corny simple simon punchlines so I want an honest account and how he could let that type of fukkery breathe..
More-Again. The subject matter, The flow
The track
D.U.- I think I see where this is headed. Classic break beat. Golden era New York sound. My n1gga Nature!!!
Honorable- Raekwon is breath of fresh air. I needed this. Now its gonna be hard to go back to Mega's summer of '87 flow.
Rap Basquiat-Okay he's snapping on this one. In pocket. Again subject matter is flawless. What the people need.
Oh here comes that old head New York elitism about "real hip hop" "skinny jeans" and "snap music" on the outro
*cringes a little
Snap music? Really? Is this 2005? Snap and skinny jeans aint even the same era. This just seems like some gripe about anything that's different from the stat quo of "essence" based hip hop..
Rise-Cool I guess. I think a lot of these songs would read better off of paper than it sounds to me. Because the depth, thoughtfulness and meaning is there. But my Southern roots can't get past the boom bap pots and pans production.
Home-Like the bass guitar on this track. Would love to hear Chrissette Michelle croon over this one. More broken Mega flow and suspect punchlines . "Everybody wanna eat but they wont do the dishes"
Valuable Lessons-You know what man, I've heard enough. I ain't about this life honestly. This is music for n1ggas that wear Timbs with jean shorts. If you're a fan of 80's New York hip hop then I can see this album is tailor made for you. I can't throw shade because there is a lane and audience for this. Sonically I just can't rock with this.
I guess this is what happens when the South births you and the Westcoast raises you...
Not enough funk, not enough drum, not enough aggression in the tone...Too much meat and potatoes and no dessert..I wish someone in NY could find a happy medium between this type of music and French Montana. I want to know what NEW York's sound is. I heard this all back in grade school.
Ironically on Industry Farrakhan says "They don't listen to their preachers" and halfway through the album I realized that Mega was coming off as really preachy and I wanted to stop listening. But its not because of what he was saying it was in how it sounded.. I could listen to Dead Prez or Killer Mike say the same things in a much more compelling and entertaining way over much more dynamic production..I also feel like Mega is a much better writer than a rapper..I give him points for addressing certain topics, but at the end of the day it has to sound good to me also...
Revoke my "real hip hop" card ..
I'm gonna go listen to some country rap tunes as a palate cleanser
Nice post with some good points. I agree that the beats were underwhelming but the substance that Mega brought to the plate was a HUGE breath of fresh air. The "doo doo" line was sh!t but Mega was mostly on point lyrically on this project. I really like this album so far. Top 2 or 3 for me this year.
status lol
Kinda like "original individual"
