cats complain rappers are getting carried by beats but get beats that allow the lyrics to be front and center and still complain
good thing Al don't listen to yall
So that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed in every Al interview I’ve listened to for the past 10 years, and I think it’s where some people get tripped up.
A lot of people that are fans of beat makers listen to the beat first. Not all. But some. Al has said over and over that the biggest change in his style has been backing away from trying to flex how crazy he can chop a sample and impress beat heads with crazy flips—and has gone into trying to make beats that showcase the artist.
That’s why he’s doing whole albums. That’s why There’s way more styles on display but…it’s about Whatever serves the rapper and what they want.
For example Continuance is mostly drumless but Price of Tea and Lulu are mostly hard drum projects. It was the best fit for those rappers.
Every project is one long song, and every track is little moments within that one huge song (his words not mine). He got heavily inspired by how Madlib did his whole albums for cats.