Albums Raekwon - The Emperor's New Clothes (July 18th)

[Mike Wins]

600 school

Meth slaughtered that, been killing too many guest spots in recent years not to drop a project

 

[Redwood]

Meth slaughtered that, been killing too many guest spots in recent years not to drop a project

Killing features without cursing too

 

[Mike Wins]

So now that the tour is over....it looks like they had zero promo plan beyond Rae going on IG Live? I gave Mass Appeal the benefit of the doubt, given the tour taking time away from Rae to get out there more. But we're nearly a week post the release date now, the tour ended a few days ago and it looks like there's just virtually no money behind this shyt. Again.

Was talking about this in another thread the other day. Mass Appeal is an indie that move like an indie. They not giving you a big promo budget, they don't even spend big on Nas albums. And if you look at the credits for this and the Slick Rick album, Mass Appeal is just a partner or distributor for these first couple projects.

Rick promoted his album a lot, not sure why Rae not doing the same. Maybe he will. But someone with his stature and connections don't need a label to get on Joe and Jada, Drink Champs and Hot97 to talk about his album.

 

[spliz]

Open Doors is TOOOO crazy. Lol. I been running that shyt in the whip non stop for like 2 days. Lol

 

[spliz]

Honestly, I’ve listened to this record a lot now and it’s a really fukking good, concise, Raekwon album

People saying the production is dated surprises me

Artists like Rae sometime can’t win

They have people saying “just give us that classic feel”

Then they get it and they say “where’s the new production?”

I can't take noone serious complaining about the production on this shyt. If half these beats was on a CLIPSE album nikkas would be loving them. Especially shyt like Open Doors.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

The production doesn’t sound dated at all, don’t know where that’s coming from. Dated production is some of that last Redman album, but he still has so much energy and charisma that you kinda ignore it.

 

[THE 101]

Honestly, I’ve listened to this record a lot now and it’s a really fukking good, concise, Raekwon album

People saying the production is dated surprises me

Artists like Rae sometime can’t win

They have people saying “just give us that classic feel”

Then they get it and they say “where’s the new production?”

This production doesn't have a classic feel. It's just cheap throwaway shyt that d-list rappers would be spitting on in 2006.

 

[Ziggiy]

 

[KingSol81]

I was kinda underwhelmed by the album tbh, only spun it once so maybe tracks will grow on me more but, some of the beats just feel really generic to me, not wack but just nothing special.

 

[GeeEffKay]

Finally got a chance to listen as I got back from vacation. Solid effort and it’s one of his better ones on initial few listens. Nas feat didn’t disappoint either

 

[Awesome Wells]

I was kinda underwhelmed by the album tbh, only spun it once so maybe tracks will grow on me more but, some of the beats just feel really generic to me, not wack but just nothing special.

I've listened to it about 281 times since it dropped, and it's the same for me.

I like a little more than 1/2 the album, but the other 1/2 and change does have that generic and cheap feel, when it comes to the beats. Chef is top tier on this, lyrically, though! And there's very few MC's from that era that can still drop quality sh*t today, so I appreciate the album and like it. But I think Rae's still a couple of producers away from being able to drop an actual classic in this era. He's close, but he just needs the right people behind the boards.

 

[KingSol81]

I've listened to it about 281 times since it dropped, and it's the same for me.

I like a little more than 1/2 the album, but the other 1/2 and change does have that generic and cheap feel, when it comes to the beats. Chef is top tier on this, lyrically, though! And there's very few MC's from that era that can still drop quality sh*t today, so I appreciate the album and like it. But I think Rae's still a couple of producers away from being able to drop an actual classic in this era. He's close, but he just needs the right people behind the boards.

Yeah I completely agree, when I checked the credits it was mostly the unfamiliar producers tracks that I found to be bland, Nottz and even Swizz had good tracks. But yeah, around half the album beats just sounds like "YouTube type beats" , like someone bought a 'rap soul sample loop pack"

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

I just miss the in house wu tang projects!

 

[Awesome Wells]

Yeah I completely agree, when I checked the credits it was mostly the unfamiliar producers tracks that I found to be bland, Nottz and even Swizz had good tracks. But yeah, around half the album beats just sounds like "YouTube type beats" , like someone bought a 'rap soul sample loop pack"

Facts.

Problem is, most MC's at Rae's level don’t like paying for production anymore. They don’t have the budgets for it these days, so they bring in a lot of unknown dudes because the beats are so cheap. I've seen dudes selling 12 beats for $100 to rappers. The thing is, cheap beats always sound like cheap beats. So you can kinda tell when it's done by somebody we never heard of before. They just want to get placements, so I get it. But a lot of legendary producers are ready to work, but rappers don’t want to or just can't pay what they're asking for anymore.

 

[KingSol81]

Facts.

Problem is, most MC's at Rae's level don’t like paying for production anymore. They don’t have the budgets for it these days, so they bring in a lot of unknown dudes because the beats are so cheap. I've seen dudes selling 12 beats for $100 to rappers. The thing is, cheap beats always sound like cheap beats. So you can kinda tell when it's done by somebody we never heard of before. They just want to get placements, so I get it. But a lot of legendary producers are ready to work, but rappers don’t want to or just can't pay what they're asking for anymore.

Exactly! Honestly, Rae needs to find his Hitboy, theres no reason he cant go on a King's Disease run like Nas, he just needs a solid established producer to create a sound for him.

A big problem with all these new age beatmakers too is the mix engineers are mostly mid af now, theres very little attention paid to the final mix with a lot of these beats.

It would never come out with Dre "producing" but having Dr Dre mix OB4CL3 would be a great idea. Or even shyt, Rae and Havoc could probably make a classic.

But yeah, the problem isn't with the rhymes, Rae still operating at top tier levels with the pen.