The eternal question of modern pop music but especially Hip-hop: do guest artists belong in the title of the song? I think there’s some kind of music publishing rule. Same with special symbols and such. But let’s not worry about that. We just need to know what we’re talking about. It’s Trillmatic by A$AP Mob. It’s a single, with no b-side. And of course it features Method Man, which is what got my attention. Altho it may not be in the title of the song, it is in the youtube description and how else are you going to find out about download only singles.
Personally, I like the collective credit. I refuse to consider Wu Tang Clan ‘old school’, but let’s call it ‘Classic Hip-Hop’. It gives it that feel. And it makes it seem like all these other dudes in the video had something to do with the song when it’s almost entirely a solo for A$AP Nast. (Altho one of those dudes must be the producer of the song, Ty Beats.) The whole One Guy Against The Whole Damn World thing never appealed to me too much and that pretty much dominates now. This group (or their management) seems keenly aware of this and has taken the Wu Tang route in reverse, introducing solo rappers A$AP Rocky and Ferg first (which I’ve been vaguely aware of) and now you’re getting more of the whole group. And altho I haven’t heard any of that stuff which has this explicitly retro-sounding backdrop, the rapping itself is the classic East Coast skill-based wordplay that is supposedly dead. Just makes me dumb I guess. Or lazy, really. I’ve gotten like old dudes who won’t stop talking about the Stones and Zeppelin like there’s not any good rock bands like that anymore and there are, they just don’t play stadiums anymore and there’s not a billboard for them on every corner. You’ve got to look.
The song borrows its hook from Nice & Smooth’s Hip Hop Junkies. Which is interesting; it’s self-consciously referencing the 90s overall and through the magic of passage of time, stuff with a Bobby Brown-type chorus occupies the same mental space as the grimyness of years-later Wu Tang simply because it was the same decade. It’s just interesting how that happens.
So I guess they got me is what I’m saying. I’m going to have to pay attention to this stuff again.
%
#1 by joetron2030 on 2014.02.20 - 16:55
It will be interesting to see who else from A$AP Mob (or the mob itself) breaks out. A$AP Ferg’s album “Trap Lord” was pretty entertaining.
On the point about hinting at or looking back to 90s era hip-hop, have you seen A$AP Rocky’s video for “Wassup”? Total throwback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6I2Ek_j_Xc
#2 by Jim on 2014.02.22 - 09:40
I did not see that video, no part of that reminds me of the 90s. But I mean, alot of different stuff happened then.
Lately stuff like that, that is coming from NYC, that seems to have a lot of influence from other areas. It doesn’t feel East Coast to me. Drinking cough syrup of all that stuff, I don’t really get it.
#3 by joetron2030 on 2014.02.24 - 14:36
Yeah, I think the influence of southern (aka “dirty south”) rap and its attendant culture is pretty noticeable on modern rap.
I guess it says a lot of where rap/hip-hop is in its existence. There may still be regional trends but in this day of fast exposure through social media, etc., if it’s something that works well, sooner than later, it’s going to get incorporated into other regional scenes.
#4 by Jim on 2014.02.26 - 11:07
Rap is just like Rock now where everyone is just influenced by whatever and every individual or group is pretty much on their own. I think it’s “dead” in that sense. There’s a few exceptions maybe but the two scenes are very similar now.
Except for the South. I mean, that means a huge dozens of cities. West Coast really means the LA area and East Coast really means NYC and barely anything else. It was kind of inevitable for them to become more influential.
#5 by joetron2030 on 2014.03.10 - 12:41
Yeah, there are some small regional scenes that do pop up here and then. I’m thinking hyphy for one in the SF Bay area. The latest that I’m familiar with is drill music from Chicago. But, in this age of social media and music blogs, these scenes stay unknown for a much shorter span of time. If they have something interesting to offer, they get subsumed by the larger scenes pretty quickly.
#6 by Jim on 2014.03.28 - 15:05
I don’t really know what I’m talking about with the west coast. There’s some major cities that are pretty far apart. And Chicago is it’s own thing. But ‘east coast style’ is really nyc style. I don’t know who was the first to use that, probably someone from Long Island.