Yelawolf: Trunk Muzik/ TM 0-60 / Radioactive

also some personas, like anono-thug from queensbridge, play themselves better as archetypal things than others do.

i don't think this is true

TBH if there's a "character" I associate Yelawolf with it's the younger partner-in-crime in Breaking Bad.

Hah, I had this too, might just be all the meth references though.

yela doesn't code as country at all to me, there are no sonic signifiers and he doesn't affect it at all (on record) - i don't think he feels suburban either but i'm not really sure how to break down the various poor white trailer park demographics in the US. if he's attached to anything outside of hip-hop it's obviously hard rock - this album is basically rock in places and he's spoken of it in interviews.

i just cant help but feel like fans are latching onto some projected country-ness/real-ness that doesnt exist

who are "yelawolf fans" now?!

i feel like you guys are being kind of cynical -- of course the white trash thing is a good marketing tool & since he grew up poor (as far as we know) & not like asher roth there's no real card checking going on, but what is the guy supposed to do? act like he's not white trash from alabama? what 'persona' do you want him to 'assume' deej?

i mean there's definitely a double standard here -- like, no one is grading (ahem) various black gangster rappers on the curve of 'redundant personas', so i'm not sure why yelawolf is getting this intense scrutiny & skepticism?

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:34 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

can't speak for anyone else but i'm not really concerned with the validity of the image or persona or anything -- i'm just saying even as a marketing tool it's kind of like jeez dude you've got skills, maybe don't work so hard to play up an angle Kid Rock and Bubba Sparxxx already did in a broader and more pop context

who knows what is truth & what is projection but i still can't help but see that as asking him to wash away his identity -- what would he rap about?

i don't mean that at all -- i'm just saying stuff like the Lynyrd Skynyrd verse trying to tie that into rap or the Bob Dylan hook, it's all kind of a cutesy clever heavyhanded way of him working the same "I have a foot in two different worlds!!!" thing that pretty much every white rapper has to grapple with on some level or another.

yeah theres something just stilted to me about the presentation, its not at all about authenticity or lack thereof -- bubba could be a corporate ceo for all i care if he was making songs like 'nowhere'

honestly i think some of what al & i are talking about is stuff that, if smoothed over, would make him a more popular artist!

except you're being pretty vague -- wearing trucker hats?

This what I have:
http://www.2dopeboyz.com/2010/01/01/yelawolf-trunk-muzik-mixtape/

I assumed it was the album proper, but apparently not?

do i need to like go dig up lyrics and interview quotes? we're obviously talking about more than just his look.

"Trunk Muzik" is the mixtape that was released for free in January, "Trunk Muzik 0-60" is the major label EP that was released commercially this week that features about half the same songs as the mixtape with some new stuff.

an EP with 12 tracks is not an EP! do they just want to sell it cheap/not give it the same weight as an album statement? or are the new tracks "bonus"?

major label hip hop has been really big on "EPs" that are actually album-length, it's been a big mystifying trend for the last year or so. it's basically just a weird way of them being able to release an album without calling it an album so that it doesn't have all the commercial expectations that an album would have.

the other day i saw an artist i know refer to his new release as an "EPixtape," which, just, barf

12 tracks is a little on the short side for a rap album!

didn't erykah badu insist on referring to worldwide underground as an EP?

whatevz to both of them, if it looks and sounds and is as long as an album...

i don't mean that at all -- i'm just saying stuff like the Lynyrd Skynyrd verse trying to tie that into rap or the Bob Dylan hook, it's all kind of a cutesy clever heavyhanded way of him working the same "I have a foot in two different worlds!!!" thing that pretty much every white rapper has to grapple with on some level or another.

Maybe I'm misreading you al, but surely the Lyndard Skynard verse is about how irrelevant LS is to people like him (not to mention rap). I guess you could argue that there's a performative contradiction there because by mentioning LS even to dismiss them still establishes you know who they are, but short of deciding it would be better for him never to reference such things, I can't see how he could go about grappling with this stuff in a less egregious manner.

i know the thrust of the verse isn't explicitly "rap is like Lynyrd Skynyrd", i'm just saying that kind of heavyhanded "i'm a white rapper from hickville, let me tell you a bit about that" isn't really what i go to his music to hear.

let an ep be an ep

free the ep

xxp but that's pretty much what he raps about...

unless he's rapping about eating pussy

not on every song

xpost i prefer the eating pussy songs

i mean, didn't bubba already do a really awesome album about that same exact subject matter better?

(i like yelawolf but i don't find him that fascinating as dude)

i don't understand how all of a sudden bubba sparxxx levels yelawolf's music irrelevant

we have room in our lives for hundreds of black rappers rapping about being poor black dudes but only room for one white rapper rapping about being a poor white dude

can't speak for anyone else but that wasn't at all what i was getting at

i was referring to m@tt's post

not that i really understand your POV either

it doesn't make him irrelevant, but i guess cuz there are so few i feel like that's gonna be the main gist of all the coverage...and a lot of it will act like bubba never happened

(again i LIKE yelawolf i think he makes good music and is good at rapping which i like)

xp i mean i understand it from the angle that it might hurt his ability to be successful, but artistically i don't

honestly i'm not hating at all, i just feel like i'm gonna have to read hella annoying non-rap outlet personality pieces about yelawolf basically

i feel like that's gonna be the main gist of all the coverage...and a lot of it will act like bubba never happened

well this isn't anything that yelawolf can control

well yeah probably xp

isn't it CRAZY, he'S WHITE and self defines as a REDNECK and but he LIKES RAP WHICH IS "BLACK" MUSIC what a paradox

i have room in my life for rappers whether they are black white green or purple

does yelawolf pass the delmar test?

yelawolf is a better and more entertaining rapper than bubba sparxxx

we have room in our lives for hundreds of black rappers rapping about being poor black dudes but only room for one white rapper rapping about being a poor white dude

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:30 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dude havent i been criticizing big krit for the exact same topical genericism that has been done before cf country shit basically being nappy roots as far as subject matter??

yelawolf is a better and more entertaining rapper than bubba sparxxx

― based lord sotosyn (The Reverend), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:26 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ban the rev

xpost i prefer the eating pussy songs

― some dude, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

dude havent i been criticizing big krit for the exact same topical genericism that has been done before cf country shit basically being nappy roots as far as subject matter??

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:32 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i said i was referring to m@tt's post

well this isn't anything that yelawolf can control

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 5:36 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it seems like hes trying v hard to control how hes perceived that way imo

Confederate flags, I see u
on the truck with the windows down, why’s he playin Beanie Sigel?
cause his daddy was a dopeman
Lynrd Skynrd didn’t talk about movin’ keys of coke, man

bad example, this is one of the most natural verses on the trunk muzik mixtape. it's a visual observation followed by social one in just the way the mind works.

some of the other things feel a bit too deliberately signifying but are still dope imo -- fallin' off his dirt bike in cargo pants, pbr bottles -- tho i'm left cold by the dylan crossover whiney loves so much.

he lays it on with a trowel in "pop the trunk" -- momma choppin early mornin hog with a hatchet etc.; "this ain't a figment of imagination buddy, this is where i live, 'bama" -- but obv it works really well there with a whole southern gothic thing going on.

it seems like hes trying v hard to control how hes perceived that way imo

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 6:38 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

how else would he want to be perceived -- i mean he's supposed to, what, say "hey y'all i'm just some dude that raps. check me out!"

i mean if you believe that he's rapping about how he grew up & his life etc then what else do you want?

if that bores you than its just taste etc but otherwise you're arguing that he should distort his image & persona so he's less of who he is

i'm pretty sure dark days and deliverance are still dope btw xpost to rev

i mean he's supposed to, what, say "hey y'all i'm just some dude that raps. check me out!"

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, November 23, 2010 7:41 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i personally would strongly identify with music with that message