the quietus : the new look

lol max

no you may not

this is all too real

awww, yr mean.

am I paranoid if I note that latebloomer is awake and posting

Jesus people

kulkarni's the greatest writer in music journalism today, imho

― The Boondog Taints II: All Taints Day (stevie), Monday, October 25, 2010 5:59 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― j. sargent & lil k3v (deej), Tuesday, 26 October 2010 05:58 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh hey i'll repost it again too.

and when i say "today" i also mean "the last fifteen years" but whatevs. i mea you guys think dom can write, so 0_0.

i love the idea of some british dude dumbing out to j. cole

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 26 October 2010 05:10 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Don't beat us all with the same stick ;_;

sorry, you know i have <3

am I paranoid if I note that latebloomer is awake and posting

Neil's been on here since like 2001 iirc (albeit rarely)

really? neil give me a stint at the quietus. i can write about rap music without sounding foolish and be english.

Why do you think I have any say as to who writes for the Quietus?! I'm sure you can write about rap music without sounding foolish, Holy Ruler. Well done. Have you any examples of your work I could read?

But just wondering though - how come no-one's slagging off my UK choices? Is it
a) because you couldn't stomach reading that far?
Or
b) because you don't listen to UK rap because even though you all claim to be hip-hop fans you actually think the culture stops as soon as you step beyond the US? In which case why would I give a shit what you clowns think? I've listened to alot of US hip-hop this year, just like I have every year for the past 3 decades. I honestly wrote about what scraps have spun my propellor this year from, yes, the vantage point of being thousands of miles away from where this music originates. I am not as cool as you folk, and I responded not to what would get me the most thumbs-up from US hip-hop fans (genuinely could not give less of a shit) but what I enjoyed listening to this year. I don't see any of you lazy fucks talking about any rap beyond yr borders so your embarassment at my choices in US rap (and some of the atrocious bumf I see you boosting) is really just more grist to my mill m'afraid.Although I'm sure all o'y'all realise that if I wasn't pissing you goons off I'd consider myself failing in my work. And if you just want marks out of ten and writers who agree with your own taste you're a tad foolish reading me at all.

Oh, and I would suggest that if you couldn't figure what my Badu piece was 'about' you're thick as shit, but suspect that's something of a badge of pride for many of you.

i didn't bother past an asher roth recommendation and no mention of anything other than american hiphop but hey... let me skip past that. (you are a very angry writer aren't you). tbf that kyza record was kinda dope and i haven't heard the new klash or kashmere but zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. ukhh has been kinda dragging its heels since the turn of the century, bar the odd classic. does that make me racist, oh so angry one?

i'm honored to be addressed as a goon, for one

Oh, and I would suggest that if you couldn't figure what my Badu piece was 'about' you're thick as shit, but suspect that's something of a badge of pride for many of you.

He got what it was about but the prose was so strained and nonsensical that you didn't deliver on anything you actually wanted to say?

otoh, rah digga has a new tape? should i be excited? harriet thugman is like the most underrated rap record ever.

tbh you guys do seem to prefer pedestrian yet uh 'thoughtful' prose. neily k ain't about that.

dirty harriet* /confusing the title w/ a song on the record

In the UK, where rap pays NOBODY'S wages, where most of its protagonists are dads and mums and daughters and sons and workers who have to squeeze their art AROUND their need to eat and live the continued marginalisation of rap voices in UK pop grates and galls harder than it has done my whole life.

since when was poverty and having to work hard a sign of being worthy of caring? This is your first paragraph and you don't care enough about the records to say ppl should listen because shit is good but instead because rappers are related to ppl? And why the Sun style RANDOM CAPS LOCK in your article?

You say race is the big issue of records not being big and then mention a list of only black artists to have success to prove that other black artists are being ignored?

this digga is kinda dope btw.

the funny thing about these claims of "expand your borders" is that you're writing about a highly specific & homogenized style of US rap -- you're not exactly the mark twain of this shit

like maybe people just prefer that electro lite sound of tinchy? is that so bad? ukhh has never got past the american ape-ing backpacker sound and while that may suit some (klash, mystro, durrty goodz, stig and that nottingham scene can produce some decent tunes) - the reason no-one cares anymore is that its never moved on. which is the same reason no-one gives a shit about joel ortiz. we already own dope mid90s ny records, why do we need a re-hash?

lol yeah where is the alabama dudes or hyphy oakland shit or weird internet shit like ofwgkta or jerk or

"i don't get gucci - american hiphop sucks now".

"I can write about hip-hop without sounding foolish"

"like maybe people just prefer that electro lite sound of tinchy? is that so bad?"

-yr so right holy. The music press loves that kind of scintillating insight at the moment. Get yr portfolio out there son!

Ha I'm quite obv not a music journo. But srs your "u r racist if you like these black ppl better than these other black ppl" is even better.

And again I don't see what is rong w/ the masses listening to shit on the radio. I thought we got over this 'i am so better than you cos i can spend my time obsessing over shit you've never heard of p.s. if they ever do get big i'll start to hate them and you for listening to them [via earlier proof of yr opinions about drake]

or why is it so hard to have an opinion without being a dick to those with different opinions/tastes?

we dont much care for it

― j. sargent & lil k3v (deej), Monday, October 25, 2010 10:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

have no horse in this race sickeningly brutal gangland-style horse execution, but lol anyway

"And again I don't see what is rong w/ the masses listening to shit on the radio".

Seriously - get yr portfolio out there son! You most definitely are a music journalist!

"sickeningly brutal gangland-style horse execution". What?

Neil, it's not worth the hassle.

I know but I'm bored.

leave it neil, it's chinatown.

Ha. My line was from Robert Towne's rejected first draft.

hey, me too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8QUzr94sYA

i love the idea of some british dude dumbing out to j. cole

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 26 October 2010 05:10 (6 hours ago) Bookmark

wait is this actually the dude who wrote the article or a sock

^ of all people to not recognise a long-posting music journalist on ILX

search function says he's barely posted since 2008 and since then has mostly talked about his own articles, so I can't say I've seen any of his posts before fifteen minutes ago

I also don't read The Quietus

It is Neil, he has indeed posted here off and on for many years.

It's the real Neil Kulkarni as far as I can see.

I want someone younger than me to get foolish about pop again, to stop telling me all the things I could be listening to and start telling me why I SHOULDN’T listen to certain things. Reattach guilt to pop, reattach hierarchy, reattach shame, reattach style, remember style’s difference from fashion instead of just adding their void-voice to the general hey-if-you-enjoy-it-that’s-cool numbness of discussion. Stop fucking rehabilitating everything and start locking stuff up and out and AWAY. Out of reach for a reason. Pleasure forced to justify itself again. Make like music is a revolution in heart/head/soul that changes your life, not just a soundtrack to that existence of clickable consumption and commodity-fetishism that passes for living the dream in 2010.

This is the crux of it really. Sorry Neil, but the idea that no one's doing that any more is patently nonsense. The whole article just reeks of Simon Reynolds-style old man railing from his sandpit that the kids haven't run with his idea of the future from 15 years ago.

Gucci Maine, Gudda Gudda, Weezy, Yung Jeezy, Wacka Flocka, Wiz Khalifa, Wale, Vado, the new Unimproved Rick Ross & Fabolous, way way too much god-damn Drake: you seriously ain't missing a pissing thing unless you crave yet more gold-plated groin gyration, stoned self-importance, the endless repetition of ad-copy rhymes & in-da-club shoutiness

Yeah this is exactly what I thought when I listened to The Recession. FFS.

For the record I read Neil's stuff all the way through before publishing and I enjoy it. This extremely lengthy article was edited on an iPhone on a train, so I'll apologise if any spelling mistakes crept in. I don't necessarily always agree with him... I like some Wacka Flocka Flame and Gucci Maine for example. But his main points are spot on.

My main point here is there's a big difference between not being able to understand something and it not making any sense. The point about The Quietus is that we're a British site and are keen on reflecting this as well. So not only do I love the way Neil writes but by the same token I find other UK hip hop writers mentioned in this thread excrutiatingly bad in a way unique to white British bloggers pretending to be white American journalists pretending to be black American rappers. It's not really any of our concern how Americans feel about our hip hop coverage, just our British readership. That said we get a healthy portion of our readers from the US so we must be doing something right.

Our strength and the fact that a lot of people read us lies directly in the fact that we trust our own judgement and don't pander to anyone else's tastes.

Anyone can write for us if we like the cuts they send in. John @ The Quietus dot com.

I've taken two writers directly from ILX discussions like this in the past. But to the poster above... your cuts would have to be better written than your posts. Opinion on its own is nothing.

are you making a subtle point abt not pretending to be Americans w yr spelling of Waka Flocka Flame and Gucci Mane?

man i haven't read this but man my fellow goons (if i can be considered such) you gots to chill /epmd

i mean like forks said he didn't like a lot of this stuff in the swag thread and got an unceremonious stfu i mean c'mon

Again I was just joking about writing for the quietus.

This extremely lengthy article was edited on an iPhone on a train

Doran, you are a valued poster, smart dude and a sweet guy but you def not doing yourself any favors with this

It's a small business still in its second year run entirely by three people. If I have to go an do a job for someone else I still have to be working. There's nothing I can do about that. I have to pay my rent etc.

But we're hopefully going to be in a position to sort out sub editors for next year. I know it's something that's long overdue. In fact it's my main concern about the site.