letz talk abt gucci mane

i get that it's good, but i don't hear 'sublime' (or 'thrilling and freeing' or 'a towering anthem' or any of the other superlatives typically thrown at it).

i mean it being compared to "Int'l Players Anthem" is o_O to me, that's way way way out of its league imo

yeah i suspect that's just the last outkast connected thing dyao remembers digging a lot tbh. i think someone, lex maybe, wrote well about the way the chorus rolls out in the trax poll thread; it's easy for me to understand ppl getting gleeful off it, maybe in the same way they got off on the lyrical trickery of players anthem.

yeah maybe. i mean nobody is a bigger sucker for southern soul beat shit than me but for whatever reason it isn't pushing my buttons very hard.

I love how the beat flips the sadsack sample from "This Can't Be Life" into something joyous and momentous.

i get that it's good, but i don't hear 'sublime' (or 'thrilling and freeing' or 'a towering anthem' or any of the other superlatives typically thrown at it).

― some dude, Friday, February 19, 2010 8:14 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i mean it being compared to "Int'l Players Anthem" is o_O to me, that's way way way out of its league imo

― some dude, Friday, February 19, 2010 8:15 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

exactly ... i mean i think it could get an 8/10 cuz big boi goes in but its still more a rap nerd track 2 me than, like, emotionally transcendent rap-song-oty for me

yeah i just dont get any real enveloping mood from the sample, it just registers as like "hey soul sample is soulful". i mean, compared to like the 30 inches rmx where the strings in the background kinda get me when u hear them in the background of the verses, or obv international players anthem (which actually I was kinda down on just cuz i was so familiar w/ the original project pat use of that sample) which is just so much more emotionally generous...

to me it's all kinda like if the "this random Clipse mixtape track is the most magnificent rap song of the year!" hype happened the same year that "Grindin'" came out.

i thought ppl went crazy for "Grindin'"? tho i could be like that "how did reagan get in when no one i know voted for him" saw here, i guess.

no it was -- hes saying that ppl like 'shine blockas' like they stan for clipse mixtape tracks instead of their best shit

yeah but in this case it's like other Gucci tracks or "For Yo Sorrows" for that matter just don't exist, which is the weird part. i guess they're less accessible, plus ppl don't hear everything. but i can def hear "Shine Blockas" as anthemic, FWIW. and the wide-spread, if maybe diffuse appeal, made it feel like an event on some level which adds to that.

lol actually I made the intl playa's anthem because of the soul sample, zvookster - it didn't even register that it was big boi rapping. plus andre 3000's verse is maybe my least favorite part of intl's playas anthem.

as to why the beat is anthemic, it's more to do with the infinity crescendos, the bells constantly rising and being brought back down by the bassline, only to come up again - and then that woozy wall of sound part during the chorus.

as to gucci's verse, ehh, I don't keep a reference table of gucci verses '09 and rate songs according to it, it fits the mood of the song and that's all I ask for.

if ya'll could point me to some truly sublime/anthemic/towering beats of '09/'10 I'd be very thankful.

apologies for the presumption

anyway I posted in the gucci thread cause as far as I can tell there isn't really too much talk of this song elsewhere except in year end best of threads.

if ya'll could point me to some truly sublime/anthemic/towering beats of '09/'10 I'd be very thankful.

― ←→ + P = ☽☽☽☽☽☽☽ (dyao), Friday, February 19, 2010 9:12 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

*self promo* did u hear my mix

haha no where is it??

mediafire.com/?zinnwnutmyn

1290 downloads :O

braggin

300k more downloads and you'll be in the same class as big boi drake

i guess i fall in the middle of the poles re: "shine blockas" -- i think ppl who rate ahead of "wasted" as a single are really wrong and valuing the wrong things in their rap singles, on the other hand i think it has the same sort of life affirming effervescence as great southern soul songs like "int'l playas anthem" -- the latter is in a different class i agree, but i feel that same sort of rush during the chorus

and i like it in the very large context of gucci's output because the chorus is definitely tonally & lyrically different than something you'd hear on one of his own songs. i wouldn't take it over drumma boy/zaytoven/fatboi/shawty redd stuff, but i like his songs with drake for the same reason

haha i meant "big boy drake"

valuing the wrong things in their rap singles

see this is O_o to me

i mean, personally, when i'm thinking about singles qua singles like things i'd vote for at the end of the year in nerd critic polls, unless a song blows me away, i tend to gravitate at the end of the year to singles that i hear out, that people talk about, that don't exist to me in the way that "shine blockas" did -- hearing "wasted" in the context of the radio & out in bars/clubs really affirmed to me its mega-single status -- maybe if "shine blockas" was as popular as "wasted" i would think differently of it, but in a way i see them on totally different planes, in a way that makes me like "wasted" much better

yeah I can see the value of placing a single in a larger context - but for pure personal enjoyment shine blockas is a priori good for me

i have "wasted" & "shine blockas" on about the same plane - pretty much agree with whoever said that the backlash is kinda nonexistant, just deej and some dude who have pretty much had their opinions (valid opinions) since day one. don't think i voted for either on my ilx singles ballot, tho i agree with jordan's criteria

anyway j0rdan it seems like you're having it both ways - like you're saying "man if I really like this song, then who cares what other people think!" but then you're also saying "well if I'm on the fence, then I'll weight buzz/consensus more in evaluating this song"

will be curious to see how ya'll react when the new the-dream single flops

maybe i am -- it's more of the fact that a song being popular can expand the context of the song in a good & bad way & can kind of open your mind up to new ways of thinking about it imo -- both because your more likely to hear it more which will always solidify or alter your opinion of the song and also because it gives you an easy & natural rating system -- it's not that i was ever really on the fence about "wasted", it was immediately one of my fav songs of the year, but hearing it out a lot kind of confirmed to me that it had this world beating, wide screen appeal to it. with "shine blockas" i'm like "this is nice"

mainly i'm sympathetic to the views of those who love "shine blockas" i just think that it being, for example, pfork's #1 rap song of the year is blinded & lazy

I mean I agree with you that enjoying music in a social/cultural context can definitely ramp up your enjoyment/evaluation - what I take issue with is your claim that people can 'value things wrongly' in their evaluation of rap singles, when you yourself admit that you don't necessarily need a common consensus to enjoy a song...I mean who's to say that everybody who voted for shine blockas in year end lists didn't just /really/ like the song and that's why they voted for it?

yeah no i know -- i just think there were like 20 better rap songs last year is all - i do think it's a very good song

is "Shine Blockas" even really really a single? i mean i know it's on iTunes and Big Boi shot a video for it, but it hasn't charted and i haven't seen the video anywhere besides online, did his label even send it to radio for adds?

fwiw it does great with the indies for the same reason rae was #1 album of last year or whatever - it's the only actual rap song lots of these ppl liked and it's easy & comfortable to coalesce around old guard shit like that regardless of quality. that's why you had so many ballots like gadpy gadpy gadpy gadpy EMPIRE STATE OF MIND gadpy gadpy

that's not to say they don't actually like it, it's just what jordan said - lazy

^*feels this post*

ehh I appreciate that you're all on some next level shit with your rap game and all, but it's still a quality song and any praise it gets is deserved imo

just be thankful RELAPSE wasn't the #1 record of last year ;)

see the whole "wasted" exists in the real world arguement is irrelevant to me because I haven't ever heard either song other than of my own volition

shine blockas was dope, gucci kiiiiiills the chorus- and i'm so lazy i didn't even hear it for months after it had been talked about constantly. also on the gadpy scale.

i have heard shine blockas on the radio, never heard wasted on the radio but i understand the lol britisher has opinions on things aspect.

you literally couldnt be futher away from atl geographically - do you get any of that regional shit? xp

noooope. only even a couple jeezy tracks have gained traction at radio here

well i only ever listen to the africa show on 1xtra these days, so... dunno, ask lex. think semtex plays a lot of it but that dude is k-annoying

oh you meant rev. i am way further away.

haha yeah i saw you x posted and i considered changing to "in america"

xp definitely "Soul Survivor" and to a lesser extent "Go Getta", the latter of which I never liked anyway. the only times I've heard Gucci on the radio are the Mario joint and the "Obsessed" remix

I mean, we do get regional stuff, but it's west coast regional stuff

i.e. your region :-)

right

I'm guessing Mac Dre's "The Thizzle Dance" probably isn't a radio staple in your neck of the woods

dr4ke- this mix is dope btw, and i have cut a copy for the dude i know who keeps complaining about how hiphop isn't v. good like back when he used to dance for de la.

i def agree that "shine blockas" is a touch overrated, though i do like it a lot (7 or 8 prob) but it's way better than "wasted" - actual real-world success apart that didn't do anything that a dozen gucci tracks from last year alone didn't do better and more distinctively

wasted >>>> shine blockas

shine blockas isnt good bcuz of gucci, its big boi who tears that shit up, & even then its a pale shadow of some of his best shit

as gucci tracks go its not even top 40 of last year

thnx @ a h h

in chicago they played gucci mixtape tracks on the radio like they were singles before they were singles -- photo shoot, beat it up, i think i luv her, etc