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Listened to a few mentioned in this thread.
I really liked Lorde and Childish Gambino. Lorde is a terrific writer. I found myself listening it to it twice in a row trying to pick up on everything she's got going on. Gambino is also an excellent writer and a free spirit. In most songs, it seems like at some point he just says "fuck it, I'm gonna do something different right now" and it works.
Also liked Ghostface's album and Pusha T's, both gave me that 90s hip hop feel. Ghost is still one of the most dense lyricists ever, hard to always make sense of (on purpose, usually), in a good way. Pusha just gives off that raw, thugged out feel. Sure, he's probably exaggerating his street legacy to ridiculous levels but he manages to have a little more depth than you might think.
I liked but didn't love Em's album. He is still a fantastic lyricists, and "Rap God" is just amazing, but he either reverts back to his old stand-by topics too often or makes blatant reaches for radio.
I had pretty much the same reaction to Jay-Z's album. Some really good stuff but some too obviously commercial. Another problem, Jay was once a solid 70-30 split personality with the bigger part being the deep insightful side. It's been slowly switching over the years and now seems to be completely reversed, or worse (20-80 even), with his shallow, brand-name shouting, pop-culture referencing side taking up the lion's share. Still some good stuff, just not much that sticks.
I really liked Lorde and Childish Gambino. Lorde is a terrific writer. I found myself listening it to it twice in a row trying to pick up on everything she's got going on. Gambino is also an excellent writer and a free spirit. In most songs, it seems like at some point he just says "fuck it, I'm gonna do something different right now" and it works.
Also liked Ghostface's album and Pusha T's, both gave me that 90s hip hop feel. Ghost is still one of the most dense lyricists ever, hard to always make sense of (on purpose, usually), in a good way. Pusha just gives off that raw, thugged out feel. Sure, he's probably exaggerating his street legacy to ridiculous levels but he manages to have a little more depth than you might think.
I liked but didn't love Em's album. He is still a fantastic lyricists, and "Rap God" is just amazing, but he either reverts back to his old stand-by topics too often or makes blatant reaches for radio.
I had pretty much the same reaction to Jay-Z's album. Some really good stuff but some too obviously commercial. Another problem, Jay was once a solid 70-30 split personality with the bigger part being the deep insightful side. It's been slowly switching over the years and now seems to be completely reversed, or worse (20-80 even), with his shallow, brand-name shouting, pop-culture referencing side taking up the lion's share. Still some good stuff, just not much that sticks.
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