josh blog
Ordinary language is all right.
One could divide humanity into two classes:
those who master a metaphor, and those who hold by a formula.
Those with a bent for both are too few, they do not comprise a class.
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On the second quintet records Davis and Shorter often sound like people practicing (stretching, warming up, playing, fooling around, exploring, testing, trying, preparing) - alone or off to the side in a room of others - quieter, muted, quick, casual, alone.
'Well, the first thing I do is I try to listen to whatever rapping is already on the track. I listen for cadence and melody to see how the track’s already been written, and to make sure that whatever flow or flows I decide to run with, or patterns or melodies that I decide to put into the song, that they’re not already in there. Then I try to see if there’s a different part of the subject matter that I can talk about. If there isn’t, I try to see if I can analogize it, break it down, flip it another way. If that can’t be done, the best thing I can do is pretty much out-rap the guy. And when I say out-rap the guy - say, if he uses ten syllables in a line, I’m going to use fifteen. If he uses fifteen, I’m going to use twenty, twenty-five. If he’s rhyming two or three words within two bars, I’m going to rhyme four or five words in two bars. I’m going to out-skill you.' - Bun B
For a year that's still young I seem to be having a pretty easy time finding things to like:
Ghostface feat. Ne-Yo, 'Back Like That'
T.I., 'What You Know'
Geto Boys, 'My Life'
Keak Da Sneak feat. Lafaye Keys, 'Super Hyphy'
Outkast, 'The Mighty O'
Barbara Morgenstern, 'The Operator'
Ghostface, Fishscale
T.I., King
Barbara Morgenstern, The Grass Is Always Greener
Scarface Presents The Product, One Hunid
Keak Da Sneak, Kunta Kinte
Madlib, The Beat Konducta: Vol. 1-2
The Orb, Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt
Darondo, Let My People Go
Other things, I'm warming slowly to.