The Message Blog: Rant and Rave: Kanye's a Boob

Review - Wu-Tang Clan: Pollen - The Swarm Part III

Posted by elmattic On June 24, 2010

In 1898, the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists led the Boxer Rebellion in China. They attacked thinking that their martial arts training would make them fly, be immune to bullets and call on spirit soldiers. Guess what, that didn't work out too good. Pollen is kinda like the Boxer Rebellion. The Wu's been rolling for 17 years now, and the ancient arts of shadowboxing on their own aren't enough in the modern world. I mean, what exactly is the point of another album of the A and B team Clan over middling beats?

Review - Everliven Sound - Freedom 2

Posted by Wally $ean On June 23, 2010

With the underground hip-hop scene producing so many new artists, it’s surprising to see how many are looking at the industry with the assailing eye of veteran rhymers. Take the duo Everliven Sound, also known as emcees the UK's Skit Skam and NJ's Cymarshall Law: although both are relatively fresh-faces in the game, their attitude, style and sound are something of a throwback. On their latest project together Freedom 2, Skit and Cy once again exhibit wisdom and abilities beyond their years, despite a number of problems.

Review - Godilla - Jaguar Paw

Posted by Wally $ean On May 19, 2010

The Jaguar Warrior was a terrifying Aztec soldier who brutalized his victims and captured survivors for ritual sacrifice...With an M.O. like that, it's no wonder why rapper Godilla seemingly pays homage to them on the cover of his LP Jaguar Paw, and he does so with good reason. The Easton, PA emcee and Snowgoons collaborator is out for weak emcees' blood on this album. Although it's not a perfect, with some lackluster beats and bars, it's an inspired, cohesive album that harkens back to he golden era of hip-hop while adding a dash of Latin flavor to spice up the recipe.

Review - The Closers - Bullpen Sessionz

Posted by Wally $ean On March 21, 2009

Hardcore gutter rap is something of a rarity these days. Apart from artists like Blaq Poet and Roc Marciano, very few emcees these days spit that raw shit that sounds like the soundtrack to getting yapped for all of your personal belongings. Yet hope is not lost for fans of that hard-body, get-mushed-or-moshed-out-type steez: The Closers - a four man collective of Shabaam Sahdeeq, Red Eye and the production combo Thorotracks - are up to bat with their latest project Bullpen Sessionz, and they're swinging away like the Baseball Furies.

Review - Statik Selektah - 100 Proof (The Hangover)

Posted by Wally $ean On February 10, 2010

For the past three years, Massachusetts producer and DJ Statik Selektah has had the underground hip-hop scene firmly under his thumb. With a barrage of mixtapes, guest productions and a nearly annual onslaught of album releases, Statik has managed to transform his little Showoff Records imprint into a burgeoning success, helping to propel emcees like Reks and Termanology into the spotlight. Now, Mr. Spell My Name Right is back with his third studio album 100 Proof (The Hangover).

Rant and Rave: Kanye's a Boob

Posted by Wally $ean On Friday, July 03, 2009

So two nights ago, Drake's video for "Best I Ever Had" debuted on the Internets, in all its curvy, stretchy glory. Now, of course, people (namely the female folk) took much offense to Kanye West's artistic vision Here's one angry individual's response, courtesy of Byron Crawford:

...as a woman I am offended that this is all Kanye West, the director, could come up with for one of the hottest songs of the summer. He should be ashamed of this depiction of females. This video in a nutshell basically says a woman’s beauty is defined by how big her boobs are and light her skin is. And Kanye being a black man raised by black parents and Drake being bi-raicial (half black and half white) why are they only showcasing ALL Hispanic girls in this video? I don’t get it, they couldn’t get ONE pretty chocolate sister up in the video like Lanisha Cole, Jessica White, or Natasha Ellie to be in the video alongside the Hispanic girls? Why is it the black men have a problem showcasing their beautiful black sisters? You never see all non-white models in popular White rock artists videos. Only with black rappers does this occur. Drake’s career is slowly but surely going down the tube especially after this video gets out on tv. EPIC FAIL on both Drake and Kanye’s part.

I have to admit, I have a lot of beef with the video, too. Not because of the shapely women or their skin color (PS: there definitely were some black girls in there), but because...it just plain sucked. Yeah, Yeezy takes an L on this one, but solely because the video is boring as hell. The cinematography is absolutely awful in this. When he he doesn't have the camera on the tripod for loger than I care to watch, he does that same basic side-to-side movement. Yeezy also only sticks to one basic frame composition (that stairwell shot is terrible) and throws in a shit load of slow motion to try to make it look classy (note: it doesn't work). Beyond that, he has one random scene of Drake actually spitting, and while you don't have to actually perform to make a video good, he does it once and then drops it. Random much? Overall, Kanye can't direct for shit, and Drake should've been smart enough to get an actual director in there to make an actual music video.

Drake - "Best I Ever Had"

2 Response to "Rant and Rave: Kanye's a Boob"

elmattic Said,

July 3, 2009 11:55 AM

You know, when Kanye first showed up, I figured he was like that dude what's-his-face, Diddy's butler--Fuckworth Bosworth? Duckworth Smedley? What the hell was that dude's name?

Anyway, I figured Kanye was another pop- and career-minded asshole who, if I ignored him, would just go away.

I'm still ignoring him, and still waiting for him to JUST. GO. AWAY.