fellow at ILM makes a handy Spotify playlist of every DJ Mustard single, just about
https://open.spotify.com/user/nminichino/playlist/4LJtvEIPgYSyOARnrCmauc
listening to the whole thing (well until I couldn't go any further) I was thinking how there were tracks on it that were just about the most sonically exciting mainstream-ish things of the last 3 years - "Rack City", "2 On", "Headband", "Paranoid"
but how wearing it was, en masse
formulaic
(fun at first, the chanting marines doing drill being in every track, the "Mustard on the beat" audio-logo)
lyrically and worldview-ly pretty putrid too
i harped on the arrested-development aspect of ratchet the first time i posted about it here and nothing's changed with its nothing-changedness
as supple and vacant Muzak of capitalist unrealism goes, it's delish, no doubt about that
on Power FM, Mustard and Mustardy stuff blends seamlessly into "Dre Day" and "Forgot About Dre" and "Regulate" ...
the changeless same of false consciousness and reification - West Coast style
interesting sub-theme with these two tracks - this is how things are meant to be (me on top, lording it)
2 comments:
Yeah, I think tunes like Burn Rubber sound amazing, but I just can't handle the lyrics of a lot of that stuff ... can't make it all the way through Ketchup for that reason. I personally see very few sonic similarities with the early 90s West coast sound of Dre et al; but the lyrical similarities are definitely there.
The Chronic was about the time I fell away from rap, partly cause jungle was more exciting and relevant to my life, and partly because I could find nothing at all of interest in the lyrics. West Coast rap wasn't always so vacant lyrically, with Paris, early Ice Cube, and even Too Short at least touching on political reality. The lyrics may have been problematic but I prefer that to non-stop swagger with no clue. 1992/93 just signalled a real lowest common denominator approach (on both coasts) which is a result of labels backing away from anyone who said anything actually dangerous idea-wise. And the music became slow and boring, made for sitting around smoking to, not dancing or disrupting.
I'm aware that I could be accused of snobbery, or intellectualising music which doesn't belong to me. But I've been pleased to see guys like Vince Staples get up a bit, that Señorita tune grabs me, although some early stuff was a bit torpid.
POP culture!!!!!
Heard of it?
You don't have to listen to this stuff you know. Go listen to your old Public Enemy albums, Fugazi, Billy Bragg, Midnight Oil, Malcolm X speeches or perhaps 3 Feet High & Rising. For starters are you deaf? Listen to any RJ track with Mustard on the beat and If you can't hear any Dre in the Mustard I'm wondering if you're actually listening at all. Is music for political reality? Holy shit you better stop the world and let most of the billions know Daze. While you're at it why don't you explain to them how politicised jungle was. That wasn't about drugs at all was it? A snob? No. A true snob wouldn't reply to a blog post with such a mundane yes man response. In fact they wouldn't even read blogs. Intellectual? You wish.
You are just dissing something because it does not contain what you need. Your set of artistic ideals don't match that of ratchet's so you better let everyone know that you don't like it. OMG! The politically correct taste police are here.
"This ratchet business is not my cup of tea. Could you make it more dangerous and acknowledge my political reality please!"
"Oh sorry that our music doesn't suit your style sir. We must make it up to you. We shall make some Paris influenced political jungle instead and sorry about the pot smoking. Is skunk ok? Es? Meth? Coke? Sorry what exactly was your political reality, sir?"
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