Showing posts with label oh no. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oh no. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2019

video review: 'a long red hot los angeles summer night' by blu & oh no


Another review for which I'm a bit late to the punch, but I still think it turned out okay.

Next up, we might just stay with indie hip-hop or do a subtle switch-up - stay tuned all the same!

album review: 'a long red hot los angeles summer night' by blu & oh no

You ever have those rappers where for as much you like them they frustrate the hell out of you, an artist you know is fully capable of delivering brilliance but can meander down weird paths that are far less potent than they should be.

Yeah, unsurprising to anyone Blu is in that camp for me - and to some extent, given his comprehensive discography and array of collaborations, I'd argue at this point the biggest issue is quality control. Because when Blu is focused and chooses to refine a project, we get near-classics like Below The Heavens with stellar production and really potent rapping. On the flip side, for as great of a rapper as Blu is with a taste for weirder production, the fact that he doesn't have more projects I'd consider classics is alarming, especially when said production feels compromised or messy and from people you'd expect better. As much as I still like 2014's Good To Be Home and some of his scattered EPs, I can't deny a few of the mixing and mastering questions, and I stand behind the criticisms I had of 2015's Bad Neighbor with M.E.D. and Madlib - I'm still a little in awe that Madlib delivered such a slapdash project, he's a much better producer than that project indicates. Granted, there's been rumors that Blu's relationship with Madlib has been contentious for years so who the hell knows what might have gone on behind the scenes - but when I heard that Blu was teaming up with producer Oh No and had won back some critical acclaim with another 'back-to-basics' project, I was reassured. Hell, people were saying that Good To Be Home was a trial run in comparison with this, so let's not waste time: what did we get from A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night?