video review: 'at. long. last. a$ap' by a$ap rocky

Whoo boy, controversy will abound with this one. Overall, pretty happy with the review, even if I got so little out of the album.

Next up, June looks to be a busy as hell month, so stay tuned!

album review: 'at. long. last. a$ap' by a$ap rocky

I have issues with A$AP Mob.

Let's put aside the fact that large tracts of their content has been fraught with wordplay that's nothing special and barely rises beyond ignorant luxury rap. Let's ignore that their usage of trap beats popularized the usage of dark, murky synth lines for this sort of hip-hop that were way more concerned with sounding menacing and were the furthest thing from fun or energetic. It was probably my biggest issue when I covered Trap Lord by A$AP Ferg way back in 2013, even though I have warmed a little to that album since. And let's move past the fact that in terms of their content, they aren't doing much different than the same luxury rap that's clogged up mainstream hip-hop for the past decade and a half.

Nope, I think my biggest issue with A$AP Mob is that, as a rap collective, they've underperformed in terms of actually dropping projects and I've frequently been underwhelmed by all of the hype placed behind the group. Hell, going back to A$AP Rocky's debut mixtape and album, I was frequently more interested in the atmosphere and more melodic, atmospheric production than A$AP Rocky himself, and his usage of pitch-shifted vocals to give his material more swell struck me more as a gimmick than anything. Yeah, I'm not going to deny he had a good flow and a fair amount of versatility, but his punchlines and introspection never really impressed me and his choice to surround himself with more interesting rappers like on tracks like '1Train' which contained a murderer's row of more distinctive MCs struck me as a poor choice. And sure, you can surround yourself with expensive brand names, but that doesn't give you a personality.

But whatever, it's a debut album, you typically expect the sophomore release to show more experimentation, and even though I'd argue the debut album didn't really define A$AP Rocky as a rapper beyond modest talent, he did look to be going for something a little weirder with his follow-up release, complete with a huge arsenal of distinctive producers and guest stars. Plus, with the death of his mentor A$AP Yams, we could be looking at a more personal affair with this - what did we get?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 6, 2015

Man, this was a harder episode to get online than I thought it'd be. Doesn't help the majority of the songs were hot garbage, but you get those weeks.

Next up, A$AP Rocky - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 6, 2015

And just like that, Taylor Swift is back on top.

There's honestly more to this week - a shocking amount more, really, looking at the charts you'd think it was outright chaos - but really, so much of this story revolves around Taylor Swift and 'Bad Blood'. Yeah, Kendrick Lamar plays a pretty major part too, but his verse is peripheral, a part of the machine that gave a new #1 single, a precisely timed marketing push that sent the song surging up radio, sales, streaming, and YouTube to take the top spot. And keep in mind that Taylor's not on Spotify either - the growth of 'Bad Blood' is nothing short of a minor phenomenon, and it really does eclipse most of what happened beneath it - which is kind of a good thing, because of that kind of sucked.

video review: 'bronze age' by lmno & flavor caprice

Man, this record was a tough one to decipher. Happy I figured it out, but man, it was a tricky one, and I'm still not quite sure I've got it right.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN and A$AP Rocky, so stay tuned!

album review: 'bronze age' by lmno & flavor caprice

So I've talked a little in the past about artists who put out an incredible amount of material in a very short time. Sometimes it's because the artist is a creative genius who is going to go in so many different directions that his or her material can be maintained on so many projects and maintain quality. Sometimes it's a method for artists to get out of label obligations. Sometimes it's a case of artists who just have a knack for flooding the market with filler - and if that so happens to get popular, all the better.

But in the case of hip-hop artists, it can be a little different. For one, there's the mixtape scene, where some artists continuously feed entire full-length projects to a hungry audience. Or there's the case where they do special collaboration projects with specific producers - it might barely be a full-length project, but at the same time, it might end up turning into something special along the way.

And then there's LMNO, who I think even pushes the limit for that sort of thing. I've talked about him a couple times on this show, and it was less than a year ago when I reviewed his textured and well-written, and yet slightly dreary and meandering Preparanoia. LMNO has a reputation of pumping out a lot of material, and while he tends to be a very strong MC in terms of putting together potent, incredibly well-structured rhymes, his dry monotone and taste for dustier production means that some of his projects can start to run together.

And yet believe it or not, I was actually a little excited about this upcoming project with emergent producer Flavor Caprice. This had been a project three years in the making, which seemed to imply that this was something in which LMNO had put more care and time. And I figured I might as well get a dose of solidly dense lyrical hip-hop before checking out A$AP Rocky, so how did Bronze Age turn out?

video review: 'sol invictus' by faith no more (ft. myke c-town)

Yeah, we might be a little late to the punch here, but the album only just dropped last week and we had a complicated shoot to work with. In any case, I'm really proud with how this turned out, and thanks again to Myke for joining me here!

Next up, A$AP Rocky needs more listens, but I think I'm finally ready to tackle LMNO - stay tuned!

video review: 'hold my beer vol. 1' by randy rogers & wade bowen

Man, another record I just took a little too long to get to, but I'm glad I did.

Next up, that collaboration that's been in the workings for a while now. Stay tuned!

special comment: 10,000 subscribers q&a! (VIDEO)

Well, despite the fact my hair looks terrible in this video, I'm really thrilled this turned out the way it did.

Next up... well, it'll be out soon. Stay tuned!

album review: 'hold my beer vol. 1' by randy rogers & wade bowen

You know, I don't talk a lot about regionalism in country music - mostly because, to most mainstream listeners, you'd never be able to tell. Unless you're in Canada and get a slice of Alberta country courtesy of CRTC rules, most people would simply assume if you get country music on the radio, it's out of Nashville, especially with the increased amalgamation of radio across the US. And that's often the furthest thing from the truth, given that there are subsectors of country music all across the United States that have a distinctive sound and feel outside of the increasingly polished Nashville scene.

So let's talk about one of those scenes today and one that I've been too long in brushing over: Texas country. Commonly known as 'red dirt country' music, it tends to blur the lines between neotraditional, plain-spoken respect for the working man and rough-edged outlaw country, with brawnier guitars, a stronger acoustic flavour, and a heavier focus on lyricism and raw live performances. And while there have been plenty of country heavyweights throughout the decades that have hailed from Texas - Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson - in recent years there's been a potent resurgence as a backlash against Nashville's increasingly slick sound. And as bro-country continues to collaspe in upon itself, there's been speculation, especially in the indie scene, that red-dirt country might work to fill the vacuum.

And it's not like they don't have the quality to get there, as some of my favourite country acts of the past few years have come from this subgenre. Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, James Mc Murtry, Jason Eady, we're talking about great acts dropping solid if not downright excellent records, the best of their respective years, and thus I shouldn't be all that surprised that well-respected acts in this vein might team up and take a stab at it together. In this case, we're talking about Wade Bowen and Randy Rogers, the latter of which has been slugging it out in the Randy Rogers Band on the far outskirts of mainstream country and unfortunately got sucked into the swirling eddy that was the overly slick pop country of the mid-to-late 2000s - incidentally, the same time I stopped listening to a lot of country music. Wade Bowen comes from a similar era, but he's tended to stick to slightly more personal material and stronger songwriting. Yeah, I know I'm late to the punch - again - on covering this, but could a team-up record titled Hold My Beer, Volume 1 be the record they need to take them over the top?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 30, 2015 (VIDEO)

And that actually went a lot smoother than I expected. Nice feeling, that is.

Next up... hmm, I've got a country record I really want to cover, but will I have a chance to get to it before a special episode of Billboard BREAKDOWN or something special for this weekend? We'll see, but stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 30, 2015

So we’re now at the halfway point of the Billboard Hot 100 year, so let’s take stock of the situation – and while I wouldn’t quite say it was a disappointment, it certainly is interesting to see how certain trends have oscillated. R&B and neo-soul are fighting pop for dominance – with pop arguably gaining the upper hand – country has mostly stayed quiet to flush the last dregs of bro-country out of its system, all sorts of off-beat, weird tracks have fought their way up from both electronica and the indie scene, and hip-hop continues to marginalize talent and wordplay in favour of the lowest common denominator. Sure, I might lament the failure of a few promising pop and country tracks, but the rise of nu-crunk and the prevalence of Vine have driven more than its fair share of forgettable garbage to the top – and the alarming thing is that it keeps happening.

video review: 'the first time' by kelsea ballerini

Fair bit better than expected. Not sure how often I'll revisit it in the future, but eh, you never know.

Next up, Billboard BREAKDOWN, and after that... stay tuned!

album review: 'the first time' by kelsea ballerini

So I was planning on skipping this album.

And those of you who watch Billboard BREAKDOWN probably wouldn't have much cause to blame me here. I spoke a fair bit in that episode about the lead-off single 'Love Me Like You Mean It', and the independent country artist behind it Kelsea Ballerini. You also probably remember that I didn't really care for it that much, considering the stilted production and average at best lyrics that played on the less obnoxious side of Meghan Trainor. It did seem to show signs that mainstream country had finally slid far enough from bro-country that we might have more new female artists entering the scene, but it wasn't as though I liked the sound anymore, and it was disconcerting to see an indie label like Black River - who signed Kellie Pickler, for god's sake - try for the exact same game as mainstream Nashville.

And yet for some reason I started getting a sizeable number of requests to cover this album, and while June looks to be the much more promising month for country music with new releases - and most of them look pretty damn promising - I figured I might as well talk about Kelsea Ballerini. Who knows, Lucy Hale proved that she could rise above standard pop country with a better sound on Road Between - maybe 'Love Me Like You Mean It' wasn't representative of her whole album. So I checked out The First Time - how is it?

video review: 'blurryface' by twenty one pilots

Now that's the sort of surprise I want to see more of in music - man, what a great record.

Next up... ugh, might as well get this Kelsea Ballerini record out of the way... or maybe this Shamir record... ugh, either way, I'll find something, stay tuned!

album review: 'blurryface' by twenty-one pilots

I get the feeling a lot of people missed the point of my twenty-one pilots review.

Now granted, that review dropped in 2013 back when I was still getting my sea legs, and I'll freely admit that many of those early reviews were not the best things I've ever written. But still, considering how positive I was on their major label debut Vessel, the backlash I got did take me off-guard - but the more I think about it, the more I'm not entirely surprised.

Because let's be honest here: twenty-one pilots is a weird, awkward sort of group, straddling the lines between electronica, indie pop rock, emo, and even rap, and their major label debut showed more of the stress marks of that fusion than the synthesis. But as much as I thought that Tyler Joseph could use a little more seasoning and they really were crying out for a bass guitar, I saw enough potential in the songwriting and melodic composition to give the band a lot of praise. And hell, I get why a band like this develops a cult following even if their mainstream debut didn't take off with the same force - they're too unique of a group not to! That said, going back to Vessel, I do feel I overrated it a bit as it's very much a product of its time and the overall awkwardness of the release can toe the line between charming and kind of grating.

On the other hand, I've been anticipating their follow-up record Blurryface a fair bit, mostly because the lead-off singles have actually been pretty damn strong, really showing Tyler Joseph getting a lot stronger as a singer and with some welcome improvements in the songwriting. In other words, it looked like the genre fusion was coming together a lot more, so I definitely made sure to dig into it - what did we get?

video review: 'the ecology' by fashawn

And THAT covers the majority of my backlog. Now onto a very busy week (in RL and reviews), and first up is twenty-one pilots. Stay tuned!

album review: 'the ecology' by fashawn

Well, apparently for me this week is catch-up week, because man, this slipped the net. Not going to lie, I forgot that I was going to cover this when it first came out, and I'm kicking myself for it. And it was either this or talk about the new Tech N9ne album, and look, for as much as I respect his talent as a technical lyricist and his charisma, I can't get behind the majority of his production or his content, and his most recent release was even more guest star overloaded and all over the place than usual, with so many mainstream guests below his level included in a way that looks desperate more than anything else.

So that I've pissed off a fair number of you, let's talk about a rapper I actually like a fair bit more, and who has never really come across as having something to prove: Fashawn. West coast MC, affiliated with Nas and known for working with a slew of excellent producers like Evidence and Exile, he dropped his debut album Boy Meets World in 2009 - and my God, that record was something special. He may have been telling a very similar story to many rappers in talking about his come-up, but there was a spirit of youthful hope and optimism that drove that album, and paired with detailed yet plain-spoken stories and gorgeous old-school melodic production that really grabbed me. To me he fell into a similar lane with J.Cole, but came across with a more assured, tightly written presentation that resonated with me a lot more.

And yet after 2009, he seemed to drop off everyone's radar. He did a lot of touring, a couple mixtapes, put together a pretty damn solid collaboration album with Murs in 2012, and dropped a slew of guest verses, most notably for me on 'Banging Sound', from The Alchemist & Evidence collaboration album Lord Steppington early last year. From there, he signed to Nas' label Mass Appeal and set himself up for a long-awaited solo sophomore album... which I ended up missing for no adequately explained reason. I think my justification was that the reviews had only been lukewarm, but really, that's not much of an excuse, as others have absolutely raved about it. So about three months late, I dug into Fashawn's The Ecology - how is it?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 23, 2015 (VIDEO)

Well, I guess I needed that bit of extra sleep, because I was preparing to do this last night and instead passed out damn near instantly.

Eh, whatever, it happens. Next up, I think I have one last artist in my backlog, and then back to our regularly scheduled programming, so enjoy!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - may 23, 2015

So after last week, I was hoping for a bit of a breather this week – and believe it or not, I got it. After the storm comes a sort of calm, and we might have one of the least active weeks of the year thus far, thanks the album release schedule slowing down to give us all a breather. And considering I used most of this week to catch up on releases I wouldn’t have otherwise covered, it’s kind of nice that Billboard BREAKDOWN also feels a little easier.