Marcus Dowling’s 2010 TGRI Year End Awards – Hip Hop Single of the Year

Yes, it’s that time of the year again, where true to our name, True Genius Requires Insanity starts crowning the best of the year about 30 days before everyone else starts thinking about such things. The point is, in thinking about these things so early, we want to a) beat people to the punch, b) we have some opinions we’d like to get off our chest and c) we’d like to not have them get lost in the shuffle. Enjoy, comment and begin thinking about what you enjoyed most in 2010.

Hip Hop Single of the Year: Chris Brown feat. Andre 3000, T.I., Drake, Kanye West and Fabolous – Deuces (remix)

http://www.youtube.com/v/Z8NoBGeuFYY?fs=1&hl=en_US

Other Nominees:
Kanye West feat. Pusha T – “Runaway”
Waka Flocka Flame – “Hard in the Paint”
Rick Ross – “B.M.F.”
Black Milk feat. Royce da 5’9″ & Elzhi – “Deadly Medley”
Lil Wayne – “I’m Single”

Producer Kevin McCall’s extremely spare synth melody allowed hip hop to get things right. Chris Brown is an idiot. On the biggest night of his life, he decided it would behoove him to handle issues with his girlfriend with his fists and choking. However, with the aid of being on the hottest song in rap music in 2010 for a grand total of 48 seconds, his career, though not completely rehabilitated is resuscitated, in no part due to himself. In revelling in the pain of one of the biggest dolts in the history of popular music, five of the most talented emcees of the current era are able to divulge their own relationship pain and suffering and gain repentance through song. By that standard of excellence alone, the remix of “Deuces,” clearly the best hip hop single of 2010.

It was a banner year for hip hop singles. Virginia’s Lex Luger found two synth progressions and milked them for everything they were worth, as in the crunk electric woodwinds of Waka Flocka Flame’s “Hard in the Paint” and Rick Ross’ “B.M.F” we had two of the biggest questions of hip hop in 2010 to answer: Do you go “hard in the paint?,” and in your criminal affairs do you aspire to be “Big Meech…Larry Hoover?” These aren’t Earth shattering questions, but those are Earth shattering tracks, worthy of year’s best consideration. The declarative statement tracks of 2010 were Lil Wayne’s ode to philaderous one-night stands “I’m Single,” and Kanye West celebrating himself as only he can do on a brilliant piano driven track with the aid of The Clipse’s Pusha T on “Runaway,” where he celebrates being both a “douchebag” and an “asshole,” and advising all potential future romantic entanglements to “runaway.” Black Milk, Royce da 5’9″ and Elzhi played a game of truth with hip hop on “Deadly Medley,” a track that keeps things uniquely honest and frighteningly real about the lack of true lyricism in hip hop 2010.

The “Deuces” remix doesn’t win because Kanye West ethers ex-girlfriend Amber Rose in the most rude public redress of of an ex-girlfriend in hip hop history. Neither is it because Fabolous is surprisingly morose and not rapping about how fresh he is or popping bottles. T.I. is at his best when speaking plain talking sober truths, and this remix is likely more up Drake’s alley on a pop trending side than anyone else featured. But I’ll leave you with the wisdom of wisened hip hop soothsayer Andre Benjamin whose verses on this track are probably the most well-thought and highly crafted performance anywhere in hip hop in 2010.

The farewell email from a female
but I’m a playa, aint gon tell you all the details
what it entails is hard to say like selling seashells
by the seashore, but she’s not a bore but neither a whore
who needs to know more
the kind you can’t ignore but want to open the door…for,
or run in your favourite store and leave with all them shopping bags and half of it ain’t yours,
I did things for, ain’t rich ain’t poor
I want it to do more but hell I just aint know her
well enough to know if this is all she came for
but enough to know tonight excited she came four
times to my cousins house to see if I was there
get ya minds out the gutter man
we out here tryna have a good time
and here I am, all heavy with the words where
somebody thats a nerd, likely fast forward
but shit they asked for it
it’s hard to throw up them deuces cause when you know it’s juicy
you start to sound like Confucius when making up excuses
chase the Cabooses until the track gone
I gotta find me a new locomotive stop making sad songs

S*** I’m Digging This Week: Introducing the concept of "stylin’" edition

http://www.youtube.com/v/ff_gAV–x3M?fs=1&hl=en_US

It’s time to reveal the new ideal. It’s time to style. It’s time to get over ourselves, to get over our emotional vulnerability, to shed our feelings of awkward interaction, and style. To be cool, to be comfortable, and have fun. It’s also time to be honest and be real. Gone are the days that we pent up our aggressions and unleashed them privately, or in a non-confrontational manner. It’s a time to have no fear, and to be unflinchingly truthful with each other. It’s time to style on the world. If somebody’s stylin’ on you, then it’s time to style harder. If you think you’re stylin’ harder than everyone else, and somebody does you one better, there’s no reason for anger anymore like in the above video, it’s merely the expected ideal. In a universe where day by day we get seconds closer to a universe where a standard of excellence is measured by timeliness and not timelessness, it’s time to style.

http://www.youtube.com/v/MTLjYiiPy1c?fs=1&hl=en_US

The two best recent examples of stylin’ come from the remix of Chris Brown’s single “Deuces,” and the current work of Kanye West. “Deuces” deals explicitly with moving on after a failed relationship. The verses from Drake, Kanye, Fabolous, T.I. and Andre 3000 aren’t in any way sad or emotional. Instead, the track is cold and didactic, a lecture from five emcees in how to style, to rise above, to use calculating theory to solve a broken heart. Being “emo” is dead. We haven’t the time in the universe to cry, instead we have the express need to realize our mistakes and keep moving, lest we fall behind and the universe keeps on stylin’ without us.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ipWiLUoklYk?fs=1&hl=en_US

Last Saturday night, Kanye West continued to style in a manner we’ve never quite seen before and maybe never will. Supreme egoism is an important concept in the world of stylin’. If you only compete with yourself and push yourself to always be searching for the newest ideal of perfection in your life, then the eventuality is that if you are at a certain level of creativity and in full control of your creative abilities, then ultimately you’re stylin’ on everyone and can only be concerned with stylin’ on yourself, which is more of a compliment than any sort of issue. Kanye’s “Runaway” is the stylin’ anthem, as in any ability to truly “kill the game” by stylin’, you have to be a douchebag, asshole or jerkoff. This doesn’t mean you are a bad person. It just means that you hold yourself to a perpetually untouchable level of stylin’ that you feel is unapproachable. You can’t get mad if someone eclipses you though, as well, they’re likely a bigger douchebag or asshole than you are as they’re likely so completely self absorbed in motivation that overtaking your stylistic excellence wasn’t the goal, it was a byproduct of one’s dedication. 

Stopping for an emotional show in our new generation is completely unnecessary unless it’s being used toward motivating your creativity. Yes, it may appear as though stylin’ creates cold, heartless bastards. However, the opposite is true. If you open your heart, mind, body, soul and spirit and cull them for the maximum output of your ability at all times, it is a perpetual truth and beauty of exposition that spills forth. Getting wrapped up in the emotional and allowing it to stifle creativity in a gone before it’s here environment is not conducive to excellence. Technology has ripped the ability to pause and think from the creative class. Thinking while moving, perpetually advancing and plunging into the depths of your spirit while at the same time being acutely aware of what this activity will do in the world around us is key. To consider this an unrealistic possibility is not to style on the world. And in this hyper-aggressive downhill snowball of a world in which we live, there is but only one rule now, and that’s to style. Constantly.

S*** I’M DIGGING THIS WEEK: Music Provides Life Lessons Edition

aka avant garde musical water cooler conversation.

1. Ninjasonik no more?

Ninjasonik (minus one) with M.I.A. at Vice party on Saturday night (photo courtesy Mel D. Cole, Village Slum)

On Saturday afternoon I got word from our own staff writer and in-house graphic designer Carrie “2AM” Epps at Brooklyn’s Afro Punk Festival that Ninjasonik, the 21st century Beastie Boys-esque punk hop collaboration had once again torn down the stage in an epic manner. Awesome news, however, it would appear that the group that typically likes to “go to bars, and do drugs, drink PBRs, and rock tats and plugs” was a man short in that  endeavor as DJ Teenwolf has apparently split from Telli Federline and Jah Jah. Ninjasonik originally started as the duo of Jah Jah and Teenwolf, with Telli’s party rhymes and hyperkinetic stage presence added later. If needing possible clues as to the reasoning behind the split, let’s look no further than DJ Teenwolf’s Twitter account(@djteenwolf), where he stated, “Just got thrown out of a ninjasonik show. NINJASONIK is DEAD. All that remains is a hollow corpse to be fucked by the industry.” On Telli Federline’s page (@bathroomsexxx), the comment “Listen @ninjasonik is alive & fuckn well ! Me n jah just had 2 make adjustments! We ain’t goin nowere! Rt” is still listed. As of today, Teenwolf’s comment has been deleted from his account, and Telli’s still remains, but it is truly apparent that something is amiss in the group.

Ninjasonik, for being a tremendously buzzed about (and deservedly so) underground act, has been dealing as of late with the growing pains associated with being a top band in the underground but a band at the absolute lowest end of the totem pole of the mainstream. Growth has occurred as Telli has appeared on songs for the Trouble and Bass Crew, and mixtapes dropped last summer and fall feature a plethora of new, unreleased material that is as ribald, ridiculous and bordering on obscene as ever, but loaded with talent as we remember. But, for all of that, debut album Art School Girls has met with paltry sales and minimal buzz, as many journalists find the album not extremely well mixed on a technical level, and content wise unable to meet the balance of punk energy and hip hop finesse that makes Ninjasonik, ummm, Ninjasonik.

This is a cautionary tale to all bands as though we have no official word on the issue (with Ninjasonik set to tour VERY soon for the summer), it’s always important to maintain a level head and a solidly positive attitude amidst the stress of an industry that is unkind, unfair, critically un-hip and five years behind the curve when dealing with co-opting the underground for mainstream gain. My fear of fears is that a group like South Africa’s Die Antwoord, who aren’t the worst group ever, but have style, quirk, some well produced tracks and a great look, but lack some of the heart and authenticity of a group like Ninjasonik. Though fractured, the “Sonic Fucking Ninjas” when at their best were the best approximation of the beating, bleeding, drug and alcohol addled heart of a key element of the “hipster” premise. The road is not short, and patience must remain long on the road to success.

2. Welcome back….Chris Brown?!?!?!?

http://www.youtube.com/v/na7CjXnSxJI&hl=en_US&fs=1&

By all accounts, last night’s 2010 BET Awards were a vast improvement from last year’s yearly gala celebrating the finest in African-American popular music. From last year’s event that featured Young Money Entertainment ostensibly rapping the chorus to “Every Girl,” “I just wanna f*** every girl in the world,” while surrounded by a cadre of barely teenage girls and a Michael Jackson tribute performance mere hours after his death that left entirely too much to be desired, last night by comparison did it right. Not to offend any person of any of the broad rainbow of skin colors of the universe, but there particularly wasn’t a black person alive who didn’t want to see Chris Brown pay tribute to Michael Jackson. Yes, Chris Brown is a fool. He beat down and almost choked out Rihanna on the one day of his life where such behavior was likely 10000 times more wrong than it is to do so at any other time. He seemed to deep six his career. But yeah. Black people in particular were all about being willing to forgive Chris Breezy to watch him galavant around on a stage in a manner familiar to the King of Pop. He did so last night, and, ummm, yeah, all is forgotten. It’s amazing what happens when you put a premium on talent over personal behavior.

I advise everyone in the world to prepare for the return of Chris Brown. Let’s all remember “Kiss Kiss” and “Yo (Excuse Me Miss),” two of the hottest R & B songs of the first decade of the 21st century. Graffiti, if you can rescue it from the cut out bin or visit your favorite local torrent site, is a ridiculously well produced record. I’m also not going to forget the fact that he beat up a woman, which on all levels is fundamentally inexcusable. But the record industry is now going to be in the business of making young women the world over cuddle up and love Chris Brown. Yeah, it’s creepy as shit. No other way to say it. But it’s about to happen. I hope he makes money and does well, because clearly, he has God given talents that deserve shine, but, wow. Sometimes the most wonderful things happen to the worst of people, huh?

ALBUM REVIEW: Chris Brown "Graffiti"

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” – Matthew 16:26

If this album were by anyone other than Chris Brown, it would be the best R & B album of the last five years. He aimed to be Michael Jackson and Prince, and came through with flying colors. However, given that this is Chris Brown’s hasty return to the spotlight after the domestic assault charge heard ’round the world, it’s the most transparent apology in the history of music. The name of the game here is to bank on the idiocy of the American public. To bank on doe eyed teenage girls who can’t refuse the yearning voice, seemingly innocent charm and million watt smile of a VERY guilty young man. Chris Brown’s Graffiti is just that. A covering of an edifice, an attempt to beautify a structure that in this case is fouled, sullied and not worthy of public viewing. The all star team of individuals who accepted money from Jive Records to participate in this album either did so out of sheer greed, or out of the morbid curiosity of attempting to rehabilitate the most notorious “Public Enemy #1” in music of the decade. And in succeeding in giving Chris Brown a more than ample and completely awe inspiring sonic background by which to ply his craft again, it proves that Robert Johnson isn’t the only man in music who ever made a pact with the devil for otherworldly talent. A Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip famously states on “Check the Rhime” that record industry rule #4080 is that “record company people are shady.” This record is living proof of that statement.

Let’s start off by saying that every track on this album is a winner. Comparing this record to any other release in its genre all year is a criminal mistake. Lead single “I Can Transform Ya” is a winner, as Swizz Beatz’s kickdrum and robotic synth track are so completely unique to anything released in quite some time that it arrests the ear in a positive sense, and with flows from a rare focused Lil Wayne in a guest spot, there’s really nothing at all wrong about the entirety of the song. Follow up single “Crawl” brings the supertalented Messengers to the table who create a gigantic and spacious track for Chris Brown to apologize in a manner most awesome and epic. They write a song here that is a pop radio surefire hit. It’s easily one of the lyrically superior songs of 2009, as C.B. describes the arduous attempt to crawl back to the love of his defiant ex-girlfriend. Latest single “Pass Out” is the bottle service club champion, taking Eric Prydz’s “Call on Me” in a decidedly pop direction, a club confection of nightclub romance. Brian Kennedy, responsible for the pop successes of Brown’s “Forever” and Rihanna’s “Disturbia” mans the production board here, and doesn’t deviate from form here to massive success.

This is not the only success here. Wunderkind Ryan Leslie appears here as well, his “Famous Girl” an amazing R. Les track that benefits from excellent songwriting as Brown gets ponderous about his “famous girl” “breaking his heart.” He namedrops Keri Hilson, Jazmine Sullivan and Beyonce through namedropping their songs or lyrics here highly uncomfortably as other “famous girls” he could’ve dated, but didn’t in one of the times on the release where angst or vomiting are perfectly acceptable reactions to the lyrical content. The Business aim for a classic on “Take My Time” featuring underrated soul man Tank, and succeed, Chris Brown’s natural talent for singing once again almost outshining his most unforgivable error in judgment. Virginia homeboys Trey Songz and Brown join with LA rap veteran The Game on Polow the Don’s “Wait,” which is yet another hot Polow track, and between Game’s verses, Songz’s ever present “Yuuup,” and Brown’s vocals, there’s really nothing at all wrong with the content here from a professional standpoint. Relative newcomers Jevon Hill and Charlie Bereal contribute the two most empty ballads of the release, “Falling Down” and “Lucky Me,” tracks that are filled with lyrics that explicitly ask for apologies when there are none that could or should be given. Album closer “I’ll Go” is another Brian Kennedy masterpiece, opting for something out of the Billy Joel collection, a plaintive piano ballad that closes the album with the closest move to earnest apology this album at this particular moment in Brown’s career can muster.

This album could have waited. Chris Brown doesn’t need an album to rehabilitate his public image, he needs an extended hiatus to do so. Fresh in my mind, as well as the minds of millions more, are the acts he perpetrated on the worst night of his life. An album that on one side of Brown’s mouth can aggrandize partying, sex and generally balling out of control, and on the other side appear completely contrite and apologetic is not the proper look. Yes, the production on this release is legitimate and out of this world, but it is in no way enough. Chris Brown mortgaged his soul on this record for greed. And sadly, greed, on this album, is not just good, not just great, but absolutely and phenomenally tremendous. For shame.

3.5 OUT OF FIVE STARS