Friday, April 27, 2012

51


Live Review: KOOL A.D. - 51

Hey first why are you doing so many of these these days?
Because they’re fun, and I seem to enjoy/focus on the music most when I do them.

But you never say anything good in them
I never say anything good anyways.

So yeah:

Live Review: KOOL A.D. - 51

1 51 (Amaze 88 Intro)
Cool “lightworks” sorta sounds here, samples from Victor presumably knows where. Semiboasting sure. This has a legit beat feel now I wonder if someone’s gonna start rapping. “From the Golden State” cool. I don’t really know Amaze 88 but he seems like a cool dude. This all seems very legit compared to other Kool A.D. Mixtapes. This is more of his Nehru Jackets than another Palm Wine Drinkard I guess. I like him in both modes really though, so this variety is nice. Cool sounds going on here, I can’t tell what is a sample and what is Amaze 88 having a really cool synth. Now some brass noodling sorta sounds, I like it, I have been all over the marching band/jazz synthesis since Quakers. Lol the intro is the longest track tho I think Big Baby Gandhi has to learn what a real “Long Ass Intro” is. But whatever I’m enjoying it, this is fun, “groovy”, Greedhead going for all sorts of aesthetics it hasn’t been cool to unironically like in awhile, bring them back. I love it. Outro of intro cool too, exact sorta synthesis I was talking about.

2 Electrum
The news samples plus this beat both seem MF DOOMish. Flow not that off DOOM either. “Rock and roll highschool, better yet the navy”, this beat basically too cool, demands a flow at least this cool. Even calls himself Mr. Clean, is Victor the next DOOM? Anyhow this is damned cool, lots of great lines I gotta get down after a few more listens.

3 La Pinata
Back on that Amaze 88 production. Mr. Rodgers sample, has that been done before? Wow this flow is like classic DOOM. Lots of great self-titling. Good sample integration. Few good reference raps “Every wall a window, every window a wall, tho, I’m Waldo, come find me”, lots of other great stuff. Can the whole tape be this cool? A few throwbacks as far back as “Who’s that Broooown”, cool. “I’m Drake vs. Common, who cares?” INDEED. Good lifestyle shoutouts. Beat TOO COOL.

4 Oooh
I think I had heard this one before. Main Attrakionz is cool, I like the amount of interaction in the building, not just chunked into verse appearance. Wow am I crazy or does this really really sound like a lost DOOM album circa around King Geedorah? But he namedrops ASAP so I know it ain’t. Great flow, great vocal sound, beat ice cold but I feel like that goes without saying at this point. The sort of thing that you just “vibe to”, y’know what I mean about bring this sort of feeling back? Second verse a bit intenser, good production. Hip hop started at the park, yeah yeah, that good sort of nostalgia. Victor’s verse now, pretty smooth, nice esoteric flow, lifestyles rap, slept through a session yesterday, hilarious. Magnificent, so significant, I like the sounds of these words. KOOL A.D. Is back again, that’s cool.

5 Arrested Development
I think I heard this one before too maybe? Kassa Overall is cool, I like him alright. Beat is cool, check. Feels like this an the previous track could have been combined, dunno if this good or bad. Sung sorta hook here, Girls v. Women dichotomy seems a major Greedhead theme these days. Yeah I did hear this before unless he did this verse before. OH WAIT “RECYCLE LIKE HALF A VERSE BUT THAT’S ART MAN”, that’s funny. Lots of other hilarious lines right after too. The little developments in the beats are a nice touch. Seems like this settled into the outro pretty fast but that’s okay, this beat deserves a nice “ride out”. Sorta jagged aburpt sounding beats that are still really jazzy are very cool.

6 Ticky Tacky
Maybe I am just in one of those moods where I think I recognize anything, but KOOL A.D. Has been dropping a lot of songs on Youtube and maybe these are them, I dunno. This beat is a lot different than the previous ones but there’s a sense that we were heading in this direction. Really cool though in a totally different. Hyper spartan flow good contrast between guest and host. Lots of contrast amongst guests too for that matter, some of these guys have crazy vocal stylings. Somewhere between ASAP Rocky and Danny Brown if that makes any sense whatsoever you oughta know how cool that is.

7 Manny Pacquiao
Wow I love that intro. I love this beat too. Really solid. Victor at his most swagged out, most marinated. “Sting heavy still float like a featherweight”, that’s clever. Now we’re more in the mode of patternrap than tradrap, can I call the former “Philipglassrap”? Or is that dumb? Vocal tricks WOAH flow switchup, now hyper fast hyper flower, then back to reference burst style, I like it. Back to first style, I like this structuring, seems vaguely ritualistic. “Bitch I’m Thom Yorke” oh indeed, “Tryin’ t’act like they know a dude, but dude?” “Cigarette in the mouth, take it out” a common line, I like it. “Let’s see how the hook sounds right here”, and then he does the hook, that’s funny. SYNETHESIS OF HYPHY AND LIL B, too bad Lil B himself did that first, but this is great too. “Dumb dumb dumb etc”, the hybrid of unironic and reflexive, what a cool intersection. And it feels so natural too, never tryhard or whatever.

8 California Music Channel
Trackademic now raps on this one. Good transition. Really cool vocal effect, I like this “level 2 of the previous beat” feel, lots of good soundrap here. “Tattoo triage”, I like doing these little two word funnies but here is the master. Flow getting even crazier, is this vocal effect an “ironic phoning it in”? Lots of jokes, I gotta dissect these further later. Acronym rap, internet going crazy. Guest comes in fashionably late, cool flow, tic-tac-toe rap is neat. Trackademics earning his name. Outro pretty cool, I am feeling the low bass fuzziness.

9 Power/Refinement Knowledge
This beat is crazy, is this even a beat? Industrial hip hopping machine language sorta stuff. Instrumental? Drum beats hit deep, shout samples, I like all of this. Tape just keeps getting weirder and weirder, where are we going, is it “area 51”? Sure then let’s go, alien communication rap. Woah ending hyper mode version, say “dystopia robot rave”.

10 Donda
Beat SO COOL, sorta Quakers thing I keep harping on. Flow cool, Marc Antony flow. I know my roman histories now. Wowahwaha what was that Eminem line, that was mad cool. I love that flute thing in the background. Too short! Too short man! So much cool stuff happening near the end here, this is like the druggiest track ever. What is that cutoff?!?!

11 Biz vs. Nudge
LOL WHAT, this is some serious anticon stuff man.

12 Damien Hirst
WOAH THAT INTRO, woah this flow, wowhaw, the things he is saying, I cannot BELIEVE the THINGS he is making me HEAR. He’s done this sorta vocal effect before, I like it, woah sudden change, sudden change back, this is really sorta Reaching Quiet stuff but some bizarro world version of it. “I do what I want, it’s a fuckin’ movie” etc, this is definitely an interesting viewpoint. Now they bring in a guest and he does a verse that I think he thinks he’s on a Paul Wall track, sounds really crazy with the effects. Next verse a whole different thing too. This beat like “brutally hypnotic” if that makes sense. Flow at the end here really bananas, feels like a weird parody of something but I can’t tell exactly what. Laughing, that’s jokes, this is legit sort of scary too you know? I don’t think things can get much heavier than this.

13 Town Business
There was another song of this name with a similar beat? Or was it the same song? I can’t keep up with all this stuff. Good flow here though. Yeah I’ve definitely heard this “Turn this shit up” hook before, I love it. KOOL A.D.’s verse really cool, hecka is such a hecka cool word. Brown Brian Wilson, did I hear that right? Flow really good, really eclectic, he is really rapping hard on this tape at times. Hook catchy as all hell. Is this MondreM.A.N. Now at like 2:30? He sounds cool, again a whole new sorta flow. Still seems like >50% of DR guests will make a “now that’s racist” joke somewhere in their verse, NO LIE, I THINK I’D PROBABLY TRY TO TOO. Outro cool, this beat really cool. Brown disco flows.

14 Leverage
Man that intro and stuff, I can’t get my head around it, but it sounds exactly like something else I can’t recall right now. Really cool though, I like the flow with a lot of pitch change. Boots Riley pretty good, lots of fourth wall breaking (that being that glass wall in studios), love these exhaustive shoutouts, Heems did a good one now Victor does a good one that’s like half a spoof that’s like a, pseudonaive homage. I don’t really know what I mean by that. Title drop at the end cool.

15 Gentry
More samples, really really MF DOOM sorta feel on this sample and this beat. Maybe a bit more pointed than DOOM’d do, but that’s cool, and by cool I mean these samples always depress me in a really acute way, like, the nature of the sample being sample itself sort of suggests a “lost voice” quality to them. I feel like there’s something to this idea maybe but I don’t really know where I’m going to it. Sample raising interesting ideas of colonizations and such, Victor seems interested by this stuff see: Malcolm X samples etc too. Beat really cool too. If there is a overarching thematic message to this tape it is currently lost on me but I am at least very interested in the idea of one.

16 TV Eye
Amaze 88 production, cool beat, back to earlier in the tape sort of feel but like a weirder version. Flow almost in direct conflict with the beat, speaking on ideas in the last track, I like it. Lol shout out to Youtube, breaks down halfway, take two, all funny, 24 hours/minute is one of my favorite internet trivias and it is mindboggling. I like knowing my mind is boggled by other stuff. I think I’m Del, Ice Cube, rap like haikus, buy my albums, lots of good subjects here. Lots of crazy connections. Some of these like yoga stretches like yoga inferno like that bad one I just did there now. Laughs himself off his verse and the outro is smooth and it’s all naturally cool.

17 No
This intro cool, I feel like I should know the sample. Beat REALLY COOL, all-no flow COOL. He is Thom Yorke. Really solid rapping now, lots of good lines. “Dumb shine” seeing a whole lot of usage lately, I like it. Wow Triptopham/cryptogram, can’t even be assed to spell that first one, but so many cool lines. This verse is like super sustained, then back into the NOs, now with a please mashup, echoes, cool. Next verse cool, supports his producer for president. Wow so many references, makes himself laugh, that’s legitimate. Outro intensifies hook, this beat is maybe my favorite yet, so simple, so effective.

18 The Robbery
Seriously this is so like a classic MF DOOM thing that is screwing with me, his flow is classic Victor though. “97% of the human body is energy, nah just playing though”, now he’s screwing with his own stats rap, I like it. New dance, something like this, horn breaks. “I sell drugs, like literally”, is this true? I never know anymore. Sample integration a cool thing. Minimalist outro, very neat.

19 A Milli
Lol I am hype for this. Wait I see no resemblance to anything. This is really cool though. Is it cool to hate Lil Wayne or not? I have never been clear on this. Am I being ironic when I ask if things are cool? I have never been clear on that. I know for sure I have never been cool at least. Two languages, one in each ear. That’s deep yo.

20 A Different World
Woah this beat is crazy, “They all jokes like Dane Cook, my jokes funnier”, SHOTS FIRED. “So fly, eat bird seed”, “Larry Hoover Rick Ross”, lolwat. So many good lines in here I cannot hope to get them all. All verse sorta track, Meyhem Lauren sounds like he listened to the Wu Tang Clan a lot growing up. So did I and I can’t rap like that at all. “I still rasp well”, indeed. I like how Victor and Hima are getting like really different personas, like, their own crews and stuff, I dunno how to describe this well. The end of his verse is hilarious and Heems’ start of his is a good contrast. Fiji greed water, my new thing is I’m called Herman. This is all coolweird. “One thing for certain, Herman’s a G”. “80s baby was a teen in the 90s”, “Back a blunderbuss, word to Zuckerberg”. Wow this different world thing, like, is that actually thing I was just talking about? I have no idea.

21 Al Green
These abrupt transitions are pretty DOOM-ish too. Yayayaya. Being your own thing, good message. He doesn’t wanna edit, that’s fair. Race list, “blow the Indo out the window see where they go”, this is getting deep. Beat is like subtly cool, like, the more I focus on it the crazier it seems. “Jim Carrey but more hairy”, sure. So many cool assonance stuffs. What’s a stickster? Going for some next level flows, pretty successful. “Kick a few bars and then I ghost”, sure, good exit.

22 Island High Cypher (Amaze 88 Outro)
And then instrumental outro. Very nice. Name well chosen. This tape overall was very good, very solid. Much more focused than most KOOL A.D. Tapes but still weirder than 99% of mixtapes out there. Some pretty experimental beats and flows that worked really well but nothing so mindblowing that I feel like I’m gonna go back a dozen times. Lots of interesting sounding verses I want to hear a few more times though. Amaze 88 really cool producer, definitely has a niche in this new stable of production, want to hear more. “Wildin’ on an island”.

So yeah very cool, good fun hour of music, worth 2500 words or whatever. I’d give it an A. Sometimes felt like MF DOOM, sometimes felt like anticon, always felt like KOOL A.D. and thus dang interesting.

1 comment:

Robin said...

sweet review