Just curious as to why someone would say that as part of a review and not actually mean it or believe it to be true. Not sure where that kind of reviewing came from.
The author is clearly being sarcastic through out, and it's clearly not a totally formal review. I didn't glance twice at it, it seemed to fit the tone of the whole thing pretty well.
Just curious as to why someone would say that as part of a review and not actually mean it or believe it to be true. Not sure where that kind of reviewing came from.
It's just a mixture of exaggeration, playing up to stereotypes, and satire of over-opinionated hip-hop fans who plague comment sections, written in their language but doing so in a way that both points out the absurdity of their extreme knee-jerk reactions and celebrates their proudly stubborn refusal to talk about such a subjective art form in measured or objective tones, itself a reflection of hip-hop's brash nonconformity. Not to mention that it's journalism which divides opinion and provokes reactions, which can only be a good thing in a field full of bland writing. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
I still like it. Call me crazy, call me a terrible music fan. I think it's a perfect track for how shitty things have been in general for the world as a whole lately. 2014 has been an awful year for the world and an awful year for me. So I need any fucking boost I can get. _________________
I still like it. Call me crazy, call me a terrible music fan. I think it's a perfect track for how shitty things have been in general for the world as a whole lately. 2014 has been an awful year for the world and an awful year for me. So I need any fucking boost I can get.
The world doesn't need anything, in this sense. Different people need different things to help them get by, but there will never be a single song that unifies everybody and makes them feel better. If it's what you need, that's great. Honestly, I'm glad there's a song out there speaking for you, that makes you feel happy and gives you a boost. My issue with this song was rather brilliantly summed up by Jeff Weiss, who basically argued that Kanye and Kendrick are pretty much the only two rappers in the world right now who have broken into the mainstream without making major concessions to it musically. He argues that bands in others fields (his examples being Ryan Adams and The Flaming Lips) are able to continue to do what they want on major labels, at least to a greater extent than hip-hop artists are, but that Kendrick had gatecrashed the party despite using relatively unknown producers, and despite not dumbing down his lyrical content. He quite rightly commends 'Swimming Pools' for managing to be so subversive, for being a song that lit up clubs and frat parties whilst actually being about alcoholism and peer pressure. Kendrick could've done whatever he wanted with this single and it would've been big, but what's so disappointing is that it feels like he's made concessions to the mainstream, where previously he was forcing the mainstream to make concessions to him. These lyrics are particularly impersonal - they could've been written be just about any major rapper in the world. This beat isn't anything special - it has that same feel-good party vibe as Pharrell's 'Happy' or a Black-Eyed Peas song. And whilst that's fine for some people, it isn't fine for me. Jeff Weiss pointed out that it felt like Kanye and Kendrick were the only two rappers in the world who could remain mainstream whilst making no concessions to it, and I don't like the recent work of the former. And, with this single, Kendrick isn't even on that tiny list anymore. He isn't making his own rules, he's pushing stodgy motivational rap that'll get played at weddings and bar-mitzvahs and children's birthday parties and will probably be used in at least a few TV commercials, and that genuinely depresses me. Sure, there's always good shit on the underground, as recent great albums from Mike Eagle and Homeboy Sandman and YG and Exile & Johaz and 100s and Freddie Gibbs (among plenty of others) ably prove, but with this single it sort of feels like we're losing one of hip-hop's brightest hopes to a world of universal rap music that speaks to everybody and nobody at the same time, and is pretty much indistinguishable from a whole host of other meaningless shit for boring women to do zumba to and boring dudes to hit treadmills to. As Jeff Weiss says, this is the first time that Kendrick doesn't really feel like Kendrick, it completely lacks personality. I just hope this isn't a sign of things to come. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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