Best Ever Albums

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Sat, 8 Nov 2014 19:18:55 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/09/2014 00:18

I'm going to have to listen to Take Care now..

14-6

Life After Death advances.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Sat, 8 Nov 2014 11:43:40 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/08/2014 16:43

Ready to Die, by like miles & miles & miles & miles & miles...

Abstain, biTjizzzzzz.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Graeme2 — Tue, 4 Nov 2014 15:59:59 GMT

Author: Graeme2

Posted: 11/04/2014 20:59

Can't stand drake at all. Got the big album on and not at all as bad as I thought it would be. Not great though and not really my thing.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

meccalecca — Tue, 4 Nov 2014 10:51:53 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 11/04/2014 15:51

At the time of its release, I had no love for Biggie, probably due to his affiliation with Puffy (whose production may actually be stellar here, but whose own album annoyed the crap out of me). Living in Biggie's hood for the past 5 years or so has changed my perception of him, and giving Life After Death a re-listen for the tourney has been refreshing. Now I really understand the praise for Biggie. Love Bone Thugs contribution on "Notorious Thugs". Sure, it could have been shorter, and it's no comparison to his debut, but I'll still take it over Take Care.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 16:27:19 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/03/2014 21:27

sp4cetiger wrote:

Poor Drake sounds like he needs some love. Here's a vote for ya, buddy.

You're a good person 😲

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 16:22:11 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/03/2014 21:22

Poor Drake sounds like he needs some love. Here's a vote for ya, buddy.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 15:19:26 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/03/2014 20:19

Skinny wrote:

No, I mean I think that he's dishonest. I believe the feelings that he expresses on record - his heartbreak, his desires, his aggression (though not his arrogance, funnily) - are largely manufactured, or at least shaped, so as to present a certain image and most importantly to sell records. That doesn't mean he's never felt these things at all, but they just don't ring true. He takes bits and pieces from other artists and repackages them as something unique, and I love his music, but Aubrey's never going to "catch a body".

Oh, yeah, I see where you're at now. I'm not really sure where I stand. Sure, somethings may be, but I don't think that the majority is dishonest.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Skinny — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 14:51:50 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 11/03/2014 19:51

Precedent wrote:

I always thought that he was a pretty honest artist. Maybe we're apart on the term "insincere", though.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 14:42:00 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/03/2014 19:42

Skinny wrote:

being an artist who I know is completely insincere and just saying what he thinks his fans want to hear, and yet I still love his music.

I always thought that he was a pretty honest artist. Maybe we're apart on the term "insincere", though.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 13:50:26 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/03/2014 18:50

Skinny wrote:

... being an artist who I know is completely insincere and just saying what he thinks his fans want to hear,

I feel the same way despite not knowing anything about Drake. I started listening to it before the tourney because it's Precedent's favorite, and I knew it would probably take some spins to grow on me. Alas, it kind of repels me in its flagrant insincere sincerity. At this point, it's my least favorite album in the entire tourney so far. 🙁

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Skinny — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 12:31:30 GMT

Author: Skinny

Posted: 11/03/2014 17:31

I love both of these records. Drake may be the closest thing I have to a guilty pleasure in my regular listening behaviour, being an artist who I know is completely insincere and just saying what he thinks his fans want to hear, and yet I still love his music. Take Care is quite easily his best record, a coherent record that walks the thin line between hip-hop and R'n'B, shrouded in atmospheric production which matches Drake's tales of lost love and empty materialistic pleasures. Yes, he's an extremely contradictory artist who can't decide whether he hates or loves women/fame/money, but on songs like 'Marvin's Room' or 'Over My Dead Body' I can completely forgive him his many sins because they're just really fucking great songs. And 'Headlines' and 'H.Y.F.R.' are two of my all-time favourite party anthems, songs which instantly light up a dancefloor and encourage the sort of boorish shoutalongs without which parties would be incomplete. Yes, the record's probably too long, and at times Drake comes across as horribly slimy, but I guess those are just the excesses of Drake, and are therefore ironically the exact things that make Take Care his most powerful album - they actually reveal something about the man behind the contradictions and the hollow lines; Drake sees himself as a genius, one capable of making a sprawling hip-hop album that sounds like a cross between Aaliyah and Lil' Wayne, and that attempts to show every side of his personality (including those which he made up for show). It might not be perfect, it might not be sincere, but it's very much an album in its maker's image. Which, incidentally, is more than can be said for Life After Death, which feels just a little too smooth and poppy compared to its superior predecessor, but which still stands as one of my favourite hip-hop albums. This album is as much about Puffy's pop sensibilities as it is about Biggie's rapping ('Hypnotize' would be a shadow of the song it is in somebody else's hands, to give just one example), but that works for this record. It doesn't feel quite as personal overall as Ready To Die, nor does it have the same sort of focus that made that album play out like a movie, and it is definitely too long, but it's difficult to deny any record that contains the aforementioned 'Hypnotize', 'Mo Money, Mo Problems', 'Notorious Thugs', 'Ten Crack Commandments', 'Going Back to Cali', 'Sky's the Limit' (!), etcetera etcetera. Biggie is one of the most natural, charismatic rappers of all-time, an artist who spit rugged rhymes with an impeccably smooth flow, and his two studio albums stand tall as two of the best albums of all-time. Life After Death might not be as good as Ready to Die, but it's still a better album than Drake's (admittedly excellent) best.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 11:53:37 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/03/2014 16:53

I think both are very lumbering, overbloated, and they're from two artists that I struggle to enjoy as much as they are praised.

I'm going to have to give it to Biggie though. Drake to me always feels like his ideas and sounds are too big for him, like he doesn't fit, or he's always just one step behind another artist. Biggie's music, on the other hand, is totally effortless - I doubt he even gave a damn when he was in the proccess of being shot, and this album is why I believe that.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

WindowAbove — Mon, 3 Nov 2014 11:32:11 GMT

Author: WindowAbove

Posted: 11/03/2014 16:32

Take Care is boring melodrama. Life After Death, while too long, is the better album here

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

RockyRaccoon — Sun, 2 Nov 2014 21:08:05 GMT

Author: RockyRaccoon

Posted: 11/03/2014 02:08

It's Life After Death and they're not even in the same temporal plane.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

junodog4 — Sun, 2 Nov 2014 16:54:24 GMT

Author: junodog4

Posted: 11/02/2014 21:54

eyezayzay wrote:

Drake is solid but solid isn't good enough when you're paired against LAD.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

eyezayzay — Sun, 2 Nov 2014 16:24:40 GMT

Author: eyezayzay

Posted: 11/02/2014 21:24

Life After Death is Biggie's best IMO and it's pretty great. Drake is solid but solid isn't good enough when you're paired against LAD.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Sun, 2 Nov 2014 16:17:53 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/02/2014 21:17

Kiki wrote:

Take Care has to get passed the first round. 😲 It would be disappointment otherwise.

Haha, I hope so!

Take Care

This is my favorite album of all-time, every track is a banger. It's much more than just that though, it's an incredibly personal album that maintains this level of honesty that few (if any) albums touch. It has the ideal sound for me, the ideal lyrics, and the ideal way of presenting these lyrics. It's difficult to translate what this album is for me, but it's basically my life in an album. I still really like Life After Death and after listening to it today I realized that Biggie is one of the best, but really, nothing touches Take Care.

Re: CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Sun, 2 Nov 2014 16:15:06 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/02/2014 21:15

Take Care has to get passed the first round. 😲 It would be disappointment otherwise.

CLOSED - 750: Round 1: Take Care v. Life After Death

Anonymous — Sun, 2 Nov 2014 16:12:38 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 11/02/2014 21:12

Captain: Precedent

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Take Care by Drake

v.

Captain: HigherThanTheSun

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Life After Death by The Notorious B.I.G.