Thuggin' is a solid track, but Pyramids is one of the greatest songs ever and I'd be okay with it winning this tournament, so my vote easily goes to Frank.
I actually find 'Pyramids' pretty overwrought and overblown. Sounds like The Weeknd tried to write a Van der Graaf Generator song. Literally any other song from that album would've been a better choice, including the ones that are barely even sketches of songs. I thought it was great when it first came out, but I struggle to listen to the whole thing these days. Not sure I need 9-minute prog R'n'B with a soft watercolourelectroclash sound palette in my life anymore.
As for 'Thuggin'', it stands alone as the single greatest rap song of the 21st century. A masterclass in both beat-making (hazy, swirling, subtly psychedelic; still hard as bricks) and rapping (the flows, which recall Pac and Bone Thugs in equal measure, are dextrous, nimble, and yet utterly legible; the lyrics come about as close as any song ever did to encompassing the lessons of The Wire, albeit with a far greater, more skillful economy, managing to point out the links between the victims of the war on drugs - junkies, dealers - and its perpetrators, whilst showing its injustices in ways that are never preachy, putting forward a whole worldview that brings to mind that show's own Atlas, Bodie Broadus, with no glorification and certainly no compromise in its quietly triumphant ode to, above all else, survival), it pit figureheads from two totally different ends of the rap spectrum together and worked better than anybody could have expected. People forget that this came out in 2011, when Gibbs was still a pretty unknown quantity outside of people who went looking for that sort of thing; he now stands as one of the most well-respected and critically acclaimed rappers alive, a man with true crossover appeal in a way that seemed unlikely (verging on impossible) pre-'Thuggin''. I still think it's the greatest thing either man has done, and I adore large parts of both of their discographies, but they really caught the lightning on this one. I can't even imagine what a better song might sound like. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
I actually find 'Pyramids' pretty overwrought and overblown. Sounds like The Weeknd tried to write a Van der Graaf Generator song. Literally any other song from that album would've been a better choice, including the ones that are barely even sketches of songs. I thought it was great when it first came out, but I struggle to listen to the whole thing these days. Not sure I need 9-minute prog R'n'B with a soft watercolourelectroclash sound palette in my life anymore.
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