Please use the thread to discuss the selections and inform everybody of your voting intentions. A poll will be added at a later date in order to tally votes, once everybody has had the opportunity to listen to all of the selections. If there are specific links to the albums or singles you have nominated (on Youtube, Spotify, etc.) that you would prefer voters to listen to, please post them in this thread. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Last edited by Skinny on 01/18/2021 15:23; edited 1 time in total
Love this 2017 team. Love mine more, obvs, but the 2017 team does feel tailored to tug at my heartstrings. Nice work, Hayden. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
I used to think about David Banner sometimes. In particular, I would mostly think about his reputation, and its steep, rapid decline. David Banner was cool, a rapper-producer from Mississippi whose work was able to resonate not only with a core street fanbase but also fans of a more political, socially conscious style of hip-hop. (I remember at one point thinking that there were similarities between Banner and Kanye West, another aspiring, highly regarded rapper-producer who was able to successively balance his materialistic urges with a more earnest side.) Then, all of a sudden, and for reasons I have never totally ascertained, David Banner was deeply uncool. He was seen as a joke figure in online circles, and his albums became increasingly starved of personality or distinguishable features and were subsequently, deservedly critically derided. He was prone to saying some things in interviews that probably didn’t help, things which made him sound bitter (particularly about the success of artists he would have been similar in stature to, at a point), or even worse: corny. I recall that one time he described his music as “The Bible wrapped in the cover of Playboy”, or something to that affect, which is without doubt one of the corniest descriptions of music I have ever come across. (In fairness, the analogy makes sense to some degree: ‘Pimp Shit’, from this album, is in fact about the working classes being “pimped” by the system. It’s still a fucking lame thing to say.) And then I stopped thinking about David Banner, because he no longer interested me.
When the idea for this tournament sprang up, I chose 1999. In choosing 1999, I was thinking about Dr. Dre and Mos Def and Slick Rick and MF Doom and Jay-Z and E-40, amongst many others, but I wasn’t thinking about David Banner. That is, until a casual glance through a list of 1999’s best hip-hop records, and a reminder of the existence of Crooked Lettaz, the duo that David Banner was in before he went solo, long before his reputational nosedive, and the duo with which he made – in my opinion – not only the greatest album of his career, but one of the greatest Southern rap albums ever made, Grey Skies. Rediscovering it after all these years has been an absolute pleasure.
The album itself is a strange beast. It’s hugely ambitious, even if it doesn’t necessarily have the budget to match, and it covers a whole lot of sounds and topics. Banner’s production – which makes up the vast majority of the album – draws from a wide sonic palette, utilising both live instrumentation and sample-work with equal panache, and memorably relying on a koto to provide a stuttering elegance to breakout hit ‘Fire Water’ (which for some reason features an unlikely Noreaga verse, at a time when Nore was able to do a passable impression of a plausible star on the back of genuine hit ‘Superthug’).
His work behind the boards is immediate and accessible throughout, and there’s a compositional clarity and deliberate melodicism to everything he does. Both Banner and his partner Kamikaze possess nimble flows but barking voices, and both sound to some extent like Mississippian answers to Pharoahe Monch or Busta Rhymes, the latter of whom Banner has acknowledged as an influence. Whilst the two rappers share many, many similarities, they still have two distinct voices that allows them to bounce off of one another (for example, Banner likes to land his rhymes on beat, whereas Kamikaze is more likely to allow his to unspool more unpredictably, not unlike Curren$y), calling to mind a couple of other legendary Southern duos I can think of. At the same time, there’s a humble, homespun, hospitable, and distinctly Southern relatability that runs throughout which acts as a sort of precursor to somebody like Big K.R.I.T., another proud Mississippian whose musical and lyrical talents appear pretty much equal and whose ambition has been evident since he first appeared on listeners’ radars.
(I’m very aware that much of this ‘review’ has been given over to cheap and lazy comparisons with other artists, but I feel like they help to build a picture of the sort of thing Crooked Lettaz were doing.)
The album starts with a heartfelt message from an elderly relative, followed by a charismatic verse from Banner’s mentor Pimp C on the slinking, earthy mission statement ‘Get Crunk’, a molasses-thick ode to life in the South. At other points, we are treated to a lilting summer singalong (‘South’s on My Mind’), ominous g-funk (‘Chicken & Swine’), a swirling, swampy, avowedly Southern take on ‘I Used to Love H.E.R.’ (‘A Girl Named Cim’), trunk-rattling snare workouts (‘Trill’; ‘Tupelo’), classicist boom bap (‘Pimp Shit’; ‘Daydreamin’’), and even a French-language interlude courtesy of an insanely obscure rapper named Aliou Diallo. This wandering mind and determination to display every aspect of his skillset would later become a hindrance in the context of Banner’s uneven solo work, but there are no misses here, and nothing that could be considered filler. All of these experiments land with aplomb, and lyrically they spell out Crooked Lettaz’ worldview, based primarily around pride: Black pride, Southern pride, and pride in their considerable rhyme skills.
There is a confidence and an assuredness here that belies the duo’s rookie status, and it’s a shame to look back and realise that this is the best it ever got for either of them, artistically at least. That said, most artists never manage to put together one album this great; it should be heralded as a Southern classic to sit alongside those by UGK, Outkast, Goodie Mob, Scarface, T.I., etc., but instead seems destined to remain a thrilling curio that only a lucky few will ever stumble upon. If you know, you know, I guess. Anyway, regardless of how the rest of this tournament pans out, I’m grateful to it already for forcing me to think about David Banner again.
I recall that one time he described his music as “The Bible wrapped in the cover of Playboy”, or something to that affect, which is without doubt one of the corniest descriptions of music I have ever come across.
jesus christ
appreciate the review/analysis for Grey Skies, helps me recontextualize an album I've previously kinda thought of as "another generally good but uneven southern album with a handful of absolute bangers". think I'm gonna go in and give it another more focused listen before I vote. David Banner's corniness and/or lack thereof notwithstanding, '99 team strong all around. Only thing I consider to be all-time favorite tier is the ODB joint but I'm a fan of the whole array, (even the rarely spotted "Eminem song that is not embarrassing")
similarly, the 2017 team, while not having any all-time faves, is really strong all around. Quelle Chris and Roc Marciano represent 2 completely different and equally exciting trends in modern rap music, Uzi is fun as usual, and DNA is some of Mike Will's best beat work I can think of.
currently undecided. thinking another listen or two to Grey Skies is gonna be the deciding factor _________________ A Variety of Artists
Using Eminem's single is an interesting choice. I know he's fallen out of favour with lots of people, but I still think The Slim Shady LP is pretty damn good. That being said, I haven't heard Grey Skies and of course we're yet to see Skinny's other teams, so it may turn out fine. This is the next thing in the queue after Project Blowout, super excited for some of the picks I haven't heard. _________________ Finally updated the overall chart
Using Eminem's single is an interesting choice. I know he's fallen out of favour with lots of people, but I still think The Slim Shady LP is pretty damn good. That being said, I haven't heard Grey Skies and of course we're yet to see Skinny's other teams, so it may turn out fine. This is the next thing in the queue after Project Blowout, super excited for some of the picks I haven't heard.
Never liked Eminem in more than small doses. This single in particular is iconic, mind - every single couplet is endlessly quotable, and there's a likeable self-deprecation here that is noticeably absent from the majority of his other work. He's contagiously joyous in all of his cartoon silliness. "Thanks a lot, next semester I'll be 35." It's weird to think how someone this weird would go on to be so world-conqueringly huge. "I ain't had a woman in years, my palms is too hairy to hide." Crazy good. _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Eminem rightly doesn't have a lot of people's respect. One thing I've learned to respect his craft a bit more was from the Hip-Hop Evolution thing on Netflix where they talked about how he got famous off rap battles, and slamming people in sometimes immature ways was the game, right? So it's like, he's doing what people loved him for, wouldn't you if you were given millions?
And yeah, I feel like it's interesting how he would self-deprecatate on his albums given that context.
I gained a bit more respect for him, and to deny his rapping being some of the tightest of all is false, as annoying as it can be. Sometimes clever too.
But yeah, with how much hate dude gets, I was a bit surprised too.
Goes without saying that the explicit version of 'My Name Is' is about a million times better than the clean video edit. "Come here, slut; 'Shady, wait a minute, that's my girl, dawg'; I don't give a fuck, god sent me to piss the world off." _________________ 2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
Never liked Eminem in more than small doses. This single in particular is iconic, mind - every single couplet is endlessly quotable, and there's a likeable self-deprecation here that is noticeably absent from the majority of his other work. He's contagiously joyous in all of his cartoon silliness. "Thanks a lot, next semester I'll be 35." It's weird to think how someone this weird would go on to be so world-conqueringly huge. "I ain't had a woman in years, my palms is too hairy to hide." Crazy good.
Fair enough. I like him in small doses too, but I usually listen to 1 or 2 of his classic albums each year. Great single choice regardless. _________________ Finally updated the overall chart
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