BYHH GW3: Group B - 2002 vs. 2015

[kokkinos]

Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow is an album with a playful, almost cartoonish mood throughout its running time. And just as if it were actually aimed towards children, - who as a general rule have a shorter attention span - it keeps changing style after style to keep you engaged, while maintaining a surprising and refreshing positive/optimistic attitude ("Free! Like a bird out in the wind in the night Like a 747 to LA that's in flight Free! Like a garden flourishing in the wind Like a student bout to do it when he's graduatin' Free! From any of the energy perception Can never be defined create the definition within Free! Just lovin' life itself and never pretend to be Anything other than the man I was meant to be Travel through time and get a glimpse of the centuries To come a better day is promised remember Free, like my nephew in a few months about to be out the penitentiary"). All these aspects lead to an album that provides tons of fun.
To sum it up, there's no way it could compete with Original Pirate Material but it's not as one-sided as one might expect.
Next one is gonna be Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful.

[kokkinos]

Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful is an album I by no means expected to see being nominated. Purplepash, you have really added an extra flavour with your colourful and flamboyant - despite not always being my cup of tea - picks throughout the tournament, a big thumbs up. In fact this would make a nice pair with the previous album, Blazing Arrow, it's kinda cool seeing them paired againist each other. A cheerful, uplifting, album with no aspirations to be anything else, simply an easy listening, highly enjoyable and provides tons of fun. Even though entertainment is clearly its primary goal, it doesn't settle for a simple and straightforward sound, it is willing to experiment and you can tell there was some thought - not too much, just enough to keep it from being overly simplistic - and a lot of passion involved in making this. The lyrics are nothing special, but it's one of those cases you can safely ignore them, they neither elevate nor diminish the other aspects of the album.
To sum it up, I would rank this slightly behind Blazing Arrow.
Next one is gonna be Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access.

[baystateoftheart]

Neither here nor there, but that 2015 lineup must be literally the whitest team of the tournament, with 3.5 out of 4 picks.
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[kokkinos]

Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access continues the series of outlandish picks by the 2015 team - I was gonna say it's the most eccentric of them all, but then I remembered you nominated Death Grips, so this is almost standard in comparison. Ok, talk about an unfair analogy, this is significantly better, neither as annoying nor as distressing, I would have no problem classifying this as listenable - but still takes a quite peculiar taste to actually enjoy it. The noise seems to be under control and it actually has a point, it tries to convey a message. All in all, major props for nominating this, but no thanks.
To sum it up, The margin seems irreversible at this point, it would require both 2002 singles to be completely unlistenable (well, one of them is) and both 2015 singles to be G.O.A.T. material for a turnaround.

[kokkinos]

My ranking for the singles:
T- 1st: Nas - One Mic/Run The Jewels - Early/Kate Tempest - Europe Is Lost
I can't say that any of those blew me away, rather forgettable to be honest.




4th: Eminem - Lose Yourself
No comment.
So, despite 2015 dominating the singles department, it would take much more to dethrone The Streets and 2002. Case closed.

[travelful]

Yeah this was a really one sided match-up for me. I love Action Bronson and Lil Ugly Mane but neither of these projects are favorites of mine from them. I love the RTJ track but that's about it from 2015, plus I woulda preferred Lie Cheat Steal as a single as both El-P and Killer Mike shine a bit more on it imo.

2002 has a lineup of classics and it easily gets my vote.

[babyBlueSedan]

Oblivion Access is a really interesting album. Is it a good album? Yes. Is it a good hip hop album? Ummm... One thing I found after two listens is that I wish there was more rapping on it. Miller's performance is great but there are a lot of tracks that just feel like interludes or have very little hip hop influence. And I could definitely do without the harsh noise tracks. The track with the computer generated vocals is interesting because on one hand I think it works in a cold and detached way, and on the other hand those are some of the hardest bars on the album and I wish a real person was delivering them. I also think it's interesting that, while I think Mista Thug Isolation is a better album, this feels like a much better look at Miller as a rapper. Mista Thug felt like him making an homage to a scene whereas this feels much more like it was created under his vision. It's certainly a more personal album. So yeah, I like the album a lot but it's hard to compare it to most of the other albums in this tournament. I think that's a good thing though, and I'm glad it was picked because it's one of my favorite first listens of the tourney.
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[RoundTheBend]

2002 (captain: babyBlueSedan) (9.5)
The Streets - Original Pirate Material (1.5)
Blackalicious - Blazing Arrow (3)
Eminem - Lose Yourself (2.5)
Nas - One Mic (2.5)

vs.

2015 (captain: Purplepash) (8.25)
Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful (1.5)
Lil Ugly Mane - Oblivion Access (2)
Run The Jewels - Early (2.5)
Kate Tempest - Europe Is Lost (2.25)

[cestuneblague]

2015 is surprisingly a lot of fun, certainly enjoyed the Action Bronson work and Lil Ugly Mane was... pretty solid, too (never really heard Mac's works before now, hmm). Run the Jewels I'm completely neutral towards and this song is no different. I usually prefer Tempest the sing-speaker over Tempest the rapper as their flow can be distractingly clumsy, but I do actually really like this track even with it's pretty on-the-noise and not-always-lyrically-graceful messaging.


Ouch, 2002 is a boss though. The Streets def takes you back to that time period as he was definitely getting plenty of buzz stateside at the time as well, and this album is among the more exciting and pretty downright huge debuts of the aughties (even if I'm the contrarian wimp who slightly prefers his followup), and Blacakalious is again really strong if it's the exact kind of hip hop I easily enjoy more so than really go crazy for, but strong record nonetheless. And yes there was a time when Lose Yourself could've put me off this team considering how nauseatingly ubuqitious this track was for a time, but now it's ya know whatevs, a fairly paint-by-numbers anthem for Eminem clearly meant to advertise his movie. Again, would be tough to do '02 without an 8 mile reference in there somewhere.

[LedZep]

This 2002 team might be the best of the round. Blackalicious and The Streets at that moment in time were both incredible, those two albums are very close to each other on my 2000s chart. I'd probably say Blazing Arrows is slightly better, but it doesn't really matter. All 4 singles of this round are excellent, it could very well be the best singles round in the tourney. Or at least among the best. Early might not be the best song on RTJ2, but it bangs. I love most of Kate Tempest work, Europe is Lost is one of her best songs. One Mic is underrated imo and Lose Yourself is a classic. Basically nothing to separate them. Unfortunately, Action Bronson's Mr. Wonderful, while eclectic, varied and interesting throughout, doesn't hit all the right notes. He's an ok rapper, but not charismatic enough for me to hold that batch of tracks together. It doesn't help that some of the songs are more of a cool idea than a good finished track. It was loads of fun though. I've never heard this Lil Ugly Mane album before but it's excellent. Doesn't even bother me that it's barely hip hop. Unfortunately for Pash, the teams he's faced in the last 2 rounds were fantastic and he barely stood a chance. Enthusiastic vote for 2002.
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