January 2010
just bagged-limited edition embroidered squid hoodie.
ghost dog and the tony starks & doom album (that has, as of yet, not been released) marks where my taste merge with the 8th diagram, but the wu just kind of eluded me.
but cuban linx II has officially blown my mind.
bitches, niggas, snowmen, faggots, gunplay, cash, ‘realness’. i am conflicted about lyrical content in relation to vibe, beats & samples, which is my true language. glorifying it is a lyrical & mental prison for a large percentage of mc’s and those who espouse that IS the only way for young black men in america. if this were 1989, we’d have a lot more options for musical representation. but this is 2010-and we don’t. as someone who isn’t in a low socio-economic bracket, i uneasily live with it.
even ATCQ weren’t immune to dropping the fag diss, which is inexcusable.
it’s so frustrating to support hip hop when the weight of talent is being wasted on subjects when it’s not examined at depth. but give for maybe two cuts which are the clear reach at rotation, cuban linx 2 artfully shows how you can weave violence, hood capitalism, sex and mic crushing in particular into something vital.
it boils down to: characters. stories. details. vibe. make it four for four.
