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The Naughty List · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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Coming up on this week's episode of hip Hop Now Podcast. It's the type
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of show I don't normally do. It's my top five most disappointed albums of
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twenty twenty three on the Grinch, Let's do it. Welcome to Jim Hoop
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Now Podcasts to you from the future. You know what you do, get
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your ass out of my life, So disrespect the leg like legge hip hop
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is say this today, Let's get right into the business. What up,
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y'all, I'm Vegas. This is hip Hop Now Podcast, a podcast specifically
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designed to keep you caught up on all things hip hop, music and culture
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that happened throughout the week. Big shout out to the patreon supporters over ad
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Patreon slash hip Hop Now and if you would like to learn more about that,
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well click the link to my Patreon which is in the description of this
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episode. If you're watching on YouTube, is down there. If you're listening,
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it might be on another page. I don't know what you appy you
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to use it, but you know I'll get down fifty years of hip hop.
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I did a best of twenty twenty three. If you missed it,
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I gave you ten projects that I thought you can't go wrong with as far
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as variety and dopeness and hip hop for the year twenty twenty three. And
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then I gave you my top five, you know, the top five albums
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that I listened to the most, that stuck with me the most for various
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reasons. I go through it and all that good stuff to check that out.
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That'll be linked in a description, but also at the end of its
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video, so you can check it out because you will realize that it is
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not all about hate. But this episode is so all the kind of So
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let's get ready into the business. Twenty twenty three was odd year and in
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a lot of ways disappointing for fifty years of hip hop. As far as
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new releases, I thought a lot of artists would use this as an opportunity
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to just bombard US hip hop fans in the world with highly anticipated projects,
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surprise projects, dope projects, and all that stuff. And in a lot
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of ways it had moments, it just didn't pan out that way, right.
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The music wasn't as good as it's been in past years. So and
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keeping with that theme, keeping with the do rag and the hoodie, this
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time hacked that has ears on it. We are going to do my my
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top five most disappointed albums of twenty twenty three, And let me just say
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what that is. What does that mean? Disappointing? Right? It doesn't
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mean whag. It just means it did not meet my personal expectations. That's
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it. My expectations were set by these artists and their catalogs, their previous
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catalog and a lot of ways it was set by the hype that surrounded the
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release of these projects. And when I got to him, I was just
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kind of like, this, this is just mid This isn't what I thought
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it was going to be. This isn't you know. And it's tough to
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say that, right because I don't know, right he hit one song or
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whatever, or MC has a track record, and you know, you go
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off that track record, so you kind of hype like, he don't disappoint,
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you know, she don't disappoint whoever, and then you get in you're
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trying. See that's the part about the disappointment part. It's not me pressing
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play and saying, oh, this ain't good. It's me pressing play in
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trying to find it to be one of the best of the year, and
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then ultimately having to come to grips with the reality of it's just not what
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you thought it would be. Now, is it the worst? No?
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To me, None of these albums, well except for one, I'm gonna
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say that at the end, are like really bad, like just terrible.
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It's not the worst or the wackiest, but it's pretty close. It's it's
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cool, it's the Some people will like it, some people don't. Some
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people will have some of these albums in there top five of the year.
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That's cool because it's all subjective. So this is my top five most disappointed
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albums of twenty twenty three hip hop albums. First up, Westside Gun and
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then Pray for Me. Look, man, I'm a known Conway to Machine
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fan, you know, just lyrically, same thing with Benny the Butcher.
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Westside Gun grew on me, and I realized that I liked him for a
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very different reason than the others. Right, it was the aesthetic, his
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voice, the art, the artwork, right, the curation of the beats
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and the artists and stuff like that, and often he has succeeded. And
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Pray for Paris dropped right back when I was like that joint kind of grew
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on me. I was all I kind of liked this, so when he
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had a sequel and then you pray for me, I was like, well,
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I mean why not. And he's pretty good at hyping things up,
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you know, trying to really do like a gorilla style promotional campaign, you
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know, dressing apart with all this fashion. I like, again, I
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like the aesthetics of what he presents. You know what I'm saying is not
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just the music, it's everything surrounding the music and his personality as well.
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But this ain't it. This was one of those where I was just like,
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now, almost, oh that one's that one's crazy. The next one.
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I heard this before, Like, it was a lot of that,
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you know what I'm saying, and in a lot of ways, just to
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be fair, even though this is the Naughty List, we are spoiled with
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hip hop today because Whatside Gun has released enough albums to just straight up retire.
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Once upon a time, most rappers didn't have this many albums at all,
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right, or you had to be in it for decades like two short
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and E forty and LL or whatever. And now you know the Nazas and
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everybody else, and this dude and his crew have really only been like in
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the public view as far as the casuals for maybe half that, maybe five
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years if you ask me. Now, I know they've been around much longer
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than that, but I'm just talking about I remember when it was me and
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heads that talked about them, right, I remember listening to Conway and playing
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them on the radio show before he was shot, right, because he was
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dope then. So that's what I mean. They've been around for a while,
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but the eminem deal really put a lot of eyes on them that weren't
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there before. You know, sometimes these cats they don't be checking I'm talking
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about other artists. They don't be checking for what's coming up that's really dope.
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Sometimes they wait for a code sign and then they're like, oh,
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which is trash? You know? But whatever, man, here's another one
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Nas Magic too. Now, if anyone was around on social media on the
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hip hop scene, a fan of Nas whatever, the forums, redded discord,
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wherever you were when the first Magic Na's it hit boy, that's for
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both of them, right, nash Boy. When they dropped Magic first of
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all, it was a surprise drop right after King's disease too. I think
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it was like a surprise drop out of nowhere. It had the younger Knas
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on the cover from the Illmatic days, a photo most of us know.
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I think it was like a photo that was used in the Source magazine when
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they did their article, and it was dope, and it was more like
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old NAS flow than the King's Disease albums were as a whole. Right,
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it felt more like younger NAS, throwback Nas. So everybody was hey,
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but I know some people feel like that's the best project. I don't,
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but that shows you the impact. So when there was a Magic two announced
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and you saw the cover and it was like young another old photo of young
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NAS with headphones on, kind of splice with a newer photo of older NAS
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with headphones on, it was like, man, you about to do it
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again? He did not. In fact, of the hit Boy and NAS
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collaborations, this one's the worst. Now is it the worst NAS project I've
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ever heard? Nah? I still say that Nasra Domas wasn't good. I
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say that, what's the other one with Kanye West Nazia that might be Domas
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might be better than that, because at least when Nashra Domas lyrically NAS was
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still there. It was just more so hooks and beats elections that dragged that
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album down to me, but not see it was different. It was like,
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yo, it's like he's rapping off beat on these on these songs.
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Well, Magic two came really close to reminding me of that. The flows.
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You know, it's the new NAS flow and it's a lot of trapp
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inspired beats. But with hit Boy he was able to sound really dope over
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those, but these were like, the flows sound too choppy to me and
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sound like they were trying to retrofit them to these beats and it just wasn't
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working. It wasn't enough of a pocket on this entire project. And I
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listened and listened and listened and listened, and I'm like, man, I
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hate to say because it's just so much fun to kind of talk about hip
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Boy NAS's run bars, but this is a pit stop. Magic too is
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a pit stop. So if you're wondering about these projects and whether you should
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dive in, obviously you should listen to it, but do not listen to
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it. First, listen to the history of the projects. Then you're there,
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all right. Next Asy Truth be Told, produced by legendary producer Buck
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Wow. I was highly disappointed by this and let me tell you why Asy's
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entire career, his albums have never lived up to the standard of his debut
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Doadye right, there's trust me. There's been dope songs throughout the years,
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but when you go listen to the albums, it was a lot of skits
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for me. Then he dropped DOA Die Too, which was probably one of
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his better albums in a long time. But there was one thing, one
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pattern that I started to notice, not only on Doorde Too, but why
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I didn't like some of the previous albums. Pieces of a Man was a
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good album too in Asiatic. All right, okay, maybe I do a
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tearless But when Doahdi Too just felt like almost there. I thought, I
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really didn't like that album as much until I heard this one. That album's
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better than this one, you know what, Because the pattern that I started
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to realize was Aasy kind of His rhym style is like almost you can call
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his rhym style monotone, right. It just stays in one pocket, and
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sometimes that pocket doesn't match every beat, So the beat can be doing one
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thing and he doesn't sound off beat. He just sounds like the beat doesn't
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mesh well with his flow right to me, Now, let me just say
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this to me, Asy's flow is best with lush sounding beats like sugar Hill,
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like Life's of Beat, right, like grooves, you know what I'm
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saying. Like it can't be like straight up boombat like affirmative action. Right.
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It's a certain vibe. It's a certain more money, more murder.
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It's a certain vibe where it lets his lyrics and his flow breathe and it
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sounds perfect. While on this album Truth be Told legendary producer Buck Wild,
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the beats all the worst part. And I think because of the beats,
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that theme of A Z's flow kind of being in one pocket, only that's
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not the same pocket as the beat. It stands out more. It makes
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A Z's words sound basic, right, because as was always dope with the
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wordplay, and there's wordplay here, but some of the tracks just do not
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match what he's doing. And I don't know it was that's a huge disappointment
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for me because I was like, Yo, I think I think this might
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be the one. I think this might be as coming back to true form.
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You know, he's inspired by now he's only working with one producer,
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so the beat should be good and they just weren't. Man. They sound
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dated in some ways, and that's no knock on buck Wow, because who
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knows. Maybe he gave as some fire and he wanted to use those,
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Maybe he wanted these beats. But I really think like A Z could have
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benefited from a different vibe, right Like if you if you look at Rick
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Ross currency, there's a certain vibe to their music that feels, for lack
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of a better word, glamorous. I guess, I don't know, but
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A Z is perfect over that quick example, though it died too. He
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has a song with Rick Ross and the beat is just that and as sounds
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great. A Z sounds great on King's disease. One listen to how that
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beat sounds. That's what he's like a you know, like a like a
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person at a lecture something you know that just happens to have music. I
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don't think they do that. That would that would probably defeat the purpose.
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But you know what I'm saying, he's like someone who's lecturing to music.
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He's like someone who does spoken word to music. But it's like hustler talk
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and slick talking, glamorous and luxurious and all of that. That's what he
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needs production wise, because honestly, I out of this list. I probably
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tried to listen to this one over and over again, and even when it
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starts, I just feel like I'm listening to an album from another year.
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Like just I don't need know trap beats in Asy, but it just sounds
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like it's from another year. I would love to see hit Boy produce as
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with that kind of vibe in mind. I would love to see the Justice
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League who does Rick Ross's who probably has Rick Ross's dopest beats ever? Just
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anybody who could capture a certain vibe. How about alchemists? Right? Alchemists
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can sometimes get in that pocket of here's a lush sounding track for you to
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float on, and aasy could float on the joint. But this one ain't
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it all? Right? Next Meat Mill and Rick Ross too good to be
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true? On this podcast, I said how hyped I was for this.
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I heard the lead single shock and Kobe I was like, Yo, it's
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the right beat they sound you know in pocket they sound good together as a
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group. Knowing I've liked most Meet albums and I've liked most Rick Ross albums,
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I was like, there's no way this won't be fire. There's no
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way, this won't be in my top five and I'm listening for the rest
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of the year, even though it just came out, not that long ago
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whatever, But it was too good to be true. It's not whack.
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It's probably good, but I'm disappointed because it just was lacking. It was
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lacking the energy of Shaq and Kobe. Right, not everything had to be
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that, but it was just lacking in that department. Like there was songs
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where I was like, is this an old song? Because Meek mile voice
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sounds different, he sounds younger. And I think it was stuff like that,
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you know. And don't get me wrong, I like this album more
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than it seems to be talking about disappointments. But I had higher expectations for
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this album, way higher, and it just it just didn't need it.
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And I think it has a lot to do with the content. Right,
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if you're just gonna talk, you know, money and cars and houses and
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crime and stuff like that, didn't make it a short album. Don't put
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a bunch of tracks on here. How many times we gonna hear y'all say
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that Rick Ross is food for you? Okay? How many times? Even
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though I don't mind it? Every time we talk about it, but whatever,
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how many times are we gonna hear the same themes in each song?
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And if the beat isn't crazy to me like the Shaq and Kobe joint is,
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then it really falls flat because it sounds like, Wow, I feel
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like they just went to the studio, wrote the same verse in different ways
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for different tracks. If you understand what I mean by that, bars,
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y'all, I'm borring y'all down today, all right? Uh but yeah,
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and lastly, so this this artist is one of my favorite artists. And
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don't get me wrong, I don't have everything. I have things that dislike
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about uh well, within his catalog, but I always checked for his new
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stuff because there's always guaranteed to be enough music on that that I will like.
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I'm not expecting to like everything and call it a classic, but I
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always expect there to be enough. And that's Drake's For All the Dogs.
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Now, this is doubly disappointed, if that is that a word, doubly
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whatever it is today because not only was For All the Dogs disappointing and quite
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frankly, whack this the whack one, y'all, but I was hyped for
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Scary Hours, which was a follow up, because I usually like everything about
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those and that met my expectations. But what was disappointing was the fact that
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he attached it to this whack album. So it's for all the dogs scary
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hours, you know what I'm saying. That's like when you go to the
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liquor store and you're like, hey, give me the high premium bourbon.
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Oh, we only sell them in bundles. You're gonna have to get this
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limousine liquor also, or you go to buy a new system, like,
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yeah, can I get the new PS seventeen? Oh, you're only selling
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bundles game stop, and I gotta get these three whack games to get it
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and seventeen controllers. It's like that, right, just give me the gooch.
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Okay, I didn't curse family podcasts edited myself, but you know what
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I mean. And this is the thing, right, I wasn't a fan.
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I'm not a fan of twenty one Savage at all, So him pairing
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with twenty one Savage, I just bypassed that album like it didn't even exist.
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I don't care what song was popular. I don't care it's hot.
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Oh sound whacked to me with that dude on it. So when this was
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coming out, I was like, Oh, yeah, it's gonna be a
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lot of songs. You know what I'm saying. He probably gonna get in
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his bag with the rapping, throw some darts. Honestly, I'm more of
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a fan of the sing song gy records that he make, so I was
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looking forward to that. And I have never skipped this much in my life,
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like just really like, ugh, skip, ugh skip. So disappointed.
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Then I had to double it back and say, you know what,
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stop looking for what you want and just let it play. And I let
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it play and one or two songs was like, yeah, I like this
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one. Blah blah blah. The joint with j Coole. Honestly, Drake's
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Verse was cool with J Cole's The Star on that, it just didn't do
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what it was supposed to do for me. And to drop Scary Hours,
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which was highly anticipated for me and honestly I like it, but to attach
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it to that album where I had to take those songs off and put them
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on a playlist just to hear them by himself, it is the most disappointed
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thing I've had to do in twenty twenty three. That's gonna do it for
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me. You can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, well x I ain't
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call it ex Twitter, Instagram spill, which is also on Android. I
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got android phones. Don't hate wherever you find social media at Vegas World,
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I n c also know this video. I mean this video. This podcast
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is available in audio form on your favorite podcast in that but also in video
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form where this week, instead of a great hoodie with a Santa hat,
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I'm war a goddamn elf hat with all black on, putting Vegas in the
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building. And please know that I am trying to get to five hundred subscribers,
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So if you like the content you've seen on this channel, please subscribe
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to the channel. Hit the like button, leave a comment. What were
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your most disappointing albums? Did any of the albums I mentioned disappoint you or
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did you even care? Leave your comments in a comment section. And also
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probably the most important thing you could do for me. It's not patrear.
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I appreciate you watching, but if you know other hip hop a heads,
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not EDGs, and other circles that you dwell in your talk hip hop on
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social media, put them onto the channel. This may not be the best
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video. There may be another video. Share with those who may enjoy the
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same kind of content that you do. All Right, y'all, it's gonna
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do for me. Next week will be my twenty twenty four preview show until
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next time. I'm not a critic, just a fan face.