MF DOOM made two of my favourite Rap albums of all time with Operation Doomsday and Black Bastards. But I view 60% of his recorded output in the same way that I view Lionel Messi's post-Barcelona career: best to pretend that it didn't happen as to not tarnish the legacy. Obviously the 2 Czarface albums DOOM recorded in his final years are the musical equivalent of Messi scoring free kicks and tap ins against farmers in the MLS.
I was unfortunate enough to hear some of the 2 Hard 4 The F**kin' Radio homage by That Canadian Nonce™. How is it even possible to make interpolating Mac Dre lyrics over a P-Lo beat sound like a sanitary towel commercial? That guy has the worst voice in the history of recorded music, and it boggles my mind that anyone finds his whiney music tolerable let alone pleasurable.
I'm not saying I wish that Russia would launch a drone strike on Toronto. I'm just saying that any city which inflicted That Canadian Nonce™ and Mindbender Futurama on the world deserves some sort of punishment.
Run-D.M.C's Raising Hell was the first Rap album I bought, and JayQuan is my favourite old skool Rap history-bod, so of course his recent book about the album is a Good Combination™. JayQuan is a convivial author who experienced the era and the album's impact from front, back & side to side, and he's big on details without being an annoying nutjob windbag like Dart Adams. Anecdotes and actual factz are provided by everyone involved in the making of the album, and it doesn't hurt that the book is fulla pictures of Run-D.M.C lookin' cooler than Polish feet.
"Run-D.M.C's Raising Hell was the first Rap album I bought." Me too! Copped it on cassette and it blew my tiny mind (I wasn't even into double digits of solar orbits yet).
ReplyDeleteDrake has always been shit. How many more times do you need to clamp your lips to that same sewerage pipe before you realise its output is never going to taste like champagne?
"60%" seems quite the hyperbole for the portion of DOOM's catalogue that's skippable/cringe-worthy.
The only DOOM CD I find completely unlistenable is that "Venomous Villain" collection of floor sweepings.
I was trying to avoid the Dreck song, but I follow P-Lo on Instagram and he posted a snippet of it on his story.
DeleteRaising Hell was the 2nd album I bought full stop. The first was the Rocky IV soundtrack.
I can't remember the 2nd album I ever bought. I'm drawing a 2-3 year-long blank between "Raising Hell" and my next album purchase memories:
ReplyDeleteTransvision Vamp "Velveteen"
Neneh Cherry "Raw like Sushi"
VA "Hip House"
VA "Now 14"
De La Soul "3 feet high & rising"
808 State "808 90"
No Licensed To Ill?
DeleteI never had the Transvision Vamp album, but I did buy I Want Your Love on 7".
3 Feet High & Rising was the first Rap album I bought on record, and it was such a crap pressing that I never bought another Rap album on record until years later.
I’ve come to really enjoy Mmm Food over the years. Some dope shit on that album
ReplyDeleteYeah, some very good songs on there.
Delete"No Licensed To Ill?" Nope. friends had it though. Plus, what with being under 10 at the time, cassette buying would have been a birthday/Xmas treat and dependant on whether it was available in my small town's Woolworth. It'd be a couple more years until WH Smith, Our Price and then HMV were a thing for me.
ReplyDeleteSmiths was mah spot during my early years of music buying. Main thing I remember about Woolworths during the 80s is that they always had that Best of Average White Band LP with the bird's arse on the front cover on display.
DeleteI didn't cop my own (CD) copy of "Licensed to ill" until the late 00s (long after buying "Ill Communication" and "Hello Nasty" when they were released).
ReplyDeleteThere are a fair few albums I bought out of sequence due to age/budget. Also, if friends/Radio 1 had something on regular rotation (e.g. "Black Sunday," "Bacdafuccup" or whatever) I took the road less travelled (e.g.The Goats, Judgment Night OST etc).
I never even bothered buying Black Sunday because a few of my mates had it so I could get a dub of it.
Delete"I never even bothered buying Black Sunday because a few of my mates had it so I could get a dub of it." That's what I'm sayin too. But eventually, either nostalgia or completionism (or both) kick in and I suddenly need-need-NEED my own legit copy of U-God's "Golden Arms redemption" or PMD's "Shade Business."
ReplyDeleteThat's me, but substitute that U-God album with his 12" which has Wildstyle SupaFreak on the B-side
DeleteI had Transvision's Vamp Pop Art on tape, back in the day. Apart from I Want Your Love, it was really bad.
ReplyDeleteGoogled Wendy James 2026. Instant regret.
Damn, son. Kim Woodburn on ozempic?
DeleteYou're pushing your contrarianism tew far with that Doom-take!
ReplyDeleteWhere's the lie?
DeleteFat Boys 'Coming Back Hard Again' = my first album/CD
ReplyDeleteI only know The Twist off that one. Any jams on there?
DeleteI liked 'Are You Ready For Freddy' a lot, for obvious reasons...then you had not only 'The Twist', but also 'Louie, Louie'...then a house song ('Rock The House, Y'all'), not one but two faux Run DMC songs ('Back And Forth' & 'Coming Back Hard Again'), and I liked 'Jellyroll' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ReplyDeleteOh I remember Are You Ready For Freddy and Louie Louie. Listening to Back And Forth now 💣
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