Welcoming myself to classic brian

Hi. I'm Zane.

Not gonna lie I've only ever read two classic Brian posts and they were both by eliot. I've known him the longest and still consider him the closest friend I have out of that "other group"(Shout out to Springfield's Finest...). His writing is probably better than you guys' anyway. So here goes and if you don't like it fuck you. Except Conor because your my hero.

Hey Mada remember the time in the fifth grade when you really pissed me off so I kicked you from under the desk. Except I kicked you waaay to hard and your shin started bleeding and looked really icky. Mrs. Smith sent us down to the office and you lied to the secretary and said that it had all been an accident. Thanks.

Ok so what I really want to talk about today is music, and specifically rap music with a special emphasis on what I like to call the New Era. I love rap/hip-hop. I need to hear this music all the time. Now I'm not the typical rap listener that only listens to rap, and I find the ignorance present in my fellow rap aficianados when it comes to other genres is embarrassing. But to be honest us rap fans are so proud and closed off because of how often the music that we love is attacked. People rap music IS ART and I will defend that fact until the end. Rap music is no different from any other genre. We have our radio artists that make the rest of the industry look bad (Waka Flaka Flame, Gucci, Mike Jones). We have our crossover stars who are able to maintain art while also becoming household names(Eminem, Jay-Z, T.I., Lil' Wayne) and we have underground names with cult like followings(Tech N9ne, Charles Hamilton, Big Sean, J. Cole).

First of all I want to defend the group that gets the most criticism from others, and that is the crossover stars. People Lil' Wayne is gay. Literally homosexual in my opinion. Just throwing that out there. I am not a Weezy dickrider. However, in my critical opinion his CARTER III was one of the greatest CD's ever made. Quite simply I love every minute of it. Can I relate to the lyrics related to growing up in the ghetto and the gunplay and all of that. No, but the way I can feel Lil' Wayne's every feeling and emotion on the third verse of Playing With Fire, just close my eyes and get chills, is nothing short of nirvana for me. That's the hardest part when trying to create a piece of art is it not? Trying to make others FEEL and UNDERSTAND things how you feel and understand things. Sure Lil' Wayne makes bad songs. Everyone I'm defending has made songs that are bad. It's our jobs as a music critic to discard the bad songs and embrace the good ones, and even more importantly to never express a good or bad opinion about an artist without having listened to an acceptable amount of said artists' music. I can't stand when I hear someone diss an artist, only to find out they've only heard two songs by that artist. These people are almost always purely radio listeners, and let's be honest 95% percent of radio music is white noise. But before you judge Lil' Wayne because you heard Lollipop on the radio, you should go listen to his Dedication 2 mixtape. Before you discard Drake as some poppy sensation, go listen to his debut mixtape SO FAR GONE. I dare someone to take this challenge seriously and then come back and tell me that either of those mixtapes have bad music. (It might help if you smoke a j first, not necessary if you're not a smoker by any means). The best rap music typically can't be bought in stores or heard on the radio. I have three websites that I am on daily to get the latest rap music, both singles and mixtapes. Datpiff.com, livemixtapes.com, and leakjones.com. A lot of people don't know about these resources. Now if one of you were to go to one of these websites you would be overwhelmed by the amounts of mixtapes. I maybe download one mixtape a week out of the thousands that are uploaded daily. I know what artists to look for and also others that are worth a listen.

So now back to two things I promised to talk about earlier but due to certain reasons I drifted off to other things. Those two things are: rart(aka the existentce of rap in art) and the New Era. These two go very well together so it's fitting to talk about them at the same time. Ahh the New Era(sorry neither I nor anyone else has come up with a better name for this group. Have you heard of Kid Cudi, B.o.B, Wiz Khalifa, J. Cole, Wale, Drake(who by the way is the best rap artist doing it right now)? If so, then your familiar with the new era. The difficulty is trying to explain what makes the genre of music of this group so different and how to truly define it. The answer is that there is no way to do this so I just have to try to the best of my abilities. The lyrics are on a whole better than most other rap, but it's not a requirement to be a part of this genre(see Wiz Khalifa). I guess one point I should throw out there is that most of these artists have resorted to using live bands for their shows, a very cool upgrade. I would go gay for Dee Brown. As I feel is always true with really any genre of music, it is impossible to find one song that can truly define a genre. Albums and mixtapes help round out a style, so it is easier to examine from that viewpoint. The first time that I ever really noticed a specific "new" style was when I listened to A Kid Named Cudi mixtape by Kid Cudi. But that is in no way saying that Cudi was the originator of the style. Look at Lupe Fiasco. Food and Liquor and The Cool are very new era albums. Did Lupe start the movement? I don't know that either, but I do know that Kanye West has become the symbol of it. I mean does anyone really understand the guy anymore. He is just the quintessential artist. Arrogant, poor with people, vulnerable. But that arrogance is what makes his music so great. Also, he produces a lot of songs. Much like Dr. Dre, Kanye's true mark may be left in his beats. Now to my next STRONG belief, and that is that beat making is a talent and a craft, the same as playing any instrument. Yeah this will probably be the most controversial statement of this post, but just like Kanye West can't play the guitar like Eric Clapton, Eric Clapton can't make beats like Kanye West. I choose to see no difference. The new age beats for the most part are slower and are becoming more and more unique. If anyone wants to hear a mixtape where the beats and the lyrics/flow truly mesh into one then listen to Kush and OJ by Wiz Khalifa. Flow is key to the new movement. Artists are now riding the beat, using the beat to create unique and correlating flows. Listen to any Wiz or Gorilla Zoe and you will hear this.

Kid Cudi, who by all my beliefs is God, will not occupy the paragraph I was going to give him due to the realization that I wouldn't be able to stop writing about him for days(no homo). But with that being said, why has his crazy coked up ass stopped even attempting to rhyme in any of his songs lol.

Well I think that's that for now, I could go on forever but I have to cut this off at some point. This all goes along with the theory I have created that if a person let me show them the ways of the force of rap for a mere couple hours I can turn lifelong non rap fans into at least interested and more informed listeners. With this being said I'm going to leave the names of some mixtapes that if anybody is truly interested in following up on what I just wrote about I would suggest to listen to as a starter. I have already mentioned the websites they can be found and suggest even stronger listening to the previously written mixtapes and albums in my post.

Mac Miller-K.I.D.S.

J.Cole- The Warm Up

B.O.B.-May 25th, Who the Fuck is B.o.B., B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray

Big Sean-UKNOWBIGSEAN, Finally Famous 3

Charles Hamilton-Anything you can find by this man he has too many mixtapes to name...he is a genius.

Chip tha Ripper-The Cleveland Show

XV-Vizzy Zone

Tyga-Black Thoughts, The Potential