Wiki, Half God

… i am not generally a fan of rap music, it doesn’t connect much with any of my life experiences… it has to be pretty highly regarded for me to take note of it, thus, when a new release by a rap artist i have never heard (not because they are obscure, almost all rap artists are obscure to me) of gets an 8.5 rating i add it to my list of music to listen to and decide if i like it…

_ His latest album, Half God, is a record about what it’s like to come of age in New York: the way it shapes, hardens, prematurely ages you. Produced in its entirety by Navy Blue—the skateboarder/model turned prolific producer/MC born Sage Elsesser—the record captures the varied tempos of city life in colorful vignettes. A warbling guitar loop soundtracks a contemplative smoke session on “Roof”; the stuttering soul samples on “Can’t Do This Alone” stroll with Wiki and Navy Blue through city streets; hi-hats crunch and snares snap on “The Business,” as Wiki spews vitriol at the gentrifiers changing his home into something unrecognizable._¹

Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A

… this blog is all about the attention i pay… it is rare that i read a Pitchfork review from beginning to end, but BS is sort of my era… i like, sometimes love, his music, but i have never been an avid fan… truthfully, i have never been an avid fan of practically anything or anyone… i have my flirtations, but they all stop short of avid fandom, which always struck me as giving too much power to the heroes… excused you from being your own hero… it’s also rare that Pitchfork gives a 10 rating to an album, so i read, and kept reading to the end…

… it seems that BR enjoyed the stardom and didn’t…

… Born in the U.S.A. speaks about an America that i grew up along side of, but not in… it’s full of blue collar music that appealed to me as i rejected the white collar life my parents brought me up in as being sterile and boring… i have always been more comfortable in artistic communities and neighborhoods that sit on the edge between blue and white collar, if those things mean anything anymore…

… i may have to crank the album up later on…