Ty Listen's the Pusha T's "It's Almost Dry"

I have now listened to Pusha T's new record "It's Almost Dry" about three times now. I enjoy it. I do not like it as much as his last record, but with each new listen I find something new that I enjoy about it.

I'm a Pusha T fan. I have been since the first time I heard Clipse in 2001. He just has this very cool flow about him when he raps. It comes out smooth. I think that is why it has taken me multiple listens to really get into "It's Almost Dry". I wasn't ready for it when it first came out. I have been in a pretty deep soul, R&B and heavier rock groove lately. There has been tons of Black Keys, Etta James, Leon Bridges and, I know this is a little out of left field, Bo Brunham on my playlists. So I just was not ready to receive what Pusha T was putting out there. But the more I've heard the better it has become. I truly do like every song on the album. I also appreciate that it is a tight 35 minutes long.

The record starts off strong, has some great stuff in the in between and has a perfect ending, with him reuniting with the other member of Clipse. Pusha T has a way of rapping over a beat that is like no other. He is one of the few rappers I have heard who do not really wait for a beat to kick in. When he is ready he goes. And he is good. The flow is so good that it doesn't need him waiting. I love how he just gets to it. He has something to say and he refuses to wait.

The record is produced by Kanye and Pharrell. I do not like Kanye at all. He needs real therapy. He needs true help. He has some mental stuff going on that only a doctor can fix. But the dude can make a beat. He has that skill. That has not left him yet. And the fact that he doesn't rap on this record, save for a few weak bars during some hooks, makes it all the better. The beats are his, you can tell, and Pusha T makes them work. Pharrell, on the other hand, is a true musical genius. He does things with hip hop that have just further pushed the genre to a whole new world. He makes complicated beats sound simple. He knows how to get the best out of his performers. He doesn't dip his toes too far into the water. He lets the talent do what they do best. Sure there are tweaks here and there, but for the most part Pharrell just refines it all in the end. He rules. There is a version of the record on Spotify right now titled "It's Almost Dry: Kanye vs Pharrell", and it is astounding to hear the two producers on the same record and how different they are. And how much better Pharrell is at his job.

I think what I like most about the album, and I mentioned this for a second a minute ago, is how there are now real hooks on the songs. It is all Pusha T's line of thought being put on wax. He has his verses and his bars and he rolls with it. He puts it all out there. He doesn't need a hook. He doesn't need a chorus. He can just go from verse to verse and not miss a beat. Sometimes hooks help, but in this case, I do not miss it at all. It almost seems like a hook would hinder the greatness that is Pusha T.

I am a fan of this record. I have most definitely come around after three listens. I will continue to listen. Pusha T is very famous, but I think he should be talked about far more than he already is by the media. This record is a great appetizer to the new Kendrick Lamar coming out in a day. I will for sure have both albums on repeat for a bit.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Reads "Kanye West Owes Me 300 Dollars: And Other True Stories From a White Rapper That Almost Made It Big"

I just recently finished the book, "Kanye West Owes Me 300 Dollars...And Other True Stories From A White Rapper That Almost Made It Big" by Jensen Karp, and this book was fantastic.

I had heard about this book on one of Karp's many podcast appearances, plugging the book a few months back. I was looking for a new book to read, something light, but also nonfiction, and this was a great choice for me. First off, I enjoy stories about the entertainment industry. I think that that lifestyle is cool, but can also be hideous. "Kanye West Owes Me 300 Dollars" has plenty of both kinds of these stories. I am also roughly the same age as Karp, so there were a lot of things that he talked about that I could relate to. He came up in the late 90's and early 2000's, during my high school days, so a lot of the musicians and people in the music business he talked about, I knew all of them. He also talks about how you can have it all one day, but the next, it could be gone. I find these stories enthralling too. He also talked about his many personal problems and hardships he had to deal with, again, very relatable for me.

For those of you that don't know who Jensen Karp is, or was, he is now a writer, comedian, and owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles. He has written for many shows and websites and magazines, he has his own podcast, "Get Up On This!" on the Earwolf Network, and he is a stand-up. Back in the day though, he was a rapper that went by the pseudonym of Hot Karl. Well, he first got his start in a R&B/rap duo with his friend Rickye, as a pre teen. They performed at local bar mitzvahs, clubs and talent shows. They even opened for some big name acts as young kids, but they got screwed by their first manager, as always seems to be the case, and Rickye walked away from music, and Karp focused on school.

Karp could not shake his love for rap music. He grew into a DJ for local house parties all over LA. He would also battle rap people all the time. For those that do not know what battle rapping is, it consists of two emcees trading jabs over one beat, and it is all from your immediate thoughts. No one writes, it is all freestyle. Well, Karp was very, very good at this. He did it al the way through high school, and continued when he went to college at USC. He was so good, he called into a radio show one day on his way to work that had an on air freestyling competition called "Roll Call", and won his first battle. Then, he won the next day, the next day, the next day, it turned into a 6 month winning streak. He could not be stopped. They even brought him into the studio, something they never did, and the guys running "Roll Call" where shocked at his appearance. He is a nerdy looking white dude, he wore ripped jeans and rock band t shirts and had black wire-rimmed glasses. Still, after seeing him in person, they kept him on, and he dominated everyone that came his way.

He retired from "Roll Call" after his 6 plus month run, and he thought it would end there. But, big names in the music industry caught on to what he was doing, and thus, Hot Karl became a hot commodity. He took meetings with some of the biggest names in the industry. He met his idols. He met up and coming people that are now mega stars. It was incredible to read these stories. The time he met Missy Elliot on the street and was forced to free style for her was uncomfortable and hilarious. His meeting with Mack 10, who literally opened a briefcase full of money for him, was awesome. It was so interesting to hear about all that goes into picking a label and starting to record an album.

Karp eventually signed with Jimmy Iovine and Interscope Records. While on the label, again, the people he meets and the stories he tells are fascinating. He gets into fake fights with Pink and Tyrese. He met Bubba Sparxxx right before he blew up with his song "Ugly". He has phone conversations with the RZA. He gets to work with a young, and hungry, Kanye West. He recorded songs with Mark McGrath, who got him super wasted afterward, and Mya. He was a hype man for Gerardo, of "Rico Suave" fame. He is told constantly that money is no object, and he is one of their top priorities.

But, as a lot of people in the music business run into, he was signed right after Interscope signed Eminem. We all know who Eminem is, but not many people know of Hot Karl. We come to learn later that Eminem may, or may not have, but I'm pretty sure he did, tell Jimmy Iovine and Interscope that he did not want any other white emcees to be as big a priority that he was, and they obliged. From there, his life spirals downward. His trip to Jamaica is frightening, and scared me to my core. I share a lot of the same mental stuff that Karp has, so it was easy to relate to what he was going through.

The story ends happily, but the journey to get there is, at times, scary, funny, bizarre, lavish, corny and stressful. I loved this book and I cannot recommend it enough. Check it out, I think you will like it.

ed note: we originally posted the wrong title for the book. It has been corrected.

Buy "Kayne West Owes Me 300 Dollars: And Other True Stories from a White Rapper Who Almost Made it Big" here.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is the current king of the rap battle in west St. Louis County. Challenge Ty by following him on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Relive, and Debate, Great Music with "The Rap Yearbook"

Time to download the book about all of our favorite downloaded songs

I just finished another book by another former Grantland writer, and, once again, I really enjoyed it. I just recently finished and reviewed the very excellent "Boys Among Men: The Preps to Pro Generation that Changed the NBA" by Jonathan Abrams. So, naturally I figured another Grantland writer would have an equally as good book. The book I chose was "The Rap Yearbook" by Shea Serrano.

"The Rap Yearbook" was given to me as a gift, and I was putting off reading it until I caught up on some other reading, but boy am I glad that I read this book. It is widely known that I'm a big hip hop fan. I've written about a lot of hip hop groups and have been listening to hip hop for many, many years. This book is a great read about the most important, not best, rap songs from the years 1979 to 2014. It was absolutely fascinating. Serrano is just around my age, so we have very similar taste in older hip hop, but very different taste in more recent hip hop.

Serrano picked the most important song for each year, so it wasn't necessarily the best. It was the most important/influential song during it's particular year. The early years are easy to agree with. In 1979 he has Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight". Obvious choice. Some other obvious choices that are very hard to disagree with, 1980 Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks", 1982 Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message", 1987 Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in Full", 1988 N.W.A's "Straight Outta Compton", basically all the late 80's, early 90's stuff is easily and correctly chosen. He also writes a few paragraphs as to why the song is the most important. He points out what the song is about, why it's important, the influence it had, the message it sends, Serrano pretty much breaks down every legit reason why the particular song is the song of the year.

The author and I definitely differ when it comes to 21st century hip hop, and that makes this book great. Serrano seems to think that more popular artist put out more significant songs. I understand why he thinks this. The more popular the artist, the more people it reaches, thus making it more important. I just prefer more underground, lesser known hip hop artists. That's my particular taste. I'd rather listen to Murs or Mr. Lif or Dilated Peoples than Kanye or Drake or, god help me, Macklemore. But, as I said above, I totally understand why he picks those people. Serrano may like more lesser known artists too, but that would not make for a good book for more than half the hip hop listening community. So, in the 21st century, he picks some songs that I disagree with. In 2005, he picks Kanye West's "Gold digger". Yeah, it's a popular song, with a very good beat, but I don't think any song featuring an actor, Jamie Foxx, should be considered. Also, the song is very misogynistic. But, I don't know what I would put in it's place. That's where Serrano has me beat. Serrano also picks other stuff I don't agree with in the 2000's. Stuff like 2008 Lil Wayne's "A Milli". It's a fine song, but Lil Wayne had peaked already by that time and he was definitely on a down swing. It felt more like a lifetime achievement to put him in this book. For 2009 he picked Drake's "Best I Ever Had". Drake is a terrible rapper and an even worse bandwagon sports fan. Drake stinks, his music stinks and he will be irrelevant in about 5 years. Drake does not belong in this book. For 2012, he picks Macklemore's "Same Love". Sure, the song has a very good message, but it is not a good rap song. Macklemore is the biggest poser in the history of music. He is worse than Elvis. He calls himself independent, but he does nation wide commercials and carries himself like a jackass. "Same Love" is important, but not because of Macklemore and I'm sure there is much better, much more important songs from 2012. Macklemore, in my opinion, is as bad as Drake. They are corporate rappers that make corporate, shitty rap music. For 2013 and 2014 Serrano picked two songs I didn't recognize. For 2013 he picked Big Sean's "Control" and it wasn't until I read why he picked it that it was the coming out party for Kendrick Lamar. Personally, he could've picked any song from Lamar's debut album, "good kid, m.A.A.d city" as the most important song of 2013 and it would have been a better choice. In 2014 he picked a song I never heard of by Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug called "Lifestyle". His reasoning was more about the emergence and weirdness of Young Thug than the music. Ok by me.

Another thing that makes "The Rap Yearbook" a great book is the collaborations. In each chapter, Serrano brings a fellow writer or friend in and they give their rebuttal to what should be the song of the year. So, we get at least two different perspectives in each chapter. Serrano isn't married to his choice and that makes him a wonderfully gifted writer. He wants outsiders points of view and ideas. He's open to hearing why he is wrong and why someone else is right. I love that.

"The Rap Yearbook" is a must read for all fans of rap music and music in general. It's fascinating and it brings you back to that time in your life. I knew exactly where I was when I first heard his 1999 choice, Eminem's "My Name Is". I can picture 16 year old me bobbing my head to his 1998 pick, DMX's "Ruff Ryder's Anthem". I vividly remember arguing with friends and family that Jay Z was the clear winner in his beef with Nas, and Serrano picked "Takeover" vs. "Ether" for his 2001 songs. This book is wonderful. Go out, buy it and read it. You won't be disappointed.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He is sorry to tell the head editor that 3rd Bass did not make the book. The head editor gave Ty the gas face. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.