Hip Hop Songs of the Year: 2015

From club bangers to politically charged anthems, old heads to new, g-funk to trap; hip hop has had its most dominant year in a long time, both critically and commercially. A wonderfully diverse year that showcased the extraordinary depth of the genre that everyone loves to hate, here are my ten hip hop tracks of the year:

Vince Staples - Lift Me Up
Perhaps the funniest personality in hip-hop of 2015 released the year's darkest album. Lift Me Up channels the album's themes into one brilliant song; revealing the horrors of the gang lifestyle, the hypocrisy of the white hip-hop community, and the extreme racism still plaguing black Americans.

Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker the Berry
To Pimp a Butterfly is THE album of the year, nothing else in hip-hop really came close. To pick a single song is incredibly difficult, and frankly nearly every song is deserving of a place on this list, but forced to choose only one, The Blacker the Berry just takes it. It's the most 'traditional' hip hop song on the album, stripped of the jazz, funk and soul influences that flow throughout, leaving Kendrick to do nothing but spit the hardest bars he ever has. An angry, tortured introspective piece that leaves me stunned every time.

YG - Twist My Fingaz
In 2016 g-funk will rise again, or at least we can pray that it will after YG released this callback to the beloved West Coast genre. There's little to say other than the production defines the song, and if this is indicative of the sound for his next album My Still Krazy Life then we're in for something special.

Freddie Gibbs - Fuckin up the Count
Sneaking in at the end of the year was Freddie Gibbs Shadow of a Doubt, the follow-up to his brilliant Madlib produced hit Cocaine Piñata. The album lacks the consistency of Piñata, but still has a lot of highs, and Gibbs further shows his ability to rap over any beat. Fuckin Up the Count is my favourite song off of the album, going in hard whilst leaving room for Gibbs' more personal side to seep in. 

Joey Bada$$ - Paper Trail$
It's easy to forget that Joey's only 20, the NY 90s that inspires him is so prominent in his work it sounds as though he's been rapping since he came out the womb. Paper Trail$ is the best callback to this from B4.DA.$$. DJ Premier is the premier (pun intended) sound of NY 90s and he brings it back here; Joey brings the bars and Preemo the beat - if you like 90s NY it's hard not to like Joey.

Travis Scott - Antidote
Rodeo was packed full of hits, including 3500, Nightcrawler and Maria I'm Drunk. Antidote was the best one - the arrogance of Scott coming through over a hazy, drug-fuelled, haunting beat - a club banger with a melancholic twist.

Future - Peacoat
Few had a year as big as Future, 2015 seeing the rapper release a collaboration with Drake, alongside DS2 and Beastmode. A divisive figure in the mainstream, many view his auto-tuned style as simply terrible. I go back and forth, but with Peacoat Future brings the bars and varies up his flow all over a muted, soothing beat. Endlessly replayable.

Dr. Dre - Animals (ft. Anderson .Paak)
Compton wasn't quite the instant classic many hoped it would be, but it did shine the light on Anderson .Paak, and we can be very thankful for that. Animals is the most politically charged song on the album; Dre teaming up with DJ Premier for the first time to produce a song with an angry 90s core covered in a smooth 2015 gloss. It's powerful and poignant, a rarity in Dre's discography, and .Paak is the star - his continued rise in 2016 will be a joy to watch.

Kanye West - All Day
A quiet year for Kanye all told, with few headline stealing antics and a delay to SWISH meaning he was almost forgotten as music's most eclectic star. Of course, music's "last remaining rockstar" wouldn't leave 2015 without ruffling a few feathers, most notably at the BRIT awards where with a flame thrower and a group of British grime stars Kanye put on a performance that terrified old white women and TV executives alike. Straight fire, indeed.

Drake - Hotline Bling
Hip hop's biggest artist had another good year; two number 1 albums, the squashing of Meek Mill, and this song. Impossible to escape since its release, its undeniably catchy, and with the release of the uniquely hilarious and brilliant video Drake secured its status as the biggest hip hop song of the year.

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Scarface - Deeply Rooted Review

Its been seven years since the last Scarface album, the well received Emeritus, and whilst I've only become a big Face fan within the last few months, the knowledge that he was to release a new album this year filled me with anticipation. As always, Scarface does not disappoint, and whilst the days of a stone-cold classic like The Diary or The Fix are probably behind us, Face always delivers strong content, and Deeply Rooted is no exception.

The album is fundamentally split into two styles: one where the production and lyrical content is that of Scarface as an exaggerated character - drug-slinging, gang banging and trapped; combined with Face's threatening voice and faster, more violent production. The other is far more introspective, softer instrumental production broken up with melodic hooks, which in turn tonally reinforces Scarface's emotional side, exploring ideas of fatherhood, his religion and self-worth. It's a contrast that has never been too distant in Face's previous work, where albums like The Diary have presented lyrical contrast from the legendary, haunting "I Seen a Man Die" to "G's" near-bragadoccio story telling. Yet, with Deeply Rooted this contrast is far more forced in the production styles than ever before, lending an album that feels slightly less cohesive as a whole, for example in the placement of the last song. It's another strong song on the album (there isn't a bad one on here), but it offers such a sharp tonal contrast after "Voices" that it always feels jarring, even after several re-listens.

Elsewhere on the album, the first eight tracks present the aforementioned rapper character, with typical themes presented in the always enjoyable Scarface flow, yet the anger present on "The Hot Seat" at Face's own incarceration and the chaotic fear at the heart of "Steer" are standout tracks, alongside some excellent work from Papa Reu and Z-Ro. It's worth mentioning, the two big name features on the album (Nas and Rick Ross) frankly deliver disappointing verses, neither of which really warrant further discussion. The final seven tracks are where Scarface starts to open his heart up a little bit, "God" is a typically strong John Legend feature, but it's elevated by Scarface's hopeful and tragic exploration of his relationship with God. "Keep it Movin" looks at relationships and love, whilst "All Bad" and "Voices" delve into a melancholic look at life and Face's own valuation of his life. However, it's "You" that is the standout song on the album, with as-always excellent vocal work from Cee-Lo Green, Scarface goes in hard on his mistakes in life, opening up on his relationship with his mother and the fears that his mistakes in life will impact his own children. It's worth noting that "Anything" seems to advocate violence towards women, something that Scarface probably should have been mature enough to exclude, but it's far from anything worth spoiling the album as a whole.

Ultimately, whilst for many older fans of Scarface the wait has been long, it should not disappoint. The production is strong and always in cohesion with the lyrics, even if the album lacks a cohesive sense overall, and the hooks are all worthy of praise too. Lyrically, Scarface never lets you down, and as always his range of thematic depth after all this time is still impressive, the breadth of honesty that he writes with nearly always leads to an emotional, haunting project, and Deeply Rooted is another worthy addition to his discography.

8/10

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The 5 Hip-Hop Biopics I Want to See

With the recent release of Straight Outta Compton, the biopic of rap group NWA, storming into cinemas and raking in a tidy $60.2 million along the way, we might just be about to see some of the greatest hip hop artists get the big screen treatment. Here are the five that I'd love to see:

1. MF DOOM

Superhero films are all the rage right now, so it only seems fair that THE super villain gets some screen time of his own, and after all, there are fewer interesting stories to tell in hip hop than that of the enigmatic DOOM. Starting his career in the early 90s with the hip-hop group KMD (then known as Zev Love X), alongside his brother Subroc and Onyx the Birthstone Kid, the group were weeks away from releasing a politically charged classic in Black Bastards before tragedy struck. Subroc was killed in a car accident, and the record label dropped Black Bastards due to its controversial cover art. From here, it looked as though DOOM's career in hip-hop was finished, he spent years out of the industry, allegedly living it rough on the streets of New York, determined to take revenge on the "industry that had so badly deformed him". And take revenge he did, starting out free-styling at open mic events wearing women's stockings to cover his face, he would rapidly take on the moniker of MF DOOM and acquire the infamous mask. 1999 would see the release of his classic album Operation Doomsday, and the next seven or so years would see DOOM go on a streak in hip-hop that only a few can hold a candle to. DOOM's life, whilst rapped in so much mystery, is ripe for a biopic, because it's so damn interesting - few MCs can hold a candle to his discography, and even fewer to his character building (King Geedorah, Viktor Vaughn, DOOM). The life of Daniel Dumile deserves to be told on the big screen, for its not just a story of the black struggle in America, it's also a story of the inner strength of one man to fight back against personal demons, industry bullshit and pure bad luck to become one of the greatest to hold a mic. Just remember the all caps when you spell the man's name!


2. AFRIKA BAMBAATAA

Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. These are the three men who created hip-hop from the fires of the Bronx, but it's Afrika that has the most interesting story to tell. From a young age Afrika was a key player in the Bronx gangs, acting as a warlord for the Black Spades - one of the biggest gangs in the Bronx - yet it was a trip to Africa that changed his view on life, and thus changed hip hop entirely. Hip-hop became a medium that could incite change, and Afrika was one of the most important figures in this. Founding the Universal Zulu Nation, Afrika helped draw kids out of the gangs and into the music scene, with the intention of building a youth movement from a new generation of outcasts that would have an authentic, liberating world view. Alongside his outstanding political work, Bambaataa had an important impact on the music itself, releasing a series of genre defining electro-tracks in the 1980s that would heavily influence the entire genre. Bambaataa is a legend in the game, he took hip-hop from a cultural movement and moulded it into a social and political one, helping change the lives of countless underprivileged youths throughout the entire world, Bambaataa - more than anyone else on this list - deserves a biopic so that he can continue to inspire countless generations.

3. WU-TANG CLAN

When it comes to hip hop as a purely musical medium, it's hard to top the simple number of classics that the Wu-Tang Clan has released over the years; from their genre defining debut Enter the 36 Chambers to Only Built for Cuban Linx Pt. II fifteen years later, no hip hop group can claim to have lasted for so long and so successfully as they have. The chances of getting ten of the most talented artists together, each with their own distinctive personalities, and managing to creating classic after classic after classic is unbelievable. This would be an incredibly fun film to create as well, from their days of selling drugs so that they could fund the studio time for their debut, to selling out worldwide tours and working with the best in the game (Biggie, Nas, DOOM etc.), the Wu-Tang Clan have most likely got an endless stream of stories to tell.

4. KANYE WEST

To be completely honest, this isn't a serious entry into the list, not because Kanye doesn't deserve it, but more because of the assumed idea I have in my head for this film. If there is ever going to be a Kanye biopic, I can only imagine that Kanye wants to star, direct, write, basically do everything with the film so that he can tell his story in the most outlandish way possible. Kanye's the most important hip hop artist of the last ten years, releasing classic albums, influencing the entire sound of the industry and just about pissing off half the world along the way, there are few characters like Ye. And so imagine what a film we would get if Kanye directed his own life's story - one thing is for certain, it would definitely divide a lot of people.

5. LAURYN HILL

Lauryn Hill is perhaps the most tragic story on this list, as she's arguably the most talented musician on the list. With the Fugees she released unbelievable records, and with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill she released not only one of the greatest hip hop albums ever, but one of the greatest albums ever, period. Since then, however, her story has not been the dream it deserved to be - struggles with fame and anger at the music industry itself led to numerous controversies, and she has not released an album since her 1999 classic. Instead reunions with The Fugees came and went, she managed to infuriate the Catholic Church (not that that's a bad thing) all the while trying to balance a personal life, before in 2013 she served three months in prison for tax evasion. Recently though Lauryn Hill appears to be back to form, narrating an award winning documentary, and garnering critical acclaim for her musical work for this year's Nina Simone documentary. Despite this, in many ways, I don't want this biopic to be made, or at least not yet, Lauryn Hill doesn't need the full-force of the public eye judging her again, even if her story is an incredibly fascinating, yet sad one.
             

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Dreams and Nightmares: How Miyazaki cemented his place as a contemporary Walter Benjamin figure through ‘The Wind Rises’

Disclaimer: If you have not read the works of Walter Benjamin, specifically his collection of essays entitled ‘Illuminations’ (published by Pimlico), then I thoroughly recommend you do so to better understand this essay. Although I recognise that he is a relatively obscure figure, having never heard of him myself before my university course, and can be quite difficult to engage with, it is seriously worth it for his words [far more than helping to understand mine a bit better].

When I was first introduced to the works of Walter Benjamin[1] it took me quite a long time to grasp the concepts that Benjamin was arguing for, and even longer to begin to agree with them. The ‘aura’ of art seemed like a silly argument, and the fear of a technology-based world seemed like the trite writings of a romanticist – clinging on to notions of the past that were simply not true. Over time, I realized that to simply write Benjamin off as a romanticist was naïve, because it ignores the complexity and intelligence that he brings to each topic he tackles. It is also difficult to blame Benjamin for his dark world view, as a Marxist Jew living in Nazi occupied Germany there was no future for him, a bleak reality that culminated in his suicide 1940. 

In many ways, I’ve had the same criticisms of Miyazaki, a man whose films revel in a world and culture long forgotten, yearning for a return to nature and childhood innocence that is simply at ends with the global spread of Western capitalism. I had also written off many of his films as idealistic, despite the beautiful positivity they had at the core of them, yet in The Wind Rises it appears as though Miyazaki has written off this notion as well. It is a beautiful film, but a wholly melancholic one, reflecting on failed dreams, death, love, art and the impact of technology. A film that encompasses everything Benjamin stood for, and in doing so presents Miyazaki as a contemporary Benjamin figure, one who despite the positivity that he yearns for recognises he is fighting a futile battle. Consider this quote from Miyazaki in a 2014 interview, “I think the peaceful time that we are living in is coming to an end”, it is reminiscent of Benjamin’s work at the end of his life – the signs of a once hopeful genius worn down through attrition by the negativity that he (rightly or wrongly) perceives surrounds him in society.

Take the opening scene, for instance, it is a dream sequence involving a young Jiro flying an airplane. He soars through the air, the look of the plane seemingly defying reality (especially for the time), and it is accompanied by a tranquil score that sets the tone as one of beauty, imagination and purity. This tone, however, is quickly done away with, the scene transitioning into one of horror and destruction – the other side of flight. Jiro’s beautiful dreams turns to a nightmare, the bombs of the planes above destroying his aircraft and send him plummeting to a brutal death – of course, he wakes up though. It is characteristic of The Wind Rises that the opening scene is one of a dream sequence turning into a nightmare, it appears a statement reflecting Miyazaki’s own transition from positivity to cynicism; a once beautiful dream of the future that Miyazaki held has turned into one of destruction and nightmares.[2]

It is not long before Jiro dreams again of flight and planes, this time occurring after learning of the great Italian airplane designer Caproni. In these dreams, Jiro meets Caproni who flies extravagant, gorgeous planes designed to transport people, not bombs. A man who has devoted his life to engineering planes, with the belief that “Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.” It is easy to posit that Miyazaki is entirely dismissive of planes as a technology/art, but that would be foolish, for like Benjamin he has always cautiously recognised the potential of future technologies – consider Benjamin’s appraisal of film as a medium that could produce it’s own art, something many critics of the time refused to recognise, despite his own belief in the traditional arts of storytelling through spoken and written language. Yet, if “engineers can turn dreams into reality”, for Miyazaki they just as easily turn nightmares into reality, which is key with the story of Jiro, most famous for designing the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter-plane, renowned worldwide at the time for being a scarily effective killing machine[3]. Despite the dreams Jiro has of creating planes that are fast, efficient, aerodynamic and beautiful, he never considers the end to which his means are being used for – death. Jiro seems to be a symbol of all that is cruel and wrong in the world for Miyazaki, a man who had dreams to create something beautiful and for the entire world, but due to circumstance outside of his control by men more selfish and powerful than he, ended up becoming infamous for his killing machine. This is also not to say that Miyazaki passes moral judgement on Jiro, for Jiro is merely a talented cog caught up in the Japanese war machine, it is rather a tragic statement on war itself that his talents must be used to such futile ends.[4]

At this point, it seems odd to suggest that Miyazaki is so cynical for the future, as surely he is criticising WW2 and Japan’s involvement, not the whole progression of technology itself. For instance, Porco Rosso, another film focused on airplanes and war (WW1) offers a far more balanced message at its centre, Miyazaki recognizing the horrors of destructive technology, but also acknowledging the good they can bring to the world.[5] Yet, it is in no doubt in my mind that the only acknowledgment of the good technology brings to the world in The Wind Rises is its potential for beauty through dreams, never its reality. A scene with a paper airplane is one of delight and humour, an innocent scene in which Jiro and his fiancée share a tender moment over the wonder of flight. Sadly, it is only a paper airplane, once again Miyazaki restricts the beauty of flight to outside of its reality, and when Jiro finally achieves record times with his new plane at the end of the film it is not met with celebration from him, like his wonderment at design here, but rather the feeling that something terrible has happened. The reality of flight can never be truly celebrated for Miyazaki, for with it comes the caveat of destruction and death, here that is literally with Naoki’s death causing an elemental, otherworldly reaction in Jiro, one that transcends his dreams of flight.

Here, Miyazaki returns to the themes that he has championed throughout his directorial career, those of human connection, love and the simplicity of the past. Like Benjamin’s terror at the loss of the storyteller in society, Miyazaki suggests that technology is not bringing people together, but tearing them apart – he has been quoted as being against today’s children’s current reliance on television, computers, tablets etc. and is a champion of traditional, practical skills[6]. The beauty and humanity in The Wind Rises comes from the relationship between Jiro and Naoki, one that Jiro places over his own ambitious career, and as this is a highly fictionalised account of Jiro’s life by Miyazaki, it allows him to stress that these human connections are far more important than technology can ever be.

The ending of the film is one of melancholy, Jiro once again dreams of Caproni who tells him that he has created something beautiful, but it feels like a hollow claim amidst all the destruction that has come from Jiro’s creation, and Naoki tells Jiro to live his life to the fullest. But, in a Japan that has been ruined by WW2, and as a man that lacks the most important thing to him, his wife, there is a recognition from the viewer that Jiro cannot live his life to the fullest, for he is lacking fundamental human elements to this. For Jiro, like Miyazaki, the future is not one of happiness, love and beauty, but rather a despairing and melancholic one, suffering from the impact of destructive technologies and lacking in human connection. It is a lot like the future Benjamin foresaw in his writings, conveniently also writing at the time the film is set, where the on-set of mass industrialisation and the rise of the information age would be irrecoverably damageable to society. 

It is ultimately strange to suggest that Miyazaki has ended his career on a melancholic note; a man who has throughout his films championed the wonder of the world through children, nature, and art; who saw the beauty of the world where others saw the darkness; yet, in his swan-song piece The Wind Rises Miyazaki reflects on the end of peace, the loss of humanity and the horrors of technology. For Miyazaki, he recognises the potential of all of these elements, but no longer does nature “win”, or love triumph, instead a universal sense of suffering forebodes, and the future does not seem so bright as it once did.  

[1] Illuminations, a collection of his essays. 

[2] We are drawn back to the Miyazaki quote previously used, “I think the peaceful time that we are living in is coming to an end”

[3] At one point during WW2, it had a kill ratio of 12 to 1. 

[4] A scene roughly 1 hour and 37 minutes in sees a howling laughter to Jiro’s suggestion of “leave out the guns” – a sad reality for Miyazaki.

[5] Contrasting scenes of Porco Rosso saving innocent people from pirates, and reflecting on the deaths of hundreds of his comrades.  

[6] http://kotaku.com/5756870/hayao-miyazaki-advocates-knives-fire-making–and-other-stone-age-skills

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A New Home

For the last two years or so I've been writing over on tumblr exclusively and finally decided it was time to move on, mainly in an effort to gain more readers, but also because now I'm past the stage of merely writing for the sake of it (reviews etc.) This new blog will hopefully be more successful, with writing that encapsulates myself as a person far more clearly and is not limited to a handful of interests and styles, but could range from hip-hop reviews to literary theory analysis. Somewhat ironically, my first post to gauge how blogger works as a site will be a re-post of my last blog entry on tumblr, but one that is indicative of the stuff I feel worthy of putting on this new blog. Although, I'm sure in a few years time I'll be looking back on it in distaste like I am with my older work now. Anyway, enough rambling, welcome! (www.orangetrain95.tumblr.com)

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