Jay-Z w/ N.E.R.D., J. Cole, Wale @ the Air Canada Centre. Oct. 31.2009.

(via muchmusic)

I was really kind of torn whether or not to write anything about going to see Jay-Z (or, the G.O.A.T.) at the Air Canada Centre on Halloween. If you wanted a recap of the show you'd be best off to check out the Toronto Star or some other legitimate journalistic outfit, and, frankly, I'm not sure if the "indie" (mostly) music blog readership was interested in hearing about the Jigga Man's delivery of "Big Pimpin'" or how the light hit his $50,000 gold necklace. That said, I've never been one to exclusively recap and I've probably driven away all the dirty hippy snobs (maybe it's the name calling?), so, some thoughts on Jay-Z and the arena concert experience:

• Liz and I walked to the ACC (nice!), grabbed a hot dog on the way (nice!), in retrospect we should've planned our route because it took us approximately 10 mins longer to get there than it should've (25 mins instead of 15, who am I to complain).
  
• It was absolute Zoo outside the ACC. In addition to scalpers there was a hoard of guys giving out after-party flyers -- Halloween, Saturday night, etc. I'm a little bit claustrophobic and this was a little disconcerting... we had to try 2 or 3 entrances before we could find one that wasn't horrifyingly crowded.
  
• When we finally got in line there appeared to be a scalper trying to talk the (very) young couple out of a pair of tickets and he (the scalper) pulled out a wad of at least $500 bucks. This may become a re-occuring theme, but this is 1.A. -- things you don't see outside Lee's Palace.
• Also, and I realize it was Halloween, but things were a lot skankier than I was expecting. I mean, I'm sure that Jay-Z has some fans that are strippers, but I'm pretty sure that there aren't that many strippers within driving distance of Toronto.
• B/c of the great hot dog detour and finding an entrance where we felt like we weren't going to be mobbed or mugged, we only caught the last 3 mins of Wale and J. Cole. I like Wale, the mixtape about nothing was one of my favs of '08, but most of what he was saying was completely inaudible. No big deal.
• Pharrell was great, but haven't listened to any N.E.R.D. since their first album ... In Search Of so I only recognized a couple of songs. I forgot how raunchy "Lapdance" was...
• Kudos, to Pharrell for bringing 20-30 girls/women to come on stage and skank it up. If he owns a strip club, this is for sure how he auditions the dancers. On an unrelated note my (future un-born) daughter is never going to a rap concert.
  
• By the time everyone had found their seats it began to occur to me how strange a group the crowd was at the concert. In the immediate vicinity of where Liz and I were sitting: 35-40 Black Man w/ appropriately aged Asian GF/wife (right); group of 22 -27 West Indian kids dudes and chicks (further right); group of 16 - 20 Black/White rapper kids wearing jerseys and straight brimmed NewEra hats with the stickers still on (behind); two teenaged girls who snuck in mickeys (plural) of Vodka, and had some pretty serious rapper hands (left).
• Jay-Z appears, through the bottom of the stage no less, and appears to be completely unfazed by the fact that 20,000 (or however many people fit into a sold out ACC) are screaming at the top of their lungs (less me, I'm half perplexed amazed that this many people are that excited about seeing a single human person perform some songs).
  
• To be fair, at that point I was kind of in awe b/c: 1/the response of the crowd; 2/that he is so cool about it; and 3/that he just possesses that je ne sais pas that you can just feel from the first row of the 300 level.
• Was really impressed with how they set up the stage, very simple, band way back (two drum kits, horn section, plus other instruments), large dark black stage w/ a sort of vertical tiled video screen in behind. Ornate and visually impressive, but definitely not gaudy or over the top. I guess that's what you get when you have a million dollar (estimated) set-up budget.
  
• Jay-Z is an entertainer and a businessman, which is something that goes without saying, but his show was certainly reflective of his business interests. Not only does he put on good show (that's probably the best business), and give opening slots to his proteges, but he really canvassed his catalog to make sure that people weren't walking away thinking, I wish I had heart "insert song title here". Of course this meant that with 11 studio albums that he was just going to give us snippets... fine, no biggie. Continuing on that Jay-Z is a shrewd businessman trend, he spent an incredible amount of time 'connecting' with the audience -- thank you for coming, pointing out people in the audience, etc.,... have never seen anyone do that, that much... very shrewd.
• Lastly, if I had one gripe, it was all of his "if you dream it, you can do it B.S." ... that's all well and good, but you're not really helping anyone with that crap. This is the modern version of the Michael Jordan syndrome - where kids forget school for dreams of playing pro basketball. Of course this is doubly bad when it has never been easier to put out any type of music recording, there has never been less money in the music business, and there has never been a better role model for young minorities (Barak Obama has made smart, cool).
  

... you can feel the realness... The Best 5 Rap Albums of 2009... so far...

I start off virtually every post on hip-hop by explaining how I used to be into hip-hop, but then, for whatever reason, I stopped listening... I made a slow move to pop, rock, country, folk, roots, and virtually everything else. If you peruse through my best albums lists ('05 (3/10), '06 (1/15), '07 (3/20), '08 (6/28)) there's some hip-hop, and certainly more as a percentage at the margins in '05 and '08, but after the run of rap albums I've heard lately, I feel like I'm back. I'm getting into hip-hop again... I've got my tickets for Jay-Z at the ACC (thanks Allan), so, hip-hop, I'm ready... unless, of course, you let me down again...

Anyways, here are, in my opinion, the 5 best hip-hop albums of the year (so far, obvi), and the albums that are making me think the I may be leaving the hologram on the next fitted baseball cap that I buy (I'm thinking an argyle patterned Yankees hat)...


Mantis (Toronto) Still Life

I think I may have exhausted everything I had to say about Mantis' debut, Still Life, when I wrote about it last month (Pick of the Week #34), but every nice thing I said about it remains true. I think as an Emcee he may still need to find his voice, and what he has to say about the world, but I feel like his floor - that is, the least we can expect from him - is for him to be one of the best hip-hop producers to come out of Canada.
[mp3] Mantis - You Don't Know


Jay-Z (Brooklyn) The Blueprint 3

Reflecting on last week's post on the third installment of the Blueprint series, I feel exactly the same way - and a few friends have said they agreed with my analysis - but, if I was underselling how good some of the singles were, I shouldn't have. Without going on and on, this album is chalk full of great singles and songs that are bound to be up in da klub, and they're awesome. At least 3/4/5 of these are going to make the wedding (mine - yeah, ladies, you're out of luck, sorry) playlist. So, I guess if you were looking for an album, its not really that, but its an awesome collection of songs that probably would've been more suited to show up as guest appearances on other albums...
Video: "Run this Town" on Youtube.


Asher Roth (Morrisville, PN) Asleep in the Bread Aisle

Mad props, respekt, etc. to my buddy Special K for throwing Asher Roth's "College" rmx ft. Ludacris on a mix CD for me. While my initial reaction was to cast him as an Eminem knock-off, which, given his flow, wouldn't necessarily be far off; after listening to Asleep in the Bread Aisle a pile of times in the last week, he has the self-awareness (and a substantially different, much more suburban upbringing) that pretty clearly differentiates him from Em. I'm not going to tread too much on what is sure to be a pick of the week soon, so, suffice to say that its awesome, and you should really, really, watch the "Lark On My Go-Kart" (yes, that is a Lark Voorhies (Lisa Turtle) reference) video.
Video: "Lark On My Go-Kart"



Mos Def (Brooklyn) The Ecstatic

Again, this album deserves more than a paragraph, and it'll get it (I hope), but I may remind you all that the Mighty Mos released BlackStar 11 years ago, Black on Both Sides ten years ago, and then proceeded to do nothing of note (as far as I'm concerned) except for performing "Close Edge" in Dave Chappelle's car... until now. I may be way off, but The Ecstatic feels like it might be a Quintin Tarentino movie in musical form...


Tor (MTL) & Sufjan Stevens Illinoize

When I wrote about this album back in March (March!) I said it might well end up being the best album of the year, and despite a littany of hyperbolic posts proclaiming the awesomeness of other albums, Illinoize, I think, is still the album of the year. Not to take anything away from the others, because over the last month or so I feel like I've come across a dozen 'list worthy' albums, but Illinoize, for me, strikes a great balance between being creative, something that gets me doing the white-boy-bob, while still being "musical" (not beats made by robots). Is it a little un-fair that its a mash-up album? Yeah, probably, but I don't really care. Illinoize is right in my wheel house (lush orchestral pop music meets thoughtful hip-hop), and its spectacular. The 7 song EP is also a free download at illinoize.biz, which is insane. Truly, truly, awesome.

[mp3] Tor/Sufjan Stevens - The Dress Looks Nice On You/Make Me Feel That Way (ft. Gift of Gab)
[mp3] Tor/Sufjan Stevens - Night Zombies/Talkin' My Shit (ft. Brother Ali)

My Two Cents on The Blueprint 3

If you own (or borrow regularly) a computer and/or have an internet connection, you may know that Jay-Z (you know, the owner of the Brooklyn Nets) has just (like, today) released the final edition of his Blueprint Trilogy appropriately titled, The Blueprint 3. I think for a lot of people this was a pretty highly anticipated release i.e. according to wikipedia people were guessing which songs were going to be on the album, who was producing it, etc. etc., ... you may have guessed that I was not one of those people (doing the anticipating).

But, just because I haven't been hitting refresh on The Blueprint 3 wikipedia entry since Jay-Z released his second post retirement album, Kingdom Come, doesn't mean that I wasn't excited about TBP3. I would definitely classify the original Blueprint as a 'classic' hip-hop album. I might also be the one person in the world that would say that Jay's Black Album was even better than the Blueprint; this may be due to the Black Album's ability to spawn some unbelievable remix albums (Kev Brown's Brown Album, 9th Wonder's Black is Back, Kno vs. Hov The White Albulum -- not a typo) and, of course Danger Mouse's Jay-Z/Beatles mash-up Grey Album.

Given the Jigga Man's place on the R.O.B.'s Mount Rushmore of Rappers and all the hype surrounding TBP3 I feel like he's managed to live up to the hype admirably. I'm not sure the album is stronger than either the original Blueprint or the Black Album, but there's certainly enough there to keep me (and others) happy. If I were going to be picky, I'd say there were a few too many guests (only 3 songs don't feature another artist), the album is too long and could really have done with probably three less songs ('Venus VS. Mars' 'Hate' and 'Reminder'), and could have been a little bit more sonically/thematically cohesive. But, hey, things could definitely be a lot worse; like, I'm going to pretend they never happened Kingdom Come and American Gangster (minus 'Roc Boys') worse. At the very least, if you like any hip-hop at all there are a slew of really great tracks ("Real As It Gets" "Run This Town" "Off That" "A Star is Born" and so on) and you're bound to like a couple of them...

Bottom line, like with any release of this magnitude - which creates expectations - people are going to be disappointed, its inevitable... anyone remember the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible? Yeah, same sort of deal. It didn't really matter how good it was, it wasn't going measure up to Funeral, and it definitely wasn't going to measure up to the next Arcade Fire album, and if you're going to take the time to bag on Neon Bible then there probably wasn't going to be much that would keep you happy in the first place, so, please view this as the place to not complain about TBP3...