Hello. As I am now unable to access the internet from work (*sob*) my posting here will be sporadic at best. So I am limiting my topics to only the most thought-provoking and important subjects.
Today: my review of R&G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece, which is the new album by Snoop Dogg.
This is the first of Snoop's album that I have listened to all the way through since Doggystyle, his sort-of debut (his real debut was The Chronic by Dr Dre). Back in 1992, when that album first came out, he seemed fresh and new. Noone else rapped like that, and Dre's G-Funk production was considered by many to be the cutting edge of popular hip-hop. He had a Doggy in his name back then, which lead to some pretty amusing right-wing pronouncements that "Public Enemy Number One is a man called Snoop Doggy Dogg!" He was even better known for his violent lyrics, his rampant misogyny and his accomplice-to-murder charge than for his music.
Twelve years later, Snoops' lyrics are still violent and misogynistic, though he's long since beaten the murder rap and Dr Dre is too busy producing Eminem and getting beaten up at awards ceremonies to tag along. The new album is exec-produced by superstar R&B and hip-hop producers The Neptunes.
There's twenty tracks on this cd. That's way too many. There should have been about twelve, and they should all have produced by the same people. The album is an overstuffed melange of different sounds that don't flow and don't fit well together. Which is a shame 'cause there are a few really good songs in here, and a couple of major surprises, one right at the end.
Perhaps the best track is number three, Drop It Like It's Hot, the first of five tracks produced by The Neptunes. It's typically quirky stuff from the N.E.R.D. boys and makes great use of someone making "click, clock" noises with their tongue to form the beat. Pharrell raps on this track, and I swear to god noone would let him get away with it if he wasn't 1/2 of the production team.
Now let me complain for a minute. There are some live instruments on this album, which is great. There is also Bootsy Collins on this album, which is also great. But at no point does Bootsy play bass! This is far, far too common an occurence; even his own last album, Play With Bootsy, only features two songs where he slaps it and one of those is only 60 seconds long. He contributes weird shouts and kooky comments to the otherwise disappointing Can I Get A Flicc Witchu.
Ups & Downs claims to feature the Bee Gees, but as it turns out they're only sampled and I couldn't hear them anyway. Which is just as well because I loathe the Bee Gees.
The Bidness, produced by Soopafly, is surprisingly good. Snoop D.O. Double G is the standard "spell my name" track. Let's Get Blown, the second Neptunes track, is their standard R&B sort of stuff, perhaps to contrast with the crudeness of the title and lyrics. It doesn't work. Boring.
Set Yo Game Up, produced by & featuring a psychotically-unhinged sounding rap from Lil' Jon (no not Jon Ball! I actually don't know who this guy is) is both the most misogynistic track on the album, and provides a nice rebuttal from someone called Trina (whoever she is) which might help out those who take this sort of thing at face value.
Immediately following this is Perfect, the third Neptunes track, with an even more chilled-out R&B sound. This song is the first big surprise - it's a love song, delivered with a straight face. It's not very good, but it comes as a weird surprise which is probably the intended effect.
The next notable track is Signs, the fourth Neptunes track, which features Justin Timberlake singing something about not fucking with him. It's a stright-out pop song with Snoop rapping over it, and the result is truly as odd as anything else on her. Their final track on the album as producers, Pass It Pass It, is - obviously - a dope-smoking track, which references Rick James and in particular his song Below the Funk (Pass the J).
A track featuring Nelly (no thank you) gives way to the album's absolute shocker: a straight note-for-note (though not quite word-for-word, especially the intro) cover of Curtis Mayfield's brilliant anti-drug song No Thing On Me (here retitled No Thang On Me of course). Snoop croons the whole thing in a passable Curtis falsetto, while Bootsy whispers his approval in the background. Seems that Snoop has decided to stop smoking weed, at least for a while.
So that's me for a while. Fuck Christmas. I hope somebody actually read this far.
Big ups to Billy, Daryl, Svend, Beverly, Jeremy, Anne-Marie, Scott, Scott, Darren, Darren, Shontell, Jen, George, Amy, Ian, Steph, Brad, & Paul (and also my mom) for making my baby sister welcome this weekend. She's a cool kid, huh?
No offence to those who weren't there on Sunday - just 'cause you weren't invited doesn't mean I don't love ya. You shoulda come to industrial Petone on Saturday night instead. ;-)
I got less than 12 hours sleep for the third weekend on a row. Quite tired now. But happy.
Tomorrow I meet my sister for the first time.
She's like 22.
Nervous?
Yes.
Someone once said that "every cynic is a disillusioned romantic."
Blanket statements are never true (including this one), but that one seems about right to me.
I was going to say something about "chick flicks for blokes" but I can't be arsed now.
Do you realise that next year will be the 60th anniversary of the human race demonstrating that it has the power to utterly destroy itself, and we still haven't actually done it? That is the greatest reason to hope for the future that I can think of.
"Either murder is a crime, or it is not. If it is not, why punish it? If it is, then by what perverse logic do you punish it by the same crime?"
- The Marquis De Sade
This is my 100th post.
To celebrate, I've closed comments on most of my older posts to prevent spam. Which has been a real big problem here for a while. I didn't wanna, but I gotta.
Homework today:
David Lange's address in the 1985 Oxford debate, titled Nuclear Weapons Are Morally Indefensible.
Betty Bowers: America's Best Christian!
I love you... you've got to let me eat your brains!
24 hours. 14 movies:
Kill Squad ('80s American kung fu - cheesy fun)
Napoleon Dynamite (new quirky comedy - not bad)
Team America: World Police ("America - f**k yeah!")
Saw (new disturbing horror - effective but a bit dumb)
Night of the Lepus (giant killer bunnies - boring)
The Brain Eaters ('50s sci-fi with Leonard "Nemoy")
Up! (the late Russ Meyer - more insane than usual)
Paparazzi (brand-new '80s-style thriller - sub-DePalma)
Maniacs On the Loose (aka The Thrill Killers - boring)
Anacondas: Search for the Blood Orchid (jungle adventure with horror elements - fun)
Fangs (bizarre '70s Texas horror - strange)
Spooked (brand-new New Zealand "thriller" - boring)
Return of the Living Dead (brains - brains!)
I am now dead but still moving around.
This is supposed to be a comment on Morgue's blog, on this entry. Due to a glitch we seem unable to reconcile I'm banned from that blog, so I'm posting my comments here.
I think the thing we need to remember is that it never ends. There is always more to do, and a lot of it will always be urgent.
To provide a clumsy analogy: if Doctor Bob doesn't cure Jo's pneumonia, she's going to die. But if he doesn't patch up Jo's gaping head wound first, she's not going to die of pneumonia.
So who's going to the 24-hour Movie Marathon at the Paramount tomorrow night?
Should be hard to stay awake through. :)
My take on the US election results:
Oh well, at least we're assured the fall of the American Empire within the decade. Shame so many people will have to die in the meantime.
I'm not just being glib. They've voted for less economy and more war; they've voted for other countries not interfering in their interference with other countries. America will be broke and hated by the end of Bush's first elected term.
There's not much between Reps & Dems in general, but that's not all we have here. The Bush Administration are not merely conservative. They are radical right. And now they've really won.
Get ready to fight.
That fraudster John Tamihere has resigned.
But am I wrong in thinking Donna Awatere-Huata is still a Member of Parliament?
Seems to me that stealing money from a foundation for teaching kids to read is worse than collecting a golden handshake.
GTA: San Andreas is (predictably) enormous fun. I've barely scratched the surface (2% complete, only a tiny fraction of the map open) but already I've got to ride bikes, play old-school arcade games, shoot hoops, dance, and do several other things the earlier games never even hinted at.
I was also able to eat so much fried chicken I puked and shave my head into a Mr. T mohawk. Which made me happy, much more so than if I'd done them for real.
Your homework for this week is to listen to Pet Sounds by the Beack Boys. Even if you have to go and buy a copy. Here's what Paul McCartney says about it:
"I figure no one is educated musically 'til they've heard that album."
And here's what George Martin says:
"If there is one person that I have to select as a living genius of pop music, I would choose Brian Wilson. Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper wouldn't have happened. Pepper was an attempt to equal Pet Sounds."
Fly, my pretties!