RAVEN MACK is a mystic poet-philosopher-artist of the Greater Appalachian unorthodox tradition. He does have an amazing PATREON, but also *normal* ARTIST WEBSITE too.

Friday, June 2

[HH3os] The DS2 Drown: A Soundtrack trio

(1st round match-up 24 of 27)

Let this slip to the wayside for a week or so because, well, been doing shit (new job) which infringes upon discretionary fuck-off time. Oh well. Cockroaches like me have a light shown on them, and we freeze or scurry for a minute to avoid the stomping foot, and eventually fairly quickly we adapt and find a new place to be discreet as fuck, all day every day. You can’t stop cockroach people.

Future – DS2
(released July 17, 2015; #19 on 2015 Pitchfork Albums of the Year list)
Though I acquired a better appreciation for Future through this project, I also still hate him, because his image is one of pretending to do drugs. What’s the point of that? At this later stage in my life, due to physical inability to be indestructible, I no longer personally endorse drugs. But I do not unendorsed them either, for the right types of humans. But to pretend to do drugs, to become a marketable musician? That shit’s weird. It’s like corporate snitching, to be honest, so I can’t fuck with it. If you’re gonna make half your songs about drugs, you better be doing drugs galore, not just making cool sounds like you’re mixing up codeine in Sprite in the beginning for effect.
I also find all this shit an abomination against DJ Screw, which for whatever reason I take personally, probably because I feel like Screw was more of a savant genius than anybody has ever given him credit for. So much shit going on in music now he created, almost accidentally, like all great artists. So somebody pretending to be on codeine to make half shitty music with a corporate emblem emblazoned upon it, I don’t know, that shit bothers me, although it’s a symptom of capitalism itself, not really Future. (It also should be noted that capitalism has no future.) TWO STARS (**) because I am sitting outside right now so I feel extra positive.

Dr. Dre – Compton: A Soundtrack
(released August 7, 2015; #32 on 2015 Pitchfork Albums of the Year list)
It is funny Dre called this “A Soundtrack” because at this point in his career (outsourcing, i.e. stealing beats from undiscovered producers; utilizing studio tricks only he has ever learned) all Dre makes are soundtrack albums. Literally every album that he has heavy fingerprints all over sounds like a soundtrack made for a movie nobody ever bothered to actually make, or else you get it in one of those “50 Action Movies” packs at the box store.
This Compton soundtrack is not all that wonderful because it bounces all over the place, which I guess is what producer albums are supposed to do at this point, but there’s a lot I hate. Snoop Dogg trying to sound relevant – I hate. Eminem doing his at this point robotic jibberjibberjibberjabber jibberjabberjibberjabber style – I hate. But the production is tight as fuck, if uninspired, which is due to fact Dre has access to penthouse recording technology other people don’t even know exist. Normal people making beats in pawn shop MacBooks but Dre is using Google servers for shit. THREE STARS (***) but again, probably not that good but I’m feeling positive.

Archy Marshall – A New Place 2 Drown
(released December 10, 2015; #33 on 2015 Pitchfork Albums of the Year list)
I had no idea what this was, nor why it was listed on a Pitchfork list, but then I listened and it was some British ass poetry rap type shit, all sappy and painful to listen to, and I understood. It was horrible, and I looked it up, and I guess they are two brothers, and I hope somebody breaks both their legs and takes the red card with pride because it had to be done. ONE STAR (*) because that is the minimum and even in positivity mode that is all I can give this shit.


THE WINNER: Dre wins, almost by complete default. Maybe I didn’t take a break because of new job but because this trio was so goddamned wretched. Oh well, we cleared this painful hurdle.

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