Image via Complex Original
After a month of deliberating our several year-end, best-of-2014 lists, I'm finally regaining pace with music that's dropping in the here-and-now. (As for those year-end lists: I look forward to your wit and temper tantrums in the comments.)
With new tapes from Shy Glizzy, Jacka, J. Cole, Charli XCX, and beloved K. Michelle, I had a gigabyte of that #werk queued up for me this weekend, which I survived. Let us now revisit the good shit.
Shy Glizzy "Funeral"
Released: Dec. 2, 2014
"Funeral" is Shy Glizzy singing and rapping about how you might get beat, robbed, shot, and killed at his own funeral. You should understand that Glizzy grew up right off Minnesota Avenue in D.C., where these things happen. "I don’t leave the house if I don’t have the semi/My niggas ain't pouring no Remy; they don’t even drink Remy." The beat is a gospel wail and piano catatonia, a.k.a. slow-singing and flower-bringing, with verses from a kid who ain't never lied to you not once.
The Jacka "On Methazine"
Released: Dec. 2, 2014
Much of Jacka's latest album, What Happened to the World, is grizzled ambivalence regarding the sale and consumption of so many narcotics. "On Methazine" is both the catchiest and most decisive of these Surgeon General's Warnings; "Kill yourself if you sell coke" is a spiritual companion piece to Makonnen's "I Don't Sell Molly No More," though Jacka's contribution is richer, luxurious even. Marinate in that sample. Hear also: "Addict," "The President's Face," "Lost My Way."
Omarion "Already"
Released: Dec. 2, 2014
I'm over "Bo$$," "You Like It," "Don't Leave," and now I'm stuck on "Already," the outro cut from Omarion's Sex Playlist, which I reviewed. Omarion's bubbly flirtation with merengue is a light touch, the most gentle track from a subtle R&B album. "Thank you for coming," he whispers at the playlist's close. (Get it?) I flipped two omelets to this one.
Rome Fortune "Juice"
Released: Dec. 4, 2014
As bubbly as Omarion's earlier entry, but with a rather different sensibility; Rome Fortune just wants a woman (or several) to taste drugs and colors with. "Juice" is smooth, with a numb finish. Whatever creatively oriented resolutions Rome Fortune may have made last New Year's Eve, I'm sure he's accomplished most of them in 2014. Meanwhile, my bedroom features a desk with no chair. I'm struggling, fam'ron.
J. Cole "St. Tropez"
Released: Dec. 9, 2014
As glad-handing and earnest as J. Cole is at his worst as well as his best, 2014 Forest Hills Drive is a work of autobiography and trivia confessional that's not as personal essay-y as much of his earlier work. In particular, "St. Tropez" is the least J. Cole-sounding track from J. Cole's latest album; the record's sleepy, intimate, low-stakes vibe is an effective signature on an album that's otherwise loaded with showy lyricism. "St. Tropez" flips Esther Phillips' "That's All Right With Me," best known as the bass-and-melody foundation of Mobb Deep's "Give up the Goods." Cole's singing is strained in a sort of gorgeous fashion. "She asked me if I'm scared to fly/To tell the truth: I'm terrified/I never been that high before."
