“Could this be the rap equivalent of Lewis Hyde’s The Gift or Marina Warner’s O nce Upon A Time? Anyhow, it’s an electrifying book, full of wild epiphanies and provocations, an exhibition of a critical mind in full and open contact with their subject at the highest level, with a winning streak of confessional intimacy as well.” - Jonathan Lethem, author of The Arrest: A Novel A book for committed hip-hop heads, curious neophytes, armchair linguists, and everyone in between. Ranging from Sugarhill Gang to UGK to Young M.A, Rakim to Rick Ross to Rae Sremmurd, Jay-Z to Drake to Snoop Dogg, What’s Good reads with the momentum of a deftly curated mixtape, drawing you into the conversation and teaching you to read it as it goes.
LIL WAYNE MOMENT OF CLARITY SERIES
Over a series of short chapters, each centered on a different lyric, Daniel Levin Becker considers how rap’s use of language operates and evolves at levels ranging from the local (slang, rhyme) to the analytical (quotation, transcription) to the philosophical (morality, criticism, irony), celebrating the pleasures and perils of any attempt to decipher its meaning-making technologies. What’s Good is a work of passionate lyrical analysis, a set of freewheeling liner notes, and a love letter to the most vital American art form of the last half century. A remarkable achievement.” - Adam Bradley, author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop Its brief and brilliant chapters are like the best kinds of freestyles: spontaneous and structured, startling and profound.
The book offers a new set of eyes and ears through which to see and to hear the language of rap. ” For those of us who love rap, What’s Good is a gift. I’m grateful for Levin Becker’s mining of that land and the revelations found along the way, revelations which come to life in this book with a vivid and generous exuberance.” - Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance ” What’s Good is, among a great many other things, a byproduct of joyful obsession and immersion into both language and sound, an intersection that offers a rich and expansive land upon which to play. As we look up, where did the ceilings go.A love letter to the verbal artistry of hip-hop, What’s Good is a work of passionate lyrical analysis It’s because he took the ceilings off: “Young Money baby, and the building grows. This mixtape feels huge, and it’s not because he’s saving rap. Maybe this album can’t offer an answers in the death of rap debate, but it does seem to suggest an alternative solution. hold your head up” or “F is for forensics” hang heavy, but Cellblock Weezy or not, this tape leaves plenty to rejoice over. Impending jail time makes likes like “T.I. He’s taken on Jay-Z in the past, and as he did then (“I must be Lebron James if he’s Jordan”), he is again quick to squash any comparisons: “Younger Hov, there ain’t no comparing me/ I just cleared that up/ moment of clarity.” These are nice nods of reverence, but when Wayne takes the ceilings off on these songs, we are reminded of the the name-checking, obscure-pop-reference dropping, free-associative Mixtape Weezy that changed the game. Wayne really steps his game up when he takes on the elder Carter’s beats, “Run This Town” and “D.O.A.” (complete with a Jay-Z drop at the end). Jae Millz) 15 Run This Town 16 I Gotta Feeling 17 Outro
LIL WAYNE MOMENT OF CLARITY TV
Short Dawg & Gudda Gudda) 8 Banned From TV 9 Throw It In The Bag 10 I Think I Love Her (Ft. 4 Interlude 5 Wasted 6 Watch My Shoes 7 Break Up (Ft. Whether or not he’s put down the cup, he’s in full form, going absolutely “nimrod” over beats borrowed from Gucci Mane, The-Dream, the Black Eyed Peas ( apparently popular amongst the Carters?), and of course, Jay-Z.ġ Swag Surfin’ 2 Ice Cream Paint Job 3 D.O.A. Right on time, Mixtape Weezy is back with No Ceilings, his long spoken of official mixtape, leaking early yesterday morning, and disbanding any lingering concerns. He gave us Drake, and a few nuts lines, but be it the syrup or the guitar playing, Wayne’s year has been generally underwhelming.
All the while, our hero, Wayne, seemed more content with rockstar dreaming in that infamous purple haze. Something seemed rotten in the state of hip-hop, and nobody could tell if rap was dying or if we were killing it. Then 2009 hit like a hangover, with confusing Kanye and Jay-Z albums and lots of auto– tune.
Last year, Lil Wayne took us all to the moon, dropping Da Drought 3 in late 2007, The Carter III last June, and a seemingly endless stream of verses between.