Nicki Minaj - The Pinkprint. I've never been entirely sure what to think of Minaj in the past. Reviewers talk about her guest verses on other people's tracks like she is the undisputed greatest rapper of all time. I don't know how many times Rolling Stone has cited her verse in Kanye's Monster, but I feel like they can't mention Minaj without again gushing over the outlandish and amazing flow of that spot. It is good, but jeeez. In general, I like he music that she has done in the past - her guest spots are solid, I dig Beez in the Trap, Champion, and I am Your Leader (less so the rest of that last album), and this album is good too. She starts the album off on a downer, introspective note (the first three tracks, named "All Things Go," "I Lied," and "Crying Game") - and its actually really good. Normally, don't bum me out when I want to jam rap, but those three tracks are good stuff. Then she kicks in with a pretty salty beat and collaboration with Beyonce for "Feeling Myself." Sounds like a beat from the Watch the Throne disc, and Minaj does her usual trippy, off-kilter flow to make a damn fine track. The next song is "Only," the second hit from the album (ft. Drake, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown):
That simple, ominous beat is money, and the lyrics are an odd ode to getting it on with Minaj (or at least Drake's are, Wayne's, as usual, start on that subject but then meander off into whatever he thought of that rhymed). "Ass on Houston Texas but the face look just like Claire Huxtable." Ha! Yes! "Anaconda" is the big hit, which bites heavily from "Baby's Got Back," to less interesting results. "Four Door Aventador" is a pretty good example of Minaj just rapping on a simple beat - no frills or weird voices, just clever wordplay. The back half of the album is less interesting to me until the beat for "Shanghai" kicks in, which combines with some grimy ass lyrics about how tough she is to make a pretty strong track. Slightly uneven, but overall a really good album. Shakey Graves - And the War Came. An Austin High graduate (Go Maroons!) who spent some time in L.A. before coming back home to make his odd style of music, this dude is a one man band who can jam out. He has a great story about the stage name - it apparently came from a campout with friends when a drunk/high dude wandered through their campsite and muttered some weird phrase on his way out that ended with "spooky wagons." So the dudes decided to make their own camp scary names, and this guy's was Shakey Graves. I remember a video my brother in law showed me last summer that had this dude just going insane on the guitar, while singing, and while playing a kick drum and tambourine. I would hurt myself. Seemed totally impossible to me:
Wild, right? Anyway, his first album is now out on the street and it is a good jam as well. The track on the radio right now is Perfect Parts:
The rest of the album has this same feral, raw, lo-fi quality, although not all are this rockin'. You've gotta throw in a few more tender tunes here and there. Great stuff - I hope that he keeps it up and that I can see him live sometime soon. I've gone done into a hole listening to old Wilco, so you'll just have to enjoy a slightly shorter QH for version 17.
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