Quick Hits, Vol. 320 (Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin, Nas, Billy Strings, Mount Westmore)

Vieux Farka Toure & Khruangbin - Ali.  All-star band name for having to check the spelling repeatedly as I type.  Damn!  I was joking to myself, in the car, the other day that KUTX's playlist is just Khruangbin in different iterations.  By themselves, with Leon Bridges, with Toure, probably with like Megan Thee Stallion and Dolly Parton.  But, this one has a completely different style than the collaborations with someone like Leon.  Toure is a Malian guitarist, the son of another famous Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure (thus the album name, because this is a set of his dad's tunes).  And so the funky worldiness of Khruangbin gets a boost from the African sounds of Toure to make a really nice combination.  It is a chill gem of long grooves and relaxed funk.  The top track is the opener, but I'm going to give you second place because it is on the radio a lot around here.  "Diarabi" has 4.9 million streams.

Would be dope as hell with a cool rapper freestyling over the top of that.  No clue what he is saying in the lyrics, but the smoothness of the overall track is cool as hell.  Now just set Kendrick loose over the top to talk about his childhood and we're cooking with gas.  Good disc.

Nas - King's Disease III.  I keep going back to Nas.  Every time he releases an album, I am there, hoping that it is Illmatic all over again, and each time it feels more like a slog.  Not that this album is awful - it whips ass when compared to some of the new rappers who don't have HitBoy making them beats and who don't know how to rhyme or flow without just copying the newest, hottest sound around them.  Nas can flow all day, and you can understand what he is saying, and his beat selection is sweet.  But in the past Nas albums seemed like an event that needed to be attended if you were a rap fan.  Now, he's been relegated to the back burner, even though he still sounds pretty solid.  BUT, I will say that I reviewed his last two King's Disease discs, and I didn't love them.  I said this about #2: "I don't love anything on this one.  It's fine - good sample-based beats, his smooth flow over the top, a few good cameos (EPMD, Eminem, Lauryn Hill) - but each time I fire it up it feels like a chore."  And this to say about #1: "Nothing on here is terribly memorable, no need to save it."  So, I am pleased to report that this one is markedly better than those two.  "Michael & Quincy" is the top track, which I find kind of funny, since as I started to write this post, that was the song I had noted as maybe being my least favorite.  Shows you what I know!  5.9 million streams.

My reason for liking it less is for sure the beat.  The story-telling is good and some of the references are clever, and the beat gets better when it switches a little more than half-way through.  But there are definitely better tracks on this disc.

A quick aside.  I was reading commentary the other day that mentioned a theory that Jay-Z was responsible for the death of rap writing.  Apparently, "every story about Jay confirms that he hears a beat he likes and goes into this Rain Man–like trance in the studio and comes out with a mostly done verse or chorus. He doesn’t write anything down."  And so the theory is that people wanted to be like Jay-Z, he bragged about being so good that he didn't have to write down his raps, and so it became uncool to write down your raps.  WHICH IS HORRIBLE.  So many modern rappers really need to sit down with a pen and paper and spend the time to come up with something good to say.  Damn you, Jay-Z.  I bring that up, in part, because I think Nas takes the time to write, and edit, and improve.  Which is why he can weave good stories and say something worthwhile.

"Legit" has a great beat - sounds like something Kanye could have used in his early days.  Piano licks, bass, drummer getting some.  Very head-bobbable.  Several more tracks with cool strings, or call backs to other old rap tracks, or __.  Of course, as with many rap projects these days, this one is too long.  17 songs and almost an hour makes it feel like it is just going forever.  And because this one doesn't have any guests (unlike the last disc), you end up without any other rapper's flow to change stuff up.  But, even with the length complaint, I think this album is better than the last few.

Billy Strings - Me / And / Dad.  If you know me, then you know I freaking dig Strings.  His live shows are a revelation and his recorded tunes are usually solid as well.  This one is medium to me.  Still has some guitar fireworks and the classic bluegrass stylings, but it leans a little too hard on the traditional without feeling as new and special as the old Billy stuff.  Now, I know that part of this was him working out some old issues with his Dad and putting him on a record, but still, I would have liked to hear more of the cool stuff that made Strings stand out from the pure bluegrass traditionalists.  Like, the second tune, "Life to Go," definitely sounds like some dusty old classic performed by a cover band.  "Peartree" is a nice instrumental.  "John Deere Tractor" is memorable just because of the imagery of a full-sized tractor trying to work on a half-acre field.  This is an album where the first song has the most streams, because people checked it out and then moved along.  That tractor song gets second place though, so we'll go with that one.  807k streams.

Nice tune.  I want more of the jam band stuff in this album - part of the fun of Billy is how he bridged the worlds of bluegrass and jam bands in a rad way.  But that is not this album, this thing is just straight bluegrass with his dad's less-than-great voice on it.  "Dig a Little Deeper" is pretty good.  It isn't bad by any means, but I guess I just hope for something more transcendent from this guy.  I'll probably let it go and just hope for the next one.

Mount Westmore - Snoop Cube 40 $hort.  I know that this may not be popular among the rap heads of the world, of which I am decidedly not allowed to be a part of, but is E-40 really part of the Mount Rushmore of Westcoast Rap?  I think Too $hort is iconic, so I'll allow it.  But off the top of my head, it seems like Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, or Ice T are old-school classics who should have been named first, and dudes like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, or even YG would make more sense.  Just creates an immediate weird feeling about the album that they are claiming the Mount title for someone who doesn't belong.  Imagine if they had replaced Short and 40 with Dre and T?  That would have been pretty rad.  As for the actual album itself, mediocre.  I am a huge Cube lover, but his writing has been off the tracks ever since he became a movie star.  No more perfectly crafted ghetto tales or political bangers, now it is more likely for him to just rap something lame about how hard it is for some lady to put on her jeans?  It's like a whole, long rap, about how great and huge this lady's ass is and how difficult it is for her to get dressed.  Just not good and a really long way away from "Fuck tha Police" or "Steady Mobbin'."  Zero love on the streaming service, as the top track has 4.1 million streams and many of these tracks have less than a million.  "Free Game" is that top track.

That video made me giggle at the start - 40's binoculars just wrote "ARMED GUARDS" at the top of the screen.  So jenky.  And Ice Cube doing his trademark scowl as Snoop is whisper-singing the words "free game" is so lame looking.  This just seems silly.  It also sounds like they are saying "freak out," not "free game."  This one can go...