Posts Tagged A$AP Mob

The eternal question of modern pop music but especially Hip-hop: do guest artists belong in the title of the song? I think there’s some kind of music publishing rule. Same with special symbols and such. But let’s not worry about that. We just need to know what we’re talking about. It’s Trillmatic by A$AP Mob. It’s a single, with no b-side. And of course it features Method Man, which is what got my attention. Altho it may not be in the title of the song, it is in the youtube description and how else are you going to find out about download only singles.

Personally, I like the collective credit. I refuse to consider Wu Tang Clan ‘old school’, but let’s call it ‘Classic Hip-Hop’. It gives it that feel. And it makes it seem like all these other dudes in the video had something to do with the song when it’s almost entirely a solo for A$AP Nast. (Altho one of those dudes must be the producer of the song, Ty Beats.) The whole One Guy Against The Whole Damn World thing never appealed to me too much and that pretty much dominates now. This group (or their management) seems keenly aware of this and has taken the Wu Tang route in reverse, introducing solo rappers A$AP Rocky and Ferg first (which I’ve been vaguely aware of) and now you’re getting more of the whole group. And altho I haven’t heard any of that stuff which has this explicitly retro-sounding backdrop, the rapping itself is the classic East Coast skill-based wordplay that is supposedly dead. Just makes me dumb I guess. Or lazy, really. I’ve gotten like old dudes who won’t stop talking about the Stones and Zeppelin like there’s not any good rock bands like that anymore and there are, they just don’t play stadiums anymore and there’s not a billboard for them on every corner. You’ve got to look.

The song borrows its hook from Nice & Smooth’s Hip Hop Junkies. Which is interesting; it’s self-consciously referencing the 90s overall and through the magic of passage of time, stuff with a Bobby Brown-type chorus occupies the same mental space as the grimyness of years-later Wu Tang simply because it was the same decade. It’s just interesting how that happens.

So I guess they got me is what I’m saying. I’m going to have to pay attention to this stuff again.

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