ehhh...

I like how my post about lurkers got like 20 comments. This shit is funny.

I spent yesterday up in Dirty Jerz wit Dat Nigga Da Vinci. We did some shit, went to a "crabfest"(severe lack of food quantity planning left us crabless*) but the most fun was hangin out before the 'fest, chillin, talking shit, and recording one of his wack verses. And listening to his new beats. The rest of my time up there was ehhh....

*10 points to the best crab joke

So...I read an interview with Black Thought recently. In it he said that some of the songs on Phrenelogy were solo songs for him that ended up on the album to alleviate one of those stupid major record label problems. You know, the "aww shit I just got off tour but I got my second album due in 4 months, lemme toss this old bullshit out" syndrome. And we wonder why people's first albums are always their best. Not that that was the problem for The Roots, but it was something like that, where their label situation forced a bad decision. Which explains why Prenelogy sounded like such a weird album compared to The Roots usual. That shit was all over the place, and sadly is generally hated my The Roots faithful. Shit I liked it...ok ok I liked half of it. But that half was the shit.

But the point is, Thought said that their most recent album, Rising Down, is really dark because its about how "shit is fucked up," and that the last album before that, Game Theory, was the same way. Except, he said, Game Theory was more local to Black people, Philly, and the US, whereas Rising Down is about shit everywhere being fucked up.

Now I don't know how I feel about that. Well, I know I don't like these two albums nearly as much as their predecessors. They can make all the messages they want, if I don't like I don't like it that don't mean that I'm hatin(c/o Common). Dark albums were never my shit. And I've talked to a couple people who feel the same way about these two Roots albums.

Yeah, yeah, artists with consciences know they can't always give the audience the happy music it wants, they gotta say what needs to be said too. So sometimes you gotta come with a message, even though the wider audience wants to dance in the club. But does your whole album gotta be a message? Twice in a row? My point is I'm sure ?uestlove is happy sometimes despite "shit being fucked up everywhere." Black Thought too. But where are the happy songs? Where the songs about the cute girl you met at Walmart? Artists should express the whole of themselves, but some people sacrafice their art to deliver their message. At least that's how I see it