Jay Z raps over gonjasufi track on his new album

True, but he's upfront about it. Look, I think Yeezus is overrated as fuck and that mainstream music journalism and the industry is fucked, but I can't do anything about it. I won't let me enjoy the odd track by either artist. The music is out there and I can enjoy it privately without any social media context if I want to - few do that however, especially with Kanye.

  On 7/9/2013 at 11:32 PM, Nebraska said:

i don't have a problem with braggadocio itself (like with the example you posted) because that is actually humorous. another example is mf doom when he says on the song doomsday when he says "rappers need to fall off just to save me the trouble yo" and that he can turn "H2O to cognac" i see it as being playful and a oneup on any rival and fellow mc's lyrics and style of braggadocio. it's more like a tongue twister if anything else-

 

but with jay (hova) now comparing his new album to the actual magna carta documents- then talking about how he's now appreciates art and doesn't mind if his daughter sleeps on it- it comes off as he's saying he can live that way because he's now rich. do you guys find that inspiring?

 

if i said "let's compare bank accounts right now to see who's got more money" with someone that clearly was struggling in their life, would that be because am trying to inspire them or because am arrogant and just like to show off?

 

you said that braggadocio creates a positive and fanciful competition alternative from their harsh realities. do you know what the number one killer of black males is in america? black males. do you know why? because of jealously.

 

can you really compare braggadocio such as jay z talking about buying expensive artwork to someone talking about "taking a dip in the pool which is actually on a wall"? i mean- the later seems more fantastically inspired out of someone's "rich imagination while the former seems to be more selectively telling you about their own "rich reality"

Yeah I know what you mean. Hell, that's even why (arguably) Kanye is getting a lot more acclaim - his muse is himself, it's all this meta and postmodern bullshit but the results are lot more entertaining than Jay-Z's new stuff. The kicker is they aren't that different - both successful, rich, and embedded in celebrity culture and the entertainment industry. They're collaborators too. But they still act differently - he gets with a Kardashian (that's a whole pandora's box pop culture debate) whereas Jay-Z hangs out with Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow. Jay-Z goes to Cuba then dodges questions about it. Kanye fucking said "George Bush doesn't care about black people" on live tv. Kanye "flips" his lifestyle it in a much more interesting way. Well to me anyway, they're probably both just wankers to most here at watmm. And that'd a perfectly valid conclusion and opinion. For the record I don't buy these albums or follow any of these two rappers or similar artists closely (as a fan in other words), but I do listen to and even enjoy some of their tracks.

You'll probably enjoy this article Nebraska, I agree with it's criticism of the manner the album was released.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/jay-z-magna-carta--holy-grail-review-when-fans-are-reduced-to-customers/2013/07/08/6293ba7c-e7de-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html

http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/16581/1/magna-carta-gonjasufi

yup, i completely agree with that assessment joshuatx. thanks for the linkage

you know a lot of people have celebrate these guys because they're smart business-people. do we talk about john lennon and jimi hendrix because they made smart business decisions back when they were alive or do we talk about their music? rap is a hustle. plain and simple. more and more people rap today to become rich, not to entertain or express themselves. that's simply a side-effect of anything you do and for them, a crutch to label themselves artists.

i'm not sure why it's so easily to differentiate between the wallstreet type/big banker types with rappers who are aspiring to be exactly just like them (the 1%). supposedly one is worse than the other whilst they both aspire for the same thing and in fact do business together (jay z's samsung deal or dre's beats headphone's venture with computer companies etc.)

i don't have a problem with people getting rich from doing something they love- but doing something just so they can get rich and telling me about it is where i draw the line. and the sad part is that now, everyone equates art to business, so when a real artist tries to do some work, he finds himself shunned because he's not profitable anymore.

frankly i just don't think jay z has anything else to say, probably b/c he's just a fucking lame ass capitalist. it's like listening to your rich friend's dad or something. like, "yeah neat, can i go play with your daughter now?"

never heard of gonjasufi before, but checked out that interview with him about the Jay Z record and now have erased him from my memory.

  On 7/10/2013 at 3:16 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

never heard of gonjasufi before, but checked out that interview with him about the Jay Z record and now have erased him from my memory.

he's just like some jandek version of flylo

actually scratch that John, I just oversold it by writing that

  On 7/10/2013 at 4:32 AM, joshuatx said:

he's just like some jandek version of flylo

sounds like the worst thing ever

  On 7/10/2013 at 6:24 AM, modey said:

 

  On 7/10/2013 at 4:32 AM, joshuatx said:

he's just like some jandek version of flylo

sounds like the worst thing ever

 

actually Sumach (aka Gonjasufi) is a fucking underground legend.

  On 7/10/2013 at 3:16 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

never heard of gonjasufi before, but checked out that interview with him about the Jay Z record and now have erased him from my memory.

It's not for everyone but it's worth checking out John

here is nickles and dimes, the whole minialbum is produced by him and his wife does some nice vocals on it, it's his kids in the sample, i bet jay-z cut them out lol

from his full lenght produced by flyinglol and gaslamp killer, great album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wTUgiY8cenQ

from his kewl FREE mini ep

  On 7/10/2013 at 1:34 PM, CJM said:

 

  On 7/10/2013 at 6:24 AM, modey said:

 

  On 7/10/2013 at 4:32 AM, joshuatx said:

he's just like some jandek version of flylo

sounds like the worst thing ever

 

 

actually Sumach (aka Gonjasufi) is a fucking underground legend.

 

word!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ1VQrbJnq0

  On 7/10/2013 at 1:47 PM, usagi said:

Gonjasufi is basically an ethnic nonviolent Charlie Manson.

Charles Manson is certainly as non-ethnic as you can get. For weeks after birth "no name Maddox" was what he was called.

  On 7/9/2013 at 11:55 PM, joshuatx said:

True, but he's upfront about it. Look, I think Yeezus is overrated as fuck and that mainstream music journalism and the industry is fucked, but I can't do anything about it. I won't let me enjoy the odd track by either artist. The music is out there and I can enjoy it privately without any social media context if I want to - few do that however, especially with Kanye.

this is actually exactly what i find confusing. how you can enjoy music whose context is a celebration of being separated from the individual you're listening to strictly by money? does this make sense? coz both kanye west and jay z are (in essence) saying "my life is so much better" and this is in comparison to your life.

a lot of people say this is suppose to inspire them. but that's impossible because the only way being rich works, is if there are poor people. if you actually enjoy this music (not you btw i mean any individual) you should get even more pleasure and satisfaction knowing that occupy wallstreet had no effect and changed nobodies mind- and even today, the 1% who work there make more money than you ever will and go home smiling because they will screw you over again tomorrow. because those are the real ballers and most of them invest in these rappers (just like samsung did)

i hate both jay z and kanye west. they make cheesy, terrible music and possess completely abhorrent personalities.

haven't listened to gonjasufi. his name makes me want to avoid him.

who cares

  On 7/11/2013 at 2:06 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 7/9/2013 at 11:55 PM, joshuatx said:

True, but he's upfront about it. Look, I think Yeezus is overrated as fuck and that mainstream music journalism and the industry is fucked, but I can't do anything about it. I won't let me enjoy the odd track by either artist. The music is out there and I can enjoy it privately without any social media context if I want to - few do that however, especially with Kanye.

 

this is actually exactly what i find confusing. how you can enjoy music whose context is a celebration of being separated from the individual you're listening to strictly by money? does this make sense? coz both kanye west and jay z are (in essence) saying "my life is so much better" and this is in comparison to your life.

 

a lot of people say this is suppose to inspire them. but that's impossible because the only way being rich works, is if there are poor people. if you actually enjoy this music (not you btw i mean any individual) you should get even more pleasure and satisfaction knowing that occupy wallstreet had no effect and changed nobodies mind- and even today, the 1% who work there make more money than you ever will and go home smiling because they will screw you over again tomorrow. because those are the real ballers and most of them invest in these rappers (just like samsung did)

 

Yeah I'm finally giving it a listen, about half way through. Production is alright, but the album itself is just such fodder. There's an occasionally good line or clever reference but that's it. Production is decent, but that has nothing to do with Jay-Z (I think it's mostly Timbaland). But the songs either come off as completely annoying or predictable. There's absolutely no way anyone can relate to this album. I've yet to even hear a track that's a story independent of Jay-Z and his persona, it's just him talking about himself and there's no reason for me to give a shit. I suppose that's the only reason I defend Kanye, because in the past he's actually had songs that weren't just about him and his success, like the 808 and Heartbreak album. But honestly that's why I didn't get the hype for Yeezus either. It's all crap. Going to skim this some more and then listen to JJ Doom afterward as a palette cleanser.

  On 7/11/2013 at 2:46 AM, zaphod said:

haven't listened to gonjasufi. his name makes me want to avoid him.

Also, I enjoy Gonasufi but I don't his personality at all in the sense that his interviews don't impress me at all - quite the opposite effect actually. I'm sure he's a nice guy but he has a very false sense of intellect. (He kind of reminds me of MIA in the sense that I don't think she understands have the shit people assume she references in her lyrics, though she's a lot more annoying imo)

Like, he didn't even really answer the first Dazed Digital question and the question was very straightforward.

you should not let the personallity of a person outside of his music get in the way of listening/enjoying imo, and definetly not if you don't like the name even if it's hilterbuttsex

  On 7/11/2013 at 10:10 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

you should not let the personallity of a person outside of his music get in the way of listening/enjoying imo, and definetly not if you don't like the name even if it's hilterbuttsex

  On 7/11/2013 at 10:59 PM, modey said:

 

  On 7/11/2013 at 10:10 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

you should not let the personallity of a person outside of his music get in the way of listening/enjoying imo, and definetly not if you don't like the name even if it's hilterbuttsex

yeah, this, fucking this as fuck

 

I still enjoy his music, I wasn't trying to say otherwise. I listen to Burzum after all and he's about close to hitlerbuttsex as you can get.

I mean hitler buttsex metaphorically of course. Mostly.

speaking of burzum and modey's avatar, let's have some turkish black metal you guys

so is his name a historical reference to "gonja", the african people, or is it a weird spelling of "ganja"? the reason i'm so put off by it is the idea of the latter, like "this mystic just smokes so much weeed maaaaan". really irritating imagery in my head associated with that. anyway, listened to his music. it's ok, some of the beats are pretty annoying. the vocals don't work for me most of the time. also seems way too distorted and loud. stuff just sounds like shit, like flylo but even louder.

also, yes, you can judge an artist by their name. i just now started listening to com truise because i was so put off by the lameness of that moniker. i'm not saying you should do this, but a name is part of an artist's image, it's important. if a band has a horrible name, i usually avoid them.

  On 7/14/2013 at 9:54 PM, zaphod said:

also, yes, you can judge an artist by their name. i just now started listening to com truise.

  On 7/11/2013 at 9:39 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 7/11/2013 at 2:06 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 7/9/2013 at 11:55 PM, joshuatx said:

True, but he's upfront about it. Look, I think Yeezus is overrated as fuck and that mainstream music journalism and the industry is fucked, but I can't do anything about it. I won't let me enjoy the odd track by either artist. The music is out there and I can enjoy it privately without any social media context if I want to - few do that however, especially with Kanye.

 

this is actually exactly what i find confusing. how you can enjoy music whose context is a celebration of being separated from the individual you're listening to strictly by money? does this make sense? coz both kanye west and jay z are (in essence) saying "my life is so much better" and this is in comparison to your life.

 

a lot of people say this is suppose to inspire them. but that's impossible because the only way being rich works, is if there are poor people. if you actually enjoy this music (not you btw i mean any individual) you should get even more pleasure and satisfaction knowing that occupy wallstreet had no effect and changed nobodies mind- and even today, the 1% who work there make more money than you ever will and go home smiling because they will screw you over again tomorrow. because those are the real ballers and most of them invest in these rappers (just like samsung did)

 

 

Yeah I'm finally giving it a listen, about half way through. Production is alright, but the album itself is just such fodder. There's an occasionally good line or clever reference but that's it. Production is decent, but that has nothing to do with Jay-Z (I think it's mostly Timbaland). But the songs either come off as completely annoying or predictable. There's absolutely no way anyone can relate to this album. I've yet to even hear a track that's a story independent of Jay-Z and his persona, it's just him talking about himself and there's no reason for me to give a shit. I suppose that's the only reason I defend Kanye, because in the past he's actually had songs that weren't just about him and his success, like the 808 and Heartbreak album. But honestly that's why I didn't get the hype for Yeezus either. It's all crap. Going to skim this some more and then listen to JJ Doom afterward as a palette cleanser.

 

i've honestly never listened to a kanye west album. i know i've heard his music on the radio or on tv or through proxy when someone is "bumping" his shit- but i've never knowingly sought or listened to him. same with lil wayne and all those asshats