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| | [i]If Kweli made the inverse confession, a secret vice to rhyme like the carefree, arrogant Jay, now that would’ve been exciting. [/i]
Line Vonnegut telling TV Guide “I’d rather have written CHEERS than anything I’ve written.” |
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| | Except Kweli will never ever be to rap what Vonnegut is to literature. |
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| | I mean, besides that Graduation is garbage, while Curtis is at least an okay album, you kinda missed the boat on Ether. What he's sayyyying is that Jay has stolen, over his career, something like 50-some lines from Big (this is a fact). How that's in tension with putting himself on "Mount Rapamore"? |
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| | You're right that, with Ether, Nas took the first step toward putting his mistakes behind him. The real conflict, though, is that he never admits to those mistakes. Presumably, "every last one of my classics" isn't a sly admission that he has only one classic. Being "asleep" isn't a reference to Nastradamus, it's a reference to his hiatus from recording to take care of his ailing mother.
It's a very imaginative reading of "Doctor's Advocate," almost Borgesian. What actually happened was: Game recorded his album and at the last minute Dre pulled out. Instead of delaying the release to expunge all friendly references to his former partner, Game just released the tracks as they were. "One Blood," for example, was released before there ware any inklings of a separation. Maybe all the shout outs to 50 Cent on the first album were really subtle ultra-prescient disses too?
I'm not trying to defend "Black Korea," but do you know anything about Korean/African-American race relations in Los Angeles? There is a context to the song. It's not as if Cube was JUST trying to be as disgustingly offensive as possible. Death certificate is an inflammatory album, but not the same way the Geto Boys or Eminem are inflammatory. |
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