JAM of the Month - Erykah Badu, Trill Friends

Blessings be to Greezy for reanimating Still Grimey.  Hit the jump for your JAM of the month and an extemporaneous excoriation of "The Life of Pablo".  (Yeah, it's monthly, daddy's got a desk job now B).

This month's JAM is from Erykah - She ILL Badu, aka the Badoula, aka Maria Manuela Mexico, aka Badoula Oblingada.  I feel this track is appropriate for two reasons: it vastly improves upon Kanye's "Real Friends," and is from the same artist whose Madrid concert review I last profiled on this thought-to-be mothballed interweb page in 2011.  Dear readers, we are coming full circle and connecting the dots - hot damn, we back.

Trill Friends is a testament to Badu's enduring genius, one that has only become sharper and more refined as time rolls on - like a Damascus steel sushi knife and my hangovers.  Badu takes the hollow, richly ringing instrumental from "Real Friends" and layers velvety, harmonious vocals on top.  This song is like a slammin' musical tiramisu, and Badoula Oblingada is the master baker (say those last two words out loud >8-)).  I'm sitting here wishing she'd have remixed the whole "The Life of Pablo" album and improved it in a similar fashion.  

Which bring me to my take on "La Vida de Pablo" - after an admittedly cursory review process I have decided to give Kanye's latest drug-kingpin inspired LP a rating of musical turd, the very same rating I gave to Yeezus in 2013.  Why JAM, do you continue to hate on Yeezy?  Because I'm still wondering what happened to the verve and soul from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.   I'm still unsure as to how Kanye contributed to the evolution of any musical form with Yeezus that hadn't already been pioneered elsewhere by a vagrant, gone off glue, humming to himself in a dumpster on a rainy summer's eve.

Maybe it's my lack of interest or appreciation for braggadocio from someone that displays such a lack of understanding of the irony I believe to be at the center of the art form at hand.  A Roc Marciano or Rick Ross application harnesses irony to weave a tight lyrical tapestry, which makes their adherence to the production and story line that more convincing and vibrant.  These are hallmarks of a tradition stretching back beyond Paid in Full.  Wu-Tang uses hyperbole and their unfathomable creativity to meld Staten Island and Shaolin, and Biggie used it to to ferry you across the Styx and contextualize the vibe on the other side of the firmament.   Kanye seems drunk off his fame, his handle on exaggeration lost to the tremendous power of celebrity and that gnawing knowledge that nobody lives at the summit.  In short, I think he's insecure about losing his spot at the top, and it is increasingly, and excruciatingly, clear in his music.

Just my two cents - glad to be back.

Thanks for reading,

JAM