In Heavy Rotation: January 2016

If it hasn't been abundantly clear by now, I kinda sorta have a teeny weeny bit of a love affair with music.  Unfortunately, I was on somewhat of a personal protest as I have neither wanted to make music of my own nor listen to any music--especially mine.  However, Madden NFL 16 has been my biggest guilty pleasure as of late and it's hard to avoid music when you hear the same songs repeatedly while assembling your Madden Ultimate Team.  (SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT: username is LateBloomer928 if you want that work on PS3.  I'm top flight aight, son.)  Combine that with the awesomeness of the SoundHound app and I've been looking up many of these artists in between snaps and at least coming around to listening more and sulking less.  Because I love to share what's been catching my ear just as much as I love to listen, I have decided to birth a new monthly posting series to do just that.  Some stuff I've been hip to for days, weeks, months and years, while other things might have you saying, "Bruh...is Jimmy Hoffa under that same rock with you?"  Either way, you'll have an idea of what the soundtrack for my life is--well, at least for that month.

FREDDIE GIBBS, Shadow of a Doubt (ESGN/Empire).  So one of my favorite Facebook friends shared an article where Freddie Gibbs said that he can rap on J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar's level, and said friend (who believes Cole is a better read than listen and can be lukewarm on King Kendrick at times) was in total agreement with him.  I was like, "Yeah...okay."  So whose interview on Microphone Check with Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad was up first in my list of unplayed podcasts?  Of course...Freddie Gibbs.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised with his energy, his approach to music, his story about the joys and struggles of being an independent artist and that he's from a small town (Gary, Indiana) right in between everything musically.  So I decided to give the guy a shot and man alive...there are sooooooo many bangers on Shadow of a Doubt (2015).  On the Mikhail & Speakerbomb-produced "Extradite" featuring Black Thought, Freddie spits lines like "Talkin' hard, soft, heroin, green, that's what we had boy/Erica was the bag lady, I was the bag boy", while Thought drops gems like "We cheat death with each breath/The only one that make it last forever is Keith Sweat".  He infuses social commentary into the Blair Norf-produced "Freddie Gordy":

I hope my daughter never lives this type of lifestyle/Creeping under street lights as a night child/Meanwhile, I'm in the kitchen whipping up this white gal/My uncle still can't put the liquor or the pipe down.

If that wasn't enough, Gibbs serves another bright spot with "Insecurities" (produced by Kaytranada and Frank Dukes) where the contrast between his choices in women and his daughter coming into his life gave him perspective:

Insecure and in my motherf***** feelings/Thought that I was chasin' money, I was chasin' b******/But when the Lord gave me my daughter, helped me paint the picture/Man all the sh** I did, I'm blessed the streets ain't take a n****.

While Kendrick and Cole are still my No. 1 and No. 2, Freddie Gibbs is poised to be right on their heels if he keeps putting out albums like this.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Careless", "McDuck" (featuring Dana Williams), "F***** Up the Count", "My Boy".

DON BROCO, Automatic (Sony Music Entertainment).  If you read some of these online threads about the music from Madden NFL 16, you would think that it was the worst music ever made in the history of the recording industry.  (Granted, Brooke Candy's "Rubber Band Stacks" is not quite my cup of tea, and as much as I love King Los, I can take or leave "Ghetto Boy".)  However, Don Broco's "Automatic" stood out from the first listen, but in kind of a weird way.  Quick secret about me: I'm a sucker for music that sonically takes me to sunny places where coconuts can fall like rain, alcoholic drinks come equipped with lime wedges and tiny umbrellas, the bodies of water are darn near clear and eye candy abounds.  In other words, think the Miami Vice opening credits.  Imagine my pleasant surprise when I watch the video, it's close to the visual in my head and immediately think, "Yeah...these guys get it."  So when I decided to take a listen to Automatic (2015) in its entirety, I wasn't disappointed.  In addition to "Automatic" being one of my faves, "Further" resonated tremendously: "If you're happy don't let it go/If you're not happy you shouldn't have to settle/If it matters you take it on/If it matters at all."  The one song that has been stuck in my head even more than "Automatic" is "Nerve" with comparably relatable sentiments to "Further":

Always afraid of missing out/Twisted me, it twisted me/All the things I miss about you/They're haunting me, they're haunting me/How was I to know, I'd be/How was I to know, I'd be changing my mind/How was I to know, I'd be/Crawling back, crawling back.

No matter the genre, I love when artists 1) artfully fuse different musical periods, 2) bridge the gap between smooth and edgy for a palatable product and 3) make music that speaks, and Don Broco accomplishes all three on several moments of Automatic.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Superlove", "Money Power Fame (2015 Version)", "Tough On You", "You Wanna Know (2015 Version)".

BIG SEAN, Dark Sky Paradise (G.O.O.D./Def Jam).  Ironically in a 2011 Complex interview, the aforementioned Freddie Gibbs disparagingly called Big Sean a "f****** weirdo" and said that his music would be part of an unwanted "box of lost and found sh**".  Although I won't quite go that far--I frankly called him "goofy" for years--I cannot say that I'm the biggest fan of his catalog outside of his Finally Famous mixtape series--which showed promising sparks of his talent.  Through the persuasiveness a good friend and trusted fellow music lover, I shed the same "yeah okay" sentiment that I had for Gibbs to give Dark Sky Paradise (2015) a fair shake.  Of course, we're already familiar with the irate "I Don't F*** With You" featuring E-40 as well as "Blessings" featuring Drake & Kanye West.  Perhaps the most captivating track of all is the intro, "Dark Sky (Skyscrapers)" (produced by Rob Got Beats), where he absolutely goes off the entire track, especially here:

Was talking to my dad on some other sh**/Man slow down with the girls that you're f***** with/If they ain't a quarterback, it's no point in rushin' it/Don't make the same mistakes I made with your mother, but that's on some other sh**/Look, I'm into risks and taking it/I'm into making it, then get back to making like I ain't made it yet/Is there rehab for a workaholic? I been thinkin' bout shakin' it/I done had a Rolex longer than I had relationships, I'm embarrassed to say that sh**/But I been working on myself longer and that's the most important work, even if you don't get paid for it.

Now these are the moments that I knew Big Sean had in him and it shows some impressively artistic and personal growth.  While I might not be absolutely head over heels about the entire album, at least 1) he has his memorable moments and 2) he's not as goofy of a rapper as I originally thought.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Paradise", "Win Some, Lose Some", "Deep" (featuring Lil' Wayne), "Outro", "Platinum and Wood" (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track).

X AMBASSADORS, VHS (KIDinaKORNER/Interscope).  I heard "Renegades" in the Jeep commercials and thought, "Yeah, they're cool."  Then I heard "Superpower" in the Madden NFL 16 soundtrack and thought, "Hold the f*** on...WHO ARE THESE GUYS AGAIN?!?!"  That song just makes me wanna Hulk up--or at the very least, beat the crap out of my next opponent by like 28 points and force them to quit before halftime.  Between those two songs and seeing subway ads for them performing here in D.C. at the 9:30 Club, I just had to check out this VHS (2015) album.  Point of order: Shadow of a Doubt powered me through the coldest, snowiest and hardest day of shoveling out of Winter Storm Jonas' aftermath, while VHS got me through that following day with more sun and less brick.  There aren't too many moments that I don't enjoy between the versatile production from Alex da Kid and X Ambassadors and Sam Harris' ability to vocally weave between silky and grimy.  "Unsteady" is one of the highlights that immediately caught my attention with mouth-smacking drums and this memorable provocation: "Mother, I know/That you're tired of being alone/Dad, I know you're trying/To fight when you feel like flying."  Another great moment in relatable sentiments arrives in the soulful "Low Life" featuring Jamie N Commons where Harris sings, "I'm nothing but a low life/Thinking 'bout my own life/I'm trying to fight the good old fight/But after it all, I'm still just a low life."  The track that completely and totally knocked me out for the count was the musically-appropriate, lyrically-accurate "Gorgeous".  Leading with a Rhodes that immediately appealed to the keyboard connoisseur in me, the shot to the heart came in the following bullet: "Nobody understands you/You ain't nothing they can handle/Every man you put your hands on/You make him feel so G** d*** handsome."  I don't even know the woman and I felt like the prettiest son of a gun this side of the Atlantic after that.  Exactly what music is supposed to accomplish.  OTHER NOTABLES: "Nervous", "B.I.G.", "Jungle (featuring Jamie N Commons)".