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Happy New Year buddy!

R I P

DAMN = GREAT

TV version.

If you grew up in an environment that celebrates being a "man" by being a dope dealer who "gets money and fucks bitches," reinforced in a setting where everyone is poor and separate themselves by the color of their shirt, inciting gang violence, while the media paints the picture and reinforce the idea. Isn't it obvious that not only is the oppressed furthering the problem but the media is also only making it worse?
Classism in America is secondary to basic discrimination when a culture is cultivated to be violent and then encouraged to do just that. When the same opportunities are offered to everyone, yet, a stigmatized image is painted on you just because of your association with what the media presents rather than who that person may be as an individual. THAT'S the problem. It's partly the victim's fault, partly the government and partly the media, but regardless of who has the biggest say so, the issue is perpetuatd by all parties, so even with equal opportunity given, which there is, there's an institutionalized issue being continued there.

You asking for some kind of document to show that problem is dumb, what government in the 21st century would openly have a document showing the acknowledgment and endorsement of this issue? It's an issue with no face for a reason. That's why artists like Joey, Kanye, and Kendrick throws punches blindfolded in darkness. Because there's no tangible scapegoat for the problem and it isn't concentrated to just one problem; it's a problem equally shared by all parties involved. Something acknowledged by people like Kendrick and even Joey to some extent in that closing spoken word track on his album where it warns people to not engage in this issue.

The only time this problem would go away is when people identify others as people first and not what cultural background they fit in. Like that whole Trayvon martin thing. An innocent victim dying from an unprovoked shooting shouldn't have been about some kind of "race" problem, it should have been about just that, an innocent victim dying. But because there's a disturbing narrative that's backed up from constant cases of the "race" card being brought into the mix, the case is no longer about the loss of an innocent life, it becomes a race issue. It should never get to that. No one's life should be reduced to people on Twitter pretending to care about someone's life by tweeting for retweets and then it be forgotten 4 weeks later when it's no longer relevant. Videos of cops shooting minorities with little justification shouldn't be reduced to timeline scroll through on Facebook. But that's what's going on and that's the problem. Seeing videos of people dying shouldn't be something you get desensitized to.

You can be good natured all you want, but if your environment is anything but, unless you get out of it, that would affect your life to some extent. When jobs feel obligated to at least hire a few women, a few minorities and have advisements with them to seem accepting of others instead of not even worrying about public image, they're subconsciously making the issue more apparent. This is a country that thinks "black history month" was a good idea. That thinks pitying a minority group means the same thing as empowering them. When race and gender politics are still being identified first instead of everyone just being fellow citizens, that's when it's an issue. Every time someone is celebrated for coming out of the closet, that's equally as unhelpful as that person being shamed for it. That act should be treated no different than you deciding between cereal or toast for breakfast. Only when race, gender, sex and social standing is treated with blase results is when the issue doesn't become all-encompassing.

And no, a rapper deciding to sing "about flowers and butterflies if they wanted to" doesn't change shit because the media's agenda will always make their own narrative.

like how Fox News took Kendrick's "Alright" performance, a song with the intent to uplift people by not living in self-hate and oppression and made it into a negative thing. It doesn't matter what they rap about, the media will only highlight the negative, or even worse, take a song with good intentions and still make it negative. And you're not offending me, but you're doing it once again. Jumping to assumptions like "oh, well they can rap about this and that" when the issue is much more deeper than that. You trying to insinuate that I'm giving a simplistic message, when completely missing the point that I'm addressing what the rapper was addressing, while you yourself participate in going just that, by giving broad, meaningless statements about a topic you have no inkling of understanding about. Not that I know any better, but at the very least, I try to get all facets of what could bring that kind of mindset before outright making claims that make no attempt to bridge between message and interpretation of the message. SO that's why I'm not having this conversation with you. Nothing against you as an individual, but your reasoning is just so brittle that I don't want to participate in it. Instead of telling you "your age/lack of understanding is showing again" I'd much rather just refrain engaging any further.

You take huge issues and try to micromanage them. I don't want to play this game. This convo doesn't benefit anyone. The solution is far too idealistic and the problem would exist as long as people have differing opinions. So let this convo RIP. This will be the last time I speak on it.

I'm from the Carribean, only moving to the states at 13, I have nothing to benefit from this toxic mindset but it's the mindset being presented given the situations people face. Whether you think their claims are baseless or not doesn't change the fact that there's a deep seeded problem there. Part of the problem is assigning a scapegoat to avoid taking blame for it themselves, but another part is a systematic issue that's hard to change after hundreds of years of layering.
You don't have the answers, this response is grossly misinformed, the rappers don't have the answer either. No one does, this is just people trying to make tangible sense out of an issue that's bigger than anyone. Nothing in my response is that black and white either and I already gave my stance on the toxic PC/BLM/SJW groups. I'm not discussing this any further. This is just going to be running in circles.

Temptation, Y U Don't Love Me and Rockaby Baby are my favorite tracks from the listing, but honestly, I love all of them. It's a great album from start to finish.

I think the "KKK" tie-in is Joey's way of showing a new form of prejudice that took the place of direct racism. Many rappers have discussed this before. Institutionalized racism and prejudice, where the system works in opposition of minorities. Basically, the reason urban areas are targeted, from the CIA funneling drugs into urban areas and turning a blind eye to major issues concerning their well-being and media's constant portrayal of lesser races as thugs to stigmatize a subconsciously planted image of them as a whole, to the point where the minorities themselves begin to do the same thing by becoming the stereotype to fit in. Basically creating a perpetual circle of self-hate and black on black violence. It's glorified. Kendrick's album TPAB discusses this at great lengths in a few of his songs, like the tongue-in-cheek "For Free" or the malicious whispers of "For Sale." It's systemic hate that's being cultivated. Even government aid is part of the problem, as you basically have to relinquish any kind of taxable financial gain in order to receive government aid to prove that you do, in fact, have no means of making money. Which lead to complacency and co-dependence in urban minority places. Even artists like Kanye addresses it in interviews when he describes how they actively try to blacklist him from entering the fashion industry, making him spend millions to no avail. Despite his narcissistic attitude, the issue itself is evident.

Basically, it's all these issues that are being compounded to create the current sociopolitical problems people are seeing now:
-Government handouts that create co-dependence and discourages entrepreneurship
-media stereotyping that's repeated so much that even rappers support the image and promote it.
-funneling drugs and weapons through urban communities, which reinforces the media image
-blacks and minorities being arrested at alarming rates, receiving sentences far crueler than what's handed to others.

The problems are more nuanced now, as Joey said in his track Babylon:
"Nowaday they hangin' us by a different tree
Branches of the government, I can name all three
Judicial, legislative and executive"

It's no longer a simple black vs white, it's minorities vs the system itself.

I didn't know English was a 2nd language to you until you mentioned it, so consider that a sign that your English, as far as writing is concerned, is pretty good. As for your new experiences with conceptual albums and musical artists, you're pretty much starting on people on the high-end of that list, as far as rap goes with Kendrick and Joey. Both are considered some of the best right now in this current age of hip-hop.

I never made a solidified opinion, now you're misconstruing my response here. When I said:
"I'm starting to notice a pattern with you. I feel like you have this short yardstick of quick evaluation with no time to digesting content or thinking before you make bold claims."
I'm basically stating that from this conversation, so far, all of your evaluation, whether you come to your senses later on or not like you did with the Forrest Gump thing, the point is, you start out by giving very broad, baseless claims beforehand.

And this nonchalant suggestion that I somehow devalued HxH by saying that:
"I think you've underrated HxH, don't be so harsh man it warrants an 8 it's decidedly more than just a solid shounen, it's on par with JoJo."
Is still, yet another broad baseless claim and comparison. Whether nonchalant or not, you're making a statement that these shows are somehow on equal measure and therefore should receive the same score, when I think it's easy to prove they're not.

More than likely, that suggestion may just stem from you not understanding my thought process for scores, so it's not your fault. I'm a stickler when it comes to scores, it's the reason I even made such a lengthy dissection in my ranking scale, to begin with. Scores are summations to myself and my opinion, therefore, it's not something I just attach on a whim. I take careful consideration for each one of them. A 7 and an 8 are leagues apart. An 8 is close to as good as an anime could get, that means no jarring fundamental issues associated with poor pre-planning. For me, a show that rewrites the physics of its universe after directly contradicting itself in the way HxH did with Nen is not a minor issue, it's a huge one. One that I don't forgive easily since it's writing 101 for anyone aspiring to create something. And certainly one I don't place on the level of titles that never had this basic literary misstep, as with the likes of FMA, which, btw, is an 8 for me. It's like rewarding a lesser talented person with the same honor as a star-studded athlete because that lesser athlete "tried." To me, that kind of thing is damaging to the show because now when more serious critics from outside the anime community sit down to watch a show where men die and get reborn as lolis, then proceed to see all the kids give it 10/10, they can't help but laugh at the complete disregard for quality control.

The anime community is like a fledgling just learning to flap its wings, while the film industry and others with a broad, long-lasting history, has already taken flight. Ignoring problems will just make this fledgling complacent and take longer to take to the skies, and that's why most astute viewers don't credit the anime industry outside the typical classics like Ghost in the Shell and most of Ghibli, because we're placing everything on a high pedestal, leaving no room for varying degrees of achievement. It's for reasons like that that I make it a point to utilize the entire 1-10 scale without catering to win people over. If it has major issues, whether I like the show or not, I will not pretend it didn't happen. So no, HxH will never get an 8 because HxH is only good, not "very good" as that 8 score indicates, but just good. If a film or long-running live-action tv series fucked up this bad it wouldn't go unnoticed and I don't think that should magically change just because we're dealing with a different medium.

And I'm saying it isn't "weak" story-wise, whether you like it or not doesn't change its value in the slightest. It's a pivotal point in the narrative.
I won't regurgitate what I already said about it so I'll leave it at that.

And I already answered this question with the first quote, so I won't overdo it here again. There's no solidified opinion here, just one that's progressing with each exchange, which I might add is ironic given that you chose to use that as some clever way to use my words against me, having indirectly made that original statement more biting than it already was. Because now this entire response is predicated on a misunderstanding that I somehow pigeonholed you when I simply said: "I'm starting to notice a pattern with you."

And no hard feelings, there's nothing about any of this that's worth getting riled up about. My word choice was pretty damning so I apologize for those remarks, like the whole "Hopsin is for angsty kids that haven't grown up yet" or just statements about fanboys. I hope you know, when I make broad strokes about any fanbase, I'm not talking about the individual, if I'm addressing you, I make that very clear. If I say Evangelion fans are cancerous, that's pretty broad, and it should go without saying that I love the show. Just that whole hive-mind that blindly try to appraise everything is what is being addressed. Like how Hopsin's insane fanbase seem to be these kids that treat his word like gospel.

BUTTTTTT I'm done with this topic for now, on to better things like THAT NEW MOTHERFUCKING JOEY BADASS!!! MAH BOI DID IT!! I'm really glad Joey didn't let me down. So far he hasn't dropped a wack project yet. While I think the subject matter is pretty redundant, I love the musicality of every track. It will never beat TPAB but it's a great album and one I think is very important for the current sociopolitical landscape.

Why is any form of criticism treated as being "condescending" these days? Is it so hard to believe, that maybe, just maybe, people are genuinely trying to give you food for thought and not talking down to you? These are words, not a voice chat, don't read into a tone that's not there.

As for the Kendrick thing, sure, out of context from the album you could say it's "weak" story wise, but placed in it, it's a point in Kendrick's life of being at his lowest integrity-wise. It embodies the namesake of the album: a "good" kid being sullied by the "mad city" he's a part of. Showing how your environment shapes you, Kendrick becoming a rapper was basically him escaping that inevitable outcome. That song was his close brush with losing that opportunity he got later on, as he stated, that could have been his first offense. I hope you weren't listening to it literal alone, something like Stan is very literal, this album is coming in phases of external activity and internal mindset. Case in point, Backseat freestyle's braggadocious lyrics being Kendrick trying to fit in and act ignorant like "the homies" but his true nature, as confessed throughout The Art of Peer Pressure being the more mindful, mild-mannered Kendrick. Think of this ignorant Kendrick as K.Dot and the mindful one as Lamar himself.

So yeah, when I'm calling into question behind what I consider to be a "short yardstick of evaluation" made before letting the content itself digest, I'm not trying to talk down to you. I'm searching for a reason for where these premature statements may come from and if that just so happen to be your age as a possibility, knowing that when I was 17 there were things I said and proclaim, that now that I'm older, I find pretty half-boiled, then yes, I will use that as my first assumption. If you take that as "condescending" then I don't know what to tell you, I don't sugar coat anything I say because I don't think that's a healthy thing to do. I'm pragmatic at heart when it comes to identifying things, so if that bothers you, here's your pre-warning going forward.

I'm not even sure why I expected anything less than a response of offense If I'm being honest with myself, I should have seen that one coming. So for the sake of expediting this response to a point of compromise, let's end this convo about Kendrick, HXH and just basic critiquing altogether. I wish I could say I have the patience to go over it and pick out the finer details for my reasoning, but I've had these same conversations ad nauseam, with each time I return to it, I just end up responding with cynicism or aggravation.

Since I'm lazy and tired of talking about HxH every other week with some fanboy, I'll just quote a convo I literally had last night in my direct message about it:


And no, Jojo and HxH aren't "on par." Jojo is nonsensical and doesn't try to conceal that fact at any point, HxH wants to be taken seriously, but has nonsensical things in it that it tries desperately to retcon. The difference there is that one operates under a certain amount of pretension while the other doesn't give a flying fuck if you notice how implausible a scenario is. That's what makes Jojo so great, its complete disregard overthinking and just doing its own thing.

And please God, if you're going to try to make that point that all HXH fans try to, let that convo either RIP or give me a few sentences and not a thesis paper. There are certain shows I'm just fucking tired of talking about over and over again, Bebop and HxH are the two biggest culprits. With a majority of the misunderstanding coming from someone not seeing a decent amount of films in their life (Bebop) or turning a blind eye to issues or using double standards to say those issues are strengths (HXH). It's annoying.

It's basically Kendrick's bad influenced friends dragging him around, taking him out of his element. The entire album shows him drudging through it, coming to a realization, trying to escape that lifestyle and accepting it as the mad city he lives in. If you didn't like it, that's fine but to say the story isn't linear basically just tell me that you didn't take your time and invest into listening to it. Every story tells this tale of bad decisions, fighting to break free and eventually getting there when top dawg calls for him over at the studio, offering him a way out of the perpetual mess that Compton's hood is all about. I'm starting to notice a pattern with you. I feel like you have this short yardstick of quick evaluation with no time to digesting content or thinking before you make bold claims. Not that you mean to come off this way, but when it comes to topics like this, your age is really becoming apparent.

It started with that "horse before the carriage" moment of you trying to toss films under the bus with flimsy reasoning, and now it's just carrying over to music and anime. You don't have to have an answer for everything, don't purposely put your foot in your mouth. I know I did when I was your age, and looking back at it, I was embarrassed of myself.

Wait, did you really try to show me one of Eminem's most famous songs like I wouldn't have seen it before? lol Stop. And Hopsin is for angsty kids that haven't grown up yet, J.Cole is not on Kendrick's level, and it's the constant comparison that fans do putting them in the same boat that people shit on J. Cole. J. Cole is a good artist, but what he does and Kendrick does are not compatible. I don't care for Eminem, his shtick gets old very quickly. There's only so many ways you could rap about face fucking celebrities and stealing your mom's valium before you lose my interest. As an MC, Eminem is a talented wordsmith, and deserve all the praise in the world for that, but as someone that makes music, I could only listen to his earlier works, everything after Relapse is unlistenable to me.

And as far as people similar to Kendrick, the best place to look is the label he's signed to. Most of TDE's top performers are all great MCs in their own way.
Ab-soul for his abstract wordplay and often tongue and cheek subject matter (his recent album was great). Jay Rock for a very direct approach, being almost literal with what he says, he's all about bravado. Schoolboy Q for an attack dog kind of gangsta rap (his blank face LP was his best outing so far). Isaiah Rashad for his smooth southern Hip-Hop/neo-soul vibe, being one of the more balanced members, with a great flow, great lyrics and a good ear for production, his Sun's Tirade album being a great listen from beginning to end. Anyone in that TDE camp is making authentic Hip-Hop.

No, my profile picture is Yomi from Yu Yu Hakusho.

He dissed at several points, I'm tired of typing, go watch Dead End Hip Hop's video on that track.


And never send me multiple comments back to back like this again, it's a pain in the ass.

I'll try send you a friend request on goodreads.

I'm so glad you reevaluated that statement. If there's one thing I find extremely aggravating about a lot of people, is that they think that in order to be a "great" show, it has to be smart or intellectually stimulating. I find that to be one of the stupidest claims ever. Basically, reducing to, if it isn't 2deep4me, it can't be THAT good. A show doesn't have to be "deep" to be good. And your favorite show doesn't have to be "deep" to be a favorite. That's the #1 reason for why elitists look like retarded man-children. Always afraid to give their thoughts on a show without checking critical consensus and making sure it's collectively agreed upon to be good or shit. Honestly, I find them to be just as dumb as shounen-tards, and in some cases even worse, because at least a shounen-tard isn't afraid of admitting to liking what they do while the elitists could never openly like certain shows because "omg my internet rep." Don't ever be that person, it's a sad state of affairs to be that kind of guy.

The Blacker the Berry was him rapping from an angry bigoted perspective. All his albums are conceptual, weaving together a bigger narrative. What I'm giving you are merely snippets, in the context of the album great tracks become better. The best advice I can give to you is to just sit down and listen to the tracks in order. Actually listen to it too, don't just let this be background noise. I highly suggest starting with the Good kid Maad city album. If after you listen to it and really take the time to digest it you still don't like him, then that's fine.

I don't really have a definitive technique. I give 5 stars to books I really love, 4 stars to books I really like, but have some issues with. Etc.

Do you have a goodreads acoount?

You do realize Forrest Gump is a comedy drama right? That's a recipe for silly melodrama and lighthearted whimsical content. Melodrama itself is not bad, it's when it's forceful that it becomes a problem (ie Kiznaiver, Batman v Superman).
There's so much songs to pick from, it really depends on what you're looking for, if you want catchy Kendrick, just go with his recent song:


If you want typical Kendrick, the type you would find on his usual album tracks, the kind most people enjoy for his storytelling abilities, try this:


And if you want to hear him being aggressive, delivering biting social commentary with no restraint or fucks given of offending others, try this:


Anddddddd, if you just want to hear some of my favorites from Kendrick, the kind of shit that forever keep him in my favorites, try these:




Honestly man, if you like any of these, the guy is chalked full of great songs to check out.

I don't really have a political standing, but if I had to choose, it would be Democratic. The world is moving forward and conservatives are going in the wrong direction.

Those movies are overexposed, sure, but it's hyperbole to give them 9s? That's an extremely toxic thought process to rely on. They are well-made, well-crafted movies, with great acting, great filmmaking and are seminal works in their own right, with hundreds of other creators still trying to capture that magic to this very day. They're always praised for a reason. If anything, all the universal praise comes from the fact that both casual movie fans and critical movie buffs alike think it's a great project. Saying that would be like me saying Gurren Lagann and End of Eva being rated a 9 is hyperbole (and those are the same scores I give it too, just making a point here). Sure, some movies/anime/tv shows etc are overrated to kingdom come, but that comes with the understanding, that every now and then, critics and casual viewers are right on target sometimes. As is the case with how highly rated FMA is for anime or something like Goodfellas for movies.
I totally agree, his batting average for producing great projects is undisputed so far. Kendrick is one of the greatest rappers, not only of our generation but all time as well. I think people are scared to make that claim for someone who's currently alive, in the way an artist usually get famous after their death. But I see no reason to wait until the guy is gone to give him his due props. He's proven himself time and time again and if this latest album is another success, I think it would permanently solidify his spot.
And as for Black Live Matter, I find it to be one of the most cancerous hypocritical movements ever, same goes for most identity politics movement that seems to have spawned out of this recent JSW debacle. It's an embarrassment to look at. I'm sure decades down the line, historians would point to this current time in sociopolitical issues as one of the low points of the 21st century.

FR accepted and yes, I'm usually more soft on movies, but not out of bad habit, but in general, movies are far more competently made than anime. I love anime for how ballsy it can get with its subject matter, which is the reason it's my favorite medium. But when it comes to well-oiled machines, the film industry has perfected its craft, it fails like any other medium does, but on average, their success rates are like 5 to 1 where with anime it's almost 10 to 1. One medium compromises a lot but yields favorable results, regardless of how much you like the film, while the other takes more risks but usually ends up fumbling the delivery.