Who is the gentleman involved? Is he a singer? A librettist?
He's a rapper and producer, well known for creating godawful songs out of samples from Oliver!
Shudder
So you don't want any more?
He's a brilliant rapper and it saddens me to see you, a blogger i admire, attack his music as 'astonishingly bad'.
Have you listened to his album 'The Blueprint'? it's one of the best hip hop albums ever made, is chock-full of truly inventive production work by among others Timbaland and Kanye West. Have a listen to 'The Takeover' on The Blueprint, which works miracles with a song by The Doors of all people. And as for his voice - well he's a better lyricist than any of Jurassic 5, and has rarely written a duff line - in fact he often writes lyrics for other rappers. His live album is brilliant as well, far superior to anything Jurassic 5 could do.
The 'public hysteria around his performance' seems to emanate from people who are not likely to go anyway. I was at Reading Festival when 50 Cent was bottled off and it truly depressed me. The Glastonbury audience is not as musically blinkered, however. relatively poor ticket sales are a result of Glasto still having awful infrastructure, a glut of festivals offering the same bands, and most importantly, the fact that glastonbury has gone back to being annual and so is no longer such a 'special event'. Kylie, Basement Jaxx and the Prodigy have headlined in the past.
Oh and 'Hard Knock Life' samples Annie, not Oliver!, and the rapping on the song in question is really very good. You might be thinking of Ludacris, who does have a song built around a sample from Oliver! and it's not much cop.
he often writes lyrics for other rappers
So he is a librettist.
Incidentally this is causing consternation (see 10/3) in the chess community...
rarely written a duff line
I trust that "Your reign on the top was shorter than leprechauns" makes a better impression when listened to than it does on my screen...
That's not by him, it's quoting Notorious B.I.G. in one of many instances of Jay-Z using intertexts to show his knowledge of hip hop history.
Hmmm, I do seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time offending readers, don't I? Probably not too good from a marketing perspective.
Have you listened to his album 'The Blueprint'?
Hands up, no I haven't, so I'll make allowances for the songs I haven't heard. I'm familiar with his work from Mrs. Rodent's frequent three-hour MTV binges, and the ones that spring to mind are Girls, Girls, Girls and Hardknock Life. I realise we're in the realms of personal taste here, but I reckon both are fuck-awful and the second, in particular, makes me want to pull off my ears and burn them.
Everyone else can give the tracks a go here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W...h?
v=WPHUACY_Ktw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e...h?
v=ekomM8aobQo
'Hard Knock Life' samples Annie, not Oliver!
Ooops, indeed it does. If anything, that's worse.
...far superior to anything Jurassic 5 could do.
Quite possibly, I'm not a massive fan myself.
I was at Reading Festival when 50 Cent was bottled off and it truly depressed me
50 Cent truly depresses me, the man's exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about laughable cartoonish bollocks. What was it, seven times he got shot? If I was the bloke that shot him, I'd be having a serious word with my arms dealer.
I mean, what the hell did they shoot him with? A water pistol?
Oh, and by the way, I recall Daphne & Celeste getting bottled off at Reading. Tugged at my heartstrings, I can tell you.
Could have been worse. Daphne and Josephine nearly got machine-gunned.
I'm not going to convince you or anyone else who reads this blog, i know, but listen to this as another side of Jigga - The Takeover, the song i was talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F...h?
v=FAnGnevKxJE
Hard Knock Life i'll admit is an acuired taste, it's not my favourite of his songs. 'Girls, girls, Girls' is not meant to be taken seriously, but again, it's not my favourite of his by any means. But it doesn't mean that he's inherently unlistenable, and nor does it mean that he shouldn't play glastonbury. This is the festival that also booked as headliners the band who brought us 'smack my bitch up'...
The Takeover
Not too bad, although it does still smack of taking someone elses' track and mumbling about how wonderful you are over the top of it. But then, that's the genre, isn't it?
This is the festival that also booked as headliners the band who brought us 'smack my bitch up'...
See, here we are in subjective opinions territory again. I like the Prodigy, Jilted Generation in particular.
Update
Having consulted Mrs. Rodent, I can now inform readers that Mr. Z is fantastically talented, and that I am as big a snobby twat as the London media vermin who attend Glastonbury for believing otherwise.
Glad that's settled.
Will he be performing at the Proms?
it does still smack of taking someone elses' track and mumbling about how wonderful you are over the top of it. But then, that's the genre, isn't it?
afraid so, and that's probably the single best example of the 'hip hop rivalry' song. The rapper he's mainly criticising in that, Nas, ended up making friends with him again cos Jay did such a good job on it.
The main reason for that song being groundbreaking is Kanye West sampling The Doors. you don't hear that often...
I like the Prodigy too, I was at that Glastonbury that they played and I loved it. It's not really a criticism of you, but people criticisng Glastonbury for hiring a misogynist are forgetting that song - which is also largely based on a song by someone else...
Will he be performing at the Proms?
he did play at the albert hall on his last tour...
Jay Z may not play the Proms, but Fiddy seems to be positioning himself to make a run at Henry Wood.
The sugary water business sure beats pimpin'.
Jesus, Weasel, you couldn't have found a better example if I'd commissioned and paid you. Well done.
Only fair - I'll nail my colours to the mast by saying that my favourite is 36 Chambers. I have no idea whether that's crap or not, but I like it.
It's also worth noting that it was Emily Eavis's presumption that middle class people are racist that prompted this post.
No doubt some of them are, but I suspect most Glasto-goers are closer to my position than the KKK's.
I'd go further and say that Emily Eavis's position is almost 100% bullshit. Her words equate to 'Vote hard right and you'll never need to hear from such drivel headed muppets ever again'
Yeah, that's the one Emily, the tickets ain't goin cuz the public are 'nigger haters' rather than anything more more prosaic. Y'know, things like people not being able to flash out the cash on frivolities like a weekend at Glasto, or maybe the bill really is total shite.
May Greenpeace choke on the sewage from the many hundred chemical cludgies that constitute this particular weekend in Wiltshire.
Bad mood? Moi? Not a bit of it.............
I do not know of this Jay-Zed person of whom you write. I am now supposed to go on to say "I feel old", or words to that effect, but in fact my feeling is more one of relief.
has rarely written a duff line
I should hope not. Duff Daddy D writes his own lyrics.
On further review, I have come to the conclusion that my first paragraph in the comment above is a pile of incoherent pish. Oh, and the use of the term 'nigger haters' was neither big nor clever, even in quote marks. I think I know what I was getting at by using it, but 'Closet Racists' would have worked better.
The bit about Greenpeace I liked though..........
Anyone else want their comments critiqued?
that's the one Emily, the tickets ain't goin cuz the public are 'nigger haters' rather than anything more more prosaic
From the way i read it, Emily Eavis actually agrees with you. She's talking about the media perception of glastonbury, and the media position on Jay-Z. She is not passing judgment on her own festival's audience. Although i do think she has really dreadful taste in music generally.
Oh and 36 Chambers is immense, no quibbles on that. You should also listen if you get the chance to some stuff by MF DOOM, especially his album 'Venomous Villain', released under the pseudonym of Viktor Vaughn.
...And while we're discussing ludicrous accusations, check this pile of bollocks from Martin Jacques out...
http://
commentisfree.guardian.co...nd_wrong_1.html
...In which he takes the BBC to task for treating the former footballer Ian Wright like some kind of clown.
Anybody else remember Wright's antics after Norn Iron stuffed England the other year?
Yeah, Wright played the clown. That was his whole act. I can't think of anything insightful he ever said.
There's a good general point in there about the absence of black ex-players among the pundits but it's got the wrong name attached to it. Is Mark Perryman still a follower of Jacques? Perhaps he could put his mate right on this one. I suspect Jacques doesn't know a great deal about association football which is always a problem when commenting on whether other people do or not.
Commenting by HaloScan
