![]() ![]() ![]() Justin SaylesĪllBlack Is Staying True to His Bay Area Roots 7. It’s stunning and emotive on tracks like “Road of the Lonely Ones” and the Afro-jazz closer “Duumbiyay,” hypnotic when he samples Young Marble Giants on “Dirtknock,” and joyous as it pays tribute the late, great James Yancey on “Two for 2 - For Dilla.” Sound Ancestors shows that even the greatest producers can benefit from getting another set of ears involved. From Shades of Blue to the Madlib Medicine Show installments, there’s no shortage of interesting instrumental projects in the prolific beat smith’s oeuvre, but Sound Ancestors is the closest he’s given us a true producer’s project. There was just one rule: Four Tet could work only with what was there-he couldn’t add anything. The legendary producer and crate digger behind Madvillian, Lootpack, and two excellent Freddie Gibbs collaborations has made a career out of repurposing fragments of sound into vibrant compositions, but for Sound Ancestors, he let longtime associate Four Tet sift through his digital archives and shape a full-length project. Madlib, Sound Ancestorsįor once, Madlib let someone else flip his records into something. And that’s more than you can say about most 2021 rap. Whole Lotta Red could’ve cemented Playboi as rap’s next megastar, but instead Carti decided to slouch further into his artistic desires. For much of the album, he wants to rap from the perspective of a narcoleptic rock star vampire misunderstood by the world and, in many ways, that’s exactly where Playboi exists in the current rap landscape. The hooks are post-catchy, the ad-libs are far more interesting than the lyrics, and at no point does Playboi bother to make anything accessible. For more than an hour, Playboi creates a musical mausoleum that splits the difference between cheesy horror synths and faux-Atari beeps strung together into semi-coherence. The cheesy organ melody of “Vamp Anthem” filled my headphones and this audacious album began to make sense. Then, as I walked outside fuming at the amount of time I’d wasted on a Playboi project on my day off, it hit me. In short, it was in line with most Playboi Carti albums. ![]() The long-delayed project was overstuffed, unfocused, filled with streaming bait features, and low on the hits and meme potential that filled his previous work. When Playboi Carti’s third album-or maybe second, who honestly knows-arrived on Christmas Day, it had all the makings of one of the most insufferable projects of the year. And be sure to check out Tuesday’s episode of The Ringer Music Show to hear more of our “best ofs” for 2021. Cole’s Magic Johnson turn, we’re counting down what’s captivated us so far this year. From Olivia Rodrigo’s breakout to Tyler, the Creator’s return to form to J. Is the album dead? These 10 projects from the first half of 2021 would argue otherwise. ![]()
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