GD T.O.P. High High CD review

Well, as many of you know, I purchased GD & TOP's full length album on Christmas Day here in  Korea. I didn't listen to it until the 26th, but have been listening to it practically nonstop yesterday and today in order to prepare this review for you, the fans. In fact, I'm listening to it right now to make sure I don't miss anything.

The album overall
The album is really nice looking. I think it's much more sophisticated and expensive looking than the 2ne1 album, which was pretty but super flashy. This album manages to combine bling and sophistication. I actually really like the pseudo playboy bunny and the paisley print that was incorporated into the bunny design and the cd itself. But I just really like paisley in general. The pictures are generally pretty good although some of the styling is questionable in my personal opinion (I like animal prints and furs, but the headscarf gd wears, and the ladies fur coat TOP dons in two of the pictures are horrible). I really like the backgrounds of the pictures. Either really really super simple or really really eccentric. Just like GD and TOP. What I hate about the cd itself? Two things. First, there are two separate pages which both contain identical track lists. Why? I mean, the pictures are different, but why put the tracks listed twice? It's weird. Second, the album jacket which contains all the lyrics is glued into the cd case. I HATE THAT. 2ne1's album was the same and it makes me effing crazy.

Track List & Analysis:
1. Intro: The intro, which samples 70s legend Freda Payne's It's Yours to Have, is just enough of a borrowing from the past without copying, and still super super forward thinking. I feel like wearing some big ass earrings and a headscarf and some rollerskates, but at the same time, heading to a club and bouncing around. I also like how the last verse introduces all the songs. It's like an actualy introduction, not just some jibber jabber that starts the cd.

2. High High: We've all heard this song (unless you've been living under a kpop rock for the last month) but it's still awesome. It definitely sounds like something I would hear in a club in Seoul (although unfortunately not in most American university area clubs, with which I'm much familiar with). The hook is SUPER catchy. And the video, well, it's super American. It feels like something I'd watch on t.v. in America, except that some of the western girls aren't video girls at all (which is a true statement, this was just like a big party at the filming and lots of people who are not actually dancers or models attended). There are a couple moments I'd replace in the video to make it look more professional, but otherwise, I like the video a lot too. Also, I don't agree with Eat Your Kimchi's 5 out of 5 for English rating. Ghetto Electro isn't a real word, and their joke wasn't even that funny (don't get me wrong, I'm totally a fan of eatyourkimchi.com but that joke wasn't funny and I think their bias got in the way of the fact that the English in this song was not perfect and maybe deserves a 3.5 or 4 out of 5)

3. Oh Yeah (feat. Park Bom): Into is funky and fun. GD opening the first verse really screams of Heartbreaker to me for some reason. But when TOP steps in, he changes it up a bit. However, I'd say his first verse sounds a little forced and too clean. Part of the beauty of TOP's voice is it's roughness. But Bom KILLS this track. I get chills listening to her sing in this song. Also, you can tell TOP didn't have a part in the production of this video. It's a great song, and it fits GD's style perfect, but it's something TOP seems to need to conform to a bit. He does a good job of it, but it's not his best performance. But, I'm gonna repeat this because it's so true: Park Bom KILLED it.

4. 집에 가지마: This song is practically  perfect, in my opinion. Bom was gonna feature on this as well, but as much as I love her voice, I'm glad she didn't. I like GD doing those vocals on the chorus. Also, I really like when GD echoes TOP during the first verse. Their voices sound so nice together, deep with the high. TOP is also back to his more voice. Even though this song is really smooth, they don't over auto-tone his voice, which was I think the problem I have on Oh Yeah. Also, I love when GD sings and raps on the same track. His singing voice and rapping voice are totally different, but they blend so nicely on a single track.

5. Baby Good Night: Besides 뻑이가요 this is my favorite song on the album (I think I may like it more than 뻑이가요 but they are so completely different it's hard to compare). When I heard this song on the world premiere, I though I wanna make love to this song. Not make love while this song is playing, but I want to make love with this song. It's so subtly sexy and juxtaposes GD's almost feminine voice with TOP whispering breathy raps. I've heard TOP speak live plenty of times, but I still kind of imagine that the way he raps in this song is the cadence and tone of his real voice. And it makes me love him a little. I don't wanna say goodbye to this song when it ends. Also, the french? HELLO SEX.

6.뻑이가요: The best live song I've perhaps ever seen performed in Korea (at least overally acoustic performance wise). The bass is so intense and hard in live performances and you see TOP shine really bright with his hardness and GD matches the hardness punch for punch with his own quirky version of street. TOP sounds natural here. This isn't exactly the standard GD we're used to, but GD stepped his game up like crazy on this song. My complaint is that this song falls a little flat on the production. No matter how I changed the EQ on my ipod touch, the bass wasn't what it could be. I feel like I have plenty of bass heavy tracks on my ipod (I listen to a lot of American hip hop as well as kpop) but this song is too studio on the album. I wanna record the audio off the YG family concert footage or from the T Social Party minus the audience noise, and I'd bump this song nonstop. Even Turn It Up has better bass than this song and it's on the same album. I don't get it.

7. Oh Mom (TOP Solo): This song is a little strange to me. The transition between 뻑이가요 and this song seems awkward (I feel like it should be place together with GD's 어쩌란 말이냐? which also has the rock influence. That being said, I don't normally like TOP's singing voice, but I'll listen to this song. It's not my favorite on the track, but it's decent. It's a bit depressing, with the rando feedback between the chorus and the second verse, and it's not Big Bang sounding or TOP sounding. Also, I don't understand the title. As far as I can tell preliminary, the song doesn't really directly relate to his mom at all. It's about letters and his fans and telling his fans that they aren't alone. I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to work hard on that translation and I'll get back to you. It reminds me of that Eminem song, Stan. hahahahaha.

8. 악몽 (GD Solo): Dark and intense. GD goes hard on this song. It's super American in the currently popular vain of that Eminem and Rihana song, Love the Way you Lie. It's got enough of GD using what he's comfortable enough (the chorus is super Heartbreaker to me) but the verses push him a little bit outside of what I'd call his comfort zone. This song is the perfect thing for me to push through something when I'm in a bad mood or feeling like I can't endure something. This song also pumps me up in a way I can't explain. I feel like I can work harder and more intensely with this song in the background.

9. 오늘따라 (TOP Solo): I love the sound of this song. It's so intense, but it doesn't have quite the over-the-top swagger of TOP's other really famous solo, Turn It Up. The hook makes me crazy. I could lose my head in a club to this song. It has just the right amount and degree of tempo changes and drums and percussion come in in an epic manner really just adding to the production value of this song. I really enjoy this song and it's kind of just a song that I can play anytime and feel good about it. I love this song.

10. 어쩌란 말이냐 (GD Solo): This song is probably my least favorite on the album. I would maybe like it more if it was put together with TOP's rockish song, because then I could feel the cohesion of the two songs, but they are separate, and I think that hurts the flow of the album. Also, GD's voice is a little fake/forced sounding. Maybe it's just not my style, but I don't like this song. I don't hate it, but I probably skip over it more than not. I pretty much just listen to it when I have my earbuds in and its too cold to take my gloves off to operate my ipod touch... Just not for me.

11. Bonus Track: Turn It Up (TOP): I don't need to review this I think. You've all heard it. You all know it's dope. So yeah.

Last note: props to the boys for writing the lyrics on all the songs (Teddy assisted on High High and Oh Yeah, which you can tell) and participating in production or arranging of all the songs except High High and Oh Yeah (also Teddy... duh).

That's it for me. Comment and lemme know what you think about the album. I'll be posting a video review sometime in the next week hopefully... ^_^

xoxo
A

Wax & Herbal T: AMERICAN MUSIC Y'ALL

This is fucking ridiculous. I can't even explain how dope these two dudes are. I would kill to see em live. I wonder if they'll ever come over to Korea with DFD? That would be cray cray.

Sorry for spamming your shit with youtube vids. I got my lesson planning done a bit earlier than anticipated.



xoxo
A

The Hot List

Since Summer is finally here, and it's legitimately HOT outside (or has been until today), I figure it's time for another Hot List. I should do these more regularly, but I don't. This edition will run the gamut of topics, so hopefully you will enjoy:

1. The Rub: I literally discovered them today via the Johnny Cupcakes blog. This DJ crew is composed of DJ Ayres, DJ Eleven and Cosmo Baker. The threesome has been working together for about 8 years, and they are based in NYC. They spin full-time and make mixtapes basically for a living. I haven't been listening to them for long, but I'm already hooked. They mix hip-hop, funk, soul, rock, and other genres to make truly interesting mixes. They also are currently producing a series called the History of Hip-Hop. This series basically puts a group of the hottest songs from a single year into a single long-ass mix. The series starts with the year 1979, which was posted on their site back in December of 2007. Their most recent addition is 2003, which is a throwback to high school for me. I'm listening to the 1993 mix right now, which contains classics like Tribe's Award Tour, Wu-Tang's Protect Ya Neck, Method Man and Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothin to Fuck With, Snoop's Gin & Juice, TuPac's I Get Around, Cypress Hill's Insane in the Brain, and Souls of Mischief's 93 to Infinity (which Dumb and Wax sample in 2010 to Infinity), along with 39 other joints from that year. While I was only 6 years old in 1993, and certainly had never heard Wu-Tang, Snoop, or delaSoul when I was in first grade, my respect for these artists is immense. To hear them all on one track is pretty epic. All of their shit is available for download on their website. I really hope I can see one or more of them spin when I go to NYC this summer. Hopefully Diane/Amy/Sarah/someone will be down to check them out with me.

2. Rain: It's monsoon season here in Korea. Now, being from Florida, I'm no stranger to summer rains. In fact, in my personal experience, it (thus far) has rained far less here in Korea than it does each summer in Gainesville or Wellington. But, I appreciate much more here for various reasons. 1) my classes are no longer outdoors (LA classes at the ELI are outside and thus were moved every single day due to midday rainshowers). 2) it makes it significantly cooler in my un-air-conditioned classroom and office. 3) The students like rain a lot and are thus much happier/animated in my class. Plus, I just really like the rain. It's messy and wet and cool and it totally encourages casual behavior/dress. The only really unfortunate thing is that in my perpetual forgetfulness, I manage to consistently lose/leave at home my umbrella. So, in the last two weeks, I've bought three umbrellas. T_T

3. R16 Bboy Championships- OH MY GOD. It's this weekend. I've been on the website every day for the last 5 days just looking at the links and watching videos and checking out the pictures. I'm so stoked for this. I'm going to the pre-party with Words Run Dry and Dre. I'm also going with WRD to the bboy championships. I don't know if she knows it, but we are going eaaaaaaaaaarly to get good seats and be as close to the action as possible. I'm stoked as fuck. There will be an Urban Arts Festival at Olympic Park with graffiti exhibitions and bboy circles, along with a street market. Then, popping/locking battles on Saturday and Crew battles Sunday. ^______^ Tickets are still available at www.r16korea.com

4. FUEL- I just received a bunch of my FUEL gear from BoBo/parents. Everything is really great. It's unfortunate that I just now get the sweatshirt since it's really hot here. Also, more importantly, FUEL released their highlight video on youtube this past weekend and it's fucking awesome. Filled with layouts and skies and nasty d's (I've never seen so many handblocks in a highlight video in my life), it makes me so proud to be a FUEL alumna. Anyways, you watch the video here, and check out their other highlights which I've posted here but deserve more hits.

5. Taeyang's Solar Album: My Young-Bae is dropping his first full-length solo album tomorrow. I've got my copy reserved at ShinNara Records at the Shinsegae near Arts Center. I'm the 60th person in Incheon to reserve it. Clearly I'm a superfan. Anyways, YG has been releasing a 1 minute sample of songs every day since Sunday, and they are all super fresh. I loooooooove it so far. Tomorrow evening you can expect a full review of the album. I will listen to every song like 10 times and then really late at night, after I obsess for a few hours, I'll tell you all just how fucking amazing it is. I mean, jesus, have you seen my Bae lately? SEEEEEEX. See below for one of the audio previews released to youtube. Other previews can be found here, here (this one is really gooooood) , here (see previous parentheses), here, and here.



xoxo
A

Hip Hop Playas vol. 37

So one of my recently created like goals has been completed. Tonight I saw Dumbfoundead live in concert. Man, he really is the bomb. I've mentioned him before, in previous posts, but he is so awesome he definitely deserves more attention on my blog and in the general hip hop scene as well.

Anyways, me and Miranda went to see the HipHopPlayas.com show this weekend. I was initially going to go with Andre, but he bitched out on me. So I called Miranda and told her there would be lots of hot Korean dudes at this show and she was sold. So we headed out around 5 from Incheon.

Got to Hongdae at about quarter to 6. Scarfed some BK down and headed to the show. It was difficult to figure out how to get in, but we figured it out.

By the time we had gotten there, it was pretty much packed. We saw Hot Clip perform first. They are NOT hot chip, the American group, but they are still good. One of the guys (Beatbox BG) beatboxed for a while. That was pretty tight. And Beenzino spat some fire. It was definitely a good start.

Then (I think) B-Free performed (I could be mixing up the order of Hot Clip and B-Free, it's hard to remember exactly). B-Free was cool, but I don't remember much of the performance.

Then, the highlight of the night. Dumb and DJ Zo!

I pretty much lost it as soon as I saw DJ Zo... (너무 멋있어요! 사랑해요 오빠!!)  They set up a different computer and I was just gaaaaaaaah! ZO~~~~!! He was so sexy on the tables, hat backwards and just killing it. And then Dumb came on. His first song was Bullets of Truth, one of my favorite songs by him. Then (I think) he did She Don't Care, which is my favorite song on the Fun With Dumb album (buy here-- support a bomb-ass rapper). DJ Zo then scratched a bit. This was probably my favorite part of the whole show. Really, it kicked ass. Then Dumb did Mr. Nice Guy off of his latest album Clockwise with Wax (man if only Wax would come to Korea, now THAT would be tight). I also really love this song. It's just so fun and cool. Everyone around me was like da-yumm, that girl is fuckin' crazy. I was gettin' down on this song. Then Dumb did Clouds. Everyone at the show lost it because that's the song that DFD did with Jay Park. And of course, everyone loves Jay. There were desperate squeals of girls hoping that Jay would just walk out. I mean, I was kind of holding out a tiny hope in the back of my head.that he would, but I wasn't holding my breath. If he HAD come, I would have lost it and so would have EVERYONE and then I would be able to rub it in my students faces HARD. Honestly, Clouds isn't my favorite song in the world. I love watching Jay dance, and he is a talented singer. But, I'm just not the biggest fan in the world of his rhymes. They're just kind of average for me. But Dumb just performed his verse, which was fine by me. Last song was Vacation Song, which is a song I really like. I don't know it as well as I know his other songs, but it is a really great song. I'm a little bummed he didn't sing Pushin' which is pretty much my favorite song ever by Dumb. Also, I really like Cockblockers because it's just such a funny awesome song. But, I was still so thrilled to have seen Zo and Dumb in concert. There was some Dumb freestyling mixed in somewhere, and I may have mixed up the order of a song or two, but that's the set to the best of my memory. The freestyling was pretty awesome. It was Konglish/English/Korean and I was pretty amped because I understood a good bit of it, even the Korean shit. p.s. I love it when Dumb pantomines being an orchestra conductor on stage when Zo is scratching and he isn't singing. It's so funny/awesome.

Anyways, then MYK performed. He wrecked it, but unfortunately there was some kind of strange miscommunication/problem with the dj-ing. I can't tell if it was an issue with the dj or with the tables or what. It was strange. It was a bummer because it was on the last song. Anyways, MYK is fucking tight.

The Quiett performed next. I don't know him as well as MYK or DOK2, but I've heard some of his shit and thought it was tight. He looked a lot different than I expected. Like smaller or something. I dunno. He was also all blinged out which was kind of weird. But his set was really good and I enjoyed that.

Double K was up next. This set was easily the most energetic. It helps having more people on the stage (there were three of them on stage, which is misleading because Double K is just one person). I don't really know him AT ALL. But his shit rocked. I'm definitely going to find his shit and buy it all up.

Then last, but certainly not least was DOK2. One of my students, Chaeyoung loves him. Like a lot. He started the show by throwing hats out into the crowd. That was cool. Unfortunately I was too far away to see that. Dok2's set was really fun also. I knew a few of the songs, and he had lots of stage presence too.

Then, everyone came out for an encore which was really awesome because they sang lots of the map the soul songs and freestyled. I also almost got my head chopped off my a ninja star-like DJ Zo cd. It brushed the side of my face as I ducked away, and it hit the wall and landed right at my feet. Jackpot!

After the show I stayed a bit and had dumb sign my ticket and zo sign that cd he tossed at my face. They seemed really cool and I got a picture with Zo, so that was cool. People were all losing it over Dumb. All I could hear was screams of 오빠! 오빠! over and over. The best part was that DUMB KNEW WHO I WAS from twitter/facebook. omg love it! I will see them again at their next show July 2nd. I can't wait!

Now I'm just chillin' at Lemon PC 방 waiting for my peeps to get to Hongdae so we can hit Ska2 and get our dance on! ^_^