TOP 100 TRACKS OF 2014: Pt. V: #60 - 51
60. Rae Sremmurd – “No Type (Gravez Remix)”
The brothers of Rae Sremmurd were the darlings of Hip-Hop this past year (which is quite impressive, given their unusual name). They’re like Outkast reborn in a Soulja Boy era. A duo limited in skill, but overflowing with contagious simplicity as they lazily stumble their way through various degrees of absurdity and braggadocio. It’s popular Hip-Hop at its finest, meaning its equal parts infuriating and wonderful. Wonderful in the sense that its abnormally catchy, and that young kids are making it big doing what they love, and infuriating in the sense that something so simple is so popular, and that out of all the people doing what they love, these two are the ones to make it. But I digress, they found the formula and they own it. Besides, what else do you expect from teenagers who aren’t even old enough to legally drink, but suddenly have an inordinate amount of money and women being thrown at them? Nothing, that’s what.
That being said, in my humble estimation the Gravez version of this song is far superior to the original. Whereas the original was dominated by low end, almost to the point of being drowned out by the domineering rumbles of the muddled bass (they fixed this problem somewhat for 2015’s album version), Gravez replaces that mess with a slew of playful synth explosions, and a percussion section that snaps and careens throughout. It’s a remix that definitely redefines the jam. The original was perfect for the intoxicated abandonment of the club. It felt like it belonged amongst the hazy hedonism and sensuous overload of the sweat drenched dance floor. After all, nobody expects music to actually sound good in clubs. They just want the bass to drown out any chance of small talk, thus allowing them to get laid with the least amount of effort possible. This of course is usually followed by the morning after, where you wake up sober, next to a lesser than average looking stranger, only to immediately escape from their clutches before having to actually engage in a human conversation. This version on the other hand, is one you can play the next morning, in the actual light of day, and still feel good about yourself. It’s the playful version. One that you might roll over and kiss on the forehead the next morning, before proceeding to get tangled in the sheets, rolling around and embracing each other, instead of recoiling. It’s the version that you might buy dinner for, or even give a back rub to. It’s the version that you can bring home to mom.
59. Vince Staples – “Nate (Feat. James Fauntleroy)”
History has a way of constantly repeating itself. Whether its contrived human developments or the spontaneous works of the universe, each system finds equilibrium. It’s the story of life, action and reaction constantly intertwining in a delicate dance, and even while the steps may change, the overall pattern remains constant. It’s the continual progression of existence, first set forth in the beginning of time and continuing to this very hour in each individual. To think of the present without considering the past is as foolish as it is counterintuitive. The past shapes the present in the same way the present shapes the future.
It’s a daunting thought trying to comprehend the sheer magnitude of everything, all the molecules, time and life that have contributed to the constant chain of our reality. Humans are selfish and shortsighted, so like with anything, abstract concepts while interesting, have little meaning and relevance until you actually shrink them down and apply them to real life. So perhaps the most relevant application of this reactionary relationship exists within the microcosm of the family. After all, human life is simply the legacy of the nature and nurture that parents bestow upon their progeny. It’s the unbroken chain of reproduction extending back to the beginning of history and beyond, and the single most important agitator of progress and change. This jam embodies that legacy. It’s the convoluted struggle to both exemplify and improve upon those who paved the way for you. It’s a tribute to the naivety and impressionability of youth, the perfect storm for romanticized ideals, a willful ignorance of sorts, inspired by both love and a lack of experience. It’s the deep-seated instinctual desire of young boys to impress their male progenitors, to live up to personal, familial, and societal concepts of success and manliness. It’s the sins of the father becoming the sins of the son. Only sins are transient, defined more often than not by the subjectivity of a privileged aristocracy or an abstract deity. To those who live those sins, they become all they know. Rather than being taboo, they represent existence and sustenance, and so they continue ad infinitum, one generation to the next.
58. Teen Daze – “YVR”
This is what I imagine dying must feel like. It’s the beautiful struggle between life and death, the unknown confronting all that you’ve ever known, a growing bliss wrapped up in frantic confusion. As the last breaths leave your body, a life that was built off of memories and emotions frantically and sporadically flashes before your eyes. Moments of lucidity and commotion are interspersed amongst effervescent feelings of serenity, an indefinable calm that swells and propels you forward toward your ascension into nothingness. There’s tension, almost like a blanket of tranquility smothering you in its warm embrace, while a barrage of frenetic memories rapidly pierce through it attempting to postpone the inevitable. You struggle back and forth, the sublime comfort of pure nothingness, or the pain and suffering of life. Only with life comes the opportunity to add to those flawed yet meaningful memories that made you who you are, the very ones that are flashing before your eyes, fighting for your existence with each sputtering synapse. Succumb to the uniform peace of a blissful eternity, or fight for the self-imposed purpose of continued individuality.
57. Olsson – “Dimma”
This song represents everything that’s good in life. It’s the warm embrace of your bed in the morning, a soothing bath that washes away all your troubles, a coastal drive with the windows rolled down as you soak in the golden sunshine, puppies running through a field to smother your face in kisses, a bite of the most decadent chocolate cake ever known to man spreading across your taste buds, or the first time you ever fell in love. There’s just something magical about it, something that resonates with both the ears and the emotions, spreading tranquility throughout the body and the soul. It’s a song that’s cloaked in the mystique of the unknown, an element that only enhances its overall allure. It’s the perfect example of why I love songs that are wrapped up in the mystery of a foreign language. They almost encourage the spirit of true artistry more by removing the creator’s own intentions. The song then becomes more about the all-encompassing vibe, and the feeling and meaning that you then apply to it. You’re encouraged to meet it halfway, to let it mix unadulterated with your raw emotions rather than filtering it through the limited bounds of language. The result is something that transcends language, and when something as beautiful as that occurs, how can it not be magical?
56. Hookworms – “Off Screen”
Slop has never sounded as beautiful as it does with this jam. It’s an experience of clarity that’s steeped in haze, something akin to rolling through a field of flowers high off your ass. You come to a stop, but the world continues to slowly spin around you, blurring the edges of everything, turning the previous solidity of your reality into a fluid state that’s full of change and perpetual motion. It’s a visual representation that matches the slow yet continuous churning of your mind’s muddled euphoria, an inspiration to look at the world anew. There’s a peace to it. A peace that’s full of sunshine, with a warmth that radiates throughout, incubating your mind in the ever transient state of now. Everything changes, including me, but I exist, and that’s enough.
It’s content in that sense. You don’t need to go out and see the world - travel, fuck, succeed. You don’t need to be “cool” or do what’s expected, what they tell you. You just need to exist, and recognize the beauty in every second of that existence. Perceive, and be thankful that you perceive, be thankful that you can even think about perceiving. Let existence create you. Be present and recognize the slow stream of life as it constantly flows around you, contouring your surroundings and carrying you along with it. It’s not so much a song, as it is a profound experience. A reminder that life can be so much simpler and more meaningful than our reality constantly tries to make it.
55. Yumi Zouma – “Sålka Gets Her Hopes Up”
Ever heard of discos on the moon? Neither have I, and that’s a problem. They could be a thing. They should be a thing. I mean come one, we went to the moon in 1969, and its now 2015. That’s 46 years since we first took that giant step for mankind. There should have been many steps since then, including two steps, side steps, dips, twirls, jumps, bumps and grinds. That’s 46 years that we’ve abstained from having a moon disco, and if you ask me that’s 46 years too long.
I still have faith though (come on Newt), so when it finally does happen, this jam needs to be on the inaugural playlist. Imagine how great getting down in limited gravity would be. The partner of your choice across from you, the otherworldly pockmarked landscape surrounding you, and the illuminated beauty of earth suspended like a glistening pearl in the midst of the distant nothingness watching it all go down. Time would slow as each movement became stretched to fit the celestial realm. Twirls and jumps suspended in time, with airy synths and vocals propelling and drawing you forward, like gossamer threads of sound carrying each movement through the vacuum. The groove of the bass aligning step by step with each lumbering hop, the sublimity of the surrounding world redefining grace and clumsiness in the process. It would be a rebirth. A bliss like no other, the bliss of gods dancing among the stars, with the gentle yet groovy beauty of this jam heralding our newfound status, emanating forth into the distant reaches of eternity.
54. josh pan x kuma – “Submission”
This is the second track of kumo’s to find its way onto this list, and just like the last, it’s akin to gazing through the swirling haze of a crystal ball and seeing the future of Pop music. It’s an amalgamation of influences, a stew of modernity per se. Complete with the simmering goodness of distorted and affected vocal samples, undertones of deep edm, and a veneer of sludge. However, despite all the diversity it’s a recipe for success, taking only the best of what each separate ingredient has to offer, making sure to never linger with one flavor for too long. That’s what makes it so alluring, the ability to stay within the bounds of a single aesthetic, while simultaneously possessing a diversity that keeps it from falling under the spell of monotony. It’s a jam that’s firmly placed in the ever-expanding genre of Chill-step, the frontier for sluggish, dance-inducing lethargy, yet it finds a way to push those boundaries and exceed expectations. The future may not be bright, but it’s definitely not as dismal as the radio makes it seem.
53. Boogie – “Bitter Raps [Prod. By DK The Punisher]”
I feel like Boogie represents the natural evolution of the Long Beach Hip-Hop scene. More so than ever, the city has become a melting pot, a cultural playground where East and West meet and share common ground. Now don’t get me wrong, Long Beach is still the tale of two cities, but that dividing line seems to be slowly getting more blurred. Boogie’s music reflects that merging commonality. Its music that comes from the streets, but it doesn’t get stuck in the streets. It wants more, and it achieves more through laid-back wit and incisive creativity. This jam in particular represents that honest thirst or desire for more. The initial theme seems to be one of pretense and braggadocio, as Boogie proceeds to lampoon everybody else in the game for being various shades of lame and fake. However, just when you think it’s going to fall into line with every other typical display of arrogance, he drops the façade of self-denial to recognize his own flaws. It’s refreshing breath of self-deprecation, revealing an openness and honesty that is so often lost in the world of Hip-Hop, hidden behind all the pride and self-indulgent claims of grandiosity. It represents that constant human struggle for individuality, the desire to change society while unwittingly getting swept up in that very same society. It’s cerebral ecology. Humans create society, yet society creates us, surrounding and informing our every decision. However, I think it’s safe to say that Boogie is on the right trajectory, and if his debut album is any indication, we have a lot more to look forward to from this emergent emcee.
52. Pure X – “Heaven”
This song always reminds me of a more laidback representation of an interview Joseph Campbell did within the Power of Myth series. The whole series is full of thought provoking interpretations of theology, philosophy and just life in general, but one of the most poignant moments states:
Joseph Campbell: “In classic Christian doctrine the material world is to be despised, and life is to be redeemed in the hereafter, in heaven, where our rewards come.” –
Interviewer: “But you say that if you affirm that which you deplore, you are affirming the very world which is our eternity at the moment.”
Joseph Campbell: “Yes, that is what I’m saying, Eternity isn’t some later time. Eternity isn’t even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off. And if you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere.”
So many people are willing to throw away and avoid the joys, passions, pleasures, experiences and relationships of this life for a vague, ever-elusive, unsubstantiated hope in an afterlife. Which is fine. I believe that faith and hope are important aspects of human life, because for many, those pillars are all they have to hold onto in this cruel and unjust world we call home. However, if your focus always remains on the future, and not just any future, but a future that exists outside of this conventional reality, you risk losing the experience of the present. You spend so much time decrying the ugliness of the corrupt and flawed world that you never recognize the beauty that exists throughout it, the raw emotion of living in each fleeting moment and embracing everything that each of those interactions entails. Heaven doesn’t have to wait and it doesn’t have to be a place. It can exist in the here and now, inside each beautiful and simple moment of bliss and contentment that occurs within this mortal coil. All we have to do is recognize it.
51. Rich Gang – “Lifestyle (Feat. Young Thug & Rich Homie Quan)“
Rich Gang managed to singlehandedly restore my faith in popular Hip-Hop with this jam. It sounds good, it feels good, its just gat damn good. Part of its brilliance lies in the fact that it’s just a ridiculously infectious track, harking back to the days of 50 Cent, when popular Hip-Hop made you want to both get down and belt out the lyrics. Now I recognize that my opinion might seem preposterous to some. In fact, some of you might think I’m a fool for thinking so highly of this song. Believe me, I understand, but I have to respectfully disagree. Yes, this song is ridiculous (that’s a major part of why it’s so great). After all, the majority of the song features the shrill, nonsensical eccentricity of Young Thug, Hip-Hop’s latest improbable breakout star. He definitely isn’t for everybody, and most of his stuff isn’t even for me, but there’s something wonderful and refreshing about a pariah figure as odd as him making it into the mainstream. It defies all the odds. Somebody like him shouldn’t be kicking it with veritable machismos like Birdman, yet here he is chilling with Birdman (Granted Birdman is now a businessman, and will probably associate himself with anybody who will help make him even richer, but regardless, it’s still awesome.)
However, lets get beyond Young Thug. After all, there’s more to this jam than just him (like Rich Homie Quan for instance). Quan provides the antithesis to Thug, and it’s a needed addition. His guttural southern flow both contradicts and compliments Thug’s perfectly, providing the ideal amount of closure to such a sporadic jam. Together they form a cohesive experience, and they do it without compromising their individual styles, but by using each of their separate skills to flow flawlessly over the beautifully crisp production. Which leads me to another dimension of this track, because as great as this eccentric partnership is, it wouldn’t be anything without the equally eccentric production. Its not gratuitous at all, in fact, its quite minimalistic, with the majority of the verses occurring over the semblance of subdued, almost ethereal synth arpeggios, and the scant snapping of the percussion. However, the relative lack of tumult during each verse, is then wonderfully disrupted by the rumbling resonance of the bass that begins during each chorus. It’s a subtle but wonderful interplay, and yet another display of antitheses meshing. Needless to say, I hope this isn’t the last we see of Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan collaborating with one another.
