Ladies and gentlemen, what happens when you put together a hip hop head and an alternative rock junkie in the same room? Musical catastrophe. This is your boy, Louis D here. Join me with my co-host Eddie Chavez Hey, and we're here to give you a rundown of our perspectives between the musical genres of hip hop and alternative rock I being the hip hop head and each of us being the alternative rock junkie We decided to switch things up and give our perspectives on stuff.
We wouldn't normally listen to Mm-hmm and our assignments were to give each other an album of our respective genre To each other to come back and discuss it here for all of you right now and for the first week we have two albums and Louis, what did you recommend to me? So I gave Eddie the waters by Mick Jenkins and I gave Louis evil empire by raging on some machine. Oh boy Let's jump into it. All right What did you like about the waters?
No matter fact overall opinions of the water go overall opinion I really liked the album great. I thought it was great. It was made in 2014 So not too old but not too recent either And I think the style of hip hop that it is is definitely representative of the time because it includes a lot of elements of you know Old school like 2000's hip hop Okay But at the same time it still has a lot of modern elements to it with like the way the instrumentation is okay and all that stuff And the things that he touches upon on the album to I think are definitely Representative of 2014 but even now they still can resonate with me exactly so going into my short perspectives on the waters Mick Jenkins lyrical mastermind. I believe in the Chicago area phenomenal artist one of the more overlooked artists in the area I would say personally I would agree with that because I haven't heard of him either before you recommended him to me So Chance the rapper of course is our main star as of right now coming off of Coloring book and acid wrap and what was it 10 day?
You didn't hear of me Jenkins before trees and truth the waters was his blowout mixtape That's why I recommended it to Eddie and he's come out with some more recent projects came out with an EP called waves There are some minor mixtapes that he dropped on SoundCloud some and a debut album called the handling component AKA THC and He's just a great lyricist with a jazz influenced vibe with you can tell he he looks at his contemporaries in a different perspective And that's why I recommended him to Eddie because just overall someone that you probably wouldn't put in your top 10 If you didn't know about but now that I know about him He's definitely as far as lyrical geniuses within Chicago is concerned at top 10 or top tier artist So yeah, I would definitely agree with that and a lot of the instrumentation that he uses like really heavy Yeah And and for me I think sometimes it can be a little bit too much sometimes sometimes it does get a little bit crowded But at the same time, it's his style. So I know like for every one of his songs that's his style that's what he was going off on and I The first artist that I thought I could compare him to was Tyler the creator. Okay. Just because his voice his voice deep The topics not so much they have different universes in that sense, but the way they speak about it about the same What did you think about the concept of water itself and how he used water in a different form throughout each track?
I thought it was very creative and very incredible So like a lot of people would say like oh, it's just talking about water the whole time like what the hell does water I have to do anything like this is boring I don't want to hear anything about that But if you like listen to the context of the song and then the way he uses water as imagery Rather than just actual water you would realize that there's something different about Each song and the way that it relates to the natural form But you know that I was released that an instrumentation to it was like the sound of that makes tape is like Super smooth super and a lack of a better term of water If I could say anything as far as like my personal feelings about it It made you feel like you were drowning not drowning in a bad way But like literally in the depths of the ocean that's something that a lot of artists can't pick up on especially in a naturalistic form So and not only that I think the way that he was able to use water like metaphorically Yeah, and all his instances were just super creative And if you really think about it the way that he was I can't remember any examples off the top of my head when you listen to this album You listen specifically to how he uses water in his imagery It can relate to so many different topics and he does an excellent job of really relating it and not only does he relate it There's also a lot of truth to it. So that's what I appreciate more about that He doesn't have a mix that called trees and truth you guys check that out Not as good as this makes taking my personal opinion But is it still a great record to listen to if you're a Chicago one so yeah, that's no I like that I'm glad you like it I'm absolutely astounded that you like it because I tell people about me Jenkins and I like who the hell is this like I don't want to listen This guy wears a chance. Where's Vic mincea I'm sorry. No, that's not a bad.
I love you, Vic. You're great. You're awesome, dude Like keep doing what you're doing. You're great But if you were in a rap out with a jenke you destroyed this thing, you know that now I'm playing Okay, you're up there too.
Love you. All right. Anyway, rage against the machine. Rage against the machine I heard of the guys before I I still can't remember the name of the album for the I think it's called Battle of LA or something Oh Battle of LA is their first one.
Yeah. Yeah, so I heard I heard that like very briefly and I heard the song testify I was like, okay, I see what they're trying to do here. Yeah, it's very political very political very political And I'm sitting here like okay, I can do it and then and then Eddie said hey go listen to evil empire And I was like Ellie what did you just get me into some? Just going down the the way that I listened to the tracklist people of the Sun the Star Trek That was very unexpected.
Yeah, I'll say that because I didn't know what the hell he was talking about at first until I looked it up And then it was like oh, it's about the Mayans and like the Mexican back story going on there like It was like so unexpected because I'm like dude, what are you talking about? Like the instrumentation was like super simplistic to the point that I was so dope and I'm like how did you do that? Like the first the first three tracks honestly like had me like how on earth did you guys put this together and then and then kind of Have it sound like a rap song. Yeah, the way that Dela Rocha Singes I don't call it singing.
It's rapping. Yes. I'm like, how did you do that? Like that was something I wasn't expecting I guess I heard testify but it wasn't like in my opinion that song isn't as lyrical as it is like hooking chorus heavy So when I heard people of the Sun and then bull's on parade.
I was like, okay, this is this is pretty dope Yes, I know nothing of right against the machine. I don't know who their band members are. I'm just being honest I don't know who their league vocalist is but damn dog like how did you think of that? Like that's awesome.
Yeah, and evil empire came out in 1996 Okay, and so this was still before 9 11 This was before all the political stuff like really went off the cliff and stuff Okay, so this was feelings that were being harbored for a long time by the band or by Zach and it was a product of the 90s I think that's the best way I could put it. Yeah, like so I definitely got the 90s vibe alone from the instrumentation because like alternative rocket day sounds so different Mm-hmm at least what I know and that's very little so take my words with a grain of salt ladies and gentlemen But I could just tell that this was made with aggression to make a statement. This isn't your your normal I'm just going to make a hit record because I want to make a hit record and blow up There's like no, I have I have something to say yeah And that's the impression that I got throughout basically the entire album though I will say like the middle of the album Maybe like the fourth and fifth track or the fifth and sixth track whatever it was just slow down a bit It slows down a little bit like I was I was I was waiting for the funk to kick back up And then it kind of it kind of hit and like the last I want to say the last three tracks last three or four tracks But like when it got to Revolver and I was like, okay, all right. It's cool.
It's mellow like it's something that I would have in the background But I'm not gonna sit there and go back to the that specific track But like I said people this time I'm parade view now those were cool tire me I thought was pretty decent to like tire me down rodeo was also a dope track I think that's also one of my top tracks of the cell phone down rodeo down rodeo okay Yeah, like the way the Instrumentation on that track like slow down so that way you could hear the vocalist like I was like how did you do that? I mean, I I know it was probably part of like post-production or something along those lines Like I'm pretty sure audio was manipulated in some form But the idea that went into doing that was cool and like the outro on that track was super dope Like it was the chillest vibe like you have like I'm really loud then I'm really chilled I'm really not again and it's like okay Let me bring it back and then like the rest of the outro is like this smooth like got this smooth feeling to it That was super cool. Mm-hmm. And how do you feel the way they balanced out the alternative?
You know rock side of the instrumentation with Zach's rapping How do you feel they balance those two out so like Zach's rapping is the thing that kept me entertained throughout the whole project But like the way he was able to stay on pitch and on beat I guess you could say I like would you consider it a beat the instrumentation? You know what I mean like when I think of alternative rock I don't think like yeah Let me wrap over this like you know rappers always have this um this mindset like yeah I'm gonna flow over the beat like how does one flow over a guitar riff? You know what I mean? Yeah, that's insane.
Yeah, so That's what I thought was really cool how was that was able to literally flow over instruments that you probably wouldn't be able to flow normally on like anybody Can flow over I don't want to say everybody But anybody can put on some drums and like kind of go with the rhythm right but when you throw on a guitar And you got like a solo going think of a rap hook to go over there. It's like oh shit like how do you know? Yeah, so that was really cool Mm-hmm. Well, it's about the album.
Yeah overall the album was dope Like I said it besides those like the three-middle track they were kind of like okay Yeah, but like the rest of the album's like super dope. I'd listen to it again That's what I was gonna ask you would you listen to it again? Yeah, no, I definitely listen to it again Probably skip over like two of them two tracks That's not saying the tracks are bad right like the like so revolver like I was saying That's not like the track is a bad track It's just I would have to be in a certain mood in order to listen to or like I think be it now Might be like my favorite. I don't know that one.
He was like F the radio bro. That's basically yeah I got from that like F the radio. It was simple I like the drums on that track because the drums were simple but they were super effective and then like the instrumentation switch that happens like Midway to like the end of the song was like super cool. Yeah, like I just I got to relisten this album for real because yeah It's so content heavy it is and the amount of political stuff that Zagdula Rocha puts in there It's just one after another after another.
Yeah of statements Yeah, and then some of them like I didn't catch like I thought like I said like I had to go back and either Relisten to the song or like look up the meaning for the song because I'm like okay What is he talking about because he's really freaking angry? Yeah On a lot of these tracks and you're like but why you know and then like you look at the historical context on You know the subject matters that he's talking about me like oh I'd be angry about that too And I don't know his net ethnicity or anything like that But I would assume that it had to hit home for him in order for him to make songs about them Well for the band in general to make songs about them But for him to think of the words that he used to express himself within those songs like that's That's something you don't get every day. Yeah besides in rap music But you know I'd agree with that and especially for something that came out in the 90s right exactly and that's gonna do it for this episode of Musical catastrophe my name is Eddie Chavez. I'm Luigi and thanks for listening