From an interview with Trae
HarveyCanal
"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
AllHipHop.com: You think the Hip-Hop Police exists? Trae: I didn???t until I went to New York. I???m me, man, and I go anywhere I want with my jewelry on and all. I stepped out of a club and four or five men, I swear to God, were following me. They were dressed up in normal clothes and had white cars. It???s hard to believe that s**t, but I done seen it with my own eyes and I believe it now. They ain???t do nothing to me, but they were out there to make us feel uncomfortable. [There is] nothing like that Down South, they be trying to get into the concert.
Comments
I thought this was actually going to be about the metaphorical hip-hop police--you know, those self-appointed gatekeepers of the "culture" who post on the internet about who does and doesn't deserve to consume the music of certain artists or who is and isn't biting the legacy of Project Blowed.
I don't know whether to admire it, or notify the hip hop police
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2006/08/trae_rap_as_par.php
I must hear more about the "corrosively bleak humidity" to be found on To Tha X-Treme.
disconnected from the youtube.
Surely Mr Breihan is too geographically disconnected from the scene to offer any valuable critique of the album.
It's not bad.
You already know I think it's lame that he's simultaneously underestimating how big the Screw scene is here in Texas (and beyond) on an underground level - with many of the mom-and-pop sales of an album like Restless being missed by Soundscan - and putting so much stock in Trae's potential internet reach.
But the reviewer follows that up by scribing a fairly decent review.
Here's another one that I just read in today's Austin American-Statesman:
Trae
'Restless'
(Asylum)
This increasingly legendary H-town MC already dropped the best Texas single of 2006 with the loping trunk banger "Swang." With funereal keyboards that sound even grimmer with the murder earlier this year of guest rapper Hawk, "Swang" triangulated summer cruising, thuggish peril and the mourning that comes with being caught up in the life.
It's a highlight of "Restless," Trae's long-rumored major-label debut. Keeping the scary "(Expletive) By Nature" persona that's sustained him over half a dozen indie albums and featuring beats that appear and disappear like felony witnesses, "Restless" is the perfect introduction to Trae's singular menace. The lyrics fly by on "Real Talk," ghetto drama over a panicky beat. Yung Joc hollas on "In the Hood." "Screw Done Already Warned Me" pays tribute to the late DJ Screw's power. Per rap tradition, the old-school bongos and soul samples on the title track signify memories of hoods gone by and where a thug goes from here. It's trunk-popping time, people. - by Joe Gross
And here's the one I submitted for that weekly that some random-ass strutter is so bothered that I mention so often:
Trae Restless (Rap-A-Lot/Asylum)
That cold, dark place where insecurities take root nurtures the self-proclaimed Asshole by Nature. Forever twisting unfortunate situations into a sustained abrasiveness, Trae embodies the painfully mistreated lashing back at intrusive demons with blunt force. In the tradition of Scarface admitting ???I never seen a man cry until I seen a man die??? and 2Pac aligning himself as Me Against the World, Trae???s third album walks the thin line between tragic alienation and vengeful retribution. If Fat Pat???s assassination wasn???t enough, there???s now HAWK???s murder to let simmer in the brain along with the realization that not only does the ghetto have walls, but they are incrementally closing in. ???I don???t know who to trust, even my lady flipped the script for roach ass niggas with lust.??? In the same vein as his currently incarcerated cousin and fellow Guerilla Maab affiliate Z-Ro, Trae wallows with ???No Help??? in the deepest of blues laments as ???a loner, on my own, alone, packing my chrome.??? His baritone, anti-crooning on ???Quit Calling Me??? conjures a cranky black bear marking his territory by striking fear into all within earshot of his mighty growl. While the more playful side of Trae rears its head by way of ???Pop Trunk Wave???, ???In the Hood??? featuring Young Joc, and ???Cadillac??? featuring Paul Wall and Three 6 Mafia, it???s Trae???s dead-pan, machine gun flow that ultimately keeps echoes bellowing through crack-laden canyons.
**** (4 stars)
but i got it at best buy.
Tower had it for like 18 bucks.
I think the distribution issues were mostly smoothed out after the first week--I'm seeing it in a lot more places now.
I was definitely playing nice with my first response to his review.
But the way that he searches the internet, name-checks 2 white dudes as the only people he knows to be talking about the album, and has no idea which stores in NYC regularly carry Screw-related releases...it would more likely be that Breihan is too culturally[/b] disconnected from the scene to offer much insight beyond "this stuff sounds scary" and "will it be on MTV any time soon?"
The key element missed being that the Me Against the World thing that a Trae or Z-Ro bring to the table is much broader than "how is nationwide fame alluding us?"
Thus the petey pablo talk at the beginning.