“I Must Deeply Apologize but I Really Can’t Stand Vic Mensa”

Did you notice how Lollapalooza really sucked last year? As Lollapalooza goes, I think, music as a whole goes. Perry Farrell at this point is to undeniably be considered a trusted cultural mind with his finger on the pulse of what’s moving out there. There are times when I feel like “Up the Beach” by Jane’s Addiction is the best song ever. With a better drummer his band could have been elite but he was probably too nice to fire him. It’s clear that he’s qualified for the job — he**, in 2009 I had like the best time imaginable at the event (Deerhunter, Band of Horses, No Age, TV on the Radio… the list goes on and on).
In 2016 Mensa was slotted for the gig and I sort of just saw the wheels start to fall off of the whole operation, though I didn’t say anything at the time. The Chicago Reader did this big feature on him… he was the golden boy home towner from the South Side, he was involved in “Black Lives Matter” which they pigeonholed as a “radical” movement (as in like it’s radical for being a maneuver back toward normalcy, I guess).
And then similarly, I was trying to get into this Vic Mensa dude… I mean I’m from South Bend, Indiana right down the road from Gary, the hometown of Freddie Gibbs (who I love), I’m fresh off a spirited shift at work with “Dolby’s Top 100 Hip-Hop Tracks” on shuffle for a couple hours (not all of which was wack, luckily), but I notice a lot (or should I say “alot”) of problems right away when I look at his song titles. Like he tells us “There’s Alot (sic) Going on” on the album title, on a title track closeur and lyrically on an opener called something else, and then… wow… in the titles we get “16 Shots,” “New Bae,” “Liquor Locker” and “Shades of Blue.”
It would be hard to transform this operation into something more regular if you were to change the song titles to “Meat and Potatoes.”
I mean I get that this is a hard time to live in and be innovative to where lying is basically not only accepted but a prerequisite for communication, but still, rap is not work. It should not be a chore to make a rap album, or to listen to one. You will not if you scour the earth find an emcee lighter on his feet or more effortless than Chicago’s own Common (the name-checked by Hova) this side of Kendrick Lamar. Check my list for “Breaker 1/9” if you NEED a break from work, or especially the work state of mind.

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