Who stole the boom bap??!!

At the risk of sounding like a whiny, spoiled child on Christmas morning… this is not what I was promised.

Let me preface this particular rant with a short disclaimer. This is not a knock against Lex Luger's production. Yeah, some of his beats can get repetitive at times. I'm not all that familiar with the Waka Flocka catalog so outside of his more well-known Rick Ross creations ("B.M.F", "M.C Hammer"), I'm probably not the most qualified critic anyways. But I do like his beats. That whole trap style sound, when done right, would make Gandhi want to start mushing random strangers in the face. And you have to admire a young kid that makes beats on his computer and eventually hustles his way to collaborating with the two biggest names in hip hop on their lead single.

But I digress back to my original point… this is not what I was promised.

Far be it from me to hold a rapper to what they say in public about an upcoming project. "Subject to Change" is always the implied fine print. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to see "Watch the Throne" coming into fruition at all. But… nah, f$@# that, didn't 'Ye promise us a boom bap album??! Didn't he mention the likes of Madlib and Q-Tip?! Did "The Joy" and "Chain Heavy" generate such little buzz that Jay and 'Ye felt the need to go scoop up the hot producer of the moment to build some momentum?

And once again, nothing against trap music. In essence, it IS the boom bap of the South (like G-Funk is to the West)… a sound that unmistakably defines an entire region. But in the same way Bun B sounded over Premo's production… sure, any good MC over a good beat will more often than not yield good results… yet wouldn't Nas have sounded even better??

Yeah, of course rappers are allowed to experiment with different sounds and step outside their comfort zones to artistically stretch themselves blah blah blah… but this smells a little too much like commercial desperation. I find it ironic that Jay, who took a for-most-intents-and-purposes nameless Kanye and claimed his signature sound for his own classic album, is now running off with that same producer to the go-to guy for hot beats.

And hey, I could be wrong. Maybe this is just the song to appease the industry heads or the sheep or whoever… and the other seven songs are chock full of grimy snares and dirty kicks and scratchy hi hats that sound like they rolled fresh off an SP-12.

But in this day and age, who's willing to take a chance like that?

P.S. In an attempt to expound on my frustration, Kanye pulled the same sleight-of-hand with "My Blah Blah Blah Fantasy". Another album which I thought was great… but initially envisioned as something entirely different. Namely said boom bap influenced album. This beat is supposedly the DJ Premier submission which ended up on the cutting room floor…