Open Mike Eagle rap shit place

[Philaflava]

This is what needs to happen. Start a Twitter and include all parties. It will get RT until it happens.

Philaflava Records 2011.

OME & Homeboy Sandman - Coffee Shop Chicks and Black Dudes
Prod. Blockhead

I'm pretty sure H.S. isn't on twitter.

I'm sure he knows people who are on there. It's easily the greatest tool to grab somebody's attention. Isis Taylor is following me as of today

[Philaflava]

OME might be the best thing about the leftcoast in years. It may take another real Dre album for people to give a shit about Cali again. I'm serious but they are like the Cleveland Cavaliers right now of hip-hop. If not for OME I wouldn't even check that side of the coast.

It may have to do with the fact he got that D-Rose blood in him.

?! Are you not considering Odd Future to be left coast? I prefer OME to Odd Future, but its fair to say the OF hype machine is making people give a shit about Cali again.

im not really seeing that much. i think there's a bunch of people out here that hope thats what will happen but i think the narrative is really only bringing more attention to their brand and the OF umbrella than any sort of regional rekindling of interest. thats from the inside looking out tho

OF could be from Oregon and it wouldn't matter. There is an OF movement and Cali movement and I don't think many of the demo that is gaga for OF gives a shit about the Cali movement.

[mike eagle]

OME might be the best thing about the leftcoast in years. It may take another real Dre album for people to give a shit about Cali again. I'm serious but they are like the Cleveland Cavaliers right now of hip-hop. If not for OME I wouldn't even check that side of the coast.

It may have to do with the fact he got that D-Rose blood in him.

?! Are you not considering Odd Future to be left coast? I prefer OME to Odd Future, but its fair to say the OF hype machine is making people give a shit about Cali again.

im not really seeing that much. i think there's a bunch of people out here that hope thats what will happen but i think the narrative is really only bringing more attention to their brand and the OF umbrella than any sort of regional rekindling of interest. thats from the inside looking out tho

OF could be from Oregon and it wouldn't matter. There is an OF movement and Cali movement and I don't think many of the demo that is gaga for OF gives a shit about the Cali movement.

i concur

[mike eagle]

I posed a question and expressed an opinion in my initial post. A few posters engaged me and I responded. You act like I'm harping on about it over several pages.

not several pages...but more than one thread...am i not remembering correctly?

You remember correctly. I was a little less diplomatic in the last thread and thought I'd take another stab at it here.

Also didn't mean any disrespect to you personally. If I was a rapper, I probably wouldn't respond to negative criticism as courteously as you have here.

and its all good. im open to all of it i just dont want you to think you have to speak for the people-that-dont-dig-it contention. believe me, they're here. they just tend to avoid my threads like i avoid lil b's and waka's

party on, homie. maybe something of mine will catch your ear someday

[Thun]

Agreed with Gloss about his underrated writing. He's so clever it flies under the radar lots of the time if you're not paying close attention.
Also, Mike, if that homeboy sandman and you thing were to ever happen, holler at me. I'll produce as much of that as you'd let me.

#fuckyeah

How can I help make this a reality?

do you have a line of communication with HS?

Possibly. An acquaintance of mine who I haven't spoken to in a while is friends with him. I'll make a phone call tonight and see where it leads me.

[GM Dizzy Skillespie]

knowing this is willie green produced just upped the ante on awesomeness.

bars, son.

[intuition]

i think falside works with HS occasionally. don't know if he still checks on here.

[Dids]

I would tweet lots about a Blockhead/OME record regardless of whose Sandman buddy was also raperating on it.

[PopeyeJones]

I suppose I prefer rapping that has a sense of urgency/hunger/indignation. Lyrical content is somewhat secondary to me. You can rap on any topic as long as you sound passionate about it and have a good energetic voice and flow. OME's music lacks those qualities imo. Are there any instances of him "going in/hard" on a track? Does he ever sound even slightly offensive? I don't necessarily need rap I can rob liquor stores to, but this is just so far on the soundtrack-to-an-underwater-birth end of the spectrum that I have a hard time understanding its universal acceptance here.

The part of your problem with the music that really doesn't jibe with what I like about Mike is your conflation of urgency/hunger/indignation with "going in hard" and "sounding offensive."

I think what you don't like about the music literally is what a lot of other people do like about it. He has a staid (meaning non-fickle or capricious, not passive), reasoned, and incredibly nuanced tone that perfectly fits his lyrics, without lacking any of the urgency or indignation that typically befalls the types of boilerplate college rap you're grouping him with.

It's the Common comparison that really bugs me I guess, as Common went from having a savant's dedication to experimenting with the aural qualities of words (the era we all liked: the era in which one could get a sense for who he actually is/was) to basically lazily ticking off the boxes that defined and reinforced his market niche (the wholly benign and ineffectual musings of someone who would happily stumble in and out any movement that loosely adhered around a vague concept of "justice", as long as it remained largely inoffensive: an era in which I have no idea who he actually is, or, am simply disappointed by the shallowness and thoughtlessness of who he is). Mike's music couldn't be any more different. You're confusing him being thoughtful and reasoned with him not being indignant or urgent, and what's great about him, and really special about him as an artist, is that he's actually all of these things, and aggressively so.

Please take this comparison as being limited within the confines in which I'm making it, but your complaint here reminds me of people who, during the 2008 election season, complained that Obama was "too" intellectual. We might all differ on how the guy has been as a prez, but the "too" intellectual complaint was amazingly fucking tone deaf to what it was that attracted people to him as a candidate in the first place.

Mike is an intellectual. He makes music for fucking grownups. He's practically in a class of his own in conveying his thoughts and who he is, for better or for worse, as a thinking person. If you don't hear any anger or indignation in what he's doing, I just don't think you're listening. That he does so without spastically "going in hard" in the traditional way you're used to is one of his best qualities. I'd also seriously argue with the notion that the guy doesn't "go in hard". he does, aggressively so imo, just not in the way you're demanding or expecting.




Sorry for the long love letter, Mike. Consider this my official retraction of saying that you just sounded like another Abby knock-off a long time ago.

[Thun]

^Well said. Shit reminds me a real life version of the De La Soul Is Dead skits.

"Maybe if you could put it on 45rpm so I could like dance to it?"

[PopeyeJones]

^Well said. Shit reminds me a real life version of the De La Soul Is Dead skits.

"Maybe if you could put it on 45rpm so I could like dance to it?"

It's the difference between people who insist that the "Neo-Tongues" are Little Brother and Jurassic 5 versus the people who are saying that, if such a thing even exists or should exist, it would be OME and Shad.

[The Rapping Coffin]

Mike is an intellectual. He makes music for fucking grownups.

You're better than this. It makes me not want to check out this guy's music, and you had me sold up to that point.

[Thun]

Mike is an intellectual. He makes music for fucking grownups.

You're better than this. It makes me not want to check out this guy's music, and you had me sold up to that point.

You're reading too far into it. It's an explanation of where Mike is coming from, not an attempt to put anyone down. Absolutely not a reason to not check out his music.

[Hair of the Dog]

OME might be the best thing about the leftcoast in years. It may take another real Dre album for people to give a shit about Cali again. I'm serious but they are like the Cleveland Cavaliers right now of hip-hop. If not for OME I wouldn't even check that side of the coast.

It may have to do with the fact he got that D-Rose blood in him.

?! Are you not considering Odd Future to be left coast? I prefer OME to Odd Future, but its fair to say the OF hype machine is making people give a shit about Cali again.

im not really seeing that much. i think there's a bunch of people out here that hope thats what will happen but i think the narrative is really only bringing more attention to their brand and the OF umbrella than any sort of regional rekindling of interest. thats from the inside looking out tho

OF could be from Oregon and it wouldn't matter. There is an OF movement and Cali movement and I don't think many of the demo that is gaga for OF gives a shit about the Cali movement.

this is all fair talk, but I guess I'm missing what this Cali movement exactly is then. Does OME represent Cali any more so than OF? Genuine question. I guess I can see your point if he represents the whole Cali Project Blowed scene, but if you're talking about left coast hip hop from a Dre prospective, then your OF logic applies to OME as well.

[Blockhead]

I mean, Mike is part of a movement that's based in Cali, but he's from Chicago.
He's no lakers fan.

[PopeyeJones]

Mike is an intellectual. He makes music for fucking grownups.

You're better than this. It makes me not want to check out this guy's music, and you had me sold up to that point.

You're reading too far into it. It's an explanation of where Mike is coming from, not an attempt to put anyone down. Absolutely not a reason to not check out his music.

Yep. Definitely only an attempt at explanation, with the put-down being accidental or incidental.

For the sake of clarification, what I was saying is that personally, I prefer his music in headphones, and not to coddle it too much, but it's the type of shit where there's a piece of me that would want to watch someone's face the first time they're listening to it for that moment of recognition, that "oh fuck, wait, I get it" moment. There's a subtlety and nuance too it that I certainly missed at first. It's not the type of stuff I would have listened to five deep in a car when I was a teenager. I wasn't trying to say it was "too smart" for teens to be able to appreciate.

I also think there was kind of an anti-intellectual bent to what Gyangsta was saying he enjoyed (the distinction between "rap I can rob liquor stores to" versus "soundtrack-to-an-underwater-birth"). Somebody who wants the former (and it's fucking music, I have no bones with someone wanting that) probably just isn't going to like OME's music. Someone who says they simply just don't really care about lyrical content, as Gyangsta did, probably isn't going to like OME's music. It's what I'd be listening to while drawing up the plans to rob a bank, not what I'd be listening to while getting hyped up to stick-up a liquor store. I'm basically just taking an incredibly circuitous path to both a) defend Mike's music and b) say without value judgement that it kinda makes sense that it's not for Gyangsta because it doesn't sound like it's what he's looking for from his music.

[drizzle]

There's a subtlety and nuance too it that I certainly missed at first.

x2

[Thun]

And there's nothing unites Philaflavians more fervently than musical subtlety!

[drizzle]

true, i'm working on a guide to food references on unapologetic art rap as we speak

[The Rapping Coffin]

Mike is an intellectual. He makes music for fucking grownups.

You're better than this. It makes me not want to check out this guy's music, and you had me sold up to that point.

You're reading too far into it. It's an explanation of where Mike is coming from, not an attempt to put anyone down. Absolutely not a reason to not check out his music.

Yep. Definitely only an attempt at explanation, with the put-down being accidental or incidental.

For the sake of clarification, what I was saying is that personally, I prefer his music in headphones, and not to coddle it too much, but it's the type of shit where there's a piece of me that would want to watch someone's face the first time they're listening to it for that moment of recognition, that "oh fuck, wait, I get it" moment. There's a subtlety and nuance too it that I certainly missed at first. It's not the type of stuff I would have listened to five deep in a car when I was a teenager. I wasn't using trying to say teens couldn't appreciate it.

I also think there was kind of an anti-intellectual bent to what Gyangsta was saying he enjoyed (the distinction between "rap I can rob liquor stores to" versus "soundtrack-to-an-underwater-birth"). Somebody who wants the former (and it's fucking music, I have no bones with someone wanting that) probably just isn't going to like OME's music. Someone who says they simply just don't really care about lyrical content, as Gyangsta did, probably isn't going to like OME's music. It's what I'd be listening to while drawing up the plans to rob a bank, not what I'd be listening to while getting hyped up to stick-up a liquor store.

Fair enough. That sentence I quoted seemed ripped out of an HHI review, but your added context helps make sense of it.

[PopeyeJones]

That sentence I quoted seemed ripped out of an HHI review

LOL. True.

[CHANCE RANDOM]

You guys forgot about Chaz Kangas (battlecatmeowstab). Pretty sure he has some direct contact with Sandman.

As far as the rest of the thread goes.. I like OME a lot. He makes genuine, clever music that sounds great and has a point of view. Also, he has a good voice. Cheers to Mike.

[Homer Simpson]

3. There's one guest rapper from Minnesota, and another from New York.

nope not that one

i'm assuming it's Brother Ali but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Toki Wright either.

[Hair of the Dog]

3. There's one guest rapper from Minnesota, and another from New York.

nope not that one

i'm assuming it's Brother Ali but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Toki Wright either.

I was thinking the same thing. Toki Wright is a solid guess

[Gyangsta 4 Life]

Mike is an intellectual. He makes music for fucking grownups.

You're better than this. It makes me not want to check out this guy's music, and you had me sold up to that point.

You're reading too far into it. It's an explanation of where Mike is coming from, not an attempt to put anyone down. Absolutely not a reason to not check out his music.

Yep. Definitely only an attempt at explanation, with the put-down being accidental or incidental.

For the sake of clarification, what I was saying is that personally, I prefer his music in headphones, and not to coddle it too much, but it's the type of shit where there's a piece of me that would want to watch someone's face the first time they're listening to it for that moment of recognition, that "oh fuck, wait, I get it" moment. There's a subtlety and nuance too it that I certainly missed at first. It's not the type of stuff I would have listened to five deep in a car when I was a teenager. I wasn't trying to say it was "too smart" for teens to be able to appreciate.

I also think there was kind of an anti-intellectual bent to what Gyangsta was saying he enjoyed (the distinction between "rap I can rob liquor stores to" versus "soundtrack-to-an-underwater-birth"). Somebody who wants the former (and it's fucking music, I have no bones with someone wanting that) probably just isn't going to like OME's music. Someone who says they simply just don't really care about lyrical content, as Gyangsta did, probably isn't going to like OME's music. It's what I'd be listening to while drawing up the plans to rob a bank, not what I'd be listening to while getting hyped up to stick-up a liquor store. I'm basically just taking an incredibly circuitous path to both a) defend Mike's music and b) say without value judgement that it kinda makes sense that it's not for Gyangsta because it doesn't sound like it's what he's looking for from his music.

Lol. Couple straw men to drive home the point, but I get it.

Just to be clear, it's not that lyrics don't matter at all. They definitely do matter, they're just secondary to aesthetic qualities.

Oh and that track Blockhead posted was kinda fresh.

[intuition]

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[drizzle]

good vid, matches the song well

[CHANCE RANDOM]

Great video. I like the modern on take on the whole band playing in the background thing with E.Super.

[AWAE]

video and song is class

[DLG]

all of mike's videos have really complimented the songs perfectly. props for that.