The 37th Chamber 10.10.09: The Art Of The Album

Posted by Patrick Robinson on 10.10.2009

From Jay-Z and Wu-Tang to Ludacris & Royce Da 59, This week, we're not discussing album cover art, but rather a long rant about how albums aren't measuring up anymore and a couple of reasons why...

Welcome, welcome, as you read this I should, in theory, be in Kyoto and by this point in time be broke or almost virtually broke hahaha. Ahh the temptation to buy things will be overwhelming and the fact that it's probably going to be an assload cheaper than Australia won't help.

The Rant

After looking at label's last week, I decided to rant a bit about albums. I'm going to try and avoid getting into a sales debate until the end though.



Anyway, in my opinion, the album represents the musician's best work at the time and would be an accurate representation of where the musician is at in their life. I think that someone who is suffering the loss of a loved one would make an album in the same vein as Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreaks. Someone going through depression may make an album like Royce Da 5'9"'s Death Is Certain. Alternatively, an artist who is sick of their situation, whether it be at the label or in the grand scheme of things in hip-hop, may make an album like Little Brother's The Minstrel Show poking fun at the media industry and doing a damn good job of it.

The work that goes into an album, well, we're not privy to a lot of it unless we get a bonus DVD with the album when we buy it. Even then, the amount of times I've gotten a bonus DVD and not watched it, or watched it only to discover rather than walk us through the creative process, it's a bunch of guys hanging out in a studio getting high or playing pranks on each other. If I wanted that, I'd buy Half Baked or Jackass thank you.

I think a concept album is easier to make on some levels than a regular album. With a concept album, you have a set goal in mind, perhaps even a story to tell and know the beginning and the end, and the middle is the songs that are produced when things are said and done. Not all concept albums work, some fall short and fail to deliver where others shouldn't have been labeled as a concept album and just a regular album instead, thereby not attaching a negative stigma to the release when it turns out the concept isn't developed or pushed hard enough. In that sense, it's easier to choose songs for the album. If you're making one on say, women and relationships like Ghostface did with his recent album, you know that a song about battle rap or inner city crime probably isn't going to fit in very well. It's harder though because rather than have a variety of topics to choose from, you're left with the select few themes you've chosen for your concept album.

The person we should probably blame in future for crappy albums is the Executive Producer. From what I have heard, the EP usually works with the A&R team to choose the lead single for the album and ultimately decides the track order and what tracks will make the album or not. Although a fair amount of this is influenced on the reliance of sample clearance; so many times we hear a dope song that SHOULD make an album, be dropped for something that sounds like it was recorded through a cardboard tube and wonder WHY? Well, it's mostly sample issues I think.



This brings me onto thoughts of the premise of ‘Bonus tracks'. I feel that Bonus tracks should be viewed separately from the tracks on the album when it comes to a concept album. "Ignorant Shit" on Jay-Z's American Gangster album didn't fit the concept I didn't think, and should have been swapped with say, "Blue Magic" which DID fit the concept more but was left as a Bonus track for whatever reason. But on a normal album, what's the point of a Bonus track? I can understand if it's a HIDDEN track, in other words, there's a few seconds of blank after the last song listed on the album cover ends, and then suddenly a new song pops up, whether as a separate track or as one long one like the last track of Jay's original Blueprint album. The other exception to the Bonus track concept is when it's included as a special feature for an overseas release. I bought Ne-Yo's Year Of The Gentleman and it includes "What's The Matter" and "Because Of You" (because we obviously didn't hear it 40,000 times the first time round on TV and radio) as overseas bonus tracks. Is there a point to this practice? Why not just buy the album and include the bonus tracks (NOT tracks that have been recycled three times such as "Back Like That [Remix]" on Ghost's albums) as actual tracks on the album? If they weren't good enough for some reason to include them, people are still going to listen to them so they ultimately have been included in the album as a final product.

Then there's the problem of the lead single. So many times I hear a single being played or see a video on MTV that is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from what we get on the album. Case in point that I often bring up, the "Touch It" remix was ultimately the more popular and widely known song, yet the original (the video for which I only ever saw once, and that was a crappy stream on MySpace I think) made the album. Wouldn't it make MORE sense to put the remix version, the one that everyone has seen and heard on the album to encourage people to BUY the album? Or do we really not care about money at all?



So why is it that more albums don't seem like cohesive products and more like mixtapes with a heftier price tag attached to them? I personally believe that artists tend to do TOO well on mixtapes; we end up hearing dope tracks and think that they might appear in a more finished format on the album, only to be disappointed in the end. Other artists blitz through their topics of discussion on the mixtapes and are left with nothing new to talk about on the album. If we look at some of the most successful artists in hip-hop today, particularly those that have been around for more than say, 5 or 6 years, you'll notice that a lot of them have refrained from dropping mixtape after mixtape between albums. Eminem is an excellent example. Occasionally we'll get a new track popping up on a mixtape or he will collaborate with a DJ to put one out with a few of his tracks on them, but rarely has he ever dropped full blown mixtapes of all new work in quick succession like Lil Wayne (although a lot of that stuff was recycled). Ludacris is another name that comes to mind, as is Xzibit.

A mixtape can be a great way to stay relevant in between albums, but shouldn't eclipse the album itself. We shouldn't be comparing the new Redman album to the mixtape he dropped a month before, we should be comparing it to something actually COMPARABLE, such as his previous album. When the mixtape overshadows the album, we end up comparing something we paid for, to something we got for free and that's usually not a good idea for a consumer to be doing. Please note Redman didn't actually drop a new album since Blackout! 2 in case anyone was getting a little excited.

Then of course, we get to the fact that there are many artists who should probably take a lesson in making a cohesive product that is something to be proud of. I honestly don't know how some artists can consider what they have done, something to be proud of, when it is being universally criticized for being ridiculous. An album is something people are going to judge your abilities on!

It's why I think it's the funniest thing when an artist says that their album was a Classic and we just didn't ‘get' it. I know people get deluded with their own work, but come on, there's a limit to the tomfoolery isn't there? For example, I know that occasionally I crank out a less than average column, and I acknowledge that and try and make up for it the week after. Jay-Z does something similar in that every time people start calling him too old for hip-hop or claiming he's lost his skills, he releases an excellent album, usually a 7-9/10 affair that reminds us he still belongs in hip-hop. He probably feels worried that if he were to die the day after releasing Kingdom Come we'd remember him for the shoddy mess that was "Show Me What You Got" as opposed to "Dead Presidents II" for example.

Are some rappers so deluded by the fact their name is in lights and have so many damn ‘yes men' surrounding them that they seriously cannot see that their album is not even weed plate worthy? Kia Shine, who thankfully appears to have disappeared, managed to get an album out that you probably wouldn't wipe your ass with (not that I'd recommend wiping your ass with a hard object like a CD, but you get the idea hahaha). Did he stand back and think "damn, this is the BEST I have to offer and I'm going to sell it right now!" Couldn't SOMEONE have said, "hey, perhaps you should rethink track 7" or something, or is everyone too scared of dissing the dude and losing their spot as weed carrier in the crew?

I suppose at the end of a long run working on an album, you just want to put SOMETHING out and by the time you start approaching the deadline, you don't always care. It's been very much like that for me this final week of class before the holiday. I honestly haven't paid much attention at all until this afternoon's Accounting class this whole week. Maybe after months of working on an album, they stop caring and just decide to record some random tracks, throw them over a beat and pop them on the final product.



To me, this is where the difference between an artist who has a good work ethic and solid knowledge of themselves and their fan base and an artist who is perhaps starting in the game or doesn't have the same dedication appears. I suppose there were times when recording Paid In Full Rakim would have much rather kicked back with a cold drink and enjoy the summer afternoon, but instead, he had a goal, a dream even, and kept working hard. Imagine if RZA had decided to take a holiday instead of putting the finishing touches on 36 Chambers and decided to rush it to get it to the label before he left for a 2 week vacation!

You could go on and on, but it seems that so many rappers these days are more content with spending their advance, which according to someone I was watching on a DVD once, is ACTUALLY meant to be used on organizing some self-promotion, studio time or covering living expenses whilst recording on a fancy chain or car instead. It must cost the label a LOT of money to organize a rapper to be signed to the label and you'd think someone would say to them, "hey, that money is better used on getting some ads on trucks or buses instead of that gaudy-ass chain you're wearing" because it means the rapper might just stick around, learn the ropes and make an album worth selling with a reputation that they're worth checking on in the future. Does it cost more to bring two rappers in, have them drop one album each, and drop both of them after a year, or one rapper, have them drop one album, then keep them around after a year based on the reaction the public has? I'm pretty certain it would be cheaper for the latter option.

The Signoff

Uh…not really sure where that Rant was going, but it was something I'd been thinking about for a while. Whatever it was originally.

Haha, catch you next week!