Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Live Review: Obama Basedgod

My review of Task Force, published a week ago today, was pretty well received (one anonymous commentator!!!) and I had fun making it so here we go with Lil B's 10th 2012 mixtape, Obama Basedgod.

Lil B's been calling himself "Obama Basedgod" for awhile now. I think my favorite incident was on "I Own Swag", which is an amazing track in general and features the line on a really nice dramatic breakdown. Now we get a whole mixtape on the subject, very appropriate with the election coming up.

Here also just check this album art out quick:
That's really fantastic, isn't it?

Alright:

1. Obama Basedgod
I listened to this on the music video a whole lot. Wow he really does go in! The speed change ability is a whole new dimension of basedness. "You think I'm wack, I think you're stupid/Shot you in the heart you think I'm cupid", "Bitch, don't play/Trix are for kids". This is really money dance stuff. Crazy escapades of Lil B in the army and navy, PRESIDENT BASEDGOD. This feels like a whole new era of rap. "I'm ready for the future... BASEDGOD IN 3D!", very triumphant and yet it still feels experimental. His Obama impersionation at the end is FANTASTIC. 150 grand show RIGHT NOW. Brilliant. "I Own Swag" for a new generation. **

2. Political Warfare
"Whoever made this beat, you know it was for Lil B". I was trying to remember where I had heard this beat before, oh haha it's the Pusha T one. FANTASTIC. Take that, G.O.O.D. Music. This some really heavy flow, I like his stepping up of the sirens on the production. Really heavy subject material here, "He ain't got a new house, but he got new extensions", wait, was that the line? Anyways yeah "Treat another human like the person who raised you", "I walk down the street, that's HBO". Dang man, heavy, heavy. Just straight spitting, real passion, real Based Energy. And dang yeah I really do like this beat too. Sampling Biggie's laugh is genius. But it belongs to the BasedGod now. Let us leave him with it. *

3. Vote For Lil B
Cool sorta beat going here here. Very smooth, very rideout sorta feel. Trophies, diamonds, plaques, very swagged out. "Started to cry, it started to rain", Lil B with that pathetic fallacy mastery. "I fought my shadow/Took a look in the mirror, now I'm fighting myself", there's some depth going on in this verse. Oh man the mixtape plugs on this tape are just amazing, "Even if you don't see me on that ballot, you be sure you vote for me". I wish I could but I am not an American, dang. Very smooth sorta song, one verse, lots of hype, looong outro. A+

4. United States of Thugin
I love that turntable on the intro. "They tryin to assassinate me!" Alright gonna go in. This beat is fantastic and his flow is straight preacherman, I love it. Real street stories in these US of thugin. Your life is worth more than anything you purchase, he's like a cowboy riding through the desert. Taking strolls downtown. Listening to Green Flame. The persona being created here is so compelling. Task Force and Green Flame shoutouts. Worldwide thugging 100%. This beat is really expert, the turntables and stuff, I should figure out where it comes from. I love the bass too, way down in the register, very slick. Deserves the long outro it is given. A+

5. Constant War
Woah those polydrums. "I dunno how I can think in this battlefield we be livin in". Gotta vote for Lil B always, push him to the top. "Based God! I need you! We takin' over!" Sells crack like Jack-in-the-Box, that is a dang good line. This is definitely an endurance flow sorta song. "After I rap you won't even know what your name is/But if you ask me nigga, I prefer you nameless", BOOM, wow. Friction between friends, this is passionate, "I'm in another categories". Everything flooding out now. Intense, he just keeps going further in. Speaking on his own raps now, "Young women know I be spitting okay/and the bitch niggas know I be roasting their brains", huge. S

6. Freeway Trips
Wow crazy beat, crazy soulful, what's that sample? Gotta look up that. Majestic BasedGod. Hitting that freeway, this is a long drive for someone with this much hustle to think about. "People eating off my plate and I ain't making a dime", "Gotta take this long drive get my thoughts together". Lil B the road spirit, the essence of the freeway, welcome to the new Beat Generation. This breakdown hook man, "This that highway music", them violins. I can just see the car cruising along the sunset in Basedworld. "Got a Bible in the back that I never read", this is getting pretty introspective. "But I guarantee, we goin' be okay... on the freeway." Huge. Oh man this beat variation right at the end here, so rugged and raw, so smooth and free. S+

7. Government Imported
This beat is pretty cool too. "Actually I'm lying man I got a lotta problems/Deep shit from the pain in my heart". Real thugging flow here. I like when he has a few beats like this back to back, really feels cohesive. "You gotta nacho cheese me", I don't even know what that means. This beat though is really fantastic, the xylophone part sounds really familiar. "I'm cocaine/I'm straight from the Government", devastating ending, boom. S


8. Fake Love
Yes, this is exactly what I mean! The beats have a sense of development over the songs. This a real love song despite the name I guess. "I'm like thunder", huge. The drums here are perfect even though they really shouldn't work at all. YEESSSSSS! "Don't act like you care about me!", this some real retribution music, Based God is Justice. Some real lewd stuff here "From a ho to a housewife/from a housewife to a ho", a tragic character arc. The drums going into the beat change, huge, oh man some almost Andreesque sorta delivery here. Lil B destroying all fake love out there. I think he's cupid! Outro too good for words. S+

9. Put Down The Flags
"Feeling like today we need to end the war", the flag is going down in the BaseHouse. Wow. This is so intense. This is so critical. I love how he tricks us with the beat. This is the real dramatic moment in the movie. "That life you live sorta like a rollercoaster". Lil B really preparing for war "Send ya to heaven/All dogs go to heaven", that's like annihilation right there. This beat just way too cool, and then it BECOMES EVEN COOLER? HOW??? That trumpet!! And we're back to the original beat via commodious recirculation, how does that even work? "Like Tupac's son". "I need to keep it real, that's my only purpose". All sorts of spirtual thugging here. A revelation not unlike Alyosha's in Karamazov. *


10. White House
This beat is really spacey, really jazzy. BasedWorld Cafe. This some real intense but laid back flow, real flowadox there. Lots of whispers, things left half said, mysterious. "Deadly verses already what I need bullets for?" that's huge. I love that organ sound oh wow. Staying based, staying positive, not worrying about what other people said. This is some real motivation music, really making history. I hope he's in that White House soon. S

11. The Cabnit
"I need someone to go fetch my paperwork real quick", gotta make laws and talk to Task Force and KICK THIS BEAT UP TO CRAZY. To all sides, Washington D.C. what it do. Huge. This flow is straight rebirth, going really hard on this one on a dang cool beat. "Twenty years later... I got my son for that" THE SUCCESSOR? "I run rap", huge. Scatting along with the beat a bit, "Man I just signed this one law yesterday about the world and swag." Still unsigned, yeaaaah. Do you even hear this beat? "I got a tank of propane/I can't complain". He's going like crazy hard on here. "Rawest rapper alive? You ain't gotta guess. Lil Boss." Obama BasedGod is really a whole new level. These beats are pretty next level too. Outro huge, this collection of samples, how did they all work out SO DANG WELL? S+

12. Oakland Tech
Hahahahaha I love that intro. I love that beat too. This is insane. This is like a iidx song. Really tropical party sorta flow. I'm looking at the title of the next song and I really feel like we're building to something. This is wild though at any rate. Some sports references here I don't get whatever. "Same plates I got the same plates I eat with", yo that's a pretty huge metaphor. "150k just to clean the roof". Oakland a pretty cool place I have always thought. Oh man the claps and shouts at the end, that's just genius, that works so dang well. S-

13. Based Party
WOAH this beat, what IS this beat, this sounds almost like The Go! Team or something, or rather probably what The Go! Team was inspired by. Really hyping up this intro. "Asking questions about my life is like asking for a blessing". Lil B going as far in as possible. "Phony niggas be lurking, I pull this shit out I know they be learning". "I'm off in an island, big blunt in my mouth", Based Lifestyle Rap. Representing his house, his place, gotta be clean like his face. Wait wait I just understood for the first time that Based Party is like a political party not a celebration, wow I am dumb, alright whatever this is plenty crazy, it can be both. I can't get over that brass part though, that's awesome. S+


14. Election Day
Woah this beat I have no idea what is happening my mind is melting. Alright it's election day. This like some presidential flow for sure, really sinister and powerful. "Took over like Robotnik", haha. This flow is like immaculate, this is the immaculate election. "You shook ones like Mobb Deep", haha. "See me on the freeway, telling war stories." Lil B for most badass president ever. Really encapsulating his whole presidential qualifications here. He always stays focused. Yessss. S+

15. To Real 4 The World
Haha what was that sample? "Ain't nobody took more losses". "You ain't been through war, you can't be a general". This beat is great, really minimal but effective, I love these swells here. Lil B's flow some hard delivery for sure. And then this sample again, that's perfect, what's that from? "I'm too real for this rap shit/I'm too real for the world", real talk. And then he's out? Okay. We'll just ride out this outro, that's smooth, that's nice. S-


16. 2 Time President
"I never stop, I never stop, I always keep going." I sure hope so. Another just unbelievably fine beat, it's almost surreal how good these beats are when you stop and look at them. And then the violins coming in over this hook, Triumphant Based God oh man Obama BasedGod coming back. And this other sample oh man, this is brilliant. So jazzy, so soulful, and yet so powerful, straight on point 100%. Violins now over the voice for this big finale, Lil B goes all the way in. "Guns Mario Kart, I'm letting off shells/I don't need bail, I'm trapped in this hell", HUGE. S

17. I Dont Want Shit Remix
Oh man, this is pretty good. "It was all a dreeeeam!", this bassline is great, very familiar. Lots of good shoutouts here. "Cricket Chris", that's a great name. The beat just gets crazier and crazier. Will someday Lil B give a shoutout to me? I don't dare dream. "Ernest", that's a good name too. Shoutouts to teachers and doctors, very Respectful BasedGod. "And if you didn't make this list I'll make a part three", very considerate. "Don't even trip about giving me shit it's nothing, it's Lil Boss.", and then I guess we just ride out to the end of the album, alright, cool. S-

Good stuff Lil B.

In all I don't think this was as good as Rich After Taxes or Green Flame, let alone God's Father, but it's still pretty dang good.

3 comments:

Ed Howard said...

I'm loving this tape. It comes pretty damn close to God's Father, I think, which is really saying something! Definitely beats out even the insanely good Rich After Taxes. Instantly one of my favorite Lil B joints. I've been playing "Oakland Tech" nonstop and it puts a huge smile on my face every time. It's just unreal good. Pretty much every song here kills, and there's a stretch towards the middle of the album where it just keeps getting better and better, where every beat seems to top the one before.

"Based Party" is a Jay-Z beat, and yeah, it's great. "I Don't Want Shit" is a Biggie beat.

Keatsta said...

Thanks for the info on the production on this and your other comment. A lot of it sounds familiar but I have a hard time recognizing a beat out of context. I definitely know what you mean about it just steadily improving for awhile.

And of course the glory of being a Lil B fan is that we're sure to have another whole hour of new music in a week or two. THANK YOU BASED GOD!

Anonymous said...

Hey man I really dig ur reviews and no lie I havent heard the whole obama tape but the 4 or 5 tracks ive heard are the illest since im gay, gods father, angels exodus, red flame.. Fuck it I love all of this based music. He seems to have an amazing level of focus, emotional depth and not to mention banging beats on this one. Props to you for dropping these reviews in a similar pace that that lil b releases and blesses us with material. Task force singing off.