Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Live Review - Waka Flocka Flame - Flockaveli 1.5

Flocka!

Alright so apparently a new Animal Collective album is playing on loop in a Florida airport, and I just beat Undertale (you can watch me do so on my Youtube channel if you are so inclined) so I'm a really weird mood of satisfaction/expectation/sadness/happiness and basically I need some extremely hard hitting beats to knock my head back into something understandable and sensible.

The original Flockaveli was perhaps a lifechanging album for me, but, as I pointed out on my top albums of 2010 list, much of its power lies in how exciting it has remained now five years later. And that's all well and good but the equally valid inverse of the quality is that nothing has succeeded it in those five years. Sure, Waka's put out a lot of projects since then, collaborating, and later beefing, with Trap God Gucci Mane, delving into EDM, and popping up on various remixes and guest features, but none of these projects were anywhere as complete or powerful as Flockaveli. And, throughout it all, there was always talk of Flockaveli 2... I think as far back as 2011 it was being teased... and now it has fallen into a Detox-esque limbo.

I think it was the common situation where a major label picks up a rapper with a big "underground" fanbase, but misses the boat on when to capitalize on the hype. Then they have this album that they've probably spent millions on, riddled with guest features and producers, and have a huge marketing budget for, but they're uncertain of their audience. So they just sit on it, waiting for the "time to be right", although the painful truth is that rappers rarely regain lost popularity.

Now we have Flocka asking fans to call Atlantic records and demand Flockaveli 2, which probably had objectively hilarious results but evidently no Flockaveli 2. Instead we get this, a free mixtape that no one can confirm or deny is actually Flockaveli 2. Is Waka getting back at Atlantic by retitling and leaking his own album? It could be a lot of things, really. A way to try to revitalize interest in Waka, a random mixtape he planned on releasing anyways... All I know is, for the last five years, he has restrained himself from ever labeling something Flockaveli again. I, in turn, have limited my hype with respect to that. But here we are with Flockaveli 1.5, after five long years, and I think I'm ready for a masterpiece. A masterpiece currently only available in 128kbps, but uhhhhh...

Waka Flocka Flame - Flockaveli 1.5
Live Review

1. Shootin
eiiiiiiight oohhhhhhh eiiiiiiiiight maaaaaaaaafia YOU KNOW aww yeah i know I KNOW. OKAY YES. CONFIRMED AMAZING ALREADY. wow 128 sounds AWFUL i had forgotten LMAO there is like barely any bass. but i can IMAGINE it. i can hear it in my mind. AIN'T NO MOTHERFUCKING TALKIN. that time has passed. like in certain boss fights in undertale. DAMN GOING IN, when he raps fast and yells slow on the ad libs it makes me so happy. this beat is fantastic too, the piano gad damn. "I'M BACK: PART TWO: FLOCKAVELI" flockaveli 2 confirmed???? AHHH the way he yells at the end of some lines is SO GOOD TOO jfc. im feeling pretty hyphy already. KEEP THE PISTOL WITH ME LIKE A NERD DO A LAPTOP hahahahahahaha. waka has perhaps the best ad-libs ever, did you forget that. SQUUAAAAAAD. "Real nigga last time I remember" hahaha yes. okay yes. this is i think comparable to anything on Flockaveli 1. so... masterpiece. this outro has some rly cool effects too. masterpiece confirmed. *

2. Short Handed
idk who chaz gotti is but w/e. beat sounding nice and sinister. i wonder if there'll be any lex luger on here or just 2nd generation lex luger fans (who are also amazing). AHHH MAN THE ACAPELLA INTRO SO GOOD. and when the beat goes quiet at the end of lines hnnng. GOING IN HARD THANK YOU. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT VERSE. i will listen to it literally 500 times in the future i'm sure. CHAZ GOTTI TIME, finding hands in the garbage??!?! wait is this the same guy as slim dunkin? he just mentioned that name idk. "he ain't rockin how i'm rockin so it's fuck him" is a pretty godly hook. as is "put your middle fingers up!", also certified instant classic. ahhhhhh v0 when?!??!? i just know this could sound HARDER. *

3. Blue or Red
ahhh the classic gang song. lmao 808 mafia's tag has been different in every song so far. METRO BOOMIN WANT SOME MORE NOW I'M EXCITED FOR REAL. RIVERDAAAAAAAAAALEEEEEEE. oh man OH MAN. RIDE ON A NIGGA IT DON'T MATTER BLUE OR RED, okay that's... damn man. i wish i could go beat someone at a video game right now. "wrong game sign we gon eat him like some breakfast" hehehhe. damn man his voice on this one is INTENSE sheeeeesh. raspy and rugged and FULL of emotion. hangin out the window with that STICK is nuts. LURKIN THROUGH YOUR HALLS LIKE A COUGH DROP ARE YOU KIDDING??? crop you out no photoshop!?!??! ahahahahha. oooh at 2:30 there was a really cool effect. damn man hearing the rasp in his voice at the same time as hearing him scream is something special. you see both sides. BLUE OR RED, BLUE OR RED, this makes a good pokemon commercial l m a o. *

4. M.O.N.E.Y.
what could this stand for? murder other niggas even... yearly. uhhh. idk. cool beat. oh man this flow omg this FLOW. these transitions are sick. OMG THE PITCHED DOWN DOUBLE. "Flockaveli, I'm bout my fetty!" ayyyyyy. "you niggas is super haters" sure. the 808 mafia tag interjected then is sooooo good. M O N E Y, yeeeeah. wetness of diamonds, bitches thirsty. hahaha. "her pussy is super wet, i think i'm surfing" sounds like a thugga line. oh man the breakdown at 2:20 is siiiiiick. "I'm eating, already full, but I want seconds". yeeeeee. this must be flockaveli 2. dude the 808 mafia tag gets me so hyped lmao how is that. successful branding. S+

5. Rap Game Fucked Up
aww hell yeah TELL US HOW IT IS. wait is he doing that voice? CHYEAH! i love the panning effect. waka sounding like a one man army. OMG THAT DROP. OMG. EVERYTHING. this beat is godly. FLAC WHEN!??! OOOH THE SPOOKY EFFECT ON THE BEAT. caravan filled up with work. 1 mil from rapping, 1 mil from trapping, quarter mil from capping. dang man. prolly accurate? who knows. "Flipping packs like an acrobat" haha. i just can't get over this beat jesus. southside is a god. rap fucked up so we in the trap. ah. maaaaan 128 plllllllls. *

6. Workin'
woahaahahahahaha athahahaha this beat guys THIS BEAT what are they DOING? IIIII BEEN WORKING aaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHH YOU KNOW YOU KNOW. this is HUGE. this is 200 pounds easy. he's giving us people we can ask about his credentials im sure to get right on that. RIVERDAAAAAAAALE. A LOTTA RAPPERS START TRAPPING IT'S LIKE RECESS hahahah. like Shadow of a Doubt. lol. WAKA FLOCKA'S NAME STILL GOOD IN THESE STREETS. i mean its a very good name. "i know you're thinking to yourself i'm a beast" yup good call. HAHAHA "LAME!" is the best adlib ever omg. "go against waka flocka, kamakaze" sick. SICK. S+

7. AM 2 PM
OHH DAMN this one is HEAVY. underwater SQUAD maybe. i love that sort of sound. OMG. so intense. dropping BRANDS. OMG the season puns. OMG. every line on this song has been TOO GOOD i can't even quote any of them. "I WAKE UP IN THE MORNING AND I GET STRAIGHT TO THE MONEY", so good. "I ain't got no use for the roof" aaaaaaaah. FROM AM TO PM! "walk in the closet it look like the mall" AAAAAhahahahaha. man at 2:30... the way it drops off... so cinematic... so intense. "if your product 100 it gon sell itself!" a good point. GENUINELY INSPIRING: "i made something from nothing". no one does it better ;___; this is the purest form of trap ;________; LOL weird artifacting. v0 pls. *

8. Birthday
hahahaha omg this is so high bpm. I CAME TO GET FUCKED UP CAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, this is the BEST SONG EVER. i'm gonna listen to this on my birthday. I WISH IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY NOW. i'm gonna post this on everyone's walls on their birthdays. "baby drop that ass, i'm the birthday boy" nice. this is so endearing. gotta have a good time on your birthday. "fuck it it's my birthdaaaay", having so much fuuuuuun. BIRTHDAAAAAy, i wonder when his birthday actually is. according to wikipedia it is may 31st. put it in your calendars. "want that liquor? EVERY DAY", man this is such a fun happy song. uh oh someone from the wrong hood is here i guess. BUT THEY'RE JUST GONNA GET TURNT! it's his birthdaaaaay! *

9. Feel Bout Me
oooh the channel tuning thing. AND THEN THE GUN SOUNDS THING. is this ELVIS LOL OLD MEME. oh man the way they mastered his voice on this one is niiiiiice i just wish i had this in higher quality :( :(. man this is another classic hook already. WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND. waka on that karma again. "I'm rich and black, ayy fuck the law", sasuga. holy shit he has been going hard for like a solid minute now. BANG! and then they continue the verse's track into the hook, that's godlike. these ad-libs sound like 3PAC may he rest forever in peace. "my dick got hard when i caught a body" UHHH that isn't mentally good imo lol. "I need a strong woman maya angelou" hahaha what. hooooooly shit. how can one human being go so hard? math or science cannot explain, one point for god. i could give a fuuuuuuck how you feel about me, nice. super nice. *

10. Lose My Mind
ohhh nice. piano and stuff. OH. this is a real young thuggish sort of flow/sound. i fucks with it. cause he could just EXPLODE AT ANY POINT. ayyyyyyeyeyayi is good. "everywhere like wi-fi", cute. "drink muddy? yeeeah, it's dirty", this flow is so good. THIS FLOW IS EVEN BETTER. "never had a role model, just me and my niggas", splitting chickens to serving mcchickens. sick. man the way his intensity built during that verse was sick. oh man and the hard ad-libs coming in. he could go nuts... BOOLING WITH MY SLIMES, THUGGER COLLAB WHEN. lmao why is every good rapper a blood? is that true? snoop is a crip i think. "I swear I really came from nothing", i believe. ahhh man the way his voice comes through... dang. FLOCKA, AYYYYYY. ahhh i wish i had hq there's so many little artifact bubbles lol. *

11. Trappin N Rappin
similar to an outkast title... what was that one... uhh. whatever. this one also sounds heavy or rather i can imagine the heaviness that exists beyond 128kbps. "I came to fuck up the party/I came with lean, gas and molly". "i'm the quarterback and you punting, your cheque is nothing", hahaha, i understand. "Trap rolling like rollerskates" and then his double yells "ROLLLIIIIIIIIN", perfect. this one is i think crippled most by this terrible quality LOL. "Head super good, call it education" hahaha. he's got "cookie kush"? i am unfamiliar. nice. S+

12. No Lie
ohh cool active sinister beat. coming from "all angles". no lie, EEEEEERY. "No lie, I be high as hell every interview" hahah sick good for you. "Bitches yelling like I'm Neo", i don't understand. ohhh man "you ain't never do that shit you talking", the callouts so direct, so good. his flow here is really really sweet. so smooooth. and the way it fills out on the hook is sick. "you gon lose your life if i squeeze this pocket rocket", oh man this flow, holy shit. HOLY SHIT. "That Phantom rest is stupid low" lmao yeah i think it has a super low clearance. performance~! idk anything about cars. alright this was another goodn for sure. "I'm too rich to lie" amazing *

13. Blood Brother
ayy wooh da kid, I like that guy. he's on his super raspy flow which I love. woah this beat. WOAHAHAH. this is everything. a whole new world of aesthetics. and the message is genuinely endearing imo. "3 times for these fuck niggas, 4 times for these lames" "i go insane for my blood brothers", man when he's rapping about those he loves he gets REALLY INTENSE, i love it. damn wooh da kid going IN. dont sleep on da kid etc etc. oh man, turning on the BLOOD SUCKER, grrrrrr. dude this beat is actually so amazing though. southside is so good at this holy. *

14. Hit A Lick
oooh. hmm. interesting. broooooding i guess. owah the clipping hahaa. whatever. sounds nice. good financial breakdown. "i'm gon throw 10 bands tonight", that's a lot of money. "You should have never treated me like a rap nigga", damnnn that says so much. oh man the "rawness" of this flow is so good. "Got the barrel melting on this plastic glock", idk what that means. "Waka Flocka I'm hip hop", definitive. QUAVO. WHAT THE THIS WASN'T ADVERTISED. HOLY SHIT QUAVO. YES. FIELDS OF MARIJUANA LIKE I'M A FAAARMER" sick ahahahahha amazing. NICE. quavo hell yeah. i can't get over that. good stuff man. QUAVO!! *

15. How It Feel
the finale... how it feel. this sort of sample is pretty rare for him. this interview sample too... WOAH OKAY. NOW. OMG. on his DMX flow. WOW WITH THIS SAMPLE TOO. this is intense. SUPER INTENSE. "I seen my little brother's brains stretched on the floor", damn wow getting REALLY REAL NOW. "Sometimes I feel like my own worse enemy"... man... "voices in my head, telling me to FIGHT", and mama... holy shit. it takes a special sort of attitude to make a song about this content and make it a CERTIFIED 100% BANGER. i know how none of this feels tbh (desu). ohhh man, the fallout with gucci... this is genuinely sad. "This my fourth year", so this song is pretty old. "Half my class in jail or dead"... wow man. going from racks to Ms. man. maaaan. and this little singsong part at 3:30, genuinely moving. this was great. FLOCKA. **

Alright I really want to go play Smash Bros now

I feel "pumped up" but also maybe "full of reverence" after that last track. This was as great as I hoped. Every track had the explosive energy of his best on Flockaveli, but also represented masterful exploration of new flows and sounds. There is a certain quality of hip hop like this, where the soundscape is so complex, so delicate in the upper range, so heavy in the bottom, multifaceted and deep, and on top of that you have Waka just going ABSOLUTELY WILD, screaming his head off on two vocal tracks, it's like... there's an energy to that like nothing else. It's an absolute rampage, and you know exactly what side you want to be on.

Man I wish that I had this in high quality, though. I really can picture what it "ought" to sound like, and my (basically meaningless) ratings reflect that, but I'm sure it's actually a pale shadow at best. Nevertheless, this has gotten me really hyped for a higher quality version, maybe even more hyped than for the new AnCo album, which is saying a LOT. I just hope it uh, actually exists.

And beyond that, this has me SUPER PUMPED for Flockaveli 2. I went back and forth on this a few times and I've decided that this probably isn't it, given the sort of artists and stuff that I know he was working with for it that aren't present (like KANYE for example). Ideally, Flockaveli 2 will be pretty much exactly like this but the songs will just be littered with moments like when Quavo shows up on "Hit A Lick", rappers popping in and immediately bringing to bear their every beloved quality. Just imagining various artists I like (Thugger!?) in this sort of mood and sound is overwhelmingly hype. Let's hope we eventually get to hear it!!

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