Comments on: LA Weekly: The Clipse are Rap’s Derek Zoolander

By: ekko

ekko — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:03:03 +0000

Dude, that’s a little harsh. How many different songs did N.W.A. do? Or Dwight Yoakam, for that matter? The latest Cheap ain’t the best, but it’s still hot. Still better than most major label tripe.

By: eric_c

eric_c — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:51:29 +0000

I ahve to admit, Malice’s opening words in “Show You How to Hustle” were pretty funny — “If all I talk about is coke, let that tell you somethin’ …”

But yeah, I’d definitely love to see more diversity from these guys. If only they could put the same effort at creating coke puns towards other topics!

By: m.dot

m.dot — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:29:04 +0000

Man.

You make me laugh.

Even when my future ex-husband doesn’t.

NICE.

By: Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:34:19 +0000

Thank you, Jeff. We needed this.

By: Derek G

Derek G — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:24:39 +0000

at least they know that that’s all they rap about! they talk about it all the time

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:18:19 +0000

Odds of them running trains on J Stone: 84 percent.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:06:36 +0000

We’ll see, maybe that one with Joss Stone they’ve been recording lately lol.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:56:20 +0000

If the Clipse had narratives I wouldn’t care. Ghost spins narratives with clear story arcs: a beginning, a middle and an end. All Clipse can do is kick bad puns about slanging coke. There’s a huge difference between something like “Yolanda’s House” which is providing a fresh spin on a tired trope, versus something like “Emotionless” which is just bad pun after bad pun after bad pun.

And no, I wouldn’t judge them based on their mixtape if it hadn’t been practically identical to their last album. There’s a stark difference between writing songs with a thematic similarity versus sitting in your room trying to think up synonyms for blow (on the other hand, if this was all rap was about, I’d give them 5 mics, no contest).

Honestly, would it kill them to write 1 song that wasn’t about dealing coke? They haven’t done that in four years. And that’s ridiculous.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:15:21 +0000

Come on! First, you can’t blame them for the music contained in their mixtapes. Mixtapes are not meant to be brilliant. They are meant to be just a taste of what an artist is capable of. They are released to remind us the artist is still alive.
I only judge an artist by his albums and concerts. If he releases a good mixtape, that’s ok, but you can’t judge him because of a repetitive mixtape.
Weren’t you saying bloggers underrated last Ghostface’s album because it was more of the same? I remember you said you can’t blame Rembrandt for only painting Dutch farmers and I agreed with you. The same with Clipse. So far, they have released two albums with excellent rhymes and dope and innovative beats. Of course they are always talking about the same, but they’re still great.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:17:12 +0000

Sure, “one-trick pony” could sum them up nicely, just like most every other very good rapper out there mainstream or otherwise. It’s always the same look.

The thing is most people (including myself) only got on board with Vol. 2 so it’s not like they’ve been riding the one trick pony all that long. People will get bored eventually if Clipse don’t do something different.

I have Vol. 3 on my hard drive, just haven’t got around to listening to it yet.