In the past, you kind of put a foot in R&B and jazzy areas with some tracks, but The Divine Feminine is as much an R&B record as a hip-hop record. And so now, it’s two days less than an exact year that we have another album out. There’s a lot here.” So I just kind of kept going. But once I kind of got in there, I was like, “Whoa. I really just finished that last record and wanted to get into exploring the emotion of love and everything that comes with it, so I just set out to make a little side project. It wasn’t a plan because I wasn’t even trying to make an album. Did you always plan on putting out another record so soon? The project also brings another classic Robin Williams line from the 1 989 film Dead Poets Society to mind: “Carpe diem! Seize the day, boys! Make your lives extraordinary.” With The Divine Feminine (due Friday), Mac Miller has done just that. While Miller’s 2011 hit named after the controversial billionaire is still a fan favorite, the rapper makes a point of reminding people that he does not want the Republican presidential nominee anywhere near the White House. Miller’s not really accustomed to life in the paparazzi limelight, but like everything else these days, he is taking it as it comes - and that includes Donald Trump. The Divine Feminine, as the name suggests, is a celebration of women (not in a thirsty way), but more than anything, it’s an “exploration of love.” On the opener “Congratulations,” Miller admits to being “the jealous type.” On “Stay,” his gritty voice urges his girl not to leave, while the funky “Soulmate” contemplates finding “the one.” The smooth love note “My Favorite Part” should prompt plenty of gossip-site speculation, thanks to the renewed attention on Miller and past collaborator Grande as a couple. Though refreshingly candid about his issues, Miller has re-emerged with a new confidence in the past year or so. Early on, the “Donald Trump” rapper took his critical lumps dealt with the challenges and scrutiny of being a white rapper with a growing national profile and struggled with insecurities, depression and a well-chronicled drug addiction that threatened to not only sabotage his career, but had people worried for his life. No doubt Miller’s six-year rise since signing with Pittsburgh’s Rostrum Records in 2011 hasn’t been without its hurdles. Mac Miller & Ariana Grande Collab On Slow Jam: ‘My Favorite Part’ But The Divine Feminine is, in Miller’s words, the result of the artist telling his fears and insecurities to “get the f- outta here.” To a fan coming up in the era of Cardi or Tyler or Polo G or Playboi Carti, the golden age is now.Singing more, working with analog instruments and giving in to R&B impulses are all things Miller has long toyed with in his head. Traces have worked their way texturally into past releases, including 2015’s ode to finding sobriety GO:OD AM, which came out almost exactly a year ago. One of the incredible things about hip-hop is that it evolves and expands faster than any other genre in music history. to Houston to Chicago, and beyond.Īs we dug and listened, we found ourselves a little less swayed by “golden age” mystique than we might’ve been had we done this list 10 or 15 years ago. and Rakim and others, through the gangsta era, the rise of the South, the ascendance of larger-than-life aughts superstars like Jay-Z and Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, and on and on into more recent moments like blog-rap, emo-rap, and drill, from New York to L.A. The result was a list that touches on every important moment in the genre’s evolution - from compilations that honor the music’s paleo old-school days, to its artistic flourishing in the late Eighties and early Nineties with Public Enemy, De La Soul, Eric B. When confronted with a choice between the third (or fourth or fifth) record by a classic artist (Outkast, for instance, or A Tribe Called Quest) and an album from an artist who would make the list more interesting (The Jacka or Saba or Camp Lo), we tended to go with the latter option. Relatedly, a list of hip-hop-adjacent albums from the worlds of dancehall or reggaeton or grime would be fun and fascinating, and something for us to revisit down the road. That’s one reason we limited our scope to English language hip-hop. But the history of rap LPs is so rich and varied, we were forced to make some painful choices - there are so many iconic artists with deep catalogs, so many constantly evolving sounds and regional scenes. Two hundred seems like an almost luxuriantly expansive number when you’re making an albums list, and in any other genre, maybe it would be.
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