8 - Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

8 - Tuesday, January 15, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom

Unsung heroes
of 2012

"Fuck yo couch."
A$-ARP Rocky living large
on lavish debut LP

Harlem rapper's
original sound finds
mainstream success
By TOM KLEPACZ
Daily Arts Writer
The first real glimpse the
world received of A$AP Rocky
was entirely characteristic of
his personal-
ity. Through a
shifting, tech-
nicolored lens, A$AP Rocky
Rocky glared
at his audience LOI1&UVe"A$AP
and laconically RCA
mouthed words
to what would
become his first hit single, "Pur-
ple Swag." The video - or song,
for that matter - didn't offer any
definite hints to who Rocky would
be as a person or rapper. He was
good-looking and well-dressed
(and knew it), but he didn't make
that the center of the video. He
mimicked Houston rap as only a
rap nerd could, buthe wasn't geeky
in the slightest. He seemed to view
the world around himlike he knew
he was somehow different from it
all, but he embraced it and drank
from the same 40s as his sur-
rounding Harlem friends. He was

simply cool, and that was all.
"Purple Swag" now has nearly
18-million YouTube views. Rocky
has been featured in countless
magazines, from Complex to
Vogue. He's even featured in the
"FIFA 13" video game ad, along
with none other than the newly
crowned Snoop Lion ('Dogg'
for those who don't keep up
with his Rastafarianism). From
humble codeine-laced begin-
nings, Rocky's propelled himself
to the throne of worldwide cool.
The only thing he had to do was
release a great commercial album..
Long.Live.A$AP seems to
be surprisingly reflective of
Rocky's enigmatic rise to fame.
The album's first track (aptly
titled "Long Live A$AP") begins
with ominous Castlevania-
esque thunder claps and stum-
bling synth, as if Rocky is arising
from the dungeons of Harlem
- a world in which the rapper
thought he'd "Probably die in
prison." The track thumps like
any other rap hit, but has hints of
surrealism and even psychede-
lia: Crawling strings maneuver
their way around the tremen-
dous 808s, and Rocky's chorus
maintains the track's melody
with gentle guitar and his own
falsetto. Yes, he sings it.

After the opening song con-
cludes, the album quickly jumps
to the other end of Rocky's spec-
trum, from the dark and some-
what surreal title track to the
lavish landscape of "Goldie."
Even though the two tracks dif-
fer entirely in both content and
sound ("Goldie" is produced by
the famed "Ni**as in Paris" pro-
ducer Hit-Boy, a seemingly eter-
nal hit-maker), Rocky somehow
makes the contrast work. His
claim that "It feels good waking
up to money in the bank" seems
genuine, like every one of his
mornings is truly a celebratory
occasion.
Rocky miraculously "makes
it work" on several occasions on
his debut LP. Whether it's on the
2 Chainz-carried "F*ckin Prob-
lems" or the Skrillex-produced
(yes, Skrillex-produced) "Wild
For the Night," Rocky makes the
seemingly generic interesting. As
the rapper himself said in a recent
Pitchfork interview, "What other
rapper could collab with Skrillex
and not make it sound corny?"
Cocky, yes, but he's absolutely
right.
Long.Live.A$AP isn't all pop
either - songs like the echo-
ing "LVL" and bouncing "Fash-
ion Killa" are simultaneously

peculiar and entirely listenable.
"LVL" offers the usual underwa-
ter symphony sounds of its pro-
ducer, Clams Casino, a man who
can somehow balance Rocky's
stuttering Bone Thugs-flow
with Gregorian-esque chanting.
"Fashion Killa" is perhaps the
strangest song on the album -
the beat seems to place the rap-
per in a sonic Barbie-Land where
obscure, super-high-end fashion
labels (Isabel Marant, Raf Simons,
Helmut Lang, among others) are
the only substance to life - and
Rocky somehow seems right at
home.
The album has its pitfalls
- "Jodye" and "Angels" are
essentially the same vague diss-
song with slightly different
beats, and they're both placed
confusingly near the album's
conclusion - but in its greater
entirety, Long.Live.A$AP is
a superb debut album. Rocky
manages to juggle both his
druggy Harlem beginnings and
FIFA commercial superstardom
with ease, as if he were destined
for mainstream-TV stardom but
would rather drink 40s with his
friends on a smoke-enveloped
Harlem couch. Who knows,
maybe he'll also juggle a Gram-
my soon.

The Daily's "Best Of"
edition in the B-side
has come and gone, and
with it our official judgment of
this year's musical harvest. In
the future
(even the
near future),
we'll look
back on our
top-10 list as
a snapshot of
our collective
perception ELLIOT
of the music ALPERN
industry at
large, won-
dering why some were ever
favored (and unsung others never
picked). Yet overall, our "Best Of"
edition accomplishes no small
feat: Itaggregates the opinion of
all of our writers (and differences
of opinion are in no short supply
therein).
And as much as I enjoy seeing
our official impression of the past
year at large, I rarely ever take
them seriously. We've written
about the fallacy of the "best" of
anything before (recently, even).
At least to me, there's a pervasive,
fatal flaw in the core function
of picking any "best of" list and
publishing it for the masses, one
that compromises any trust you'd
like to place in such authoritative
opinions.
Reason it out yourself: As a
music writer, you're about to
tell the world your fundamental
opinions on music as a whole.
Composing a list without any bias
(or distortion), people will sud-
denlyknowyour deepest secrets
and weirdest musical compul-
sions. And how much respect
would be lost if a guilty pleasure
like Taylor Swift soared above
Frank Ocean or Beach House.
Speakingofwhich, though
those albums are wholly deserv-
ing of being recognized, a bias
tends to fester as the list gets
put together. Albums deemed
too close to the edge of "popular
appeal" are often downgraded or
passed over altogether, due to the
unreliability of a list (though, no,

Taylor Swift, I still don't think
you're on the list).
In any case, this column is my
short stab in the dark at doing
justice, at talking about the year
in music - at least what's really
worth talking about. Just like any
music writer, I'm limited to the
music I like but I'm willing, at the
very least, to simply share whatI
enjoyed - the good, the bad and
the catchy.
There's been one snub left
from the Daily's list that's been
on my mind a lot. I shouldn't be
shocked - amid ultra-hip acts
like Beach House, Grimes and
Tame Impala, I didn't expect to
find anything beside the band
names that felt sexy to name-
drop in a music discussion.
But Mumford & Sons' Babel,
while not perfect, was nonethe-
less a decently high pick in my
own best of list. Critics tended to
make the same case - that they
sound too similar to Sigh No More
(cue the obligatory joke where
they all get each other banjos
for Christmas). But there's more
than enough worth savinghere,
from a spot-on rendition of Simon
and Garfunkel's "The Boxer"
to the sometimes haunting and
often contemplative "Where Are
You Now," "Holland Road" and
"Below My Feet."
No one will
remember that
list in a year.

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

RELEASE DATE- Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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(c)2013 Tribune Media Services, Inc1 3

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And I have very little doubt
that musical elitism led to the
omission of two of indie's best
releases in2012: Passion Pit's
Gossamer and Of Monster and
Men's My Head Is An Animal.
After all, no one wants to seem
like the frat bros who pumped
"Sleepyhead" from every grimy
speaker of their house. But even
aside from the crowd-pleasers
like "Take a Walk" and "Carried
Away" (which, honestly, tend to
please a crowd quite well), Pas-
sion Pit's Michael Angelakos
manages to imbue a surprising
amount of soul into his material.
Set "Constant Conversations" on
repeat for a fewtimes, tune in
and drop out - fade into the pink
mist suggested by the album's
cover.
Of Monsters and Men is
admittedly almost indieenough
to be a trendy pick for the year
- in fact, it was close to clawing
its way into placing for a low spot
on the list. But alas, the Icelandic
folksters' gifted vocals and infec-
tious melodies were beat out by
another indie group - the much
more American/pop-friendly
fun.
Speaking of which, it seems
as though we tend to run into
another problem with pick-
ing the best music: We select
based on what we feel like we
should pick. The success of fun.,
coupled with the group's unique
indie sound, made it seemingly
worth the inclusion - after all,
how could someone skip over
the album that gave us "Some
Nights" and the anthemic "We
Are Young"?
Here's the counterargument:
Why else would we pick it? I
too fell prey to this illusion,
even giving itSa low spot on my
list, before coming to: It's nota
great album. It's an okay album
speckled with a few genuine
gems - so yes, those songs are
perhaps some of the best singles
of the'year. But will I really be
listening to the deep tracks of
Some Nights in a few years? I
doubt it.
Overall, I'm excited for the
coming year and the inevitable
Best of 2013. Because, while the
lists are imperfect, they're not
always wrong. After all, what
was my own best album of the
year? Undeniably Kendrick
Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d. city.
As they say, even a broken clock
is right twice a day.
Alpern is judging everyone's
best of lists. To stop him,
e-mail ealpern@umich.edu.

I

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