Review: Curren$y – Pilot Talk
Curren$y - Pilot Talk (2010) [Bluroc] // Grade: C
So for whatever reason, this is the second week in a row I’m reviewing an able by a Cash Money refugee. New Orleans based MC Curren$y (the Hot Spitta) makes his major label debut this week with this album, Pilot Talk, out on Bluroc Records. For those not familiar with Curren$y, his M.O. has changed several times over the course of his career. Until recently, he had been heavily involved with the New Orleans rap scene, formerly signed to both No Limit Records (as part of the 504 Boyz and as a solo artist) and Cash Money (as Lil Wayne’s token “different” rapper, a position he held until he was replaced by Drake). After he broke with Cash Money, he’s gone on to reinvent himself as a hipster-stoner icon, overly obsessed with planes, muscle cars, and, well, weed. Much like Wiz Khalifa, who he worked with on the surprisingly solid How Fly mixtape, Curren$y never really has anything worthwhile to say, even though he has a compelling voice and strong technical skill when he wants to. This album is so aggressively bland that after I listened to it for the third time, I could still only remember parts of like two of the songs.
When I listen to shit like Curren$y, I get to thinking that maybe I am getting old, since Curren$y and Khalifa’s core of fans are mostly under 20 and treat them like gods that can do no wrong. If you’ve ever been to a show of theirs, you might confuse the hysteria around them with Beatlemania. Young white girls screaming at the top of their lungs as theses dudes spit boring rhymes about riding around in muscle cars or sitting in hotel rooms smoking weed. I just don’t get the appeal. Maybe rap has passed me by.
Then I realize I’m only 23 and the kids are just fucking hollow inside. For some reason over the last two or three years this hipster-rap trend that talks about nothing but sounds really fucking cool hit a sweet spot of underground appeal and tipping-point mainstream acceptance, to the point that Wiz Khalifa can sell out every show on his recent tour with no radio play and Pilot Talk sold out at Best Buy when it was released last week. And certainly, Curren$y has been able to carve out a noticeable personality and trademark sound, with all the beats except two on the album handled by Ski Beatz and usually laced with a jazzy, New Orleans-by-way-of-New York feel. It’s great music for smoking weed, or falling asleep, or zoning out. Shit is almost always background music. This isn’t really rap. This is an easy listening album. The kids don’t like rappers, the kids like Enya. Even the guests, usually charismatic rappers like Jay Electronica, Devin the Dude, and Big K.R.I.T., are rendered utterly neutered by the laid-back nature of the album.
The true heartbreak about this shit is that Curren$y has bought into it, allowing his rhymes to take a back seat to aesthetics, because dude really can spit. When he lets his super-blunted flow ride and he decides to write, he can come up with some great moments. Examples: on the Big K.R.I.T./Wiz Khalifa/Curren$y cut “Glass House” from the recent Wiz and K.R.I.T. tapes, he gives us “one of the dopest/ I’m Schedule 1/you just ibuprofen”, or off his only Cash Money single “Where the Cash At”: “I’m talkin burnin rubber/that melted Pirelli odor”. But instead of giving us some witty wordplay or nice flows, he chooses most of Pilot Talk to bless us with awkward lines about joining the mile-high club somewhere over Texas or being hungover because “he hung out”. The only track where Curren$y lets his guard down a little bit and gives us a little passion is the album’s best cut, “Address”, with Stalley. The hypnotic chorus of “ain’t nothin changed but the address” and his raps about his happiness with his success give us a fleeting glimpse of a kid who really has been informed by his struggle to make it. Unfortunately, this is just about the only moment he gets personal. The rest of the time, the dude is unclear, lost in a hazy cloud, completely disconnected from the listener. A damn shame.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:37 am
this is a harsh reveiw cut the guy some slack
July 20th, 2010 at 10:37 am
yea was kinda harsh
July 20th, 2010 at 11:15 am
I enjoyed the album
July 20th, 2010 at 11:23 am
SPITTA!!!
July 20th, 2010 at 11:53 am
There is nothing different between this and his other material… U like or u don’t… Why bother with a review if it’s just gonna rip apart a solid record…
July 20th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Tezo: Let me get this straight… Reviews should only be written when you’re going to praise something? Huh? That’s absolutely ridiculous.
Obviously Walkmaster didn’t think it was as solid of an album as you did. But he also didn’t say it was an awful album, just one that he didn’t feel lived up to Curren$y’s potential and skill. There’s comments here for a reason… explain why you think he’s wrong and why this is a “solid album”
I for one wouldn’t go as hard on Pilot Talk as Walkmaster has. There are some really good tracks on here, especially “Address” w/ Stalley. But Walkmaster has some valid points in a lot of the things he mentions in his review. I can see where he’s coming from even if I or you don’t agree with it.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I totally worded it wrong there.. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course.. I’m picky with my hip hop nowadays..and I’m really feeling this.. Kind of like disbelief.. Solid record, straight through give it a shot, sober or Stoney..
July 20th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
this album left me salty. i agree there arent many good tracks, but the one with mos and jay electronica is so solid, not to mention its the new CRS/ cant tell me nothing mixtape rumor. but like that (or CRS) is ever going to happen.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
“For some reason over the last two or three years this hipster-rap trend that talks about nothing but sounds really fucking cool hit a sweet spot of underground appeal and tipping-point mainstream acceptance”
^^
This really struck a nerve with me. I’ve wanted very much to think highly of Curren$y & Khalifa (not to mention so many other over-hyped, under-achieving contemporary rappers), but so often I’m listening to them purely because of their solid beat selection (esp. Wiz), and rarely (if ever) for their rapping.
I think this is an important review — Curren$y is capable, but he’s not great. His mixtapes have all been eminently listenable and unoffensive, but they’re never memorable. Walkmaster, which new acts (if any) are you feeling in hip-hop at the moment?
July 21st, 2010 at 12:02 am
If yelawolf can do a better record w/ big krit than you can… you know you in for some troubles child!
July 21st, 2010 at 10:56 am
a) take a writing class before you attempt another “review”
b) do you have a car? because whether you want to admit it or not, music is made by different artists for different reasons – this is a smoking/riding album w/ surprisingly complex flows/lyrics (even though he raps about mostly the same topics – the art in his music isn’t the message, it’s HOW he says things (a la what Clipse does for coke rap)) and stellar production
c) i love how selective you were when quoting the album (maybe you just don’t understand some of the wordplay/references on the album.. which is fine, but don’t pretend to sound like you know what you’re talking about)… you honestly think “one of the dopest/ I’m Schedule 1/you just ibuprofen” is more creative than than the rhymes on this album?? lol.. this just shows your lack of attention to detail more than anything else
d) so, this album isn’t personal? what do you call someone basically rapping about what they do, what motivates them, their hopes, dreams and past struggles.. that’s more personal than just about any other rap album i’ve heard in recent memory (hint: there’s a difference between “personal” and “sentimental” and that’s why this music doesn’t come off as corny as, say, Eminem’s Recovery)
e) name 5 current artists w/ flows/styles/diction as unique as Curren$y
f) name 5 albums in the past 3 years w/ more impressive/cohesive production than this album (seriously, let hip hop out of its box)
g) “blogging” and “reviewing music” are completely different tasks (guess which one you’ve got down)
it’s not even that i think this review is harsh (you do point out some valid weaknesses).. it’s just that you completely overlook any positives (e.g. how you can notice the evolution of his abstract rhymes/connectors over the course of his mixtapes and now his major label debut – one listen of “Audio Dope II” or “Breakfast” *should* tell you that (haha but i guess Barnett Newman just drew a bunch of lines, right?)… and honestly, Curren$y the southern, slow-cooked/pothead version of Ghostface w/ his own take on the flow/diction of 2009 Mos Def)… to compare him to Wiz for any other reason than the fact that they work together and both rap about weed is a mistake on your part…
bottom line: if for the production alone, i think this album is pretty damn good (expand your horizons, man)… for the rhyme schemes alone, i think this album is pretty damn good (check the rhyming syllables and where they’re strategically placed)… stylistically/aesthetically, i think the album is pretty damn good (maybe you’d rather a gang of producers creating a jumbled feeling?)… i can’t get mad at your grade, because you’ve got your opinion.. you just weren’t very thorough/observant and i think you missed a lot… keep at it and here’s hoping you become more astute in the future
July 22nd, 2010 at 1:52 am
damn, i need to start reviewing albums negatively more often! glad to see people talking about this shit
this shit may be negative but honestly, this album is just like…nothing to me. i don’t see it having any sort of shelf life and outside of a couple songs i can’t imagine listening to it in six months. i thought the production was nice and there are a few decent songs. what else positive do you want me to say? it’s just not a great, or even decent, album.
but look. this is what i hate about “reviews” (and yeah this is a blog post justin, not a review. who gives a fuck. if i got paid to write this shit you might see things like “painstaking editing” or “posts that took longer to write than 30 minutes). it’s a guy’s opinion and nothing else. don’t ever let anyone fool you into thinking it’s anything other than that. the rolling stones and pitchforks of the world would have you believe that taste is an imperative, and there’s only one “good” taste in the world. listen: you can listen to all the shitty music in the world you want, and as long as you find something of value in it and enjoy it, more power to you. i didn’t enjoy this album and i found little value in it. so that’s what i said. that’s all it is.
Justin- you sound like me when i was just a young fruitfly commenting on rap blogs. yes i do (did) have a car and i am from the south. nothing is greater sometimes than cruising around to something that beats in the trunk. and yeah the productions nice, but if you think you’re hearing groundbreaking music here, you really need to dig deeper into rap. there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of kids out there doing really innovative shit without the studios that dudes like curren$y have.
for artists i’m feeling, just check out my tumblr (see what i did there?): spaceagehustle.tumblr.com
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:26 am
oh and the eminem album was terrible as well
July 22nd, 2010 at 8:10 am
I thought, for the most part, the album was pretty dope, and I reviewed it as such. I also was careful to place the album in a bucket, as a “riding out in my whip” record. I wouldn’t listen to this on the way to the club, or to work out or something. Curren$y fits a specific niche – as some of you said, a set of people, although I’m not sure age has a lot to do with it. He fits the hipster genre of rap – so I’m not going to compare cat to like….Jay-Z or like Blu. It’s dope for the space in hip hop it occupies.
That being said….dude is entitled to his opinion. Like Common said back in the day – if (he) don’t like it, (he) don’t like it…..it don’t mean (he’s) hatin’.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:16 am
While I haven’t heard the whole album, just most of the leaks, I have to agree with Flex: Curren$y is a decent rapper with a great ear for beats, and nothing more. What do we learn of his personality from his work? What I learn bores me. I have been smoking weed since 14 and riding in cars just as long. My life is not that extraordinary, and neither, it seems, is his. Kids need to stop with the He’s-from-the-South-but-sounds-like-Golden Era-New York-shit-so-he’s-innovative talk. That’s bogus. To me, Curren$y’s music offers so much lass now than, say, “Dare Iz A Darkside” did when I first heard. In fact 9 times outta 10 I’d rather hear that right now. And I listen to the latest. And the “Southern Ghostface” moniker is laughable. Most of Ghost’s appeal is the passion we hear in his voice and story-telling. I get Zero passion from Curren$y other than his passion for hearing his own voice.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:17 am
Honestly, though, I’d smoke and ride to this. Real talk.
July 27th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Call it the Kanye effect. If an artist projects an air of detachment and does not appear to be trying, it insulates them from criticism. Only problem is for this to work the rapper needs to be prodigiously talented to begin with-charisma and cool only go so far.
August 9th, 2010 at 4:01 am
i dont get why you guys are commenting on a mans opinion. he has the right to say whatever the fuck he wants, if hes not feeling his shit then stop fucking dick riding and grow up. i respect wht he had to say bc well some of it is true. yall are so caught up in the hype you dont know how to think for yourself.
September 8th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
since when is making a chilled out album with dope beats considered a bad album. This is the most ridiculous review I’ve ever seen. Okay, congratulations, you’re right, it’s no Ready to Die, it’s no Illmatic, but are you really gonna bash on an album just because it’s not some new groundbreaking rap revolutionizing album. It’s a great album and either you didn’t give it a good listen or you just don’t appreciate Curren$y’s music. Like Tezo said, this isn’t much different from his other shit, so there was really no point just to bash an album like this