Greetings, beautiful people. International Baba Day was the best on record, so thanks to all of those responsible. Had a lil potluck at the Estate on Friday and Saturday’s Int’l Baba Day celebration was too good to describe.
And now, back to real life. Dammit.
Anyway, went to see Idlewild on Sunday. It was pretty good. Nothing too spectacular, but really good.
(Well, every suit Big Boi sported was spectacular, but that’s neither here nor there. In a way, he’s still the cat I wanna be when I grow up.)
It didn’t really help with digestion of the soundtrack, though. It did make a few of the songs on Speakerboxx/The Love Below easier to understand, but that’s about it.
Long of the short–this was Under the Cherry Moon ’06. But it was waaaaaaay better than that drivel.
(If you think that movie was good, save the drama for your mama. I love Prince more than I love most of my relatives, but that movie sucked.)
It’s Under the Cherry Moon because the music is primarily unfitting of the time period covered in the film. Remember when “Anotherloverholeinyohead” came on toward the end of Under the Cherry Moon? What drum machine where they using back then? You’ll get the same feeling when you hear any of Big Boi’s joints or “She Lives in My Lap.” The New York Times said that the setting was basically used for aesthetics, and that’s true. The other funny note from the Times was that Big Boi essentially invented rap in the ’30s. Great insight.
But I’d go check it out. The music is good, the cinematography is fantastic–shouts to CAU alum Bryan Barber–and I don’t think there’s an ugly woman anywhere to be found on screen. No complaints there.
As for the soundtrack, the people saying it’s booty are crazy. It’s not classic, but there’s a lot good there. Some of Andre’s joints are hot, particularly the incredible “Bad Note.” His problems are borne of same stuff as those on The Love Below–Dre’s just not as creative as he thinks. “Idlewild Blues” is just “Higher Ground” with some Prince-like synth lines. It’s no different than how “Dracula’s Wedding” is just a ripoff of something on There’s a Riot Goin’ On. I think he just needs to stop listening to old records.
Big Boi’s stuff points out two things–his Purple Ribbon roster is strong, and he’s got some really interesting things going on.
All those years, people thought Big Boi needed Dre, and that Dre was the “creative” one out of the two. If you can’t listen to Idlewild and see how fallacious that is, you’re just deaf. Or foolish.
Anyhoo, gotta get back to work. Have fun.