A String of Random Thoughts That Keep An Anxious Hip-Hop Obsessive Up At Night

At night I can't sleep, I toss and turn.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Do you ever suffer from insomnia? Probably at least very so often, right? I mean, there's so much to worry about all the time. So much to think about.

Late at night, a beam of streetlight cutting just in between the windowsill and flap in your curtains that allows for a straight path directly into your eyes. Even when you shift and turn over, like it somehow follows you, like it's magnetically attracted? Or like it's just god up in heaven aiming his little lazer pointer down at you like a mischievious kid in a movie theater in the early '90s?

And that clicking noise. What the fuck is that clicking noise? And that high-pitched hum? Is that even real? Or are you just hearing inside your head? Is it the sound of blood running theough the veins in your ears? Do you have a brain tumor? Are you losing your mind?

How can your wife just lie there sleeping like that? Doesn't she know what's going on? Eminem has a new album coming out, and Dre and Rick Rubin worked on it together! This new song by Johnny Cinco sounds so much like Rich Homie Quan who sounds so much like Future but that none of that matters 'cause they all sound terrific! Or am I just falling for a gimmicky new technology sound? This Kendrick thing could really turn into a problem for Drake, couldn't it? 

How can she just lie there? When there's A String of Random Thoughts That Keep An Anxious Hip-Hop Obsessive Up At Night?!?!

Why do people not talk about how much Drake gets his vocal style from Q-Tip?

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What if Midnight Marauders really is better than Low End Theory? It can't be, can it? The beats on Midnight Marauders are too same-soundy.

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Buhloone Mindstate is better than Midnight Marauders, too. Why does no one talk about that?

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Why have there been no truly successful crossover rap artists from England? Did Slick Rick throw a curse on everybody when he went to jail?

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Have I just been somehow fooled into thinking that Gucci Mane is an excellent lyricist? No, right? I mean, his lexicon is just totally colorful and creative and he puts words together in a truly unique and refreshing way. Doesn't he?

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Who has the greatest natural voice among all rappers ever? Guru? Big Daddy Kane? Foxy Brown?

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Snoop? Juvenile? Q-Tip?

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Is Chicago's drill scene going to make a second rap star?

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Are future historians ever going to work KRS-One back in to the G.O.A.T. conversation? Or did that thing he started doing with the throwing the tennis balls out into the crowd at his concerts really sort of disqualify him forever? That'd be a shame.

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Who is the most overrated rapper of all time? DMX or Game?

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Was Tupac a better actor than he was a rapper?

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Could Biggie really have had something to do with Tupac's murder? No, right? That story about him giving the shooter the gun and all was too ridiculous to believe. Wasn't it?

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Which is the all-time cheesiest atrocity of a beat made out of a terrible rock song? Tupac's "Changes" or Puffy's "I'll Be Missing You?"

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What is the stupidest album title of all-time? It's gotta be Drag-On's The Opposite of H2O, right? Nothing could be stupider than that. Could it?

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Can Ab-Soul ever become as big a star as it seems like he has the talent to become with a name as awkward and not-star-like as "Ab-Soul"?

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When people are talking about Nicki Minaj, why don't they talk more about Missy Elliott?

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Which of hip-hop's "golden eras" is more golden? '87-'89 or '93-'95?

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Are we in another "golden era" right now? I mean, you never know when you're in one, right? Forest for the trees and all.

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Is whatever the new business model for the record industry turns out to be going to allow for more high-profile rap albums to come out as uncompromisingly avant garde as Earl Sweatshirt's?

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What if Jay and Beyonce broke up? That would suck.

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Will Jay Z run for president one day? I don't see why not.

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No one still thinks Nas beat Jay in their battle do they? I mean, they couldn't, could they?

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What will happen to Drake if Kendrick writes another song with a hook as catchy as "Bitch Don't Kill My Vibe"?

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What will happen to Kendrick Lamar if Drake comes back with something as hard "5AM In Toronto"?

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How is it possible to dislike Drake's overall vibe as much as I dislike it, but still somehow enjoy his music so much?

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