What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week?

Summer ended.

Lauren Nostro,

Alexander Russell,

Dharmic X,

September 1, 2013

Not Available Lead — Image via Complex Original

It's been a whirlwind of a week since Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards.

Don't worry, we covered all the winners (as if anyone really cares) and the performances (all that really matters) so if you missed the show, you could still figure out why everyone was talking about Miley Cyrus. But while the world overanalyzed her twerking (while much of the world learned what "twerking" is) Cyrus hit the studio with Kanye West and filmed the music video for Mike WiLL Made It's "23."

Also this week, Danny Brown dropped the hynoptizing video to his new, Paul White-produced song "ODB," Jay Z premiered "Holy Grail" on Facebook, and last night, Lil Wayne actually dropped Dedication 5. All that and more in What The Hell Just Happened in Music This Week?

It's been a whirlwind of a week since Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards.

Reportedly, Kanye West got Miley Cyrus to stop twerking for one second to record a remix.

Date: August 28

Kudos if you have somehow been able to avoid everything that has been written about Miley Cyrus this week. (Long story short: she twerked at the VMA's, resulting in CONTROVERSY!!!) On the off-chance that you are not one of those so fortunately ignorant, we can start with the most interesting development in her story: she's rumored to be recording a remix with Kanye West for "Black Skinhead."

Beyond the obvious meta-irony here (the black skinhead, then the addition of a black-appropriating white girl), let's just talk about what this could sound and look like. First of all, Kanye fucks with grayscale on a serious level right now. Just look at Pusha T's new album art, or even the "Black Skinhead" video. He clearly loves to play with this black-and-white contrast visually; now he's taking the aesthetic to the thematic.

By plucking Miley Cyrus from her perpetual-motion twerking machine, Kanye is doing something similar to what he has done with Chief Keef, musically. He takes people and uses them as cultural artifacts in his songs, much like how installation artists attempt to arrange and orient meaningful objects in a new context. In other words, putting an Auto-Tuned Chief Keef voice next to an Auto-Tuned Bon Iver voice is making a statement that can supersede, but not separate itself, from the actual sound of the music.

He couldn't have chosen any other white girl to play this part. It had to be Miley because of the "nightmare," as Jay puts it, that she represents to old-world America. Expect Kanye to rub our faces in this notion. (As well he should!) If the song does actually materialize, of course. —Alexander Gleckman

Diddy and J. Cole had a not-so-nice little "talk" at a VMA after-party.

Date: August 26

When word broke out that J. Cole and Diddy were involved in a brawl at a VMA after-party at downtown Manhattan's Dream Hotel, a lot of theories floated around about what started it, and how it went down. Cole and Diddy took to Twitter to dispel different rumors: Diddy explained that he's cool with Cole. Cole said that "people will believe anything" after re-Tweeting someone who'd heard that Cole caught a fade from the Bad Boy mogul. But neither of them bothered to outright deny what we heard from multiple sources familiar with the situation: That Cole stepped into the middle of a heated discussion between Diddy and Kendrick Lamar over Kendrick's "Control" verse (also see: that whole "King of New York" thing).

Plenty people thought we were bullshitting, or that we take word from the wrong people—many of them J. Cole fans, naturally, worried that they now had something in common with Nas. And they're totally entitled to think that! But they don't really have much of a choice about living in a world where that report remains undisputed by either men, or their reps, while neither one of them is about to cop to fighting over one of the hottest verses of the Summer, which neither one of them had anything to do with. To that, we have only four words: YAWK! YAWK! YAWK! YAWK!*

[*Translation: Kendrick wins again.] —Foster Kamer

Eminem went "Berzerk," announced MMLP2, and is back to being blonde.

Date: August 26

Guess the blonde hair and a Rick Rubin beat is all Eminem needed to start putting out dynamic material in 2013. This week, the Detroit rapper dropped “Berzerk,” the first single off his upcoming MMLP2, and the first single in some time on which he sounds like he’s actually having fun. Em spazzed out over Rubin's big-guitar, Billy-Squire-sampling production—and it's pretty great.

Even though "Berzerk” features classic Slim-Shady elements—onomatopoeia, a dated pop culture reference to Britney Spear’s ex K-Fed, lighthearted shots at rappers who don’t have shit to do with it like Future and Birdman—the song sounds more like classic Beastie Boys (as produced, of course, by Rick Rubin), than classic Eninem. The rhymes aren’t as densely layered as his usually are, but they're still awfully clever (“Plus I showed up with a coat fresher than wet paint...”) The popular verdict is still out—many of his core fans have complained about the song on Twitter and in comments sections—but it says here that this is an exciting step in a new direction.

If you're in the pooh-poohing camp, the first thing we'd recommend is listening to the first verse all over again. It's complex, tricky listening. (We’re willing to bet you missed the shoutout to Kendrick Lamar.) During the past few years of his career, Em seemed to have lost his brilliant sense of cadence—gone were the slow build-ups of songs like “Lose Yourself” in favor of shouting matches against himself. “Berzerk” hints that he might have found it. Listen to how he switches up his flow by ending a series of lines with high-pitched squeaks. (Rubin has blended Em's voice, as best we can tell, with a modulated snippet of Ad-Rock saying "kick it" from the beginning of "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party).") It’s cool. And nice for the sake of diversity, though it overshadows some subtle wordplay like, “Got 'em still on the fence whether to pick it.” Okay, maybe that’s not as stunning as stuff like, “Get shot up in the hot tub till the bubbles pop up...” or “If it’s not a rapper that I make it as/I'ma be a fucking rapist in a Jason mask...” But still, this is quality Eminem.

More than anything, the song is just fun. You can imagine Em in the booth laying these rhymes with a smile on his face. All that self-serious, labored rapping made his recent work difficult to enjoy. (Well, difficult for some of us, at least. Powered by the smash hits "I'm Not Afraid" and "Love the Way You Lie," 2010's Recovery won a Grammy for Best Rap Album and has sold over four million copies.) "Berzerk" is a record you want to turn up loud. In other words, a victory. —Insanul Ahmed

Another Danny Brown song called "ODB" dropped and it's insane.

Date: August 28

After all of the VMA hysterics calmed down, while CNN was still trying to figure out what a "twerk" was (Ed. Note: Please let's stop trying to define that word; it's like when your parents heard rap on the radio the first time and asked you why these people were talking so fast. If you can shake your ass like, just do your thing and shhhh...) Danny Brown quietly dropped a new song, and a video to accompany it, and it was the most refreshing thing we heard all week.

Danny Brown is the perfect antidote to America's out-of-control outrage machine. (When "ODB" came out, I found myself at the computer being like, "Ahh. Thanks, bruh bruh..." And clicking "play" again and again.) No twerking, no bullshit, no singing—just a great rapper on the mic over crazy production from Paul White that makes you feel like you're in that scene from The Shining with the guy in the bear suit.

The video was directed by UK-producer Ruffmercy—you probably know his work from ScHoolBoy Q's "There He Go" and Blu's "BNG." His style is a perfect match for lyrics like, "Bundles of Peruvian snow with his shirt tucked in/Lookin' at the rest of you artist like you nothing/Know that I'm the shit so I don't say shit/But when these rappers rap, dawg, they don't say shit."

Sorry, Miley who? "Control" what? —Lauren Nostro

Kendrick finally spoke on the "Control" verse and its responses.

Date: August 29

For two and a half weeks following the release of "The Verse," there was an uneasy silence hanging over hip-hop, like a country at war waiting for its leader to come out and reassure everyone that everything was okay. Sure, there were the countless response verses, the inevitable moment in every interview with anyone even remotely associated with rap when Kendrick Lamar's name was brought up, the rumors of a fight between J. Cole and Diddy. But everyone, it felt like, was growing restless: When would Kendrick himself speak on It? What would he say? Had he reconsidered and ceded the title of King of New York to Papoose after all?

Finally, on Wednesday night, we got the first hint of what Kendrick thought about the whole thing, via a snippet from an interview that ran the next day on Power 106's Big Boy's Neighborhood. Later, Kendrick spoke with Peter Rosenberg on-air at Hot 97 and made an appearance on "Chelsea Lately," doing his diplomatic rounds as any world leader should in a time of crisis and wavering hope.

And we discovered that the verse that set the hip-hop world on fire was basically just Kendrick doing what he figured he was supposed to do when somone like Big Sean asked him to record a guest verse on a song—rhyme well and be competitive. For all the hand-wringing and speculation and arguing and rumors of beef and resentment and amazement, the verse was, as Kendrick told Rosenberg, "really just a feature verse."

Here's the thing, though: The reason that Kendrick's version of "just a feature verse" is different from everyone else's, the real reason everyone else needs to really step their games up: Having a lasting impact on rap culture, actually elevating an art form, takes more than playing the game for hype. Kendrick is competing, but he's also trying to play a whole different game than a lot of rappers. (To be fair, he's gotten himself into a position where he can play a different game, rather than struggling to get attention in this oversaturated atmosphere. He really is in a different league, lyricswise, than most of his peers.)

Kendrick gets that you don't become Biggie or Tupac by landing on a few cool blogs and playing the right secret shows. Building a legacy isn't about "just living in the moment of perfection." He made a point of explaining that, right now, he only has one album out, which is little guarantee that he'll be anywhere, known by anyone, in 20 years. He also shared his opinion that the greatest rapper ever is Snoop Dogg, an interesting, sensible choice given Snoop's remarkable record of staying relevant for two decades.

Kendrick mentioned talking to Jay Z and Diddy, and made a point of noting, on Power 106, that the "real kings of New York" understood what he was saying. In contrast, he told Rosenberg, the people trying to turn the verse into some massive slight were missing the point:

"I think the ones that really took it out of context were the people that we know want to grab an opportunity that's off the fact of the hype of the record rather than actually tuning in and listening and knowing how hungry I am. A lot of people think it's about talent. That's where they get it wrong. I'm saying I'm the most hungry."

At the same time, Kendrick said he understood why rappers like Papoose were seizing the moment, and that he'd listened to several of the responses. (His favorite, he said, was King Los's.) In a moment of empathy that also worked as a deft backhanded diss, he pointed out that he and the rest of the Top Dawg Entertainment crew were doing whatever they could to get attention back in 2005 and 2006, and recording a verse to cash in on buzz was simply what people have to do sometimes.

After the buzz comes the legacy, though, and that's what it turns out Kendrick was going for on The Verse. It's already worked better than he could have possibly expected. —Kyle Kramer

Jay Z finally became a business, man.

Date: August 29

Lil Wayne dropped Dedication 5. Seriously. It's out.

Date: August 31

The story behind the release of Lil Wayne's Dedication 5 mixtape is perhaps more interesting than the project itself. Ready?

It started last Sunday, with rumors of potential artwork and an August 30th release date. The supposed artwork turned out to be accurate, and the release date was supposed to be accurate too. A few hours later, however, we found out that Wayne had delayed the release because he wanted to record a few more tracks. Then on Friday night, after his concert in San Francisco, Wayne said he'd sent the finished project to DJ Drama. But we still didn't have any music.

By Saturday morning, "Before Dedication 5 Drops" had become a trending topic on Twitter—a string of hashtag jokes about things that would happen before new Wayne music actually came out. ("Tupac gonna resurect and put out 3 albums before Dedication 5 drops.") But all this showed is how much more impatient we fans have become in the era of instantaneous Internet. After all, how does a couple days delay of Dedication pale compare to the decade-plus we've been waiting for Detox?

Finally, at 4 o'clock this morning, it arrived. (Thanks A LOT, Wayne! You owe me a night's sleep.)

For those that are curious, the project is 29-songs long, has appearances ranging from The Weeknd and Lil Chuckie to Future and T.I. The subject matter is his stadard fare: pussy, weed, money, pussy. But on certain songs, Weezy sounds more focused than he has in recent years. And most of the guest verses come out stellar—his fellow artists eager to shine in the spotlight that only a Lil Wayne mixtape can provide. —Dharmic X

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