The fans want the feeling of A Tribe Called Quest/But all they got left is…
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[5.33]
Alfred Soto: The “Scenario” rhythm and -aping bass line suggest a manifesto of impressive scatological dimension. Often, though, he’s merely Joey Bad.
[5]
Josh Langhoff: Why yes I do chant “Scenario” when hustling my children from bath to bedroom or warm house to cold car, thanks for pandering! Just the hook — we don’t rawr rawr like dungeon dragons, though the best line from any of my son’s tantrums remains, “I BREATHE FIRE!!!” I’m a little skeptical of the fire-breathing Joey Bada$$, same way I was of Harry Connick Jr. or Josh Groban or any young virtuoso latching on to sounds from before they were born. Is Joey filling a “real rap” marketing niche, typified by the rise of the classic hip-hop radio format? I don’t doubt his sincere love for the early ’90s, but will he prove a didactic asshole like Wynton Marsalis? Obviously there are differences. The mere act of rapping words lets Joey ground his music in the present — though still, half the lines here sound lifted from some Ego Trip compendium of rap phraseology — and Statik Selektah sneaks in the approaching clang of a Mario Kart red shell. But just as that clang cues anxiety and dirty looks toward my son, these guys must know this bassline draws a Pavlovian tail wag from people of a certain age. Case in point:
[8]
Jonathan Bradley: While ever there’s an Internet, there’s going to be rap fans convinced that what hip-hop really needs is dusty boom-bap and — emphasis on the scare-quotes — “lyricism.”
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Time is ultimately Joseph’s enemy. Its not that he’s getting any worse at recycling old ’90s flows. Quite the contrary, he’s finally branched out of AZ-biting and now sounds like an amorphous blend of people such as Havoc, Das-EFX, Wise Intelligent, Busta Rhymes, closet Busta Rhymes biter Method Man, and a few others. But once again, we must ask ourselves: Did we need an artist born of their album cuts? Joey cites MF Doom and Nas but lacks their lyrical penmanship and incisiveness. He’s no different from the average rapper of the mainstream with 808s who runs through similes, except he wears a costume of something that came and went. Also Statik Selektah’s beats suck consistently, unless apparently surgically altered with live instrumentation. The wonders Interscope budgeting can bring you! But it feels a shame that his generation feels like Joey is a Nasir Jones, when really, he’s maybe a K-Solo at best.
[3]
Jonathan Bogart: Part of why I think I’m a sucker for 90s throwbacks is that the 90s still feel unresolved, an open question, to me; anything I can point to and say, “ah, yes, that was then” helps me to put a little more distance between then and now. Paradoxically, the more I can safely slot something into the past, the more real it is to me.
[7]
Brad Shoup: Burn yr Quest fanfic, write more Kony lines!
[5]