Last year, Clipse ruined rap music for me. I didn't know it at the time, but today, a little over a year after the release of Hell Hath No Fury, I realized my life will never be the same. Let me explain myself...
In "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs," Chuck Klosterman details why John Cusack has ruined love for the rest of us. It isn't so much Cusack that ruined love but Cusack's character Lloyd Dobler, from the 1980's teenage romance Say Anything. (I had never even heard of this movie before reading this book. For some reason, though I was born in 1983, the entire decade didn't take for me.) In Klosterman's experience, so many women were ultimately dissatisfied with him as a partner because he could never stack up to Lloyd Dobler. The problem was Lloyd Dobler was fake and Chuck Klosterman was real. Real love will never match the "ideal" love we see in movies, because real love is human and humans are flawed. Lloyd Dobler, aka John Cusack, became a standard that no man could match.
I feel the same way about Clipse and rap music. I love rap music, but I don't see myself ever being as satisfied with the medium again. Hell Hath No Fury is the best rap album I have ever heard. Pusha spits verses in fashion superior to all other MC's, including the self-proclaimed Mike Jordan of recordin' Jay-Z. From beginning to end, The Neptunes deliver beats on Hell Hath No Fury unmatched by any other producers. They are rare, grimy, and hard-hitting. The album matches producers and MC's at the top of their game in perfect harmony. Since its release, Hell Hath No Fury has been the standard against which I have measured every subsequent rap album.
Over the last year, even the best albums have left me wanting. Hova, Kanye, Wheezy...they just don't withstand the tour de force that is Clipse. Today, I was relistening to Clipse, and it dawned on me, "Nothing beats this." No matter how hard I try to enjoy American Gangster, Graduation, Da Drought III, or any other release, I will always be disappointed because I'm hoping they will engage me in a way achieved only by Pusha and Malice. The albums don't create the powerful experience I have come to know each time I listen to Hell Hath No Fury.
I love rap music. And no matter what other MC's release, I will continue to return to the Mecca that is Hell Hath No Fury.
~ Joel
2 comments:
I don't have to begin to explain to you why I agree. It's kind of like how The Wire has ruined TV for Wallis, and to an extent myself. Their just so good.
goddamn you are right, although i think exclusive audio footage may be a little bit better
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