WVAU Top Music 2013: #8

Cameron Stewart, Leigh Hopkins
December 24, 2013

130430-chance-the-rapper

#8 ALBUM:

 

Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap

åÊ

2013 was a good year for the Chicago based artist Chance the Rapper. After releasing his mixtapeåÊ10 Days in 2012, appropriately named after a 10 day suspension he received in high school, he quickly shot up within the underground hip hop circuit and managed to get a feature in Forbes magazine. This led to him being an opening act on Childish Gambino’s 2012 American tour. Then, with all this buzz surrounding his mixtape, his release ofåÊAcid Rap thatåÊfeatures big names such as Joey Bada$$, Childish Gambino and Action Bronson became the big hip hop release of early 2013 and put Chance on a fast track to internet and underground fame.

åÊ

The album itself plays similar toåÊ10 DaysåÊwith the fact that there is no overarching sound. Instead Chance’s distinctive voice is matched with a variety of song styles. While this could easily go badly, as the distinction between a mixtape and LP is the cohesive nature of the full album, it works for the rapper. The release of this on DatPiff set him up to have the album of the summer and for those that were “in the know” (or dropped in on any music blog over the course of the summer months) it was hard to get away from songs like “Cocoa Butter Kisses” or åÊ“Juice”. This, combined with Chance coming off a successful, nearly completely sold out tour, and the achievement of over 100,000 downloads on DatPiff it’s easy to see how this was one of the more hyped albums of 2013. It’s safe to say that his next release will probably be looked upon as one of the more highly anticipated ones of the next year and will hopefully keep him on his deserved path to stardom.

åÊ

åÊ

By Leigh Hopkins

åÊ

Bad_History_Month_front_cover-725x380

#8 SONG:

 

Bad History Month, “Bald History Month”

åÊ

“Bald History Month‰” begins with the metallic Travis Bean clangs that color so much of the band‰’s music. In typical Allston fashion, what starts as a pretty melody slowly worms about, adding little phrasings here and there until the song is swirling about in simultaneous intricate beauty and off-kilter noise. Bad History Month hides larger philosophical musing in goofball lyrics and “Bald History Month‰” is no exception.

Just as the song gets noisy enough that everything feels like it‰’s a second from bursting, the band pulls back.

“I‰’m lost, but I‰’m not scared. I feel my fear moving away in rings through time for a million years‰” serenades the listener as the song moves into its second segment. It‰’s here that the song becomes cemented as the centerpiece on the band‰’s criminally overlooked 2013 release. Again, the band builds its impeccable foundation into something entirely new. From call-and-response guitar and drum sections to flowing, delicately picked guitar lines, “Bald History Month‰” feels more colossal than any other song this year and only needs two instruments to do it. The piece culminates at a loud, chaotic peak as Sean hollers, “Oh,åÊI shed my dead self when he rears his ugly head, but he keeps growing back.‰” Only a band as talented as Bad History Month could write a song that feels so triumphant and manage to write the act of cutting off your hair into a metaphor for fighting off personal demons.

åÊ

åÊ

By Cameron Stewart