Iggy Azalea – The New Classic Record Label: Island Release Date: April 21 2014 The concept of “real” music has always perplexed me in some way, shape, or form. I never understood what constitutes as “real music” and what doesn’t. Isn’t all music technically real? It exists, so it must be real, right? According to some people, not quite. Some artists are automatically disregarded because they’re different in some way. Take Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, for example. For starters, she’s, well, Australian, as I just mentioned, but she’s also female, and while female rappers aren’t a new thing, they’re looked in a very different way, in comparison to male rapper. It can be a bit different for some hip-hop fans (side note: hip-hop fans are some of the worst music fans this critic has ever seen, including “metalheads.” Not all fans are like that, of course, but I’ve seen a lot of awful ones, but I digress). But despite being female, she’s also Caucasian. And aside from Eminem (who’s frankly an overrated rapper; his latest album, The Marshall Mathers LP 2, was not a very good album, aside from a few choice cuts), Caucasian rappers aren’t widely received, unless they’re in alternative hip-hop, including Grieves and Astronautalis. Even with two strikes against her (that technically shouldn’t even be against her at all, because why is her being white and female a problem for people and/or interfere with her skills?), Azalea has been pushing against the naysayers and released some music in the last few years, but only recently has she begun to catch on with the mainstream hip-hop community, and in the ears of the average listener. She caught mine somehow, and I listened to one of her songs. While I liked it, I wasn’t that interested in listening to more of her stuff right away. I ended up hearing about debut album, The New Classic, just a few weeks ago, and thought about giving it a shot, just to see if I’d want a copy, and not only did I enjoy it enough to get a copy, I’ve been really into the LP. It’s not a “new classic,” as she puts it, but it’s a very enjoyable album and one of the catchiest and most enjoyable records I’ve heard all year. It’s an enjoyable album, but at the same time, it’s not without its flaws. The first song from the LP I’ve heard was, “Work,” and while it was an enjoyable hip-hop/EDM song about, well, working (for wealth and fame, essentially; she makes a big deal in the track to tell us listeners about her upbringing and how she came to the US at sixteen with no money or family), it was sort of off putting at the same time, solely for her voice. Despite being Australian, she uses a southern accent in her music, which can put people off, or simply annoy them. It took this critic by surprise at first, because I didn’t quite expect that. Her accent is a bit silly at times, but it makes her stick out, so it’s grown on me somewhat. Her reasoning for the southern accent makes sense, mainly because her natural accent would sound strange while rapping and her main influence is southern hip-hop. It could bother some people, and I can hear why, but for me, it’s not too grating or annoying. The other main elephant in the room when it comes to Azalea are her lyrics. Her brand of hip-hop really revolves around “brag-rapping,” but it’s not really your conventional, “Look how rich I am.” She has a reason for her bragging, because she really wants to drive the point home that she went through a “rags to riches” story. As I mentioned on “Work,” she repeats throughout the song that she had “no money, no family / sixteen in the middle of Miami.” She says in opening track, “Walk the Line,” as well, trying to get the listener to understand where she’s coming from. And for me, it works somewhat. She’s not a boring rapper who talks about how many women he sleeps with, what kind of cars he has, or how much money he makes from being generic and bland. Azalea’s messages of being wealthy aren’t quite original, either, but she has a nice blueprint for backing up her claims. The only problem with that is she doesn’t really go into detail. That lyric is the most she really talks about it, and every so often, she’ll bring up “haters” and not letting people bring her down. A song like “Impossible Is Nothing” sort of talks about that a bit more, and it’s one of the only songs I really don’t care about (the other is “Goddess,” which is essentially a track bragging about how she is a goddess), because the message is insanely cheesy and generic. Its heart is in the right place, but it comes off as so corny, it’s hard to really take the song seriously. Aside from the bragging tracks, such as “Change Your Life”, which features rapper T.I., “Walk the Line,” “Fancy,” which features English pop singer Charli XCX, and “100,” featuring trapstep group Watch the Duck, there are a few more topics tackled throughout the album, with mixed results. “Black Widow” is a track that focuses on relationships, where Azalea got hurt by someone and she turns into a black widow-esque person, warning the man not to mess with her. Despite English pop singer Rita Ora, the hook was written by friend Katy Perry, and it makes sense that this song sounds eerily like “Dark Horse,” mainly in terms of lyrics, not necessarily instrumentation. The song “Don’t Need Y’all,” is all about how Azalea doesn’t think she has any real friends because now that she’s suddenly popular, people want to use her for money. The lyrics on this track almost remind me of a Drake track, with how insecure, jaded, and paranoid Azalea sounds. The production and instrumentation even remind me of a Drake track as well. But most of the lyrics are merely decent. There’s nothing really worth writing home about on this record, lyrically, it’s not truly awful. Songs like “Fancy,” “Work,” and “Change Your Life” are pretty fun songs with really nice hooks that could easily get stuck in your head. Sadly, though, that’s what it comes down to – I don’t enjoy this record as much for the lyrics as I do for the beats. While Azalea is an interesting character, her beat choices and instrumentation is what makes the album so enjoyable. She’s got a knack for making really catchy songs, and that’s what The New Classic is. That’s not a bad thing, per se, because these songs do have a nice appeal to a wide range of people. A lot of the album focuses more on beats and instrumentation than the songs themselves. Songs like “Black Widow,” “Lady Patra” and “Fancy” have really nice beats to them. A lot of them are very minimalistic, but they work very well. If the beats on the record weren’t as solid as they were, I most likely would not enjoy this album as much as I do. It does pain me to say the beats are why I come back to the record, but not 100%. Azalea’s lyrics and her flow are just fine. Her skills as a rapper aren’t actually that bad; her style is pretty quick and rapid-fire. She spits lines real fast, even if there isn’t much depth to them, at least she’s somewhat impressive, so her flow is another good reason to revisit this LP. There’s just no way this album is a “new classic,” however. The problems are pretty huge on the LP, and even the catchiness and slickness of the production doesn’t quite save it. She does have a lot of potential, and honestly, I’d like to see where Azalea goes. Maybe she really can release a “new classic” someday, but it’s definitely not The New Classic. Overall rating: 7.3/10 -Bradley
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 23:26:54 +0000
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