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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
When Malcolm X Met the Nazis | VICE | United States
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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In absolutely no order…
• Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II by Raekwon
How do you follow-up a classic? How do you recover a career fumble after two mediocre albums? How do you adapt yourself to a soundscape that has, under your own influence, changed drastically? You go back into your original brilliance and amplify it. Make it darker, starker, grittier, tougher, colder, and thicker than it’s original form.
• Battles in the North by Immortal
The mission statement, I think, of black metal. Not to say it’s the first black metal album, or even the greatest, but it is probably the best example of what black metal is supposed to be – visceral, pummeling, and intent on hanging you by your entrails before skullfucking you.
• Pure Heroine by Lorde
I do not care for pop music. I really don’t, it’s too manufactured for me, for the most part. But you occasionally find a gem, and when you find that gem, hold on to it tightly.
• Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang
What grunge was to rock music, Wu-Tang was to rap. Removed from the glossier production styles that preceded it, Enter the Wu-Tang uses a rawer, nastier sound to get the image of the poor, post-Reagan boroughs of New York. Yet not to depress, but intimidate. Not to mention the cartoonish violence and sheer lyrical acrobatics.
• good kid, m.A.A.d city by Kendrick Lamar
It’s common, I think, for white listeners of rap to be unfamiliar with the ghettos that their favorite artists come from. Most of us live in the ‘burbs where gang banging and police brutality simply aren’t concerns. GKMC is probably the best way to illustrate these unfamiliar conditions. Not to say that you all of the sudden can go “Oh, I know exactly what you’re going through”, but to give you a peek inside what’s going on. Almost like a news report.
• Sam’s Town by The Killers
My love of this album is all stupid nostalgia and I don’t care. I love the instrumentation on this, and I love Brandon Flowers' voice even if on some songs it seems like he’s not really saying anything.
• The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae
If the term “afrofuturism” confuses you, this is the best example you’ll find. Janelle put together a beautiful, soulful, funky, genre-hopping album with no weak cuts to be found. It’s the kind of sound I think most artists should aspire to. Also, Metropolis influenced, yaaayyyy!!
• Metropolis by Frank Strobel & Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Metropolis is, to me, the greatest film humanity has ever achieved. It’s magnificent at every turn, and a huge part of that is the score which has since been reconstructed by Frank Strobel. It’s almost like an extension of the film – I can put it on and relive the movie every time.
• Steal This Album! by System of a Down (Honorable Mention)
A.D.D. saved my life in middle school and became the spark that helped me uncover both my tastes in art and the person I am today.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
