Raekwon Chefs Up Some Raw Classic New York Rap On ‘The Emperor's New Clothes'
As I noted in my show review, Raekwon was one of the strongest pieces on the Wu's chessboard during their MSG farewell concert, sustaining his energy throughout the show and cutting clearly through the crowd with his husky baritone — his performance bode well for the album he namechecked multiple times that night. He was also fresh in more than one way, spending the first half of the show wearing a red Gucci apron, which was so stylish it should end up in a hip-hop fashion exhibit one day. The piece, alongside his Wu classics, symbolized his status as one of hip-hop's original luxury drug rap connoisseurs. Before Rick Ross, Roc Marciano, Clipse, and a slew of other artists beloved for Scorcesesque valorization of the drug trade, Rae and Ghost were United.
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Rae knows exactly what his place in rap history is on The Emperor's New Clothes, his eighth solo project, and first in eight years, following up 2017's The Wild. His previous LP was his first to feature no Wu members, and showed him (mostly) honing in on what made him great. The same is true here.
He's a master swordsman, in recent years belying the energetic mic presence of his early work with a slower, more deliberate cadence that sounds like the audio embodiment of the 'can't speed him up, can't slow him down' observation bestowed on NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. On 'Bear Hill,' 'The Guy That Plans It,' and 'Da Heavies,' the three songs on the album where he appears solo, the production is disparate, but his presence feels the same.
He has a knack for painting street landscapes in his rhymes, with a tinge of the flowery vocabulary shared by a generation of older East Coast scribes enraptured by films like Dolemite and Super Fly. 'The Guy That Plans It' is classic Raekwon, an abbreviated, vivid crime caper of a street tussle (though I wish he didn't need to say 'queer' to fill in his '-eer' rhyme scheme).
His mic persona is unmistakably New York City; he's one of the few who can sell a phrase as fragmented and vague as 'a certain walk with a special bop' from 'Open Doors.'
And throughout the project, the bars are delivered with a technical precision that could see him holding his own in a cipher of any age. Elsewhere on 'Open Doors' he rhymes, 'They call me Louis Gas Pipe, I'm like the mafia's worst kid/Bentley bicycles, ten pistols, a slick bid;' it's impossible not to want to know more about Mr. Gas Pipe in the land of 'Shattered dreams, lonely pharaohs/Who ridе across the Verrazano Narrows.' Hollywood should stop rebooting the same movies and pick a verse from this album to expand into a script.
The album has a slew of features but unlike on junctures of his next-to-last solo FILA, which had oblong collaborations with ASAP Rocky and French Montana, the Emperor's New Clothes features fit the festivities. Several of Rae's Wu comrades are on the album. Inspectah Deck is technically precise, but sounds a step slow over the sinister beat on 'Pomogranite.' Ghostface Killah is solid on his three appearances, most notably '600 School,' where he, Raekwon and Method Man commandeer a Swizz Beats beat and show off the chemistry that made Wu-Massacre a memorable project from the Clan's later years. It's the kind of moment that reminds one of Junior Soprano talking to his nephew Tony about an old school crew of hitmen on the classic mob drama: 'They may be old, my little nephew, but those dogs can still hunt.'
Nas impresses on 'The Omerta,' with a verse that ponders religion but has some questionable conclusions on the nature of the Dutch's relationship with the Lenape people. The verse's last third might spark some side-eyes, but the Mass Appeal co-founder (the company distributed this album) sounds hungry. Raekwon delivered with his own inspired verse demonstrating that he knew the stakes of matching their previous track record. Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, and Westside Gunn also feature on energetic standout 'Wild Corscians.'
It's Westside Gunn's presence that exemplifies the one thing keeping The Emperor's New Clothes from reaching its full potential: the production. In 2022, Gunn expressed an interest in executive producing a Rae and Ghost album, and hip-hop heads have been clamoring for what that would sound like. On Rae's new album, only frequent collaborator Frank G shows up on the project with multiple production credits. It feels like a more streamlined beat selection process could have been the best move, and few would have been better than Gunn, who's credited with helping inject indie rap with golden era-quality sonics.
While only 'Debra Night Wine,' a shaky interpolation of The Syncophonic Orchestra's 'Quasimodo's Marriage' (sampled by Just Blaze for Beanie Sigel's 'What Your Life Like Pt. 2'), is an outright misstep on the album, and there are some impressive beats, few of them stick after the initial listening. The beats do enough to keep your head nodding, but Rae's lyrical effort deserved some face-scrunching chops and soul loops you can't get out of your head.
Still, it's a strong effort from a rap OG who embodies the 52-year-old Malice's recent assertion on aging in rap: 'Either you got the talent or you don't. You could be old, you could be young. If you ain't got it, then you don't have it.' At this point, the spectre of 40-plus year-old rappers isn't a new or distinct phenomenon. It's no longer a trackless frontier, but a bustling environment with defined thoroughfares. Any east coast artist looking to age gracefully can follow Rae's path.
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Business Insider
7 hours ago
- Business Insider
Justice for Gen X
You know " main character syndrome?" The phenomenon/meme that posits that certain people go about life like they're the stars of their own private TV show? Gen X, broadly speaking, is suffering from a perpetual case of whatever the opposite of that is. They're the cool kids in the back of the classroom who act so chill that the teacher, the principal, the lunch lady, and all the other kids barely notice they're there. Gen Xers — people born from 1965 to 1980 — have a reputation for being the " forgotten generation." When the discussion of generations comes up in popular culture, work, or the media, it tends to be framed as baby boomers vs. millennials or millennials vs. Gen Z. Gen Xers are sort of just squashed in there, if they come up at all. To be totally transparent, we here at Business Insider play into this, too: We've published 166 stories about Gen Z, 123 stories about millennials, and 97 stories about boomers this year, while we've touched on Gen X only 34 times. And in many cases, Gen X has been a footnote in the story. It's complicated to unpack why Gen X is so overlooked and what it all means. Some of it's a question of numbers. Gen Xers are sandwiched between two giant, transformational generations. In some ways, they're a transitional bridge between them. "It's almost like Gen X was a journey from boomer to millennial, and it wasn't a destination at any point," says Jason Salmon, a standup comic whose comedy often focuses on the plight of Gen X. Online, he jokes, younger generations identify themselves with pronouns, and older generations do flags, but "we're in this middle ground, where there's no emoji for concert T-shirts." Some of Gen X's discourse disappearing act is contextual. Many Gen Xers, famously, were latchkey kids, often left to their own devices after school while their parents were at work. They grew up in the 1990s, a solid time for the US economically, but also an era of transition in technology, politics, and culture. They idolized Luke Skywalker as kids and then came of age with Kurt Cobain, a shift from romantic heroism to grunge cynicism. Whereas boomers were the " me generation" and millennials were the "me me me generation," Gen X has become the "meh" generation. "We historically have wanted to kind of fly under the radar," says Erin Mantz, the founder of Gen X Girls Grow Up, a blog and Facebook group for Gen X women. "We kind of were like, 'Whatever.'" Gen X's "whatever" attitude has translated to a society that's perpetually a little "whatever" about them. When I called up Megan Gerhardt, a professor of leadership and management at Miami University who's a Gen Xer herself, to ask for her take on the whole forgotten generation thing, I floated the idea that maybe a lot of it was about middle age. Gen X right now is 44 to 60, in the throes of what's supposed to be the most miserable era of life. Is the problem that talking about it too much would just be depressing? Gerhardt shoots down my thesis immediately. "It's kind of on brand that Gen X is overlooked," says Gerhardt, who is also the author of the book "Gentelligence: The Revolutionary Approach to Leading an Intergenerational Workforce." A big part of the issue is that the generation never became the most dominant force, population-wise. Millennials surpassed boomers as the US's largest generation years ago — Gen X never got there. "I don't think Gen X had as significant of a ripple because of the statistical side," she says. Another statistical issue: Gen X was the "least supervised" generation, she says. In many households, they were the first cohort of kids to have both parents working outside the home, and it happened at a time before they'd figured out day care entirely or helicopter parenting was in vogue. This meant many Gen Xers had to be more independent and autonomous. There was no tech for their parents to track them or cellphones to even reach them. Gen X kids were expected to watch TV after school and put dinner in the oven before Mom and Dad got home. They were the "supporting actors" in the family, Gerhardt says, not the focal point. It's kind of on brand that Gen X is overlooked. Jean Twenge, the Gen X author of "Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents — and What They Mean for America's Future," tells me many people of her generation say they don't feel as distinctive as the groups above or below them. Gen X's psychological profile tracks a shift across generations, she says, "when you look at, say, increases in positive self-views and individualism that grew steadily from boomers to Gen Xers to millennials." Citing the American Freshman Survey, which tracks the attitudes of incoming college freshmen in the US, Twenge notes that from boomers to Gen X to millennials, young people have become more focused on their financial well-being than developing a meaningful philosophy of life and have become likelier to think they're above average. Gen X was the transitional phase from one mindset to the other. This dynamic has left Gen X with a sort of generational middle-child syndrome. They feel overlooked and stuck between self-centered boomer parents above them and perhaps even more self-centered up-and-comer millennials behind them. But they're also good at figuring stuff out on their own, and a lot of them say they'd really rather be left alone. "We're super proud of how independent and resourceful we are," Mantz says. The ambivalent attitude Gen X embodies is appealing. Part of Salmon's Gen X routine is that the generation's slogan is, "I don't care," which can be empowering but also presents problems at work and for people just trying to muddle through life. Gen Xers were the first generation to reject the baby boomer work ethic and rat race. There's a reason movies such as "The Breakfast Club," "Slackers," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Reality Bites," and "Office Space" have come to epitomize them. That's good in that there's more to life than work, but it's also difficult when there's a super-hungry generation coming up right behind you. As much as millennials prioritize work-life balance, they also want to get ahead, and their employers have been happy to help them get there. "When millennials came to the workplace, they brought that hustle culture of you work hard and you go for it, anything's possible for you," Gerhardt says. Many businesses created fast-track programs to get millennials into leadership, which often leapfrogged the Gen Xers in the room for some positions. It's left Gen X in a mediator role within the hierarchy and in a weird limbo. Given their age, Gen Xers do occupy the C-suite — about half of Fortune 500 CEOs are Gen Xers — but millennials now make up the largest share of managers in the workforce overall. As the Wall Street Journal notes, people in their 50s are losing share of CEO spots in the Russell 3000. Many Gen Xers feel like they're stuck with a boomer executive who won't retire or a millennial young gun who shot to the front of the line. They're the translators between the old and the young, trying to find common ground. It's worth pointing out that we haven't had a Gen X president yet, either — the cohort is more of a victim of America's political gerontocracy problem than anyone. Mantz says part of the reason she started her community for Gen X women was to try to get them to make a little more noise and get themselves into positions of power, despite their low-key inclinations. One part of the Gen X wealth story is they really took a hit from the financial crisis in 2007, 2008, at a time when they were just starting to build wealth. "We're having to shift gears. We are being forgotten. We're being taken for granted," she says. "We are such a strong and steady force at work, and if we don't start changing the way we amplify our generation, we will continue to be overlooked." Gen Xers also aren't particularly happy, and again, not just because they're middle-aged. Frank Infurna, a psychology professor at Arizona State University, tells me that Gen Xers in the US are reporting higher levels of loneliness, more depressive symptoms, and poorer physical health than other generations. He says their cognition is worse, too. He chalks it up to a variety of factors. Gen X started working during the transition from pensions to 401(k)s, when the onus for retirement savings switched from employers to employees, and many workers were still figuring the system out. They're the first generation raising kids in today's hypercompetitive educational environment, with all the pressures to make sure your children succeed. They've also lived through a lot of economic upheaval, even if we don't always talk about it. "They've dealt with the dot-com bubble burst, the Great Recession, and it's like, can you just have some stability when it comes to these big economic events?" Infurna says. Jeremy Horpedahl, an economist at the University of Central Arkansas who studies wealth across generations, echoes the point. "One part of the Gen X wealth story is they really took a hit from the financial crisis in 2007, 2008, at a time when they were just starting to build wealth," he says. "They have recovered since then, but it took a long time for them to catch back up to where baby boomers were at the same point in their life." The vibe from Gen Xers on their neglected status is mixed. On the one hand, a lot of them are fine doing their own thing. On the other hand, it's not particularly fun to have your experiences constantly erased from the narrative. It's not the case that Gen X hasn't left its mark on American culture. I think there's an argument to be made that in many ways it's more significant than boomers and millennials, but much of what Gen Xers have contributed doesn't get pinned to their age as much as other generations. " Friends" is Gen X, but nowadays doesn't really code as such. The same goes for " Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and " The X-Files" and " The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." They don't feel as generationally specific as, say, " Girls" or " M*A*S*H." Angelina Jolie is Gen X, as are Jennifer Aniston, Ethan Hawke, Will Smith, and we'll count Brad Pitt, too. We see them as the big movie stars, not the big movie stars of a certain era or age. Facebook's cofounder Mark Zuckerberg: solidly millennial. Apple's Steve Jobs: boomer. Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin: Gen X, which I bet you never even thought about. To be sure, this isn't true in every arena. Beck, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam epitomize Gen X music culture, like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé do millennials these days. Gen X also got a bit of a nostalgia hit over the past few years, which millennials are only getting a taste of now and Gen Z is about 10 years away from. This may be the millennial in me talking — after all, Gen X teens were my "cool kids" growing up — but Gen Xers getting to fly under the radar does seem like a solid deal. Maybe they're not managers at work, but middle managers are getting phased out anyway, and besides the pay, being in charge of everything doesn't seem that awesome in terms of actually enjoying life. They don't get blamed for ruining everything like millennials do because they eat avocado toast, or Gen Zers because they stare weirdly. Gen X has a sort of soft power that comes with people not paying attention to you all the time. And they got to experience life before the internet, which, what a joy! They know how to adapt to technology, but they're also aware it can be tricky. "Before we got the internet, we got Terminator," Salmon says. Perhaps Gen X is finally about to have its moment in the sun, politically, culturally, etc. The '90s are making a comeback, after all. If not, whatever.
Buzz Feed
a day ago
- Buzz Feed
Millennials Reveal The Bizarre Childhood Fears We All Shared
Each generation grows up with fears that stem from the current world they live in. For millennials, some of the things they were afraid of ended up being less of a threat than they thought they would be. For example, many people grew up fearing getting stuck in quicksand, thinking they'd find themselves in that situation quite often. Other millennials feared Y2K and the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. DueEntertainer0 on Reddit started a dialogue about millennial fears when they asked, "Can we talk about some of the random things that we were afraid of in the '90s and early 2000s?" Here are some of the responses, and as a Gen Z, are you millennials okay? Ya'll really thought the world was ending, huh? "Driving behind a log truck, thanks to Final Destination." —CandidateNo2731 "The 2012 Mayan apocalypse definitely was something my neighbors brought up often." —cocovacado "The Bermuda Triangle. I was convinced my family was gonna disappear if we ever flew through it." —kenyafeelme "I thought I was going to be dodging quicksand all of the time." —jgasbarro "Eating razor blades in my Halloween candy." —funky_colors "Spontaneous human combustion." —hunky_dorie "Swallowing gum and not digesting it for seven years." —Devious_Bastard "Being offered drugs on a daily basis." —4browntown "Swimming less than 30 minutes after eating." —HPHambino "'Don't meet strangers off the internet.' Cut to my late-20s when we are now encouraged to do the exact opposite via dating sites." —andisteezy " drop, and roll. I asked my kid about this the other day, and he looked at me like I was silly." —superminingbros "The idea that sitting too close to the TV will make you go blind." —Little_Bird333 "The dreaded white van with the promise of candy inside." —Correct-Body9590 "Spiders, piranhas, and clowns in storm drains." —ShigoIAjumma "Every plastic bag was out to suffocate me." —SureElephant89 "Y2K." —b1llb3rt "Bloody Mary. I was absolutely TERRIFIED to go into the bathroom at night because of the mirror….and I never even said her damn name!!" —JennieDarko "Acid Rain. Remember that sh*t? And we all just stopped talking about it." —Tortellini_Isekai "I remember microwaving water being a thing. In Home Ec, they told us to never use microwaved water because the microwaves made it toxic or something." —TheOriginalBigDave "Rabid raccoons jumping out of random places and attacking my face." —Sevennolater "Killer bees. They made it seem like we'd get attacked by them at any time." —bigkatze "Honestly, I'm still afraid that one day I'm going to lift my toilet seat and be greeted by a snake or an alligator." —80s_angel "Random needles in the pay phone change thing." —vcabalda "Similar to quicksand: whirlpools. They seemed so prevalent in cartoons. Like the ocean is just littered with these evil water funnels that suck people in, never to be seen again. Terrifying." —xilefelix "People under the stairs." —Striking_Ad_8883 "I forget the movie, but swimming under a pool cover." —Palmspringsflorida "My hair getting eaten by that Cabbage Patch Kid that ate the crinkle-cut fries and carrot sticks." —earmufffs "Going down escalators. My mom told me a kid's toe was ripped off on an escalator because his shoe was untied and the shoelace got caught." —triponsynth "I was afraid of getting abducted by aliens." —Thee-lorax "That only I can stop forest fires. Saving all of California is a lot to put on a person." —mtnshadow83 "Getting letters in the mail that could be lined with undetected drugs that would kill you the moment you opened the envelope and released them into the air." —According-Pen-9774 "Lava. Like quicksand. There was that scene from that movie where the guy just slowly melts into the lava." —Dazzling_Side8036 "Driving with the interior lights on." —ewsurnme And lastly, "Anthrax!" —potato_couch_ If you're a millennial, is there something you were afraid of that wasn't included? Let us know in the comments!
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
Palmer Luckey has Hilary Duff on his Spotify playlist. These are the tunes BI staff have on theirs.
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"Like most olds, I jam to the music I grew up with," Luckey wrote in an email to BI's Henry Chandonnet. "Around my peers and the radio-driven world of shared cultural experience it was 'Sk8er Boi' — who doesn't like reliving the highs and lows of teenage angst?" In light of this, I asked a few BIers what's on their Spotify playlist. Here's what they said: Michael Domanico, senior managing editor, people:" 'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance has been heavy in my rotation. That type of music was ambient noise in the early 2000s for me, so going back to that sound has been really satisfying." Jordan Hart, business news reporter:"Faye Webster's voice on 'A Dream With a Baseball Player' is filled with yearning, and the chords in her music are dreamy, especially on this track. When I want to pretend I'm in an indie music video, I put this song on and sing to an imaginary love interest." Lisa Ryan, executive editor, audience: "One song that's made its way onto my 'On Repeat' playlist is 'Silver Springs' by Fleetwood Mac — clearly I was influenced by all the TikToks and Reels about it. But it's a great song, so no embarrassment here." " 'What I Got' by Sublime is one of my all-time favorites. It hits just right whether I'm in a good mood or trying to shake off a bad one. What can I say? I'm a '90s kid." Pelvic floor relief For years, Adam Gvili organized his life around trips to the bathroom. He needed to pee 20 times a day, was often constipated, and had painful bowel movements. After six years and many appointments with different specialists, Gvili discovered he had a tight pelvic floor, an area in the body usually associated with women. Men are embracing pelvic floor therapy — and not just for better sex Are full-body MRIs worth it? Doctors have been debating the utility of full-body MRIs for decades. These scans, which can cost $2,500 or more, are now used in high-end longevity clinics, with celebs like Kim Kardashian touting them on social media. Everyday people have also shared success stories, but these scans can also send patients down a time-consuming and expensive spiral. Doctors shared a framework with BI to help assess whether a full-body MRI is a good idea for you or not. A security camera for your insides. The swollest speakeasy Corrie Aune for BI The definition of luxury fitness in New York City is no longer a high price tag. Instead, studios are leaning into invite-only classes, where you have to know someone to get in. Two studio founders told BI that it's all about vibe curation. Smaller classes keep the workouts personal and effective. "It's not about feeling special because you're a member," one regular attendee said. If you know, you know. 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