CLOSED: 750: Round 1: Square v. Mista Thug Isolation

[Precedent]

Captain: benpaco

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Square by Buck 65

v.

Captain: satiemaniac

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Mista Thug Isolation by Lil Ugly Mane

[Precedent]

I'll have to sit on this on. Definitely the most difficult choice in this round. Both are on my overall and they're rather close to each other. Leaning towards Square, but that could easily change by the hour.

[Hayden]

I think this round wins ugliest combined album art.


Mista Thug Isolation gets my vote.
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[Skinny]

Lil Ugly Mane is interesting, though it's definitely more of a case of admiration than love when it comes to my thoughts on his music. I like the chopped'n'screwed aesthetic, and he clearly capable lyrically ('Bitch, I'm Lugubrious' is excellent), plus he's got a real Three Six Mafia influence going on without just blatantly copying them (I'm looking at you, Space Ghost Purrp), and that's cool because the Three Six Mafia are great. Buck 65 just annoys me, and always has. I understand that what he does is clever, but I can't tolerate him for more than a couple of minutes. I had a friend at school who was really into Wu-Tang, and we bonded over that, and he tried to get me into Buck 65 a few times, but just no.
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[undefined]

I actually enjoy both quite a bit. I love Lil Ugly Mane's borderline vaporwavey aesthetic combined with the aforementioned Three 6 Mafia influence... My thoughts on Buck are a little more complicated, and my opinion of this album can change rapidly depending on my mood. Half the time when I'm listening to Buck 65 I feel like I could just go listen to someone with a similar brand of cleverness, namely Das Racist or Milo, the former for lacking any and all pretensions Buck holds about his own lyricism, and the latter for just being so utterly heartfelt and sincere (almost vulnerable) with his cleverness as apposed to Buck's overt self-awareness. That said, I really enjoy Square, even if I sometimes can't stand the fact that, for as intelligent a musician as Buck is, he's just way too conscious of that fact sometimes. Still, these are both solid (if not fairly flawed) albums imo. Gonna have to sit on this one a bit...

[Norman Bates]

Well I, for one, really like the sound of Square, to the extent that I like this album a little bit better than Lil Ugly Mane's, which I quite like too.

This sentence is utter crap and I'm not even drunk. Anyway, Square.

[benpaco]

OK I've not been in a hip-hop mood of late so I've voted on like 2 or 3 of these, not many, and done so with simple preference. This was actually a hard match, I checked out Mista Thug Isolation some time back when the bracket was announced to see what Buck was up against and was surprised to enjoy it given the album cover. Like seriously, it's not a good first impression. But it's a surprisingly good album. I still gotta go with my nom though. I can't do a lot of hip-hop unless I'm in a hip-hop sort of mood, but there's a few (Black Star, Madvillainy, RawHyde, and yes, Square) that I can just always listen to, no matter my mood. I really don't know how else to put it outside of Square does something more than just hip-hop.

Now I will say, Mista Thug Isolation would probably beat anything else Buck's put out. Really not a huge fan of his as a whole, love Square, love Super Pretty Naughty, love his cover of Who By Fire, there's other little moments, but as a whole, I'm just not big on his stuff. DBZ's right to say he's aware that he's clever and sometimes that impedes his actual work. I feel like Square is different, though, for it's ability to be weak, to be weird, to be all over the place. It's not a normal album, not in it's structure track wise or lyrically or anything. It feels almost claustrophobic at times - at other times like it's coming out of its shell, and at other times still totally out there. But not in a linear way. It's just special.
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. . . 2016 . . . 2015 . . .

Things I Make

[Precedent]

Square

Hits me a bit harder, but it's really close.

[Precedent]

The ugly man is the one that must be isolated

8-7

Square advances.