The Somewhat Ambitious

Advance Australia Fair: what a dirge. Bland, pretentious, uses the word girt. Is there anything good about it at all? We don’t even have golden soil. It’s more of a brownish-red. Useless for growing stuff. But this on the other hand. I think this song, so very squarely, seems to sum up this nation and [...]

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Reggaeton [noun]: a form of primarily electronic music, popular amongst Latin American communities, that fuses elements of dancehall, reggae and hip-hop with more traditionally Latin American sounds. Reggaeton is characterised by its distinctive beat, known as ‘Dembow’, which is an amalgamation of reggae percussion with a suite of other West Indian influences. While reggaeton enjoys [...]

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A Milli’ by Lil’ Wayne a.k.a. Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. a.k.a. Snuggles

Lil’ Wayne has here produced a dense and multi-layered text with an excess of subtle references and well-placed metaphors. I attempt to unpack certain of A Milli’s lyrical complexities after the break.
[Vol. 1, an analysis of Prince's self-descriptive 'My Name is Prince' can [...]

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Now, I like to think of myself as a fairly open-minded gentleman and one that, at the age of 23, is in no way out of touch with the youth of today, but this is just… just. Jesus.
Sorry, let’s start that again. It’s all a little overwhelming, truth be told. So, have you heard of [...]

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And no, sadly I’m not referring to the British crimefighter. Seriously, fuck Alan Moore and Judge Dredd. Danger mouse is the only true British superhero. Also, he can fit in your mouth. You know. Just in case.*
I’m actually referring to the DJ/producer, who forms one half of Gnarls Barkley. Why am I so interested in [...]

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Ever wondered what Swine Flu would sound like if it were transcribed into music?
Yeah, I know. Me neither. But Stephan Zielinski has done so, seemingly unwilling to respect my unwillingness to be not oblivious about this thing and also the stuff*. Basically, Zielinski wrote code to translate the gene for swine flu into a piece [...]

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I wonder if Danger Mouse (the producer, not the mouse) had any idea what he was unleashing when he ditched The Beatles ‘The White Album’ and Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ into a blender and moulded the results into the legally questionable ‘The Grey Album’, a mash-up record passed around the internet with the sort [...]

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I cannot work out for the life of me whether this video is more notable for illustrating:
1. The moment when hip-hop ate itself;
2. The moment when MTV ate itself; or
3. The moment when MTV ate hip-hop who was busy eating MTV and then they simply defecated each other out and began the whole process again. [...]

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Don’t you hate it when you’re watching the latest blockbuster film and you realise that you just can’t work out what’s going on? That despite the simple racial and sexual stereotypes, bland dialogue and minimal characters you just can’t make head nor tail of this disarmingly linear story? Why is the father trying to save [...]

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In a chonologically stupefying move, Paul and I have just finished doing Tuesday’s episode of The Somewhat Ambitious. WHA-? you say. Wha indeed. We have the hyper-caffeinated sound bites to prove it. My god it was tangential. But only suitable really, given that the theme this week was/will be, once again, shuffle. We just pick [...]

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