@Asaki @DwindlingSun @Zulaw Wonder what y’all think about this in terms of Ka’s career. He hasn’t really made any revolutionary changes in his music, but what he’s been doing for years is still really dense/potent—I personally think he’s safe from the critique of being too safe because the level of quality he’s maintained for close to a decade.

even if the outcome is awful ill always respect the artist for taking risks

Yeah I've definitely given this some thought before. I think the scope of his music is largely narrow in that its mostly street related, but he manages to present those ideas in interesting and fresh frameworks - historical samples and allusions. Plus the density/sharpness of his writing means those ideas, despite echoing similarly from album to album, don't really ever feel stale.

Also I think he definitely does take some shots in his production. Yeah it follows the mostly standard blueprint for underground hip hop. But he takes the occasional risk sonically that helps keep things interesting. For example: Pray, Just, Hades. And he mixes in beat switches here and there and uses the echoey thing with his voice in the background.

Experimental vs Experimental. Also MBDTF still better

Making something unique doesn't necessarily mean that its experimental. Lotta people don't actually know what experimental is, they just hear a weird vocal inflection and equate it to Aphex Twin.

Ka is in the vein of artists that I would say benefit from perfecting their sound more than experimenting. He has a niche, and he does it so consistently well that I don't mind him evolving that niche over time instead of pulling a Yeezus or some s***.

I wouldn't mind Ka taking more risks in his music though.

an experimental Ka might not be a force to be reckoned with

The key is to experiment while staying true to yourself.

Look at Wayne and 50, they changed their styles and went downhill.

own sound and continue to experiment w/ it, more chance of you to hit and attract an audience if you're doing something true to you (i.e. XXXTentacion, Uzi, ski mask and all the new people being labelled as hyperpop like osquinn, glaive, ericdoa, wells, 8485, midwxst, etc.)

when you do a sound that is popping in the current climate, you may blow up, but you won't last because the fanbase you easily wooed (mainstream crowd) will forget about you after your hit song fizzles out (i.e. Lil Tecca's current career point).

Perfectly said. And yeah, he could definitely do with more adventurous production or musical choices. Even on Hades (w the Cotizen Cope feature) it wasn’t even fully fledged feature.. weird choice that one

more Pray type s***?

Very well put bro

It's good to have your own recognizable style and sound but for an artist I think it's very important to tweak it or search for new inspirations and styles. I mean it gets boring, not only for the consumers but you too if you keep doing the same s*** again and again and again.

EXPERIMENTAL

From an artist perspective u gotta keep moving forward to avoid stagnation it’s almost just physics at that point

I have a tonne of respect for people that have a base & treat it like a Job but that’s just a different thing to me you’re like a product manufacturer

Guys that hinge so much on lyrics kinda bypass this to me, it’s like a poet with an open journal or sum

Great point as well you just can’t jump right into a new sound for the sake of versatility and sacrifice quality

no it’s not

graduation is his highest selling album followed by LR

they contain his biggest hits GD and Stronger

Interesting point. I feel the same. The quality/emotion/creativity/originality of some of these dudes’ lyrics alone surpass other artists’ entire catalogs

No

808s only worked because it came out the year after stronger and the shutter shades

in addition to him having the “excuse” that he was grieving

No

Every great album ever in history, was experimental for its time. experimenting is how we find new

taking an album out of the context of the time it was made in makes critical a***ysis useless.