Astronautalis’ preamble is parts humorous, sad and amusing:

Now, however, I find myself at a very interesting crossroads in my relationship with rap, as both a fan and a musician. After spending the better part of the last decade casting myself out from the mainstream of hip-hop in favor of the once wildly inventive world of “indie-rap”, I, like many others became bored with the monotony of “indie-rap”, and have come full circle back to my youth. Now, like so many other former “back-packers”, I find myself listening exclusively (with a few exceptions) to the pop-rap music of braggarts, killers, and drug dealers. In this, I am not alone, it is no strange fluke that almost every indie hip-hop night in America has either morphed into a skinny jeans dance party or else disappeared altogether. “Scribble Jam” and “The Rocksteady Reunion “ are gone, replaced by big budget affairs like “Soundset” and “Paid Dues”, and the word “indie rap” has lost meaning all together when Jay-Z leaves Def Jam, Cash Money Records is the new DIY, and almost every “indie” label you love is technically a subsidiary of some major label by way of a distribution deal.

Some people see this as the downfall of rap as we know it; I see it as the start of an exciting new era. Jay-Z is spotted at Grizzly Bear shows, Sage Francis hires half the indie rock musicians from your high school mixed tapes to make his new record, and Kanye West steals notes from “I <3 Huckabees”, “Daft Punk”, and everything else in your girlfriend’s dorm to become an endless hit factory. At the same time, most every indie rapper I know (myself included) listens to more Young Jeezy than El-P, every vegan kid with a fixie knows more Clipse than Fugazi, and I have heard my Mom use the phrase “bling bling” on more than one occasion. Some will say that this is everything tearing apart at the seams, but I see this as a window into the future, a future where major labels are dead and everyone’s indie, so indie ceases to be a sales pitch. An era where anyone can pirate your album, so your album better be fucking good or else no one is going to want to give you money for it. Most importantly, the pop-stars steal from the little guys and the little guys steal from the pop-stars, and there is exciting and interesting music to be found coming from everywhere and everyone…not just the East Coast and the West Coast.

Dancehall Hornsound

Tracklist and the rest of his message after the jumper.

(more…)