and i listen to stuff like Low and The Tim and Sam band for fun!
Yeah it has nothing to do with sounds and tempos. To my ears this shares a quality with a lot of chart rap (or at least chart rap from probably up to 5-10 years ago that I hear played a lot when I am in those sort of music situations) in that to me it is sort of
listless. Perhaps it is because the artists are consciously trying to sound cool and above it but it seems to be lacking some sort of vaguely defined energy or passion which, were it present, would probably make me a lot more receptive to the music itself.
Another problem I have not particularly with that song but a lot of the other rap Kieffer posts is that I find it very hard to relate to the brash, almost arrogant level of self-confidence and nigh-on smug contentment many of the songs display. Like this is a general thing with pop music and in fact all music, not just rap. Like it seems a lot in the past that when pop songs talked about states of happiness they talked about yearning towards achieving them, regaining them, or about their imminent dissolution. There was often a bittersweet, humanising tone. At some point there seems to have been a cultural shift where, if by no means all then a large number of songs are simply about how great it is to be ensconsed in a state of happiness; how wonderful it is to be a rock star, to be rich, to be in love, to be respected, whatever. I find this hard to relate to not only because I struggle to find happiness in my own life but because such songs lack any dramatic tension which can make us like their protagonist, a pop singer after all being essentially a character or persona of a real person.