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1 hour ago, Casey said:

Atlanta making fun of Chance the Rapper and Lil' Yachty is the best thing. God I've missed this show.

Duuude. This season has been so much better than season 1 and season 1 was pretty good. This is approaching Chappelle's Show season 2 levels of just improving on the first season in every conceivable way. I died laughing over the strip club DJ calling out Ern. And when Ern was talking about getting stunted on at the start of the episode you could tell what direction he would be going in and was still amazing. I think more than anything, this episode reminded me of an episode of Curb.

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On 3/19/2018 at 6:54 AM, Casey said:

Atlanta making fun of Chance the Rapper and Lil' Yachty is the best thing. God I've missed this show.

I don't think Clark County is a satire of Chance the Rapper (not that the show would necessarily be above it but to me, it would be too on the nose) as it is a composite character to be the vessel to explain there is no obvious answer to fame in the rap game. You see that Paper Boi had no problem hanging out with him and trying to work him so he can blow up after clowning him behind his back. He was trying to rationalize Clark County's fame as being all due to being a soft, safe, and accessible rapper and this magical white industry connect when no, it turns out this dude might be affiliated (and I don't mean a college fraternity) and you want no parts of him. That fits the theme of the show. Paper Boi thought one collab with him and a little one-on-one talk to figure out who powers that machine, and it blew the fuck the up in his face. 

I would also like to say the highlight of Van's return to the show last week was her suburban pronunciation of Gucci Mane.

 

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The situation in the studio with Paper Boi and Clark County is supposed to be something that actually happened to Glover. Most theories point to Lil' Yachty or Chance, but that's mostly due to the commercials (both) and Clark County not being a drinker or smoker (Yachty).

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8 minutes ago, Casey said:

The situation in the studio with Paper Boi and Clark County is supposed to be something that actually happened to Glover. Most theories point to Lil' Yachty or Chance, but that's mostly due to the commercials (both) and Clark County not being a drinker or smoker (Yachty).

Yeah, I know it's based on what happened to Donald. I'm talking about the character as a whole because it all led up to Paper Boi's envy and jealousy getting him into something. I think people are focusing too much on who that character is suppose to be an avatar of and not why the character is there in the first place.

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I mean, my original comment was just about that one scene, not about the entire character. So, yeah. I found it amusing that the show was taking the piss out of Lil' Yachty and Chance the Rapper in that one scene - I don't think anyone is under the impression that Clark County, the character, is supposed to be molded after one or both of them.

Also, I hate Chance and Yachty so that might explain why it's the only thing I mentioned while watching the first few episodes of the new season back to back.

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18 minutes ago, Casey said:

I mean, my original comment was just about that one scene, not about the entire character. So, yeah. I found it amusing that the show was taking the piss out of Lil' Yachty and Chance the Rapper in that one scene - I don't think anyone is under the impression that Clark County, the character, is supposed to be molded after one or both of them.

Also, I hate Chance and Yachty so that might explain why it's the only thing I mentioned while watching the first few episodes of the new season back to back.

But again, I don't think it's done as an insult (especially given that Donald is friends with Chance).  I think it was done in the same vain as Boondocks riffing on the Ice T/Soulja Boy thing several years back now and putting their twist on by using contemporaries. Paper Boi was talking about that shit about him yet the very next minute trying to be cozy with someone who he believes to be a fraud (much like Thugnificent trying to shout out all the young rappers who he hasn't ever heard of) and gains popularity by being one. So if anything's, it's a shot at people like Al and the show characterizes those guys (whether it is Chance, Kendrick, Yachty, etc.) based on how someone like Paper Boi views them: annoying, entitled, fake deep, not as talented as him, and inauthentic. If Clark County is a fraud then Paper Boi is a super fraud.

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That's how I took it. Going from the second episode where Paper Boi is watching that Yoohoo commercial and is all, "man, fuck this guy," but he has that look in his eye like, how do I get that Yoohoo money to that third episode where he's hanging out with Clark County made me laugh more at the hypocrisy of it all. I figure it's a riff on something in real life, but I care more about how these guys are all hypocrites looking to make money.

Plus, there's the hilarity of Paper Boi seeing that Clark County is pretty much a psychopath and/or a sociopath, which turns Paper Boi from seeing this dude as maybe a fraud making the money he wants to make to a lunatic that he doesn't want to be or is uncomfortable to be around.

Paper Boi just strikes me as a dude who wants to be lazy as fuck and make good music without the hassle that comes with the second part of that, which is mainly not being lazy, but also not wanting the bullshit that comes with being famous. It's amusing to me to see who this guy really is and constantly run into situations where he just doesn't want to deal with it.

That then makes the drama with Ern better for me because Ern desperately needs Paper Boi to be successful and if he isn't, then he's back to selling credit cards at the airport.

Or I'm reading this all wrong. Either way, I really love Atlanta.

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Guys all I mentioned was that I thought it was funny that Atlanta was obviously riffing on Chance the Rapper and Lil' Yachty. I get everything you guys are saying and I agree with it all, but I just thought it was funny. That's it. -_-

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I wonder if Glover makes an episode this season similar to the one from Master of None's second season, which was more about the people living in the city than the characters. I feel like that's something he would do.

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13 minutes ago, Craig H said:

That's how I took it. Going from the second episode where Paper Boi is watching that Yoohoo commercial and is all, "man, fuck this guy," but he has that look in his eye like, how do I get that Yoohoo money to that third episode where he's hanging out with Clark County made me laugh more at the hypocrisy of it all. I figure it's a riff on something in real life, but I care more about how these guys are all hypocrites looking to make money.

Plus, there's the hilarity of Paper Boi seeing that Clark County is pretty much a psychopath and/or a sociopath, which turns Paper Boi from seeing this dude as maybe a fraud making the money he wants to make to a lunatic that he doesn't want to be or is uncomfortable to be around.

Paper Boi just strikes me as a dude who wants to be lazy as fuck and make good music without the hassle that comes with the second part of that, which is mainly not being lazy, but also not wanting the bullshit that comes with being famous. It's amusing to me to see who this guy really is and constantly run into situations where he just doesn't want to deal with it.

That then makes the drama with Ern better for me because Ern desperately needs Paper Boi to be successful and if he isn't, then he's back to selling credit cards at the airport.

Or I'm reading this all wrong. Either way, I really love Atlanta.

I think you're right on the money except I would say it's about being hot enough as a rapper (see: B, Cardi) to be relevant and not about good music since that's entirely subjective. The show never portrays anyone as this amazing Black Thought type lyricist because everyone's shit might sound like hogwash to the next person.

Paper Boi wants to be famous without being famous. The price of fame is dancing on a table for A&R execs like something out of an antebellum or Jim Crow era plantation dinner party and rapping your song to a bunch of white 20 something year old interns who don't give a shit at a "hip" start up. It's extremely humiliating and definitely not worth of the price of your soul, but Paper Boi keeps chasing that shit because he dream of making it in the music industry is still alluring enough. He wants the cheat code when there isn't one.

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31 minutes ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Paper Boi wants to be famous without being famous. The price of fame is dancing on a table for A&R execs like something out of an antebellum or Jim Crow era plantation dinner party and rapping your song to a bunch of white 20 something year old interns who don't give a shit at a "hip" start up. It's extremely humiliating and definitely not worth of the price of your soul, but Paper Boi keeps chasing that shit because he dream of making it in the music industry is still alluring enough. He wants the cheat code when there isn't one.

This reminds me of my theory about Kanye West.  Everything he loves make him more famous, but there is nothing he hates more than being famous.  He loves making music, he loves being able to walk in certain circles, and he loves his family...all the rest just makes him miserable.

The amount of conversation this 30 minute sitcom causes is truly amazing.  I was having a conversation with a friend on Saturday about how long Ern and Van were in that car, before Van decided to break the awkward silence.  We concluded that it was at least 15 minutes.  They were out of the parking lot, off the surface streets and onto the interstate before one word was said.  I love this show.

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3 hours ago, supremebve said:

This reminds me of my theory about Kanye West.  Everything he loves make him more famous, but there is nothing he hates more than being famous.  He loves making music, he loves being able to walk in certain circles, and he loves his family...all the rest just makes him miserable.

The amount of conversation this 30 minute sitcom causes is truly amazing.  I was having a conversation with a friend on Saturday about how long Ern and Van were in that car, before Van decided to break the awkward silence.  We concluded that it was at least 15 minutes.  They were out of the parking lot, off the surface streets and onto the interstate before one word was said.  I love this show.

Kanye is just a guy who doesn't understand the dynamics of power. He talks about the Medici family and Rothschilds and all this and that's something he never will achieve. He realizes he is a pawn (whether it's being a pawn for the music industry, fashion, or Kris Jenner's Calabasas bordello), but doesn't want to be a pawn. The thing is black people (meaning African-Americans and not African immigrants that have came over through immigration)...we don't come from that lineage and that type of generational wealth. In addition, what could he possibly do to mobilize that type of power and influence to where it spans for eternity? He is allowed to be wealthy enough to the point he can brag about it time to time and that's about it. That is what makes him miserable. Ain't nowhere to go but down.

With that said, maybe Paper Boi's ceiling is the guy who has the hot local song and then vanish into the ether like hundreds of other rappers big in their city. I mean in real life, Big Freedia was able to parlay the whole New Orleans bounce culture into a TV show on Fuse or Revolt...one of those niche channels. That's not something that would have happened 5 or 10 years ago/pre YouTube. 

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Kanye is also consumed with the notion of being a renaissance man in the vein of Howard Hughes, and he's never going to be happy. Being uniquely talented and remarkably successful isn't enough because he's never going to be da Vinci. 

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6 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Kanye is just a guy who doesn't understand the dynamics of power. He talks about the Medici family and Rothschilds and all this and that's something he never will achieve. He realizes he is a pawn (whether it's being a pawn for the music industry, fashion, or Kris Jenner's Calabasas bordello), but doesn't want to be a pawn. The thing is black people (meaning African-Americans and not African immigrants that have came over through immigration)...we don't come from that lineage and that type of generational wealth. In addition, what could he possibly do to mobilize that type of power and influence to where it spans for eternity? He is allowed to be wealthy enough to the point he can brag about it time to time and that's about it. That is what makes him miserable. Ain't nowhere to go but down.

With that said, maybe Paper Boi's ceiling is the guy who has the hot local song and then vanish into the ether like hundreds of other rappers big in their city. I mean in real life, Big Freedia was able to parlay the whole New Orleans bounce culture into a TV show on Fuse or Revolt...one of those niche channels. That's not something that would have happened 5 or 10 years ago/pre YouTube. 

So basically DJay from Hustle and Flow.

No way that dude made anything nearly as good as Whoop That Trick or Hard Out Here for a Pimp after his stint in jail.

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3 minutes ago, Craig H said:

So basically DJay from Hustle and Flow.

No way that dude made anything nearly as good as Whoop That Trick or Hard Out Here for a Pimp after his stint in jail.

What's eerie is I was going to watch Hustle and Flow tonight since I hadn't seen it in years.

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What took you so long? Now you have a place for all your Kanye theories, people.

The stuntin' episode made me laugh the most so far this season.  They have been planting the seeds for Al (Paper Boi) to move on from Earn but maybe it's a red herring.

Any time you do a freeze frame on a Michael Vick foot race outside of an Atlanta strip club, it's a top tv moment of the year.

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Katt Williams taking off like Flo-Jo at the end of "Alligator Man" should net him a Primetime Emmy nom for best guest appearance or whatever hell that category is named.

Given the nature of the police shootings across the country, I half expected that episode to end like the film Ragtime. Then, I would have been fucking sad. This was way less painful and traumatic personally. Also, you couldn't have a better payoff on what seemed like to be a poignant study and look (with levity added of course) at the state of mental health in the African-American community. They could have spent that first episode bullshitting around and basically just stood on it being the first episode of the sophomore season.

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Earn looking straight at the camera when the guy tells him the giant horse-monster robs someone at the festival cracked me up. Otherwise, this was really uncomfortable and depressing. Of course I still enjoyed it... the parts that I didn't have to put on mute because that empathized social anxiety started rising in me, at least.

Also, opening an episode with a cunnilingus scene was pretty "oh shit" haha

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I like how people are doing the #TeamVan stuff like Insecure when really that doesn't work when you realize both are stuck in perpetual brokeness. Van is trying to live a life she is no longer anchored in and trying to bring Ern with her. How many times do her friends have to remind her she isn't doing well before the lightbulb in her head goes off? The people rooting for her to just get another teaching gig or find a better man are forgetting who she is: an underachieving pothead. If she could do better than Ern, she wouldn't be with Ern. Plus, if they had money to where Ern could make it out of "I occasionally get to fuck my baby mama" stage, he wouldn't have to spend time her really. The ONLY thing keeping them together is his homelessness. It's sad that she doesn't realize that IMO. You can't really baby trap a dude if he knows you know he can't pay child support. So that's out of the window. If Al's career doesn't pan out, she's going to be living inside her car w/ child like a bunch of ex (and current) teachers across America. Now that is going to be depressing. But hey, then they would be able spend a lot of time together!

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