This is completely different to anything else I've listened to, there's no doubt about it. In many ways it's so alien that it's difficult to know how to listen to it, let alone whether I'm enjoying it or not.

Observation 1 - the word "nigger" sounds very uncomfortable no matter who is saying it. Maybe it's a time thing, but it sounds positively jarring to hear the machine gun delivery of the word, over an dover again.

Observation 2 - swearing may be big, and it may be clever, but if you are literally just saying FUCKING MOTHERFUCKER over and over again, it is inevitably going to lose some of its power. It's almost comic after a few tracks. Maybe at some point it had a sense of power or danger or threat, but now, songs like I Don't Give a Fuck just sounds a bit like a late night Flight of the Conchords sketch.

But this is clearly a smart guy. He's articulate (once you can hear past the Ns and Fs), and the lyrics are clearly the only priority here - the background drum track and scratchy loops are basic to the point of being almost demo-like.

I'll have to re-watch the bit of Can't Get You Out of My Head that referenced Tupac. As I remember it, his mother was a hot-shot in the civil rights movement... and Tupac essentially started off on a similar route but then got sucked more and more into the violent imagery that ended up being his hallmark. Certainly on Words of Wisdom he sounds like a much more mature performer:

"Brothers, sistas, niggas

When I say niggas it is not the nigga we are grown to fear

It is not the nigga we say as if it has no meaning

But to me

It means Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished, nigga"

Wise words. But I wonder how many teenagers skipped this one to get to the next Fuck The Police clone?

I guess the key may be whether there is any development here. Does it stay on this - fairly dated - plateau? Or does it take us up to giddy stratospheres? Let's see.