Why don't you like rap/hiphop ?

[diverdee]

you may like heiroglyphics, talib kweli, blackalicious, dilated peoples & masterminds judging by that list.

edit: oh & the most recent heiruspecs l.p. 'a tiger dancing'.

[The Chase]

i'd like to hear some really intense, thought provoking, philosophical, spiritual, emotional hip/hop with really intense, funky, off time, rythmic beats...
any suggestions?

Nope. But if you'd like to hear some quality hip-hop there's always...

pharcyde
jurassic 5
de la soul
mos def
the roots
digable planets

If you've ever loved a bit of soul or funk you might find something there you like.

[ahem] A TRIBE CALLED QUEST [/ahem]

I nearly edited it to include them.

You clearly understand my taste. Anyone else I should be listening too?

blackalicious
del tha funky homosapien
gorillas

[Stupid American Pig]

Notice how hardly any of those "good" hip hop artists are releasing albums anymore. that means that "bad" hip hop is taking over.

[ouroboros]

i'd like to hear some really intense, thought provoking, philosophical, spiritual, emotional hip/hop with really intense, funky, off time, rythmic beats...
any suggestions?

Nope. But if you'd like to hear some quality hip-hop there's always...

pharcyde
jurassic 5
de la soul
mos def
the roots
digable planets

If you've ever loved a bit of soul or funk you might find something there you like.

[ahem] A TRIBE CALLED QUEST [/ahem]

I nearly edited it to include them.

You clearly understand my taste. Anyone else I should be listening too?

blackalicious
del tha funky homosapien
gorillas

you guys hit the mark on my collection. Good stuff.
All the native tongues bunch I enjoy.

[TVD]

Ok, I see that a lot of people who don't like rap also DON'T KNOW rap, and they have stereotypes about it.
It's OK, I don't mind, nor condemn that, since it happens to me as well, with some music genre that I don't know.
I'm not saying that if you knew it better you would like it, it's just an observation.

And I also see that people who like Beastie Boys usually don't listen to rap. It makes perfect sense to me.

And thanks, TVD, for those links to Wikipedia, since I noticed that the terms rap and hiphop are not very clear to all of us.


I see that as an example of what's good in rap nowadays you guys often mention underground artist. That's understandable, since I'm also often fed up by the bling bling, gangsta lyrics that are very common in the mainstream. Basically, in mainstream, a lot of times, is the IMAGE of the rapper, that's being sold.
However, I do find the same bling bling artists entertaining sometimes. Hell, even 50 Cent had 2 nice songs on the GRODT album.
I guess you can like that if you don't take them too seriously.
And underground artists can be so boring too. There must be like a million of songs with the scratched phrases in their hooks, or beats that imitate Primo's style.


Still, tho, in rap you can find REALLY A LOT of different styles, especially content-wise.

I challenge you to find a trash metal song with a romantic content.
Or a country song that says something intellectually interesting.

Your welcome!

[TVD]

My question is why DO people like hiphop/rap? Why hiphop is the commecially most sucessful new genre is a true mystery for me... ok if it stayed underground but what attracts people?

1. Rap music & The TRUE Hip-Hop Culture has a direct link from THE Funk music & culture. Just like funk, it all about the groove (the drums & the bass).

2. TRUE Hip-Hop Culture is from the urban streets of America. New York City (East Coast) was THE first. Los Angeles (West Coast) was second. And Miami, Houston, New Orleans, & Atlanta (The Dirty South) soon after.

3. Hip-Hop (Mainstream & Underground) is THE only culture of it kind that allows people of all racial backgrounds (especially black men) to be the kind of people that they want to be.

For more info, Afrika Bambaataa (THE Godfather of TRUE Hip-Hop Culture) has written the rest of the story:

http://www.zulunation.com/afrika.html

[soulkraka]

You clearly understand my taste. Anyone else I should be listening too?

Freestyle Fellowship "Inner City Griots". The production is low budget and lo-fi. straight up 12 bit old akai style. There are a couple songs played live which provides an interesting contrast because the sound quality improves quite a bit on those tracks LOL. Dont let that turn you off though, its all about the lyrics and flow, which really are amazing.

also, this album came out in 1993. Contrast it with what was big at the time in '93

heres a sample from Cornbread:

leap out the room grab the old broom
eat a watermelon and walk on the moon
cherry coke canteloupe little old maid
a big black berry inside the kool-aid
a bass guitar a old fruit jar
a green canteen and a chocolate bar
cannonball baby doll football fan
i flipped a mad dog on a Japanese man
a double bunk bed a 40 to the head
now get up and watch me rap to cornbread hey

hey i hear ya
yo aceyalone i hear ya

well have ya ever kilt a great white shark? well i have
i was on a boat i built and sailed around the world don't laugh
yeah i was a crook an' met captain hook an' got tookin' a captive
wrote a book in 31,000 chapters yeah yeah that's it
i seen the ghost of augie creek
i went to fantasy island gilligan's island and pirates peak
and then to nappa valley rappers alley and stayed a week
i met the queen of all my dreams and we danced cheek to cheek
and then we freaked
had a fight with king kong godzilla and rodan
johnny socko's giant robot and wrestled with conan
i jumped on a rocket with davy crockett headed for no man's land
and landed and seen a time bandit in the sand
i travelled with Gulliver and I'm a hell of a patrol
looking for the Acupulco pot of gold
he blazed i raised little bastard got me floated
hit the road and had to hitch w/the son of a bitch who turned into a
toad
you ever slept on blueberry hill well i will
we'll have to connive and cook and clean for a meal and that's real
planted three jolly green bean weed seeds in a field
a tree grew all the way up to the sky and i smoked it
Well I seen zig zag as he was zooming in a Z
looking zorked and zany like a Zulu zombie
he thought he was a zenith with a zebra ont he scene
he was a buzzing in the zone like he was zapped
bullshit
well jingle bell jingle bell sugar on toast
the fellowship shop is from the west coast
hey hash and eggs crocodile legs
i'll bring the chronic you bring the kegs
buckwheat and stymie's down with rodney allen rippey
while Tommy and Annica were beating up Pippy
karate chops snap crackle pops
you do the hip thing and i'll do the hop
cough up a lougie shake break and boogie
cause i got a home girl that's giving out nougies
mr george bush was on my floor
cracked out butt naked watchin' the cosby show
hey little rascals eddie haskell
black eyed peas with a lot of tabasco
chico stix big fat chicks
old reruns of the jefferson hits
eenie meenie miny mo larry and shemp
slide me some skin on the black side pimp
training bras holey drawers
Vonte and D double E is breakin' all the laws
double dutch afros parakeet crap
honey i kilt (killed) the kids w/my rap
then my dj Kiilu he came and said
yo i'll scratch the break you rap the cornbread hey
see i'm a big old black man a big old black man
a big old black wacky tacky black man
born w/my mama arrived alone
and i'm alive and survive in a one room home
never take a hand-me-down never dig a bone
i give and i live and i handle my own
used to a peewee now i'm full grown
not a shufflin' jigaboo i'm hard like stone
i drink out the jug i eat out the pot
i learn and i earn and i love what i got
my mama ain't a housewife daddy ain't a cop
i was taught to be a fair man shoot your shot
snake in the grass livin' in the past
seein' nobody got my hindside i'm a think fast
i'm the chugalug thug from nicolett and (?arquette?) street
a watermelon sellin' bailin' no good cheat
not a lie two-facin' a liquor jar tastin'
i'm a ebony woman chasin' got no time for wastin'
so bring in the news singin' the blues
i don't shovel no shit and don't shine no shoes
i'm a big old black man never had a friend
sittin' on the roof top listenin' to the wind
my life is on the end my grin is pretend
i'm a die in my rockin' chair sippin' on gin hey
see im a bad boy i'm Aceyalone i'm Aceyaloony
i'm Aceyalone a nigger from the boonies
i'm Aceyalone (....?????what the hell is he saying???????......)
same ol' same ol' thing baby bubba
what you say what you thought was really going on you don't know
right right but you got caught by
Aceyalone ranger Aceyalone stranger
willing to gimme a pound cause i'm just abound (?about?) to lose you
so bamboozle out instead
just remember that brother who spits the cornbread



heres a couple RM clips:

http://sandbox.pair.com/sound/freestyle_cornbread.ram

http://sandbox.pair.com/sound/freestyle_innercity.ram

If you like this you may want to check out project Blowed, an album put out by all the underground MC's from LA, including freestyle fellowship.

http://sandbox.pair.com/sound/projectbl ... ontkno.ram

[geoffrey]

After rereading all the posts and polling some of my friends/bandmates, I have to say that much of this might discussion might be polarized by age. The older we are the less we seem to like hip hop and rap. At least that is the way it is among my middle age friends. Naturally there are exceptions to every rule.(Including me to a certain extent) I like some hip hop and rap, but not much. I also agree with the assertion that 95 percent of all genres is subpar music. I use Jimi Hendrix as an example when I listen to any music. He tried to learn something from anyone he saw or heard, no matter how good or awful they were. That is my philosophy of music. Learn from everything! Music philosophy... Another possible thread.. Anyone want to start it off?

[djguido]

I agree with the age comment. I'm 38 and I pretty much hate rap. But I remember when I was 18 I had
ice-T kicking in my car and NWA etc etc. Now I can still listen to some rap. I thought this new ying yang twin song where they are wispering was kinda innovative and some JZ stuff is pretty good. But even if you just take away the lyrics in the ying yang twin song, I can make the music in about 10 minutes in FL studio. And thats pretty much how I feel about most of the rap crap.
Then the constant bragging and my ho is better than your ho and I got more money than you......its just stupidity at its worst.
To me rap is something for truly brain dead and ignorant people. There is just not much thinking going into the music or the lyrics.

Personally I will stick with progressive trance and house....some classics like Zeppelin and some of the alternative rock stuff.....a pinch of blues and and throw in some Sinatra to boot.

Ok, now you guys can tell me how brain dead trance is heheheheh

[oldevil]

after about 5 minutes of rap how can anyone still take this stuff seriously? or rock, as far as that goes...i don't think it's meant to be taken seriously, but some folks-the 'hiphop culture' people-think it's a social movement; dressing like a clown is not a social movement. neither's spandex and men in makeup...social statements, maybe, but not social movements...it's called entertainment: be entertained. and stop taking it so seriously. (must sound strange coming from a ranter like me-i'm trying to reform)

[BONES]

95% of all music in any given genre is not very good.

I'm more inclined to think that 95% of genres aren't very good. For the stuff I'm into I would say there is more good than bad. Seriously, if 95% of a genre's content isn't very good then you would have to conclude that the genre itself was worthless. Only an idiot is going to wade through 19 bad albums to find one good one. You are far more likely to move on to another style that you find more palatable.

[geoffrey]

That was my quote Bones and I have to agree with you. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that half of any given genre is not very good. Wading through 20 albums for 10 good ones doesn't seem quite so "idiotic". I will go back to my Hendrix based philosophy of learning something from all you hear. That would make listening to anything worthwile to me and not idiotic at all...Just my opinion..

[Bunnyboy]

music is shit, isnt it?

[wazun]

I agree with the age comment. I'm 38 and I pretty much hate rap. But I remember when I was 18 I had
ice-T kicking in my car and NWA etc etc. Now I can still listen to some rap. I thought this new ying yang twin song where they are wispering was kinda innovative and some JZ stuff is pretty good. But even if you just take away the lyrics in the ying yang twin song, I can make the music in about 10 minutes in FL studio.

Do it.

[The Chase]

95% of all music in any given genre is not very good.

I'm more inclined to think that 95% of genres aren't very good. For the stuff I'm into I would say there is more good than bad. Seriously, if 95% of a genre's content isn't very good then you would have to conclude that the genre itself was worthless. Only an idiot is going to wade through 19 bad albums to find one good one. You are far more likely to move on to another style that you find more palatable.

i think he means 95% of the entire genre, thats including pop and underground forms of it made around the globe. I guess i would agree with that, like you said it would vary more or less with what genres you like.