MEGA: Rap/Hip Hop DISCUSSION thread.

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the reason bad rap prospers is the same reason all kinds of bad shit prospers in our capitalist marketplace: because stupid people are the ones who blow all their fucking money on stupid shit and give these industries power.
 
I have a lot of friends that aren't exactly "like minded" but I still vibe with n shit...they listen to top40 stuff. A lot of Gucci Mane, Wacka, OJ Da Juice Man and Wiz Khalifa. Sometimes when we get too drunk we argue about hiphop haha.

What I've gathered from those conversations is this:
They don't care. The kind of people that jam to "Brick Squad" artists aren't really sitting by themselves in their rooms getting lost in the lyricism like I know a lot of us find a lot of joy in doing. Just give them a really sub-bass heavy kick drum, tweety repetitive synth loop and a cocky sounding "MC" over it and they're good. Doesn't even really mean their dumb people ALL THE TIME, some people just aren't "in to" music like I am. Top 40 stuff can very loosely be called "music" in my opinion. Honestly I'd like a lot of the stuff if you took out the vocals, because it's all basically like EDM with more ego...haha.
 
Rated E said:
Only true in regards to the rappers you've been exposed to I assume.

These rappers are still making good music, recently, that happens to not be about clubs & Bentleys:
Mos Def (The Ecstatic)
The Roots (How I Got Over)
DOOM (Born Like This)
Jay Electronica (Exhibit C)
Jean Grae (Jeanius)
Talib Kweli (new Reflection Eternal is ok at least)

Plus countless more underground rappers that I'm not that familar with. Not to mention great stuff in the time between the "golden era" of hip hop until now.

As for Nas, he had a bad period. I personally liked IWW, but maybe you don't like mafiaso rap. I didn't like I Am or Nastradamus. But every album since has ranged from being at least worth checking out before you write it off to plain awesome. Nas did this track in 2008. Wouldn't call him mediocre.
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havent listened to the others you mentioned, but I really like Mos Def, esp. Black on Both Sides and anything the Roots ever put out. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying the artists I mentioned were the only good MCs out, I just used them as an example because they are a lot more widely known, but haven't "sold out" to put it bluntly.
And yeah man I liked a lot of songs on IWW, it's just that after Illmatic I thought it could have been a little better. Shootouts is one of my favourite tunes though.
The Lost Tapes are also pretty good, NaS at his finest.
 
I don't know how you can say it is harder to find "good hip hop" these days. When I was a kid we didn't hear much airplay on any of the radio stations. That sure as hell didn't stop me or my friends from being exposed to it via swapping tapes, word of mouth. You can't tell me I couldn't google 100 decent hip hop tunes within 45 seconds.

There are plenty of social activist around the world where Hip hop is still the voice of disenchanted youth. Believe it or not most of them can't afford a grill.
 
90's Rap/Hip-Hop

Does anyone else here miss the rap of the 90's... Shit like Gangstarr and Nas, etc... such an amazing decade for hip-hop...It's like wtf happened to hip-hop/rap? Now its all repetitive nonsense mosty (what i've seen on TV/radio8) and just doesn't have the flow and lyricism of the 90's rappers... I dunno what do you guys think?

Anyone have any suggestion for good 90's rappers or present rappers that are actually good and have that "90's flow" ??

shit like this for example ( love this song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT4jQld_FiE
 
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90's hip hop has the most depth. Wu Tang carried the entire decade, although when Puff came on the scene with B.I.G., it changed the expectations people had for production. Things got more crisp, and this really hurt artists like Nas who weren't meant to be boxed up like that (but had to play the record sales game anyway). I like all the sounds because you hear this evolution of the hip hop industry. Jay Z really grabbed the ball and took it home after half-time, though. Even though none of his albums (except MAYBE Reasonable Doubt) were classics, they were all filled with the years's best jams and slickest wordplay.

All you need to know about 90's hip hop right here:

Wu Tang Clan
Nas
Notorious B.I.G.
Mase
Jay Z

Honorable mention: Tupac. Can't stand him, though.
 
captainballs said:
and this really hurt artists like Nas who weren't meant to be boxed up like that (but had to play the record sales game anyway).
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Yeaaa. There's an interesting quote related to that from a ?uestlove interview:

The ideology of what I considered "real" hip-hop died at the 1995 Source Awards. I was literally at its funeral-- I sat three rows behind Nas. In the audience, the Bad Boy camp was on the far right, all the West Coast and the Southern rappers were in the middle, and on the far left were all the New York underground rappers like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and us. That was the day when Suge called out Puffy, and there were fights in the audience. I felt like a bomb was going to detonate.

Nas' body language that day told the whole story of where we were about to go. The more he got ignored for Illmatic, I literally saw his body melt in his seat. Almost like he was ashamed. He just looked so defeated. I was like, "Yo, he's not gonna be the same after this shit." None of us were the same after that day. I feel like the true underground lost its oxygen that night.
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I was listening to It Was Written again the other day. The sudden change to a more aggressive, crime-boss (mafiaso rap) style makes him seem a little bit fake, but he still created some great music within that style (e.g. Shootouts, Suspect, Take It in Blood, The Message). Take It in Blood is like some kind of smoked out stream-of-consciousness mafiaso poetry. The storytelling in Shootouts creates some dark imagery. etc. Though it did get a bit worse on I Am and Nastradamus.

captainballs said:
I like all the sounds because you hear this evolution of the hip hop industry.
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I like that point of view. The 90's are my favourite for hip hop by far, but I appreciate 00's and current as well. I think one of the reasons why hip hop is so exciting to me is that it's still relevant and developing. While rock has been repeating the same ideas in 10 year installments since the 60's.

Anyway, my favourites from the 90's:
A Tribe Called Quest
Nas
Tupac
Wu-Tang
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
Biggie
The Pharcyde
J Dilla / Slum Village

Stuff I recently started getting into:
Digable Planets (ATCQ-esque)
Main Source
Organized Konfusion
 
Herbal~Jah said:
or present rappers that are actually good and have that "90's flow" ??
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Little Brother
They broke up recently, but they were doing an awesome rendition of the 90's in the mid 00's. The Listening and The Minstrel Show are pretty great albums. e.g. Hiding Places, Still Lives Through

Devin the Dude
Weed enthusiast, charismatic, eccentric. Reminds me a little bit of Andre 3000. e.g. Doobie Ashtray

Elzhi
He became a member of Slum Village after Dilla left. I think he's a better rapper than the rest of SV. He's gone solo now; recently put out a mixtape called ELmatic, it's a cover-album of Illmatic, recorded with a band. e.g. Mowtown 25, It Ain't Hard to Tell

Shabazz Palaces
In terms of production/sound, this is as current as it gets in my opinion. But the dude is from the 90's scene (Digable Planets). e.g. Are you... Can you... Were you? (Felt)

If you only listen to one of these tracks, I recommend Shabazz Palaces.
 
Big L and Canibus were my faves back in the day. Black Sunday by cypress hill was pretty good also.
 
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