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Rap Music, maybe you don't hate it so much
(162 posts, started )
Nas (Everyone says Illmatic was so awesome but I can't quite see what they're on about... it's good, but I find Untitled to be much much better), Talib Kweli, Tupac, and some Kanye West are pretty good and comparitively easy listening.

There's only a few Lil Wayne songs (I think he's a giant twat, well, a very little twat actually), and I have a couple of songs by The Game, but most of my Rap stuff is pretty off the beaten path. Got some Common as well, bit of Hi-tek, some Mos Def (he's good!), and even some Latino beats courtesy of Kid Frost.

To top it off, some classic Nate Dogg (often featuring Warren G) completes, in my eyes, a very well rounded Hip hop/rap package.
Quote from Becky Rose :I say that despite having been punched by the lead singer, who's vocals are awesome.

Off-topic, but I`m all ears. C`mon Becky. Share it, don`t be mean
Quote from S14 DRIFT :Nas (Everyone says Illmatic was so awesome but I can't quite see what they're on about... it's good, but I find Untitled to be much much better)

Try the album "the lost tapes" from NAS, it's one of his best albums IMO.
PS, Kev- thanks for posting your list. 'Tis funky indeed.
Quote from thisnameistaken :1987 - Public Enemy - Sophisticated Bitch
From the first Public Enemy LP, Yo! Bum Rush The Show. They sampled Heatwave, got Vernon Reid in on guitar, and sort-of quoted Duke Ellington, the beat is just huge. Rap's still pretty immature by this point, but Public Enemy have more to offer in later years...

1992 - Beastie Boys - So Watcha Want?
Beats don't get heavier than this! The Beasties really found their sound on the album Check Your Head - a healthy mix of goofball skits and huge old-school beats so good that they continued with the same formula into 1994's Ill Communication and it still hadn't got stale. Both records are classics.

Those two were the only ones of the list I didn't fast forward through or closed the tab.

Quote from frokki :While it's obvious that the classics you posted are closer to conventional music than the more modern crap, I still failed to like any of the songs as a whole. It's just the basic elements - rhythmic vocals and looping background, that are a total turn-off for me (This song from a band I like is another good example). I don't mean that these songs suck, no. I just fail to get anything out of them. I don't even understand most of the lyrics at all, as I can only speak English 'ok', not well enough to understand poetry or fast paced pronouncing of slang terms with a ghetto accent.

+1

The only rapper I really like is Eminem. Old and newer songs.

And there is actually a german (mostly "comedy") hip hop band that I like: Fettes Brot is awesome.
Blumentopf is great aswell!
It's funny, but I like almost every song that Kev posted up (most which I've heard before at different times and places)- which got me to thinking why I never buy or actively listen to rap/hip-hop. I think the reason is that it's a very social music, much more fun to listen to with friends, or when you're on a road-trip or something, or relaxing in a bar/club.

(Hip Hop doesn't really satisfy me as a music to dance to, for that I really need something a bit harder and more intense (like some good tribal/tech house or detroit techno- I usually hate trance)- I can never get into that relaxed/cool hip hop groove... )

On the subject of home listening, my musical tastes get very private and deep... Gyorgy Legeti, Glenn Branca.. stuff you wouldn't normally think about playing for your friends unless they're quite open-minded or adventurous musically, or which puts your girlfriend immediately on edge or in a bad mood, telling you to turn it off. Hip Hop can be interesting and complex music, but I've never found it great for deep listening. Maybe Kev, you could recommend something which could help fit that bill?

Hip Hop for me is usually a grubby old mix tape stuffed in the glovebox of a friends car.
If you say "deep listening", jazz comes to mind, blues, quality rock music, classical music, etc.

While i like hiphop a lot from a musical point of view, i agree that the music itself doesn't sound very "deep". If i want to listen to "quality music" (my roots are still rock, blues and jazz) it's usually not hiphop i'll put into my cd player.

I think the main difference is that what i call "real music", is played by real "artists" with real instruments. However, i'm open minded when it comes to music... if you can make amazing music with a sampler, i'll end up saying it sounds nice too.

So when it comes to listening hiphop just for the music, it's usually the more complex stuff (for an attempt at "deep listening"). Jazzy hiphop is something you could try. The Jazzmatazz albums from guru are nice for example.

The Roots is another band who actually plays their music with real instruments. Aswell as Pete Philly and Perquisite.

Nujabes is a guy who did some really nice stuff, but it's sampling again.

You might also want to have a try with some stuff that Ninja Tunes put together. It's a label that features many different artists. I found out about The Cinematic Orchestra throug them, but that's already going into another music direction/style...
Quote from gezmoor :Cummings, Auden, Tennyson or Poe.

Tellytubbies! Tellytubbies! Say "Eh-Oh!"

Quote from Electrik Kar :Hip Hop can be interesting and complex music, but I've never found it great for deep listening. Maybe Kev, you could recommend something which could help fit that bill?

I'm not sure I listen to music the same way you do - I'm pretty satisfied with just a big beat and some smart-arse clowning over it. I'll have to have a think.

Off the top of my head though: Galliano, The Roots, Mos Def.
Brilliant stuff!
Nice post, personally been listening to all the rock/heavymetal oldies since I was 9 or so... Still I'd stay that on whole rap is pretty much crap. But I might agree that some of the very early stuff isn't that shit compared to current songs by other artists.

Denim and leather brought us all together
Quote from Becky Rose :I love Iron Maiden, I think they are a truly great band musically, and I say that despite having been punched by the lead singer, who's vocals are awesome.

But they're not a metal band, they're heavy rock. It's very good rock, maybe even the best, but it's no more metal than "Gothic Metal" is metal, except that Gothic Metal at least has metal in the name, despite not being metal....

Ahh gotta love pidgeon holes. Just what the music executives prescribed for us :P

They are metal. It's just the the new kids like to think they are producing something new so continually insist on re-inventing the genre and that includes renaming the sub genre that older bands belong to, (something that really gets on my damn nerves :really.

There is absolutely no doubt that historically Iron Maiden are a Heavy Metal band. In fact they were practically the first band to be called a Metal band. Just because the genre has moved on and gotten a lot more "heavy" doesn't entitle people to recategorise original Metal bands as mere heavy rock. AC/DC are heavy rock, not Iron Maiden.

ps - how on earth did you manage to get punched by Bruce?? by all accounts he's a really nice guy
Quote from Becky Rose :http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R_3ggAfldfg

OMG.. sorry but that's so funny.. Loved the bit about turning around getting ready to smack the little guy only to see the two huge body guards. You really should rework that story though in to how you nearly got picked up by the lead singer of Iron Maiden !
gezmoor couldn't agree with you more... had a seriously annoying conversation with one guy yesterday about Heavy Metal as he kept on moaning that it's not heavy anymore...

Agree on all what ya said except that... "In fact they were practically the first band to be called a Metal band" i still do believe that Judas Priest were one of the firsts to actually be considered Heavy Metal. Iron Maiden took a ride on the wave.

By the way check this british band... 1976? as far as I remember
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hkPAGXcX3H0
Quote from jibber :Try the album "the lost tapes" from NAS, it's one of his best albums IMO.

Cheers, that's one sick album! Love it, cheers for pointing it out
Kanye west, for the love of god..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szUrnEBzx_Q
I've always thought love lockdown was quite a cool song..
But after seeing this live performance, all of that was gone. The worst live performance í've ever heard, especially 2.40. The sound editing must've gone wrong there, lol.. Kanye, keep to rapping you can't sing.
Kev, I love you but you sound like a typical old white guy in this thread. Rap/hip-hop is a fundamentally different type of music than rock/blues/pop. Finding groups in a genre that sound most like the music you grew up with/are familiar with/already like and then canonizing them as the "best" of that genre isn't a terribly productive way of addressing it. Imagine people who grew up with only classical music trying to pick out the best blues musician.

In other words, I don't think you get rap. And that's okay. I don't really get it either. But this kind of posturing doesn't really get us anywhere--you have to approach it on its own terms.
Quote from DeadWolfBones :Kev, I love you but you sound like a typical old white guy in this thread.

And all other threads really. His whiteness is a predominant factor in most of anything he types up, so much that it could be a separate entity. In forum terms it's almost worthy of a user-account of it's own. If it buys a license. Which would be a very white thing to do, mind you.

Rap Music, maybe you don't hate it so much
(162 posts, started )
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