Rap and Hip-Hop

Eh, markup doesn't like me. I'll learn someday. Just you wait. D:

I dunno about you guys, but to me hip-hop is very, very inconsistent in quality. So many artists will have one good album and then release a lot of merely ok/average material. It's crazy. D:

edited 24th Nov '09 11:07:02 AM by Neccy60

the handful of good mainstream rappers either end up as one-hit-wonders

You know who I wish had more mainstream success? Nappy Roots. They released one good album, a follow-up that I loved to death but nobody else cared about apparently, and then they vanished off the face of the earth.

edit: Wait, never mind, they had their third album last year. Still, a five year gap is kind of big in the music industry.

edited 24th Nov '09 11:44:24 AM by English Ivy

Never heard of them. Will check them out after I'm done getting Kid Cudi. :3

I dunno about you guys, but to me hip-hop is very, very inconsistent in quality. So many artists will have one good album and then release a lot of merely ok/average material. It's crazy. D:

True enough, but that makes the 10% that release excellent material consistently worth looking for.

Also, Ivy, isn't the Nappy Roots that side project of the producer from Black Moon? Or am i thinking of someone else?

PS: My avatar is watching u

I dunno about you guys, but to me hip-hop is very, very inconsistent in quality. So many artists will have one good album and then release a lot of merely ok/average material. It's crazy. D:

You're telling me, I actually spent money on a copy of Common's "Universal Mind Control".

Another thing is Dead Prez, easily one of my favourites; they seem to have a poolicy of making their albums just a bit too long with just a bit too many songs, including one with some spoken woord segment or something that makes it annoying to listen to several times.

Hm. Can't really comment on the current topic, not owning any rap albums aside from that one Public Enemy album (It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - overlong title, I have to say), an album that was great all the way through IMO.

Slightly off-topic (yet on-topic at the same time):

I've just had a proper listen to dalek and Aesop Rock, and they're both awesome. dalek (I'm under the impression that their name has to be lowercase, am I wrong?) in particular seem to be right up my alley.

edited 24th Nov '09 2:52:18 PM by Lordnecronus

Lord: You are not wrong if you think that's overlong try How You Sell Your Soul to A Soulless People Who Sold They Soul?, which is their most recent.

also. -clears throat- AESOP ROCK

@Lordnec: Yep, dalek's name is supposed to be undercase. Actually it's also supposed to have a umalut (whatever those two dots are)above the a, as in "dälek". They are indeed very awesome. You like metal, and like I said in a previous topic, they're better to digest with a like of that an/or shoegaze. Good job. :3

edited 24th Nov '09 11:43:36 PM by Neccy60

That's called an umlaut, and I do believe we have a trope for it's usual use in band and artist names

Hip Hop Umlaut?

That needs to be a trope. I don't know if it would get many examples, though.

edited 25th Nov '09 7:36:59 AM by Lordnecronus

I'm listening to "Liqid Swords" now.

Hmm... I don't know, it's pretty cool, but the thing is, it hasn't really aged well in my eyes (ears?); since more or less everyone since Wu-Tang has been copying their act, it no longer feels very oiginal.

Swordsman is still an awesome track. But yeah, that's kinda true.

Lord: The group i was briefly producer for had an umlaut above a "Y".

Wu-Tang are copied too much, but then again, a good deal of hip-hop is reworking the old into the new.

Ÿ is occasionally used in French, and it's still not as bad as Spın̈al Tap, which is really hard to print correctly.

Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut, by the way.

edited 25th Nov '09 10:22:43 AM by Tzetze

I never really liked Wu-Tang Clan's albums (talking about the group and not the solo albums) after Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Everything is mostly mediocre from then on, with the occasional good song sprinkled here and there.

Neccy: A lot of groups are like that, Hip-Hop or otherwise.

Yeah, but with Wu-Tang Clan it's a lot more noticeably, because to me Enter The Wu-Tang is a classic, 11/10 star album, and there's such a big dropoff. It doesn't happen all the time, though (happily). Nas has been consistently more-or-less good since Illmatic. :3

Neccy: I've always been put off by Nas. I don't really know why, i don't think he's bad, i just don't listen to his stuff much.

El: Whoa man. D: Well, I admit that Illmatic took me some time to get into, but once I did it was awesome. :D Try his songs NY State of Mind, Life's A Bitch, and The World is Yours again, at least. :)

Nas is someone I don't really get. He's just... a really confusing personality alotogether. Or maybe that's just because I have "America" on my playlist and hear the verse "Lipstick from marilyn Monroe blowing a death kiss to Fidel Castro" about four itimes a week and still haven't figure out what the hell it's supposed to mean.

Jethro: Metaphorical no doubt. If i had the lyrics to the entirety of the song i could probably tell you.

Neccy: As i've said, i don't dislike Nas at all, he was never big in my area. i just never got into him, i'll check those songs then though.

have fun

I know i did.

? I don't see the point of confusion. It's an odd way of putting it, but seems like he's just bragging about his rise above poverty.

That particular line is quite odd, he seems to be using Castro as a proxy for "his people" though i'm not sure what the two have in common.

Probably Critical Research Failure on his part.

Although i could be completely wrong. But, whatever.

So, I really like the intro to Samurai Champloo. It's pretty much one of the kinds of rap/hip-hop I really like and I was wondering if y'all could recommend me some stuff that sounds similar.

For reference:

It's close to Trip-Hop,, and not surprisingly (due to him being Japanese), DJ Krush does a stuff lot like that. If you want rap, check the albums where he has guest vocalists, since he's silent. You can also work from there; Aesop Rock, Mos Def...