Platonic ILM Rap Bullshit thread

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hahaha a ghostface album in 2006 being the saviour of rap? - i mean this sort of proves my point

xpost haha sorry alex. i guess i'm corny, what can i say??

xxpost: i'm not talking about sales, deeej, read the question again, christ amighty

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I think it's meant in the spirit of "all white male rock critics critique like this."

Which is bullshit.

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Look at jazz; hell, Benny Goodman was one of those suburban white kids who fed upon those seedy after hours dives. Glen Miller - there's your posuer (of the 40s, anyways). Jazz in the 50s and early 60s is where it's at, so, i'd say tht rap need to age a bit more before we see a greater evolution.

It's an interglacial period, man.

NIGGA, IF YOU AX ME IT'S THE ONLY WAY

TAKE MONEY
TAKE MONEY MONEY MONEY

http://home.uchicago.edu/~jniimi/dylan.jpg

is that what you think mike? i just meant it's not "getting better" the way i felt it was ca. 1998-2002 ... it's now "getting worse"

eppy would you care to fill me in on your thinking here, dude

anyway, as mentioned, even if you need to stick to NY, the new Ghostface is very strong, Cam'ron has a record next month that's much anticipated, the new Dipset mixtapes (The Movement Moves on, Who Else But Us) are pretty solid.

also as mentioned, the South is where it's at these days, with Pimp C out of jail, I'm hoping we get at least one more classic record out of UGK. plus Trae, the most underrated/overlooked rapper around, has his new disc dropping soon. the new T.I. is disappointing, though.

and as long as I'm here, Jay-Z is (and always has been) overrated and Eminem is awful.

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as far as getting "called" on comparing rap's two biggest names (still) to two of jazz's two biggest names - i dunno? what?

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Tracer, I'm in no position to speak authoritatively about this, but here's at least one dynamic that I think might be in play in the sense of "worsening": the current default persona of MCs seems kind of calcified, and it's a persona that doesn't necessarily lend itself to a lot of variation! Or at least it makes variation risky, because a lot of the game has become the ability to live up to existing templates. (They can be highly skilled within these templates, but it feels -- to me, anyway -- like there's a lot of risk involved in trying to escape them. And it's bottom-line sales BUSINESS risk, at a time when a lot of the existing narrative of rap is that it's a personal business enterprise, a competition, a way of climbing up an already-existing ladder.) I think that's part of why Eminem could be one of the big things "happening" to rap over the past decade; he didn't so much have the option to compete in terms of Default Persona, and so he's had much more of a burden to make something new happen outside of it. (We could maybe arrange a much more complicated story around Andre 3000 -- not to mention other pop and rap stars -- and this very visible quest to find new ways to be, ones that sit outside the Default Persona but aren't business suicide.) ("Consciousness" seems to be the one that's viable as business, but I think for some of these artists that seems like as much of a template as rap's Default Persona.) This isn't to say that variation and newness are the same thing as goodness -- but I think a lack of them can lead to a feeling of routine, which is what I think people mean or are reacting to when they say something's gotten "worse." (I.e. maybe it's not "worse," but just not getting fresher and "better" at the rate one expects.)

And so where we do get the variation now seems to be coming less from the rappers and more from the producers, which isn't anything so new but seems relevant: cf in terms of the Southern stuff it feels like a procession of regionalist beats, almost "new dance craze" style, where the form of the writing and production are pushing things and the MCs are more just faces for it. Which, again, isn't new or bad, and totally has lots of analogs in, e.g., black music of the 60s. (Or, more appropriately, other forms of dance music!) But one result of that in the short term might be that even when things are kind of new, they don't necessarily feel new, because they're not entirely wrapped up in an all-round vision -- there are beat and mood variations, like heading to a different party in a different city every now and then (cf electronic dance music again), but nothing necessarily seems to converge from it, which might create a sense of routine. The good news is that this sort of model tends to be the kind that identifiably new and happening and non-routine things tend to spring from -- only in stages and given time.

Again, out of my ass (and after a weekend of listening to too much My Ghetto Report Card), but Tracer's question was a perfectly normal one and surely someone should try to engage with it.

only one thing I mentioned. let me guess: you've never heard a Trae record?

"as far as getting "called" on comparing rap's two biggest names (still) to two of jazz's two biggest names - i dunno? what?"

don't confuse sales with quality, they're separate things. Miles and Duke both had fifty year careers. maybe Eminem is Benny Goodman? jazz survived just fine after he left.

Miles leaving in 1975 did signal the end of jazz as a creative genre, but I just think those specific comparisons are silly.

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Has Tracer Hand copped goldfronts or are his teef really just that yellow ?

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el-p and bun-b collaborating on one heatrock

why does everybody on def jux look like theyre in fall-out boy now

I kind of assumed B was wearing baggy jeans and had pissed himself there for a bit.

El-Pete Wentz

haha nice bag of weed there

instead of actually listening to this im just gonna do a blend of pocket full of stones over fire in which you burn

http://home.uchicago.edu/~jniimi/keithjessmatos.JPG

"jon passantino" - i'm not sure what your point is, since none of those people have posted?

generic fat joe record >>>> your favorite album

this used to be true ;_;

stfu BIG HOOS aka the steendriver

― and what, Sunday, April 1, 2007 3:21 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

^^^ advice for life

PD187: BAD BOY ROLL CALL
PD187: G DEP!
PD187: BLACK ROB!
PD187: MARK CURRY!
PD187: LOOOOOOOOON!

RIP the days of effortless crunk-by-numbers party anthems

I was sure someone was going to be talking about the new Q-Tip in this revive

Devin the Dude is another great Houston guy I forgot to mention earlier, good call. his To Tha X-Treme record from last year is superb, consistent all the way through. he's like the Snoop of Houston, laid-back, funky grooves, all about weed and women.

― J Abbey, Thursday, April 13, 2006 8:07 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

El-Pete Wentz

― deej, Wednesday, May 30, 2007 5:47 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

^^keeping this potential screen name in the holster

J Sarge in The Big Brodown

http://home.uchicago.edu/~jniimi/keithjessmatos.JPG

Poll or blingee, whichever

I feel David Banner showed us the way with his invention of a sympathetic rapper, a rapper not totally obsessed with "pussy" and "bling," a rapper willing to experiment with SOUNDS (slowing his music down, "Screwed and Chopped"). I also appreciate the street sounds of Paul Wall and Jim Jones and DFL, bass heavy neo-krunk tracks that I can really nod my head to. I think their LANGUAGE is just so amazing, irregardless of what they're SAYING. Girl, shake that Laughy Taffy, shake that Laughy Taffy.

I think rap needs to reach out to DJs and writers like Lemon Red and Emynd and the Fader Crew. Their writing about hip-hop is actual WRITING, not just scanned press releases like The Source or XXXL or Pounds. I think those guys getting rappers like Bun Bee to "collabo" with rappers like MIA and TTC created the most interesting music of the last little while-- to my ears, anyways. Groups like The Fiery Furnaces and Sufjan should be reaching out to fellow artists from the Southern and Bay rap scene.

I'd be willing to place a wager that a lot of people on this thread haven't been following the music close enough to have heard a lot of it. Dem Franchize Boyz, Marc Decoca, Pimp C, Trae, Pastor Troy, Lil Keke.

― 3333333, Wednesday, April 12, 2006 10:01 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalin

haha @ the fiery furnaces

Hurrah! *reps the bay* ;-)

― and what, Thursday, March 1, 2007 1:17 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

here is a famous rapper on the new cover of the world's leading rap magazine

http://nahright.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/xxl-jan-curtis.jpg

not trying to brag, but i've seen LOON in concert. just sayin'

EYE CANDY OF
THE YEAR!
LIL WAYNE
MAX B.
NELLY
DMX
BOW
WOW

not trying to brag, but i've seen LOON in concert. just sayin'

― any major some dude will tell you (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, November 19, 2008 3:04 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ahahahaha when was this

i went to a car show and clipse & fat joe were performing...loon was the first opener...he was about as good as you'd expect

Loon is now not on good terms with J.R. Writer, when J.R. recorded a song which samples Notorious B.I.G.'s song Spit Yo Game titled "Talk Yo Shit". In the song, he makes negative comments about Loon's intelligence and him being broke all the time. Loon has not yet responded to the diss song, but is still not on good terms with J.R..

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/Clash_of_the_titans_cover_DVD_330o.jpg

Surprised no one's mentioned the upcoming Saigon/Just Blaze album. Isn't it supposed to save hip hop or something?

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 21:52 (2 years ago) Bookmark

[rep]space[/rep]

space is dope imo

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Hurrah! *reps the bay* ;-)

Everything currently bad and wrong about rap can be blamed on D4L.
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, April 12, 2006

remember when people thought d4l was the nadir?

+--++-+-: sterlclover: i actually downloaded diplo's "florida" because i was curious.
hotelopera: hollercurious
+--++-+-: 'im just....experimenting'

― +--++-+-, Thursday, April 13, 2006 12:53 PM

Everything currently bad and wrong about rap can be blamed on D4L.
― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, April 12, 2006

remember when people thought d4l was the nadir?

― the terius of a goon (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, December 15, 2009 4:23 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that album is a classic

Oh, now don't get bitter.
Sure, rap is getting worse, but I think that the reason that this is happening is that there is just so much more of it nowadays that the market is being dilluted. The flood of new releases represents, at least to me, a huge land grab - get money while you can. Drop an album with one or (at most) two hot singles, and fill the rest with idiotic skits and half-assed tracks.

On another front, the lack of wide-spread "conscious" rap - rap that addresses issues away from the person speaking - indicates a self-centeredness of the genre that is creating a huge amount of inertia to get away from.

I would like to hear a well-crafted rap song delineating George W. Bush's transgressions as president. Or one telling the story of a family left without a home in Katrina - xxpost Sterling

It is a valid art form, but the life it is imitating now is all money and sex. It needs to delve deeper, in my mind.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Wednesday, April 12, 2006 1:57 PM (3 years ago)

this dude is like dat nigga delmar's evil twin or something