Which Coast of Rap Do You Prefer? East or West

East.

I'm an eastie myself, and was kinda shocked as I was going through entering my music collection at the disparity between both.

like i have a lot of dirty south stuff, some of which qualifies, some which doesn't, a slew of East coast shit, and maybe 5% left over is West Coast.

I dunno what it is...I just like the rawness of the East coast albums, especially in the 90's. Especially the stuff from the Northeast, ie Wu-Tang, Nas, Biggie, etc. West Coast to me didn't seem to capture the same vibe, a lot of what I have from there is admittedly the 'Death Row' stuff from the 90s with a few others sprinkled in.

No dirty south for me at all, never got into it. Always been an east coast fan since i was a young kid....growing up on eric b, kool g rap, kane...etc

SOUTH

Definitely East coast. Mostly the same reasons as San Te. All my rap faves are mostly from the East coast school, a handful are from the South, and only a couple from the West.

WEST SIDE 4EVR

getting into hip-hop from a uk perspective, when the regional divisions weren't really front & centre of what people talked about, it was really surprising when i realised a few years ago that all the rappers i really loved enough to be a "fan" of hailed from the south (t.i. and trina being my default favourite rappers of the 00s that i'll always check for)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW6QTyQNakI

for me the south thing was a slow evolver -- like in the last 3-4 years.

lol shakey that album is en route to me at the moment

play

east.

sant te - really? south has been the only real prominent force in hiphop post-blueprint!

(I didn't like Certified...)

not a great album tbh but that song is easily one of the best things on it.

a hoy hoy - well the thing is rap is only like maybe 25% of my music collection, so I usually go through phases where I'm listening to it each year. over the last decade, I delved into undie stuff, and then a lot of it was me delving into 90s releases that I'd missed previously. south rap at one point in time rubbed me the wrong way mostly cuz I had listened to the wrong artists.

when I found T.I., tho, and Lil Wayne (which I was real late in the game on), that changed the game for me.

getting into hip-hop from a uk perspective, when the regional divisions weren't really front & centre of what people talked about, it was really surprising when i realised a few years ago that all the rappers i really loved enough to be a "fan" of hailed from the south (t.i. and trina being my default favourite rappers of the 00s that i'll always check for)

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Thursday, August 5, 2010 12:55 PM (1 minute ago)

I'm curious, when did rap get big in the UK? Were you guys listening back in the 90's when all the NYC classics were dropping, or is it more of a recent thing? It seems that Europe has really become a huge proponent of Southern rap, almost more so than the US. An example being how G-Side's Huntsville International was big overseas, but got majorly slept on over here. Which is too bad, cause that mixtape was a banger.

East by a million miles

getting into hip-hop from a uk perspective, when the regional divisions weren't really front & centre of what people talked about, it was really surprising when i realised a few years ago that all the rappers i really loved enough to be a "fan" of hailed from the south (t.i. and trina being my default favourite rappers of the 00s that i'll always check for)

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Thursday, August 5, 2010 12:55 PM (1 minute ago)

that's kind of odd and surprising, to be honest. it feels like if you follow rap, no matter where you live, you'd end up pretty quickly getting a sense of geography and catching onto to the fact that the city/region a rapper's from is always like one of the top 3 facts everyone knows about them and is constantly mentioned in their music.

when did rap get big in the UK?

Public Enemy

I'm curious, when did rap get big in the UK? Were you guys listening back in the 90's when all the NYC classics were dropping, or is it more of a recent thing?

yeah hip-hop's always had a profile for as long as i've been listening to pop, but the actual hits that cross over and become known hits over here are...sort of random. broadly it's always been NYC-centric; i don't know if i'd have got as into southern rap as i have done over the past decade without, er, the internet.

you'd end up pretty quickly getting a sense of geography and catching onto to the fact that the city/region a rapper's from is always like one of the top 3 facts everyone knows about them and is constantly mentioned in their music

oh yeah, you would get a sense of this, but post-biggie/pac (which i was too young to really follow at the time) it's rarely been framed as antagonistic in the uk - i don't think many uk fans would have any east/west loyalty. snoop's never been marketed in opposition to jay-z over here. and from this perspective, i think the timbaland/neptunes dominance eroded the sonic differences between the regions enough that it wouldn't have been immediately obvious where the rapper behind any given hit in that period hailed from.

hip hop's pop success/chart dominance has eroded a lot of regionalism - which basically peaked in the 90s.

^there is more of a collaborative spirit now, and the cross-pollination of sounds has really enriched the genre as a whole. That being said, the regional stylistic differences are still there. You can't listen to Yelawolf and not immediately know he's from the South. Or listen to Cam'ron and not think of NYC.

Has anything of note, besides the DJ Quik album, come outta the West recently?

um yes

i grew up in the west coast. listened to mostly east coast stuff at first until NWA. was into the early 90s east coast shit but LA underground started coming on strong in the mid/late 90s. was not loving the much main stream stuff in the late 90s from either coast. so yeah this is a tough choice.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSftRFIDAk6hX1vte5YsRuFQZEbzEIYIu9Cye45uGHs3p5E6dk&t=1&usg=__OA9SeB3inhFAwPt8YfZND7qmtq8=
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTRDyJ_8c9a29e_a6Svl2cReXstSOUIYdTRd0fASvvwYSuJf2k&t=1&usg=__nP6SdHjp0xYLafEUn0H4fS2PfzI=

west will likely get underrated in this poll, that said i'm voting east

oh forgot about too short!

fuck it, voted west

and the cross-pollination of sounds has really enriched the genre as a whole.

I disagree with this a lot actually - imho its narrowed most hip hop production sounds down to this lowest-common-denominator eurotrance synth sounds garbage. sad.

which of those two E-40 albums is better? or are they fairly similar? i hate dual-day releases, they leave you all conflicted

That being said, the regional stylistic differences are still there

i get the impression that, with hip-hop being less dominant commercially, regional stylistic differences have come back more and more - agree on all your examples

lol was gonna post the lyrics to Banner's WestSide which is basically a roster of every great rapper in the West, but all the internet transcriptions are wrong (JJ Fag? JJ FAD you idiot lol)

East coast rap has a longer (more dense?) history and a ton more artists to represent it, so this comparison has never really been fair. Despite being a Cali native, I've always liked east coast rap more, but voted west coast because growing up here during the whole Death Row/Tupac era was really fun. West coast backpacker rap acts were much more interesting to me at the time as well. Best Coast totally should've been an option.

I like The Coup a lot...

which of those two E-40 albums is better? or are they fairly similar? i hate dual-day releases, they leave you all conflicted

I like Day Shift more, but I think it was deej that pointed out that the best tracks on Night Shift are the best on both.

http://media.urbandictionary.com/image/page/westside-1680.jpg

West coast backpacker rap acts were much more interesting to me at the time as well. Best Coast totally should've been an option.

^^^

kinda hated the Death Row/Tupac era stuff tho

ANT BANKS

i also have mad love for Domino

the big bad ass

and the cross-pollination of sounds has really enriched the genre as a whole.

I disagree with this a lot actually - imho its narrowed most hip hop production sounds down to this lowest-common-denominator eurotrance synth sounds garbage. sad.

― Party Car! (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, August 5, 2010 1:34 PM (7 seconds ago)

I think the L.C.D. sound has more to do with the general slide towards pop that all music has taken recently. Besides, this is a necessary part of the cycle.

An area(city/coast/whatev) has a specific sound for a long time. That sound starts to stagnate. Elements from other areas are brought into to make the sound fresh again. This is eventually overdone and the music turns into pop radio. Then the revivalists ride in and save the day with a modern take on the classic sound.

Also, I'll have to check out those E-40 albums. Other West coast recs appreciated!

East coast rap has a longer (more dense?) history and a ton more artists to represent it,

oh bullshit. maybe early on if we're counting serious OLD SCHOOL stuff like the Funky Four+1 and Ramellzee and stuff but once the 80s rolled up the West coast was right there. Too $hort's first tape is 1985, 6 in the Mornin, Egyptian Lover is 1983, tons of electro stuff around that time, etc.

World Class Wrreckin' Cru y'all

King Tee!

king tee....holy crap, theres a name i haven;t heard since i was 13.

tru dat to an extent, no need to bark. but commercially speaking, east coast rap had a stronger presence in the 80's/early 90's...that's why west coast rap blew up as an alternative to that sound.

I'll grant that commercially the East Coast owned pre-1987. once NWA came in, all bets were off tho.

it's funny to look back and see how clear the sonic/production style distinctions were - part of that just came down to different scenes having access to different technology, but another big difference was the sample sources. those differences have largely evaporated. there's still some regional distinctions, but they're much more subtle/harder to discern

yea i mean if you throw a mid 90's rap album on for 25 seconds, I could tell you where it was produced within moments.

shout out to Above the Law, some of my favorite rap ever

yes, great ones even!

My favorite Mix-A-Lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDjmq913nkM

lol didn't he have one called Seattle Ain't Bullshittin'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6rJkG1hiZY&feature=fvst

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX2vhSockUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO4doGf7sZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYKbBkb8BSQ

voted west but it's really pretty much 50/50 for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGJSPQAfSUY&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2HQ7dkJfeo

rolling your eyes at such a mild opinion is some boy-who-cried-wolf overuse of the eyeroll

how about you chill and let people have opinions that're diff from yours sometimes

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Tuesday, August 10, 2010 12:38 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if anyone but me posted it u would have cosigned. dudes who only know dr. dre & tupac and souls of mischief dissing the west coast deserves rmde & smh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAfIPoe8_1Q

i dont get it -- are we just posting any youtubes ever right now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99vmT7T5JNo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UTpuikhMGU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDow1lTQLJc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ypvro3hf6cU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BEAatxJfrk

cuz i can do this all day

if anyone but me posted it u would have cosigned. dudes who only know dr. dre & tupac and souls of mischief dissing the west coast deserves rmde & smh

dude you know how you imagine that people besides you are even paying any attention whatsoever to who's posting & worrying about whether they're continuing some meaningless beef or other? this is where you are wrong.

i dont actually even remember who posted that -- its just my deal to rail against generic received wisdom abt the west coast or puffy or tupac or whatever else

push comes to shove maybe my fav rap song ever

so thrilling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzcdmGINcqI

deej

even people who don't pay any attention whatsoever to rap know more about west coast hip hop than snoop & pac & nwa & cube & e40 & stones throw

your little kvlt section of the world is actually not kvlt or little

sorry

what a patchy selection of performers

They'll scroll out of sight soon enough. One man, one vote. That's what makes America great.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=XnXcd9fpxlE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV6CD36buKc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1YqJGLZgb8&feature=fvw

Mmmm hard question. I think east coast rappers have better lyrical ideas but west coast rappers tend to have the best use of beats and samples.

srsly tho, this is just posting videos from...all of rap? and we can't engage someone who thinks one coast is "patchy" excepting a few big names in comparison to another? if u don't wanna get rolled up on then don't make sweeping faux-omniscient statements u aren't prepared to back up.

back in jan i used to think it was kinda crappy that most rap was off in a sot of ghetto and wanted to make posts to open it up to the wider board & get generalists hearing shit &etc. but the more rap threads i read the more i saw a sort of blase kind of embarrassing treatment followed by mad defensiveness and shut-down if anyone dares point out it's kind of cringe-inducing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2UeKEmFJ34

srsly tho, this is just posting videos from...all of rap? LOL yeah

but the more rap threads i read the more i saw a sort of blase kind of embarrassing treatment followed by mad defensiveness and shut-down if anyone dares point out it's kind of cringe-inducing.

^^^

*sigh*

srsly tho, this is just posting videos from...all of rap?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsabHVqKE0E

^^2:20 answers the question "Who is the Nate Dogg of francophone rap?"

kvlt zing was pretty fucking good, imo

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

since I've started this poll I've been listening to almost exclusively dirty south, lol. don't think the results of this one will be too surprising

time to hang my noose :(

i did buy an E-40 album partially inspired by one of the clips you posted

In a Major Way, specifically

tbf to deej's arguments, i've never heard of the whoridas and so i was just another ignorant person voting for east coast raps.

don't forget to vote.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

that wasn't the trouncing I feared it might be, but I agree with the results. I'm assuming the OThers are probably "south".

if it was only rap in the 00s it would have to be south

y'know what's funny is since this poll, my vote wouldn't change, but it wouldn't be slam dunk either. really got into the west coast coke rap scene (sorry deej I KNOW IT ISN'T A SUBGENRE PER YOU) and plus the classic shit.

idk like I mean west coast shit has more of a place in my collection now. has anybody else changed course on this vote?

If I'd been in time I would've voted East. (Maybe because that's where I hail from? I don't know. I can't get behind much West Coast rap for sheer listening pleasure for some reason.)

I can't read this thread without turning into the Incredible Hulk.

i'm definitely not the Eastie-cum-South stan that I was. I bought just about every E-40 release on drop date in the early '10s lol.

playin Jacka today, as well.

YG earlier in the week.

things change

also I underrated tf out of Pac in this thread, jesus. I still can quote a huge chunk of All Eyez On Me. I played "Only God Can Judge Me" recently.

one of the local news channels did a documentary on “bay area rap” last year and one thing that struck me was a KMEL DJ saying that (generalization) east coast records were engineered more for headphone listening and west coast records were made for driving in cars, hence sonic differences...

I know... “duh”