I’m an old rock guy, but one of my recording projects is with a young rapper and his friend the beatmaker.
Girlfriend of beatmaker tells us about her professor at college who raps. He doesn’t just rap on the side, but he is actually known as “the rapping professor”. He raps his curriculum.
She told him about our project, and he wanted to come by and check out a recording session. None of us were really interested in this, but she was all excited so we figured why not. Who knows, maybe he could throw something down on a track. Figured it might be cool to see what this guy brought to the table.
But the guy shows up and he’s not interested in collaborating. He’s not friendly. Not cool at all. Immediately starts rolling out his resume, name dropping, telling us about everything he has done. Tells of a tv special that was done about him. A rap album/book he is working on. Then he asks to hear what we are working on.
At this point, we’re already thinking we want to ditch this guy. But hey, when someone asks to hear your stuff, you play it. So I rolled the protools track we had just started messing with. 10 seconds into the track he starts ripping it apart, telling us what is wrong with it. Now, to be clear, none of us are beyond taking criticism, but most of the things this guy said were either subjective, or not taking into account that we just started working on this. And to be honest, we just didn’t give a rat’s ass what this guy thought.
I pause the track, and he continues talking, he’s in full on lecture mode. He transitions from critiquing the track and gets to his real point, which is to talk about how awesome he is. Why his methods are best. His words are deepest. That he is literally one of the best rappers ever.
At this point, we start doing what guys do to guys like this, which is to take the piss out of him. This guy has some decent points, but mostly he is just out of his mind.
And then this happens…
He turns to me, and starts rapping aggressively to me. Without any music. It's a rap about why he is awesome and generally better than all other rappers. He clearly had rehearsed this a lot, and had it chambered and ready to go for an occasion such as this. It looked like he had even rehearsed the various sneers and other facial expressions that went with the verse.
Now at this point it's getting surreal. Am in a musical? A rap battle? If so, how should I counter? Since I don't rap, should I pick up my bass and slap octaves toward him?
He finishes.
“did you just rap at me?" I say
Friends bust out laughing. He looks even angrier.
But I'm thinking maybe we can break the ice. He came all the way out here, maybe we can bridge the gap. So, he’s crazy. Lots of musicians are. And he’s actually a very good rapper. So I ask him if he wants to try recording something. He declines. Still acting like the hard guy. Then ditches out a little while later.
Musicians are funny.
Girlfriend of beatmaker tells us about her professor at college who raps. He doesn’t just rap on the side, but he is actually known as “the rapping professor”. He raps his curriculum.
She told him about our project, and he wanted to come by and check out a recording session. None of us were really interested in this, but she was all excited so we figured why not. Who knows, maybe he could throw something down on a track. Figured it might be cool to see what this guy brought to the table.
But the guy shows up and he’s not interested in collaborating. He’s not friendly. Not cool at all. Immediately starts rolling out his resume, name dropping, telling us about everything he has done. Tells of a tv special that was done about him. A rap album/book he is working on. Then he asks to hear what we are working on.
At this point, we’re already thinking we want to ditch this guy. But hey, when someone asks to hear your stuff, you play it. So I rolled the protools track we had just started messing with. 10 seconds into the track he starts ripping it apart, telling us what is wrong with it. Now, to be clear, none of us are beyond taking criticism, but most of the things this guy said were either subjective, or not taking into account that we just started working on this. And to be honest, we just didn’t give a rat’s ass what this guy thought.
I pause the track, and he continues talking, he’s in full on lecture mode. He transitions from critiquing the track and gets to his real point, which is to talk about how awesome he is. Why his methods are best. His words are deepest. That he is literally one of the best rappers ever.
At this point, we start doing what guys do to guys like this, which is to take the piss out of him. This guy has some decent points, but mostly he is just out of his mind.
And then this happens…
He turns to me, and starts rapping aggressively to me. Without any music. It's a rap about why he is awesome and generally better than all other rappers. He clearly had rehearsed this a lot, and had it chambered and ready to go for an occasion such as this. It looked like he had even rehearsed the various sneers and other facial expressions that went with the verse.
Now at this point it's getting surreal. Am in a musical? A rap battle? If so, how should I counter? Since I don't rap, should I pick up my bass and slap octaves toward him?
He finishes.
“did you just rap at me?" I say
Friends bust out laughing. He looks even angrier.
But I'm thinking maybe we can break the ice. He came all the way out here, maybe we can bridge the gap. So, he’s crazy. Lots of musicians are. And he’s actually a very good rapper. So I ask him if he wants to try recording something. He declines. Still acting like the hard guy. Then ditches out a little while later.
Musicians are funny.
