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What Is Your View On Rap/Hip-Hop?

#121
I haven't listened to much of it. The time it started coming on and becoming popular was around the time that I started phasing out listening to the radio.

I've got a handful of CDs of some stuff I like though. 'Straight Outta Compton' is great, not necessarily for the lyrical content (which is over-the-top like a Peckinpah or Tarantino movie), but the production and the grooves by Dr.Dre. I think 'Paul's Boutique' is a masterpiece, in a big part due to the Dust Brothers. I've got some other stuff...Dr. Octagon, Poor Righteous Teachers, Dre's 'The Chronic', etc.

I remember digging this Dre. groove/bassline when I heard it on the radio, and how each group brought something different to the song:



While I can appreciate hip hop with socially conscious or particularly clever lyrics, that's not what grabs me -if it grabs me- in that genre of music. If it's got an interesting groove/ingenious production, it will catch my attention.
 
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#122
Discarding a whole genre is showing ignorance, in my opinion. I do love Johnny Cash, George Jones, Dolly Parton, and I enjoyed many others, but still I can't stand to listen to most C&W.

I learned to listen to rap and hiphop when I taught music class to a group inner city kids in the mid nineties. I found it is just like any other genre - most of it is so-so, some of it is really great. Back then it was the flow of Snoop Dogg that drew me in. Picked up a taste for Cypress Hill, Public Enemy and more R&B related acts such TonyToniTone, and there's the ongoing blues/hiphop mix of G Love and Special Sauce that I dig to this day.

Of the more recent acts, I've been digging Wax, Shabazz Palaces, Republic of Loose, Child of LOV.
 
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#125
Yeah im a fan. I used to have a few gripes with sampling and how people werent writing their own music but I have decided that i used to be an idiot.

Sampling opens up old music to an entire new generation and audience a lot of the time and people do sometimes find out who cut the original track and voila: new fans emerge. Also sometimes sampling is done in really interesting and creative ways. After making some hip hop myself it really is an artform. and so what if they just use the same 4 bar loop? Have you heard some of the flows these guys have? INCREDIBLE. a lot more social, political and revolutionary words coming from these guys thhan the rock scene these days.

As for the basslines, some of them are incredible. Like unbelievable. Roots Manuva from the UK really is phenomenal in his priduction and originality. check out his first 3 albums. Dub inspired bashment fused UK rap at its finest.

Big fan, wish I was in a hip hop band.
 
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#127
I've done my fair share of chopping, and have worked with a handful of emcees on the underground tip. In fact, I picked up bass initially to add some extra authenticity to the low end beneath loops. Fretless j with the tone dialed down gives you a pretty nice sub-bass sound with subtle envelope.

But living in Atlanta, I know a million trash rappers and a hundred really dope ones. Cats like J-Live and Clan Destined and Boog Brown are out here nicely blending classic sounds with modern thinking & aesthetic. J-Live will spit and scratch his records at the same damn time, too, and THAT is a good time.
 
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#128
Well, I'm off to do a hip-hop gig. Not on bass, though, I'm taking my computer, though I did produce some of the beats and use my own sample libraries of my own basses in at least two, so I'm sort of playing bass in a roundabout way.
 
#129
Funk$tar said:
I just want to clarify that I am a fan of real MC's from the "Golden Age" of Hip-Hop and not that stuff you hear on the radio people call, "Rap." I appreciate the art form or any art form that expresses one's feelings and what not, but I don't appreciate when a newer generation of rappers completely dismantles an art form by insulting woman, cursing every 5 seconds, discussing the same controversial subject in every song, and so much more. I know a lot of you bass players on here are older and may not understand the art form at all, but to people like me who are from impoverished areas where dealing drugs and killing is encouraged, Hip-Hop was a way for some people living in those areas to relate to one another and escape that reality together. Just like any other genre of music, Hip-Hop has it's artists that helped define that genre and that are still trying to keep it going, while other people simply take it and mold it into a way to vent their feelings about ridiculous crap like Sex, Drugs, and...well mainly those two. I appreciate Hip-Hop and hope others can do the same and learn not to judge from what they hear on the radio, but from what they hear from the past MC's who actually were trying to tell their stories and true feelings about all things meaningful.
Well anyways, what's your guy's view of Rap/Hip-Hop?
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Deoindra, you do realize that much of the rap/hip hop coming out in the late 80s and early 90s did exactly what you're suggesting it didnt? i.e. degrading women, advocating murder, drug and gang centered? I mean drugs and sex are at the core of rap music. Its really hard to disentangle them. I think the newer rap (though I certainly dont listen to much of it) focuses more on chorus based non sense centered around a dance like "the dougie" (forgive me Im a few years behind lol). Tupac, Biggie, NWA, Eminem, Jay-Z etc can all be considered exemplars of "good" rap and yet they all have talked about these things that you consider negative and whats gone wrong with rap. Its been there from the start, but certainly began to take a hold by the early 90's. Thoughts?
 
#130
Love it, Old stuff like Beastie boys (Paul's Boutique is imo one of the best rap albums of all time), NWA, Dre, Snoop etc, And new stuff like Danny Brown, Kendrick Lemar (recently got into him), SchoolboyQ (recent thing too), Zelooperz, Childish Gambino, Odd Future and Death Grips (one of the best experimental rap groups of the past decade)

Edit: Oops I forgot Doom.
 
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#131
Saying what's your opinion on rap and hip hop is like asking what is your opinion on rock and pop. As long as it is using mostly real instruments, and not just samples, and does not get into patently objectionable lyrics (copkiller, or abuse of women for example) while it is not my cup of tea, there is some decent stuff.

My son likes Pit Bull - went to see his last year, and it was good to see that he was using real instruments for the most part - sax, bass, guitar, real drums along with the keyboards and samples.
 
#133
I usually wouldn't state any of this on TB but since the question was asked, I absolutely hate it, can't stand it. To me, there is almost nothing original or musical about it. Most rap artists (and I use the term artist loosely) sample (steal) another artist's work, change some of the lyrics and try to call it their own. (Vanilla Ice stealing Queen's "Under Pressure, Shaggy stealing Juice Netwon's "Angel of the Morning" , P Diddy stealing The Police's "Every Breath You Take") It is the worst thing ever happened to music. I love Aerosmith but lost all respect for them when they teamed with RUN DMC on "Walk This Way".

The other day I saw a billboard for a radio station. It said "Number 1 for Rap, Hip Hop and Throwbacks". My only thought was that I wish someone would throw Rap and Hip Hop back to wherever they came from. Rap, you can't spell CRAP without it.
 
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#135
Kmonk said:
I usually wouldn't state any of this on TB but since the question was asked, I absolutely hate it, can't stand it. To me, there is almost nothing original or musical about it. Most rap artists (and I use the term artist loosely) sample (steal) another artist's work, change some of the lyrics and try to call it their own. (Vanilla Ice stealing Queen's "Under Pressure, Shaggy stealing Juice Netwon's "Angel of the Morning" , P Diddy stealing The Police's "Every Breath You Take") It is the worst thing ever happened to music. I love Aerosmith but lost all respect for them when they teamed with RUN DMC on "Walk This Way". Rap, you can't spell CRAP without it.
Click to expand...
'stealing' happens everywhere in music.
 
#136
I think Rap is way overplayed at this point. They're down to repetitive phrases, hoots and hollars. Have been since about 2004. I don't like the drug dealer/prostitute image many of the rappers are going for either. "Then why has it survived for so long?" Anybody with a quick whit can do it.

There is some good Rap out there, only because of the song they're talking over.
 
#137
Just another corporate profit center, co-opted from the get-go.
I find much of it very unmusical, and many of the lyrics dehumanizing.
I don't want to paint it all with the same brush, but I hate most of what I've heard and consider it a low point in an otherwise immensely important and rich history of African-American music.
 
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#138
Anyone who doesn't like Hip Hop just needs to listen to MM.. Food in its entirety once....or The Chronic....or 36 Chambers

Hip Hop is just as subjective as any other Genre so you're going to get a million different answers. Theres something infectious about a TR-808 and a sample on loop thats just so infectious

Ill say I'm not old...under 30 (gettin there) but I love listening to Rapp Snitch Knishes as much as I do Mephisto Waltz by Franz Liszt...good music is good music, an open mind goes a long way

On a side note most of the stuff past MM..Food (2004) is absolutely s**t and I wouldnt touch it with a 10 ft pole
 
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#139
wisconsindead said:
Deoindra, you do realize that much of the rap/hip hop coming out in the late 80s and early 90s did exactly what you're suggesting it didnt? i.e. degrading women, advocating murder, drug and gang centered? I mean drugs and sex are at the core of rap music. Its really hard to disentangle them. I think the newer rap (though I certainly dont listen to much of it) focuses more on chorus based non sense centered around a dance like "the dougie" (forgive me Im a few years behind lol). Tupac, Biggie, NWA, Eminem, Jay-Z etc can all be considered exemplars of "good" rap and yet they all have talked about these things that you consider negative and whats gone wrong with rap. Its been there from the start, but certainly began to take a hold by the early 90's. Thoughts?
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Oh no I agree!
I don't remember saying it didn't, but I forget a lot! haha
Yeah, a lot of West Coast music really influenced that kind of subject matter!
I mean East coast rap did too, but West coast rap really glorified it!
I think I'm focusing way too much on the more older artists like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, The Treacherous Three, Salt N Pepa, The Fat Boys, Run DMC, and etc...
It makes it really hard to appreciate rappers like Biggie and Tupac when they released songs like, "Me & My (insert bad word for girl)" and "How Do You Want It." I guess I just feel like those songs were there attempt to show everyone they were not to be messed with, but I feel like I really see there true sides in songs like, "Miss U" or "Thugs Mansion."
Sorry to make things confusing! So much to consider and really evaluate when it comes to this stuff because there's always the pros and cons!
 
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#140
Since you asked opinions, I'll give you mine. None of the "rap" of today is musical. It all sounds the same, crappy lyrics and even worse, sampled from another musician. I could go into a whole thing about my opinion but I'm sure most don't want to hear it. Being in my mid 40's, I can however say that Sugar Hill Gang was a fresh idea when it first came out. I can actually listen to some of the older stuff like that and can appreciate it. What I cant is today, somebody takes a song, ex. Every Breath You Take, uses the music but puts their lyrics to it, really. Honestly, I absolutely HATE rap.
 

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