What Is Your View On Rap/Hip-Hop?

[basschanges]

Back in the days when I was a teenager. Before I had status and before I had a pager.You could find the abstract listening to hip hop. My pops used to say, it reminded him of be-bop

Rap and hip hop can be music but I think its main focus is lyrical and not musical and so it's usually not very interesting musically to me.

I still love it.

 

[Funk$tar]

Rap and hip hop can be music but I think its main focus is lyrical and not musical and so it's usually not very interesting musically to me. I still love it.

Exactly, great point!
It's like we as bassist are going to know and listen to Victor Wooten, but for someone who is not a musician, a lot would probably have no clue who he was because there used to songs with lyrics (Yes, I know some of Vic's stuff contains lyrics but a majority of it is instrumental). It's all based on personal preference which is what inspires artists to strive to be different and create something out of what their used to that maybe other people aren't.

 

[Richland123]

This is about the only "Rap" I like.

The Jaggerz - The Rapper (Donnie Iris was in this band)

 

[Rich Terry]

Give me some old Sam and Dave, George Duke, Earth Wind and Fire, Cool and the Gang, Chick Corea, Weather Report, Passport, Buddy Guy and the list goes on.

 

[10cc]

My view is I love:
PE
Boogie Down Productions
Eric B and Rakim
EPMD*
Special Ed*
Stetsasonic
Kool Moe Dee
Big Daddy Kane*
Tribe**
NERD**
Beasties
People Under the Stairs
De La
Jungle Bros.*
Too Short*
Wu Tang
LL
Eazy*
Quasimoto**
Black Sheep*
Gangstarr
Lauren Hill
MC Lyte**
Rob Base
Young MC
Master P
The Pharcyde*
Roxanne Shante
Rick Ross
Digable Planets
Geto Boys*
Grand Puba
Gravediggaz**
Kurtis Blow*
Killer Mike
Die Antwoord***

Got see the first thirty seconds of a 2Live Crew show around 1990. Still have a Fat Boys tape. Got to see BB's Check Your Head Tour! *'s are for some of my favs!

 

[Jay Mastro]

The Chronic by Dr. Dre has some fantastic basslines, especially Let Me Ride

 

[Spirit of Ox]

The best rapper is from England believe it or not. Goes by the name of Slick Rick.

 

[Funky Ghost]

Some that break the mold are pretty spectacular. Jurrasic5 are fantastic.

I'm a sucker for the old school so Ice-T (Squeeze the Trigger is a legit track) Eazy E, Luke Skyywalker, Eric B & Rakim, Cool Moe Dee, Redman, Method Man, Too Short, Public Enemy and NWA will always sit at my personal top.

 

[rx jr.]

hmm come to think of it, i dislike rock as much as i dislike hip-hop. it really depends on who i am listening to.

 

[GregC]

Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm currently playing with an emcee.

No samples, no loops. Bass, guitar, keys, drums, mic. And yep, it's a hip-hop group.


Most music in the genre is nothing like what Sean P. Puff Puffy Diddy Daddy Combs was doing, jacking entire songs for easy profit value. He was an outlier and is morally bankrupt across the board. Equating all of it to him is unfair and dismissive.


It's clear by these responses that it's not the music that some TBers object to, it's the entire concept of hip-hop. And it looks like there's a lot of grossly uninformed opinions about it as well, which I guess is to be expected. Still disappointing to read.

Agreed. Some of the generalizations are remarkable to me, and it's not like I'm some young pup who's been surrounded by the music his entire life--just most of it (I'm 51).
I have to admit, the one that really got me was a blues musician saying that rap artists need to think outside the box. Oy vey!

 

[Gaolee]

Also, it would be pretty interesting to collect data on opinion about rap/hip-hop and political view (or party they align with) to see if there is any correlation.

I suspect that correlation would be pretty weak, relative to correlations of other kinds. I would expect age and geographic background to be a bit more of a correlation, but that's probably pretty weak, too. I'm sure there are old, white Republicans in Montana who crank rap music whenever they can and young, black, Democrats in New York who can't stand rap and would rather listen to Beethoven string quartets. I'm stretching the point a little, but I seriously doubt there would be much of an ideological bias shown by rap listeners overall. Some specific bands and artists, sure, just like Ted Nugent fans are probably not representative of all people who listen to 1970s hard rockers.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was released a few weeks after my 13th birthday. I was a white, middle-class, suburban kid. I knew of slavery, MLK and the Civil Rights Act, which to my young mind, meant everything was OK for minorities in the US. We're all equal now, just like in The Cosby Show. Nation of Millions blew my mind. For all the great tracks on the album (Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos is brilliant), it was the last track on the album that really got me. Sampling the Beastie Boys hit "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (to Party)", they rearranged a few words and told me that no matter how bad things may be, celebrate the fact that we have the opportunity to change things. A fitting finale to an artistic masterpiece of the late 20th century.

 

[Marial]

Hip hop? Yeah, I dig it, especially late eighties/early/mid-nineties. That's my era. PE, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Digable, De La, Black Sheep, Gang Starr, Eric B & Rakim, MC Solaar, Pharcyde, BDP, Rebirth of Cool, etc. Yeah, the Beasties, too. Never really got into the Gangsta thing, so I don't know much about Biggie, Tupac, .50 etc. I do like Ice Cube, though. Never listened to Nas, Hova, or Yeezus much. Past my time? I'll have to check them out at some point, though.

Interesting thread... I haven't thought much about Spyze in a very long time. I saw Primus open up for them in the dark ages in a tiny club in Cleveland. I came out of that one black and blue, but that was back when I played hardcore. I've always liked Living Color, and both Muzz and Doug Wimbish are monsters (speaking of hip hop, Doug's been in it from the beginning). I think Corey's vocals have held them back, though. To me he's their Morrisey, though I'll take Corey over moping moz any day.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

How about Urban Dance Squad. I stood out in the cold (35F) rain to watch them play at a bar once when I was underage. Very cool guys. Talked to them before the show and they were bummed that I couldn't get in. They told the doorman they wouldn't start until he opened the side door so that I could see and hear from outside.

 

[Frank Tuesday]

Before Spearhead, Michael Franti was in a group called Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Before that, he was in the Beatnigs. Live instruments, power tools, samples.

 

[azureblue]

My two cents: Rap is basically a storytelling chant. There is little to no melody to the words, so this really poetry spoken in rhythm. Not that that is wrong or lesser, it's just something else, but not really music in the true sense. Hip Hop is derived from disco and funk, and shortcutted by using loops instead of real musicians. I understand the why of it - some of those hip hop tracks, done with real players would get real expensive and time consuming. I am more of the "hip hop is great exercise music" school. But hip hop and all of its off shoots explore some very interesting 'found sound' and manipulated sample territory, and it opens up a different way of creating music. I like Mobeus' work quite a bit. I like both genres when real players are used along with tracks, to give the music some life. But, like just about all forms of music, rap and hip hop have reached their limits and what we are hearing is basically redos of the original styles. And that is a sign it's time to move on.

 

[petrus61]

If it wasn't for hip-hop, I would have never played bass to begin with. It's a legitimate form that for me started with Boogie Down Productions in the 80's, to Black Moon, Tribe, De La, Wu Tang (to name a few) and Biggie in the 90's. I kind of lost interest after that, but it's here to stay.

 

[Marial]

Mr. Tuesday, I think we might share some vocabulary. I never saw the Beatnigs, but I definitely saw DHoH. I think they opened up for Arrested Development and Charlie Hunter sat in with them. It was SICK! Or... should I say FRESH?

 

[Bo0tsy]

I should also add that Hip Hop was also a stepping stone for me getting into the UK Trip Hop scene, check out Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky and the likes for some truly fantastic and orchestral mood music.

 

[bass12]

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.

Roots Manuva is one of the more original rappers of the past while - and he has a better vocabulary (as do most Brits) than most of the rappers out of the U.S.