Conquer Club

jnd94 wrote:Ugh, I hate rap. There is no talent involved, and there really isnt any creativity in todays hip hop/rap. ex. lyrics from "this is why Im hot"(which sux) "Im hot cuz Im fly, you aint cuz you not". In my opinion, rock is exponentially better. comments?

Guiscard wrote:

glide wrote:What bothers me about rap is these three things:
a) it always seems to come down to "a pissing contest" between the "talker" (I refuse to call them singers!) and his competition.
b) for some reason it seems to be convincing white kids they are cool if they pretend they are ghetto boys....(don't those poor people have it hard enough without you twits trying to steal their "thunder"?)
c) listen closely to the background music. From the stuff I've heard....90% of the music is either "swiped" from old songs, or simply a combination of old songs. The musicians can probably create their own stuff...but apparently that's not the point.
But..that being said.....to each his own.....just please please please don't inflict that crap on me unsolicited. My old quad stereo can still fire back. Don't make me bring out the ZZ Top and Bob Seger!

This deserves a proper response:

a) No-one calls them singers unless they actually sing. They're rappers. They rap. Self-promotion and one-upmanship is certainly a major part of Rap music, but it isn't the only part and it has a big place in the scene. When you're an up and coming MC you ply your trade at MC battles by being the wittiest, most intelligent, fastest and most insulting rapper in the room. You've got to be able to make up 8 bars of freestyle basically on the spot, often based around topics given to you seconds before. Its intensely hard to be the best. I spend a lot of time in the scene and have recorded tracks with good rappers and mediocre ones. As I said before, this is only ONE aspect. There are plenty of rap tracks which don't have a single diss in them. Many tracks provide brilliant social commentary, are intensely political or provoke a stark atmosphere through brilliant lyrical imagery. If you want examples I can provide them.

b)Sure there is a significant aspect of middle class white kids acting 'ghetto' and all that. It is a bit of a blight on the scene, but more often than not those kids are only into really commercial pop-rap. Nobody takes them seriously. They're not stealing anyone's thunder. I'm white, and probably lower middle class / working class, but in the UK the scene isn't quite as racial as in the US. I've certainly faced racial slurs and disses regarding my colour as a producer and DJ but underground hip-hop generally judges you on the quality of your tracks rather than the amount of melanin in your skin.

c) The 'background music' you speak of is my passion. I create tracks for rappers to record over or as instrumentals. You're talking about sampling, which again is undeniably a huge part of hip-hop culture. Sampling is about taking something brilliant and re-working it to create something entirely new. It takes hours of work to create even a basic loop, and I have a huge amount of respect for the guys that spend hours and hours digging in crates of old vinyl in junk shops to discover obscure old funk records with great drumming that you really can't replicate today. Then they take those drum parts and spend hours cleaning them up, cutting them into hits, adding in other loops and hits. Its taken me years to learn even the basics. Sampling isn't even an expected part of hip-hop, though. You can do perfectly well making completely original tracks, even using live bands (The Roots use an entirely live band and record through intense jamming sessions).

Guiscard wrote:

jnd94 wrote:Ugh, I hate rap. There is no talent involved, and there really isnt any creativity in todays hip hop/rap. ex. lyrics from "this is why Im hot"(which sux) "Im hot cuz Im fly, you aint cuz you not". In my opinion, rock is exponentially better. comments?

Right, first off a big 'f*ck you' and now I'll try and find the post I made a while ago detailing why someone who said basically the same as you is completely and utterly wrong in their assessment of the music I DJ, the tracks I produce, the rappers I record, the shows I go to and the scene i rep.

jnd94 wrote:

Guiscard wrote:

jnd94 wrote:Ugh, I hate rap. There is no talent involved, and there really isnt any creativity in todays hip hop/rap. ex. lyrics from "this is why Im hot"(which sux) "Im hot cuz Im fly, you aint cuz you not". In my opinion, rock is exponentially better. comments?

Right, first off a big 'f*ck you' and now I'll try and find the post I made a while ago detailing why someone who said basically the same as you is completely and utterly wrong in their assessment of the music I DJ, the tracks I produce, the rappers I record, the shows I go to and the scene i rep.

I was assuming that we were all talking about mainstream US rap, but I guess Im wrong.

n8freeman wrote:i personally do not like rap

i think the mainstreem rap music is awful


like 50 cent and the game, whoever is big now idk
their rap is crap


but the older rap, the original stuff is actually ok


and freestyle rap i think is pretty damn good
it takes talent



there is some good rap out there, it just isnt mainstreem




the reason i like rock better though is because of the music
IMO less then have of what makes music good is the lyrics
i love rock because of the amazing guitar riffs, solos, etc


basically, old school rap is alright, and it takes talent
mainstreem rap blows chunks
and classic rock(1960s-1980s) like seger, zeppelin, rush etc. are just hands down the best

Guiscard wrote:Why? The title of the thread isn't 'Mainstream US rap sucks. period.' - If it was I'd be inclined to agree with you.

Spuzzell wrote:There's an Irish comedian called Dylan Moran who's BRILLIANT.

He had some words about rap.

"Rap is just.. Well, ask a 4 year old what he wants and he'll say "I wanna bike and an ice-cream and a bigger bike than the boy next door and more ice-cream and a dog and some juice and I wanna have it NOW NOW NOW you stupid poo-head." That's a rap record."


Brilliant. Because it's true

Guiscard wrote:Many tracks provide brilliant social commentary, are intensely political or provoke a stark atmosphere through brilliant lyrical imagery. If you want examples I can provide them.

unriggable wrote:METAL?! That's just about death, not much variety there either.

unriggable wrote:METAL?! That's just about death, not much variety there either.

hecter wrote:

unriggable wrote:METAL?! That's just about death, not much variety there either.

Not necessarily.

hecter wrote:You obviously didn't read my post then. I didn't say that.

unriggable wrote:

hecter wrote:You obviously didn't read my post then. I didn't say that.

*smack*

jnd94 wrote:Ugh, I hate rap. There is no talent involved, and there really isnt any creativity in todays hip hop/rap. ex. lyrics from "this is why Im hot"(which sux) "Im hot cuz Im fly, you aint cuz you not". In my opinion, rock is exponentially better. comments?