Just echoing what most people say here. Hip Hop, like many genre's, is not immune from the commercial imitator factor. For every Pearl Jam there is a Nickel Back. For every Rage Against the Machine there is a Limp Bizkit.

hip hop is much much much more than what u see in the charts and in the daily mail

Quote from nihil :

Dismissive and way too simplistic, but no worries, since you and your brethren have chosen to miss out on some great stuff. No one else's problem but your own. I don't have time to point out the whys and wherefores, but if you consider that rap has its roots in poetry (another extremely wide category), you might also be able to figure out why I just don't have time to point out where you are going wrong.

What I wrote can't be wrong, it's only an opinion. And I haven't missed out on anything - how the hell would you know what I've listened to or not? You're so hurt over someone else's tastes or opinions, it's just weird.
Rap is only poetry, nothing more nothing less. That doesn't make it automatically appealing to a person nor does it qualify Rap as having 'made it' in the world of music. Neither does CD sales.
Most people haven't heard even 5% of all of the greatest music ever made, and yet their sales habits form apparent global popular opinion and form fashion trends.
It's just funny, that's all. I find the whole Rap phenomenon very funny. Ridiculously funny.
Rap culture makes me laugh so much, now it always hurts when I pee.

When I was a kid I was right into breakdancing (like every other kid at school)- Rocksteady Crew, Kraftwerk (Tour De France), all those old classics. Our mission was to find the biggest cardboard box we could to flatten out and break on. I had a rap compilation tape which was the second tape I ever owned (first was an album by Jackson 5).

Couple of videos for the nostalgic.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=57rxhQXwRfg
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ax96XY6pgoI

When I hit teenager I wasn't really into rap/hiphop at all. I liked a bit of RunDMC and a couple other things, but that was probably about it.

These days, I'm not really up to date with a lot of this stuff. I've never bought a rap/hip hop album (apart from that first compilation when I was 6) but lots of friends get into it so I just vicariously get to listen to things through them. There are of course amazing performers and artists in rap/hiphop, but it's pretty far away from my usual stomping ground.

I do love this guy though, Elf Transporter. I've seen him a number of times in Melbourne. Absolutely brilliant.

Quote from Intrepid :

Just echoing what most people say here. Hip Hop, like many genre's, is not immune from the commercial imitator factor. For every Pearl Jam there is a Nickel Back. For every Rage Against the Machine there is a Limp Bizkit.

hip hop is much much much more than what u see in the charts and in the daily mail

Eww... Perl Jam..

Quote from Gunn :

What I wrote can't be wrong, it's only an opinion. And I haven't missed out on anything - how the hell would you know what I've listened to or not? You're so hurt over someone else's tastes or opinions, it's just weird.
Rap is only poetry, nothing more nothing less. That doesn't make it automatically appealing to a person nor does it qualify Rap as having 'made it' in the world of music. Neither does CD sales.
Most people haven't heard even 5% of all of the greatest music ever made, and yet their sales habits form apparent global popular opinion and form fashion trends.
It's just funny, that's all. I find the whole Rap phenomenon very funny. Ridiculously funny.
Rap culture makes me laugh so much, now it always hurts when I pee.

I have to agree to some point with you Gunn.

However, i still don't make a big difference between hiphop and rap, when it comes to how they affect the "audience". I wasn't at many hiphop concerts/shows in my life, but there have been a few. Most amazing one was De La Soul.

Point is... the things i've written about previoulsy, they really are kind of a "problem". People don't listen to the artists. They live something that's not the point at all... nevertheless, they are harmless and enjoy themselves, so it's not the end of the world.

But what i felt at the De La Soul show was... that most people there didn't actually give a damn what their message was. They just wanted to look cool with their friends in their funny clothes. They were taking part in the big theatre play that hiphop has become for many.

Keep in mind tho, there are artists who deserve credit, and you shouldn't put them down because a big part of their audience gets it all wrong what they do... or don't pay attention to it. And even then... Nobody said you'd have to like poetry.

i love rap, but i hate defending it, because all they say nowadays has nothing to do with normal life imo.

Fav Artists.

Gang Starr
Eazy-E
Tupac
T.I


_
Regards
Dennis

Quote from Gunn :

You're so hurt over someone else's tastes or opinions, it's just weird.

Geezer... I was just taking the piss, being as dismissive as you were. No hurt involved.

But come on, an opinion may be subjective, but that doesn't mean you can print vague, spurious, and irrational nonsense and expect people not to laugh at you.

For example:

"Rap is only poetry"
"Rap is no better than a kid crying for an ice cream over and over and over"

Uh... so if Rap is poetry then poetry is childish? Or is it just that all rap is childish poetry? Or are both statements so sweeping as to be meaningless?

I hate most hip-hop, but can't deny that this is great, as is most of their stuff: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=CerbImsPsqw

dont think anyone posted this yet

Retards
Attempting
Poetry

nuf said...
I hate RAP so much i cant stand it, i agree there are some great artists, and every person likes their music, but i dont get how can you call it music... its a guy talking (i mean really talking, not singing, talking like we do everyday) about his life or how he has sex and what positions they try with their gf with crappy beat in the background.

Great examples.

When Rap music suddenly became Hip Hop, it stopped being music and started being entertainment. The whole industry changed.

I`m far more a metal sort of old bastard. Not the Maiden sorta metal lite, but Slayer, Carcass sorta thing. I also like a lot of classical, triphop, jazz, etc so I`m not a one-trick sorta music guy.

I used to listen to stuff like RunDMC, Public Enemy, etc, but now I`m not as much into that sort of thing. I do like a bit of Cypress Hill and Linkin Park, but that`s about it.

Some of the more modern full-on guns, ho`s and **** stuff isn`t too bad at all either, since I really like the seriously dark vibe it has to it. From a musician`s point of view, a lot of it seems simple, and repetitive, but the rhythmic side and the atmosphere generated from the layering and choice of samples, the production of the beats and the heavy vocals can be pretty appealing.

Most rap after the mid to late 90's is garbage.

The older stuff is much better, this guy is one of my favorites.

I love rap and hip hop but not gangster rap like 50 cent.

Lil wayne is different though, I enjoy some of his songs... He actually has lyrics that are good sometimes, he's open minded, his voice gets on my nerves but he has catchy songs. Best example for now is Let it Rock by Kevin Rudolf and Lil Wayne.

Quote from DevilDare :

i dont get how can you call it music... its a guy talking

Funnily enough there's a sample at the end of a De La Soul song of some dumb redneck saying exactly that. A few of the tunes I linked to feature full live bands, no sampling, no turntables, just instrumentalists. And I didn't even include The Roots.

And none of the songs I linked to are about glorifying violence, bitches and hos, taking drugs or whatever. It's not like I put any effort into avoiding those topics.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

1992 - Beastie Boys - So Watcha Want?
Beats don't get heavier than this! The Beasties really found their sound on the album Check Your Head - a healthy mix of goofball skits and huge old-school beats so good that they continued with the same formula into 1994's Ill Communication and it still hadn't got stale. Both records are classics.

i generally prefer their older stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI2IyHXJo5M
either way by and large the most fun hiphop there is

Quote from Shotglass :

i generally prefer their older stuff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI2IyHXJo5M
either way by and large the most fun hiphop there is

Dropping science like Galileo dropped the orange.

btw am i the only one who feel like most rappers that are popular for inexplicable reasons these days are completely unable to add some rhythm to their voice?

some thing really were better in the old days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... 4yXh0&feature=related
still some people manage to be quite good from a technical standpoint while still fulfilling just about every rap cliche there is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYHDd9FIaqc

What about

Rock Me Amadeus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v ... abJak&feature=related

or

I'm A Playa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13zsMC-c62w

It was good in the 80s and 90s, although you could say that about just about everything.

Now its a bit like trance music, generic lyrics, generic canned drums and generic snyths/gunshot sounds.

Rap music is good when they get some seesion musicians instead of firing up Cubase.

I'm currently listening to the local radio station's Christmas Party stream. Guns N Roses currently playing.

Enough said.

I have about every Guns N Roses album there is... that doesn't say anything, really.

I'm one of these people who says they dont like hip hop / rap etc. But really what i'm saying is I dont like the attitude/lifestyle/drug/gun/gang stereotype of it all. Some of the music I actually quite like, i've a few Razakel albums, everything Linkin' Park and so on, I listen to everything from stuff I can only describe as heavier than Black Metal down to Baroque Chamber Music. My favorite is Heavy Rock (Iron Maiden), Gothic Metal (Lovecrave), Heavy Metal (Kiuas) and Alternative (Placebo) music, and whatever you categorise My Chemical Romance as - that genre, whatever it is.

Just because a genre of music (or several) is my favorite doesn't meen I don't listen to others, but i'll still always distance myself from rap/hip-hop - even though I enjoy listening to some of it - simply because as genre's they've associated themselves with an ethos that I turned my back on myself.

I hold a similar view of dance/techno etc. I'll distance myself from it whilst at the same time i'm not averse to putting on some Scooter and scaring my lounge lights with flailing arms and trying to work out why the basic jumpstyle dance is 5 steps not 4.

One thing really annoys me about the *commercial* rap scene is the reliance on just stealing catchy tunes from other succesful songs and just mumbling over the top of them.

Quote from Crashgate3 :

One thing really annoys me about the *commercial* rap scene is the reliance on just stealing catchy tunes from other succesful songs and just mumbling over the top of them.

There's one out atm with the Numa Numa song in it

Unfortunately I've heard that. Now I'm sorry, but you just can't make that tune cool. It's not possible.