plmnjko

Are you into the mainstream stuff, the underground stuff, or what? There's also the different sounds of hiphop like the laid back style and the in-your-face style. The list goes on obviously, but what do you like? I prefer underground hiphop and a laid back style in my music when I'm just listening, but if I'm in a club or a party I like listening to mainstream in-your-face music that gets me going and energetic.

Hotmnkyluv

When I listen to rap, which admittedly isn't often...
I like NWA, Easy E, Ice T, Ice Cube, etc

Hotmnkyluv

Then again I also listen to hair metal and cheesy 70's love songs, so my musical taste may be suspect...

Anxst

I listen to a variety or Rap. For me it's not entirely about style/genre, but about the flow and personality of each individual rapper. I'm a big fan of Del the Funky Homosapien, and love his stuff with Deltron 3030 and the first Gorillaz album. I also dig Eminem and MF Doom, and most of the stuff the RZA does. My main rap love, though, is Nerdcore Hiphop. MC Frontalot, MC Hawking, Beefy, Optimus Rhyme, and MC Router are the bizness. I love the topics they rap about, I love their flow, and I love the humor inherent in the whole thing.

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Manic_Skafe

I'm much more so into a lot of the modern day stuff with old school stylings like Cool Calm Pete, the nerdier and thoughtful stuff like Aesop Rock and Despot and much much more than I could list here. Odd Future have pretty much dominated my playlists these last few months:



How can you not like that?

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roachboy

there's a lot so this is kinda hard to answer.
lately i've been taken with tuff crew, from north philly.


old school, north philly. by accident.

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spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

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fill23ca

Yeah! Old school!

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biznatch

Same here, it depends; I need to like the character or persona behind the rap.

Most of what Wu-Tang does (in terms of solo artists: Ghostface, mef, GZA). Wu Tang Clan is the perfect rap supergroup because each rapper is very distinctive in style and voice, and everyone brings something different in.
Eminem, MF Doom, the Roots(Black Thought is an insanely talented MC), Nas, Busta Rhymes (when he's not overdoing it), Biggie, Outkast.

But I have a few songs that I like that are by artists I usually dislike, like Lil Wayne or 50 Cent.

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Zeraph

MIA, Flobots, Mos Def....

dlish

Naughty by Nature
Warren G
Arrested Development
Cypress Hill
Ice Cube


ive cut down on a lot of the stuff ive listened to since then, but i still like to live in the 90's when it comes to rap. those times were legendary.

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EventHorizon

cunninlinguists, atmosphere. i used to love J5, aesop rock

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Quote:

Originally Posted by canuckguy Pretty simple really, do your own thing as long as it does not fuck with anyone's enjoyment of life.

filtherton

I'm accidentally listening to Sage Francis right now. I still like him, even though his newest didn't really do it for me.

Other notables in my mental playlist:
POS is swell.
So is Dessa.
Atmosphere is too, though they often have a difficult time figuring out how to end a song without repeating the same line 20 times immediately prior.
Buck 65, I haven't heard any of his newer stuff, but Wicked and Weird is a classic so is The Centaur.
Aesop Rock, revelatory snippets of clarity wrapped in a dense fog of non sequiturs.

mixedmedia

I don't have time to answer this right now, but I want to come back to it later.
Thus my meaningless comment here is just a bookmark so I don't forget.

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dlish

A Tribe Called Quest

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dlish

this ones for mixedmedia



---------- Post added at 08:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:24 PM ----------

the grandfather of rap

Grandmaster Flash - The Message

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I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
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mixedmedia

i love old skool.

I keep forgetting to respond to this thread. And once again, I have no time.

Eventually, though.

Quickly I will say that I still to listen to Public Enemy quite a bit, particularly Yo Bum Rush the Show, It Takes a Nation of Millions, Fear of a Black Planet and Apocalypse 91.

And lately I have been enjoying Goodie Mob, who hail from my hometown of Atlanta and whose line up features the lovely Mr. Cee-Lo Green of 'Fuck You' fame. I even named my new blog after one of their songs.

YouTube - Goodie Mob - Soul Food

(the video is out of sync, but it's the only one on Youtube that isn't censored.)

I listen to a lot of hip hop though and there are many artists that I like. Later, though.

why doesn't the video embed?

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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

ZombieSquirrel

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Jetée

I'd like to start out this message by stating that most of what was already expressed above, I agree to, and ahdere to. I truly need to like the persona behind the artist(s) to even gain a measure of enjoyment from their works. (e.g. This is a good reason why I don't seek out anything by Eminem, seeing as it doesn't help a dystopic cynic listening to what amounts to his mirror opposite.) This means I might have once owned some gangsta rap, but quickly got rid of said works if it was too over the top, too many drug references that pertained not at all to me, or if there was so much unneeded allusions to the beating / degradation of women that I'd be left wondering exactly what's the point of all this. It is finding a happy medium in a sea of grandiose personalities, of which I'm only guessing about 50% are entirely fictious.

I also "hop" around a lot, meaning even if I were to follow the "easy" example of listing just 3-5 artists I admire, it wouldn't be enough. I'd be pigeon-holing my love for the sound by making my listening habits a cliche of just a few recognizable names. I like Rhythm & Poetry more than I can stand rappers. I enjoy listening to Hip-Hop, though not when it can't even take itself seriously. Good Rhythm & Blues, to this slant, is hard to find, but when it comes together and I can discover it, it's a joyous thing to experience.

- - - - -

Here's a very miniscule playlist sampling of the "type" of Rap I seek and devour wholeheartedly:

Special Ed - I'm the Magnificent (1989)

Outkast (feat. Khujo & T-Mo) - Mainstream (1996)

Deltron 3030 (Del Tha Funkee Homosapien x Dan The Automator x Kid Koala) - Madness (2000)

Substantial & Pase Rock of Five Deez (produced, composed by Nujabes) - Blessing It {remix} (2003)

Chiddy Bang - Opposite of Adults (2010)


-- (to note: goes ahead and contradicts himself no less than five minutes later concerning "names".)

- - - - -

Moreover, there's another sort of quirk I have when it comes to the genre, and its sub-structures. I'm an odd sort of collector. I usually try to collect only one, great album by one artist / group at a time, so as to acclimate myself to their sound, and then move on from there. I've only ever owned one album by Outkast at any one time. I haven't gotten to Big Daddy Kane yet, despite knowing almost all of his popular works by heart, and by the first seconds of the opening beat. I've owned more Will Smith albums (one, "Willenium"... I'm so ashamed.) than I have ODB records (none, though this is more due to my laziness / disinterest than actually 'hating' on 'Big Baby Jesus'). I have one track by The Game in my library, despite not knowing anything, if at all, about the guy (exceptin' maybe he's black, bald and has a good chance of sporting a few tattoos). I only own Common's Be, despite him being on my listening radar for what I'm estimating is nearer to 20 years now.

I've been hearing that truly great rap (and the artists that produced it) "died" around the mid-90s. I became aware of the slogan that Hip-Hop is dead in the time maybe in-between 2001-'03. I know that this isn't true, but what it is, is a commentary on the shift from one classification of rap, into the next generation of rappers, and the drop-off in quality that was perceived. I noticed it. In fact, I don't recall the real last "rap" album I picked up that any one else even knew about, let alone was being touted by the mainstream media. I turned my back on those sort of recommendations long ago, though I am sort of happy when I favorite artist, album, or song that I discovered for myself tarts to get some play in the "real world" (tho, honestly, it kind of scares me when that does happen, as I race in thinking maybe it corrupts the sound or something).

If I were to come away with a re-defined, over-encompassing, but not nearly specialized, music genre title other than Hip-Hop or Rap, as to the more transient sound I find myself gravitating towards, it'd be an okay day. Right now, though, Rap is the box that everyone else and me, use to pack away the generalization of the grouping.


I'd be happy to add more of my thoughts to the topic, but chances are you've glazed over only half of my words, and I've already dedicated over an hour and a half here, so the equivalence isn't nearly enough to continue. I did come to enjoy, though, adding my pair of pence. Perhaps you will, too, in digesting it.

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Strange Famous

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for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

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roachboy

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite

Strange Famous

My favourite rapper of all time was Big Pun

In a lot of ways, he wasnt a good guy (its pretty painful to watch someone you used to almost hero worship pistol whip his wife, or basically eat himself to death) but I always just felt his shit spoke to me in ways nothing else did.

In terms of others:

Cube
Scarface / Geto Boys
Canibus
Jedi Mind Tricks
RA the Rugged Man
Cage
Sage Francis
Warcloud
Shabbaz the Disciple
Jadakiss
Buck 65
Nas
Shyheim
In terms of UK scene:

Ghetts
Dizzee Rascal
Sway
Bashy
Plan B (before his last album and he blew up)

__________________
"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

blktour

I Like tupac. He had a message. I started listening to him so I stay hooked. not alot of new stuff, but of the "new stuff" i tend to get the ones with a message, beats, lyrical ability and metaphores that I can relate to. so it varies.

most recently I listen to the same stuff.

ex:

Lupe Fiasco: The words I never said

Tupac: they dont give a fuck about us

Brother Ali: Uncle Sam Goddamn

Gang Starr: the moment of truth

Cassidy: All by myself

also coming from a spanish background i like songs like this as well:

Calle 13: Electro Moviemiento

Don Omar: Danza Kuduro

I still listen to music daily as I drive to work and almost every song I can sum up of my feelings and what it reminds me of. That is what it is to me.

SuburbanZombie

I generally don't like rap music. I did like some of the old school stuff, but then the genre morphed into gangsta rap, which turned me off rap for a very long time. I do have some mainstream stuff (Jay Z, Eminem) in my collection but I pretty much just ignore it.

Lindy

Plus one on this. I don't care for rap either, and ignore it when I can. Now, I have heard rap songs that I liked, but mostly it seems to be about posturing, money and misogyny. And I hate being bludgeoned with bass. And I'm a bass player.

Lindy

Willravel

I like rap that speaks about social issues, poverty, crime, police, etc. Rap can be an incredible vehicle for communicating harsh realities.

The stuff about fancy cars, acquiring needless amounts of money or disrespecting women? Rubbish. The world would be a better place without it.

MeltedMetalGlob

I was into rap about 25 years ago when artists like Kurtis Blow, The Fat Boys and Newcleus were doing their thing. Now? I don't pay any attention to it.

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dlish

KRS-1 was pretty big as well. i think he was instrumental in the formation of rap.

i still like listening to 90's rap like this..

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blktour

I KNEW I liked you dlish!

LSOB was awesome! haha i still play their music!

Manic_Skafe

Ridiculous as it may seem, a lot of that stuff about fancy cars and such can be exactly as cognizant and resonant an expression of the very same pressures and harsh realities you enjoy in so-called conscious or elevated rap.

There's too much of a tendency toward a literal reading of the stories put forward in rap songs but if you can appreciate that much of what's tossed around in those sorts of songs - the women, drugs, cars and stuff - are but mere symbols dressing aspirations of freedom all but impossible to realize under those same harsh realities then the seeming vapidity gives way to something a bit more interesting if not valid.

Just as Joni Mitchell isn't an actual radio, many of these seemingly worthless songs can offer quite a bit to those willing to put in the effort. They have their place and when they work they can do so brilliantly. (The world a better place without it? I highly doubt you'd say the same about the least skilled, most blatantly offensive painting you can imagine.)

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EventHorizon

i like the McDonald's rap

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Does Marcellus Wallace have the appearance of a female canine? Then for what reason did you attempt to copulate with him as if he were a female canine?

Quote:

Originally Posted by canuckguy Pretty simple really, do your own thing as long as it does not fuck with anyone's enjoyment of life.

Daka

RAP...UGH...

Jetée

Think Different


-- (to note: the above song is one of the exemplary reasons why I am still struggling in what to call this over-encompassing musical umbrella of the titular genre: Rap, or Hip-Hop?)

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Leto

As with many genres of pop music, there's a serious side and light side, that "Fancy Stuff" as you put it, I always refer to as "Bubble-Rap".

On a more serious note however, I learned of the passing of Gil Scott-Heron last Friday. My (punk rock) friends & I really got into his message back in the early 80's while in university. I still like the sound he had, and we spent an vinyl hour or so yesterday with our kids, remembering this guy.

Here's an article & video




Gil Scott Heron: The Socially Conscious Man of Music


Life is like a circle, you end up where you started

If you end up where you started, ain’t no other side

Yeah, but if life is like a curtain than I’m 90% certain

I’m looking through at something…

Yes, I’m always touching something on the other side…

~Gil Scott Heron~



American poet, author, musician and cultural icon, Gil Scott Heron, made his transition on Friday, May 27, 2011. He left this world at 62 years of age. A spoken word artist, he was best known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the Black and Blues Band in collaboration with pianist Brian Jackson. The two fused the music of jazz, blues and soul music into their own unique sound.

Gil Scott Heron was a social activist and voice for the underprivileged throughout the world. To many he was an unsung hero who spoke out against injustice and attributed his music, anger and activism toward social causes. Associated with the activism of the black militants, Heron gained notoriety for his poetic composition “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” In many of his songs, Heron heralded the political and social issues affecting the poorer echelon of America. Through the song “Billy Green is Dead,” he echoed the need for inner city communities to address the plight of their neighbors and become involved in issues that would free them from oppression. It is said that Heron’s poetic and vocal style (recorded in the early 1970s) engendered in songs like “Winter in America,” and “Pieces of A Man,” fostered the neo-soul and hip hop music genres that were to follow. The Grandfather of the spoken word, Gil often encouraged modern day rappers to study music and take on relevant issues that brought enlightenment to their communities.

Gil’s last album entitled “I’m New Here,” was released in 2010 after a 16 year hiatus between recordings.

Chicago born, Heron spent much of his early childhood in Tennessee with his grandmother after his parents divorced. After his grandmother’s death, he lived with his mother in the Bronx, New York. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School, transferring to the Fieldston School where he won a full scholarship. He went on to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Later attending Johns Hopkins University, Gil earned a Masters in Creative Writing. Heron wrote “The Vulture” which was well received and another novel entitled “The Nigger Factory.”

Heron’s first recording “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” was in line with Heron’s social concerns. The album addressed the ignorance of the white middle class concerning the plight of the inner cities, consumerism, and the hypocrisy of some black militants. Over the years, Heron worked with musical artists such as Eddie Knowles, Ron Carter, Charlie Saunders, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Ron Holloway, Burt Jones and Hubert Laws. He released recordings such as Midnight Band: The First Minutes of a New Day; It’s Your World; New York Is Killing Me; Lady Day and John Coltrane; Me And The Devil; The Bottle; Home is Where the Hatred Is; Angel Dust; Work For Peace; Message to the Messengers; Save the Children and Free Will, et al.

Mr. Heron was a man who lived life with great passion, oft-times feeling things too deeply. Occasionally, he tried to allay his pain by resorting to self-destructive behavior which resulted in drug use. This led to his incarceration within the New York State Penal System.

Upon returning from a European trip, Gil Scott-Heron fell ill. He died while at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City. The exact cause of death is yet to be determined.

He is survived by his wife Brenda and his daughter Gia.

Gil left a volume of work for the world to treasure. However, it seems the time came for Gill to pull aside the curtain. He looked through at something and in doing so, reached out and touched the other side.

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Titan_Uranus

Nas the old stuff, anything by Gang Starr, KRS-One,Eric B & Rakim ,Mos Def,Big L lets not forget Biggie and the mighty Wu tang ,basically anything from the East Coast...West coast also has a bit of talent though,lol.