There's hope for Hip Hop yet...

[Joshua Boden]

@joshua - That is freakin' deep man. Loved it.

El-P is definitely deep. Check out his 1st album from his original crew Company Flow. Its called "Fun Crusher Plus"! It is sick!

[dredd i knight]

Seems like this discussion is about marketing vs culture, and how they interface. there's always good hip hop around; fact is drum and bass and dubstep are hip hops child and grandchild respectively, and come out of british youth taking hip hop and running with it in different directions. hip hop has disseminated itself into pop, rock, and most other forms of music. there's always something fresh around, but whether you think its hip hop is open to interpretation... maybe you dont recognise its new flavours cos its called different things by different people: are spank rock not hip hop? santogold? z trip, dj shadow, wiley... i could have sworn the gorillaz were making hip hop sometimes too.. every time someone comes out with something a little different to the classic template it gets called something else. i remember the (media) creations of trip hop, big beat, ghetto tech etc, and can only surmise, that the definition of what is allowed to be hip hop is very fuckin narrow. there are no restrictions on its tempo, what u use to make it or the types of sounds within it.downtempo, ambient electronica etc all have hip hop in them....to my ears at least, and electro IS fuckin hip hop.
point is the ONLY reason so many genres exist is because business needs to differentiate its product to get people interested.
rap music sells mucho, company execs continue to try and control the agenda of their rosters, and continue to make loadsa money from selling wack, ignorant lyrics, about sex, violence, and drugs to (mainly) white suburban male teens. you cant expect to find diamonds on a coal heap; you have to dig.
the culture of hip hop is deeper, and i think even jay z et al are becoming more and more aware of this.

Years ago I used to do a lot of hard drugs. One day I went to the dealers house and this girl had her daughter who was about 2. Her 2 year old was doing moves like you'd see in a strip club and her mom was laughing. I remember thinkin I was from a way different side of the tracks so to speak, it was like the experience was reminding me how disconnected I was from black culture, being white. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not passing any judgment on others, It was just as if the universe was trying to make a statement to me about what I thought I knew about my life.

so 2year olds dancin like strippers is a cultural (black) thing? please! thats just an ignorant parent thing man....the disconnect is nothing to do with you being white and feelin out of place, its from the fact that 2 year olds shouldnt be dancin like that no matter what the colour.

[JuanSOLO]

I see you're in Texas... you're not from The (Rio Grande) Valley are you? I swear I used to walk through that same parking lot.

Ft Worth for High School.

[JuanSOLO]

so 2year olds dancin like strippers is a cultural (black) thing? please! thats just an ignorant parent thing man....the disconnect is nothing to do with you being white and feelin out of place, its from the fact that 2 year olds shouldnt be dancin like that no matter what the colour.

Thats not what I meant at ALL. Like i said I make no judgement on what others do. 2 year old strippers are not a black thing, nor do I necessarily believe it was "BAD" parenting. I make no judgment. However my experience is what I make evaluations about. I will say this, in all my years and places I have been there are some things that are culturally different. I'm not saying that applies across the board for one particular skin color, nor do I see them as good/bad, right/wrong.

These things just are, and my experience is mine to live/learn from. I do feel that I can be disconnected from another race just as I can feel disconnected from women, teenagers, elderly, plants and animals etc etc etc. I wasn't making some superficial statement of difference base on skin color, I was validating what I knew about myself and where I stood in that particular experience.


I understand that DubStep etc etc, are derivatives of Hip Hop in some way. I see your point and it's well stated. However I guess thats part of my personal delima with Hip Hop. It's difficult to explain how I feel about it other than I feel like I am looking for it to move me the way it once did, yet hold true to it's form????

[H20nly]

*tips hat* @ dredd i knight.

agreed.

shits making me see with blinders too...

I downloaded that new Souls of Mischief album. Gonna buy the CD too (I always support Hieroglyphics) its medicine - for above mentioned stigmas.

I just get tired people asking me what I do in LiquidLab... and feeling the need to church it up or something. I rap. But if I say that, they automatically think of bling or if they're lookin me in my green/blue eyes.. I have to hear "oh like Eminem". **thinks to self - no motherfucker... not like Eminem**

I'd rather they just listen first and not ask questions, until they can begin to understand. a beat is not a hand clap, a track is not a snare drum. Its the sum total of ALL its parts.

I guess what you're kinda saying is... hip hop is too.

[nathannn]

as long as people remember and love what early hip hop music sounds like they'll still be making it.

nathannn you should be ashamed for posting that track, even as a joke. <shudder>

i should be ashamed?
seriously
why is that?

[Tone Deft]

H20 - you need to write a rap as a reply. just a few lines to leave them with something to think about while you... walk... away...

[H20nly]

since you have to ask
now you're gettin classed...
there's simply no excuse
so I leave you with
this soliloquy:
I try to come real you see
but you're like siliques
or simply put:
a silly fruit.
yo! I heard somebody say ho!
thats your queue to go
mine came when you breathed.
you can stand and hate,
mean muggin actin very proud
wrinkle up your angry face
temp fate, perpetrate,
lactate like a dairy cow
but me,
I gotta leave...

now.


dunno Tone. That might not help them understand... or help us gain any fans.

I probably should try harder to be glad they're, at least, acting interested.

"acceptance is the key to our problems" and all that jazz.

[dredd i knight]

*tips hat* @ dredd i knight.

agreed.

shits making me see with blinders too...

I downloaded that new Souls of Mischief album. Gonna buy the CD too (I always support Hieroglyphics) its medicine - for above mentioned stigmas.

I just get tired people asking me what I do in LiquidLab... and feeling the need to church it up or something. I rap. But if I say that, they automatically think of bling or if they're lookin me in my green/blue eyes.. I have to hear "oh like Eminem". **thinks to self - no motherfucker... not like Eminem**

I'd rather they just listen first and not ask questions, until they can begin to understand. a beat is not a hand clap, a track is not a snare drum. Its the sum total of ALL its parts.

I guess what you're kinda saying is... hip hop is too.

i think all hip hop lovers that dont blindly follow the commercial rap scene, find themselves:
1 misunderstood/ put into a (negative) box and
2 making excuses for and defending it

dont believe the hype! enjoy your take on the art form, and try to ignore the ignance(sic) that pervades peoples take on it, although thats easier said than done....
yeah imma buy the souls album too! and prince paul still rocks what a great combination
@juan peace. i get what you're saying now.

[dredd i knight]

h2only: not the first....great flow!
folk hop? hahaha
i like! i can understand your frustration; u cant put that shit in a box and thats what a lot of people need...
too bad, they missin out.

[nathannn]

http://soundcloud.com/tiredofsighningup ... wal-mart-2


my newest.


sorry.. i cant stop spamming

[H20nly]

^ nice





@ dredd i knight

thanks!

Means a little more comin from someone about to buy the Souls new album.

folk hop - I can live with that.

[chis]

This thread needs more Onra & Reggie B... or Bullion or Muhsinah...

[gaijin1717]

Just wanted to jump in to say: Street Sweeper Social Club, B. Dolan, Aceyalone, etc., etc., etc. If you think hip hop is dying you aren't looking hard enough.

[JuanSOLO]

Just wanted to jump in to say: Street Sweeper Social Club, B. Dolan, Aceyalone, etc., etc., etc. If you think hip hop is dying you aren't looking hard enough.

Acey was once upon a time a favorite MC. For me it's not about looking hard enough, although I do like finding out things I haven't heard or missed. However guys like Acey and even Abstract Rude are a few of the MC's whos last few albums have been ultra lack luster to me. Granted there are some gems here and there, but over all I feel it's redundant and "sometimes" surprisingly shallow. But what do I know, I still rock Kool Kieth and the Beastie Boys.