The Rap/Hip-Hop thread

#1,026
#1,026
VKAman said:
It's actually the rap/hip-hop thread, but good point, let's ban all discussion about 2 out of the 10 most currently relevant rappers because it isn't "real hip-hop" enough for your personal taste.
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Meek Mill is relevant?
 
#1,027
#1,027
Daloth said:
I think J Cole is a better Drake honestly. He has the harder stories to tell but still the soft side. Best of both worlds honestly.

Friday Night Lights was also a fire mix tape. Quality wise top to bottom it was as good or better than Take Care IMO.
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I agree, and he's my favorite rapper. But he's not as widely relatable as Drake is, and isn't as good at making songs that stick in people's heads. It feels like 90% of his songs are about girls.
 
#1,028
#1,028
GahLee said:
He did more than call him sensitive. His popularity isn't indicitve of his talent but an indictment against the masses. Boy bands sold a ****ton of records, yet their music sucked. Drake, to me, is no different. I think he's a whackass fraud.
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I'm not saying his success makes him the best rapper alive, but you don't get 85 songs on the Billboard chart (and 14 at once, tying the Beatles' record) by being the rap version of One Direction.

He's created a niche where it doesn't matter that he's the Canadian wheelchair kid from Degrassi. He's successful without having to be hard, so less successful people calling him soft is kind of pointless.
 
#1,029
#1,029
VKAman said:
I'm not saying his success makes him the best rapper alive, but you don't get 85 songs on the Billboard chart (and 14 at once, tying the Beatles' record) by being the rap version of One Direction.

He's created a niche where it doesn't matter that he's the Canadian wheelchair kid from Degrassi. He's successful without having to be hard, so less successful people calling him soft is kind of pointless.
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He's manufactured pop, that's the way I see him. He doesn't make anything real, it's all made for radio.

Can't deny his success, he's had a great run but I can't take him seriously. No matter how many kids buy his albums or download his singles, he's nothing more than a hollow hit maker.

I'll admit to being a music snob, I'm drawn to acts that pull the music from their heart and look to develop and make progressive strides in whatever genre their in.

Every Drake song is the same, 3 1/2 minutes of metaphors and pop hooks over catchy beats. It works, much like the way fast food joints do, those places sell but their product is garbage.
 
#1,030
#1,030
VKAman said:
I agree, and he's my favorite rapper. But he's not as widely relatable as Drake is, and isn't as good at making songs that stick in people's heads. It feels like 90% of his songs are about girls.
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J Cole is just a regular dude rapping about regular stuff. You can't get more "common man's rapper" than J Cole right now.

Record sales don't mean much when most of the world is plugged in to bulls**t.
 
#1,033
#1,033
I agree Drake's radio stuff is the exact same. So is J. Cole's (Cole is my second favorite rapper behind Ab-Soul). Drake's last two albums are actually pretty solid joints overall (I liked NWTS better) but if you listen to just the hits, yeah it's the same thing. But that's how everything is on the radio except Kendrick. It's all bangers. Wet Dreamz, GOMD, and Apparently are all kind of the same with Cole but the best songs aren't the radio ones.
 
#1,034
#1,034
zjcvols said:
I agree Drake's radio stuff is the exact same. So is J. Cole's (Cole is my second favorite rapper behind Ab-Soul). Drake's last two albums are actually pretty solid joints overall (I liked NWTS better) but if you listen to just the hits, yeah it's the same thing. But that's how everything is on the radio except Kendrick. It's all bangers. Wet Dreamz, GOMD, and Apparently are all kind of the same with Cole but the best songs aren't the radio ones.
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Not everybody follows the formula. Kid Cudi is a good example. He makes some outer space ****. Kanye has pushed the limits of what can be a hit. Kendrick is doing that too.

For a person with talent (Drake), it's easy to do. You simply hire the best producers and come up with a hook. What's said inbetween the hook is almost of no consequence. A few clever metaphors and your done. Throw in some big names for guest spots and you've got a collection of hits that have zero substance.
 
#1,035
#1,035
Rasputin_Vol said:
Rap is not pop, if you call it then stop.
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#1,036
#1,036
GahLee said:
Talib got offended that Bomani likes Big Boi more. Which is totally understandable but apparently completely lost on Kweli.
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Talib loses his damn mind when it comes to regulars trolling him. Bo being the natural agitator rope-a-doped him for a while before dropping it.



And Drake just may have ended Meek's career.
 
#1,037
#1,037
I feel like, at this point, if Lil Wayne was the Nickleback of Rap (which he was, minus a few stuff on mixtapes really) he has become the Will Smith of it.

By Will Smith of rap what I mean is. He understands what it takes to put out a big hit and keep a good public image and he virtually refuses to stray from it. It's good in some instances. and terrible in others, like how Will Smith turned down Django Unchained.

He'll keep cranking out the same albums and hits and making a ton of money, but I don't know if he'll challenge or change what he is to grow as an artist. He might get better, but that doesn't mean his game will expand either as someone like Kanye or Eminem did from the first 2-3 albums to now.
 
#1,038
#1,038
Daloth said:
I feel like, at this point, if Lil Wayne was the Nickleback of Rap (which he was, minus a few stuff on mixtapes really) he has become the Will Smith of it.

By Will Smith of rap what I mean is. He understands what it takes to put out a big hit and keep a good public image and he virtually refuses to stray from it. It's good in some instances. and terrible in others, like how Will Smith turned down Django Unchained.

He'll keep cranking out the same albums and hits and making a ton of money, but I don't know if he'll challenge or change what he is to grow as an artist. He might get better, but that doesn't mean his game will expand either as someone like Kanye or Eminem did from the first 2-3 albums to now.
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Since when?
 
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#1,047
#1,047
The Rap Year Book by Shea Serrano is pretty good. Even if he severely overrates a couple Houston songs.
 
#1,048
#1,048
Like, I'm not sure how you can say that "Still Tippin" by Mike Jones is a more important song than "Yeah!" with a straight face.
 
#1,049
#1,049
Okay, sorry for overloading this thread with the book, but I'll list Shea's picks from some years and my quick thoughts on them

2003- "In Da Club" by 50 Cent

I thought, other than "Rapper's Delight" in 1979, this was the easiest pick of any. I mean, we can argue about 50 Cent's actual talent, but there is no doubt 2003 was his year and incredibly important.

2010- "Monster" by Kanye West, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj

He picked this mostly for what it did for Nicki Minaj, but since Nicki Minaj is a pop star and not a rapper, I felt like (I can't believe I'm going to say this) Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow" was the song for what it for the laid back rap era that we are slowly phasing out from now. Honestly, there were good songs but not any incredibly important ones. This was a tough one to go through.

1994- "Juicy" by Notorious B.I.G.

Juicy is a great song. It's a very significant song. It put Biggie on the map. It's an MVP worthy song. It's not "NY State of Mind" by Nas. Not even close.

2001- "Takeover" by Jay-Z and "Ether" by Nas

He kind of cheated because he chose two songs and it makes sense considering how big this beef was so I didn't have a problem with how he broke it down. If I had to choose one song, I'd probably go with Move, ***** by Ludacris because that song basically put him on the map and along with Ms. Jackson (released in late 2000 by OutKast) made Atlanta rap.

2002- "Grindin" by Clipse

This was ridiculously hard. So you have "Grindin" by Clipse. You have "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. "Hot in Here" by Nelly. Hell, you could make a case for "Always on Time" by Ja Rule, "03' Bonnie and Clyde" with Jay-Z and Beyonce, or "Get Low" by Lil Jon and the Eastside Boys". Dear God, how do you pick that?
 
#1,050
#1,050
zjcvols said:
Like, I'm not sure how you can say that "Still Tippin" by Mike Jones is a more important song than "Yeah!" with a straight face.
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Yeah was just another club song.

Still tippin was pretty much a celebration of the underground houston rap scene.
 
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