For once, good rap

Fuck Lil Wayne, this man actually uses rap as an outlet for real things he has to say. This is a fairly extreme example, there are less gruesome songs of his, many involving conspiracies or The Man. While I don't necessarily agree with everything he has to say, I respect the fact that his opinions are educated and that he is vocal about them. Regardless it isn't hard to enjoy his music.







The only thing I truly dislike about his music is the songs often include long intros. Skip them.

For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume rap and hip-hop are pretty much the same thing, as I've yet to find anyone that can quantify songs/artists as being one or the other apart from just the "feel" of it. Also, a lot of hip-hop artists consider themselves rappers as well as emcees. Also, I mostly listen to alternative, so I'm going to ignore most gangster rap and a lot of other stuff probably. Also, all my opinion so I don't have to say that every time I put one in, though most of them are pretty common with those who listen to it.

Good rap/hip-hop isn't exactly hard to find, with about 30 years of music that most people don't pay attention to because it isn't new.
Off the top of my head:

Early 80's was more funky stuff like:Grandmaster Flash or The Sugarhill Gang (also).
After that, it seemed to split into a bunch of different directions.

The Father of the genre as we know it: Eric B. and Rakim
Gangster rap: NWA (I prefer this one) (and other shit like that)
Political: KRS One, Public Enemy

Now for underground hip-hop, which I know a lot better.
Alternative: Hieroglyphics and the parts (Souls of Mischief and others) that made up the super group (for pretty much all of the Hiero label music that isn't Del, listen to the early to mid 90's stuff, got bad after that), The Pharcyde (more serious, less serous, listen to their first 2 albums), Gang Starr, De La Soul (also in the Gorillaz song Feel Good Inc), Binary Star (Masters of the Universe is a rerelease of Waterworld with better production+more then 1000 copies), Jurassic 5, Atmosphere

More hardcore: Wu Tang Clan (entire 36 chambers album, some of their solo stuff is good too like GZA's Liquid Swords), Nas, Tupac and Biggie (not underground but both good and shouldn't need me to introduce them, though I preferred Tupac before Death Row)

Jazzy: A Tribe Called Quest (People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm was their best album), Digable Planet

Southern: UGK (Ridin Dirty their best album), Outkast

Concept: Deltron 3030 (Del the Funky Homosapien and Dan the Automator, Del was in the Gorillaz song Clint Eastwood, anything by MF DOOM(hard to get into if you're new to alternative hip-hop, also this song and this)

Instrumental/Producers: J Dilla (Donuts is his intrumental album, haven't really listened to it though. Excellent producer, though that song seems to have a bad vocal sample), Nujabes (Produced, also did Samurai Champloo's music with others including Fat Jon), Fat Jon, Fat Jack

Lot of other shit, but I don't feel like posting it all and that's enough for awhile.

I find rap/hip-hop a really stupid genre on the whole, simply because of the content of the music. There are some cases (as in that of Immortal Technique) wherein the artist does actually put purpose into his words. That is when hip-hop becomes something different and more powerful than the basic verses about money and sex.

The entire music industry and pretty much all of every media is about sex and money. Rap just goes balls out with it.

And I didn't say the music industry was good, did I? However, it is worse in rap than any other place, simply because they "go balls out" with it. It's crude at best, but sometimes, on a few occasions, good rhythms and intelligent words find each other and put out a message above the average joe of rappers.

Lord Pheonix wrote:The entire music industry and pretty much all of every media is about sex and money. Rap just goes balls out with it.

Especially the newer artists. That's why I love it.


SOME people just take it to seriously and get butthurt over it.

Gauz wrote:

Lord Pheonix wrote:The entire music industry and pretty much all of every media is about sex and money. Rap just goes balls out with it.

Especially the newer artists.  That's why I love it.  


SOME people just take it to seriously and get butthurt over it.

I don't think it's people getting butthurt so much as people being bored with the same subject matter and unoriginal ideas. The reason early rap is still respected is, in my mind, because it was new enough at the time that it was original. People remember it for that, and disrespect newer artists for copying over the same themes time and time again. Honestly, they do have a point. When you describe music, you often talk about a style's evolution in 3 stages.

1. The beginning. It's still a little unrefined as a style itself, but it's different enough to be its own.

2. The improvement. People take the original concepts musically and lyrically from the earlier days and begin to improve them.

3. The copycat stage. This is where rap is now, where being your own rapper is almost out the window. It's the industry and the artists themselves making that happen. In fact, I suggest you listen to Immortal Technique's "The Message and the Money." It describes the situation of the industry well, and the artists to some extent.

Pretty much why I don't like a lot of the mainstream shit. If you're gonna steal lyrics, at least reference them in someway that shows it's their lyrics.