Who among us?

word

Jerry didn’t approve.

I enjoy forward-thinking rap, but admittedly have picky aesthetics regarding the music itself...

My son who plays football is big into the rap. It is a race and younger persons music. He has gone to Rolling Loud a few times and loves the 3 day rap festivals. I give him equal time with the tunes on road trips. I do not like 80% of it but there is about 20% that is tolerable. I am a partial fan of older rap and I won't turn off any Snoop. He was a blast in concert.

LOL, I was going to forward a song from a CD single that I was listening to last night that seemed like good hippie-dippy (or at least raggae-ish) forward thinking...

.....Well I'll go ahead:

K'NAAN - Wavin' Flag (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJSt4wP2ME

>Is it blacks and hoes? 

Lol.  

When keepin it real goes wrong.

I love Hip Hop.  

I just saw fantastic this movie:

Patti Cake$

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6288250/

I liked the rap with Phil from the 7th, didn't see that coming, but it worked for me  (no, not a fan of the genre per se, but in the right context, I enjoy it).

Shakedown Street w/ Talib Kweli rap ( rap starts a little after the 6:15 min mark)

Get By (w/ Talib Kweli & Harlem Choir)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj7thEm_9OA

I appreciate the art form in its purest state:  an expression of life in the struggle.  I do think the overall vibe of the genre is bogged down with the following topics:

- Sex

-Money

-Power

-Misogyny

- Guns

Seriously.  Every popular rap song is about the same topics.  When listening I play a sort of game to see how fast it takes for the artist(s) to mention sex, money and weapons.  It's usually about 1:30 seconds.

I think the societal acceptance of the subject matter is a HUGE double standard in today's #MeToo culture.  What's more is I think everyone is afraid to point out this double standard for fear of being labeled a racist and being accused of discrediting an entire culture.  Seriously, watch any popular rap videos and you'll see women being objectified by rappers pouring champagne on and throwing money at women while they brag about their sexual proclivities at the expense of others.  It's the whole "Fuck 'em and forget 'em, pass 'em off to your friends and ditch 'em" attitude that is rampant in the culture and I just don't get it.  My gym is full of what I suspect to be women of decent character who are listening to songs over the stereo that glorify drug dealing, ass licking and degrading women.  Bros before hoes!

I just don't get it, really.  I'm always tempted to ask a female how these lyrics effect them but I bite my tongue when I here them gushing over that hot new jam.

The egos are rampant.

Check out ' Digable Planets ' especially their first album 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reachin%27_(A_New_Refutation_of_Time_and_Space)

jazzy and trippy 

I'm following you. The thread reminded me of the Chappelle Show skit. 

Sucks to live in a trapped culture. 

^^^ apologies ^^^ the link gets you half way there - you'll find if it you want to

Siobud, good words. Did you ever make it back to KY? 

>>Did you ever make it back to KY? 

Naw not yet.  I didn't know you posted here- nice to see you.  I'll probably be back there soon.. going all over right now.  Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota.  Ireland in November.How's your guitar playing coming?  I've been taking lessons the last few months and have been feeling super inspired.

Don't like it but it's a generational thing

Public Enemy had some good lyrical content:

I had tickets for a Prophets of Rage show last month.  They are the Rage Against the Machine dudes (sans singer) with Chuck D and the dude from Cypress Hill as front men.  Sadly, someone in the band had a health emergency and they had to cancel the show. 

I have no idea if this guy is any good, but the title of the album is interesting enough:

>>In this day and age there are WHITE rappers too.

RIP Mac Miller.  Passed away earlier this week from a suspected overdose.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=idx3GSL2KWs

I’d say hip hop is just as “forward thinking” as Rock or any other genre of music.

Hamilton is a mash up of hip hop, rap and musical theater. It's as forward thinking as one can get. 

What was your point, Sarah?

You work broadway shows. In Chicago. Cleaning up the bathrooms makes sarah feel superior, lol

A duel to settle this spat, dear?!

Mash ups of hip hop and raps are phat!

Let’s quit bickering.  It’s upsetting poor Gravy.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/d1ev/citi-mobile-app-more-time-in-the-moment-fea...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PM2NocuEihw

https://www.complex.com/music/2010/02/tiger-style-hip-hops-best-tiger-wo...

It's a little late to ask you (both) to keep it classy on this one; if you're going to keep it going, please take it off Viva. Thanks.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5a0s4_69A

No problem, Judit. Ok to still discuss Hamilton as rap here as it pertain to the thread topic? blacks, hoes, dog  shit and theater bathrooms aside, of course

...

Rap is not music, sorry.

https://youtu.be/2YeRKRfSV44

https://youtu.be/Q1RaBdSCjAY

Great thread so far. I grew up listening to rap and hip hop and it’s one of my favorite forms of music. So many great albums and artists. It’s a much different medium than what a lot of old white folks are used to. I think most old white folks might actually like rap if they weren’t so afraid to listen to it in their cars while driving. 

I can’t lie if I saw some a burnout old white bread lady motherfucker singing along with some old school NWA or the original  “Chronic”, I’d crack up. I’d respect it though.

”Blacks and hoes” 

Are the hoes white? Asian?

>>Let’s quit bickering.  It’s upsetting poor Gravy.

Wrong again. It's upsetting admins.

Where does Techno music fit on the Rap scale? 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5E4xkfoJEo

Wow, thread took a bit of an ugly turn since I saw it just before I left work.

Most of the rap I listen to is older. Public Enemy is my favorite. I’ve seen them 3 times & met Chuck D at a book signing in NYC. Cool guy. 

I’ve been trying to catch the Prophets of Rage as well Ken. The times they’ve been around near me I haven’t been able to go for one reason or another. They are pretty badass though. Chuck D & B-Real make a good combination & it works great with the guys from Rage Against the Machine.

Killing in the Name 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gZl4ZgpO1YE

Gravy, you trying to get into the admin game?

The genre has been going through a brutal dumbing down over the past 15 years or so, but there's still some bright spots.

Hip hop is basically where rock n roll was in the 80's; a bunch of unoriginal, cringe-y, overproduced crap dominating the airwaves while a small group of artists carve out albums that are really really good. 

I'm hoping there's an analog to the grunge thing for hip hop waiting around the corner. Everything moves in cycles, and pop culture seems to follow the same principle.

^ Never really looked at it that way.  I dig it.

Remember Jam on It by Newcleus?

I was eleven. It was 1983 and I had the radio on and this song came on:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zEmg5GaAHbk

It was fun. I liked it. I still think rap and hip hop has a future here. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MEkVI_7eRO4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfi7ME_Y5Vs&app=desktop

How can we forget Bob Dylan & Kurtis Blow?

Rap sucks and is not worthy of being called music..

Just my ignant opine.

Bob Dylam - the father of rap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxjIBEZvx0

Sorry, Bob.

Dylan.

>>>Rap sucks and is not worthy of being called music..

Music: Vocal and/or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

Sounds like it doesn't create beauty for you necessarily but the genre is built on being an expression of emotion.

Not all music has beauty or harmony - or even emotion.

John Cage comes to mind.

The other issue is that there’s some god awful rap out there that makes its way into the main stream and rap ‘stars’ who are just as awful, of course the same could be said for other genres of music. Probably not classical music though..

some of the  techno DJ’s that tour worldwide and rake in the dough at raves also ‘Rap’ - I suppose if one took enough Molly they’d have a good time and see the artists as beaming...

https://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/the-difference-between-rap-h...

>...In terms of a distinction in quality, there are MCs creating art and contributing to the culture and then there are rappers who are packaged products of record labels who are contributing to their own coffers with little regard for progress or contributing to the artform and its evolution. The turnover for rap records and records within any genre really has become much quicker than it has in the past, mainly because the general public’s attention span has shortened, causing its connection to music to wane over time. Thus, the incentive to create a timeless record isn’t there for the artist seeking commercial success, as the draw to sell a million ringtones while you’re still hot is greater than the draw to work harder and build a fan base over time by making something that sticks to the listener’s ribs a little more than the “hot” club song du jour. Formulaic output and the reluctance to take risks in the industry is just the harsh reality that is the result of hip-hop becoming such a lucrative subculture to bank on.

So the distinction doesn’t lie between hip-hop and rap, but between those who are MCing and those who just happen to rap. It lies between those interested in honoring the foundation that was laid beforehand by putting forth quality work and acknowledging the culture of hip-hop and those who are just rhyming words together and applying a formula to get rich quick. To put it plainly, in 1997’s Rhyme & Reason, MC and hip-hop philosopher KRS One describes the two terms with great efficacy, stating that rap is something that is done, while hip-hop is something that is lived. So while we absolutely need to have some people asking for more from hip-hop, we also need to make sure those people know the difference between the art being watered down for marketing purposes and seeing it evolve to remain relevant to the people who make and consume it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I_U0hch6w7k

My teenage daughter wants to go see Chief Keef at the Hawthorne Theater in Portland later this month. HipHop/Rap is pretty popular with the teenage set now a days.

This songs is okay I guess. "I don't like" https://youtu.be/FCesTBJFBwE

I prefer older school I grew up with of course, Beasties, Cypress Hill, Public Enemy, etc..

It’s a good article, but instead of reading it you prefer to troll. It’s okay, I know some folks would rather fight and get melty rather  than actually have a discussion on the topic. 

Most rap/hip hop doesn’t grab me, but once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places...even happened once at the TXR bar when a really good rapper performed. Or maybe it was hip hop, still confused as to the difference

Late to the party here and walking through a mine field of debris, I guess - but at the risk of being seen as frivolous in the eyes of St. Jerome of the 9 Fingers and his followers - I, um, actually like rap and hip hop and have for years and years. Since around 1982, I guess. I have attended concerts, bought albums, watched movies. As a matter of fact - I am a bad MFer.

so eclectic!

I am the most hip of all, turts. The truly erudite among us recognize this. The cheap imitations are jealous.

Interestingly, (perhaps), I was just listening to this CD: Quincy Jones - Back on the Block (1989)

The Title Track:

Back, on the block, so we can rock
With the soul, rhythm, blues, be bop and hip hop

Back on the block
Back on the block

Ice-T, let me kick my credentials
A young player, bred in South Central
L.A., home of the bodybag
You wanna die, wear the wrong color rag
I used to walk in stores and yell: "Lay down!"
You flinch an inch - AK spray down
But I was lucky cause I never caught the hard time
I was blessed with the skill to bust a dope rhyme
All my homies died or caught the penzo
Lost their diamonds, cops towed their Benzos
Livin that life that we thought was it
Fast lanin, but the car flipped
I'm not gonna lie to ya, cause I don't lie
I just kick thick game, some people say: why?
Cause I'm back on the block, I got my life back
So I school the fools about the fast track
I get static from the style of my technique
Profanity, the blatant way in which I speak
But the Dude knows the streets ain't no kiddie game
You don't know the Dude? Quincy's his first name
He told me: "Ice, keep doin what you're doin, man
Don't give a damn if the squares don't understand
You let em tell you what to say and what to write
Your whole career'll be over by tomorrow night
Rap from your heart, and your heart's with the street
Rap on my record, man, Kimiko, send Ice the beat"
The Dude is def no doubt, what can I say?
The man can roll with Ice-T or Michael J....

.......

Back up and give the brother room
To let poetry bloom to whom
It may concern or consume
As I reminisce before this
The bliss that exist
But now we brought about a twist
Cause I remember of my people bleedin
Put through slavery and killed for bravery
We shoulda got our freedom much sooner
You never seen a blackman on _The Honeymooners_
But now somehow we've learned to earn, to grow, to show
The elevation of a people built is so
Jesse Jackson, Miss America a black one
No more livin for just a small fraction
I was once told by the Dude that knowledge is a food
To nourish, so to conclude
This from an Asiatic descendant, Big Daddy is shocked
Yo Q, we back on the block

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqJ8X28V6sI

I like Blondie

Cause the man from Mars stopped eating cars and eating bars and now he only eats guitars...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHCdS7O248g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXo0TrMhPao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvHITC20iy8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvA4oV_-29Y