rap is crap

The only UK rapper I really know is KC Da Rookee. I've heard of Roots Manuva so I checked out a track of called Witness. Lyrics are hard to understand. Okay that was an understatement, I don't really know what he's talking about. And I'm not feeling the beat. Also downloaded a collabo he did with the Supa Saian Crew (Hey Yo My Man). That was more on my level; the track was amped, real hyped. But still not impressed by Roots Manuva. You want to recommend a track?

Tried to get some Latryx, but it was all queued. A track called Storm Warning.

My suggestions to you:

Square One - Applause or Unorthodox
Binary Star - Reality Check or Masters of the Universe
Jedi Mind Tricks - Spitmode
J-Zone - Zone Mission Pt VIII
RJD2 ft Copywrite - June
Louis Logic - The Ugly Truth (Bush haters will love this one)

From LSK I like "Rap Starr". Very mellow, downright cute actually. He also did the lyrics in "70s 80s" of Nightmares on Wax, another really mellow (almost melancholic) track, which was my fave tune for much of autumn. I like that stuff.

Roots Manuva? I mostly like his voice. Great sound. I like "Movements", the track, and most of the album it's from, "Brand new second hand".

Not everything tho - I like some of his tracks a lot better than others. He is really trying the experimental stuff, and sometimes it works - and sometimes it doesnt.

Talking about that, do you like Deltron 3030? I just downloaded a mp3 called 3030. Its kinda Roots Manuva-ish, and a real gamble. I like it, tho.

Manuva's also done some cool raps on other people's tracks, trip-hoppy blunted beats stuff mostly, like Amon Tobin's Saboteur. (I like all the Ninja Tune stuff).

I havent really gotten down to listen to those Latryx tracks (or is it Latyrx? You might wanna try both to find more!). But "Rankin No 1", "Lady Don't Tek No", "Bad News" all sound pretty OK.

What else ... been picking up tracks by Rodney P, had never heard of him but it's good ... Was playing these kick-ass Afu Ra tracks ... really liked those Common and Mos Def CDs I burned ... and last month I was playing "Whoa" (Talib Kweli, Mos Def etc) and Q-Tip's Breath&Stop non-stop for a while. Don't know where all that puts me ...

Anyway, I'm gonna put your suggestions on my list, see what I can find! :-)

Oh and I saw Saia Supa Crew live, they were brilliant!

Haven't been able to find any MP3s that were anything as good as they were live, though ..

on different stuff again: there's a thread around here on Jurassic 5 ...

Good to see this has become a discussion of good rap, rather than a slanging match against bad (c)rap!

Roots Manuva are good - I have Brand New Second Hand.

I DISAGREE WITH YALL
RAP IS THE BOMB AND I LOVE IT....... IM A RAPPER MYSELF.... FO SHIZZLE DIZZLE IM THE BeST BLACK NIZZLE!!!!!!!!!

As long as rap has the ability to irritate the older generation, it will thrive, just as rock and swing did in their day. Hating it only increases its appeal.

I didn't realize it had been around for 20 years. K-Tel should be putting out a golden oldies CD soon. From there, its only a short step until rap fans join the ranks of musical fossils complaining about whatever musical trend comes up next.

I have a problem with a lot of the lyrics myself, and I'm on the wrong side of the generation gap for it to ever have much of a grip on me personally, but I'm not so set in my ways as to declare that it isn't music when it obviously is.

I listen to new music occasionally, and, quite often I will say to myself, "That is very well done." But, it doesn't touch me like my favorite music does. In other words, I admit that it's good but simply can't sit and listen for long. Don't know if it's my age or my mind - I expect both.

TANTA......that's way cool.............I LOVE IT!

Did anybody watch the Billboard Music Awards last night? What a bunch of garbage.

I'm not sure it is clear what it would mean for a style of music to stink. Hypothetically, suppose there is a style of music that a non-negligible fraction of the people in the country, say 5% or more, like a lot. What are the criteria for a style to be bad, and if a style meets those criteria, what does one say to that 5% that likes it? Does one say, your taste is objectively wrong. Maybe one does. I don't know. Perhaps one could take into account whether the composers behave like artists and seem to be emotionally invested in the music, or whether they are ignorant rip-off artists repeating formulas to make a buck. The idea that a form of music might be objectively inferior is a very complicated one, it seem to me.

Having said that, I think that rap sucks.

Afu-Ra, Common, Mos Def, thats what I'm talking about. Don't know about Afu's new **** though, very disappointing. But the old album, Body of the Life Force, is a classic.

I'm sick and tired of hearing the club bangers that are played relentlessly. For me it has to be some ill rimes or a nice beat that i can vibe too. Mix those together and you have an intoxicating concoction. Yeah, word to your moms.

Add "Zion I" to your list.
Look for these tracks: Elevation, Revolution, Inner Light, Trippin

Rap isn't my style, but I do have a high respect for it.

Just try freestyling and you'll know it's not as easy as it looks. Of course, there is crappy rap--but that is the cas with ANY genre of music... so I don't think rap should be ripped apart any more then other types of music.

Eminem has some good lyrics in his songs, like the song "Sing for the Moment" and it has a nice rhythme... all though I find that rap can get monotonous, that is nothing against rap it's just my taste in mysic.


It offended me that someone would call rap a "fad", it is a genre of music and it isn't just something temporary that will be gone in a couple years.

Anybody down with Zamfir?

I always heard his albums panned . . .



god, i crack me up . . .




heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee . . .

okbye

Good one Setanta. Any Mystikal fans out there?

Hey you guys remember "criss cross"? Now them were some rappers that blew goats!

This will date me, but I thought that Run DMC's breakout lp was great--clever and funny. Can't say I've kept up with it since then, nor am I a big fan of misogyny as art form, but jeez...

Whassup with the slagging from some quarters? Couldn't be, dare I say it, a touch of racism, could it?

Yeah folks, no need to be playa haters...

Heh (on Zamfir) ...

I read an interview with this DJ who ran, like, Amsterdam's largets record shop - as in, the largest number of VINYL records - most of his customers were fellow-DJs - and he was explaining to the uninitiated readers of this MOR newspaper about the art of DJ'ing. He's all, like - bottom line of course its all about hitting the right tunes - but above that, which sounds and samples do you mix in to get just that edge that noone else's got? He's all: take this record, for example, its this obscure Romanian panflute player from the 70s - now that may seem kitschy rubbish - but if you mix in just the odd melodyline into a techno track, you have the most amazing effect!

<grins>

actually, i've always wanted to play with that, and dicked around with a mixing board and an 4-track R to R recorder some time back. ravi shankar underneath little samples from thelonious monk and jimi hendrix and some chant record i'd come across came together very nicely. course, after realizing i'd spent about 20 hours of my life putting together a 75 second recording turned me off to the whole endeavor.

it ain't rap, but some of you naysayers might want to check out the avalanches for a new take on what you might think is theft. the humor of the whole thing -- samples pulled from old movies and old and new tv -- makes it, um, approachable.

(or the roots or, going back a ways, the fugees, if you please...)