Rival11

Thanks for posting that - Not to fond of the second song but I love the first

UAIOE

I should start this out by saying that Rap really isn't a genre of music I listen to a lot (or much at all really).

My interpretation is that when when the "fun" rap started disappearing is when there started to be this dividing line where you either had to be into rap or you weren't. It seemed like in the 80's and into the 90's you could like rock and like rap/hip-hop/whatever and it just didn't matter. Nowadays things seem very, very polarized.

But I find this feeling ironic as I believe that the most mediocre rap on the radio is probably controlled by rich white guys and aimed at consumers who are primarily white, middle-class teenagers.

wm lopez

Isn't what happened to rap was they ran out of songs from the 70's, 80's to sample?
And so there's no more background music to make a bad voice sound like you want to listen to it.

Michael Corvin

That's a good point. Rap was never my main genre, but every artist seemed accessible to anyone, from NWA to Digital Underground during the time period being discussed. It was new and everyone was open to it. Another huge factor was probably the fact that rock was between 'genres' at the time. Hair metal was in it's death throes and grunge was just getting underway, paving the way for a new sound to emerge and grab people's attention.

Not really a fair dig. It seemed like every song on the radio in the late 90's sampled something. A lot more than 80s-early 90s. You had artists sampling shit like the Knight Rider theme to P-Diddy ruining multiple songs alone to Will Smith sampling whatever just to toss out a song for his latest movie. I think the bottom of the barrel for me was the combination of terrible samples by respected artists. Public Enemy's He Got Game and Jay-Z's Hard Knock Life spring to mind. Come on, sampling Annie? What the fuck? If that doesn't scream rock bottom, I don't know what does.


I was unaware of the L.A.P.D. connection. I stand corrected and agree with your following assumption it that is the case.

The Bus

I feel terrible not having known that since I named my company after one of his albums.

The Bus

Jacoby Ellsbury

You named your business Little johnny from the hospital!?
You also could have right clicked the pic and checked properties to save face.

I dig El-p but he has the worst flow in hiphop and its funny that he's from a group called co-flow. But Funcrusher plus and Cold Vein are top 5 albums from the year they came out. Both classics to me. Check out Atoms Family, thats co flow family. Alaska one of the MC's of the crew always comes nice.

uncle-frank

the problem with rap is that all the good guys have stopped rapping or havent been putting out albums as fast as they use too.

that leaves huge shoes to fill for the new 'good' guys (which there arnt that many of to supply us with good rap)

a new nas album or ghostface can only go so far as to tide people over

yea, were in the ara of b-list hiphop.

Jack Straw

It's hopefully dying a timely death like it's predecessor "disco" from the 70's.

The Bus

And hopefully it takes that newfangled "metal" racket with it, eh?

Let's see... Disco: 1973—1979
Rap: 1979—Present

Sorry buddy. Rap outlived 1985.

<hr>

Heh, no, another one.

And now I know why I didn't know that title. I had heard bad things about the album and avoided it. Although come to think of it, maybe I was thinking of RJD2.

dadaluholla

Bus, aside from a couple weak tracks, I'll Sleep When You're Dead is freaking great. I would have bought it for "Run the Numbers" alone.

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wm lopez

Rap sure used Disco samples on a whole lot of it's hits. I'm surprised a Rap Sucks! never came about the way it did on Disco.

DJLinus

See, I thought that was a nice curveball sampling that, especially for an MC who's more like Biggie than De La Soul. IMO, "Rock bottom" would be uncreatively dipping into the P-Funk/James Brown well yet again (I'm not singling out Jay-Z here, but the genre as a whole at the time).

I'll grant you that after having sampled "Annie", turning to "Oliver" was a bit much.

Al Padrino

Apparently those who take cheap shots at rap are incapable of deciphering the difference between "it's" and "its."

And look at that, wm lopez taking a jab at hip-hop, I've never seen that before.

boredsilly

Oh yeah, if that wasn't an obvious attempt to recapture lighting in a bottle twice. I personally don't care where a sample comes from, as long as it works in the song.

That said, for my money the best beat ever made was by Eric B, and the song was "Know the Ledge". I could listen to that beat for days straight. That track is multifaceted. In a way it tells a story without Rakim on the track, but with his lyrics over top of it? It's over.

Padrino don't those cheap shots get old?

Randy Miller III

Its a matter of opinion.

Al Padrino

I'm not sure if you're calling my comment a cheapshot or agreeing with me. If it's the former, seeing as how this is the first time I've made that observation, then no.

Wm lopez, on the other hand, has regurgitated the same narrow-minded view on hip-hop for years.

Hixx

Disco didn't die btw, it just turned into house.

UAIOE

No, it turned into Jamiroquai.

Hixx

I thought it was Stevie Wonder that turned into Jamiroquai.

dugan

I think part of the problem is the insane dynamic range compression that gets applied to rap CDs these days. As lyrically and musically great as Jay-Z's American Gangster and Ghostface's Fishscale albums are, their productions are so tiring that I can't even listen to them.

The Bus

I don't think Wu-Tang even bothered mastering The W.

The Bus

BTW, this is currently most most awaited release:

My Other Self

As someone who listens to hip-hop and rap more than any other genre, I agree whole-heartedly. The Cool is one of the best albums to come out in the past 10 years - period. The thing here is that people aren't recognizing the different genres of rap and hip-hop. It's not all just grouped together.

You have your bubblegum rappers like Nelly and Lil' Wayne. Then you have your gangster rappers like 50 Cent, DMX, The Game, etc.

Rapping about actual things instead of money, cash, and women brings a whole different genre into light. Example Kanye West vs. 50 Cent. Sure, they're rappers, but WHAT they rap about puts them in different classes.

I mean this is just all my opinion, but if you compare (for example) 50 or Young Jeezy to MF DOOM then you don't know anything about music.

Oh, and if you don't know of them already, listen to Swollen Members. One of Canada's best rap groups. Balance is one of the greatest hip-hop CDs of all-time.

Nausicaa

Nice Bus. I wasn't aware of that one! Looks like only one Dilla track though.

Surprised no one's dropped that name yet. Donuts and The Shining are two of my favorite albums. Too bad we'll never hear how his sound could have developed.

For more of than Detroit sound, check out Black Milk, Popular Demand.

I'd previously heard bad things about The Cool from some friends, so I haven't gotten around to checking it out yet. After some of the praise here though, I'll get right on it.