What do you think of rap?

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I do listen to rap, but mostly the old stuff I still have lying around on vinyl.

So, naturally, of the material OP mentioned, I can tolerate NWA for its historic value, the rest I find somewhere between appalling, intolerable and plain too damn silly.

Today's 'rap culture' and the hollowed out shell of 'hip hop' are still somewhat alive in communities and neighbourhoods, the money makers in the media don't quite tingle my fancy.

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I do not necessarily have to agree with rap artists on political issues, but their respect of the art and their integrity as a more or less well defined human being is of utmost importance to me.

 

[Bolwing]

I like my rap like I like my coffee.
I don't like coffee.

Me too, sir, me too.
OT: I don't HATE rap, mind you. I dislike it. I prefer my music to have a clear melody. And all the gangsta rap makes me want to cleave my ears off. I downright HATE disco polo, though.
Seriously. Look it up. It's HORRIBLE. And I live in the country it originates from.

 

[Sacman]

Like any genre there's good stuff that's completely outweighed by the unlistenable crap... even more so with rap, since as of late it's become the mainstream music of choice... so it's been commercialized and stripped of it's creativity to make it safe for consumption... but still there's plenty of great rap out there... you just need to know where to look...<.<

Anything that Godforbid puts out is amazing... though he really borders the line between rapper and singer...


...<.<

 

[Piorn]

To me, it's the uncanny valley between singing and poetry, and while I like music, I'm not a fan of poetry.
It's impressive how fast they can talk, though.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I'm actually a genuine fan of 90's gangsta rap. The hard-hitting stuff mostly. Not really into G-funk that Dre and Snoop made popular (though I do enjoy both their debut albums), but the more underground, gritty sounding stuff. Hard, bassey beats. Violent, urban thug lyrics. Slower/mid paced vocal delivery. That sort of thing.

Favourite albums would include:

South Central Cartel's first two (South Central Madness and N' Gatz we Truss)
Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
GZA's solo album, Liquid Swords
Compton's Most Wanted's Music to Drive By
Spice 1's 187 He Wrote
N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton and 100 Miles and Runnin'
MC Ren's Shock of the Hour
B.G Knocc Out & Dresta's Real Brothas
Eazy-E's It's On (Dr. Dre) 187um Killa
Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle (one of the only G-funk albums I like)

So yeah, they're all among my favourite rap albums. Really good shit, for real. A few of my all-time favourite individual songs include:

(one of the hardest rap songs I've heard)

Spoiler

(probably the catchiest/most addictive rap song, I can always listen to this one over and over)

Spoiler

(Wu-Tang Clan's first album is absolutely awesome, and this song is a great example as for why. That fucking bass, man)

Spoiler

(and finally, GZA's Liquid Swords is just full of dark as hell beats courtesy of RZA, such as this)

Spoiler

So yeah, you could say I have an interest in some rap. Mostly from playing San Andreas when I was younger, I suppose, but also because my older cousin used to listen to Straight Outta Compton way back, so that put some influence over me as well. Furthermore, I do have an interest in American urban gang culture, so there's that too.

 

[Reaper195]

I think of rap like I do any other genre of music. Some of the artists in that particular genre are incredibly amaing and I'd love to see them live. Some I like their music, but not a lot. And some I really don't like (Be it their music or the person for whatever reason).

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

I sometimes listen to stuff that was out when I was a teenager, Snoop's first 2 albums, 1st 3 Cypress Hill, Wu-Tang's 36 chambers & their various side projects, NWA, early Public Enemy.

A friend of mine listened to loads of Hip hop etc so I'm perfectly happy with the likes of Redman, Jeru the Damaja, Busta Rhymes, Kool Keith, The Brotherhood, KRS-One, etc.

 

[verdant monkai]

I'm not black enough for it.

Although I do enjoy Eminem's funny songs and some of his other songs. I dont know about rap... the subject matter doesnt interest me, I have difficulty comprehending the lyrics, I cant say n*gg*r without being glared at, I'm not allowed to own guns in Britain, I'm not in a gang, I dont have any homies, I dont do drugs.

I'm just not the target audience.

 

[Seagoon]

Rap. Rap rap rap. I'm open minded in all forms of music but rap just.. hmm.

I actually wrote a song which sums up my feelings on this matter pretty accurately.


(skip to 0:24)

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Give me rap, just not gangsta rap. 8-bit Duane and MC Frontalot are great fun to listen to and shows rap can be able all kinds of subjects.

 

[Trololo Punk]

Though I don't really like the majority of it. There are rap groups I do enjoy. Mainly The Beastie Boys and Death Grips. And I mean I love Death Grips. If your looking for a new group to listen to I plead for you to give them a listen. There awesome!

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I like my Tupac and Eminem (not the recent shite he's done with Rhianna) and some other older stuff, but modern 'gangsta' rap either bores me or infuriates me.

 

[Scentedwiind]

I don't much like it myself. Mostly because I listen primarily to classical and thus don't bother with any music made after the turn of the last century.

 

[kommando367]

Some artists are good and some aren't just like every other music genre.
I personally prefer Tech N9ne, Eminem, Bizarre, and Immortal Technique.

 

[rosac]

Eminem is possibly one of my favourite artists, he knocks it out of the park every time. Lose yourself is awesome, No love is a brilliant and intelligent revenge track (and it features eminem showing lil wayne how to do it. Epic.) Other than that, is heavily depends. Rap has some great political commentary and light hearted songs within it.

In general, I don't like rap in general, but the few songs of it that I like I LOVE.

Also, check out handlebars by flowbots. Powerful.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Apart from Kanye West's and Macklemore's work, the soundtracks to Anarchy Reigns and Madworld, and a few scattered songs like Take Care, I despise it. It seems that for every good rap song, there's about 3 thousand that just go GUNS CARS MONEY BITCHES over and over and over again and I just can't stand it.

 

[Hadesshade]

I'm a metalhead! (good way to start this eh?)

I like rap if it's made in a funny comedic way (Epic Rap Battles of History, some of Will Smiths raps etc), and if it has a meaning to it. Old school rappers who had a terrible time in their societies and used music to express their feelings about it. Here goes early age NiggasWithAttitude, Coolio (gangsters paradise), some Eminem I guess.

What I hate in rap is "here are my bitches and my high piles of cash" type of songs. Like taking away the music from silly pop songs and rapping them instead. So there is good rap out there but I don't listen to it too much, I have friends who listen to a lot of rap and therefor I know a little bit about it.

I similarly like the more comedic style of rap (ERB, some Eminem, Bo Burnham etc). Particularly with the impressive speeds of Watsky or Bloodhound Gang. That may be because I seem to enjoy things that appeared simply fun to make, with Barenaked Ladies and The Cat Empire songs springing to mind.

Most current rap, though? I don't hear enough of it to pass reasonable judgement. The only recent one that I can recall hearing would be Thrift Shop, and I didn't particularly enjoy that song.

 

[TyrunnAlberyn]

While I dislike most rap (at least of the popular persuasion), I really rather like Professor Elemental's subgenre of chap-hop. It just mixes delightfully silly lyrics with light melodic rap, which everyone can appreciate.

 

[Madmark123]

I have nothing against rap as such. I generally don't like rap that isn't "music", or the accompanying music is bland and boring. I also find a lot of the lyrics of rap incredibly boring and bland, with bland, pretentious singers who think they are really cool, and gangsta lyrics that don't really say anything interesting. Money, guns and how many naked girls you can have dancing around you is base and boring. Yawn.

That said, I like rap when it is used well. For example I like massive attack.

 

[Terramax]

I think it's silly. Just talking very quickly, as opposed to actually singing, seeing as there's little to no emphasis, or emotion, on any of the words, and their voices never seem above average. Dumb music videos, most of the singers come of as both stupid, and egotistical, and they are all about subjects I have no interest in. There are some very rare exceptions.

I'm not sure what I dislike more; the music itself, or that people out there see rappers as role models, rather than, say, doctors, surgeons, teachers, etc, people actually making real contributions to the world.

Anyway, here's something to lighten the mood: