What do you think of rap?

[AzrealMaximillion]

I love rap music.

I also find that most people who have to "slog through many songs" to find good rap are just listening to the radio/ watching MTV.

Good hip hop is not that hard to find in the slightest.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Honestly, I think anyone in this thread that is generalizing hip hop as "gangsta" needs to listen to the following:

Atmostphere
MF DOOM
Chance The Rapper
Action Bronson
Danny Brown
Canibus
Count Bass D
El-P
Aesop Rock


The problem people seem to have is that they expect the radio/MTV to debut good music of any genre. Please stop making this mistike.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Honestly, I think anyone in this thread that is generalizing hip hop as "gangsta" needs to listen to the following:

Atmostphere
MF DOOM
Chance The Rapper
Action Bronson
Danny Brown
Canibus
Count Bass D
El-P
Aesop Rock


The problem people seem to have is that they expect the radio/MTV to debut good music of any genre. Please stop making this mistike.

I think sage Francis, Buck 65 and B. Dolan should be added to that list. perhaps even Brother Ali. These, and the artists you mentioned, are the sort who easily challenge the stereotypes and make it easier to get into the genre. Radio and such is a terrible source of good music, especially when it comes to rap.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Honestly, I think anyone in this thread that is generalizing hip hop as "gangsta" needs to listen to the following:

Atmostphere
MF DOOM
Chance The Rapper
Action Bronson
Danny Brown
Canibus
Count Bass D
El-P
Aesop Rock


The problem people seem to have is that they expect the radio/MTV to debut good music of any genre. Please stop making this mistike.

I think sage Francis, Buck 65 and B. Dolan should be added to that list. perhaps even Brother Ali. These, and the artists you mentioned, are the sort who easily challenge the stereotypes and make it easier to get into the genre. Radio and such is a terrible source of good music, especially when it comes to rap.

I'll agree with Buck 65 and especially Brother Ali. Sage Francis has gotten to preachy to me in his newer songs. I have hope for some new up and comers like Joey Badass and Kembe X as well.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Honestly, I think anyone in this thread that is generalizing hip hop as "gangsta" needs to listen to the following:

Atmostphere
MF DOOM
Chance The Rapper
Action Bronson
Danny Brown
Canibus
Count Bass D
El-P
Aesop Rock


The problem people seem to have is that they expect the radio/MTV to debut good music of any genre. Please stop making this mistike.

I think sage Francis, Buck 65 and B. Dolan should be added to that list. perhaps even Brother Ali. These, and the artists you mentioned, are the sort who easily challenge the stereotypes and make it easier to get into the genre. Radio and such is a terrible source of good music, especially when it comes to rap.

I'll agree with Buck 65 and especially Brother Ali. Sage Francis has gotten to preachy to me in his newer songs. I have hope for some new up and comers like Joey Badass and Kembe X as well.

Sage's last album was the collaboration with some indie rock types, right?I wasn't fond of that one, either. I liked a couple of songs, though, like Slow Man and The Best of Times but he's always been preachy, imo. First it was involving personal issues and now it's political.

Oh, and Scroobius Pip is pretty awesome, imo. Haven't heard the two you mentioned, though.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Sage's last album was the collaboration with some indie rock types, right?I wasn't fond of that one, either. I liked a couple of songs, though, like Slow Man and The Best of Times but he's always been preachy, imo. First it was involving personal issues and now it's political.

Oh, and Scroobius Pip is pretty awesome, imo. Haven't heard the two you mentioned, though.

Scroobius Pip is amazing. So is Saul Williams.

And to Sage Francis, he's always been preachy but now its more of an "I'm older than you so this is the way it is" preachy rather than looking at the ills of society in the here and now.

 

[Mr_Universal]

As long as the lyrics are good, and the sound has a nice feel to it, i´ll listen to anything.

For example, my playlist on spotify (I only have 1 playlist where i dump every song i like) spans from "Psychostick" to "Simon and Garfunkel"

 

[ninjaRiv]

Sage's last album was the collaboration with some indie rock types, right?I wasn't fond of that one, either. I liked a couple of songs, though, like Slow Man and The Best of Times but he's always been preachy, imo. First it was involving personal issues and now it's political.

Oh, and Scroobius Pip is pretty awesome, imo. Haven't heard the two you mentioned, though.

Scroobius Pip is amazing. So is Saul Williams.

And to Sage Francis, he's always been preachy but now its more of an "I'm older than you so this is the way it is" preachy rather than looking at the ills of society in the here and now.

Yeah, Scroobius Pip is awesome. Loved his stuff with Dan le Sac and his solo work. Actually, especially his solo work.

I still really look forward to Sage's next album but even if he is a little too preachy his music isn't bad enough to ignore, I think. It's not like with some artists who lose what made them great (for whatever reason). Besides, Personal Journals and a Healthy Distrust were good enough to make up for a lot of bad albums. but I do agree with you.

I finally remembered a rapper I was going to say! Camu Tao! Man, I couldn't think of that name until now. He had a great voice. rap is always better when the voice is a pleasure to listen to.

 

[DarthFennec]

I have no opinion on rap as a genre, but I have to say that I really don't care for most of the songs I've heard. I've always considered rap to be more like poetry in rhythm, and less like other forms of music. With most music, a song can be carried entirely by the music itself, so it doesn't necessarily need good (or any) lyrics for me to like it. Since a rap song doesn't really have a tune, the lyrics have to be that much better to make up for it, but most rap songs just don't do that. Some are pretty good though. Most of the ones I like are by Eminem, enough for me to call myself a fan of his music, although I realize that he's written a lot of horrible songs as well.

 

[Amaror]

I don't like most of it. When i listen to music the lyrics are pretty important to me. That doesn't mean i can't enjoy something that isn't about politics or stuff, it just means that i really can't listen to something when i get the impression the iq of the singing person has to be in the negative. Then again there are some rap groups that i quite like, like flobots for example, exspecially handlebars.

 

[V8 Ninja]

It is a genre of music that tends to focus on lyrical content more than music. Like all other genres, there is good rap music and bad rap music. Being focused on the musical aspect of music, I tend to neither care nor actively listen to artists of that specific genre.

Captcha #1: "Face the music". Yes, I was planning on doing that already Captcha.

Captcha #2: "Choco lazer boom". Yes, Captcha, that is a lovely suggestion for the name of my nightcore/viking metal/polka band.

 

[SirDerpy]

WHEN WILL PEOPLE STOP THIS ARGUMENT?

It's just false to assume that the rap on the radio is representative of the rap that rap fans listen to. Just as it is stupid to judge games based on COD, Halo, and Gears its stupid to judge all rap based on Biggie, Wu Tang and people like Lil Wayne.

Never, unfortunately. The vocal "Bitches and Cash" minority (Or is it majority? I'm not a fan, so I wouldn't know how much of rap is actually that) is rather more prevalent than the decent rap that's abundant in this thread.

It's not a valid argument, but it certainly makes sense to the more uninformed of us.

OT: To ask that question of an entire genre is a bit...inaccurate? Misrepresentative? There's a word that works, can't think of it right now. "Gangsta" rap sucks, but there is obviously good rap, as evidenced by plenty of people here.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

I must ask; why is it the Gangsta Rap sub-genre that is associated with the idea of 'bitches and riches'? Gangsta is artists like 2pac and NWA, who rapped about pressing social issues that faced the black community. If anything, it's more mainstream pop-rap that includes vapid, uninspired lyrics.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

I must ask; why is it the Gangsta Rap sub-genre that is associated with the idea of 'bitches and riches'? Gangsta is artists like 2pac and NWA, who rapped about pressing social issues that faced the black community. If anything, it's more mainstream pop-rap that includes vapid, uninspired lyrics.

Because most people don't understand the difference between the original gangsta rappers and the modern lot that have taken on the image. Not that some of them didn't have the odd track about bitches and riches (I'm lookin' at you Snoop).

 

[ThreeName]

It's really weird to criticize the culture surrounding rap while defending metal. I'm a total metalhead, long hair, long beard, battle jacket and all. But man, there is a lot of fucked up shit associated with metal. There is no other genre of music where I have to look up whether or not the artists are Nazis before buying albums.

I don't think it's accurate to suggest that metal and rap culture are the same. But to pretend one is better than the other isn't fair either.

When did I defend metal? I don't think the culture is good. But more people I know have a bigger problem with rap than metal. Most people don't like metal either, but rap is pushed a lot harder, and thus is liked a lot less.

I can mostly say the same for Metal and it's Emo, fuck the world messages. And Country songs that pretty much go on about nothing. Every genre has tons of shit in it along with the good stuff. You Don't particularly like rap. Fine. But calling the whole medium mostly drivel just shows a high level of ignorance and bias I only see in the older generations.

As for Macklemore, I'll just chalk that up to difference of opinion.

Again, people don't like metal or emo either. But rap is the one that's marketed and pushed the most, it has the most exposure, so people are going to dislike it the most.

It's got nothing to do with ignorance or bias. You said yourself that people are making the assumption based on "generic" rap. A genre us literally defined by what is generic. And people don't like that. Regardless of the exceptions you find good, it's perfectly valid to judge a genre based on what it mostly is, i.e. what is generic within it.

 

[Julius Terrell]

It's not music IMHO!!

I now actually carry a rap whistle in case I ever happen to suddenly find myself in the middle of a rap battle. So far it seems to work.

This made me laugh!!

 

[KOMega]

Ehhh I generally don't like rap.
But, as with everything, there are always exceptions.

Spoiler: Nujabes

Spoiler: Scroobius Pip

Maybe it's not really rap, but w/e.

 

[infohippie]

Can't stand it myself. The only rap I have ever found tolerable is "Chap-Hop", and that is really just for its comedy value anyway.

 

[SageRuffin]

As a whole, I love it. Of my music collection, it has the largest collection of songs. Sure, there's a lot of shit nowadays, but you can say that about anything. Rap music is no exception in one way or the other.

What I think is a shame is how rap music somehow became the go-to subject when talking about hip-hop culture as a whole (which also includes graffiti and breakdancing). And that the usual, nonsensical mainstream rap is what most people are familiar with. Ergo, people from the outside looking in believe that the common stereotypes associated with rap music today are what the culture is about, similar to how some people associate metal with lice-infested long hair and a bunch of low-level growling infused with unintelligible vocabulary. It's simply untrue.

I remember having a discussion with a fellow who believed that since I like rap music, I in turn enjoy shooting people in the street for no reason. It was... interesting, to put it lightly. :/

Aside: Oh how I long for the day for a (decent) fighting game with hip-hop inspired elements. And no, I don't qualify the Def Jam games as part of that equation.