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Rap fans, if you could pick

spindoc

By spindoc
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B-Ball-fan

B-Ball-fan

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Here's another classic you won't jive to. Scenario by Tribe Called Quest...

 

Believe it or not I saw the Tribe roughly 20 some odd years ago. I'd have to research a little to be exact. They moved the crowd but didn't exactly move me that much. I remember pondering then what the hype was surrounding them other than having a bunch of weed on stage. I do remember that they were trying to stand out from the pack a little, and if I do recall they were somewhat innovators in attracting an increasingly interested white crowd in what at the time was a somewhat a newer hip thing for a white crowd to be down with rap.

 

I could see myself chit chatting at a party with someone with this song in the background making me bop a little in a partying good mood kind of way, but other than that not something that I'd go back to time and again or stop the presses to draw attention to as something amazing. Don't love it... don't hate it... it's alright.

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B-Ball-fan

B-Ball-fan

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Me against the world by Tupac may tickle your fancy.

 

Again, some background bopping music for a friendly get together. Doesn't exactly rock my world, but don't hate it either. I know that what I'm about to say will sound blasphemous, but I never have exactly understood the hype surrounding Tupac and what made him so different or more original than a lot of other Rap artists. I kept an open mind about him over the years to hopefully one day get the drift, but the drift never came.

 

I know that I'm a hard sell, but don't give up on me. I'm always willing to be introduced to something and thanks sincerely for trying. Like I said, when I do really dig a rap tune, I do really dig it.

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B-Ball-fan

B-Ball-fan

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I'll use rap along side of other genres namely metal, stoner rock, punk or country to express what turns me on about them or doesn't. There's potential in each one of those genres to have fun or exciting flavor even at the utmost extreme, but most of the time they get caught in a trap of a copy cat syndrome.

 

You might like meat loaf for dinner, but it can get tiresome every night for a whole month. Originality and variety turns me on. I've been known to like some out of control stuff that would wake the dead, but even with it, there tends to be something about it that just kicks outside of the same same same box.

 

As example in the hardcore punk world "Sick of it all" strikes me that way when normally I really don't want to listen to screaming. The song "Consume" kicks my you know what.

 

I used to listen to metal much more than I do now and once in awhile it can feed the need. When some of it graduated to the most ridiculous vocals of death or sludge metal it was a big turn off, especially when so many in the genre were doing it. Yeah...that was original.... NOT!!!... and beyond annoying too.

 

After having been deeply submerged in metal for much of my youth the one act that turned me on when I had pretty much left most of it in the past or occasional revisiting with the likes of Judas Priest or Queensryche is Marilyn Manson. Catchy intense stuff that stands alone.

 

Stoner rock station WEBN used to be a cool station. Now I swear over the past 10 years they've been playing the same stoner rock tune on repeat. Sadly whoever is listening must dig it, but it's just the same angry boring annoying sound time and again. I picture their audience sitting in an insane asylum in a straight jacket banging their head against the wall. How it got the tag stoner rock is beyond me because when I think of pot, I think of happiness. Stoner rock is nothing of the sort.

 

"Give me originality or give me death".

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PurplePride92

PurplePride92

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Thanks for the tip. I seriously checked both tunes out with an open mind, and don't take this personally, but neither one juiced me up. They bored me. Outkast bored me the most.

 

If I had to pick two tunes of late, as an example, that made me take notice, the first would be Macklemore's "Same Love" and even if it didn't resonate with me in a personal way, as it does, I'd still think that it was a nicely structured tune with thought provoking words with emotion. A real keeper and a stand out that has a chance of effecting the world in a profound way.

 

The second tune in recent times that I've dug, I can't say the title here, but it's by Kendrick Lamar w/ Drake & A$AP dealing with "Problems". Even in it's infinite juvenile content there's something phat about it with the act right juice. It's repetitive for certain, but its hook does stick with you as it can't be avoided by it's repetitive nature, but it is phat nonetheless.

 

I am still very much open to any suggestion that anyone has, because when I do really dig a rap tune, I do really dig it, but it really has to stand out away from the generic pack.

 

You say that but then you talk about how ignorant rap is now. I can't help it you don't understand the genre and how to find quality rappers. And then you make these silly posts with jargon that ales your opinion on rap less respectable. We get it. You don't like rap and you don't get it. It doesn't make it ignorant. It will never die regardless of what you may hope. I'm very particular to what I listen to when it comes to rap. I even declared myself a rap/hip hop snob because deep down I am. Either way, I'm not going to discredit an entire culture or genre in the manner you have just because you don't like it. There are ignorant people in every genre.

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B-Ball-fan

B-Ball-fan

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You say that but then you talk about how ignorant rap is now. I can't help it you don't understand the genre and how to find quality rappers. And then you make these silly posts with jargon that ales your opinion on rap less respectable. We get it. You don't like rap and you don't get it. It doesn't make it ignorant. It will never die regardless of what you may hope. I'm very particular to what I listen to when it comes to rap. I even declared myself a rap/hip hop snob because deep down I am. Either way, I'm not going to discredit an entire culture or genre in the manner you have just because you don't like it. There are ignorant people in every genre.

 

At the end of the day different people are turned on by different stuff. That's certainly everyone's prerogative. No matter my feelings towards anything, people like what they like.

 

I know that when it comes to teenagers it's not so much what they like as it is what they think it's cool to like to make them appear cool to their peers. I'm not buying that an entire generation of kids all at once collectively started liking Eminem, for example, as much as it was an "in thing" to like. It's important for kids to feel "In" even if it means forcing themselves to dig something so that they are "In the know". Eventually when the need to impress wears off, people will settle with what they truly dig. At least some will.

 

With rap hogging the R&B/Soul airwaves for so long, I just think that the menu became gravely limiting to many, offering little else for those who felt sadly comfortable to be dumbed down and think that they found their home, and to be part of a culture. "I only listen to rap", "Metalhead forever man", "I'm a country redneck and damn proud of it... yee ha". It would be too much of a challenge for some to stretch out for "what would their friends think" if they knew they liked other stuff. Gotta wear it on their sleeve to define themselves. That's not individuality, that's following the pack.

 

Personally, because I haven't limited myself to one genre, I feel that I've opened myself up to a wealth of brilliant stuff that gives me merely endless possibilities, and that's been tremendously rewarding to me. Sure, it's not life or death and certainly not a point that's so incredibly important to stress to anyone who's comfortable with one thing, and for some, nothing at all. For me, it's helped me to jump into various suits when writing tunes, that I've not written only from one perspective. If I eventually take my tunes from my room to share with the world, I'd either confuse those who need me to be of one genre, or could be embraced by those open enough to dig the variety of sounds.

 

Being the youngest of 6 kids, I've had tons of musical influences from my parents and siblings, that I ate up everything that was available, and when that wasn't enough, I raided my neighbor's sibling's and parent's collection to see what they had in store. I just had to know and remember helping myself to my best friend's family collection and spinning records one after another, flip side and all while my friend eventually got bored and left me alone to go out and play.

 

Originally, I couldn't wrap my head around the old standards and big band my Dad would quiz me on, but now I'm ever so thankful that he did, because now I truly dig all that stuff and remember more than I ever thought that he or I thought that I would. I'm still putting the pieces together on that genre and get turned on when I hear a song from his era that I've never heard before. It might be old, but it's new to me and when this present day world is not to my liking, it's a wonderful escape to go back to a time when I wasn't even alive yet, and it's a wonderful enchanting place. My Dad is not with us anymore, but he still lives with me in his music.

 

Back to rap. It's not important for me to know every last thing in the rap world, as I've made clear, there's a lot of other stuff that consumes my musical time. Doesn't mean that I'm completely unaware of it, or have been deaf to what's been cracking the scene over the years. If it hits me in the right place, I'll know it immediately. If it's a lot of the same, it's a big waste of my time. If I do like something, I'm not running to sign up to be a member of the culture. I can dig it for what it is and carry on with who I am, and doesn't mean that I don't have enough input about it to offer input about it. If we were talking certain applied sciences that I know next to nothing about, then sure, I'd have next to no place in the conversation. Last I checked, you and I have the exact same internet available to us to investigate whatever we want to. If I wanted to, I could start today and not stop listening to rap until the day I die.... but I don't want to, but it doesn't mean that I can't dig it from time to time.

 

Honestly man, rap is nowhere near a deep exact science... I think that I can hold my own in the discussion, and from my perspective, the dumbing down of which I speak, and the missed opportunities for R&B/Soul to offer so much more than it does holds a ton of validity. At least from my perspective.

 

Nevertheless, again... at the end of the day, we all dig what we all dig, and even with my assessment it's not so concrete that there's a right or a wrong. It is what it is. And for me, it is what I think it is, and for me that's good enough for me, and for you whatever is good enough for you is good enough for you, but I'm certainly open to be introduced to something that will kick my butt. Since I've displayed a little bit here of what I do like in rap, and you are well versed... then perhaps you can suggest some stuff to me that you think that I might dig. Truely, I'm all ears. Hit me.

Edited by B-Ball-fan
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