What Happened To Hip-Hop/Rap Music?

3 things as to why most hip hop and rap pisses me off and gives it a bad name:

1. unintelligible delivery of lyrics/message

2. Autotune

3. The same cheesy beats/drumkit that sounds like wet cardboard being hit that have been used 98% of time since the dawn of MIDI and samplers.

I swear every time I hear those 3 things (which is quite often) I want to strangle said artist and or producer. How I haven't turned into a homicidal maniac is beyond me. I have no problem with loops. I really don't. I have a major problem when the drums don't even sound like instruments anymore. They sound like toys. I can't personally take anyone who can have a wind up toy as part of his 'music' seriously.

I have heard rap and hip hop with real instruments or at least really decent sounding loops. I personally like ice cube's it was a good day as an example of decent stuff. But the majority just makes me angry. This is coming from a death metal dude so it has to mean something :lol
 
Isn't this the case with all popular music regardless of genre? Pop/rock/R&B/Rap/country... anything on the radio... it's all the same song structure... the same lyrical topics... the same mind-numbing pablum. I used to play these weird improvised 'hip-hop' shows about 12 years ago with this strange mish-mash group of MC's and 'spoken word' artists... I use quotes because these terms now mean something very different. Back then I listened to a lot of really interesting 'hip-hop' that was anything but generic... some truly inspiring stuff, both lyrically and musically... Q-tip, MF Doom, J-Dilla... the usual classics - LL Cool J, NWA, Ice Cube, Dre (man, some of that stuff was so HARD... it scared the shit out of me).

We played a show once that just went on and on... 3 1/2 hours... non-stop... all improvised on the spot both musically and lyrically... it all just somehow worked. Though, there were others that went off the rails real quick and were just too 'out there' for most people (ourselves included).

Anyway, there is good hip-hop/rap out there... it's just underneath a HUGE pile of garbage.

This one still blows me away... not a single swear word... no 'bling', bitches, 'ice', money... just lyrical prowess and a simple head bobbing beat... and, of course, each word in each verse starts with the letters A to G. The Gift of Gab? You bet...

 
Isn't this the case with all popular music regardless of genre? Pop/rock/R&B/Rap/country... anything on the radio... it's all the same song structure... the same lyrical topics... the same mind-numbing pablum. I used to play these weird improvised 'hip-hop' shows about 12 years ago with this strange mish-mash group of MC's and 'spoken word' artists... I use quotes because these terms now mean something very different. Back then I listened to a lot of really interesting 'hip-hop' that was anything but generic... some truly inspiring stuff, both lyrically and musically... Q-tip, MF Doom, J-Dilla... the usual classics - LL Cool J, NWA, Ice Cube, Dre (man, some of that stuff was so HARD... it scared the shit out of me).

We played a show once that just went on and on... 3 1/2 hours... non-stop... all improvised on the spot both musically and lyrically... it all just somehow worked. Though, there were others that went off the rails real quick and were just too 'out there' for most people (ourselves included).

Anyway, there is good hip-hop/rap out there... it's just underneath a HUGE pile of garbage.

This one still blows me away... not a single swear word... no 'bling', bitches, 'ice', money... just lyrical prowess and a simple head bobbing beat... and, of course, each word in each verse starts with the letters A to G. The Gift of Gab? You bet...

 
And now here comes that genre called dubstep.It must take some serious skills to turn knobs while performing live.That guy Skrillex used to be a singer for a metal/emo-core band,cant recall the name,but he sucks generally in both worlds.I prefer public enemy.they collaborated with anthrax at least
 
NeoSound said:
but they say that rap is mainly purchased by middle class white kids! ?
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Maybe 20 years ago for kids looking for shock value to scare their parents. Rap and rappers have gone mainstream, and just like Madonna and Alice Cooper before them, the shock value has faded.

Seriously anything after NWA's Fu*k the Police, what could they rap to shock us? That they like hos, money and cocaine?
 
Deathassian said:
I prefer public enemy.they collaborated with anthrax at least
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Haha.... aint it funny they made a joke song "I'm the Man" in '87 together.

And years later it started a whole freaking genre:lol!! Limb bizkit ... Korn ... Papa Roach ... P.O.D. ...
 
First of all there's hardly any guitar worth mentioning in most hip hop/rap. So most folks here would have no interest. Second hip hop is by far the biggest selling music and most popular music world wide by a considerable margin. Third it's the modern mainstay of youth culture everywhere -- middle class whites, young hip japanese, -- you even find kids in Tibet with the pants pulled down, caps on backwards rapping and talking like a black kid. It's a culture that's takin' off like wild fire. You guys sound like you're 90.

There's is nothing intrinsically better in deathmetal, for example, than rap. It's just what you guys prefer. But denigrating others because they like it is stupid.
 
That's like for a non-guitarist saying something like "I don't really like guitar music" and give examples of really shitty guitar players and bands like: Orianthi, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace... Problem is you're listening to hip-hop and rap on MTV. Do yourself a favor and throw your TV out or switch that shit off for good! Catch Pete Rock flip - and be amazed... Also you might like: Warren G, Wu-Tang, Mos-Def, Nas, Mannie Fresh, Curren$y, Mystikal, Dre, Snoop, Coolio... Keep it real!
 
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Swedish Chef said:
That's like for a non-guitarist saying something like "I don't really like guitar music" and give examples of really shitty guitar players and bands like: Orianthi, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace... Problem is you're listening to hip-hop and rap on MTV. Do yourself a favor and throw your TV out or switch that shit off for good! Catch Pete Rock flip - and be amazed... Also you might like: Warren G, Wu-Tang, Mos-Def, Nas, Mannie Fresh, Curren$y, Mystikal, Dre, Snoop, Coolio... Keep it real!
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+1 on Dre and Snoop. Not to mention Snoop is just plain cool as hell. I love the crazy words/phrases he makes up. off the heazy fo sheazy. It took me more than 10 years to realize that it means Off the hook for sure. LOL!!!


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A Destination Out with Last Exit.



Oh I really like what Sonny Sharrock does with the guitar, how the high pressure sax of Brötzmann is as allways, how Laswell hits the bass and Shannon Jackson drums and sings - and foremost the togetherness in that moment.
 
Damn, I think it's long past time to deep six this thread. It started nowhere and it's going nowhere. :roll
 
henryrobinett said:
First of all there's hardly any guitar worth mentioning in most hip hop/rap. So most folks here would have no interest. Second hip hop is by far the biggest selling music and most popular music world wide by a considerable margin. Third it's the modern mainstay of youth culture everywhere -- middle class whites, young hip japanese, -- you even find kids in Tibet with the pants pulled down, caps on backwards rapping and talking like a black kid. It's a culture that's takin' off like wild fire. You guys sound like you're 90.

There's is nothing intrinsically better in deathmetal, for example, than rap. It's just what you guys prefer. But denigrating others because they like it is stupid.
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I agree about musical preferences as all are different and we are all different people. But at least death metal has actual people who are playing an instrument. Rap doesn't even have that. It's a backing track and to make up for the lack of people actually playing instruments, they get half naked chicks or dudes to dance around while they talk into a Mic and maybe do a little jig in between pauses. Then again, watching a death metal band play is probably slightly more interesting to watch than paint drying to most people (hell sometimes me).
 
Sammetal91 said:
I agree about musical preferences as all are different and we are all different people. But at least death metal has actual people who are playing an instrument. Rap doesn't even have that. It's a backing track and to make up for the lack of people actually playing instruments, they get half naked chicks or dudes to dance around while they talk into a Mic and maybe do a little jig in between pauses. Then again, watching a death metal band play is probably slightly more interesting to watch than paint drying to most people (hell sometimes me).
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Yeah, but who said you HAVE to actually PLAY? We value that. I've spent my life learning how to play the guitar. But who says? Certainly not MOST young people today, not by the sales figures. That may end up being like saying you have to have a horse to travel.
 
@claham - LOL. I don't know what Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society/Sonny Sharrock has to do with the topic at hand, other than crazy people can play music too! That was fun though.
 
Xrocker said:
Giving a Grammy award for Rap is equivalent to giving a Nobel Prize for urination.
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Giving a Grammy for today's mainstream hip-hop is par for the course. Getting a Grammy in most cases means you make average music. The Grammy board seems eternally lost. Would the most talented and creative greats like Pagey ever get a nod from the Grammys? Hell no. Grammy=cheesy music 90% of the time. Where's THE BIGGEST??? Hendrix, the Who, the Stones, Zep, Floyd, Queen, Bob Marley (his children have won Grammys), the Dead, the Doors, Skynard, Kinks, Chuck Berry, Beach Boys, Talking Heads etc etc etc etc?

No, instead the Grammy board loves: Celine Dion, Enya, Nelly, Hootie & the Blowfish, All-4-One, Britney Spears, Michael Bolton, Puff Daddy, Milli Vanilli, Baha Men

Allow me to further demonstrate:

All-Time Top Grammy winners
George Solti 31
Quincy Jones 27
Pierre Boulez 25
Vladimir Horowitz 25
Stevie Wonder 22
Henry Mancini 20
U2 17
Ray Charles 17
Alison Krauss 17
Leonard Bernstein 16
Eric Clapton 16
Aretha Franklin 16
Vince Gill 16
Pat Metheny 16
Robert Shaw 16
Paul Simon/Art Garfunkel 16
Sting/Police 16
Yo-Yo Ma 15
Itzhak Perlman15
Al Schmitt 15
Chet Atkins 14
David Foster 14
James Mallinson 14
Jimmy Sturr 14
 
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Uh . . that "All-Time Top Grammy Winners" list looks pretty respectful to me. You had me until you decided to illustrate it. What you talking 'bout?
 
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