[mtkversion]

Threads like these just go to prove that there are people who know absolutely nothing unless it's laid out right in front of them with big capital letters and shiny lights so they can see the obvious.

Wouldn't expect anything less from " audiophiles "

 

[DLP]

Great smilie MacDEF, KR...

A Tribe Called Quest (I personally am not that big of a fan, but they are good)
The Roots
Talib Kweli
Mos Def
Blackalicious

These are the groups/rappers I've been listening to most recently. They boast sometimes for sure, but if you actually listen to the words spoken, you can find lots of intelligence and spark and musicality to it. However, if you go in with the mindset of not caring to look or not liking the music so you won't really give it a chance, is there a point for you to listen? In which case, is there a point for you to crap on anything you're not willing to try? I'm not arguing for rap being a real music form or rap being intelligent or good, that's all opinion and when it comes to music, mine's the only one that matters to me. What I'm asking for is if you want to say rap is crap, fine, listen to all of it so you can form that opinion with some basis to it. Don't want to listen to it because you don't like the mainstream stuff? Fine, then you can leave it at "I don't like the mainstream rap."
There was something of a pissing contest between a member here and most of the rest of the community because the member claimed that one headphone was better than any other dynamic type because of the technology without actually listening to all dynamic headphones. That member was attacked on so many levels by so many people. Is this ok here because of the fact that more people blindly agree with the statement?

EDIT
Forgot the 3rd t in statement.

 

[KR...]

This all reminds me of one of my favorite movies ever :

This is to rap what Spinal Tap was to metal and it's just as good and funny. A must see!

 

[MusicLover]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr.PD I need to jump in here and ask a question. I was forced into traveling a few miles in a van the other day. It was being driven by a young hispanic girl. She had the radio playing on a station I was unfamiliar with. Okay, I was trying to to tune out the rap style song I was hearing when I detected some classic rock. So just as I was getting focused in on the music it switched back to a rap style, then back to a classic rock song I was familiar with. Has anybody else heard that? What was that? I was thinking the driver was changing the stations, but it was too abrupt of a change for that.

I think I may know which song it is. Eminem has a rap song that changes into Aerosmith's "Dream On" for the chorus. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

 

[MusicLover]

Quote:

Originally posted by waylman Im not a fain of mainstream rap either but your comment is moronic. If ANYONE can do it, why don't they? Why don't you go out and make a popular rap album and become a millionaire? Think before you speak.

It's actually not moronic, if you think about it. Get a cool look and outfit, make a beat with a simple computer program, and rhyme a lot about nothing. Seriously, why don't YOU think about it?

 

[DLP]

Hm...many people do that, it ain't working for them. Do you know why? I don't.
Seriously Musiclover, for every mainstream rapper, there's probably at least 100 underground rappers doing the same thing and not making anything, nevermind the millions mainstream rappers make. Rock is the same way right now. Lots and lots of small bands or underground bands that just aren't making it big.

 

[snausages]

Quote:

Originally posted by MusicLover I think I may know which song it is. Eminem has a rap song that changes into Aerosmith's "Dream On" for the chorus. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

That sort of sampling is very common in mainstream rap. It's like they're recycling rock hits from a generation ago to kids who won't recognize the song; like Puff Daddy doing "Every Breath You Take".

It makes me wanna puke.

 

[wahoox2]

Quote:

Is this ok here because of the fact that more people blindly agree with the statement

Well, the Thread title and first post says RAP SUCKS! - release your anger on the subject.
Why people feel they have to protect and defend thier tastes on ANYTHING, is beyond me.
Lots of people like Rap; good for them. A lot of people hate it, for any # of reasons. Mostly, because it just plain is stupid garbage.
Why argue or try to make someone else like music that you do? It's never going to work.
And just because they don't like "your" music, doesn't make them unenlightened, or "blind". You assuming that shows how truly blind some of you are.
Don't assume I don't know about underground rap, since I don't like rap.
At one time in my life I DID like rap, back about 10+ years ago.
Back in the days of P.E., Kool Moe Dee, Brand Nubian, Gang Starr, etc. Back when it was fairly new, and fresh.
But it's boring now. It's played out, and the artists are pathetic. Also, I'm too old to listen to something solely to irritate my parents. (God, I hope my kids don't do that to me)
That's my opinion. You can have yours. You like rap. Fine. Go listen to it. Don't try to show us rap-haters "the light". Because I'm not going to try and shove Polka music down your throat, since you aren't cultured. (No, I don't really like that crap either)

Don't berate me because you don't agree with me.

 

[snausages]

Quote:

Originally posted by wahoox2 Well, the Thread title and first post says RAP SUCKS! - release your anger on the subject.

heheh. The thread was also started by a fifteen year-old pop-metalhead.


Quote:

Originally posted by wahoox2 Lots of people like Rap; good for them. A lot of people hate it, for any # of reasons. Mostly, because it just plain is stupid garbage. Why argue or try to make someone else like music that you do? It's never going to work. And just because they don't like "your" music, doesn't make them unenlightened, or "blind". You assuming that shows how truly blind some of you are.

Uhhh, what? Have a bad day at work?

Who's trying to make you like hip-hop? I've already said that I'd rather the underground stayed esoteric. Although, it would be nice if peoples opinions on the genre as a whole were a little more informed, but I realize this is tough when you're bombarded with crap on MTV and the radio.
And I'm not saying you must listen to underground stuff to form your opinion; if you hate it, you hate it... and that's great. Just be aware that the genre consists of more than what TV and radio exposes you to.


Quote:

Originally posted by wahoox2 Don't assume I don't know about underground rap, since I don't like rap.

It's more than just an assumption.

Quote:

Originally posted by wahoox2 But it's boring now. It's played out, and the artists are pathetic.

... from an informed expert on the matter.


Quote:

Originally posted by wahoox2 Also, I'm too old to listen to something solely to irritate my parents.

No? But you throw such good tantrums.

 

[Xander]

Appears as though the ineptitude on head-fi is rising. It also looks like multiple people are severely insecure about something. Can't put my finger on what that is, though.

I know censoring is bad, but it's clear that this thread's sick fecal attire doesnt belong. Maybe even more so than "Take it outside."

 

[scrypt]

There's a connection between rap and rock/blues singers that I'm surprised no one has commented on. I know from personal experience (being forced to copy their voices exactly for Daiichi Kosho laser CDs) that Mick Jagger and Lou Reed aren't singers in the normal sense and don't so much carry pitches as speak with rising and falling inflections. Rather like rap in slo-mo, I think, and with less syncopation.

There's a precedent in classical music: It's called sprechstimme (literally, *speak-sing*). Schoenberg used it in _Pierrot Lunaire_ and _Erwartung_ (for example), Alban Berg, in _Wozzeck_.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the precedent in reggae: dancehall and toasting (U Roy, Big Youth) -- which is responsible for the sixteenth-note triplet feel of certain early nineties rap -- as made all-too popular by Shabba Ranks (Rough and Ready); Yelloman; Daddy Freddy and Asher D's "Ragamuffin Hip-hop" (_Music of Life Hustlers' Convention_), which became ragga; Mad Professor; Bounty Killer's "Down in the Ghetto," etc.

I neglected to mention earlier that the film Scratch also has extensive interviews with Kool Herc, purportedly the progenitor of scratch and certain key elements of hip-hop.

And then there's "Mr. Tear and Bore" -- How can people get upset about the sexism when the diction's quaint and the action's as metaphorical as W.C. Field's conceptual **** loop, "The Dentist?"

 

[KR...]

Rap came from Reggae, it didn't pop out of nowehere. Research is fun, here is what I found :

"Modern day rap music finds its immediate roots in the toasting and dub talk over elements of reggae music. In the 1967, a Jamaican dj known as Kool Herc moved from Kingston to NY's West Bronx. Here, he attempted to incorporate his Jamaican style of dj which involved reciting improvised rhymes over the dub versions of his reggae records. Unfortunately, New Yorkers weren't into reggae at the time. Thus Kool Herc adapted his style by chanting over the instrumental or percussion sections of the day's popular songs. Because these breaks were relatively short, he learned to extend them indefinitely by using an audio mixer and two identical records in which he continuously replaced the desired segment."

Here is a whole website just for this guy :

http://www.jahsonic.com/KoolHerc.html

 

[waylman]

Quote:

It's actually not moronic, if you think about it. Get a cool look and outfit, make a beat with a simple computer program, and rhyme a lot about nothing. Seriously, why don't YOU think about it?

because I'm not moronic enough to think that ANYONE can do it.....moron

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Yo yo yo yo joe blow
rap is for homo's yo yo yo

See, anyone can perform rap, even me.

 

[scrypt]

"Rap came from Reggae, it didn't pop out of now[]here."

Yes, research is fun -- that's why I've been trying to throw out names and styles -- to give people tools to see the larger canvas (in vain, apparently, until your post).

That's pretty much what I've been saying all along -- although I disagree that reggae's the *only* source. American neighborhoods gave birth to rap as a put-down battle as well, as I mentioned earlier. There have been documentaries and college theses on that subject.

I'd regard Kool Herc as a New York urban musician, not a Jamaican musician per se. And he isn't as central to rap as he is to *all* hip-hop culture: he created scratching and the practice of artificially extending breakbeats (i.e., DJ-based composition). Herc could only have reinvented himself and contemporary music in one of those glorious cultural moments in which urban, transcultural, sophisticated and intensely technical elements conspired to create a new synthesis, just as it happened in, uh, jazz before. "I was born in Jamaica and I was listening to American music in Jamaica ... My favorite artist was James Brown." Scratch happened, according to Herc, completely by accident.

If you want to see him talk, just watch a bit of Scratch. Sounds like a really nice guy, which doesn't surprise me, given his attention to culture in the larger sense.

My first sessions in NYC were at a studio called Intergalactic (in its twilight days, of course; previously, it was the studio where "Planet Rock" was recorded) and three of my first experiences were with Afrika Bambaataa, the Prince Charles Group ("A Fistful of Dollars") and Kool Chip (I arranged Chip's "Jazz It Up" and "Go for Yours" with Dave Burnett and Sil, who had performed with Bob Marley as sidemen, I believe). I posted on Head-fi somewhere that AB insisted I answer the phone with the phrase, "Zulu Nation!"

-----

And if any here wonder how all of this fits in with every other kind of current non-classical electronic music, watch the documentary Modulations. In nearly all non-classical electronic music, hip-hop's as influential as Stockhausen -- technically, even more so.