Poll: An Attempt to Exonerate Hip Hop

[Logiclul]

Okay, everyone I know calls Hip Hop (commonly referred to as rap) music absolute trash, so I'm going to make a short thread to disprove that. Please bare with me and listen!

When most people think of rap, they think of Drakes' Motto (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3p7QRCqPto&feature=related) or Kanye West Mercy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTI0KDuQl_4). But there's much more than that. I will only post songs with good lyricism and will show you different styles.

Jazz Influences - Pete Rock and CL: T.R.O.Y.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_f35N2YXQQ

Electronic Influences - Wale: 90210
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWJ0I-C1o5A

Classic Rapper 1: Jay Z: Moment of Clarity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl5OovFrYzc
(this song exemplifies his storytelling and technical rap abilities)

Classic Rapper 2: Nas: Doo Rags
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUn2YRFJBJY
(Nas is the best technical, lyrical rapper in history and this 70s influence track is a great example)

Synthpop influence - B.o.B: So Good
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsqFM5Nuv3o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGc4d7HfK3U (this was originally posted here and was amistake, but I'm leaving it here so people don't get confused)
(in my opinion the worst lyrics of this thread but good flow)

Pop influence - Kid Cudi: Up Up and Away
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIaIcN2YLtk&feature=related
(I'm surprised I'm citing Kid Cudi for pop influence, but this song imo does have it and is good)

Classical Influence - Rapsody: Prince Igor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-blfPCOeLQ0

Underground Rap - Blu and Exile: Dancing in the Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml5RhkyKXyc&feature=related

Undeground Rap - MF Doom: Doomsday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRHyBwNtkLA&feature=related

Ambient Hip Hop - Bonobo: Kong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmmTspkRvps&feature=player_embedded
(I was introduced to this in the thread - very different than standard hip hop)

Don't need to listen to all of them, but hopefully I opened you up to different styles. I know I didn't hit everything; gangsta rap is missing but I don't like it. I love Wiz Khalifa but I couldn't find a song that exemplified any style other than mainstream hip hop which is what I was trying to go against.

Also I feel Eminem is his own style, but here's an Eminem song since someone is going to ask:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RScYA_fBqKY&feature=related

 

[Logiclul]

Also I think the reason rap lyrics are getting about girls money and cars is because that's what rappers nowadays have. Jay Z and Nas didn't group up with all that junk like Drake and Mac Miller has. They aren't from the hood, which doesn't make them bad, it just limits what they can rap about (or rather, it changes what they can rap about).

 

[Vault101]

*shrug* haters gonna hate...particually the "LOOK AT HOW AWSOME MY MUSIC TASTE IS" crowd who usually like "old" rock'n'roll because they think anything now is bad

also "DERP! its not real music!..or DERP! no talent" <-says person who knows shit about music..or talent

god I hate those fuckers...

 

[Thaluikhain]

I misread this as "eradicate hip-hop".

Anyway, I find it embarassing that it's popular locally, despite generally being so US-centric. Always seems as if people are syaing "Look at me, I'm such a black American, except for not being black or American", which is rather odd.

Now local stuff, fair enough (not going to listen to it though), or US stuff in the US...otherwise...um...

 

[Vault101]

I misread this as "eradicate hip-hop".

Anyway, I find it embarassing that it's popular locally, despite generally being so US-centric. Always seems as if people are syaing "Look at me, I'm such a black American, except for not being black or American", which is rather odd.

Now local stuff, fair enough (not going to listen to it though), or US stuff in the US...otherwise...um...

you don't have to be American to enjoy rap/hip-hop...I'm about as far from that "culture" as you could possibly get (white, female, middle class,Australian)

 

[Thaluikhain]

I misread this as "eradicate hip-hop".

Anyway, I find it embarassing that it's popular locally, despite generally being so US-centric. Always seems as if people are syaing "Look at me, I'm such a black American, except for not being black or American", which is rather odd.

Now local stuff, fair enough (not going to listen to it though), or US stuff in the US...otherwise...um...

you don't have to be American to enjoy rap/hip-hop...I'm about as far from that "culture" as you could possibly get (white, female, middle class,Australian)

That's fair enough, but I meant people playing at being part of that culture. May as well get a tattoo in a language you don't read while you are at it.

 

[Logiclul]

I misread this as "eradicate hip-hop".

Anyway, I find it embarassing that it's popular locally, despite generally being so US-centric. Always seems as if people are syaing "Look at me, I'm such a black American, except for not being black or American", which is rather odd.

Now local stuff, fair enough (not going to listen to it though), or US stuff in the US...otherwise...um...

Rap isn't about being black or American. It's about telling stories of life with great flow, strong nuances of hip hop, beats, and clever lyricism. The culture is about growing up the hard way and not living from where you're expected to do anything.

But you don't have to be a hoodrat to enjoy it or to spit it. It's also about middle and first class life, love, and really anything the artist wants it to be.

If you want foreign rap so bad, then look at Down Low!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7ZO8mM4Vfw

edit: Down Low is a german group

 

[Vault101]

That's fair enough, but I meant people playing at being part of that culture. May as well get a tattoo in a language you don't read while you are at it.

which....many people do..

 

[felbot]

so to disprove your friends you made a thread here?, seems silly.

anyways: i never minded hip hop or rap, i mostly just dislike the culture that has been surrounding it through the years.

 

[Nouw]

A thread promoting Hip-Hop isn't complete without the B-Boys from Brooklyn.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

You know, people have different tastes in music. I know this is a generalization, but most mainstream hip-hop nowadays is pretty shallow and repetitive, but the underground stuff or artists like Eminem and Kanye West are talented and have good songs with intelligent lyrics.

I dislike country music because I find it to be dull, but I don?t write it off as a ?bad genre?, because I don?t think there?s any such thing as a ?bad genre? of music. Just good eggs and bad eggs.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Mainstream rap is bad, but then so is most mainstream music. The more mainstream you get, the less challenging your music can be in case you start alienating or offending your target audience, so you have to make the same bland homogenised crap that everyone else is...
I liked most of your examples. Still not going to listen to rap though, just can't get into it very much, like I can with metal.

 

[Ti0k0]

I don't have to convince anyone that rap music is bad or anything. I listen to it for several reasons; I like the way they play with (English) words, the music can have good 'flow' and what I really like about it, is that the more you listen to the same rapper, the more lyrics you understand (when the refer back to another song of theirs). This way, the listener is rewarded for listening to it more.

I know that there are alot of people who dislike it, (as is said before, haters gonna hate) most of my friends dislike it, but that doesn't mean that I don't listen to it.

Examples: Kottonmouth Kings, (hed) P.E., Tech9, The Dirtball, The Streets, Cypress Hill, Die Antwoord, Jack Parrow etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPC58B23I40&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DD5JwqQeOHd1oAv5TK9uU_

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UGtlUMMkOU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wuGSRx2qsc

And don't forget Epic Rap Battles either!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn7-fVtT16k

 

[Imthatguy]

I sold my soul for rock'n'roll and paragraph C footnote 7 stated that Hip-Hop will henceforth give me excruciating migraines.

 

[Cowabungaa]

This thread needs more ambient hip-hop:

That's all the proof I need that there's way more to hip-hop than all the popular gangsta crap.

 

[malestrithe]

I applaud the effort, but its not going to work. Music is one of those things that's so subjective that it appeals to everyone in different ways. It does not matter if one rap artist finds inspiration from Jazz and another finds it from Classical because it still won't be music to those that think that your preferred music is crap and their favorite genre stopped evolving around the time they turned 25.

 

[Danny Roberts]

You lost me when you called Dizzy Rascal underground. For God's the guy just released a Euro 2012 song!