i think its important for radio to stay relevent but apparently that makes me a gap toothed internet youtuber nerd
I disagree.
At this point The Radio isnt the leader like it was.
U think 16 year olds follow the radio?
Yes, there needs to be dudes pushing the envelope but to think that should be its top priority is crazy in these days of media monopolization and tech.
if anything it seems like media monopolization is losing most of its teeth in the internet age
No doubt.
But to ask the new generation of new Hip Hop listeners to look towards the radio for the next step in their culture - i dont see.
That's my generation. We stayed up till 4AM to listen to the Supreme Team Show.
My 16 year old neighbors dont even own a radio.
Now for older folks that do still listen, it would be nice ive i could hear some new shit instead of Luther Vandross, Frankie Beverley & Maze,and Jennifer Hudson 24/7. But The radio (primetime) isnt about being Progressive.
And w/ the dead-ass music industry that its connected to, i find thay theyre just gonna be even more irrelevant in 10 years.
My perspective is more of a reaction to art school than a product of it. People in art school talked about aesthetics, authenticity, and originality non-stop to the point that I realized it was all bullshit.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
I mean... that is awesome. I don't like all of the artists you mentioned but whatever. I agree that if you actually care about rap (most here don't) then there's tons of shit to get into.
The concept of being "innovative" though... I mean what does that even mean. Like I said, misguided.
Here's what gets me about all the calls for rap to be more "innovative"; basically, it's asking for it to be less like rap and more like something else. I don't see any other mass-market idioms where there's a constant demand from the audience for innovation. I saw something on the BBC the other morning about this Irish rock band called The Answer, who are apparently breaking in the US right now, and they just sounded like a Humble Pie throwback to me. Nothing wrong with that per se, but much like Wolfmother, the Killers (with their Duran Duran-meets-Springsteen steez), the Kings Of Leon or any number of celebrated rock acts of recent years, you'd hardly call it innovative. And that's without even mentioning Creed-lite swill like The Fray, which bites shit that's only a few years old and which was never any f*cking good to begin with. If you want to talk more broadly about rock, then tell me the last time Radiohead released an album where the critical acclaim wasn't at least matched by a corresponding demand for them to ditch all the arty shit and make an album that sounded more like Pablo Honey. Other than them, the only other rock bands that consistently turn my head and sound as if they're actually making an effort are Queens of the Stone Age and TV On The Radio (who are a bunch of black dudes).
As far as mainstream pop is concerned, even Timbaland is now just recycling 80s European electro-pop motifs from acts like Visage for a lot of his shit, after having consistently turned the game on its head for years. As I see it, he's now responding to trends rather than setting them, and that's because he's moved into an area where now it's a sort of familiar nostalgia that gets rewarded, rather than innovation. But does anyone really think he cares about that? I'd imagine he sees what he does now as being at least different to what he's done before, and it's that which makes it stimulating from a creative point of view, but I bet most of the people buying all those Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado records he's made aren't buying them because they think they're "innovative".
But to get back on topic, the whole "rap needs to be innovative" thing has always seemed to me to characterise an inability or unwillingness to accept rap on its own terms, whatever they may be. I find that it's usually led by the sort of people who never bought a De La Soul record after "3ft High...", nor a PE record since "Nation of Millions", and who assume that major international stars like Fitty, Eminem, Jay, Snoop and Kanye are representative of rap's entire spectrum, and therefore their opinion of those acts is good for the music as a whole. If I think someone's making a value judgement on a entire form of music, based only upon what's right in front of their face, then it's hard for me to take that opinion too seriously because it obviously isn't an informed opinion. This is why I think deej makes a good point when he mentions the sheer volume of (comparatively speaking) lower-level acts who are consistently pumping out solid material. To me, rap has always been driven by its core audience's demand for the new (which isn't necessarily the same as the innovative), so it requires a real effort on the part of that section of the audience that isn't in the midst of it to stay up on everything. And for a lot of people, there simply aren't enough hours in the day. I've always listened to rap, but I also listen to a lot of shit that isn't rap as well, so I end up having to be a bit more selective about my choices than I might like. I don't really go to clubs or listen to the radio all that much, so I often rely upon the recommendations of others as much as my own personal taste. I have the Strut to thank for putting me up on Turf Talk, for example, who I wouldn't have had a hope of ever actually hearing anywhere in this country. But it's not like the first question I ask myself is, "is this innovative?" I mean, I respect the fact that, right at the top, hemol at least spoke on what it is he likes rather than moaning about what he thinks is garbage. But it's like Jonny saying that making a good rap record (presumably with the emphasis being on "rap") would actually be a radical thing to do right now. The reason I liked Jake and Thes's records from last year so much is because that's what they seemed to be focusing on - the fundamentals of the music - and in both cases it made for a much more satisfying listen as a result. Conversely, I listen to "808s and Heartbreak" and hear an artist so hell-bent on being "innovative" at all costs that he's almost forgotten what it is he's actually good at, and you end up with a dog's breakfast of solipsistic emo/electro-pop that's neither one thing nor the other. And, good or bad, the fact that it's been made by someone who's ostensibly a rap artist makes absolutely no difference to me, although I suspect Kanye thinks it ought to.
Christ, I'm beginning to bore myself now. Props to anyone who made it this far.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
since this thread now seems to be about old vs new rap and the pursuit of money within. i will waste my time and post my thoughts about it.
diversity and innovation, which would cover original flow, style and new approaches to old ideas... i hear alot of clones, and hyped up garbage based on image, marketing and promotion. do you not ?
next.
eric b & rakim.
instead of just posting the image of paid in full to make the argument that old school mcs were on the get money shit too.......post the lyrics.
"now i learn to earn, cuz im righteous i feel great" ...
i dont hear an ounce of that today.
funny how such a righteous mc could get the respect of the biggest drug dealers and killers of that era...and never make ignorant records.
no talk of how much coke hes about to go sell, the bitches hes f*cking, the bodies hes bagging...you get what im saying...if you count the word "shit" he may have cursed once or twice on wax to get his point across. thats real style. when you can make a jam from the heart and still have it bang over 20 years later...now were talking.
all this formulaic garbage in the club and on the radio is so frail in comparison to the innovations and diversity that has already came and went. you have to be blind not to see this.
thanks clear channel. you have 1 or 2 extremely powerful radio djs (flex) who can basically do what ever he wants.
this is big business, based on tricks. which we know are for kids. im neither a trick nor kid.
im not talking about records being put out by stonesthrow...or the 5 decent mcs not doing this to make a dollar that happen to get lucky with cross over appeal.
seriously for all the shit that rises to the top....its all the same old pop bottles at the club, the whips, the frozen wrist and chains, the goons and guns..sex money murder shit everytime.
dont get it twisted i like ugk, 36 mafia, clipse, scarface and getto boys..its not about region for me...if its good music i like it. period. im not looking for the next illmatic...or the next death certificate, just something that moves me enough to actually care.
i guess when i see whats on the top of the billboard and whats currently banging in top 40 hip hop clubs it all sounds and looks the same...its depressing.
with akon songs like im so paid, i count my money blah blah blah..maybe im wrong in thinking its not diverse and innovative..( i seriously doubt it tho )
there really is no debate.
thinking back to 86,87,88 being in nyc in a time where the very thought of rap as a music itself was innovating.....and taping red alert and marleys shows, frantically back and forth on the dial, to hear the world premiers of aint no half steppin, risin to the top, biz, whodini, black rock and ron, run dmc, ultramag, kool g. rap and so many more truly dynamic artists, who were being themselves and maybe hoping they could make some money from it...yet never actually knew they could cuz the industry for it didnt exist...yet. therefore no real formula of commercial success was there to copy, just to get paid. the art was still coming from the heart. you could not come out sounding the same as who ever else was hot back then...you just couldnt. youd be overlooked and considered a wack ass biter.
yet, thats so acceptable today. who evers winning...sound like them, wash, rinse and repeat.
crack was just hitting then, so most mcs were just mcs...which we should all be able to agree is just not the case today.
to get excited about what some of yall consider to be todays new and innovative rap is pathetic to me.
im not wishing for a time machine, i could care less. its just a business now...a means to make money.
ive been over rap music for so long now. i dont buy ringtones.
music is our gauge for the social climate. shit is stale.
im done wasting my time posting here, in my spare time maybe ill check in and read about yall wasting your time. some of yall.... ill see in the real world.
Now this is what I mean when I talk about an informed opinion.
As I was the dude who posted the cover shot of "Paid In Full", I guess I ought to respond to your point about this at least.
I completely agree with you about the substance of Rakim's lyrics, but there's hardly any need for me to say to you that Rakim is, was, and always will be unique amongst emcees. I mean, I can listen to his old shit even now, and still hear things that I've never caught every other time I've listened to it, such was the level he was operating on. Compare that to all the obfuscatory "original, lyrical, super-scientifical" bells-and-whistles flannel and outright bullshit that lesser emcees try to pass off as deep or complex nowadays. All that NGE/Five-Per-Center symbolism, slang and imagery, of which Rakim was the first rapper to use on record (or the first of any real significance), has subsequently been used by scores of others, many of whom have built entire careers upon it, so there can be no question that he was a true innovator. But does that level of innovation exist anywhere now? If I judged every rapper I heard nowadays on whether they were as good as Rakim, I doubt I'd listen to much rap at all, but that would eliminate umpteen artists who, in my opinion, still have more than enough going for them to be worth my time. And what about all those so-called conscious rappers who seem to think that simply being "conscious" is enough? I'm not after the wheel to be reinvented every time I press "play", but please, at least try not to be so predictable - I know what this or that rapper isn't, because they never stop telling me. I don't hear much about who or what they are, though.
And there's another thing about Eric B & Rakim; the leather Dapper Dan Gucci suits, the dookie gold ropes and rings, the fat wads of paper and that posse shot on the back cover - that was the image of themselves those dudes wanted to present to the world. That was who they were, and they didn't try to deny it. I think both those somewhat contradictory aspects - the "get money" and the righteousness - painted a fuller and perhaps even truer picture of what rap must have been at that time. It's when people try to paint certain of those aspects out of the picture that I feel a compulsion to kick against it, because, to me, the romantic, nostalgic view of old-school hip-hop that's presented by a selective perspective like that seems every bit as superficial as those present-day musical and cultural values you so eloquently rail against elsewhere in your post. People want to deny those contradictions nowadays, as if rap's never been somewhat of a dichotomy. But like Harvey said earlier, it is what it is. And hasn't that always been the case? If everyone on here who likes to talk about how rap sucks right now did so the way you've done here, it'd at least make for a more varied debate - rather that than people going on about what it is they don't like, but never what they do like.
related: power 92 in chicago just said they wont let their djs play house music or 'old school' (meaining like disco/house old school) any more
they gotta stay relevant, that's what is most important.
well, no. They gotta stay marketing to young people. This is Chicago. house and "old school" is very relevant to people my age and older. The mix DJ's on Power 92 are the only reason to tune into that station as far as I'm concerned. Especially when they're throwing house and stuff into the mix. I bet Boolumaster is still playing the shit out of some juke though.
The mix DJ's on V103 (the grown folks soul station) are starting to play more house and even some hip-hop classics so I'll just fusk with them if Power 92 wants to keep Boolu and them on the kiddie shit. or, to be fair, keep Boolu's playlists closer to the normal top-40 playlists.
When considering Rakim, I think it's important to recognize that while, yes, he was had some crossover hits, he was never a mainstream multimedia star of the Jay-Z/Wayne/Kanye caliber. He was a star amongst Rap Fans. Capital R, Capital F, in much the same way Gucci is right now. If the next Rakim came out today many people in this thread wouldn't even know his name. He wouldn't be on the Roc OR Rhymesayers, his mixtape would be for sale on a street corner (and the internet and blogs might catch up to him 18 months later).
It's easy to push the line that rap is gross and corporate right now, but it is anything but.
I reject the idea that Flex is a bone thrown to fans by Clearchannel to keep them at bay. There's waaaay more classic rap on the radio in NYC than anywhere else. Mr. Cee and Red Alert both have "old school at noon" shows. Some of the DJs on the radio now I've never heard of, yet they're playing Brand Nubian "All For One".
It's too easy to say "it's not like it was, it's all wack and commercial and bloated". There's certainly those aspects to the game. There's also really great, heartfelt music being made. There are guys who play terrible autotuned commercial R&B for a living, but grew up spinning doubles of "Poppa Large". They still might like to play that stuff, but they know what to do to get paid.
And right now there is someone in every city and town across the country in a basement or bedroom or tiny apartment putting their heart and soul into a piece of rap music - and thanks to technology, they ALL have the potential to be the next Rakim. We don't have to kid ourselves - talent like that comes around once in a blue moon, and the glory years of classic hip-hop are gone. Just like they were with disco at a certain point, like rock n roll, R&B and jazz and every other musical movement in history. It does not mean that the music ends there, or the capacity to make great music ends there.
I just can't believe that people with such vast musical knowledge would hang onto the idea that rap music cannot be made with the same kind of creativity that it once was. Nobody's telling any of these new rock groups that they can't make a good record because it's not the 1960s anymore, and they're not in Great Britain. Nobody's telling any of these guys making dance music that they missed the Paradise Garage and so, sorry, they won't be able to make a good disco record.
Jesus I remember the night he premiered "Ante Up" that shit was f*cking insanity. He played the record for like 45 minutes straight and just LEANED on the bomb button.
"EVERYONE ELSE SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW BROOKLYN STAND UP. THIS IS REAL SERIOUS"[/b]
On my first trip to New York City (which I referenced in another thread, actually) I got in on Friday evening and we were all making preparations for the evening. The radio must have been on Hot 97 because it was Flex making all kinds of noise and throwing on some MOP. It wasn't "Ante Up" but it was something equally ill. I couldn't believe I was hearing MOP on commercial radio on a Friday Night at like 8pm. It felt very right.
"The most annoying thing about people who talk this "back in the day" shit is how limited their awareness of [rap] history seems."
Oliver Wang, Ph.D (Rapological Sciences)
Dr. Wang is a world-renowned rap historian and author of many scholarly journals, books and seminal texts on the history of rap, rapology, and rapological phenomena. He is considered THE ultimate authority on all matters pertaining to rap and is consulted regularly on all rap-related matters.
Dr. Wang is here to enlighten all with his encyclopaedic knowledge of rap, and also to correct those who do not come correct when speaking on rap.
"The most annoying thing about people who talk this "back in the day" shit is how limited their awareness of [rap] history seems."
Oliver Wang, Ph.D (Rapological Sciences)
Dr. Wang is a world-renowned rap historian and author of many scholarly journals, books and seminal texts on the history of rap, rapology, and rapological phenomena. He is considered THE ultimate authority on all matters pertaining to rap and is consulted regularly on all rap-related matters.
Dr. Wang is here to enlighten all with his encyclopaedic knowledge of rap, and also to correct those who do not come correct when speaking on rap.
Lady and gentlemen, please welcome, Dr. Wang...
It's funny - I never bring up any part of my background. I'm just a dude on a message board stating an opinion. The fact that you feel the need to parade shit like this out there just says a lot about your insecurities.
"The most annoying thing about people who talk this "back in the day" shit is how limited their awareness of [rap] history seems."
Oliver Wang, Ph.D (Rapological Sciences)
Dr. Wang is a world-renowned rap historian and author of many scholarly journals, books and seminal texts on the history of rap, rapology, and rapological phenomena. He is considered THE ultimate authority on all matters pertaining to rap and is consulted regularly on all rap-related matters.
Dr. Wang is here to enlighten all with his encyclopaedic knowledge of rap, and also to correct those who do not come correct when speaking on rap.
Lady and gentlemen, please welcome, Dr. Wang...
It's funny - I never bring up any part of my background. I'm just a dude on a message board stating an opinion. The fact that you feel the need to parade shit like this out there just says a lot about your insecurities.
Insecurities? Thanks Dr. Wang. I had no idea that you are a psychologist.
Actually, I'm just sick of your constant righteousness. You always feel this need to lecture and correct people and look for the opportunity to do it every chance you get--that's what I've seen in the majority of your posts.
"The most annoying thing about people who talk this "back in the day" shit is how limited their awareness of [rap] history seems."
Oliver Wang, Ph.D (Rapological Sciences)
Dr. Wang is a world-renowned rap historian and author of many scholarly journals, books and seminal texts on the history of rap, rapology, and rapological phenomena. He is considered THE ultimate authority on all matters pertaining to rap and is consulted regularly on all rap-related matters.
Dr. Wang is here to enlighten all with his encyclopaedic knowledge of rap, and also to correct those who do not come correct when speaking on rap.
Lady and gentlemen, please welcome, Dr. Wang...
It's funny - I never bring up any part of my background. I'm just a dude on a message board stating an opinion. The fact that you feel the need to parade shit like this out there just says a lot about your insecurities.
Insecurities? Thanks Dr. Wang. I had no idea that you are a psychologist.
Actually, I'm just sick of your constant righteousness. You always feel this need to lecture and correct people and look for the opportunity to do it every chance you get--that's what I've seen in the majority of your posts.
Actually, I'm just sick of your constant righteousness. You always feel this need to lecture and correct people and look for the opportunity to do it every chance you get--that's what I've seen in the majority of your posts.
I challenge anyone to look through them and demonstrate the "majority" of them are "lecturing" or "correcting."
I challenged your over-generalization and you need to get all about it, even though about half a dozen other folks made the same critique. Whatever dude, you don't like me?
Actually, I'm just sick of your constant righteousness. You always feel this need to lecture and correct people and look for the opportunity to do it every chance you get--that's what I've seen in the majority of your posts.
I challenge anyone to look through them and demonstrate the "majority" of them are "lecturing" or "correcting."
I challenged your over-generalization and you need to get all about it, even though about half a dozen other folks made the same critique. Whatever dude, you don't like me?
related: power 92 in chicago just said they wont let their djs play house music or 'old school' (meaining like disco/house old school) any more
they gotta stay relevant, that's what is most important.
well, no. They gotta stay marketing to young people. This is Chicago. house and "old school" is very relevant to people my age and older. The mix DJ's on Power 92 are the only reason to tune into that station as far as I'm concerned. Especially when they're throwing house and stuff into the mix. I bet Boolumaster is still playing the shit out of some juke though.
The mix DJ's on V103 (the grown folks soul station) are starting to play more house and even some hip-hop classics so I'll just fusk with them if Power 92 wants to keep Boolu and them on the kiddie shit. or, to be fair, keep Boolu's playlists closer to the normal top-40 playlists.
and yes I sound old. [/thread hijack]
i dunno about that. kid scratch still does old school mixes on power 92 right? does 107.5 still have dj lil john?
regardless i think power 92 has some great rap djs too, who play current southern shit that is big nationally -- dj pharris is great
Comments
No doubt.
But to ask the new generation of new Hip Hop listeners to look towards the radio for the next step in their culture - i dont see.
That's my generation. We stayed up till 4AM to listen to the Supreme Team Show.
My 16 year old neighbors dont even own a radio.
Now for older folks that do still listen, it would be nice ive i could hear some new shit instead of Luther Vandross, Frankie Beverley & Maze,and Jennifer Hudson 24/7. But The radio (primetime) isnt about being Progressive.
And w/ the dead-ass music industry that its connected to, i find thay theyre just gonna be even more irrelevant in 10 years.
My perspective is more of a reaction to art school than a product of it. People in art school talked about aesthetics, authenticity, and originality non-stop to the point that I realized it was all bullshit.
Here's what gets me about all the calls for rap to be more "innovative"; basically, it's asking for it to be less like rap and more like something else. I don't see any other mass-market idioms where there's a constant demand from the audience for innovation. I saw something on the BBC the other morning about this Irish rock band called The Answer, who are apparently breaking in the US right now, and they just sounded like a Humble Pie throwback to me. Nothing wrong with that per se, but much like Wolfmother, the Killers (with their Duran Duran-meets-Springsteen steez), the Kings Of Leon or any number of celebrated rock acts of recent years, you'd hardly call it innovative. And that's without even mentioning Creed-lite swill like The Fray, which bites shit that's only a few years old and which was never any f*cking good to begin with. If you want to talk more broadly about rock, then tell me the last time Radiohead released an album where the critical acclaim wasn't at least matched by a corresponding demand for them to ditch all the arty shit and make an album that sounded more like Pablo Honey. Other than them, the only other rock bands that consistently turn my head and sound as if they're actually making an effort are Queens of the Stone Age and TV On The Radio (who are a bunch of black dudes).
As far as mainstream pop is concerned, even Timbaland is now just recycling 80s European electro-pop motifs from acts like Visage for a lot of his shit, after having consistently turned the game on its head for years. As I see it, he's now responding to trends rather than setting them, and that's because he's moved into an area where now it's a sort of familiar nostalgia that gets rewarded, rather than innovation. But does anyone really think he cares about that? I'd imagine he sees what he does now as being at least different to what he's done before, and it's that which makes it stimulating from a creative point of view, but I bet most of the people buying all those Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado records he's made aren't buying them because they think they're "innovative".
But to get back on topic, the whole "rap needs to be innovative" thing has always seemed to me to characterise an inability or unwillingness to accept rap on its own terms, whatever they may be. I find that it's usually led by the sort of people who never bought a De La Soul record after "3ft High...", nor a PE record since "Nation of Millions", and who assume that major international stars like Fitty, Eminem, Jay, Snoop and Kanye are representative of rap's entire spectrum, and therefore their opinion of those acts is good for the music as a whole. If I think someone's making a value judgement on a entire form of music, based only upon what's right in front of their face, then it's hard for me to take that opinion too seriously because it obviously isn't an informed opinion. This is why I think deej makes a good point when he mentions the sheer volume of (comparatively speaking) lower-level acts who are consistently pumping out solid material. To me, rap has always been driven by its core audience's demand for the new (which isn't necessarily the same as the innovative), so it requires a real effort on the part of that section of the audience that isn't in the midst of it to stay up on everything. And for a lot of people, there simply aren't enough hours in the day. I've always listened to rap, but I also listen to a lot of shit that isn't rap as well, so I end up having to be a bit more selective about my choices than I might like. I don't really go to clubs or listen to the radio all that much, so I often rely upon the recommendations of others as much as my own personal taste. I have the Strut to thank for putting me up on Turf Talk, for example, who I wouldn't have had a hope of ever actually hearing anywhere in this country. But it's not like the first question I ask myself is, "is this innovative?" I mean, I respect the fact that, right at the top, hemol at least spoke on what it is he likes rather than moaning about what he thinks is garbage. But it's like Jonny saying that making a good rap record (presumably with the emphasis being on "rap") would actually be a radical thing to do right now. The reason I liked Jake and Thes's records from last year so much is because that's what they seemed to be focusing on - the fundamentals of the music - and in both cases it made for a much more satisfying listen as a result. Conversely, I listen to "808s and Heartbreak" and hear an artist so hell-bent on being "innovative" at all costs that he's almost forgotten what it is he's actually good at, and you end up with a dog's breakfast of solipsistic emo/electro-pop that's neither one thing nor the other. And, good or bad, the fact that it's been made by someone who's ostensibly a rap artist makes absolutely no difference to me, although I suspect Kanye thinks it ought to.
Christ, I'm beginning to bore myself now. Props to anyone who made it this far.
Now this is what I mean when I talk about an informed opinion.
As I was the dude who posted the cover shot of "Paid In Full", I guess I ought to respond to your point about this at least.
I completely agree with you about the substance of Rakim's lyrics, but there's hardly any need for me to say to you that Rakim is, was, and always will be unique amongst emcees. I mean, I can listen to his old shit even now, and still hear things that I've never caught every other time I've listened to it, such was the level he was operating on. Compare that to all the obfuscatory "original, lyrical, super-scientifical" bells-and-whistles flannel and outright bullshit that lesser emcees try to pass off as deep or complex nowadays. All that NGE/Five-Per-Center symbolism, slang and imagery, of which Rakim was the first rapper to use on record (or the first of any real significance), has subsequently been used by scores of others, many of whom have built entire careers upon it, so there can be no question that he was a true innovator. But does that level of innovation exist anywhere now? If I judged every rapper I heard nowadays on whether they were as good as Rakim, I doubt I'd listen to much rap at all, but that would eliminate umpteen artists who, in my opinion, still have more than enough going for them to be worth my time. And what about all those so-called conscious rappers who seem to think that simply being "conscious" is enough? I'm not after the wheel to be reinvented every time I press "play", but please, at least try not to be so predictable - I know what this or that rapper isn't, because they never stop telling me. I don't hear much about who or what they are, though.
And there's another thing about Eric B & Rakim; the leather Dapper Dan Gucci suits, the dookie gold ropes and rings, the fat wads of paper and that posse shot on the back cover - that was the image of themselves those dudes wanted to present to the world. That was who they were, and they didn't try to deny it. I think both those somewhat contradictory aspects - the "get money" and the righteousness - painted a fuller and perhaps even truer picture of what rap must have been at that time. It's when people try to paint certain of those aspects out of the picture that I feel a compulsion to kick against it, because, to me, the romantic, nostalgic view of old-school hip-hop that's presented by a selective perspective like that seems every bit as superficial as those present-day musical and cultural values you so eloquently rail against elsewhere in your post. People want to deny those contradictions nowadays, as if rap's never been somewhat of a dichotomy. But like Harvey said earlier, it is what it is. And hasn't that always been the case? If everyone on here who likes to talk about how rap sucks right now did so the way you've done here, it'd at least make for a more varied debate - rather that than people going on about what it is they don't like, but never what they do like.
Probably a
well, no. They gotta stay marketing to young people. This is Chicago. house and "old school" is very relevant to people my age and older. The mix DJ's on Power 92 are the only reason to tune into that station as far as I'm concerned. Especially when they're throwing house and stuff into the mix. I bet Boolumaster is still playing the shit out of some juke though.
The mix DJ's on V103 (the grown folks soul station) are starting to play more house and even some hip-hop classics so I'll just fusk with them if Power 92 wants to keep Boolu and them on the kiddie shit. or, to be fair, keep Boolu's playlists closer to the normal top-40 playlists.
and yes I sound old. [/thread hijack]
It's easy to push the line that rap is gross and corporate right now, but it is anything but.
It's too easy to say "it's not like it was, it's all wack and commercial and bloated". There's certainly those aspects to the game. There's also really great, heartfelt music being made. There are guys who play terrible autotuned commercial R&B for a living, but grew up spinning doubles of "Poppa Large". They still might like to play that stuff, but they know what to do to get paid.
And right now there is someone in every city and town across the country in a basement or bedroom or tiny apartment putting their heart and soul into a piece of rap music - and thanks to technology, they ALL have the potential to be the next Rakim. We don't have to kid ourselves - talent like that comes around once in a blue moon, and the glory years of classic hip-hop are gone. Just like they were with disco at a certain point, like rock n roll, R&B and jazz and every other musical movement in history. It does not mean that the music ends there, or the capacity to make great music ends there.
I just can't believe that people with such vast musical knowledge would hang onto the idea that rap music cannot be made with the same kind of creativity that it once was. Nobody's telling any of these new rock groups that they can't make a good record because it's not the 1960s anymore, and they're not in Great Britain. Nobody's telling any of these guys making dance music that they missed the Paradise Garage and so, sorry, they won't be able to make a good disco record.
except for all those bomb blasts
half the damn show would be bombs exploding
Jesus I remember the night he premiered "Ante Up" that shit was f*cking insanity. He played the record for like 45 minutes straight and just LEANED on the bomb button.
"EVERYONE ELSE SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW BROOKLYN STAND UP. THIS IS REAL SERIOUS"[/b]
It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at[/b]
This is classique.
On my first trip to New York City (which I referenced in another thread, actually) I got in on Friday evening and we were all making preparations for the evening. The radio must have been on Hot 97 because it was Flex making all kinds of noise and throwing on some MOP. It wasn't "Ante Up" but it was something equally ill. I couldn't believe I was hearing MOP on commercial radio on a Friday Night at like 8pm. It felt very right.
Still probably the best thing that's ever been put on youtube.
Dr. Wang is a world-renowned rap historian and author of many scholarly journals, books and seminal texts on the history of rap, rapology, and rapological phenomena. He is considered THE ultimate authority on all matters pertaining to rap and is consulted regularly on all rap-related matters.
Dr. Wang is here to enlighten all with his encyclopaedic knowledge of rap, and also to correct those who do not come correct when speaking on rap.
Lady and gentlemen, please welcome, Dr. Wang...
It's funny - I never bring up any part of my background. I'm just a dude on a message board stating an opinion. The fact that you feel the need to parade shit like this out there just says a lot about your insecurities.
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2). Cosmo: Tell me more about that Ante Up Flex Shit
3).
Dr. Wang
4). Driftwood should really fall back.
Insecurities? Thanks Dr. Wang. I had no idea that you are a psychologist.
Actually, I'm just sick of your constant righteousness. You always feel this need to lecture and correct people and look for the opportunity to do it every chance you get--that's what I've seen in the majority of your posts.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
LOL.
My recent posts are public: http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/dose...ch=1&fromprof=1
I challenge anyone to look through them and demonstrate the "majority" of them are "lecturing" or "correcting."
I challenged your over-generalization and you need to get all
Grab a ticket and get in line.
HAHAHAH
HAHAHAH
i dunno about that. kid scratch still does old school mixes on power 92 right? does 107.5 still have dj lil john?
regardless i think power 92 has some great rap djs too, who play current southern shit that is big nationally -- dj pharris is great