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Rap is old, not old school, just old

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Bubbler, Oct 21, 2006.

  1. Trouser_Buddah

    Trouser_Buddah Active Member

    SC, I thought I told ya. That's completely my bad... But I will be at the Weber St./Montana football game tomorrow with a dinner and boozin' to follow. PM me if you want to meet :)

    P.S. I'll be here 'till Monday afternoon :)
     
  2. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Bubbler, you know as well as the next person that today's angry young man is tomorrow's old fart. Personally, I think whoever won awards at this ceremony should be awarded the rights to the next Super Bowl halftime show.
    I have never emotionally warmed to rap-which shows I'm REALLY old, spnited old. But in the '80s, only a fool would've ignored the fact serious artists were doing serious work in the genre. Now, it's only another pop genre, like heavy metal or Christian country. It's the way of the world. It's the glory of America. I want to live long enough to see Diddy as honorary Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade.
     
  3. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Rap is old. It also sucks. Always has, always will.

    Any alleged form of "music" that can be created in a studio with synthesizers, computers and mixing isn't music -- it's merely a technique to create noise. Perhaps the writers of rap wrote inventive lyrics (and let's see how good they would have been if you took away about five words from their lexicon) that sometimes rhymed or were alliterative, but the sum total has always been just that -- noise.

    To put rap anywhere on the same plane with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. is an affront to their greatness.
     
  4. However, hondo, most of them would disagree with you because, at one time or another, people said the same things about them. I mean, come on. Little Richard? Ooooh, my soooooouuuul, he made the parents nervous. And Jerry Lee and his 14-year old cousin?
     
  5. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Eric B. and Rakim are my all-time favorite.

    "Follow the Leader" and "Paid in Full."
     
  6. fever_dog

    fever_dog Active Member

    "all the world's ills ... sitting on chrome, 24-inch wheels"
     
  7. The Basement

    The Basement Member

    ok ... let's see here ...

    Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!

    Tutti frutti, oh rutti,
    Tutti frutti, oh rutti,
    Tutti frutti, oh rutti,
    Tutti frutti, oh rutti,
    Tutti frutti, oh rutti,
    Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom!

    I got a gal, named Sue, she knows just what to do,
    I got a gal, named Sue, she knows just what to do,
    She rocks to the East, she rocks to the West,
    She is the gal that I love best,
    Tutti frutti, ...

    I got a gal, named Daisy, she almost drives me crazy,
    Got a gal, named Daisy, she almost drives me crazy,
    She knows how to love me, yes indeed,
    Boy you don't know what she's doin' to me,
    Tutti frutti, ...


    how about ...

    Oh yeah, I'll tell you something,
    I think you'll understand.
    When I'll say that something
    I wanna hold your hand,
    I wanna hold your hand,
    I wanna hold your hand.

    Oh please, say to me
    You'll let me be your man
    And please, say to me
    You'll let me hold your hand.
    You'll let me hold your hand,
    I wanna hold your hand.

    or ....

    Well, I told you once and I told you twice,
    But ya never listen to my advice
    You don't try very hard to please me,
    With what you know it should be easy

    Well, this could be the last time
    This could be the last time
    Maybe the last time,
    I don't know. Oh no. Oh no

    don't generalize on rap lyrics because all of your favorites shit out some garbage as well in the name of making a hit or someone dance. of course, i can go pick out some very good lyrics from these artists, just as I can from rap artists.

    As for your "sum total" comment - well - i'd venture to guess that if you put all of your 60s and 70s rockers albums together, the majority of that would be garbage too. Very few artists produce anything of substance, and even the talented ones drop steamers. So get over yourself.

    and if you honestly think all of your rock boys really sound like they do on wax and got no help some sort of electronic "cleaning up", i'm sorry for that.
     
  8. Oz

    Oz Well-Known Member

    Public Enemy brought the noise -- but it also brought a political awareness that I never knew about until I listened to the lyrics. It opened my eyes to the world around me, a world I seldom saw.

    In fact, a lot of the '80s rap I listened to had some political edge to it. Even N.W.A. Rap became the new rock n' roll, the voice of rebellion, when hair metal bands took control of the decade.

    Oh, and it might surprise you, but some rappers actually do play their own instruments. Beastie Boys began that trend 15 years ago when it recorded "Check Your Head" and continued to do so since. And the Roots are a rap group, complete set of skilled musicians who can make whatever type of track they want. Heck, even Andre3000 played all instruments -- save for the bass, which he says he didn't play lively enough -- on "Hey Ya!" and most of his own tracks.

    Personally, I like the fact that rap is old -- that means it survived fad status. It started with simple beats and managed to evolve into the Beastie Boys' willingness to pick up the guitars and be the white boys they are, into A Tribe Called Quest's witty lyrics, into Public Enemy's political awareness, into Eminem's social conscious, etc. There's so much more in rap than some might ever know, because they're not willing to listen.

    And that's fine, rap isn't for everyone. But I'll match rap against "rock" like Nickleback and 3 Doors Down anytime.
     
  9. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    You guys are forgetting something....the old rockers I mentioned actually played musical intruments, or had very talented bands behind them who played musical instruments. Tell me, please what instrument can Eminem, 50 cent, Ludacris, Jay-Z or Diddy actually play well enough to make it professionally?

    They can play computers. They can write a few rhymes. That's it. Their main talented is the creative use of cuss words.
     
  10. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Okay, you named some examples of rappers who played instruments, but you didn't say what instruments they played. And I don't think those guys get arrested now.
    Give me the name of any current top-40 resident of Hip-Hop who could play chopsticks on the piano.
     
  11. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Speaking of Bone Thugs, one of my PROUDEST moments at Crain's Cleveland Business was getting Bone Thugs onto the annual 40 under 40 list. Everybody on staff hated the idea, except the editor, who noted that Bone was all his son was listening to. I was hoping they'd show at the traditionally stuffy 40 under 40 awards party, but alas they did not.

    As for Ice Cube, when I took my son to see "Are We There Yet," I thought back to seeing Ice Cube's first solo tour stop at MSA, circa 1991, and wondered if Cube at that time realized his would eventually model his career after Chevy Chase. Actually, I don't blame Cube and Ice-T and the others for going in the direction they have. The only thing more ridiculous than Ice Cube as kiddie movie star would be Ice Cube, at age 37, still coming on out stage on an electric chair, as he did circa 1991, and announcing on stage that he'd like to let the ladies know he was staying at the Omni. Were you at that show, too, Bubs? And the P.E. show in 1990 that turned out to be the last appearance of the original Heavy D and the Boyz, what with one of the Boyz falling off the catwalk over New Jersey Street after the show and making himself human roadkill?
     
  12. Geez, those goalposts are shifty bastards, aren't they?
     
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