Speaking as a certified audiophile;

BClark wrote:i make rap music. theres links in my signature.

according to this poll, at least 23/53 of yall would probably not enjoy it. which is totally ok. but if you do listen to rap, id def appreciate any sort of feedback.

The No Cups and Life In A Book tracks are nyce.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote: Rap changed my life in a very meaningful way

Others worth looking at:

The Coup
Makeba & Skratch
Double Dee & Steinski
7A3
Lovebug Starski
Low Profile
Dälek
Dimples D
T-Love
DJ Vadim
Rammelzee vs. K-Rob
Phill Most Chill
Top Priority
The Dismasters



Not Crap.


The rest, ehhh.

I used to be very much into hip hop. I'm an enormous Fall fan, and dig all of post punk as a genre. I especially like the Falls very early singles and Mark E Smith has a vocal style very similar to rap on a lot of those songs. I thought that Wu Tang Clan with their emphasis on simple beats and repetitive samples were the absolute perfection of post punk. My main thought was "oh my god! This is what the Fall were trying to do done much better". That got me into buying and listening to WAAAAY too much rap. I forgave all the stupidity of the lyrics for the way the beats sounded. They were sorta like PIL but a lot easier to digest, and alot of the self-aggrandizing lyrics tickled the part of my brain that digs cleverness. I really liked Eric B. & Rakim for this reason, and also all of Ghostface Killah.

I then one day, in a burst of caprice, decided to go to youtube and look up ICP videos. I was absolutely disgusted but also founds to a certain extent I actually LIKED this music: given the criteria of hip hop a lot of it WAS good. The beats were all at least serviceable and no more gimmicky than Wu Tang's (one has kung fu samples the other has carnival samples). The words were absolutely abhorrent, but just as witty as the Beastie Boys. The message was terrible but no worse than Wu Tang, NWA, or MOST other rap outfits.

ICP makes me feel physically ill. They made me really hate rap as a genre -- I feel that only in a bankrupt genre can cleverness substitute for feeling and a terrible message be called unimportant (which is how I've noticed most rap fans justify the lyrical ugliness of their favorite bands). Rap is about persona more than art and I realized that I don't like any of the persona's being sold. I don't like sampled music in concept. I don't like rap or hip hop. I feel moderately silly that I used to. Oh well, at least I've been listening to the Fall again AND have been getting into old school country.

I'll call rap crap with a largeish waffle factor. I like the heaviness of Public Enemy, think De La Soul is adorable, and A Tribe Called Quest is nice enough party music. Then again I never really feel compelled to listen to any of it anymore.

Will Barnett wrote: I like the heaviness of Public Enemy, think De La Soul is adorable, and A Tribe Called Quest is nice enough party music. Then again I never really feel compelled to listen to any of it anymore.

You just patronised three of the greatest bands.

big_dave wrote:

Will Barnett wrote: I like the heaviness of Public Enemy, think De La Soul is adorable, and A Tribe Called Quest is nice enough party music. Then again I never really feel compelled to listen to any of it anymore.

You just patronised three of the greatest bands.

And the worst part is, 2 of them are still making really good fucking music! De La, in particular still puts out incredibly relevant music, with great humour, social insight, and just down right insane beats.

Hip Hip/Rap is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT CRAP. While as, Indie-Rock, as a Genre, has continued its slow devolution into most definite CRAP, no freakin' waffle factor.

Rap music is made by dumb fucks with no talent for dumb fucks with no taste.

Nobody mentioned Kool Keith in this thread.

Kool Keith has produced some amazing albums over the years.

tommydski wrote:Nobody mentioned Kool Keith in this thread.

Kool Keith has produced some amazing albums over the years.

Critical Beatdown, Dr Oct, Dooom, Black Elvis, all exceptional rap records.

MC's are NOT CRAP
Rap's form is not that different from what's been going on for decades. But what I love about rap is it's completely vernacular, it Moves the Crowd, it's on everyone's level. It's DIY. And who ever thought Kraftwerk were gonna be such an influence? Rap is call-and-response in a very artistic way, good MC's build it up.
Bad rap takes this to a level of "uh's" and there's lack of build-up, like the drum-crash-after-a-bad-joke. When I hear sucka MC's it's like hearing Bread covering Bob Dylan. Dylan and Zappa were rappers...Zappa's associative-music finds itself everywhere in rap.
It's really disturbing to see a face put on the cover of rap and manipulated completely by the media (50 Cent vs. Kanye). When MTV came about and record labels tightened their control of what they wanted the masses to see (and thus control the masses), rap was ground zero. It's type-cast, for racial reasons, but I think more because rap makes people come together, and nobody behind-the-curtain wants us doing it ourselves.