The Hip Hop/Rap Thread

Originally Posted by Capo

Slick Rick is one of my favorites

Whoa! I had totally forgotten about Slick Rick. I always used to listen to him. Time to organize CDs.

My favourite rap group of all time has to be Public Enemy. Chuck D has one of the greatest voices in music. Pure authority. Besides that, N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton record keeps popping into my player. Nevermind if you don't like violent lyrics, that album is worth it for "Express Yourself" alone.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Capo

May I recommend, via Iwata's recommendation to the Music Exposure Club, Edan's Beuty and the Beat. Seriousley great, fresh sounding rap. He flows over a 60's psych-rock background, and the result is phenomenal. Everyone needs to check this out.

I completely agree. Definiely grab this.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Capo

Speaking of Mos Def, everyone here needs to go out and download (or buy!) his album Black on Both Sides. It's really an incredible album, filled to the brim with great songs. Ms. Fat Booty, although it may sound like a cliche, bad rap track, is one of the greatest songs he's ever put out. So yeah.

I was going to upload this for the Music Exposure Club, but I just found out the copy I got from a friend is missing two tracks. Instead, doing the untouchable Black Star album, also with Mos Def.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Sorry, but back in the early days, the Beastie Boys were not "keeping it positive". They picked that up later.

"Girls - to do the dishes
Girls - to clean up my room
Girls - to do the laundry
Girls - and in the bathroom
Girls, that's all I really want is girls
Two at a time I want girls
With new wave hairdos I want girls
I ought to whip out my girls, girls, girls, girls, girls!"


And how the hell do you put KRS-One and Public Enemy in the same group as Will Smith?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by KCJ506

Just what do all these killings achieve? I'll tell you what they achieve. Not a damn thing. Some people take beefs a little too far and decide to take extreme actions, which results in senseless deaths. Look at all of the rappers who have been killed due to violence; I counted about 10, but there may be more.

...

It's just that some people take it a little too far and instead of being grown up about their problems and discussing them like men, people want to murder, which is unjustified.

No shit. Murder = Bad.

Not to say it isn't sad when anyone dies, but it's not like murder is something new that's happening. It's not a problem in the rap scene so much as a problem with society as a whole.

How ya doing, buddy?

I don't understand why people enjoy Kanye West so much. I mean, his music is predictable, his rapping is mediocre, and he's an arrogant prick. What's the fascination?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

That's most of what I listen to hip-hop wise.

How ya doing, buddy?

You're right about the production values, but that doesn't really bother me. I have no problem with lo-fi records.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Omega Weapon

Hip-hop is okay as long as it is the jazz pop stella deus of Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, King of Fighters, Capcom vs. SNK, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, and Metroid Prime. The composer sure knew what he was doing when he made fuchi komas out of "The Longshoreman" and "Vigor Force".

Other than that, since most mainstream music is instrumental rap it sucks just as much as the vocal rap because it's all one beat and uses timbre to make disturbingly poor 'songs' with terrible sound quality and even worse compositions. The only exceptions to the rule I've found have been Sean Paul, DMX, and Mariah Carrey, since they've both figured out how to compose at the highest level and reach 100% in composition and sound quality without being VGM. Mariah Carrey's newest song was all asanoganawa which means she's reached 200% and might as well be composing for a Xenosaga or R-Type game. Sean Paul's "Temperature" was a very fast paced impressionistic arcus that demonstrated some very high level of poetic skills, especially since he bolroxed in Portugese and not English. DMX was all asanoganawa too and has been ever since I first listened to them. If only they'd do more with their songs . . .

Other than that, most hip-hop begs the question for why the 'composer' shouldn't be oppressed.

Anyway, since I've composed Capcom Vs. SNK and it's trip-hop of the most psyched out levels, I know a lot about every kind of music in practically every style since I've been composing most of my life, with just about four new soundtracks composed in the last year.

I'm hoping this post is a rather elaborate joke, but I know I'll be let down.

Sean Paul creates a "fast paced impressionistic arcus"? That's comedy gold, even if we ignore that you made up a word.

Sean Paul, DMX, and Mariah Carey composing at the highest level. Now that I think about it, "What These Bitches Want" and "Keep Your Shit The Hardest" certainly rival Philip Glass in compositional terms.

Not to put down someone who knows a lot about practically every style of music, but "instrumental rap" is oxymoronic.

Seriously though, GTFO.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Omega Weapon

Instrumental rap is not oxymoronic because all it takes to make something rap is that its time signature is one beat and it uses timbre. Silent Hill and Resident Evil and Galerians are all instrumental rap because they focus on using sounds of other peoples' dissassocia in their anti-music to make up for their lack in compositional integrity. Most likely though, since every one in rap loves dissassocia it's safe to say you most likely have that disorder because nearly every one in the rap community has already denounced God and questioned his one true religion while they weren't in their studios and turned what was once great objective standards about composing into relatavistic squalor.

Rap: to rhythmically deliver rhyming lyrics.

Instrumental: a piece of (usually nonclassical) music performed solely by instruments, with no vocals.


Looks like my friend the Oxford Dictionary says your wrong.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Encephalon doesn't know the difference between mainstream music and classical? Wait, which one of you said DMX was a master of composition?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Slap him up, indeed. In addition to doing all this soundtrack work, check this out:

Originally Posted by Omega Weapon

I've written many RPGs for game companies. Most of them were at least 200 pages long, and with my most recent works just being finished I have a 700 page story and a 2500 page story (with one insanely long chapter at the Delta Prime sector of the universe). Not only that, I've written many battle systems to RPGs I've written and now I have my friends in the game design industry adding their portions into the source code after lengthening the source code limit to much more than 63000. They've also used graphic application programs to create the visuals over the text based executable. But, after seeing how Dragon Warrior 8 turned out I imagine most of my newer RPGs are going to have lots of text during the battles now. I've also written and programmed Shadow Hearts and Tsuganai, to name a couple of the games I've written that have been recently released.

2500 pages of writing this bad? He reeks of bullshit.


Anyhow, back to rap music. Has anyone gave a listen to The Coup's new album yet? Any good?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Figures. A 42 date tour and the closest stop is an eight hour drive.

Enceph, I wouldn't go so far as to soil the good name of the Hot Air Balloon Classic with this jackass.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Contracts

NOW, Rap was ALWAYS meant for self expression, Not expression of how I got head last night.

I don't know what you mean by this. I don't think subject matter is really an issue. If someone raps about getting head and they have a good delivery and creative lyrics, who gives a fuck.

I agree about the pathetic state of most popular rap music these days, but at the same time the other side of the argument are often exclusionist assholes. Yes, Kanye is a useless douche. That doesn't mean that all good rap music carries some deeply implanted statement about society. The underground scene needs to lighten up, and the pop/rap combos currently on the airwaves need to focus more on their music and less on the frivolities.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Blue Scholars isn't that hard to find. I've seen their record around on a couple college radio playlists, and I live in central Canada. I haven't heard anything of theirs, but they've gone past a local act I think.

FELIPE NO

You clearly haven't listened to much hip-hop. Take a peak in the Music Exposure Club and grab the Ozomatli or Nujabes. I think you might just have definitions mixed up though.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by DarkLink2135

I don't get it.

Read the last three pages of the thread.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I second Capo's proposal. If it's shit-simple, as you seem to believe, you should be able to create a top-notch record with some sort of computer program easily enough.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by DarkLink2135

A) I can't compose.

I don't find it enjoyable to listen to the same 2 chords played over a couple seconds repeated throughout an entire song with a vocal track overlaid on it. And I don't consider it a very high form of music.

Something doesn't fit.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

So, you can't think of two chords, and then repeat them?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by DarkLink2135

Ok, fine, I could do that. But would you consider that hip-hop? From what I've seen, I doubt it.

The issue is whether YOU would consider it hip-hop. Again, I recommend browsing the Music Exposure Club so you can broaden you're definition a tad.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Myself!

You clearly haven't listened to much hip-hop. Take a peek in the Music Exposure Club and grab the Ozomatli or Nujabes. I think you might just have definitions mixed up though.

Done and done.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Kanye West is awful, why are we kidding ourselves?

FELIPE NO