RAB87 said:

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Never before has such behavior been called music or art. It's a cultural enigma, filled with vulgarity, violence, crime, and objectifying women. What talent does this require? I could rhyme in elementary school and no one called it art. Rap and hip hop sounds nothing like African music. Why did this ever become considered an art form?

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Yikes. Go back and listen to groups such as Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Souls of Mischief, Gangstarr, The Roots, Common, BlackStar, Wu Tang, Black Moon, Pharcyde, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Leaders of the New School, the list goes on and on. It's not all bust a cap in yo azz then F yo B.

johnnyblaze36 said:

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redline248 said:

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By the way, I'm ashamed that I forgot to include Wu Tang in my op.

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RZA is remerging as Bobby Digital with two forthcoming albums. Was just reading about it yesterday and watched the first video and it's solid. Won't be produced by him though which leaves me a little skeptical.

https://www.nme.com/news/music/rza-bobby-digital-new-album-single-listen-2978812

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I like that a lot!

CDub06 said:

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RAB87 said:

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Never before has such behavior been called music or art. It's a cultural enigma, filled with vulgarity, violence, crime, and objectifying women. What talent does this require? I could rhyme in elementary school and no one called it art. Rap and hip hop sounds nothing like African music. Why did this ever become considered an art form?

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I'll bite on the troll... But something leads me to believe that you've never actually listened to the music, just what Rush Limbaugh has to say about it. Sure, there's a lot of stuff geared toward the lowest common denominator, but you're kidding yourself if you think the genre stops at Money Cash Hoes.

I've never understood the talent in whining about your ex wife while drinking beer, but country musicians make a whole career out of that.

And yeah, I'm sure your Cat in the Hat self could string some rhymes together. I'll bet your dad was glad.

Peep these rhyme schemes:

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The look on those guys' faces was probably similar to mine. Total incomprehension of what was happening. The freestyle dudes are either on a completely different level than day to day life, or they sit around and practice that crap nonstop. It's pretty impressive

NF is extraordinarily talented. My favorite by him is The Search

Awesome, meaningful lyrics w/o the garbage.

CDub06 said:

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RAB87 said:

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Never before has such behavior been called music or art. It's a cultural enigma, filled with vulgarity, violence, crime, and objectifying women. What talent does this require? I could rhyme in elementary school and no one called it art. Rap and hip hop sounds nothing like African music. Why did this ever become considered an art form?

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I'll bite on the troll... But something leads me to believe that you've never actually listened to the music, just what Rush Limbaugh has to say about it. Sure, there's a lot of stuff geared toward the lowest common denominator, but you're kidding yourself if you think the genre stops at Money Cash Hoes.

I've never understood the talent in whining about your ex wife while drinking beer, but country musicians make a whole career out of that.

And yeah, I'm sure your Cat in the Hat self could string some rhymes together. I'll bet your dad was glad.

Peep these rhyme schemes:

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This was a really poor troll, so can we just appropriate it by posting some of our favorite freestyles instead of responding?

If you come in and criticize a form of music you should at least have the balls to offer up what you listen to.

And one from earlier this year

redline248 said:

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How does someone like that even find this thread, not to mention choose to click on it.

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I'm mostly in his camp and really really don't like most rap, but I still read the thread. normally I would think those thoughts but not post them. Some people just really have an aversion to it.

That being said I do really like quite a few songs from RtJ, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, NF, and LaCrae.

Kanye is one of the best musical minds of the last couple of decades as well. RtJ and Kanye have some of the best beats and production of any music.

but my appreciation for rap ends about with that list.

My kids like JuiceWrld and dabay and other people like that but most of it just comes off as mumble rap and I don't care for it.

I have some clouds to go yell at now.

ETA: I know that it's in the same vane as the other cloud yeller but I really do find a lot of stuff like Megan thee Stallion and Cardi B to be garbage. There is some good lyrical rap out there, it just bothers me that that sort of stuff gets glorified. I liked Rihanna in her hay day but I don't know if that was rap or R&B.

Theblondewonder said:

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NF is extraordinarily talented. My favorite by him is The Search

Awesome, meaningful lyrics w/o the garbage.

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I love NF. Green Lights and Just Being Me are some of my favorites.

If you're looking for something a little different in the HipHop genre, a few acts that I'm partial to (and probably sound different than most things you'll hear on the radio for the most part) are:

• Anderson.Paak
• Jidenna
• Earthgang

From the "slightly more popular" category I really enjoy Kid Cudi, Vince Staples, and Chance the Rapper (well, up through Coloring Book at least).

IMHO, all of the above have interesting & diverse production, as well as quality & smart lyricism.

Brockhampton

Big fan. I was going to suggest Brockhampton. It's a little different. But I especially dug their last album.
Much love for the hometown boy, Kevin Abstract.

Juice WRLD

Some artists not mentioned yet, I think...

clipping- probably my personal favorite of any artist/group in hip hop today. some of their records get pretty experimental, including a few concept albums... CLPPNG is probably their catchiest/least intimidating record so its a good place to start

death grips- experimental/industrial hip hop with IMO the best drummer alive in Zach hill in the group. I nearly like them as much as I do clipping, but they're admittedly not for everyone. the money store is their best record

billy woods- especially the album he did with Kenny segal, hiding places

benny the butcher (all of Griselda really)

Aesop rock- easily the most impressive lyricist out there IMO, still making great music after 20 something years

jpegmafia

bus driver- heavy jazz influence on most of his stuff

Saul williams

Danny brown

vince staples

cage

joey bada$$ and most of pro era

im gonna stop before I get carried away. that ought to keep you busy for a bit.

not surprising that when this topic comes up, someone always wants to put their ignorance on display by making ridiculous comments about hip hop not taking talent. racism aside, the only thing they accomplish saying **** like that is establishing that they dont even have a superficial understanding of what actually goes into making music. I guess what im trying to say is random bigoted outbursts are a little more pathetic when you cant seem to wrap your racist mind around the subject you're trying to **** on/discuss

Theblondewonder said:

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NF is extraordinarily talented. My favorite by him is The Search

Awesome, meaningful lyrics w/o the garbage.

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I feel really white that I used to like eminem and then when I have looked for new rap recently I really really like NF even more.

His lyrics are pretty clean and his intro songs are outstanding. He has some really good heavy beats.


Anyone have any other recs for someone who likes NF a lot? (dont really like pretty much all of his slow stuff)

Quote:

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Why did this ever become considered an art form?

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I can't speak for everyone, and to be honest I haven't really listened to any new rap in at least a decade.... but I think it became an art form for me when it taught me how to fall back on that ass with a hellafied gangster lean. JMO.

dixie whiskey said:

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Some artists not mentioned yet, I think...

clipping- probably my personal favorite of any artist/group in hip hop today. some of their records get pretty experimental, including a few concept albums... CLPPNG is probably their catchiest/least intimidating record so its a good place to start

death grips- experimental/industrial hip hop with IMO the best drummer alive in Zach hill in the group. I nearly like them as much as I do clipping, but they're admittedly not for everyone. the money store is their best record

billy woods- especially the album he did with Kenny segal, hiding places

benny the butcher (all of Griselda really)

Aesop rock- easily the most impressive lyricist out there IMO, still making great music after 20 something years

jpegmafia

bus driver- heavy jazz influence on most of his stuff

Saul williams

Danny brown

vince staples

cage

joey bada$$ and most of pro era

im gonna stop before I get carried away. that ought to keep you busy for a bit.

not surprising that when this topic comes up, someone always wants to put their ignorance on display by making ridiculous comments about hip hop not taking talent. racism aside, the only thing they accomplish saying **** like that is establishing that they dont even have a superficial understanding of what actually goes into making music. I guess what im trying to say is random bigoted outbursts are a little more pathetic when you cant seem to wrap your racist mind around the subject you're trying to **** on/discuss

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I agree that there is a ton of ignorance on display here. I don't necessarily think it can be attributed to racism though but I could be wrong. I don't know these posters personally.

But the people that dismiss rap/hip-hop as having no value have no clue what goes into the mind and execution of a producer like The RZA, DJ Premier, Dr Dre, DJ Muggs, etc. Let alone actual bands like The Roots.

Having said all that, I haven't found an MC in the last ten years that really moves the needle much for me other than Kid Cudi and Lil Dicky and I'm personally not a fan of any that you listed but each to their own. I just miss the early to mid 90's glory days.