I definitely do not like modern day rap and hiphop, but I very much enjoy the old school and gangsta rap like N.W.A., and Public Enemy.

SuicidalCyco: The problem with mainstream rap nowadays is it is catered to the audience who will buy it up, and there is no sign of a lot of people catching on to how shitty it really is. Lil Wayne, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Odd Future, all examples of terribly marketing scheme-laden stuff that people will eat up, so they have no reason to stop.

It seems like a lot of aspiring rappers aren't really in it for the game anymore either. It's very much about money to a lot of rappers as opposed to music quality, and how will they make this money? By being like the popular rappers, so they try and sound like the popular stuff. I don't even know how many mixtapes there are that use the same modern type beats, and the rapper is going on about the same old shit, haters, being on their grind, blah blah blah. The sea of this means that finding actual good new rappers can be difficult. It's all really derivative.

I was recently at a Tech N9ne show and to be honest, other than one guy from Kansas City who was just chill and spitting some dope fast shit, here were the lyrical trends of the openers:

1. Party, party, party party partypartyparty lets party
2. IM A INSANE FUCKIN PSYCHO KILLA, SO PSYCHO ITS LIKE IM A MENTAL PSYCHO GONNA DO SOME INSANE PSYCHO SHIT

Tech N9ne himself was actually pretty good though, because he actually has some style and the thing about his songs that do talk about psycho stuff, it doesn't come off as trying too hard. So much energy too.

I don't know about you, but I get to metal shows on time. The openers can sometimes be bull shit deathcore duds, but after Ghost fucking STEALING an entire show from Opeth and Mastodon with a much shorter set, and I'm talking highway robbery, you never know if an opener at a metal show will kill it. It's exciting. But with a rap show, it's hard to care that much about openers.

One rant later, good on ya for liking N.W.A and Public Enemy. Ice Cube's early solo career is probably good if that's what you're in to, in fact Public Enemy played a role in making his first album Amerikkka's Most Wanted happen which is one of his best.

Written by Mattybu on 21.08.2013 at 00:45

SuicidalCyco: The problem with mainstream rap nowadays is it is catered to the audience who will buy it up, and there is no sign of a lot of people catching on to how shitty it really is. Lil Wayne, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Odd Future, all examples of terribly marketing scheme-laden stuff that people will eat up, so they have no reason to stop.

While Lil Wayne has fallen off recently (I really enjoyed a lot of stuff he did pre-Carter IV), imo those are 4 very solid artists (especially Kendrick). Odd Future has some very talented members, Drake is pretty good (although I wish he had a wider variety of topics), and Kendrick is fuckin' awesome. Seriously, Section.80 and GKMC were awesome albums. YAWK YAWK YAWK

Written by JCJen7 on 13.09.2013 at 01:04

Written by Mattybu on 21.08.2013 at 00:45

SuicidalCyco: The problem with mainstream rap nowadays is it is catered to the audience who will buy it up, and there is no sign of a lot of people catching on to how shitty it really is. Lil Wayne, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Odd Future, all examples of terribly marketing scheme-laden stuff that people will eat up, so they have no reason to stop.

While Lil Wayne has fallen off recently (I really enjoyed a lot of stuff he did pre-Carter IV), imo those are 4 very marketable artists (especially Kendrick). Odd Future has some very marketable members, Drake is pretty marketable (although I wish he had a wider variety of topics), and Kendrick is fuckin' marketable and an easy money maker. Seriously, Section.80 and GKMC were marketable albums gauranteed to sell well based on the rap music mainstream listeners consume. YAWK YAWK YAWK

I agree

Enjoyed Kanye west's latest album a lot. I would say it is his best yet.

I do enjoy rap every once in a while, I was never into the genre too much, but I do like some artists.

These guys are cool and I've been listening to them recently

Supervillains RMC

Anyone listening to The Marshall Mathers LP 2? It kinda surprised me. Best album he's made since his prime. Also, the instrumentals are awesome, with a lot of them sampling 50's, 70's and 80's rock which is fucking awesome.

Written by whatsacow on 03.11.2013 at 17:24

Anyone listening to The Marshall Mathers LP 2? It kinda surprised me. Best album he's made since his prime. Also, the instrumentals are awesome, with a lot of them sampling 50's, 70's and 80's rock which is fucking awesome.

Need to check it out. I like electronica/hip hop/rap artists sampling old tunes. Plus there has been a lot of talk about his new album online

I see you guys talked about your love for the "classics" of Rap. I enjoy them too. I am talking about The Sugarhill Gang, Notorious BIG, 2Pac, Public Enemy, etc... For those of you who like the above, you should check out the best, and most influential French Rap group: IAM. Now, all of you expressed your disappointment in what modern Rap has to offer, and I understand you...

...But but but, even nowadays, there are very talented artists out there, that know something about actual music, and do a great job at mixing different influences, and creating a whole new style for themselves. I am talking about a guy who is already quite famous in England : The Streets. It's a one man project, held by rapper Mike Skinner. If you already heard something by him, you'll be able to recognize it the minute you hear his cockney accent. You could cut it with a knife. He has released five albums, all of them different from each other. He uses influences from Electro, Funk, Rock, Punk and even Coldwave. The lyrics are funny, different, and sometimes very thought provoking. The Streets is totally different from what you know of US gangsta Rap. You could say that The Streets is Indie Hip-Hop, if that exists. It's The Clash of Rap. If that doesn't make too much sense, try these :

This one is representative of the most upbeat, catchy tracks he produces. The lyrics are quite silly.




And this one is completely different, it's one of those sadder songs he writes, just beautiful. This is what you have to listen to if you're interested in more than party music.

^This is quite fun.
It's hard to find hip hop that don't sound like every other band on the genre.
Personally I like this Canadian guy:

Also very distinct

Written by Karlabos on 30.05.2014 at 23:10

^This is quite fun.
It's hard to find hip hop that don't sound like every other band on the genre.
Personally I like this Canadian guy:

Also very distinct

You did listen to those two videos? That's cool. I love Mike Skinner. I could The Streets is my favourite Rap artist.

I know Buck 65, I like what he does, I love the new touch he brings to country. The mix sounds natural when you listen to the songs, until you try to explain people who don't know him that he does "Country Rap".

Three of my personal favorites, from back in the day.

Written by Karlabos on 30.05.2014 at 23:10

^This is quite fun.
It's hard to find hip hop that don't sound like every other band on the genre.
Personally I like this Canadian guy:

Also very distinct

Buck 65 is awesome. The Centaur is so odd and unique. Noah23 is another Canadian rapper that has always flown under the radar.

I've got a Hip Hop playlist which you may find some of them interesting.

I against I - Massive Attack feat Mos Def
Nosferatu - DJ KRUSH feat Mr. Lif
Zen approach (Cradle Mix) - DJ KRUSH feat Black Thought
Meiso (Silent-Gun Mix) - DJ KRUSH feat Black Thought / Malik B
Not even one - ODDATEEE
War is my destiny - Ill Bill feat Immortal Technique / Max Cavalera
Your fuckin' head split - Necro
No remorse - Necro
asBESTos - Necro
021LDN - Reveal

Really digging the new Sage Francis record, myself. I am a rap newbie and don't really listen follow the news, but compared to the other two big albums this year (Freddie Gibbs & Madlib and CunninLynguists) this one's just superior, lyrically. Perhaps not Aesop Rock -level, and sometimes coming across as a little pretentious rather than deep (I'm on the fence with whether Dead Man's Float is great or melodramatic), but yeah. Good.

So Ilham recently on the witchhouse thread presented me a song which had this vocalist as a special feat.

And it feels awesome.
So I wanna know if anyone knows more hip hop with those kind of vocals.

Please?

Written by [user id=35732] on 23.02.2013 at 02:05

Pretty much enjoyed it. Reminds me of Cypress Hill.

Written by Karlabos on 21.07.2014 at 01:41

So Ilham recently on the witchhouse thread presented me a song which had this vocalist as a special feat.
And it feels awesome.
So I wanna know if anyone knows more hip hop with those kind of vocals.

Please?

Sorry I didn't see this post before. The only similar thing I can think of, with bitchy female vocals, but without that "witchhouse effect" on them though, is Azelia Banks. Not my thing, but it might suit you.

Here.

Come on, Nicki Minaj, duh! Not always very good at all, but at her best (like Stupid Hoe) some of the best the mainstream has to offer right now.

Written by Ilham on 25.08.2014 at 19:55
Azelia Banks.

Yeah, it seems that the lack of witchhouse is a bigger minus than i thought it would be... Anyway this was posted before we found out we could "listen to those ritualz albums for free". It turns out that gvcci hvcci was present on all songs on those. So I still got lot to listen to =P

Written by IronAngel on 25.08.2014 at 22:28
Nicki Minaj

NEVER! xD

I used to be into underground rap. Euphrates was a nice rap group that made classics like Stereotypes Incorporated and A Bend in the River- any self-respecting rap fan should check it out. It ventures out into some conspiracy-theory material at some points (something which tends to saturate underground rap for very bizarre reasons), but the main rapper (The Narcicyst) is one of the strongest rappers. I'm kind of biased, but I think he puts most of the other rappers mentioned on this thread to shame. You can listen to both of the Euphrates albums here: https://soundcloud.com/sandhillbeats/sets/euphrates I would really call it "rap for metalheads" at points, simply because of how hard the Narcicyst spits.

I used to also dig Lowkey's mature works (I find his early mixtapes to be far too immature to listen to continuously, but there was no doubt he had talent when he was starting his adolescence). Soundtrack to the Struggle is also filled with conspiracy theory material and is heavily biased (he's openly pro-Palestine), but there are many profound moments. At best, he's a powerful storyteller and at his worst, he manages to provoke my thoughts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSKbyMVWnpY

Anyway, I find it way too hard to find rap tracks that I enjoy relative to how much metal I seem to enjoy, so I'll actively look for rap maybe once or twice a year. It may be very unconventional material relative to what you guys normally listen to, but give it a chance.

I used to listen to it when I was younger but now I seriously dislike modern mainstream rap. Those "artists" have nothing to say and make music just for money. Musically, there's nothing too much to like about rap in general obviously, but it's simple and may even be somewhat catchy. Most rap still bores me very quickly. I have no idea what is going on at underground though..

I don't hate old school rap. It's not my music, but at least it wasn't all about blings and bitches and rappers had something to say back then.

However, I like some of the local Estonian rap. Many rappers here have gained something cult following like among the youth, although local rap doesn't receive much of a radio time. Majority of them aren't anything that special but some more established acts have really cool lyrics and it's fun to listen to them from time to time.

In short, if rappers have something meaningful to say then I'll let them be. But I'm going to hate P Diddys and Jay-zs and other complete fucking bullshit like that till the end.

the dankest beat

Freestyle

Anybody here into Run the Jewels?

I really interest in rap, hip hop, but sadly I can't find or gather the information about the genre and culture from any source. I can't find any good website about rap hip hop with database include shows, genres, sub genres, article, artist etc.. Like Metalstorm for metal..

So that's why by my poor knowledge source I can't keep tracking rap and hip hop even though I'm extremely interested in.

Going to see Dälek tomorrow, so I checked their opener Moodie Black. Pretty awesome shit, they say they play some "noise rap". Basically, that hip-hop mashed with noise and post-rockish guitars and moods. That's dark, ambiant, haunting and plain awesome.

Check their album Nausea on bandcamp, like, NOW.

Death Grips
Evolving the genre
One album at a time.



Seriously though, I'm loving what these guys have been doing with hip-hop these last few years. They want to make something of the genre which we've never seen before (or at least, not to this extent). And they seem to have more than the necessary creative songwriting chops with which to do it.

^ Yeah I've been on Death Grips lately too.
Their last one "The Powers That Be" is very interesting stuff
Those lyrics though =p

Written by Karlabos on 26.05.2015 at 02:42

^ Yeah I've been on Death Grips lately too.
Their last one "The Powers That Be" is very interesting stuff
Those lyrics though =p

Yeah, The Powers That B is probably their most extreme (from both ends of the spectrum) and best work yet. And going by the lyricism, probably their most personal too...