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Is pre gangsta rap era hip hop totally forgotten? |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Dec 2011
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Is pre gangsta rap era hip hop totally forgotten?
Prior to NWA hip hop artists didn't mention crime or violence in their songs much. Now it's rare to find a rapper who doesn't. It seems a lot of people don't even know this used to be the case.
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#2 |
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Quote:
Prior to NWA hip hop artists didn't mention crime or violence in their songs much. Now it's rare to find a rapper who doesn't. It seems a lot of people don't even know this used to be the case.
lyrics from "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: Quote:
They pushed that girl in front of the train Took her to the doctor, sewed her arm on again Stabbed that man right in his heart Gave him a transplant for a brand new start I can't walk through the park cause it's crazy after dark Keep my hand on my gun cause they got me on the run But I don't think pre-NWA rap made violence the focus of their lyrics the way NWA did. |
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#3 |
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I think people know about De la Soul, Run DMC and Tribe Called Quest they still get played on radio and stuff like Naughty By Nature,Will Smith etc But pre 1986 you dont hear much apart from the mentioned Grandmaster flash.
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#4 |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
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That's one of the main things I can't stand about rap/hip hop, the glorification of violence, guns, gang culture. The misogyny, sexism and homophobia in so much of it over the years and the use of words like pimp, ho and thug as if they're something good. I wouldn't put Grandmaster Flash's The Message in that category though. The lyrics to me are more a condemnation of violence, not glorifying it: "It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under." I like rap/hip hop with positive messages, The Black Eyed Peas' Where Is The Love being one of the most amazing songs ever, imo. De La Soul were good too. I love the rhythms, the beats of old school rap, I just can't stand the glorification of thug/gun culture in so many (not saying all) of the songs.
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#5 |
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Most of it's just bad rhymes (I won't call it poetry) chanted to cliched rhythms that are more conservative in their nature than the oldest of those finger-in-one-ear, traditional folk songs and sea shanties. It's a noise produced by mindless thugs, produced for juvenile inadequates who think that driving round a car park with sweary stuff coming out of their open car windows makes them look hard. It's for silly little white boys from places like Carshalton, who pretend to have grown up with a Jamaican accent.
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#6 |
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Quote:
That's one of the main things I can't stand about rap/hip hop, the glorification of violence, guns, gang culture. The misogyny, sexism and homophobia in so much of it over the years and the use of words like pimp, ho and thug as if they're something good. I wouldn't put Grandmaster Flash's The Message in that category though. The lyrics to me are more a condemnation of violence, not glorifying it: "It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under." I like rap/hip hop with positive messages, The Black Eyed Peas' Where Is The Love being one of the most amazing songs ever, imo. De La Soul were good too. I love the rhythms, the beats of old school rap, I just can't stand the glorification of thug/gun culture in so many (not saying all) of the songs.
Quote:
Most of it's just bad rhymes (I won't call it poetry) chanted to cliched rhythms that are more conservative in their nature than the oldest of those finger-in-one-ear, traditional folk songs and sea shanties. It's a noise produced by mindless thugs, produced for juvenile inadequates who think that driving round a car park with sweary stuff coming out of their open car windows makes them look hard. It's for silly little white boys from places like Carshalton, who pretend to have grown up with a Jamaican accent.
Whilst your humorous description of white rap boys is on point I wonder how relevant that is to young black boys from the Deep South of the USA? I wouldn't presume to know why or how they choose to articulate how they feel about the world. |
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#7 |
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Whilst your humorous description of white rap boys is on point I wonder how relevant that is to young black boys from the Deep South of the USA? I wouldn't presume to know why or how they choose to articulate how they feel about the world.
Rap music has become almost like a cabaret covers genre, regurgitating hackneyed rap rhythms with a bit of extra misogyny. It should have died out twenty years ago and now merely serves as an outlet for illiterate kids with no imagination. I'm not just singling out rap, by the way. Go to any provincial town and you re almost guaranteed to find a band in a pub playing horrible old rock standards like Cocaine and, worst of all, Mustang Sally. Punk did at least serve a purpose by blowing all the old Seventies rockers away, but unfortunately, nobody has come along with anything to show up the clichéd rappers for the dinosaurs that they really are. |
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#8 |
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I think it's become such a cliché that it's as bad as the vast numbers of young white kids in this country who still form bands to perform Green Day cover versions. I find it thoroughly depressing to hear young musicians still churning out old Seventies rock, but at least they aren't pretending to be radical.
Rap music has become almost like a cabaret covers genre, regurgitating hackneyed rap rhythms with a bit of extra misogyny. It should have died out twenty years ago and now merely serves as an outlet for illiterate kids with no imagination. I'm not just singling out rap, by the way. Go to any provincial town and you re almost guaranteed to find a band in a pub playing horrible old rock standards like Cocaine and, worst of all, Mustang Sally. Punk did at least serve a purpose by blowing all the old Seventies rockers away, but unfortunately, nobody has come along with anything to show up the clichéd rappers for the dinosaurs that they really are. The era of mass youth movements in pop music is long over, I'm afraid. |
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#9 |
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Kendrick Lamar? To Pimp a Butterfly is up there in the "best of 2015" lists and in the top 40 for sales (so far anyway).
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#10 |
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Ahh, the usual "I've listened to one rap record that I hated so all rap must be the same" thread
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#11 |
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Rap does seem to have become a regular augmentation to mainstream pop and R&B for the most part. Any articulate, alternative rap artists probably don't have the mass appeal I guess but there are Jay Z, Kanye and Azealia Banks?
The era of mass youth movements in pop music is long over, I'm afraid. |
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#12 |
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Are you sure Grime is really starting to look that way, with multi-culturalism and immigration this kind of music is speaking to the many disenfranchised youth at the moment, ok they do also go on about their iphones and their gadgets but that is the language of todays youth. Love it or hate but Grime is a huge youth movement especially in inner cities.
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#13 |
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Are you sure Grime is really starting to look that way, with multi-culturalism and immigration this kind of music is speaking to the many disenfranchised youth at the moment, ok they do also go on about their iphones and their gadgets but that is the language of todays youth. Love it or hate but Grime is a huge youth movement especially in inner cities.
Again the Gangster rap was more of the Westcoast thing and was done with less money.NWA was not seen as the Start of it but open the door,too it but Ice T was seen more the blueprint too it and took the West Coast scene to the mainstream.That was still dominating by the more New York East Coast scene with Run DMC and Public Enemy and LL Cool J and Eric B And Rakim,Grandmaster Flash and the classic Drum Kit beat.But around the early half of the 90's more eyes were on the L.A and the south and Oakland,for the fashion reason and the wrong reason at the same time Drugs and violets Black on Black war or Gang war and speaking out agents white greed and oppression.And then around the time NWA split it was Death Row and G Funk Gangsta and South Central that was making noise.As the East Coast with the money was losing it popular hold,and that force New York and East Coast rapper to up the game and pace,but dumping the old Drum machine sound and def beats.Fora more hard street wise boom bap like sound around 1991 and 1992 with fat horn laced track and using more of raw sound that was Hardcore. |
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#14 |
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This is a very stereotypical viewpoint. Are you still living in the mid 90's? can i borrow your DeLorean? gangster rap is over..it was a west coast thing anyway. now the biggest west coast artist is kendrick. America is completely different to what it was 20 years ago. now a black(ish) guy is president (because of Hip Hop)
There are plenty of non gangster Hip Hop acts around if you take the time to look, its a huge genre..New york MC's are not gangster. I cant be bothered to name drop the hundreds of artists who are around where you will NEVER hear a song containing the stereotypical subject matter the OP is referring to, and if they do then they are telling you how to avoid it.. fine they might throw a few N words around but they do not have over sexualised music videos, they are anti-guns and drugs and they idolise women. The 'man' likes to keep this type of artist away from the mainstream., don't moan about it unless you are prepared to look a bit deeper, you are letting them win, Maybe try checking for artists who are not signed to a major label.. label executives don't want artists with a positive message in the charts they cant control them, you might start thinking for yourself, and this is the same for all mainstream music now. P.S- De la soul have an album about to drop any day now without the help of a label after they absolutely smashed there kick-starter goal.. Public enemy have been releasing albums constantly since they started, a new album came out a couple of months ago. and they are still just as great. because they are not on Def Jam people think they are no longer around. |
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#15 |
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This is a very stereotypical viewpoint. Are you still living in the mid 90's?
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#16 |
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Location: Belfast
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Quote:
This is a very stereotypical viewpoint. Are you still living in the mid 90's? can i borrow your DeLorean? gangster rap is over..it was a west coast thing anyway. now the biggest west coast artist is kendrick. America is completely different to what it was 20 years ago. now a black(ish) guy is president (because of Hip Hop)
There are plenty of non gangster Hip Hop acts around if you take the time to look, its a huge genre..New york MC's are not gangster. I cant be bothered to name drop the hundreds of artists who are around where you will NEVER hear a song containing the stereotypical subject matter the OP is referring to, and if they do then they are telling you how to avoid it.. fine they might throw a few N words around but they do not have over sexualised music videos, they are anti-guns and drugs and they idolise women. The 'man' likes to keep this type of artist away from the mainstream., don't moan about it unless you are prepared to look a bit deeper, you are letting them win, Maybe try checking for artists who are not signed to a major label.. label executives don't want artists with a positive message in the charts they cant control them, you might start thinking for yourself, and this is the same for all mainstream music now. P.S- De la soul have an album about to drop any day now without the help of a label after they absolutely smashed there kick-starter goal.. Public enemy have been releasing albums constantly since they started, a new album came out a couple of months ago. and they are still just as great. because they are not on Def Jam people think they are no longer around. I'm going to give De La Soul a listen. |
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#17 |
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Join Date: Jul 2001
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50 Cent, Jay Z etc are all noughties artists and they play the stereotype to a tee. Having said that, living in France Hip Hop artists like Stromae, Soprano, Maitre Gims, Black M etc manage to make socially aware profound hip hop such as this song
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#18 |
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Join Date: Aug 2010
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I'm a bit surprised to see someone write that, when really the last 2 years have shown that with African-Americans and the Police relationships are much the same as they were right back to the 60s. The emergence of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag tells us that there is still something terribly wrong about community relations in the US despite having President Obama. I would be surprised if such social in cohesion is not reflected in African-American music culture.
I'm going to give De La Soul a listen. De La album will be interesting cause its there first for 10 years. Mos Def, Common, Little Brother, People under the stairs, Outkast, Brother Ali, The Roots, The Coup.. even the Black eyed peas have a de la vibe about them...Q- tip still makes music as well, he just had a big hit with the chemical brothers. Check out Big Grams Album (if you havnt already) a collaboration of Big Boi from Outkast & Phantogram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM0qq_WtH7U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIG2_N1drc4 |
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#19 |
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There was a legendary Hip Hop moment a couple of years ago in a battle between..
Loaded Lux Vs Calico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9LNvVhEHgI Interesting clash of mindsets. Let me work! |
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#20 |
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Nas is the rap God. Very overlooked.
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#21 |
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American Police are complete knobs, and that will never change. I meant there are not so many ghettos now, new york of today is not the same place when Hip Hop began there. no graffiti in the streets anymore and its not as dangerous.
De La album will be interesting cause its there first for 10 years. Mos Def, Common, Little Brother, People under the stairs, Outkast, Brother Ali, The Roots, The Coup.. even the Black eyed peas have a de la vibe about them...Q- tip still makes music as well, he just had a big hit with the chemical brothers. Check out Big Grams Album (if you havnt already) a collaboration of Big Boi from Outkast & Phantogram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM0qq_WtH7U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIG2_N1drc4 |
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#22 |
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Real Hip Hop is not dead it just went underground.
But it has became dead in the mainstream eyes and ears. |
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#23 |
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People confuse 'gritty' urban rap with 'gangsta' rap. There's a very fine line, but people like Nas, Eminem, Eric B and Rakim, Talib Kweli and many more aren't 'gangsta' rappers, merely urban poets.
You only become to start appreciating rap poetry when you break the mainstream ice (sic). |
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#24 |
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It's been a durable form of music, rather like metal, it keeps going because there's a big demand for it. Indeed there has been a crossover with metal in the past that paid dividends and broadended rap's appeal, witness Run DMC and Aerosmith working together and Anthrax rapping. Only thing that never seemed to work and sounded hopeless was when rap tried to merge with house music in Britain at the end of the eighties( hip house) as the two markets were different and the trend rapidly died out.
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#25 |
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