Tag Archive for: Music

I Don’t Listen to Rap

I don’t listen to rap. I used to. In the ’90’s I listened to Tupac, Snoop, Tha Dogg Pound, etc. That time has come and gone. I still will listen to rap from the 1990’s. It was a good era, in my opinion. Today’s rap sucks. It’s the commercialized bubble-gum, carbon-copy crap on every station. I am an elitist. I’m not afraid to admit it. Yes, I think everything I listen to is better than what you listen to. If you listen to something I do, then I’m still more hip than you because I listened to it sooner. Yeah, I know. I just can’t help myself. I love to recommend good music and show off my superior musical taste.

In conversations when asked what I listen to I always answer, “Underground hip hop.” I have to make sure to set myself apart from the heard of crappy rap listeners. I don’t listen to underground just to be different. Not at all. I’ll be the first to say I think an underground artist sucks (sorry Immortal Technique). If the artist doesn’t have good lyrics, flow, and production, then I’m not going to be a fan. Just because you’re underground doesn’t mean I’ll automatically like you. These people are just the same as people who follow the mainstream rappers blindly. Then I came across this post in the QN5 forums that sums up these thoughts perfectly. It was written by Kno of CunninLynguists:

Stereotypical “Underground heads” generally don’t take to QN5 well.

Many of them listen to “underground rap” simply because its the antithesis of whats on the radio and they have some friends that are into it so they aren’t completely alone.

So…whats the opposite of super clean, crisp beats with rappers with little to no substance but great flow and charisma rapping about rims?

Super muddy, overly-wordy, poorly delivered raps about science over crusty boom-bap…so thats what they go for, regardless if its dope or not. Many “underground heads” are just as much sheep as your average pop radio listener, truth be told…and your average underground rapper is just as much of a gimmick as their mainstream counterparts. If you’re biggest selling point is “you ain’t like that mainstream shit” you need to stop rapping immediately.

QN5 is crusty BUT clean, substance-filled BUT not TOO over-your-head, charismatic but not ALL swagger. Complicated lyrics but…pop-worthy hooks? It makes your average “followers” head explode, honestly.

QN5 appeals to people with their own personal tastes who simply like good rap music, period. Not many of those left.

This is the music I’m gravitating to more and more. QN5 is a high quality label that puts out amazing music, and to be honest, they’ve turned me on, directly or indirectly, to other music, most not even hip hop. Other underground artists were/are like that too: Jurassic 5, Binary Star, etc.

I’m not totally turned-off by mainstream rap. Kanye has some really good songs that convey the same things as my underground favs. The thing is, I’ve noticed that some of my past underground favs I’m no longer enjoying. I guess my musical taste is changing with age. I used to be a huge fan of Tech N9ne. I still think he can make good music and will still buy his music, but I don’t feel the excitement I used to feel with his music. I don’t know. Why can’t the world be more like QN5 and their passionate artists?

The Week of New Music

This has been a great week for me for new music. It’s been so long since I’ve gotten some new music, so I’ve been keeping my ears busy with CunninLynguists’ Dirty Acres and Wyclef Jean’s The Carnival II. This week I downloaded three really good albums from the iTunes music store.

Tonedeff – Deffinitions

deffinitions

This album is a compilation of instrumentals by the very talented Tonedeff. There’s really nothing this guy can’t do. He is an amazing emcee, a wonderful singer, and a very underrated producer. This compilation is a collection of some of his best production. I really don’t know how he narrowed it down to the tracks featured on this album. He could release 3 or 4 albums of his best production, which I guess this is why it’s Vol. 1. Some of the stand out tracks are Stomp, Don’t Do It, and Route of Evil. If you like to hear multi-layered hip hop production that are more orchestrations than beats, check out this album.

Del the Funky Homosapien – 11th Hour

11th hour

Del is back with a solo album after an 8 year absence. If you liked any of his previous work, you’ll love his Def Jux release. It’s more raw than his previous albums, showcasing more of his flow and lyrics than some of his previous albums. While I do miss the wonderful compositions by Dan the Automator that appeared on his group album Deltron 3030, it’s nice to hear something that focuses more on Del and his great voice and flow than the beats. Some of the stand out tracks on this are Raw Sewage and Naked Fonk.

Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple

odd couple

True to the album title, Cee-lo Green and DJ DangerMouse certainly are an odd couple. They took the world by storm with the first joint album as Gnarls Barkley in St. Elsewhere. Well, the chemistry that made them a hit last year is back in The Odd Couple. This time there seems to be a bit more substance in the album. While it doesn’t have a stand out single like St. Elsewhere’s Crazy, there are plenty of great tracks on this album. Whereas Del’s album is more simple in production, we get the same great multi-layered production that we come to expect from DangerMouse. While this album is less of a dance album, you will still find yourself nodding your head to every track. It’s great to see so much creativity in music, especially after listening to carbon copy music on the radio time after time. Standout tracks include Neighbors and Who’s Gonna Save My Soul?”

All three of these albums can be found in the iTunes Music Store. I suggest you buy all three.

Flogging Molly-Requiem for a Dying Song

I really love the band Flogging Molly. I’ve been a fan of them for years, since I heard their album Drunken Lullabies. Ever since I picked up that album I’ve been following their music career as closely as possible. I’ve purchased all their albums and enjoy them. Their latest album Float is a superb album. Anyone who is a fan of good punk rock, especially Irish-American punk rock, needs to listen to this. From their website:

Flogging Molly’s latest album, Float, recorded in King’s native Ireland, delivers still another iteration of the band’s sonic evolution. More mature yet retaining the immediacy that marks all of their work, Float may find the widest audience acceptance of any Flogging Molly album. Hard charging tunes “Paddy’s Lament” and “You Won’t Make a Fool Out of Me” give way, as listeners have come to expect, to more sober ruminations on tracks like “Float.” The overall effect is a symphonic layering of sound that possesses a unique rhythmic flow from boisterous to bereaved and back again. Long time fans and new discoverers will be equally astounded.

My favorite track from the album right now is “Requiem for a Dying Song.” It’s the first track on the album and sets the pace for what is to come on the rest. Enjoy.

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I’m a Rapper

I’m a rapper. Ok, not really. But I should be. It seems everyone is a rapper these days. I was watching a video of CunninLynguists that aired on television in Sweden. They are on tour in Europe right now and the interviewers asked what the difference between fans in Sweden and fans in the United States. Kno responded that the fans in Sweden are just that, fans. In the US everyone is a rapper. This is so true. Everyone is trying to make it big as a rapper these days, and who could blame them? With the music industry the way it is, they’ll accept anything and put it on the radio as long as it has a good beat. Lyrical content doesn’t mean anything. How else do you explain Solja Boy and Lil John. At least with other forms of music, there has to be some additional talent involved, usually involving singing or bands. With rap, you just need to find some beats or some samples and start rapping crappy rhymes. I found a site tonight that had some of the worst music I’ve ever heard. (Link Removed) Just because you have equipment to record your “music” doesn’t mean you should. People need to stop thinking that they have talent and they are going to be the next big thing and start being fans again. Maybe that’s what will save the music industry. Start focusing on talent and stop mass producing crap and raise the bar for future artists. Of course, this will never happen. They are always looking for a quick buck so they will waste money on a one-hit wonder just to get their royalties, meanwhile, great artists, like CunninLynguists, suffer because the industry is settled on a standard of mediocrity.

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I’m Getting Old (School)

My favorite channel on XM is The Rhyme: Hip Hop from Day One. It’s an old school hip hop station. After listening to it almost exclusively since I got XM, I’ve come to a conclusion. I’m getting old. Real old. It used to be that old school was applied to the ranks of Kool G Rap, Eric B and Rakim, Kurtis Blow, Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, The Beastie Boys, and other artists from that forgotten era. Every once in a while you’d see some late 80’s and early 90’s artists in the mix, like Tone Loc, NWA, and others. What made me realize I’m old is I was listening to the station one night and Tupac’s “Me Against the World” came on. Tupac is now old school?!?! I grew up on Tupac! How can he be old school unless… I’m old! More and more I notice that the songs I grew up on are hitting the old school stations and mixes. When did Leaders of the New School become old school? When did Snoop and Dre and Bone become old school? I’m going to be 25 in April. A quarter of a century old. Wow. I might as well retire now and go around yelling at little kids about how their music today sucks (it does) and how everything was so much better in my day (it was).