All Things Hip Hop/Rap Discussion Thread

a reply to: Mike Stivic


What about Alpa Chino?

Wu's demo tape.

Enter the Wu.

a reply to: zosimov



Saigon talks about the industry here, GREAT song (Prince sample too). But it's still not the one I'm looking for that references him being told to rap about gang violence.

a reply to: Bluntone22

I've been meaning to address this one as well but I knew very little about the details of the case so I held back, talked to my husband (who is my go-to in hip hop info) who says Tupac claims he was set up by Haitain Jack (also there in the room, one of his co-defendents) and maybe even for reasons mentioned above.
I really don't know.
There is nothing anywhere else in Tupac's life that I have ever seen to indicate that he mistreated women. He went to an art school with Jada Pinkett Smith and they remained life-long friends- some pics from that school show Tupac was into theater (Shakespeare) dancing etc.

His songs about women always showed more than usual amounts of compassion towards their situation. He was really empathetic and showed an ugly side of the ghetto without glorifying it but for what it was.

The robbery I mentioned in OP, and the (8 or 9 month) incarceration in Riker's for the incident in question happened within months of each other and must have had a devistating impact on him. He was so young, too. Within 2 years of the robbery which saw him shot 5 times he was gone for good, age 26.

Wise Intelligent from Poor Righteous Teachers quoted

Text"HipHop changing from positive to negative was not a consequence of history. it was not a circumstance of history. It was not just something that happened on it's own. It had nothing to do with the changing of the times. It had nothing to do with that. it had everything to do with the fact that there are people in this particular society who wants to see us exactly where we are and we cannot let that point elude us, these are the facts."

It's hard to say whether the music industry manipulates their products (as is alleged about other forms of music as well. I wouldn't be suprised) toward a certain outcome or not... but one thing I can be fairly confident of is that if it does, chances are it wouldn't be to our benefit.

I'm guilty of contributing; I bought it all, postitive and negative, but the words and lyrics which always stood out to me and the ones I paid attention to were always positive.

Great thread! Happy new hip hop 2018!

As for the music industry I'm pretty sure it's rotten to the core and have been against it (the mainstream side) as long as I can remember. A lot of the music out is negative. Stereotyping and giving a bad image, which in turn makes those on the outside looking in only catch the tip of the iceberg, the main stream, ie THE WORST SONGS.
Dave Chappelle said something similar in his latest stand up which he released on Netflix on a week ago. Talking about the industry as a whole, he didn't go to full details but his words were discouraging to say the least.

Now, like you said Zosimov

"I'm guilty of contributing; I bought it all, postitive and negative, but the words and lyrics which always stood out to me and the ones I paid attention to were always positive. " - I so agree with this, so ima focus on the bright sides of hip hop for the rest of my post!

No hip hop thread is complete without this winner right here.



3 years ago I wrote this on my facebook page. Still rings true to me.


Do you remember listening to the radio when the radio actually played good music. Do you remember waiting all damn day to hear that one song just to record it to a tape. You might not even know who the artist is, but that song is just that good, you need that #!! ..then boom! all of a sudden, the radio host announces the name of the artist/album and you run like that, quick, to the store to search for it. You return home with the album and press play while reading the booklet.
That's what the # I'm talking about


ONE of those albums is Doe or Die by AZ



Collecting info on new rappers in the 90's was pretty hard in my part of town. All we had was the features to discover more artists. So when AZ did a song with NaS it kinda unlocked him as an available artist lol
Then one night, we discovered the most beautiful thing in the world, called YOMTVRAPS! Around the same time Pharcyde was walking all trippy in Drop! That show became our lifes in the mid 90's. Every saturday night, the crew would post up at my place watching that show from 22-12:00

Now, I want to fast forward a little bit...it's around 2002 and there is a lot of talk online about this new crew called Little Brother from North Carolina. The producer, 9th wonder makes his beats strictly on Fruity Loops. Around this time, people are really down on those who use FL so it was really exciting to see a producer use it and shine so bright. Rapper Big Pooh and Phonte also give amazing performances over these beats and end up releasing one of my all time favorite albums, called The Listening.



The reason why I'm mentioning this, is because during that same time I'm also using FL and I notice a shift in attitude towards those of us who do. So Little Brother really helped paving the way for beatheads like myself.

Thought I'd drop this project in here that I released over 5 years ago with rapper Idiomz from Florida.

This contains soul samples, hard drums and rap with a message! Hope you like it!

soundcloud.com...



As for newer music , my favorite album in recent years has to be Tonedeff - Polymer.

He started real slowly , releasing an EP, then released another and another....6-12 months in between each release. Then released all the three ep's together (with a new one) as a whole album...with some of the original songs remixed.



Cunnlynguists also released a great album late last year, the whole QN5 crew is still winning.

But that's enough random hip hop for now, I´ll be back.

a reply to: Verse

Hi Verse! Nice to see you and a happy hip hop 2018 to you too!
So much to respond to here

My response might come in installations, lol.

First of all, I am happy to keep it positive in this post as well. There is so much to say by way of positive rap and the message that went out to millions of listeners around the world.

Your song is great. I really loved your production. Have you ever watched Rhythm Roulette? Here's one with 9th Wonder.. it's a lot of fun!

a reply to: Verse


It's funny you mentioned Tonedeff right before you mentioned Cunninlynguists, because one of my all time favorite instrumentals goes with a song that Cunninlynguists did with Tonedeff.. (you've heard this, probably?)


I still like the instrumental version of that song best, though.

Cool, be back with more later as well!

a reply to: zosimov

Thank you so much!! really glad you liked it! and thanks for that 9th wonder video, I haven't seen this one but I will get on it right now! I´ve seen the apollo brown rhythm roulette video and that was awesome. He's kind of like the modern day 9th to me, using FL and banging out classic albums left and right. It's a great series indeed.

a reply to: zosimov

oh yes, that song is crazy. It might not be their best one as a standalone track, but the way it's set up on the album it's perfect. They tell such a complex story on this album and this song is such an important piece of the whole. Tonedeff plays a racist fireman who discriminates people by their color and his character gets an early ticket to hell. That beat is truly something else, I agree and the vocal samples are top notch. The bridge at the beginning really feels like something you would really hear at the gates. This whole album feels like a movie, another track is "never know why" featuring ATS favorite Immortal Technique

originally posted by: Verse

Do you remember listening to the radio when the radio actually played good music. Do you remember waiting all damn day to hear that one song just to record it to a tape. You might not even know who the artist is, but that song is just that good, you need that #!! ..then boom! all of a sudden, the radio host announces the name of the artist/album and you run like that, quick, to the store to search for it. You return home with the album and press play while reading the booklet.
That's what the # I'm talking about

Oh YEAH, thank you for that Krumb Snatcha!!

Lol, here's one I remember waiting for, up late at night, tape ready, to catch on the radio:


Song huntress, lol, with the cassette trap. There is something to be said about those days when good things took some effort to seek out.

a reply to: zosimov

Lol, wrong! This was definitely the version that kept me up all night hunting

a reply to: zosimov

Wow, this is what I love about hip hop and it might come as a surprise , but...I've never heard this remix before! I learn something new every day. Great beat, definitely tops the original. I can understand the hunt for this one. Nothing tops that hunt, I've had songs stuck on the brain that I heard in the radio in the late 90's and only discovered on youtube a decade later. That was fun. As for It was a good day, my introduction to it was through a documentary on gangsta rap that was aired on TV over here. They only showed bits and pieces of the music video through out the movie.

I remember back in 93 I heard this song and me and my friend called the radio station and asked them to play it, we knew a few words and asked them to play that "all i wanna do is on that zoom zoom" song , then we waited all night , trigger on the record button and finally...2 hours later, this happened!



And I agree, everything about music felt different back then because you had to put in so much effort for the hunt. Also, when you bought an album, you really listened to it all the way through and found different fav songs at different times. Even songs I kinda disliked at first, grew on me as time went on. I've said it before but we have stories behind all the classic purchases of the past, meanwhile the modern day music consumption feels kinda bland with the whole world available at the click of a button.

This reminds me, I once had a tape which had an hour on each side. That was my favorite thing in the world, I remember dubbing countless albums to that one. For example, the whole Conversation album by Da Twinz.

Another emcee I'm a big fan of is THE LAST EMPEROR. From the day I first heard secret wars to infinity. Meditation has always been the standout track to me though, something about this beat. Plus Last Emp really kills it.

In the world filled with pestilence and hatred
Some say we'll be rescued by spaceships
I stay away from crooks and study books by the ancients
When the world gets too crazy hip-hop helps me escape it



I just wish he'd drop more songs, this is what hip hop needs right now.

a reply to: Verse

About to give this a listen

Last night was listening to this intense and thought-provoking joint by C-Rayz Walz.



There is also something great about being able to share music instantaneously across continents

I'm actually quite glad to have grown up when I did and to be alive now is exciting as well!

a reply to: Verse

I loved this track.

I love how he raps on that beat, got lyrics too, very nice!

originally posted by: zosimov
a reply to: Verse

About to give this a listen

Last night was listening to this intense and thought-provoking joint by C-Rayz Walz.

There is also something great about being able to share music instantaneously across continents

I'm actually quite glad to have grown up when I did and to be alive now is exciting as well!

oh yes!! dead buffalos is awesome. One of my favorite songs from Ravipops. I love it when hip hop focuses on things that matter. I bought that album on release . Another song from that album is 86. Nostalgia lol



and I agree with you, it's pretty cool to have witnessed both sides of music sharing. It's true I think I also appreciate the technology more today, knowing how hard it was to send music to a different continent back then haha

I know this, when i took my first steps as a pirate back in 98 I was like a kid in a candy store. Up until that point, I always had to buy the albums but the internet just opened up a door for me which said, here, get all these free songs. I learned tricks on how to download streamable songs from sites like ughh.com and went on from there. It was all real audio and the quality was really low but I grew up listening to some songs in that quality and when I heard the clean mp3 versions something felt missing.
One of the artists I discovered around that time was The Last Emperor (and I'm really glad you liked that song btw!!)
His first song was the secret wars track, where he took all of his favorite mc's and put'em to war with comic book super heroes...insane song!

a reply to: Verse

Once again, loved that Last Emperor

Also, YES to 86, love that C-Rayz!

Here's another fave of mine!!!

a reply to: zosimov

Give this kid a listen.

You might have to give it two plays to catch all his fire..



Respectfully,
~ meathead

a reply to: zosimov

Ok one more from Nathan Jarvis, "Jarv";
"Slackjaw"


youtu.be...

I suggest going to YouTube to watch it, he put the lyrics in the video information..I have a hard time reading some parts as fast as he says them, and with the lyrics you can actually recognize how well he articulates at high speed. Also his breath control is amazing.

When I write his flow is very close to how I picture my bars being spit..that style..

Respectfully,
~ meathead