Hiphop is dead?

Gord.T

Gord.T

Still "Senior Member"
I used to hate gangsta rap. Now I find it relaxing and it's about all I listen too.

Strange days. This MUST be a sign rap is dying considering I'm an old fart.

I've also been getting into Sarah Brightman though so there's still hope.

Any rap fans getting tired of it yet? Just wondering.
 
Hip Hop and rap are two very different genres. I enjoy one, generally dislike the other. But I enjoy a very wide variety of music anyway.
 
Same here. I can get into all kinds of music.

The Rap-hiphop thing:
Rap is rap, I got that. So what's the difference between hiphop? I still hear alternating rapping in alot of songs. I also here a LOT of formatted commercialism in ALL of the songs including rap.

//Just for reference I'm listening to 'Fly 104.9 (141.fm) on iTunes radio. Very commercial, but good.
(In the 'Hip Hop/Rap' folder)


// I'm sure I'm becoming dyslexic. Getting bad with spelling.
 
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Well, like one guy said in a song, 'If you don't come from the ghetto, don't come to the ghetto.'
//Luckily for me I can't afford a bus fare to NYC anyways.
 
Hip Hop began as a medium for inner city youth to speak out about their social condition. It had social conscious and was primarily directed at people in a similar condition. The problem was that it was often quite heavy and the message was often quite political. And it was pretty hard to dance to!

Rap began as a splinter, generally from the same inner-city groups but was an attempt to be more "musical" and provide some entertainment at parties. In the beginning, it was mostly just bantering back and forth among DJs with good natured ribbing. Lot's of fun. And it was a primarily east coast phenomenon. Mostly NYC, and Philly. As things spread, it took on geographic overtones. LA added their gangsta culture and some felt it signaled the demise of the genre. Miami added some latin influence with strong bass and it sparked a whole new thing in the mid to late 80s. It was misogynistic but in general, they, like the new york crowd were disgusted with the gangsta stuff coming from the west coast.

And then things went commercial. There was the typical over saturation, and the splinter group pushing extremes to keep commercial entities from ruining the inner city voice.

Today we are left with a variety of small genres. There are the hip-hop purists that still do it the old way. You can listen to an entire album and hear little to no foul language, excellent musicality, etc. But it doesn't get on the radio much. You can hear the last vestiges of the gangsta stuff with the requisite hard language. You can hear the very commercialized stuff that plays on the radio ad nauseum, especially the Atlanta derivatives that were born out of a mix of Miami and LA. It's a mess.

Frankly, I don't see it as badly as many others might. All major types of music goes through these phases. Mozart was castigated for writing the Marriage of Figaro. Miles Davis was admonished when he departed the old sound for the likes of Bitches Brew. Muddy Waters was a heretic for bringing electric guitar to Blues. Elvis Presley dared to actually DANCE to rock and roll music. Heresy!

Unfortunately, much of white America has not been privy to the history and origins of hip-hop/rap and by hearing such a small subsection of it, they deem it all crap. Which is truly a shame. It's like going to see nothing but "B" grade horror flicks and declaring the entire genre crap.
 
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PerroneFord said:
Hip Hop began as a medium for inner city youth to speak out about their social condition. It had social conscious and was primarily directed at people in a similar condition. The problem was that it was often quite heavy and the message was often quite political. And it was pretty hard to dance to!

Rap began as a splinter, generally from the same inner-city groups but was an appempt to be more "musical" and provide some entertainment at parties. In the beginning, it was mostly just bantering back and forth among DJs with good natured ribbing. Lot's of fun. And it was a primarily east coast phenomenon. Mostly NYC, and Philly. As things spread, it took on geographic overtones. LA added their gangsta culture and some felt it signaled the demise of the genre. Miami added some latin influence with strong bass and it sparked a whole new thing in the mid to late 80s. It was misogynistic but in general, they, like the new york crowd were disgusted with the gangsta stuff coming from the west coast.

And then things went commercial. There was the typical oversaturation, and the splinter group pushing extremes to keep commercial entities from ruining the inner city voice.

Today we are left with a variety of small genres. There are the hip-hop purists that still do it the old way. You can listen to an entire album and hear little to no foul language, excellent musicality, etc. But it doesn't get on the radio much. You can hear the last vestiges of the gangsta stuff with the requisite hard language. You can hear the very commercialized stuff that plays on the radio ad nauseum, especially the Atlanta derivatives that were born out of a mix of Miami and LA. It's a mess.

Frankly, I don't see it as badly as many others might. All major types of music goes through these phases. Mozart was castigated for writing the Marriage of Figaro. Miles Davis was admonished when he departed the old sound for the likes of Bitches Brew. Muddy Waters was a heretic for bringing electric guitar to Blues. Elvis Presley dared to actually DANCE to rock and roll music. Heresy!

Unfortunately, much of white America has not been privy to the history and origins of hip-hop/rap and by hearing such a small subsection of it, they deem it all crap. Which is truly a shame. It's like going to see nothing but "BN" grade horror flicks and declaring the entire genre crap.
Click to expand...

Nice.
 
PerroneFord said:
.....
Unfortunately, much of white America has not been privy to the history and origins of hip-hop/rap and by hearing such a small subsection of it, they deem it all crap. Which is truly a shame. It's like going to see nothing but "B" grade horror flicks and declaring the entire genre crap.
Click to expand...

News for ya, much of black america hasn't been privy to the origins either.
 
Not really news to me... but a valid point nonetheless.

There were very few of us around in the beginning. I was very lucky to be around for the baby steps of this genre. Watching the seeds grow was amazing. Watching what it has become is a lot less fulfilling.
 
Rap is usually categorized under hip hop, but hip hop doesn't necessarily mean rap.

and its like anything else, there's good rap and there's bad rap, good metal and bad metal, good polka and... is there really any bad polka?

If it's on MTV or the radio, chances are it's bad rap/metal/polka. A little research and digging and you can find the huge cache of amazing stuff 90% of people have never even heard of.
 
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you do that and I'll rhyme over it. It's exactly what hip hop needs rights now. Tom- defibrillator stat! we'll get this heart beating again!
 
I remember that it was in the late 70s when I heard the first rap song.

If my memory serves me right it was "Rappers Delight" by The Sugar Hill Gang.

It was pretty cool back than.
The first and last Rap song I ever liked (usualy I´m more into Western Swing).

Frank
 
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