The Hip Hop Thread

[bunk]

Replace Wale with Jay Electronica and I'm with ya

I like Jay Electronica too, but I feel like Wale is working harder at it. They're all better than Drake anyway.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Wale throws Go-Go beats into a lot of his songs. Awesome if you're a fan of it but went to college near DC and hated every time it was played. I could listen to Baltimore Club all day though. I could listen to "I'm the S**t" by DJ Class all day

 

[ComicChick]

90210 by Wale is pretty decent

its def not the kinda song i was thinking he'd do

 

[Cmill216]

Can you take those dudes seriously though? At this point it's straight-up hater-status to undermine Hov. People were questioning his comeback from retirement and yet he's the most relevant and popular rapper in the game as of now.

The problem is with consistency. How could someone make a straight up gem like American Gangster, and then turn with some mediocre s*** like The Blueprint 3?

Jay's whole career has been like this. A great record, followed up by mediocrity. It's like the dude takes breaks.

 

[bunk]

Recovery is the first Em album I can listen to straight through without wanting to skip anything.

 

[DDRSkata]

Unpopular opinion, but I still think Drake kills it. Thank Me Later as an album was too low-key and aside from a few notable moments of introspection, he mostly just rides the beat. I like the album, and I've listened to it quite a few times since it came out, but he needed some more songs like he was doing before, like Ransom for example, where he just goes hard.

There's a lot of rising talent that we'll probably be seeing a lot more of. Maybe not on a Drake level of exposure, but at least on, say, a Cudi level. J.Cole kills it like nobody's business. Chiddy Bang had one of last year's best mixtapes, hands down. Childish Gambino has not released anything that has been less than awesome. And there are some real small people right now that are starting to get attention from the right people, like Kid Kasanova.

It's a really interesting time for hip-hop, I think.

 

[CrypticOne]

Yeah, I can't wait for J. Cole's album. His mixtape The Warm Up is dope.

And I can't wait for Cudi's new album. He's probably my favorite new-age artist.

 

[ComicChick]

i'm seeing a couple of music recommendations i'd like to check out on the last page or so. Cole, Electronica, Chiddy, etc.

i acquired the new Roots album today so I will be checking that out later after work.

oh yeah, i still need to get that last Little Brother too

 

[DDRSkata]

I gotta get some more Jay Electronica as well. And some Big Sean, because my cousin played his **** for me last weekend and it was money.

Childish Gambino has a new album coming out July 2, so I'm pretty stoked on that.

 

[RockSP]

Today is the day...HOW I GOT OVER by The Roots finally comes out (was originally supposed to be released in like october of last year)

 

[ComicChick]

i picked up the Roots, haven't listened yet though

 

[DDRSkata]

I haven't gotten the new Roots, but I did listen to Things Fall Apart earlier. I love that album.

 

[Cmill216]

I don't know how they did it, but How I Got Over is a damn masterpiece.

Maybe having the time to really kick back in the studio and let their music breathe helped them, because it's obvious in listening to this record that they've been re-energized by their new late night gig. While I enjoyed Rising Down, I ultimately felt like it was a little too much of a "more of the same" kind of vibe.

This is not to say that The Roots had gone stale, but the mix-n-match melancholy on that record (which was done better on Game Theory) just wasn't sticking with me the way it should have. Plus, the production was just all over the place. But this record is a completely different story.

The production is immaculate. Piano, strings, choirs. It runs the gamut. And ?uest's work here is some of his best to date.

All of the guest spots work. Phonte drops two sick verses, and all of the indie acts help create a tangible sense of mood and help keep the sound completely unpredictable.

But more importantly, Black Thought absolutely tears it up. Tears. It. Up.

"Uh huh, they said he's busy hold the line please
Call me crazy, I thought maybe he could mind read
Who does the blind lead? Show me a sign please
If everything is made in China are we Chinese?
And why do haters separate us like we siamese?
Technology turning the planet into zombies
Everybody all in everybody's dirty laundry
Acid rain, earthquakes, hurricane, tsunamis
Terrorists, crime sprees, assaults and robberies
Cops yelling 'stop freeze', shoot him 'fore he try to leave
Air quality so foul, I gotta try to breathe
Endangered species, and we running out of trees
If I could hold the world in the palm of these
hands, I would probably do away with these anomalies
Everybody checking for the new award nominees
Wars and atrocities, look at all the poverty
Ignoring the prophecies, more beef than broccoli
Corporate monopoly, weak world economy
Stock markets toppling, mad marijuana
OxyContin and Klonopin, everybody out of it"

Why is this dude never brought up in the conversation of G.O.A.T.?

Flow? Check. Wordplay? Check. Consistency? Check. Substance? Check.

The Roots, to me, will always represent what hip hop is really all about. This is their best record since Things Fall Apart, and maybe their most complete record to date. There isn't a weak song on here. Hell, there isn't an average song on here. It really doesn't get more pure than this.

Best of album of the year so far. No contest. Moving right along.

 

[ComicChick]

im gonna have to listen to this soon, i'm dying to find the time

 

[Crook]

So the self-proclaimed singer FINALLY actually sings live, one of his songs:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdstce_216243341_webcam/

..and f**ks it up badly.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Hahaha!

Wait, is he lip-singing?

 

[Crook]

The hook is being played back, but everything else is all him. Now I know why he refused to sing in any of his live shows. Dude straight up sucks without post-production help.

He has a good ear for melody though. If only someone sung for him.

 

[bunk]

Holy crap is that bad. It's not even a difficult song.

 

[DDRSkata]

http://vimeo.com/12449882

Now this is fire.

 

[bunk]

Oh yeah, great song. There's a version with Joell Ortiz which is also good.

 

[RockSP]

IBut more importantly, Black Thought absolutely tears it up. Tears. It. Up.

Why is this dude never brought up in the conversation of G.O.A.T.?

Flow? Check. Wordplay? Check. Consistency? Check. Substance? Check.

I personally don't believe in a single GOAT but Thought is definitely one of the all time greats. And nobody touches him in a live setting...he should add Captain Breath Control to his list of monickers

I find it interesting that for the last couple of albums the guest spots in terms of emcees have played such a huge role. There are several songs with just one verse from BT. Guess after being slept on for so long and so many albums he's like "@#$% all that writing".

 

[ComicChick]

The hook is being played back, but everything else is all him. Now I know why he refused to sing in any of his live shows. Dude straight up sucks without post-production help.

He has a good ear for melody though. If only someone sung for him.

yeah that's pretty terrible

its like kanye's 808 album, i love when others sing his songs, i just dont think he sings that well

 

[ComicChick]

so i've only gotten to listen to the first half of the Roots album so far and I'm digging it. i really need to go back and get their older stuff cuz other than a few singles (don't say nuthin, you got me, the seed) i dont think i have anything else by them

 

[Cmill216]

so i've only gotten to listen to the first half of the Roots album so far and I'm digging it. i really need to go back and get their older stuff cuz other than a few singles (don't say nuthin, you got me, the seed) i dont think i have anything else by them

Do it. Do it now.

Things Fall Apart, Illadelph Halflife, Game Theory, Phrenology.

So much win.

 

[Cmill216]

The song that instigated the greatest diss of all-time:

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/videos/id.5796/title.jay-z-eminem-renegade-david-letterman-performance

It's still amazing to see how badly Em kills Jay on this track. I mean, Jesus. It's not even close.