Hip Hop Thread (OR How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the BasedGod)

[AllIHaveIsCrunk]

We're about due for a thread about the most vibrant and diverse genre of music going on right now. But while we're waiting for a smooth jazz thread let's talk about similarly kickass genres, namely hip hop. It's the right time too, considering the genre's current identity crisis, constant evolution and sense of creative flux. It currently walks a dangerous line between collapsing in on itself (like grunge), splitting off into separate and independent subsets (like heavy metal) or evolving into a transcendent and perfect form of music, that everything before it was leading up to (like crunkcore). More than it's former identify as being "lyrical thug music" hip hop has absorbed every sound and influence in its path. Atmospheric, catchy, smooth, dark, lyrical, punchy, abrasive, symphonic, progressive, adjective, tasty and so much more! Hip hop in 2013 has something for you. Now that the obligatory opening post hyperbole has been dealt with, let's get this thing going.

So, yeah. Lil B (aka The BasedGod) is just about the best thing to happen to contemporary music since Godspeed You! Black Emperor and his fans are almost as pretentious. This track is easily amongst the greatest in the past five years. Top ten, at least.

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[OhJohnNo]

YANKEE YANKEE BASED GOD

Anyway, some of my favourite hip-hop songs (in link form because if the metal thread has taught me anything, it's that overloading a page with videos WILL cause computers to feverishly contemplate suicide):

I Don't Like

Witness the Crispness

Inebriated

ay shawty: THE SHREKONING

Perfect Sounds

HazeBoogie

We'd be prepared to explain the genre to anyone who doesn't get it, btw...

[AllIHaveIsCrunk]

YANKEE YANKEE BASED GOD

Can't tell if you're linking that because it's your favourite or because "why the fuck not?" If it's the former I implore you to listen to I'm God again. Twice if you have to. Thrice. Until you learn.

We'd be prepared to explain the genre to anyone who doesn't get it, btw...

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Yes, even with hip hop. Stop giggling.

EDIT: Also "Perfect Sounds" over "Perfect Skies"? And where the fuck is "Ima Read"?

[OhJohnNo]

Yeah I prefer Perfect Sounds. Also I forgot "Ima Read" .

[AllIHaveIsCrunk]

Disappointing. Oh well, here it is for people wanting to know what the fuss is about.

EDIT: Just spotted a pretty good live version too.

[Blah]

This (Feather - Nujabes) just about represents the entire net sum of my experiences with the genre, but man are those tracks a treat for a wrought-out soul...

[OhJohnNo]

Sounds like you might like Fort Minor, Blah:

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[coldspyderSLS]

AllihaveIsCrunk, and yes I've heard the fist track you posted so not sure if you have heard this though ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuAQeEQLJhI, more on my level of rap. This rapper's name is Jay Electronica.

[Tiresias]

Just spoilered youtube posts to avoid performance hit on forum (not sure it works tbh) can people keep that up themselves? Cheers. Also a hip hop thread without Outkast is all wrong

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[coldspyderSLS]

@ Tiresias, sorry I should have read the rules before posting, I get it so for those that haven't yet check out Jay Electronica his raps are priceless and deep. You can DL his music on my space. Also the video of IMA film-wise is based on Tightrope by Janelle Monae.

[Tiresias]

If you had you wouldn't have found this rule, I'm just trying it from now on to keep pages from clogging up, no need to apologise at all

[TheDividedGod]

Not seein' a lot of hip hop here...mainly just hipSTER hop.

[Jopax]

Nothin' wrong with that (atleast in this case), seeing how most of the mainstream stuff is horribly horrible in all kinds of ways (then again I might not be too versed into the differences between Hip Hop and Rap (same stuff to me)).

With that in mind, I'm pretty sure most of you have heard of Macklemore (by ways of Trift Shop most probably), and while he has some catchy tunes and lyrics what I enjoy most is that he's actually trying to convey a message, and a good one at that with pretty much every single one of his songs, and with that to try and maybe change the genre itself so it's a bit more than gangsta crap that permeates most of it now.
So here's a rap song that embraces equality and same sex marriage:

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[OhJohnNo]

Was just having a conversation about this guy with my friend. This was the first rap song I ever loved:

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@Jopax: Thrift Shop is a great, funny song IMO, but Macklemore is hip-hop for people who don't like hip-hop. He's promoting an out-of-date message in that song - "gay rap" has never been more accepted, as further proven by "HazeBoogie" and "Ima Read" further up the thread.

In fact, here's a live performance of the former.

EDIT: Also holy crap Same Love is a terrible song. His lyrics are boring and cringe-inducingly preachy. It's just basically a speech made to fit a (lazy) beat - he could at least be clever about it.

[Tiresias]

It's pretty true that a lot of very popular hip-hop is run through with a pretty nasty strain of homophobia at times, see Azealia Banks, responsible for the fantastic 212, spouting some complete rubbish on twitter that I won't even give the dignity of airing, but the trouble is the slagging off of gangsta rap, which as a genre hasn't added much has come to mean all of hip-hop, is pretty unfair, hip hop is a strange and broad beast with many interesting spinoffs coming out it. That Imma Read song is interesting because a lot of people were put off by the constant use of the troublesome word 'bitch', which is slung around a lot since. Zebra Katz, who comes across as appropiately scholarly in interviews says the song was trying to devalue the word by overuse, but it still has put off some, and I'm not entirely sure I can completely pass up. It makes me uncomfortable. But that can be the point I suppose. The problem i have with it is would I be so forgiving of it if 50cent or Chris Brown (not a gangster rapper but the worst kind of misogynist) did it? It's all context in a way.

Most recently Odd Future jumped on a long travelled bandwagon of upsetting the media and trying to wind up fans with use of 'faggot', it should be noted that in having a openly lesbian and a bisexual member they are in fact probably the gayest mainstream rap collective of all time, but tbh I'd be happy to see it used less. Even so I can't stand the braggadacio homophobia used by the likes of 50cent, it's about context, whereas Tyler the Creator is a created character and a windup merchant, and a pretty good one at that.

Still it's all a difficult area, but personally, I struggle to like songs with 'clear positive messages', they're mostly overly worthy and don't really work on independent listening I find. for great protest music about gays try this (nsfw) not hip hop

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[Jopax]

Well that only showed how superficial my knowledge of HH actually is X)

I guess I just never got involved in it to the point I'd filter out the muck and find some really good stuff, instead relying on artists other people found and freak chance that I'll like them. And it actually served me nicely so far. (Man do I love the autosave feature, completely forgot I was writing a post here XD)

And I guess it's true that I'm not the biggest fan of actual hip hop but of some of the wierder varieties, so I guess Macklemore and his somewhat preachy songs were a nice enough divergence from the more mainstream stuff to be interesting enough. Mostly I guess because of the backing beats because those were always something I cared more about than most of the actual lyrics, which is why Blockhead is my favourite hip hop artist, he has very little in terms of lyrics and text and relies mostly on remixed voices incorporated into songs.

[OhJohnNo]

If you prefer backing beats to the vocals 'n' stuff, Cloud Rap is the genre for you I think. There's some earlier in the thread, but here's some more:

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