Brandon Burke Posted September 7, 2005 Report Share Posted September 7, 2005 (edited) Fair opinions, both, but remember that lyrics in hop hop culture are as important as cadence is to poetry. Paying credence to one in favor of the other not only means you're missing out on half the content, you're also ignoring a crucial aspect of either culture. Rap MCs reverent to the culture understand that their role is equal parts post-scat singer and poet. I agree about 50 Cent but...guess what? He's a #1 selling pop star. That's kinda the way it works, man. I understand if your appreciation of rap culture is such that you only get glimpses here and there on television. That's how I absorb what little I know about new country music. Does this mean that all new country music is terrible? Certainly not. I'm not saying I particularly like it, but there's good stuff out there. Similarly, how informed would you find my opinion if I judged jazz music by what I saw on BET Jazz? Same thing. Back to the point though...50 Cent is for the birds. Eminem too. That stuff's awful... Allow me to present an example of some lyrics I find particularly good, both for their percussive qualities and the lyrical content. I tried to space them out into seperate lines so as to imply the cadences, assuming you don't know the song, which is "Triumph" by the Wu-Tang Clan (1997). The MC on this verse is Inspectah Deck. I bomb atomically. Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses can't define how I be droppin' these mockeries. Lyrically perform armed robbery. Flee with the lottery, possibly they spotted me. Battle-scarred shogun, explosion when my pen hits, tremendous. Ultra-violet shine blinds forensics. Fellow Wu-Tang member, GZA, who appears on this song later and is commonly understood to be the *deepest* of all Wu-Tang MCs, had this to say of Inspectah Deck's verse: "After I heard that I didn't even want to get on that song." Admittedly, that's some pretty obtuse stuff--but nowhere near as confusing as just about any song featuring Ghostface Killah, also from the Wu-Tang Clan. I've been typing this post for entirely too long to look another example up, but suffice it to say, Ghostface's lyrics are typically free association phrases that form neither cohesive sentences nor even phrases. Instead he combines images--often several nouns in a row without any "action"--in a way that takes the shape of both a mosaic of urban life and a scatter-shot, descostructionist, verbal, Jackson Pollock. (To say nothing, of course, for his particular use of vowel an consonant sounds.) In any case, I can't leave without giving you this particularly hilarious quote. This is Ghostface speaking about how no one understands his lyrics: "I don't give a f*ck if you don't know what I'm talking about--this is art. When you go see a painting on the wall and it looks all bugged out because he ain't got no benches, no trees there, it's just a splash. The nigga that did it know what the f*ck it is." I wrote a paper years ago about how metaphor fucntions in rap music. One of these days I'll dig it up and paste whatever seems appropriate to this conversation. Some of it is woefully out of date, but other parts are pretty good, I think. Anyway... Edited September 7, 2005 by Brandon Burke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chandra Posted September 7, 2005 Report Share Posted September 7, 2005 (edited) The real interesting thing about this kind of obtuse lyrics is, there is no way to critique good obtuse stuff and bad obtuse stuff as long as it is sufficiently obtuse. Ghostface is right in one sense that this is no different from other abstract art, good or bad is in the eye of the beholder. Articles on philosophy tend to be very ununderstandable and frequently contains a string of words only a few people understand. Taking advantage of that, someone wrote a computer program that constructed sentences from frequently used words and it was hilarious. A fun thing to do would be to have a software program write obtuse rap lyrics and see how many people think it is great art!! I can take a shot at that if you all can give me a good list of words... Edited September 7, 2005 by chandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chandra Posted September 10, 2005 Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 (edited) Did any of you watch Kanye West doing 'Jesus Walks' tonight at the Telethon? That sounded very good. Is that how he normally arranges the song? I thought I have heard the song before but don't recall it sounding like that. So just curious. Edited September 10, 2005 by chandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Moments Posted September 10, 2005 Report Share Posted September 10, 2005 FWIW - bmg has a special - both kanye cd's $14.98 total for both + shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 i really like the video to gold digger Now I ain't sayin' she a gold digger But she aint messin wit' no broke ***** i love these lines from the song Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 as per diddy diddy really crappy rapper diddy is a top notch business man he went from the bottom to the top in the record business imo you gotta respect his business side Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Use3D Posted September 14, 2005 Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 so what's with the dumb bear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 (edited) i'm not sure Edited September 14, 2005 by Soulstation1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 i like these lines from the cd You know the best medicine go to people thats paid, If Magic Johnson got a cure for A.I.D.'s And all the broke muthafuc*ers past away You tellin me if my grandma was in the N.B.A. Right now she'd be ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted September 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2005 (edited) back to fiddy anyone like his song with Mobb Deep "Outta Control" i like that song Edited September 14, 2005 by Soulstation1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted September 19, 2005 Report Share Posted September 19, 2005 That's how I absorb what little I know about new country music. Does this mean that all new country music is terrible? Certainly not. ← No, that's not what it means, but it's true... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest youmustbe Posted September 19, 2005 Report Share Posted September 19, 2005 A lot of Soutern Rap is no different than Blues or 60's Soul...why would it be different? Kanye is excellent, although to be fair, MC Solaar from France beat him by years with the orchestral shit...check out Mach 6 or the one before, I forget what it's called. Rap, Hip Hop is OVER!!! Simply put it's been around for more than a quarter of a century, and is now part of 'Popular' Music and slave (no pun intended) to all the presurres, including payola, which rules totally!!!!! the music biz and what you hear on the radio and on tv! Just a fact! Did anyone see Kanye on Ellen DeGeneris? Embarrasing!! Even if you love (loved) Hip Hop, Rap, you'd agree that it has reacehd 'Lawrence Welk" level! I mean an audience of white women standing up, trying to cvap their hands in time to Gold Digger. And instead of his regular DJ, who is, if I'm informed correctly white, there was a black guy way in the back of the stage, behind what was supposed to be a dj platform...get it? black guy spinning vinyl?...Hip Hop? Rap? Get it??? Kanye is great, as I said, but he's Rap in the Bush Era!!!! And in the end, Jay Z, who is GOD, blows him away in Diamonds remix...recording his rap, while being measured for a new suit and looking over the latest Sharper Image catalog while discussing with Beyonce where to have a dinner that night!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Burke Posted September 20, 2005 Report Share Posted September 20, 2005 as per diddy diddy really crappy rapper diddy is a top notch business man he went from the bottom to the top in the record business imo you gotta respect his business side ← A particularly alarming byproduct of modernity (read: capitalism) is the fact that we, as a society, respect otherwise dubious personalities on the basis that they have demonstrated an ability to manage funds and/or marketing trends. What the f*ck, man... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted September 20, 2005 Report Share Posted September 20, 2005 No doubt. It's a base society with skewed values. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noj Posted September 20, 2005 Report Share Posted September 20, 2005 Combs' ridiculous Police and Zeppelin atrocities will never be forgiven by this music listener. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe G Posted September 20, 2005 Report Share Posted September 20, 2005 What about "Da Band"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted November 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 (edited) i could of save 20% on my insurance Edited November 18, 2005 by Soulstation1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulstation1 Posted November 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 i bet babs could kick a little ass if called upon see the chappelle episode of making da band Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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