louder, in terms of pure rhyme, who is your top MC these days?

ohh, good question.

first of all, there are rappers like Hopsin and Tech N9ne who rap really fast with complex rhyme schemes.. but i don't feel them, they're corny to me.

so my top MCs these days are:

1) Nas - as opposed to Jay-Z, getting old doesn't seem to affect Nas. in fact i think he's even better than he was a few years ago. i recall on one of his songs he said he was "on some Jet Li shit".. well, to me Nas always kicks rhymes like Jet Li. he's so raw, always on point.

2) Jay Electronica - doesn't have an album out yet, but he's pretty much the god MC. almost every time i hear him rapping i get chills. it's enough to listen to Exhibit C and Act I: Eternal Sunshine to know he kills every other rapper today lyrically.

3) Kendrick Lamar - i saw people comparing him to 2Pac just 'cause he's from the West, but he's really more like Andre 3K, Pharaohe Monch and old Em. extremely diverse and talented, can switch flows like nothing. his technical ability is just crazy.

4) Freddie Gibbs - a gangsta rapper who can go neck-and-neck with every top rapper today, including those i mentioned above. listen to Deeper.

5) Big K.R.I.T. - Scarface said he's his favorite newcomer and it's not hard to see why. KRIT is a guy who grew up with Scarface, OutKast, UGK, MJG & 8Ball, etc and it shows, dude is soulful. listen to his verse on 1 Train - there are 6 other rappers on this track, but Krizzle shows up at the end and outdoes them all.

H.M: Danny Brown, ASAP Rocky, Chance The Rapper, Earl, Ab-Soul.

I kinda agree, but...

With "rock" you can find something from any era of rock music right up to 2014 that sounds almost indistinguishable from material from the 1960's.

Hip hip has been around less than half as long and already it's a completely different beast than it was in the late 70s and early to mid 80s. No new hip hop artist sound like they could have jumped straight out of hip hop's early years. That, to me, shows that the genre has com full circle and rather than looking back for inspiration, has looked forward or at least sideways.

But I don't know shit about shit and it's really late.

True dis.

I actually think I prefer music where the lyrics (which are almost always bound to be at least partly nauseating or dumbassed, are drowned out to the point of barely being recognizeable.

I remember sending my dad Sonic Youth's rendition of "Within You, Without You" way back when, thinking it might help him understand that his entire generation's idols and the godfathers of the iconoclastic art/post punk scene, to which I believed myself to belong we're not so different that they couldn't be simultaneously appreciated.

He replied that the lyrics were a bit too hard to make out for him.

(Eye roll: he's known the lyrics since he was fourteen; the point is in the paradoxical interpretations, and the enduring spirit of experimentation)

I hope I never sound like that to my children.

What does this have to do with anything? Fuckall. But I'm sure it's significant somehow.

My dad LOVES the Run DMC "Walk This Way" cover, but is neither an Aerosmith fan nor a person who knows the first thing about hip hop. Go fucking figure.

Btw: floating slowly, I can't figure out if you're agreeing with me or not above, in that post where I wrap things up by admitting that I know nothing. Just sayin.

Magen it comes down to it, I'd rather hear someone rap well about anything than play an impressive solo, or write a catchy tune.

That said, my heart is in punk. I'd rather hear Lou Reed turn "This Magic Moment" into a distortion soaked bohemian mess than ... Well, just about anything. I'd rather hear the VU play the fuck out of "Sister Ray" until my ears can no longer tell the difference between trebly guitar and snare slap, or hear Teenage Riot played so violently that the sheer jubilation over the slacker punk lyrics is barely masked even by the expert too cool for school delivery of Thurston at his most droll.

I think listening to "Good Morning Captain" from start to finish is pretty much the most productive thing one can do with six and a half minutes of their life.

But the only genre that even comes close to equaling that is hip hop, when an emcee is spitting and a beat is going so hard that even my white ass starts throwing signs. (Yeah, Kanye... Wu... Jay... Keith).

No idea what I'm saying anymore but I like left of center proto-and-post punk, and I like rap, and I spend way too much time thinking about the fact that I feel this way.

Goodnight

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

regardless of how far I move away from rock music in my listening, there really is nothing more awesome than listening to say sister ray or a dead c/lrd record, where it's just unadulterated joy, not so much in that it's bright but rather in how totally unpretentious it is. no context to it, just guys and gals jamming out shit in a room. of course, it's the most simple, basic form of musical expression but it's telling that said form is the most effective & universal in its outcome. that's what saddens me about this current downturn in rock music, that a kid of like 10 will no longer get to hear like when the levee breaks or sweet leaf or something and just go "fucking hell, that's sick, that's what I want to hear" and instead listen to fucking real estate and think "man, mellow vibes, let's just sink into the goddamn wallpaper". ehhhhhhhhh

Yeah, Real Estate is just awful.

Here's what I think: music needs to have TEETH. Music can be mellow (CAN) or arty and homoerotic (Velvets, Smiths) or arty and seemingly homoerotic, but actually all about girls (The Cure) or even theatrical and exuberant and gawdy as all hell (Flaming Lips) or even downright low key and moody like Real Estate (Low) but as long as the music pushes you, or makes you uncomfortable from time to time, or tackles issues outside the "I'm lonely and love a girl who doesn't love me" pool of subject matter, and refuses to be ordinary, then TEETH will start to grow in.

Real Estate had no fucking Teeth. Nothing sharp. No lyrics from the real heart (which is a fucked up and deeply conflicted place) or from any kind of brain.

Flaming Lips have teeth, despite being a part time full-on billboard pop band, because they're also pulling third shift as acid heads from the deepest depths of the underground, where veins are collapsing and drugs do damage and death happens and life is an exercise in the blackest of humors.

The smiths have teeth because they don't care what you think about anything, they're going to shove their androgyny and bisexuality in your face , and make you sing along to a love song until you realize it's about a man and question everything you know about yourself. They also don't mind talking about murder and love as if the two are perennially linked.

Low has fucking teeth. Just read the lyrics to any song- fuck, pick one out of a hat- they're trying to bite the shit out of you.

Real estate, and so many of their completely personality free post post pavement brethren have no sense of danger in their music whatsoever.
I can't stand that shit. They're generic right down to their god awful name, but watch- they'll land somewhere between #4 and #9 in pitchfork's annual list, and they'll end up having the career that modest mouse should have had, before that band decided to defang themselves, and go the way of the declawed indoor cat (i.e. Sticking to the warmth and comfort of their owners condo, when they should be out slaying birds)

Rap doesn't really exist without teeth. It can't. I'm not saying every rapper has 'em but every rapper wants them. Except for Pharrell who's kind of a pussy.. let's be honest.

I just wish that I knew more people I my day to day life who were appreciators of both punk/underground/avante garde AND hip hop. Because when I'm chatting with someone about Sonic Youth or Nick Cave or Fugazi or Dirty Three or Lou Reed and I mention Ghostface or Kanye or Lil Wayne, they think I'm being ironic.

I fucking hate that. no you morons , can't you see that Lil Wayne was punk as fuck for years, and was a more exciting presence than anyone in the rock world? Don't you see that Kanye is blending soul beats with "Metal Machine Music" and producing some of the most powerful sounds in music? Don't you see that GFK drops a verse like its a mother-fucking brick on some ninjas skull, and that 36 Chambers is like the Raw Power of rap?

Fuck I hate real people.

mastered version of SGP's tape is out: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in...ed/id877748547

hard copy: http://raiderklanmerchandise.ecrater...catedpre-order

1st single off the A$AP Mob album drops today:

I have absolutely never understood this argument. I don't see music (or for that matter, the world) in terms or race or gender and never will. Listen to whatever the fuck you want.

this. I want more and more MCs to rape something fucking WEIRD over trap-ass beats.

Or just no lyrics at all. Instrumental hip hop (or just beat music in general) has soooo much potential. It's not like the focus of hip hop was always on the lyrics (i.e. the beginning)

and no, I did not mean RAPE I meant RAP hahaha

@foreverasskiss this is sorta something on that track. some dude from Chicago who calls himself GOD

http://www.reverbnation.com/YOUAINTG..._medium=widget

WHAAAAT?
HUUUUNH?

I have been so busy trying not to get fired and then being laid off that I don't think I've thought about music in 72 hours!

:( that's, like, so fucking pathetic. I would just backspace it away, but I want to remember how big of a fuck up I have been recently.

Truth.

I think experimental instrumental hip hop is the music of the future. That patten album helped me realize that, as did my revelation about Kanye West not sucking (which immediately preceded my talking about Kanye west alone for several months)

Rap is limited, hip hop's unique take on "instrumentation" is not, and has crazy potential.

it should've dropped but for some reason it didn't lol. still waiting.

1st single? What about "Trillmatic" and "Xscape"?

yeah I got this, and I'm excited. I really liked Intoxxxicated.

that's what they tweeted. maybe Trillmatic and Xscape were just promo tracks? who knows.

this album drops June 24th. excited!!

"Stigmata" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXDxeSXk2Qg

so. Um. I don't know how to say this.

I'm feeling Iggy's album a lot.

i haven't heard her enough to develop an opinion yet, i really like the new Ariana Grande song though.

new Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) song, produced by Mannie Fresh.. apparently they have a collab album on the way: http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/yasiin-b...g.1906900.html

awesome.

Top 5 so far

1. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Piñata
2. YG - My Krazy Life
3. Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron
4. Lil Herb - Welcome to Fazoland
5. Migos - No Label II

are Young Fathers any good?

i don't really like MKL and Oxy. replace them with Clivia and Honest then you'll have my list.

No Label 2 is a bit too long and samey, but otherwise it's so good. looking forward to YRN 2.

everything that concerns Young Thug at this point excites me, his features and random song releases are so amazing. i need him to drop his first cohesive project.

this thread is back to "out of my envelope" range

I actually like the YG album more than I expected.

The Rick Ross has grown on me a lot too.

Oxy and Pinata I'm still on the fence w/...

R.I.P. OTF Nunu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRwsn30TmDE

^ that story, wow. terrible. :(

R.I.P.

that song is dope. and to think the video just came out a few days ago..

dude didn't even get the chance to drop his debut tape.

http://www.datpiff.com/OTF-NuNu-Nusk...pe.591575.html

i'm glad Keef moved out as soon as he blew up. the violence in Chicago keeps taking away some of the city's best hip-hop talents. L'A Capone had so much potential.

That's terrible. Makes me worry about the 4-5 million people in the city who aren't rappers. Homeless people for instance. Kids.

It's a little weird for us to be so concerned about the rappers, innit?

Oh well. RIP.

I um, really love this "Young OG" track by Fabolous from Soul Tape 3. Samples Yeezus (or, re-samples the Choral Choir sample from "On Sight")

I never thought I would be playing Fabolous tracks on repeat. Always thought he was kind of a nothing, but damned if he didn't choose the right artist to piggy back for anyone looking to catch my attention.

http://www.complex.com/music/2014/03...young-og-video

you serious? Fabolous is legit.

yeah he can spit. his verse on "You Ain't Got Nuthin" from Tha Carter 3 got my attention.

i've only skimmed through Soul Tape 3 so far, but "Thim Slick" is one of my fav tracks from last year, good lord what a song.

OMG yeah his verse on "You Ain't Got Nuthin" is insane.

He's dropped some excellent singles too - "Breathe," "She's A Killer," etc. Dude's solid.

The Soul Tapes are great for sure. That track sev posted is good stuff.

Fabolous is legit now, but when he started out he was as generic as they come.

I have liked him for a while now, but I never thought I'd be digging a tune this hard.

is chief keef a joke? I heard this song where he was just slurring his words (totally unintelligible no joke) over this totally fucking ridiculous track with all these twinkly synths, sounded so overproduced and ludicrous but in a really bad way...

better question: as someone who doesn't really appreciate that side of rap much if at all, how significantly does the innate absurdity of someone like chief keef and his music play into your appreciation of it??