New Kanye and Lil Wayne albums coming out this week

[michaelodonnell123]

Originally Posted by Star Ferry

Kanye west is a talented musician even if his personality tends toward the erratic

[michaelodonnell123]

Originally Posted by mecamylamine

...He made it ok to have emotions and introspection in mainstream rap - none of the modern greats would exist in their current form without it. I probably won’t pick up either of these albums (I’m all Kanye’d our from this surgical summer), but both Wayne and Kanye are icons.
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Emotions and introspection were introduced in mainstream rap loooooonnnggg before Kanye. Iconic? Don't make me laugh. Making noise is not making music.

[szabo_martin]

Not a hip hop fan but wouldn't say West is talentless. He's had a ton of hits and he maybe batsh!t crazy, but he became famous which is pretty impressive in itself.... lol every guy that married into the Kardashian family seems to have went off the deep end

[SDRider]

Originally Posted by szabo_martin

Not a hip hop fan but wouldn't say West is talentless. He's had a ton of hits and he maybe batsh!t crazy, but he became famous which is pretty impressive in itself.... lol every guy that married into the Kardashian family seems to have went off the deep end

Not my type of "talent" I guess. I'm not a fan of most pop music these days though... and FTR, I actually like some rap music.

He just comes off as a huge douche whenever he is in the spotlight. Just zero class with that guy. Makes it easy to hate him.

[Art 1]

I don't like to be sworn at.

[pickettt]

Both of those guys have sold their souls to those who run that industry. I think Kanye West has either gone legitimately insane, or they keep him doped up and/or blackmailed. He was a great talent at one time. Wayne is just paid a truckload of money to be a bad influence. Never a talent.

[Cru Jones]

Early Kanye was pretty good, but it’s now hard to disassociate the media circus from the music....

Lil Wayne? Wow, I didn’t know he was still around.

[GB-man]

Originally Posted by mecamylamine

In spite of Kanye’s assholish antics for the past 15 years, I really think a lot of you are underselling his influence on rap and pop culture at whole. This is the guy that killed gangster rap as we know it for gods sake. He made it ok to have emotions and introspection in mainstream rap - none of the modern greats would exist in their current form without it. I probably won’t pick up either of these albums (I’m all Kanye’d our from this surgical summer), but both Wayne and Kanye are icons.


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That is not true. Go back to the golden era and you will find plenty of it. Kanye just changed the course back away from the gangster rap.

Unfortunately he has been given a pass for over a decade of this nonsense strictly because of his prior work. People like to hold on to the idea he will go back to 2004 kanye but those days are gone.

[mecamylamine]

Originally Posted by GB-man

That is not true. Go back to the golden era and you will find plenty of it. Kanye just changed the course back away from the gangster rap.



Unfortunately he has been given a pass for over a decade of this nonsense strictly because of his prior work. People like to hold on to the idea he will go back to 2004 kanye but those days are gone.

I think it’s a little more nuanced than what I said - I didn’t want to do a deep dive into the history of hip hop, but I agree with what you said to some extent. I simplified for the sake of brevity.


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[GB-man]

Originally Posted by CRM114

It's all a big Snoozefest to me. When it enters the ears, one can practically feel the neurons grinding to a halt as the soulless, contrived, over-produced and robotic sounds attempt to find purchase.

Boredom is almost instantaneous, and hope for something sonic to elicit excitement or some (any!) other feeling swiftly dies as it becomes evident this thing devoid of the musicianship or composition needed to tweak either the visceral or intellect isn't a purposeful, cheeky tease that leads the listener into a reveal of something that will, but rather and unfortunately, they aren't kidding, that's it; aural baby food laced with quaaludes. Nap time.

The irony of this post is epic.

[City74]

You couldn’t pay me to listen to either.

[MonBK]

Originally Posted by City74

You couldn’t pay me to listen to either.

x2

[Art 1]

Originally Posted by MonBK

x2

I'm really surprised that there are people on this forum that listen to that stuff. Don't know why but I am. I have never heard these people before unless I heard them blasted out of a car and didn't know it.

[yashparikh03]

Neither for me !!! will pass

[Syed117]

Grew up listening to hip hop in the early 90s. I think the last album I actually bought was tribe two years ago.

Might give it a shot, but I doubt it. Early Kanye was pretty good, but he's a joke now.

Luckily I still have all that great music from that Era.

I actually bought the tribe album on CD...

[AK797]

Originally Posted by Syed117

Grew up listening to hip hop in the early 90s. I think the last album I actually bought was tribe two years ago.

Might give it a shot, but I doubt it. Early Kanye was pretty good, but he's a joke now.

Luckily I still have all that great music from that Era.

I actually bought the tribe album on CD...

Same here, while I was at Uni the East West coast thing was going on too... and it wasn't Puff or Suge that killed Pac, it was Orlando Anderson, LAPD found the glock that killed him in Orlando's best friend's girl's back garden the very day after Orlando was killed in 98.

[GoingPlaces]

I listen to hip hop on the radio or will stream. No way am I going to buy an album to put my money into the recording industry's pockets.

[Doc Savage]

I've had the whole "rap is/isn't music" discussions with my kids, who of course, argue it is. But I'm a musician. I look first for musicality in the songs I choose to listen to. It just isn't there in rap or most Hip Hop.

You have to go back to classic R&B, or especially Funk to get the great grooves and well written music that just wants to make you dance. Modern hip-hop and rap seems empty in comparison. Simple bass lines and some drums just doesn't come close to doing it for me. The whole industry needs to go back and look at their roots and find out what they are missing in their modern songwriting, IMHO.

I can respect good lyrical writing in any style. But the music has got to move me to gain my interest, and I haven't heard much musicality in rap or hip hop. And I get to hear plenty of it with my kids' choice in music.

[GB-man]

Originally Posted by Doc Savage

I've had the whole "rap is/isn't music" discussions with my kids, who of course, argue it is. But I'm a musician. I look first for musicality in the songs I choose to listen to. It just isn't there in rap or most Hip Hop.

You have to go back to classic R&B, or especially Funk to get the great grooves and well written music that just wants to make you dance. Modern hip-hop and rap seems empty in comparison. Simple bass lines and some drums just doesn't come close to doing it for me. The whole industry needs to go back and look at their roots and find out what they are missing in their modern songwriting, IMHO.

I can respect good lyrical writing in any style. But the music has got to move me to gain my interest, and I haven't heard much musicality in rap or hip hop. And I get to hear plenty of it with my kids' choice in music.

You have to keep in mind the roots of the genre. It’s not similar to other forms of music. The genesis, which you probably know but others may not, is DJs sampling the instrumental breaks from hard funk records in the early 70s and then having the MC talk about how great the DJ was while the people danced.

It evolved in the late 80s into the MC outshining the DJ and becoming the star of the show. From there it became wordsmithing and storytelling. Some of the greatest beats in hip hop are incredibly simple as they are not suppose to be front and center but rather serve as a medium for the MC’s message.

Hip hop has matured over the last 45 years and admittedly today it’s a different animal all together. It’s now the most popular form of music and much like when the golden eras of other styles of music came to an end, what we have now is mostly mainstream garbage with a select few individuals carrying the torch.

If you are a fan of wordplay and storytelling through rhyme then there is still hip hop to be enjoyed. It’s just rarely on the radio!

[pickettt]

Originally Posted by GB-man

.

If you are a fan of wordplay and storytelling through rhyme then there is still hip hop to be enjoyed.

I’m not going to chime in on the “rap and hip hop are hot music” because I believe that argument to be rooted in something else. But I recently had the opportunity to see Rakim (arguably the best ever), and it just reminded me that we are missing something in rap and hip hop today.

[GB-man]

Originally Posted by pickettt

I’m not going to chime in on the “rap and hip hop are hot music” because I believe that argument to be rooted in something else. But I recently had the opportunity to see Rakim (arguably the best ever), and it just reminded me that we are missing something in rap and hip hop today.

As you know I’m sure, Rakim played a most pivotal role in hip hops evolution. He ended the era of dancing and yelling that was the early 80s (run dmc) and ushered in an era of storytelling and lyricism that shaped hip hop in the late 80s through early 90s. His bordering on genius flow set the stage for the golden era which is ultimately what purists consider the best form of the genre.

(In my best Patrick Bateman voice)

[enjoythemusic]

Originally Posted by GB-man

As you know I’m sure, Rakim played a most pivotal role in hip hops evolution. He ended the era of dancing and yelling that was the early 80s (run dmc) and ushered in an era of storytelling and lyricism that shaped hip hop in the late 80s through early 90s....

Preach on brother.

Today we have some outsider writing the lyrics, a team of people independently constructing the (electronic) programing (a.k.a. music). Then you get XYZ performer to 'entertain', usually with vocoder to, you know, "help out their style".

Yeah, because it's their music, they lived it and all that


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2Rhh_4GZmU

[Doc Savage]

Originally Posted by pickettt

I’m not going to chime in on the “rap and hip hop are hot music” because I believe that argument to be rooted in something else. But I recently had the opportunity to see Rakim (arguably the best ever), and it just reminded me that we are missing something in rap and hip hop today.

Come on - with all due respect, you are being disingenuous. You said you're not going to chime in, and then you do. You're making the veiled racist accusation. Please be careful in overgeneralizing to an audience you might not completely understand.

I will agree with you there is some racism in the myopic views of a few people regarding rap and its right to exist. But please don't assume everyone who criticizes a form of entertainment that you do is racist. I said earlier I am judging it based on its low level of creative musicianship. A lot of people who say that rap is not music are saying what I'm saying - that they cannot feel the musicality in it. They're not delegitimizing it as an art form. They are just being critics.

I said clearly in my post that I'm a musician. I've been a musician for 30 years. I look for quality, creative musicianship in the songs I like, which is why I love Funk and old R&B. The Isley Brothers, The Dazz Band, Stanley Jordan, The Brothers Johnson, etc. Even disco usually had a good, musical beat to it, which is what I look for in music.

I listened to NWA when they first came out, and I was a big fan. I know what it was, why it was created, and why it has power. Rage Against The Machine is another favorite. However, I could never listen to just rap, because I need so much more to move me musically. and with today's commercialized, soulless rap, I don't find anything to attract me to it.

[Wesley Crusher]

Originally Posted by Doc Savage

and with today's commercialized, soulless rap, I don't find anything to attract me to it.

FWIW, your comments can be applied to the current music industry as a whole. Rap, rock, pop, etc... is mostly nonsense these days. Artists don’t write their own music, lyrics are empty, and the main focus is a catchy beat. Songs are propular for a month or two and then it’s on to the next one. It’s a formula that most seem to follow.

[DoraTheExplorerII]

Seriously though, can he or someone do something to kill mumble rap? That would be real Gucci.

[brabusbrad]

Originally Posted by Yandhi

Which album will you be downloading first?

I prefer Eminem if I had to choose from that genre

[Wesley Crusher]

Originally Posted by brabusbrad

I prefer Eminem if I had to choose from that genre

His old stuff is good, but he has become pretty weird.

The MGK diss track was hilarious.

[brabusbrad]

Originally Posted by Wesley Crusher

His old stuff is good, but he has become pretty weird.

The MGK diss track was hilarious.

MGK's rap devil was pretty good, but the rest of his stuff is just meh. Eminem's response was pretty awesome considering he had a lot less time to prep for it than MGK did with rap devil.

[Jazzie]

lol

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by Yandhi

Which album will you be downloading first?

neither. Maybe im old, but i don't get hip hop music anymore. Ill just buy Dr Dre the chronic again instead