Music Well... Rapping in 2018/2019

[ShadowHounder]

Been a League of Legends fan for a few years now... and I had a bit of a mini realization last year. It started with K/DA and the rap segment in POP/STARS:

I figured it was just the singer or that Rito had made some really lucky choices with the song direction... then I found this:

at this point I was still thinking it was Rito production magic... but then I watched Zombieland Saga and sat there thinking... "Why are rappers better in every country but America?" XD

(the Zombieland Saga scene in question)

 

[Pandaskel]

You’re not listening to the right American rappers :/

 

[ShadowHounder]

You’re not listening to the right American rappers :/

That would imply that there is something good in the line up that's not mainstream then. Since all of the "big" rappers in America are trash imo

 

[adrian_]

That would imply that there is something good in the line up that's not mainstream then. Since all of the "big" rappers in America are trash imo

I would completely disagree.

 

[ShadowHounder]

I would completely disagree.

Hey... everyone is entitled to their own opinion... this is mine

 

[Tove]

To each his own.

 

[Catori]

I have to agree, but for me it's not that the Americans are.. bad at what they do. For me it's content. A lot of rappers are really vulgar I've found, and I don't like hearing that kind of stuff. I'm gonna say BTS because I think they're amazing rappers, and they don't use profanity every other word or rap about bad things. Even if I can't understand Korean, I can look up the translation. Perfectly fine.

 

[ShadowHounder]

I have to agree, but for me it's not that the Americans are.. bad at what they do. For me it's content. A lot of rappers are really vulgar I've found, and I don't like hearing that kind of stuff. I'm gonna say BTS because I think they're amazing rappers, and they don't use profanity every other word or rap about bad things. Even if I can't understand Korean, I can look up the translation. Perfectly fine.

Yeah... their reliance in vulgar language and thug life lyrics is what drags them down to the level of time wasting that I see them as. I by no means hate rapping in English... as I enjoy groups like JT Music... but the fact that the mainstream for the genre is like that just seems like a lot of their talent was just wasted on free money.

 

[crumbelivable]

Yeah... their reliance in vulgar language and thug life lyrics is what drags them down to the level of time wasting that I see them as. I by no means hate rapping in English... as I enjoy groups like JT Music... but the fact that the mainstream for the genre is like that just seems like a lot of their talent was just wasted on free money.

Not really a hip hop head, but I think you should know that there are several more emotional rap subgenres out there. I'd highly recommend checking out cloud rappers like Yung Lean, I'm not the biggest fan, but "Kyoto" is a banger. Hell, even XXXTENTACION, the definitive gangsta rapper of our generation, made some more emotional songs later into his career.

 

[ShadowHounder]

Not really a hip hop head, but I think you should know that there are several more emotional rap subgenres out there. I'd highly recommend checking out cloud rappers like Yung Lean, I'm not the biggest fan, but "Kyoto" is a banger. Hell, even XXXTENTACION, the definitive gangsta rapper of our generation, made some more emotional songs later into his career.

Emotional is not what I look for in music. I don't like songs that are either extremely depressing or cover the ideas of suicide in any matter.

Kind of the reason why I gravitate towards EDM genres... barely any depressing songs in that library.

 

[adrian_]

Emotional is not what I look for in music. I don't like songs that are either extremely depressing or cover the ideas of suicide in any matter.

Kind of the reason why I gravitate towards EDM genres... barely any depressing songs in that library.

Sorry to throw out a word salad but there are a ton of rappers who lyrically depict average or happy things. Check out D-Real [愛], he put out 'Nerd Won't Stop'. Doug E Fresh also had 'The Show' and A Tribe Called Quest has always been releasing happy-go-lucky stuff; I mean, one of the lines in 'Can I kick it?' is literally:

"Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz
Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug
If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug
Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug
Afrocentric living is a big shrug"

Q-Tip just made asking for a hug sound interesting and melodic. The song literally asks you to do the jitterbug when you're getting down.

But then over in Russia, artists like Big Baby Tape are releasing titles like 'Loot' where one of the lyrics is:

"Okay, fuck ouu
I took your boo!
And I fuck her, too!
And my Glock or, fuck, TT goes like "tu-tu-tu"
I got fucking shooters, and they don't lie"

It isn't just American rap.

I'm not trying to be rude but, It really seems like you just aren't looking for what you want in rap.

 

[ShadowHounder]

Sorry to throw out a word salad but there are a ton of rappers who lyrically depict average or happy things. Check out D-Real [愛], he put out 'Nerd Won't Stop'. Doug E Fresh also had 'The Show' and A Tribe Called Quest has always been releasing happy-go-lucky stuff; I mean, one of the lines in 'Can I kick it?' is literally:

"Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz
Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug
If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug
Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug
Afrocentric living is a big shrug"

Phife Dawg just made asking for a hug sound interesting and melodic. The song literally asks you to do the jitterbug when you're getting down.

But then over in Russia, artists like Big Baby Tape are releasing titles like 'Loot' where one of the lyrics is:

"Okay, fuck ouu
I took your boo!
And I fuck her, too!
And my Glock or, fuck, TT goes like "tu-tu-tu"
I got fucking shooters, and they don't lie"

It isn't just American rap.

I'm not trying to be rude but, It really seems like you just aren't looking for what you want in rap.

The lyrics from Phife Dawg works out well... but that thug life shit from Big Baby Tape is one of the main reasons I don't like Rappers. It's the mentality that mainstream has instilled that you have to be a "hardened criminal and street thug" if you want to go big in the industry... which should never be the case. It's that reason and the issues I have with Thug life lyrics as a whole that really drag Rappers down in my opinion. Not every song has to be about drugs sex and violence... why is that the only thing they know how to rap about?

You were not rude however... you explained your reasoning is an objective manner and at no point attacked me in anyway that would be seen as personal or emotional. Great job mate

 

[adrian_]

The lyrics from Phife Dawg works out well... but that thug life shit from Big Baby Tape is one of the main reasons I don't like Rappers. It's the mentality that mainstream has instilled that you have to be a "hardened criminal and street thug" if you want to go big in the industry... which should never be the case. It's that reason and the issues I have with Thug life lyrics as a whole that really drag Rappers down in my opinion. Not every song has to be about drugs sex and violence... why is that the only thing they know how to rap about?

You were not rude however... you explained your reasoning is an objective manner and at no point attacked me in anyway that would be seen as personal or emotional. Great job mate

Yeah. And the thing about 'Thug Life' lyrics is that they come from a place of love, guys who got into rap during the 80's were surrounded with the poverty and rampant-ish police brutality and gang violence of that era and just wanted a place to escape. Music was a good way of doing that, when i think about these new objectively bad rappers I like to remember that Biggy and Tupac even went through that gangsta phase before realising that they could put out meaningful shit.

Hard rappers never get far, it's the guys who can admit that they've never bust caps or done a line that are loved. Besides, half the dudes who say they've killed somebody or some shit are just trying to get clout. 6ix9ine is a bad dude. Hes a psychopath. But I have nothing against Lil Pump as hes just putting his shit on the market. Worst thing hes done is violate his probation after firing a gun in his own home. Y'know?

 

[ShadowHounder]

Yeah. And the thing about 'Thug Life' lyrics is that they come from a place of love, guys who got into rap during the 80's were surrounded with the poverty and rampant-ish police brutality and gang violence of that era and just wanted a place to escape. Music was a good way of doing that, when i think about these new objectively bad rappers I like to remember that Biggy and Tupac even went through that gangsta phase before realising that they could put out meaningful shit.

Hard rappers never get far, it's the guys who can admit that they've never bust caps or done a line that are loved. Besides, half the dudes who say they've killed somebody or some shit are just trying to get clout. 6ix9ine is a bad dude. Hes a psychopath. But I have nothing against Lil Pump as hes just putting his shit on the market. Worst thing hes done is violate his probation after firing a gun in his own home. Y'know?

fair enough... just when everyone you know only listen to Thug Life... you have a bit of a hard time thinking about those who managed to move passed those days

 

[crumbelivable]

Kind of the reason why I gravitate towards EDM genres... barely any depressing songs in that library.

I dunno. I'm a big electronic music fan, and I can think of quite a few emotional electronic songs. A lot of Crystal Castle's music gets sad, as well as a good few songs from Aphex Twin during his SAWII and Drukqs days. Even the Richard D James album gets depressing in a nostalgic sort of way.

 

[Pandaskel]

As someone with, I think, a bit more knowledge on this subject, I'd like to put my thoughts out there.

I'll start with my linguist side:

First of all, BTS cusses all the time. They even cuss in English. "Move" is a really old song compared to their new super-popular hits, but Rap Monster says "shit" in his closing monologue. Agust D's mixtape (since we're talking about rap and not pop, and their solo mixtapes are the most hip-hop thing they've done) is full of cussing. And that's ok. Curse words are another part of language, another part of expression. "Reliance on curse words" is, to me, not at all a valid criticism. How else can I describe the fact that polar bears are now practicing cannibalism because they don't have food other than "fucking shitty"?

Besides, curse words, in English at least, come from classism and elitism. The words that were/are considered "bad" are the words poor people would use. That's why cursing is considered "vulgar" and "uneducated". To perpetuate that stigma is pretty shitty, since I'm sure you would agree that poor people are not inherently vulgar or stupid - they're just poor.

Now the more cultural aspects:

Criticizing the existence of gangsta rap is also pretty shitty of you guys. You think it started with young east side kids trying to sound cool? Nah. Young black men started rapping about drugs, guns, death, banging because that was their day-to-day. That was the day-to-day of their fathers. That was that they grew up around. Their lives were in danger 24/7. They were not destined to succeed. It is kind of despicable to criticize their only form of expression and, for some of them, their way out of the streets, simply because they were born into a life that you think isn't worthy of your precious virgin ears' listening pleasure.

Yeah, BTS doesn't rap about gang shit because they weren't born into gang shit. But if that makes them more respectable as artists and musicians to you, you need to educate yourself just a bit more. Art, music in particular, is about expressing your emotions, telling your story, and making songs that you feel sound dope. I'm not telling you to like gangsta rap, but I am telling you to respect it as an art form. It is violent and it is dark and it is angry and it is sad and it glorifies the wrong lifestyle - that's exactly what these boys saw growing up. Boys looked up to their fathers, even if they were in prison, even if they were dead. Boys had to sling drugs to survive. Boys had to kill or be killed. Boys had to earn respect through violence. And when boys came up in the world because of their music, they showed off their bling, cars, and women because it was something they had never had before.

Your Bulletproof Boyscouts don't know shit about that. But that doesn't make them better than the rest of us.

Now, am I saying the mainstream isn't trash? No. The mainstream is usually trash. Ariana Grande sucks. Cardi B, in the words of a meme, "makes music for girls who think shouting louder wins an argument" (I am proud of her come-up, though, and she seems like a beautifully genuine person). Lil Whatever-The-Fuck, pick one of them, they're probably trash. Except Lil Dicky, he's chill.

Here are some mainstream recommendations, even if they are not recent mainstream:

 

[adrian_]

As someone with, I think, a bit more knowledge on this subject, I'd like to put my thoughts out there.

I'll start with my linguist side:

First of all, BTS cusses all the time. They even cuss in English. "Move" is a really old song compared to their new super-popular hits, but Rap Monster says "shit" in his closing monologue. Agust D's mixtape (since we're talking about rap and not pop, and their solo mixtapes are the most hip-hop thing they've done) is full of cussing. And that's ok. Curse words are another part of language, another part of expression. "Reliance on curse words" is, to me, not at all a valid criticism. How else can I describe the fact that polar bears are now practicing cannibalism because they don't have food other than "fucking shitty"?

Besides, curse words, in English at least, come from classism and elitism. The words that were/are considered "bad" are the words poor people would use. That's why cursing is considered "vulgar" and "uneducated". To perpetuate that stigma is pretty shitty, since I'm sure you would agree that poor people are not inherently vulgar or stupid - they're just poor.

Now the more cultural aspects:

Criticizing the existence of gangsta rap is also pretty shitty of you guys. You think it started with young east side kids trying to sound cool? Nah. Young black men started rapping about drugs, guns, death, banging because that was their day-to-day. That was the day-to-day of their fathers. That was that they grew up around. Their lives were in danger 24/7. They were not destined to succeed. It is kind of despicable to criticize their only form of expression and, for some of them, their way out of the streets, simply because they were born into a life that you think isn't worthy of your precious virgin ears' listening pleasure.

Yeah, BTS doesn't rap about gang shit because they weren't born into gang shit. But if that makes them more respectable as artists and musicians to you, you need to educate yourself just a bit more. Art, music in particular, is about expressing your emotions, telling your story, and making songs that you feel sound dope. I'm not telling you to like gangsta rap, but I am telling you to respect it as an art form. It is violent and it is dark and it is angry and it is sad and it glorifies the wrong lifestyle - that's exactly what these boys saw growing up. Boys looked up to their fathers, even if they were in prison, even if they were dead. Boys had to sling drugs to survive. Boys had to kill or be killed. Boys had to earn respect through violence. And when boys came up in the world because of their music, they showed off their bling, cars, and women because it was something they had never had before.

Your Bulletproof Boyscouts don't know shit about that. But that doesn't make them better than the rest of us.

Now, am I saying the mainstream isn't trash? No. The mainstream is usually trash. Ariana Grande sucks. Cardi B, in the words of a meme, "makes music for girls who think shouting louder wins an argument" (I am proud of her come-up, though, and she seems like a beautifully genuine person). Lil Whatever-The-Fuck, pick one of them, they're probably trash. Except Lil Dicky, he's chill.

Here are some mainstream recommendations, even if they are not recent mainstream:

I completely disagree with your way of submitting your argument, but understand your feelings.

 

[Tove]

As someone with, I think, a bit more knowledge on this subject, I'd like to put my thoughts out there.

I'll start with my linguist side:

First of all, BTS cusses all the time. They even cuss in English. "Move" is a really old song compared to their new super-popular hits, but Rap Monster says "shit" in his closing monologue. Agust D's mixtape (since we're talking about rap and not pop, and their solo mixtapes are the most hip-hop thing they've done) is full of cussing. And that's ok. Curse words are another part of language, another part of expression. "Reliance on curse words" is, to me, not at all a valid criticism. How else can I describe the fact that polar bears are now practicing cannibalism because they don't have food other than "fucking shitty"?

Besides, curse words, in English at least, come from classism and elitism. The words that were/are considered "bad" are the words poor people would use. That's why cursing is considered "vulgar" and "uneducated". To perpetuate that stigma is pretty shitty, since I'm sure you would agree that poor people are not inherently vulgar or stupid - they're just poor.

Now the more cultural aspects:

Criticizing the existence of gangsta rap is also pretty shitty of you guys. You think it started with young east side kids trying to sound cool? Nah. Young black men started rapping about drugs, guns, death, banging because that was their day-to-day. That was the day-to-day of their fathers. That was that they grew up around. Their lives were in danger 24/7. They were not destined to succeed. It is kind of despicable to criticize their only form of expression and, for some of them, their way out of the streets, simply because they were born into a life that you think isn't worthy of your precious virgin ears' listening pleasure.

Yeah, BTS doesn't rap about gang shit because they weren't born into gang shit. But if that makes them more respectable as artists and musicians to you, you need to educate yourself just a bit more. Art, music in particular, is about expressing your emotions, telling your story, and making songs that you feel sound dope. I'm not telling you to like gangsta rap, but I am telling you to respect it as an art form. It is violent and it is dark and it is angry and it is sad and it glorifies the wrong lifestyle - that's exactly what these boys saw growing up. Boys looked up to their fathers, even if they were in prison, even if they were dead. Boys had to sling drugs to survive. Boys had to kill or be killed. Boys had to earn respect through violence. And when boys came up in the world because of their music, they showed off their bling, cars, and women because it was something they had never had before.

Your Bulletproof Boyscouts don't know shit about that. But that doesn't make them better than the rest of us.

Now, am I saying the mainstream isn't trash? No. The mainstream is usually trash. Ariana Grande sucks. Cardi B, in the words of a meme, "makes music for girls who think shouting louder wins an argument" (I am proud of her come-up, though, and she seems like a beautifully genuine person). Lil Whatever-The-Fuck, pick one of them, they're probably trash. Except Lil Dicky, he's chill.

Here are some mainstream recommendations, even if they are not recent mainstream:

That was powerful. We may have gone on a wrong path before but I can understand your feelings and what you are saying.