Revenge of the Nerds: Backpack Rap Appreciation Thread

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Yeah, a lot of that has been ebbed away at by the internet and just the modern rap fan being expected to hear a little bit of every style so that they're much more used to it.

Ironically the most succesful rapper who is basically a backpacker in aesthetic is Denzel Curry, who has little to no Real Hip Hop in him beat-wise or approach.
 

entertainment

Well-known member
Probably has to do with the differences in the general attitude around commercial success between the US and elsewhere, too.

Here, it was cool to get into what wasn't on the radio. My extensive knowledge of high school movies tells me it carries different connotations overseas.

I think it's changed a bit now, though. I feel like the entire western culture is morphing into a more uniform shape. Idiosyncratically american cultural artefacts don't feel so strange anymore. I find myself laughing with instead of at The Kardashians tv-show. This year we even have The Weeknd headlining Roskilde Festival, which seems like a big disjunction with the historical vibe of the event (I have nothing against him, but at this point in his career, it's more pop appeal than anything else isn't it?).
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
Not particularly notable but just had a personally significant flashback to owning a Mr Complex CD and listening to it a lot


 

DannyL

Wild Horses
That Godfather Don is amazing. Need to hear some more of him.

Can I get a Dissensus ruling on High Focus? A friend posted this on social media a few days ago:


Lyrically I think it's clever, the wordplay intricate, funny... But I think part of why I like rap is 'cos the connection to black American culture, hopes/dreams/aspirations/fucked up machismo of working class kids....
Tracks like that seem so utterly disconnected from anything else, even culture in the UK. It feels like a virtual reality game taking place in a separate realm, so much so that I find it myself wondering whether I actually like it at all. Another mate described UK rap as a cargo cult - worship and replicaiton of the formal elements of hip hop without that deep integration and expression of a wider culture. The farther out we get from the golden years for this stuff, the stranger it sounds to me....I have a similar reaction to everything I've heard on High Focus, even if I might enjoy some of the rhyming.
 
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luka

Well-known member
I've talked quite a bit about this lot on here. Me and my mate had a brief period of being obsessed. He discovered it I think and we were transfixed. It's so suburban/middle england, so ham and cheese sandwich tesco meal deal shit but as you say it's a fantasy world parallel universe so many white little Englanders share that they are actually a success
Genuinely do well. I lost all faith in the wire after they started running positive high focus reviews that's when I knew they'd lost touch completely and irredeemably. Having said that I think it's fascinating and also completely benign.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
It is transfixing isn't it. I kinda can't believe that's it's happening in 2019 but it is.
When you know that grime and drill exist, it seems even more ludicrous.
I've been watching Americans do reaction videos to Ocean Wisdom's "Brick or bat" - which adds an extra layer of confusion (I do think he's actually talented though and perhaps not totally disconnected from contemporary music, he's done a Fire in the Booth etc

 

DannyL

Wild Horses
He would be from fucking Brighton though, that's the spiritual home for this shit. It's still the 90s there.
 

forclosure

Well-known member
He would be from fucking Brighton though, that's the spiritual home for this shit. It's still the 90s there.

Brighton is to the UK what Portland is to America

white enclave nonsense, theres a reason why some of the big UK hip hop festivals happen down them sides
 
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forclosure

Well-known member
I have a friend i know since secondary whose into some of these rappers but granted hes also somebody who has D12s "Devils world" as one of his favourite rap albums.

its all the more bizarre when you think about how once upon a time UK hip hop was street music and it doesnt even have any kind of tangential connection to that


was never a fan but it makes me wonder what Blak Twang is up to these days
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I'm burrowing down a spotify rabbit hole of some of this stuff — listening to stuff like Mr Complex, Jigmastas, Mountain Brothers, Arsonists...

And wondering just how infinitesimal all this stuff really was, given that none of these artists exceed say 50,000 plays for a song.

Cos I must have discovered ALL of this stuff through Hip Hop Connection. And in those days you had no way really of knowing how popular anything was that didn't register on the charts. So eg. the Mountain Brothers having an article in HHC made me think of them as having some sort of public profile. Whereas the online numbers suggest that they really were niche as fuck.

 
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