Road Rap

M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
DannyL said:
I share the assessment of the music though. Most of it that I've heard is pretty boring to an outside listener apart from the occasional bright spark like Loski. Anyway, I'm too old to comment in this thread, it shouldn't be allowed.
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I've thankfully gone through that point of being too old and now am one of the people still alive to tell tales, so it's all good. I definitely understand the notion of being too old to comment - I think baboon will remember the day I deleted all my itunes cos some 10 year old was listening to the same road rap tune on the bus that I'd just been listening to. I subsequently went on a soul and jazz kick that lasted years, which was fun.

But ching ching and splash splash and whatevs. I was carrying a knife from the age of 11.

I wouldn't underestimate UK rap, or MCing, those Zone2 boys have definitely brought it with the production skills. Breathtaking, actually. I've been hyped about young kids killing each other and rapping about it for years, it's great.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I find there's a curiously distancing sort of effect in a lot of this music - well, not so curious, probably almost deliberate...

This runs through the balaclavas and postcodes to the emotional tone of the music itself, which is always in a minor key and almost always has this gauze of filtration running over it. And there's the anonymity of many of these rappers using similar flows, having similar voices.

I think this accounts for my general disengagement from and then occasional bursts of engagement with this music. As a general rule it doesn't grab me but when I do put some effort in I begin to see what it might be like to be absolutely obsessed with it.
 
S

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
Corpsey said:
I find there's a curiously distancing sort of effect in a lot of this music - well, not so curious, probably almost deliberate...

This runs through the balaclavas and postcodes to the emotional tone of the music itself, which is always in a minor key and almost always has this gauze of filtration running over it. And there's the anonymity of many of these rappers using similar flows, having similar voices.

I think this accounts for my general disengagement from and then occasional bursts of engagement with this music. As a general rule it doesn't grab me but when I do put some effort in I begin to see what it might be like to be absolutely obsessed with it.
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sadmanbarty said:
ghostly and disaccosiative. Instead of rave pianos that are staccato bursts of sunshine, drill has these viscous, nihilistic, murky pianos. The collectivism of a rave is reimagined in terms of the individual dissolving into a collective gang identity.

Drill’s aesthetic of anonymity (masks, code-like names, indistinguishable vocal deliveries, etc.) harkens back to the days of “faceless techno bollocks”.
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F

forclosure

Well-known member
mistersloane said:
I've thankfully gone through that point of being too old and now am one of the people still alive to tell tales, so it's all good. I definitely understand the notion of being too old to comment - I think baboon will remember the day I deleted all my itunes cos some 10 year old was listening to the same road rap tune on the bus that I'd just been listening to. I subsequently went on a soul and jazz kick that lasted years, which was fun.

But ching ching and splash splash and whatevs. I was carrying a knife from the age of 11.

I wouldn't underestimate UK rap, or MCing, those Zone2 boys have definitely brought it with the production skills. Breathtaking, actually. I've been hyped about young kids killing each other and rapping about it for years, it's great.
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I dont feel like im underestimating them but this is it the skills in terms of rapping and production is definitly there but it all feels prefunctory less "breathtaking and more middle of the road if anything.

At least say with grime or even some road rap to some degree when it was really bad it was in a weird memorable way but drill its all at a certain level and of a certain style that it doesnt really stick standards have raised since 04 but it feels like certain man coast on that.

I can see definitly see how somebody would get obsessed with it its similiar to say rock lads who get really into d-beat or power pop but at the same time for me as somebody who does try to genuinly engage with it it just gets samey after awhile
 
F

forclosure

Well-known member
Theres also the thing that i feel like the only other way to really engage with drill is if youre one of those people who stays on snapchat and twitter all day following all these obscure twitter accounts from guys who have no profile pics but can tell you in detail why so and so is a pussy because he didnt ride out for his bredrin who got burst in his skull 2 weeks ago.

there are reasons where you can obviously say why this intersects and adds texture to the music but it has fuck all to do with it
 
F

forclosure

Well-known member
hell this isnt aimed at Zone 2 specifically ive known about them from time when youtube was still aggresivly taking videos down but some of these guys in drill for me its like people talk about them having "bars" but at best they can just ride a beat pretty well.
 
F

forclosure

Well-known member
and as much as people cuss it theres gonna be people who"ll say its better than every drill tune and do massive numbers, people are saying hes using Headie Ones flow but in all honest as far as im concerend hes just doing "the uk drill flow" to pinpoint it to headie specifically is foolish

Thing with Drake is i wanna say there was a brief window for alot of people where his more corny cringy parts transcended the genre for him i mean shit i cant imagine Hotline Bling doing as well as it did if it wernt for the video but now especially after some really bloated albums people are tired of man
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Apparently there's a New York drill scene now that sort of imitates the UK drill sound (which of course was originally based on imitating Chicago drill, which imitated Atlanta trap, and so on).
 
P

Pearsall

Prodigal Son
Corpsey said:
Apparently there's a New York drill scene now that sort of imitates the UK drill sound (which of course was originally based on imitating Chicago drill, which imitated Atlanta trap, and so on).
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it's more specifically a Brooklyn thing and it kind of makes sense when you know the context - probably the majority of black people in Brooklyn are of West Indian origin, so there's more of a cultural connection to London than you might think. also all these Brooklyn drill artists are rapping over beats from UK producers like Axl Beats, Yamaica Productions and 808 Melo (and others). generally speaking I like the beats in UK drill (probably more than Chicago stuff), as I love all kinds of bass-heavy dark electronic stuff, and I prefer the NY rapping over it, as it's a bit more charismatic than most of the monotone / disembodied flows from London

here's an example of a Brooklyn rapper over a UK beat:

 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
slackk said:
The thing that seems to have been missed with this discussion of rap and it's relation to the "nuum" is that all the road rap stuff really stems from South as opposed to East, where there has always been more of a rap thing anyway. Yes, there are rappers from East, but it's predominantly a South thing and if you look back to the likes of PDC etc, there's an actual lineage of street rap being a strong thing in Brixton and Peckham etc as opposed to this conceptual view that rap has separated London from the alleged path it should be on.
h.
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Looking at the opening pages of this thread (10 years ago!) - noticed this post and remembered that slackk was one of the first really into roadrap.

Just wondering if you're out there slackk what's your take on the current scene/drill?
 
slackk

slackk

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Cant even pretend to still be paying much attention to it anymore but its not even really the same stuff we were into back then. Its of the same scene/lineage but its so much more polished and has basically developed its own formulas and stylistic flourishes within the last few years. Whereas the stuff this thread was born out of was a lot more scruffy and inconsistent, proper amateur hour, and a lot better for it, to me.
But that was probably 10 years ago now? I'm older and whiter, this isn't meant to be for me. Same applies to most of the people in this thread id imagine

We have had people play drill sets down boxed and they've really banged in the club though. It is great DJ music and really fast.
 
Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Actually this one doesn't sound like a UK drill tune, much more along the lines of Jahil Beats or something.
 
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