blackdown soundboy on standards of grime lyricism

[blissblogger]

word Noah BF, Cooper

Bruza is an incredible MC, i cannot believe the lack of love this guy receives, he has a totally unique sense of rhythm, the way he manages to sound lumbering and yet swing at the same time...

am i hallucinating or does he really end the chorus of 'not convinced' with "you spit like Agnes B"? if so that is pure genius

the punk rock analogy is spot on -- one great catchphrase is worth an acre of densely encrypted and elliptically scanned rhymage

it's the same in American rap, 'throw them 'bows" > the entire corpus of prosody from whichever embittered backpacker icon you wish to nominate

 

[Clubberlang]

x-post, yeah, a lot of journos forget that Essentials' HQ track was completely copped from Ruff Ryders.

This was a pretty minor borrowing ya know as only the "state your name bit" was copped (their are no follow up questions on the Ruff Ryders track and the beat/tempo/everything else except that fact that a bunch of MCs are on it is completely different and even the question itself is asked in relatively understated way esp. compared to the OTT way its asked on the Essentials track.) This isn't like that "London" song where the entire track is a wholesale imitation of Ja Rule's "New York". I can see why it didn't register.

 

[mpc]

the way he manages to sound lumbering and yet swing at the same time...

that's totally by accident.

he isn't a fluent MC because he's not very good.

i find his MCing awkward-sounding.

 

[boy better know]

This was a pretty minor borrowing ya know as only the "state your name bit" was copped (their are no follow up questions on the Ruff Ryders track and the beat/tempo/everything else except that fact that a bunch of MCs are on it is completely different and even the question itself is asked in relatively understated way esp. compared to the OTT way its asked on the Essentials track.) This isn't like that "London" song where the entire track is a wholesale imitation of Ja Rule's "New York". I can see why it didn't register.

nah, they ask exactly the same questions on both tunes. go back and listen to the ruff ryders one again.

i don't really think essentials were trying to copy the song and hope no-one noticed. i'd see it as more of a tribute.

 

[Clubberlang]

Woops your right, I completely spaced on the rest of it. Either way that's really the only lift.

 

[3underscore]

Bruza is an incredible MC, i cannot believe the lack of love this guy receives, he has a totally unique sense of rhythm, the way he manages to sound lumbering and yet swing at the same time...

I say the same about my bass playing Blissblogger, but it ain't got me nowhere!

 

[blissblogger]

getmeGETME

he's called Bruza for a reason
the voice is fully integrated with the persona
this lumbering menace, the lurching flow, the bullying bulk of his voice
it's pure genius
and totally distinctive, a true original

i mean, yeah he's shit, you're right -- that must be why he's on so many big tracks with the other big boys, they feel sorry for him, it's charity isn't it, don't want him to feel left out!

i think you've internalized american ideas of what a good mc is

a great flow does NOT always equate with fluency and fluidity

just as good guitar playing does not necessarily equal slippery frictionless playing a la Mark knoplfer

i'd say bruza's more like Greg Ginn in Black Flag, or a neil young solo

the mis-shapen, ungainly quality = expressive of emotion more than flowery grace

 

[Noah Baby Food]

Yes, good call blissblogger. Greg Ginn...maybe Pat Smear from the Germs...or Ted Falconi from Flipper.

and that Essentials thing...not saying the track is like a big rip-off or owt, I think it's quality. my point was that it shows what these boys have been listening to over the last few years, and some of the stuff you read would have you believe that grime's just pure UK/JA influenced, when it owes quite a lot to that synthetic thuggish rap (that I love so much).

 

[sean downes]

i think once garage becomes a more song based music you will get more of the "rakim style extended metaphors" (barf) you lot are pining after. instead of mcs just spitting their biggest bars over the hottest riddim, you'll get more collaborative efforts between mc & producer (though this happens already i guess, especially as so many mcs use fruity), lyrics being written specifically for a song. i'm guessing ja artists work the same way, writing rave lyrics and then recycling them on whatever the big riddim is. whether this will = better lyrics is uncertain, it all depends on the artists songwriting abilities; in the us an mc might blowup and get signed off the back of his amazing mixtape/battle lyrics but then fail to have consecutive hits with well written songs. see for example, saigon, fabolous & cassidy. even jadakiss has failed to reach nas/jay z levels of classic album status, even though he is considered to be one of the best writers in the game.

 

[sean downes]

but yeah, let's stop comparing uk mcs to us ones (especially rakim, the most overrated mc in rap history), i thought it was already established that garage mcing is a completely different style that relies on completely different cultural and enviromental signifiers.

 

[sean downes]

i mean, the reason grime is so good is because uk mcs are finally rapping how they talk, right?

 

[blissblogger]

swizz

my point was that it shows what these boys have been listening to over the last few years, and some of the stuff you read would have you believe that grime's just pure UK/JA influenced, when it owes quite a lot to that synthetic thuggish rap (that I love so much).

yeah especially a few years ago there was a heavy swizz beats influencece in grime, a lot of tunes had those sort of lurching angular bombast-riffs a la certain dmx etc tunes (which i always thought were kinda gabba-y -- see also ludacris)

grime production is always constantly testing how angular, heavy-handed and unswinging a groove can be before it ceases to be funky, becomes purely oppressive

bruza's flow is actually isomorphic (right word?) to the structure of those kind of post-Swizz riffs

in other words a fluent Nas/common/whatever type flow would not suit the music as it currently is

 

[sean downes]

it's been said before but "things that you do" by jay z f mariah carey pretty much invented "sino-grime".

 

[sean downes]

and "destruction" has always kinda reminded me of "down bottom"

 

[Noah Baby Food]

The closest thing to a US-style MC in grime is Kano I guess. He has a flow that yer dullard keep-it-real hip hop lot could appreciate, but that's no diss. That freestyle on Risky Roadz...FUCKING HELL MATE, incredible.

 

[mpc]

bruza is completely emotionless.

every good MC has either: a) a good voice b) good flow c) good lyrics

dizee has all three.

bruza has none.

his voice is certainly unique, but it's by no means endearing.

as a rave MC, he's very good for getting the crowd going, but so is jammer...

the first time i saw bruza was on the lord of the mics dvd and it is, without question, the worst piece of MCing i have ever witnessed.

 

[Diggedy Derek]

Bruza is much too funny to be emotionless.

 

[gumdrops]

i think people have misconstrued what i meant. im not after rakim-type MCs in grime. my bone of contention isnt content or subject matter - its basically meter, flow, timing etc, something dizzee, wiley, kano and trim (even though he drawls all over the place) all possess and are brilliant with. thats all i ask for. i dont think thats asking too much. but you guys are so into this NO DONT EVER COMPARE GRIME MCS TO US ONES OR USE THEM AS STANDARD BEARERS when im not even using US emcees to compare with.

i find it odd that im not allowed to compare grime MCs to US MCs when most grime MCs are undoubtedly influenced by american MCs, yet people make all these punk-grime analogies all the time. strange.

 

[nomos]

I thought the more interesting part of Martin's piece was the comparison to dancehall and the comment that grime has no 'conscious' side. Seemed like a call for lyrical innovation and redirection of energy, not a change in people's flows.

 

[mms]

I thought the more interesting part of Martin's piece was the comparison to dancehall and the comment that grime has no 'conscious' side. Seemed like a call for lyrical innovation and redirection of energy, not a change in people's flows.

hence my beef about 'postive rasta' jammer's first mc track being a post pow track about being the merkle man and going for the metal.
call me the rappin reverend but i'm not into that. he can do what he likes but that much inconsistency looks a bit messy.