Buick6 said:
OK..INDIE RAP...My Opinion:
Problems: Boring rappers, unmaginative lyrical flow, all of it sounding like some sort of 'jazzy down beat vibe', especially amongst white-boy rappers, whose lyrical inflections/subtleties aren't being utilized as well as their black brothers.
Sonically: Duller than deadshit. Most haven't progressed musically beyond that sort trip-hop/downbeat sonique OR they all just go for that RZA Weird-loop style with the same fucken plodding beat.
And interesting thing is where to the Beastie Boys fit into the whole equation, though they have been completely irrelevant to me personally since 'check yr Head', which they've basically dead-horse-flogged ever since....
A BIG problem with the indie HIPHOPPERS/RAPPERS etc is their inability to take cues from techno/electronica/house (on top of other 'roots' or 'standard'styles soul/r'nb/funk/rock/reggae) to emebelish their sounds, something which the more MAINSTREAM rappers/R&B producers have done to remarkable effect, say no more.
So IMHO until they broaden their horizons and sonic skills indie(undie) hiphop just doesn't cut it to me on the whole, but every now an again someone like Edan my tweak my interest. Is that clear enuff for you???
Dude I've read ILM archives, I've been on Dissensus awhile, I've heard it all before. This is hardly a shocking pov to me at this point. Its just gotten where I've realized I don't really care about a producer taking his cues from techno/electronica/house. And many producers a lot of folks on the inernets think were taking cues from eurodance WEREN'T, they were moving from the miami bass/NO bounce axis. I'm totally interested in hearing lots of new sounds enter hip-hop. But to me, how INTERESTING it is doesn't correlate to how much it sounds like old rave music. For instance, my favorite rapper right now is T.I. and he's at his best when he's working with a pretty standard-sounding drums-bass-guitar-organ minimal production combo. Young Jeezy's record is like the most street album this year and its not taking any cues from rave music, really. I know there was this whole Timbo/Neptunes thing, and I'm a huge fan of both of their beats but I don't see it as the be-all and end-all of what can be done with rap.
In the late 90s there were a lot of dudes who wanted to work outside of the street aesthetic and they made a space for it. I don't mean anticon, who I always thought were pretty wanky, or really white-boy shit at all per se. I'm copy+pasting something my friend Sergio wrote a while back about underground in the late 90s:
with the indie movement you had the rise of ny underground pumping out 12"s. Back then you could go to sandbox and their list of new 12"s was 3 times longer than the cds. Yeah there was rawkus but there were so many others doing dope stuff. necro and non phixions' best records came out during that period. Then there was fondle'em with the cenobites, that first arsonists joint, mf grimm, siah and yeshua, brooklyn academy which was largely represented by thirstin howl, raw shack comes out with j-live, the east flatbush record, natural resource and more. In the la you had the rise of all those kids raised at the good life. Acey was dropping shit, cve had a whole bunch of shit coming out, 2mex, awolone, and the shapeshifters were doing all kinds of weird shit with their music. That beneath the surface comp that reps that late 90's LA scene very well. There was nothing out there like farmers market of the beast. In the bay you had the legends and solesides putting out stuff. That early living legends shit before their asr10's got boring as fuck. When cd burners became affordable the scene just exploded. All kinds of kids who never would have been able to release were putting out cds.
There's plenty of shitty underground backpacker rap but just because it doesnt have novation synths doesnt mean its not new or unique or interesting. I mean, KANYE for christsake. But yeah, late 90s had some great underground shit.
(Not to suggest that it was musically competing with the late 90s mainstream, where you had the rise of Trick Daddy/Trina Miami shit, Puff Daddy's neo-disco pop rap, Swizz Beats' lo-fi casio hardcore with Ruff Ryders, DMX, Lox etc., Cash Money's NO Bounce courtesy Mannie, No Limit's Beats-by-the-pound KLC and Mo B Dick piano-g-funk, Hypnotized Minds in Memphis, Suavehouse's rhodes-n-guitars, Dre's comeback, rise of Timbaland, arrival of Lil Jon and Neptunes, etc.)
But what I am suggesting is that the 'it just sounds like trip-hop' thing is cutting short the contributions a bunch of folks were making at the time.
(Ethan Padgett made a post on ILM where he argued that there's a bunch of good underground/indie stuff now. I haven't noticed any big uplift, but I still liked Madvillain last year).
