Hip-Hop 2012

Corpsey

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Haven't been able to get online much lately so I've fallen back on my ipod resources. Luckily these resources include about five Gucci Mane mixtapes from 2008ish - ''Gucci Sosa'', ''Burrprint 3D'', ''EA Sportcentre'', ''Chicken Talk'' and ''Gangsta Grillz: The Movie''. They are all great, hardly any dud tracks. Zaytoven and Gucci is one of those golden rap combos, like Dre and Snoop, where the music matches the rapper's vocals and personality to an absolute tee. So I haven't kept up with anything new for a while (new Rick Ross drops soon, new Starlito and Gunplay too it looks like?) but I can heartily recommend all of those tapes to anyone who hasn't got them. My favourite at the moment is ''Gucci Sosa'' but it's a close call.
 
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CrowleyHead

Well-known member
you said:
are there any decent, insightful books y'all can recommend on hip hop 90-00 please?
Click to expand...

Hmmm. I mean, it DEPENDS. A lot of the time, you have to look with insight.

For example, the Jeff Chang book on hip-hop, is REALLY good at covering the earlier stuff, and towards the modern era of rap it gets... 'patchy'? But if you look at his insights for that era, it is covering some important aspects. The "Third Coast" book about Dirty South rap is sloppy in it's favoritism (Outkast is clearly more important than anything ever), but again, some minimal insights. The Dr. Dre biography Ronin Ro did also covers a very minimal perspective on this matter.

Quite honestly, there needs to be more rap biographies/books that aren't so obsessed with "THE ART OF RAPPING" or bullshit like that, and just want to talk about the modern era instead of... Whatever it is they think they need to write books about. It also doesn't help that 9/10 times, when these rappers write their autobiographies, they talk so little about their art. Unless you're DMX, where he actually makes a point to talk about his music alongside his life's more 'dramatic' content.
 
you

you

Well-known member
I'm doing my best to critique ASAP Rocky..... It's hard with no back up texts.

I've been eyeing up 'thats the joint' and 'dropping science' both look promising.
 
slackk

slackk

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I think a book about early to mid nineties memphis rap could be the best thing ever but i don't think it's going to happen so what can you do

only good rap books i've read were the death row one (which wasn't great but enjoyable at least) and that Making Beats one where they interview all the producers who're obsessed with sampling vinyl

would like to read more, don't really think they exist
 
C

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
If I ever become a good writer, I'm totally going to save up 50 K and blow it on paying every fucking dusthead ever affiliated with Hypnotize Mindz/Prophet Posse money for interviews, and write the Three Six Mafia biography. Because I'm SURE Bun B will write a compelling autobiography before the decade's over, so fuck a Houston one.
 
you

you

Well-known member
My god - I cannae wait till Denzel Curry & Yung Simmies 'Raven Miyagi' / BLVCK RVVXN comes out.... Can someone give me a good source for all the Rvidxr Klvn stuff? I have yung simmies XXL and Purple Tapes - but is there more?????

I've also been liking young gully recently...
 
C

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
There's the Metro Zu tapes (which are somewhere in the 30s if you count the solo tapes and the Proprr Boyz tapes, but their dude Mike Deece apparently got them booted from Raiders, so...), The Amber London tapes, Vince Staples "Shyne Coldchain Vol. 1", Ethelwulf has a tape I believe, and after that it's a bunch of affiliates whose names I'll never remember.

The only one I want a tape from though is XXXorsistaz. It's basically a mock gothic South African Floetry, which is brilliant. ACTUAL witch rap.

 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
jeff changs book stopped around 92/93 which sort of blew my mind.

my favourite rap books are mainly old -
sh fernando's the new beats (prob my favourite)
that ronin ro death row one, even though the whole thing is peppered with 'the west coast ruined hip hop' sentiments
the vibe history of hip hop

im actually having trouble thinking of more but thats probably just my terrible memory. i still need to read LL's biog. and i never read 50s self help book either. i hated jay-z's book as it was such a blatant suck up to the establishment but he did try and go into 'the art' of what he does with commentaries on various lyrics though iirc most of them were quite detached, in someone elses voice, and trying to make light ('ha i said some crazy stuff back then!') of pretty harsh lines which seemed like a bit of a cop out imo. there was a book which went into the making of great rap albums but i found it a bit patchy as some of the interviews (eg slick rick) were really thin and they didnt interview enough people. good idea though. i keep meaning to pick up the book of essays on illmatic but not sure i want to read it.
 
C

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
There was a Ronin Ro book, that collected his writings... It's name escapes me at the moment. But there's a bunch of pretentious articles. You read one where he admits to having been a former rapper, and then it all clicks at that point... But there's one where he talks about Luke Skyywalker visiting Japan. It is the most bizzare thing I could ever possibly read about.
 
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rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
i think i read that in the source at the time - talks about japanese groupies and so on. i seem to remember reading toures book of published articles but dont remember thinking much about it other than that hes a bit pretentious.

i forgot to mention nelson georges hip hop america book - i have a soft spot for nelson. i have his other books on black music too. and surprisingly, rzas wu manual was really good.
 
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muser

Well-known member
Raider Klan stuff is pretty hit an miss, have ended up resenting, alot of it is pretty wack really and all the shit from its supporters on facebook etc hasmnput me off a bit, #i think I like thelwolf themost of those SGP disciples memphis retromanias OK OK OK
 
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