Catalog's hip hop journey

[DannyL]

Though I guess to buy into rap you have to on some level get fascinated with the cultures that surround it, think about where you are positioned in relation to them.

Give this a shot:

 

[forclosure]

My aversion to hip hop does in part stem from what it means, as a culture, up here. Just the people I knew who were hip hop heads. Not keen.

Scrawny white boys from middle class backgrounds thinking they are cool and throwing hand signals.

well you ain't dealing with one of dem man here

 

[forclosure]

also people please take it easy on the tracks you post in here i want my man to take his time and really engage with this stuff like luke said his aversions but in terms of lyrics melodies and all that jazz

i'm wondering if i should post 2 more tracks today or on Wednesday to even things out

 

[forclosure]

and if it'll help i'll can tell you what i find appealing or not about the tunes i share

to create a dialogue

 

[catalog]

and if it'll help i'll can tell you what i find appealing or not about the tunes i share

to create a dialogue

Yeah that would be helpful actually

 

[catalog]

And yeah, slower is probably better

 

[forclosure]

alright come wednesday i'll hit you with two more tracks and my thoughts on the first two

 

[catalog]

Here since accepts that he can't listen to rap unless Dean Blunt's done something with it i decided i'm gonna dedicate this hear thread to exposing him to different tracks and see how he responds.

Cat i feel like there has to be something that you can like or appreciate in rap even if it's by an artist i don't like


but lets start this off with a classic

I just had another listen.

OK so it's a crew. It's like wu but feels a lot earlier, like late 80s. There's a few woos and sound fx type shouts.

I like that line "I shouldn't smoke so much, but I doooo". I would say he does the best verse.

It gets better as it goes along.

Chorus is a bit lame. It's a bit low energy.

Nice mellow rocking beat. It is a bit slow for me, a little bit too nursery rhymy. There's not a lot going on there, altho fair play to em, they keep the rhymes in time and it's quite tight.

I don't think it's rubbish, I just think there are better examples of this sort of thing.

Is that such a bad thing to say? Maybe I'll have a few more listens, since we are trying to do a deep listening thing.

 

[luka]

bit later than wu as it goes

 

[catalog]

That's interesting, it feels like wu but not quite. Not to get hung up on wu, but what they did so well was the recall all out ridiculous memorable lines plus very striking delivery.

 

[luka]

goodie mobb were part of dungeon family with outkast. that wave of southern rap.

 

[luka]

cee-lo was the breakout star. (i'm 'schooling' you)

 

[forclosure]

must admit surprised you think the chorus is lame cause imo that's the most paranoid thing about the track, next to that beat its skeletal but not in the way a RZA beat is it's got more a "something evil is going on in the backwoods" atmosphere to it

also the guy who you think had the best verse on the track is T-Mo (or T-Mo Goodie)

 

[catalog]

OK I listened to it for the 3rd time again just now.

I like the scratchy sound in the intro that you get a hint of throughout.

"Operation heartbreak Hotel"

"Axe"

Chorus:

"Who's that creeping in my window..." my jury still out on that. It doesn't really feel haunting to me, in comparison to the verses.

Verses:

It's a very angular delivery, like he's marking out a box in mime. Chopping his hands, flexing them (like tricky!). There's a snap to it, a clipped feeling.

 

[catalog]

and for the second track here's something that dropped today

there Catalog, these are your first two to try

I sort of like how this one doesn't really progress from a walking/intro pace. Like it starts, you think it's gonna go somewhere, but it just stays where it is. It confounds expectations a little.

I cant get much of a sense of the lyrics at all. The beat is OK, I like the minimal nature of it, but it's maybe a little too sparse?

And the tune itself is very short, feels like it's over just as it gets started.

 

[catalog]

They have both grown on me, on 3rd listens.

 

[catalog]

One issue I have with hip hop generally is that it's such a vast landscape, I lack a lot of context. I don't know who goodie mob are, their lineage, who they are talking about and to. I lack a few reference points.

I've no idea who drakeo the ruler is, where he's from etc.

Partly as well its the American thing. I just have a preference for English music. I think partly cos the voice is more immediately recognisable/understandable.

Apart from like golden era hip hop.

 

[catalog]

MTV Base era hip hop was the big one for me. Beats, rhymes and life. i was the only one in my uni house who had it at home, so i'd go away for the holidays and come back to laugh about it. crazy era really, those hype williams videos. missy, timbaland, mase, p diddy, foxy brown.

 

[DannyL]

One issue I have with hip hop generally is that it's such a vast landscape, I lack a lot of context. I don't know who goodie mob are, their lineage, who they are talking about and to. I lack a few reference points.

I've no idea who drakeo the ruler is, where he's from etc.

Partly as well its the American thing. I just have a preference for English music. I think partly cos the voice is more immediately recognisable/understandable.

Apart from like golden era hip hop.

This is definitely a big thing with rap, and it feeds into one's enjoyment. After a while you get all the coded language, in-joke and references. Conversely when you take your eye off the ball, it speeds away from you, and the next time you listen, you're playing catch up again. I'm like that with new rap at the moment.

It's genuinely hard to make sense of regional scenes from a UK vantage point, this is partly to do with distribution networks. We just didn't get to hear the stuff here if it wasn't on a NY to London pipeline. I recommend getting stoned with Americans while listening, that helps, they hear it different.

I think of Goodie Mob as like a Southern Wu, a bit of a supergroup but maybe this is wrong.

 

[luka]

the actual language has changed a lot since our day, but also the rhythmic language. very few rappers you hear now want to 'fit' into the bars, everything is deliberately awakward and ungainly. having said all that, the goodie mobb is like that too lol