“His” disinterest, actually.
[nitpick] Nas’s first CD was Illmatic, a total classic. Stillmatic was his not-nearly-as-good “follow-up,” which was actually three releases later, I believe. [/nitpick]
You’re right. Bad Trevor.
(as a sidenote, I saw him in concert for 5 bucks. I think my buddy and I were the only white people in the place.)
Illmatic was a total classic, yes. But Stillmatic was a great album, dropped after several weaker albums. It was at least 6 or 7 years after Illmatic.
When I asked 10 years ago, the answer was Tricky.
InvisibleWombat
Aesop Rock - No Regrets Aesop Rock is probably one of the single most sophisticated Hip Hop artists out there, between his lyrical style, the music and the content of what he is saying.
Here is an exerpt of the song.
This is probably my favorite Hip Hop track. It gets me every time.
Also, never discount Eminem, the man is absolutely amazing on the mic.
One of the aspects of Hip Hop is honesty. The more honest it is the more ‘cred’ it gets. I think that there is sort of an artificial division between rap and Hip Hop these days along those lines. Rap is the posers and Hip Hop is the people who are honestly expressing themselves. Though, a lot about the distinction is kind of artificial and arbitrary.
It is less important than the distinction between New Wave and Punk, which evolved to become very different styles of music. To say that Depeche Mode and the Sex Pistols are seperated only by the synthesizer is a bit simplistic.
I saw a really cool bit of graffiti in the bathroom stall at Hunter College. It said, “Graffiti is the Jazz of Calligraphy”, and the “Graffiti is the Jazz” part was in Graff style and the Calligraphy part was in Calligraphic style.
One thing that turns me off in some of the rap/hip-hop I hear my son listen to is the references to feuds and partnerships and rivalries and grand-standing between various artists. It’s as bad as a soap opera- or professional wrestling. I don’t want to try to keep track of what rapper has said what trash about another rapper. I don’t want to know about the petty jealousies of the personalities that perform the music. I don’t care who has insulted whom. And I don’t want a list of the names of everyone performing in the group on this particular song recited to me as part of the lyric…if I want to read credits, I’ll check out the liner notes. Just tell the story. I can’t imagine Gordon Lightfoot saying bad things about Paul Simon in a song, or even Paul Simon saying anything bad about Art Garfunkel! And yes, I know there are a few rock songs with cryptic comments about other groups…but the very fact of their being cryptic meant you didn’t have to know anything about the artist’s personal life to enjoy the song.It’s that play-acting aspect of rap/hip-hop that is a major turnoff for me, so that I’m not inclined to seek out the better performers.
That’s all that’s stopping you? You’re so vain…I bet you think all the songs are about you.
Yea, like no one ever gets pissed off by someone else. Why should they hide their feelings. I can’t really get upset at the honestly of rap music.
It’s funny because there must be a million songs about people being pissed off at their SO and no one gives them a second look. Then Eminem comes along and describes how he really feels about his SO and everyone gets upset.
One thing you must understand about hip hop is that the music is built on a relationship between fiction and reality, much moreso than other types of popular music. The rappers personal/public life is of critical importance to the music. Sometimes it can get pretty ridiculous, and even rap fans tire of some acts’ petty rvialries that seem to shift weekly. But the music has always relied on fans having an extra-musical understanding of the rapper; it asks listeners to draw connections between what the artist is saying and external events, be they pop-cultural or biographically derived.
One of the best hip hop albums of 2006 was The Game’s Doctor’s Advocate, but the subtleties of the album only made sense if you understood the peripheral characters The Game placed in his narrative, and you had to understand the Game’s curious position in hip hop. You can call that soap-opera if you like - I don’t really understand why themes of jealousy, bravado, betrayal and regret are necessarily soap opera-ish - but don’t doubt that the music has an intertextuality that is in many ways more sophisticated than the stories artists from other genres tell. Compare it, perhaps, to the way The Daily Show is most enjoyable if you understand the news and news programs it is commenting on.
It is as if the knowledge that Paul Simon wrote “The Only Living Boy in New York” as a message to Art Garfunkel added another layer of meaning to the track, rather than simply being an interesting piece of trivia.
mswas, if you like Aesop Rock, you should check out Lil’ Wayne. He’s another level again in terms of wordplay and lyrical impressionism.
But that’s what I mean…the back story is so important to some of these songs that it doesn’t stand alone as well as it might. In twenty years, who is going to remember who dissed who coming out of a bar one day? But a more subtle story like “The Only Living Boy In New York” holds up without having to know all the layers. But my experience with this music is even more limited than twickster’s My son does play a lot of Eminem for me, and I can follow the storyline in those. It’s just the name-dropping and, as was mentioned above, the fictional nature of these feuds that make me think of a soap opera when I hear it. And yes, I get what you’re saying about “You’re So Vain”. But again…no names, no specifics, so you can apply that song to your own life without wondering who exactly she was thinking about when she wrote it. You don’t have to know if there was any truth behind it at all. Brutally honest, but not specific.
I know, I was picking on you a little bit. The “feuds” are a form of competition. Since rappers aren’t shooting each other much these days, a lot of the feuds become posturing with rapper B having to come up with a good song and something interesting to come back at rapper A about. It goes back and forth and the genre of music becomes the winner. Hell, everyone wins, because if people are interested in the two parties involved, then they make money from album sales as well.
I understand kind of coming in the middle of it, much like a movie that you start watching as a result of channel surfing. I also understood being put off by it, but if it’s something that would be mildly interesting to me, I’d either wait for the movie to start over again or seek the parts I was missing.
Additionally, Ms. Simon’s song IS about someone. If you can block that from your mind, even though you know the lyrics, then you can just as simply do the same for other music.
And the song references a guy flying around on a Lear jet to see a race horse he owns… What kind of people do YOU know? Can I know them too?
I’m a lady of a certain age (48) who rather likes me some rap music. I like stuff which is more melodic, more “musical” if you will than the straight up rap-with-drums sound. Probably the best example I can think of rap that speaks to me is Mos Def/Massive Attack “I Against I,” which can be found on the Blade II soundtrack. Basically, it has to make me want to dance in order for me to like it.
I had the usual older person initial reaction to rap–“damned noise, no music, what the hell is this crap, anyway?” but then my son dragged home some Insane Clown Posse. I know, I know, Juggalos suck and so does ICP, I’ve read it a bazillion times here on the ‘dope, no love for the Juggalos, I got it. That initial disclaimer out of the way, I found that a lot of their stuff was more music oriented than the starker rap I was used to hearing, and I liked that aspect. Then I started listening to the lyrics and they just cracked me the hell up–it made me realize that the exaggerated lyrics in rap music are mostly just posturing and boasting for effect and not to be taken too seriously. ICP is no more serious about chopping people’s heads off with an axe than the rest of them are serious about popping a cap in a cop’s head or in their rivals’ and I bet money very few rappers go home and call their wives “bitchaz” more than once in a lifetime… 
So I got a bit more open minded, at least on the subject of white Detroit rappers, anyway… Kid Rock is like rap + hillbilly and I could get behind that. Eminem is a skinny little white boy, but he can rap–a little too pissed at the Mrs for my taste, though. Then I started listening to more old school, Snoop Dogg and Cypress Hill and such and suddenly I had to admit that I kinda like the genre. Not all of it–I don’t like ALL of ANY genre, 'cuz I’m a picky little thang, but quite a bit of rap I can definitely get to like.
Lately I’ve been appreciating Spanish rap, most specifically Control Machete because the fusion of that staid, BOOMP-boomp, BOOMP-boomp, mariachi beat and sound with incredibly high speed staccato Spanish lyrics is irresistably catchy. Love the lead rapper’s voice, too, it’s terribly distinctive.
So, no big help on the difference between rap and hip hop as I’m way too old and white to figure it out, but musically there’s a lot of validity there and quite a lot of fun to be had.