Eminem is pretty good in the lyrical construction arena.
But if you’re just hearing thes tuff on the radio, you’re not hearing the good stuff. I must confess, though, that I’m not familiar with a lot of the current “underground” stuff. But is you want to hear great lyrics, check out some “old school” artists like Sir Mix-A-Lot, U.T.F.O., The Fresh Prince (Will Smith), Tone Loc, Young MC. All of these rappers are good at telling a story in rhyme, and are frequently hilariously funny.
I don’t know why people come down on rap so much and I’m no fan. Yeah, 90% is crap but 90% of everything is crap. Just because you give a sample of simple lyrics doesn’t mean there aren’t any insightful rappers. Anyone remember “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah?” Pretty dumb lyic. That band had no future in pop music.
You’ve obviously not listened to a lot of rap then. Tongue-in-cheek and humorous lyrics are fairly standard. I’d even venture to say that it has more of a sense of humor than rock.
I hate almost all rap, but then, I’m a 43 year old white guy.
Fact remains, at this point, it’s ridiculous to suggest that rap is merely a fad. Rap has now been around for 25 years (if you want to count the Sugar Hill Gang and/or Grandmaster Flash as the original rappers) or more.
By that measure, let’s say that rock and roll originated in 1956, when Elvis first hit the charts (yes, yes, I know it was around before Elvis, just humor me and accept that arbitrary year). If you’d heard someone claiming in 1981 that rock and roll was just a fad, you’d have LAUGHED at him, wouldn’t you? After 25 years, rock and roll was obviously a lot more than just a fad.
Well, rap has now reached a similar milestone. Hate it if you will (I sure do!), but you can’t dismiss it as a fad.
No, I haven’t listened to a lot of it. I listen to it when I can’t politely flee; mostly on jukeboxes and other peoples sound systems. That doesn’t count brief encounters at stoplights, with cars that are throbbing so hard you can’t read the emblems. If tongue-in-cheek, humorous lyrics are standard, then I must be encountering non-standard rap. Now there’s a head-spinning phrase; non-standard rap. My research is done in small batches. I can’t endure it for very long, unless I’m talking to somebody really fascinating
Milo: “Just once, I would like to hear you scream… in PAIN!”
Hallenbeck: “Play some rap music…”
Hehe, so true. Rap music… just make it go away please.
There’s a million flavors of rap, but let’s take something you’re probably familiar with as an example: 80s mainstream rap. You’re telling me you can’t hear the humor in Run DMC, De La Soul, the Beastie Boys, Biz Markie, Sir Mix-a-Lot?
Hell, even 2 Live Crew were funny as hell, if you knew not to take their lyrics too seriously.
If all you’re listening to is “gangster rap,” then, yes, perhaps there’s not so much humor in that. But if my idea of metal was all Metallica and Megadeth, I’d also come to the conclusion that metal takes itself too seriously.
That’s what most of the people in my shop listen to. I don’t mind it; but with a few exceptions (Nelly, a little Eminem, and a lot of the early 80’s stuff) I wouldn’t listen to it on my own. (wait, would you call Bloodhoung Gang hip-hop? I’ve got two of their CDs.)
However, there’s this other guy I work with, and he’ll bring in really off-the-wall stuff. Sometimes it’s okay, but once he brought in the soundtrack to The Last Dragon. Dear christ, that was horrible, horrible stuff.
Of course, I’m guilty of that, too. Just a little Wesley Willis and you’ve never heard such whining…