Fuck it, the Drunk Thread

Real talk, most people I've spoken to that don't like rap aren't smart enough to get it.*

I mean, most people that LIKE it aren't smart enough to get it, but I'd wager that 90% of the clucking fogeys that chide rap as talentless couldn't break down a Lupe 16 if their life depended on it.




*I don't mean smart generally -- I mean it takes a certain linguistic capacity to appreciate lyrics that has to be developed over some time. It's like anything else, in that once you realize what even mediocre rappers are doing with words, it's hard NOT to appreciate. I LOVE when non-rappers try to rap, or write raps, because it's always terrible.

 

Perhaps I'm playing into your statement, but I literally don't understand what you're trying to say here. Are you suggesting that rap lyrics are of such high intellectual nature that the majority of people don't get them? Because that seems typically false, albeit obviously with exceptional artists...Or that rap is somehow "more intelligent" than other genres? Or merely that the average music listener is not Einstein?


Edit: OK, after seeing your edit, that makes more sense I suppose. Although I'm not sure it is necessarily on a higher linguistic plane, as many artists (not all) tend to tend more towards verbal dexterity at the expense of sort of a higher level of abstraction. At least compared to say, Dylan. But of course it's difficult to speak about the characteristics of the genre as a whole.

 

I'm sorry, but I do believe that was emo crap. If you like that kind of music, that's fine, but I gave them a try, and I didn't like it. Now here is the best song AC/DC has ever recorded. It was a song so bitchin' that they couldn't get it released on any of their albums. Here is Dirty Eyes.


I know that Brian Johnson is a great vocalist, and the best replacement lead singer in the history of rock 'n roll, but you will never top Bon Scott as the frontman for AC/DC. That man was a true rock star: an individual with a seemingly superhuman ability to consume intoxicants, and could still put on a great show.
Other honorable mentions: Nikki Sixx, John Bohnham, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Ozzy Osbourne. THOSE ARE ROCK STARS.
I kinda feel sorry for kids these days; the "rock stars" they have available these days are guys like Dave Grohl and the guys in all those other faggy emo bands.

 

A part of me wishes that I lived in an alternative universe where nobody else knew that the word nigger carried the baggage it did, but I would know. I would then use it gratuitously. In everyday situations, formal situations, informal situations, exams and tests, phone calls, etc.

The first thing is to keep yourself amused without anyone else knowing about it.

Also, Nom, I'm a white kid from the suburbs. Granted, a black suburb, but a suburb nonetheless. I couldn't very well take myself seriously if I went around listening to typical garden variety rap. But I'm finding with some stuff now there's an aesthetic appeal to the music. Even if I don't understand what the words are (or would rather not know what they are) it's still got slick production and is entertaining to listen to. "Meaning" be damned. Half of the songs that try to go for meaning over musicality end up being over-wrought anyways.

16 year old me would kick me in the balls for saying this. God.

 

I have not. but I have thought about selling my body for sex because i need the money for nurses.

 

You. Because you're white.

 

You mean how many people don't understand ebonics? Or don't understand any esoteric dialect (like Australian slang, Tex-Mex slang, etc.)? If you understand every aspect of every language, then of course you would get all the nuances of any sort of music you are listenening to.
For example, I wouldn't expect many people who don't listen to country music to know what it means to "walk the floor," because it isn't a term that most people use (at least in my area, where most people speak spanish).

 

The funny thing here is that you could use the same excuse for not wanting to get into Shakespeare, or Byron, or Dickens. The lack of desire in wanting to learn a vernacular that you wouldn't use in real life. Rap includes a vocabulary and a sense of wordplay that requires a desire to want to know what the words actually mean, and you can see that in trying to keep within meter (or on beat), and using slant rhymes and multi-line rhymes that good rap is actually art.

(I'm not comparing Byron, Dickens and Shakespeare to the Ying Yang Twins. An element of the former is similar to the latter in terms of modern day White People appreciation)

ETA: Dixie hit it on the head with less big words.

 

Well, I mean, this is true....but not really what I think nom meant. Or at least not quite. It's more than vocabulary. It's more about conventions.

Imagine if you had never seen a sonnet. There's certain structural components of a sonnet that are helpful (albeit perhaps not necessary) to truly appreciate what is going on. While it's not as formal, obviously, it helps to have some level of appreciation for the context that an individual rap song exists within, and this tends to require a little bit of exploration of the landscape.

 

Of course, I ninja-edited to make your question redundant, because that's how I roll, biatch.

Outside of two months in high school, I've never played the guitar. I didn't grow up listening to rock music. As such, I can identify guitar music that I think sounds good, but I'm not really qualified to say that "so and so is or isn't talented." You want to know something? A lot of guitar solos just sound like noise to me. But I don't feel the need to judge in the same way that people do with rap music.

I gravitate towards more lyrically dextrous songs, no doubt. But I can't count how many times I've shown somebody a song, and pointed out a lyric that I thought was nice, and realize that it flew completely over their heads. You don't have to be smart to get them, you just have to be used to picking it out. Sort of like breaking down poetry seems tough when you're in 5th grade, but is second nature by the second semester of an English major.

Also, outside of the actual meaning of the lyrics, I don't think people appreciate how much vocal/intellectul talent goes into being a good rapper. It's why relatively mediocre shit like Lonely Island gets so much run. Don't worry my blancos, I'll break it down for you. Separate post because I'm a gangsta.

 

Maybe I'm just being an elitist dick (high likelihood), but I always laugh when one of my friends gets into hip hop and within a week will mention Atmosphere. Not taking anything away from Sean Daley or whatever, but what is it about their music that is a perfect stepping stone for suburban white kids to get into hip hop?

I remember being a kid and buying CD's out of a trunk of a car in Texas, and I asked the guy if he any rap. He laughed, and said no, but he's got something better and gave me two discs: Mobb Deep (Infamous), The Geto Boys (The Geto Boys). Blew my mind.

The first minute of this song is one of my favorite things ever...

 

Nett, I think it was more of a conscious homage than a rip-off. Most of the rappers (well, more the producers) of that era were extremely influenced by funk, and openly admit to it being a huge inspiration for them. For example, Dre's style is known as "G-Funk" due to the sampling and influence of P-funk.

 

Totally on topic with this rap talk:


We should get Hotwheelz started with some battlin', he'd crush.