rockets 'r' us' thread and some of the responses have gotten me thinking. . . a little background: I grew up watching yo! mtv raps after school in middle and high school. my rap progression went, roughly, from beastie boys to run dmc to dj jazzy jeff to tone loc to kool moe dee to d-nice to poor righteous teacher, public enemy, kwame and a host of others. I have vivid memories of my first listen to "boyz n the hood". a friend of mine played it for us on his golf cart's cassette player while we were all out for an afternoon of golf as middle schoolers. feast your eyes upon the irony of that! anyway, here's my question: for those of you who, like me, came of age sort of at the same time as rap did. . . where have your ears taken you? what sort of rap, if any, still interests you? haven and dr. of dunk were talking about some contemporary rap artists in that other thread. I'm curious to know what rap has remained interesting for y'all. for the sake of the fun of it, you might include what rap you were into when you were younger and what rap you're into now. for me-- then: see above now: wyclef jean, pras, lauryn & all things Fugee the roots jurassic 5 anti-pop consortium p-diddy, biggie and mase circa '97 oratory beanz de la soul black eyed peas I may edit this later if I think of others I'm forgetting. . .
Man, i've run the spectrum of rap, from LL and the Fat Boys back in the day, as well as Run DMC, to groups like Das EFX, Onyx, A Tribe Called Quest, etc... As of now, I still really dig anything snoop or dre put out. But, as far as creativity, rhyming skills, etc., you can not touch Ludacris, Outkast, and Wyclef. Also totally enjoy Red and Meth, Jay-Z, Nelly, and Eminem.
I'm only 20, but I've been an avid listener of rap since I was 9 or so. Everything from Vanilla Ice (you have to admit it too), Hammer, LL Cool J, Naughty by Nature, NWA, all the Death Row artists (except Lady of Rage or whoever), Bad Boy artists, Cash Money, No Limit, Salt N Pepa, TLC, Da Brat, Lil Kim, Cypress Hill, House of Pain, Beastie Boys, Jermaine Dupri, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip. I'm prob forgetting some others.
I remember the first really cool rapper for me and the guys was LL Cool J. When he wore those red PUMA'S and the red sweat outfit in "I'm Bad"...made me want some red Puma's. Then it was Fat Boys, Run DMC. Later I started listening to Big Daddy Kane cause "He got the Job Done- He works" and Eric B and Rakim. Not to mention lots of EPMD, Ice T, and the first motherload album from NWA. Moved on to some Kwame, 3rd base, Too Short, and almost strictly Ice Cube. Nowadays I can only stand TuPac, and DMX. Dont know why, but those two seem to be the only two who garner any listening from me.
Stuff I liked way back when : Whodini RUN DMC (among the greatest of all time) LL Cool J (among the greatest of all time) Fat Boys (still have spit stains all over my parents' house as proof) Doug E Fresh (spit stains and sprained tongue) KRS ONE/BDP Public Enemy (among the greatest of all time) Kurtis Blowe NWA (had they been clean, they could've destroyed the charts, but then then they wouldn't be NWA. ) (among the greatest of all time) DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince MC Hammer (his show was far better than his rapping skills which were kinda lame) Beastie Boys (among the greatest of all time) Ice T THe D.O.C. (oh, what coulda been...) 2 Live Crew Queen Latifah MC Lyte Eventually went to groups like : X-Clan Cypress Hill House of Pain Bone Thugs 'N Harmony (very innovative style at the time, and really still is) Tribe Called Quest Tupac (among the greatest of all time) PM Dawn (another innovative style I haven't heard duplicated) Nowadays : I really don't go looking for rap or musich much anymore. I listen to pretty much what's on the radio. haven and some of you others have named some groups I guess I could check out. I also listen to a lot of stuff that has a good bass line and has more of a dance beat. Stuff like, Cash Money, Ludacris, Outkast, Nelly, DMX, some No Limit stuff, some Kid Rock. Stuff I can't stand that other people seem to like are acts like Jay-Z, Mase (thank God he found religion), Notorious B.I.G. (I got sick of his slobbering into the mic - enunciate son, enunciate), Puffy (he's so-so), Jermaine Dupri (a rat that can babble, wow), Limp Bizkit (his voice sounds like he's still going through puberty and his rhymes flow like your tongue on sandpaper), etc. I've always loved groups who have dominant vocals. Can't describe it, but to me that's what hits every bit as hard as the bass line in the background. Three come to mind : Chuck D/Public Enemy, Tupac, Brother J/XClan. Their sound just impacts and made me want to listen. They were intelligent as well, and actually had something to say, which helps. Although I did kinda lose some respect for XClan when they spelled the name of their own group wrong in one of their songs. lol. Oh that was a sad day...
hmmm... rap is gateway music. it looks like from few posts that listening to soft rap (Will Smith, Hammer, Vanilla Ice) leads to youths getting into hard rap (Wu-Tang, Ice-T and NWA) just a correlation... don't read into this post too much, I'm just making generalizations and having fun. There is no scientific legitimacy to the 'gateway' theory.
