Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

[X*Cell]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

General Question: What rappers would you say are on the same level as Jay-Z?

too many to name.

[SHO]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

General Question: What rappers would you say are on the same level as Jay-Z?

Currently or all-time?

[Joey P]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

General Question: What rappers would you say are on the same level as Jay-Z?

LOL, what level is Jay-Z on?

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Currently.

Strictly "Mainstream" dudes.

[SHO]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

You didn't exactly describe levels, so here's my conditions to this list:
a) The artist has put out a quality release within the past year
b) Has a decent catalog and can actually rap well

Lupe Fiasco - Best current rapper not named Andre 3000
Kanye West - Incredibly strong catalog
Mos Def - Flaco Bey showed that he still has it on The Estatic
Nas - Par the course, but both are on the decline
Eminem - Relaspe was a strong rebound from Encore
Young Jeezy - Like him or not, but his catalog is strong
Freeway - Continues to improve greatly
Lil' Wayne - only on the condition that he's sober and/or actually tries
50 Cent - I still maintain that when Curtis goes on his mixtape grind is a problem
Killer Mike - IPATTG was crazy mixtape/album
Scarface - Emeritus was great
T.I. - Even though I think that his albums after KING were disappointing, he's still one of the better mainstream artists.
Ludacris - Fringe selection because bar-for-bar one of the best rappers that I've ever heard, but he is racked by maddening inconsistency on his albums

Those are the only worthwhile mainstream artists off the top of my head that at this point are on Jay-Z level in terms of lyricism and acutal songs. He should have stopped after The Black Album, after that it was clear he's lost a step.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Anybody pick up Mos Def's latest album?

[dossier]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Summer Jam was the s**tttttttt

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Recap?

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Anybody pick up Mos Def's latest album?

Auditorium is just

Listening to the rest now...

Edit:

Most eclectic album ever..

Mos comes strong lyrically..

However same ole story with me and Mos.. I just can't get into his music that deeply. I don't connect with it.. I feel like you have to be drugged out to enjoy it.

I would say I will replay about 2 or 3 songs from this album again.

[dossier]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Recap?

To the show or the CD?

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Your talking about the Show right? I didn't know they had a CD.

[trobinson97]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Making my own lil Dungeon mix, featuring some of these.

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[dossier]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

Your talking about the Show right? I didn't know they had a CD.

Oooo, I thought you meant the above poster.

Basically the show sucked until Jadakis came on, and he killed it, especially when Letter to B.I.G. came on and everyone was remorseful.

Then Young Jeezy comes on and does his thang. This is where the show got great. Jeezy does his normal lyrics for Put on, then there's a silence and everyone thinks Kanye West is going to walk on. Jay-Z walks on and everyone at tht stadium goes beserk. Chants of "Hova Hova Hova" abound.

He say's "put on the T-Pain ****, no f*ck tht" and finishes off the song. Then Hova says f*ck this and starts playing D.O.A., crowd goes nuts and T-Pain actually walks onto the stage while he raps about the Death Of Autotune. ( I found out later that Jay had no idea why he was onstage)

They ended the concert with Jim Jones who didn't do **** and Juelz who did a great job. The actual ending was Soulja Boy's "turn my swag on"

Overall just a great concert.

[dossier]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

I've got a question for you guys.

What's up with all these people saying Hip Hop is dead? Are you guys seriously getting this mad at kids having fun with rap?

I mean I personally don't like it, but whats wrong with rap evolving?

[FedEx227]

Re: Official Hip Hop/Rap Music Thread

I think there's a certain level and responsiblity major labels have to obviously keep the music "fun", but it can't be ALL one thing. You know what I'm trying to say?

There has to be balance... it can't be all gangsta stuff, it can't all be concious stuff and it can't all be catchy dance stuff, there has to be a balance.

In the past 2-3 years there has been absolutely no balance to mainstream hip-hop. It's all been dumbed down stuff which does nothing. You can have fun some of the time, but people associate hip hop or rap as just that, when that's really unfair.

If anything the music is devolving. Beats are becoming ultra-simplistic, flow apparently doesn't matter anymore, having a catchy dance is more important than having any real subject or motive to the music.

There can be a certain amount of songs that have fun and are dances and what not, you need that... but that can't be all hip-hop is.

And no, anyone who says it's dead is lying. It's not dead. It's just not on the radio or on MTV. Hip-hop is alive and well, you just have to find it and listen to it yourself.