Hip-Hop in 2014 Thread

[J Dog]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AhXSoKa8xw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jU_ubZX3U0

[Jakey Styley]

Blacker the Berry is fucking sick. I love how Kendrick can make songs that are so lyrically potent but also just musically enjoyable.

Drake released a surprise "mixtape" (its an album, you have to pay for it) 3 days ago and it's already at 493k sales, and all the sales aren't even tallied up yet. I don't like his music but those numbers are very impressive for 2015.

Edited February 17, 2015 by Jakey Styley

[CheapJon]

Won't be bothered with making a new thread for this year.

Also listening to Joey Badass for the first time right now, seems pretty good. Any opinions?

Edited March 18, 2015 by CheapJon

[drtydane]

Kendrick Lamar is unquestionably the best of the new school.

Eminem's latest album to me was fantastic

Drake is a decent rapper who puts out good songs.

D.J. Ashba is the best guitarist gnr ever had..

[TeeJay410]

Kendrick Lamar is unquestionably the best of the new school.

Eminem's latest album to me was fantastic

Drake is a decent rapper who puts out good songs.

D.J. Ashba is the best guitarist gnr ever had..

Over a year later I still stand by those three statements despite the fourth one you shoehorned in. Are you about to tell me Kendrick isn't the best rapper alive in this moment? To pimp a butterfly is a god damn masterpiece. MMLP2 is Eminem's best since The Eminem Show (though I personally think Relapse is way underrated). Drake keeps winning. I'm not his biggest fan but I get the appeal.

DJ Ashba is shit. Let me guess, you're an underground purist Immortal Technique listener?

[magisme]

Won't be bothered with making a new thread for this year.

Also listening to Joey Badass for the first time right now, seems pretty good. Any opinions?

Keep at Joey Badass. Good stuff.

[CheapJon]

Yeah I was going to give TPAB a couple of more listens but stumbled upon JB, ended up ordering his new CD.

[Len Cnut]

Kendrick Lamar is unquestionably the best of the new school.

Eminem's latest album to me was fantastic

Drake is a decent rapper who puts out good songs.

D.J. Ashba is the best guitarist gnr ever had..

Over a year later I still stand by those three statements despite the fourth one you shoehorned in. Are you about to tell me Kendrick isn't the best rapper alive in this moment? To pimp a butterfly is a god damn masterpiece. MMLP2 is Eminem's best since The Eminem Show (though I personally think Relapse is way underrated). Drake keeps winning. I'm not his biggest fan but I get the appeal.

DJ Ashba is shit. Let me guess, you're an underground purist Immortal Technique listener?

Drake is just fucking dreadful quite frankly. As in awful. Kendrick is WAY overrated inoffensive college boy music, though quite talented with the rhymes he is nowhere near the best rapper alive at this moment, nowhere near. Eminem alone would absolutely bum Kendrick on the mic. Shit, a lot of the old school battle rhymers, KRS etc would destroy him and they wouldn't need to fit 80 rhymes to a bar to do so. You can get lost in the technical aspect and wow people with rhyme schemes and have somebody tear you apart just based on their fierceness, the astuteness of their observations and the way they move the crowd. There are people out there that were raised on battle. You can't play out people like LL or KRS on the mic and the minute one of the new school rappers steps out of pocket you'll see whats up. But they won't cuz they ain't stupid, they seen what happened to the Canibuses of the day, he was a out and out rhymer with that wow factor too and look what LL did to him. Slayed him.

[J Dog]

"49 pounds and tryin to be a mobster runnin around town with the Bob Marley imposter,

Ask Cannibus cause he aint understandin this cause 99 percent of his fans don't exist"

[Len Cnut]

And y'know what, when i heard Second Round Knockout i thought that was it, how was LL gonna come back from that. How wrong was I eh?

[drtydane]

Kendrick Lamar is unquestionably the best of the new school.

Eminem's latest album to me was fantastic

Drake is a decent rapper who puts out good songs.

D.J. Ashba is the best guitarist gnr ever had..

Over a year later I still stand by those three statements despite the fourth one you shoehorned in. Are you about to tell me Kendrick isn't the best rapper alive in this moment? To pimp a butterfly is a god damn masterpiece. MMLP2 is Eminem's best since The Eminem Show (though I personally think Relapse is way underrated). Drake keeps winning. I'm not his biggest fan but I get the appeal.

DJ Ashba is shit. Let me guess, you're an underground purist Immortal Technique listener?

Drake is just fucking dreadful quite frankly. As in awful. Kendrick is WAY overrated inoffensive college boy music, though quite talented with the rhymes he is nowhere near the best rapper alive at this moment, nowhere near. Eminem alone would absolutely bum Kendrick on the mic. Shit, a lot of the old school battle rhymers, KRS etc would destroy him and they wouldn't need to fit 80 rhymes to a bar to do so. You can get lost in the technical aspect and wow people with rhyme schemes and have somebody tear you apart just based on their fierceness, the astuteness of their observations and the way they move the crowd. There are people out there that were raised on battle. You can't play out people like LL or KRS on the mic and the minute one of the new school rappers steps out of pocket you'll see whats up. But they won't cuz they ain't stupid, they seen what happened to the Canibuses of the day, he was a out and out rhymer with that wow factor too and look what LL did to him. Slayed him.

I really never understood all the hype for Kendrick Lamar. Cuz he's from Compton? His voice is annoying and he really isn't all that impressive. Drake is as annoying as lil Wayne. Kanye is better than Kendrick Lamar as far as the current main stream goes. And marshal mathers 2 was trash and quite frankly they should have named it something different. The samples drove me crazy. I like relapse better, and agree that it's underrated.

[Len Cnut]

I loved MMLP2. Brainless has one of the hardest old time hard hitting hip hop beats i heard in a long fuckin' time. Whys Kendrick rated? Skills. I agree about his voice being annoying. And his cartoon militancy is kinda laughable.

[Crazyman]

This thread...what the fuck?

Hmm, what's more college-boy rapper than featuring Rihanna on two separate radio-produced, bullshit singles that have literally no artistic integrity and were only made for the sole purpose of keeping that rappers name popular with young people?

What's more college-boy rapper that, after returning from a hiatus and dropping a pretty good album that simply didn't connect with as large of an audience as he was used to, that rapper changed his entire style to mimic what other popular rappers were doing? Dropping terrible punchlines throughout his songs? Featuring hooks from random singers (the guy from Fun? What in the ever-loving mother fuck is he doing on an Eminem album?!)? Only featuring the most popular rappers of the time, such as Lil Wayne and Kendrick, whereas he used to feature people he actually worked with and had chemistry with?

Kendrick's voice is annoying? And Marshall's "THIS IS THE WAY I'M GOING TO RAP ON EVERY SONG BECAUSE I'M IN MY 40'S AND CAN NO LONGER PORTRAY EMOTION OTHER THAN SCREAMING FOR NO REASON" isn't? Not to mention, when's the last time he had any sort of original voice on anything worthwhile? Even Encore, which is easily his worst album has songs like Mosh and Like Toy Soldiers, songs that went beyond his own personal problems and dealt with larger issues. I don't want to hear stadium-rock bullshit like "Survival" and fucking Joe Walsh samples while you rap about Kmart and McDonalds for the 100th time...

Despite all that I actually enjoy Eminem, but to say that Kendrick is "college boy rap" and Eminem isn't is ridiculous. Kendrick can't tell stories? Bullshit, he's released two great concept albums in a row. Fitting 80 rhymes in a bar? Guess who does that more often these days...I'll give you a hint, he's white, in his 40's and instead of being the trendsetter he was, he now follows trends.

Eminem is simply going through the motions at this point, rapping because it's the only thing he knows how to do (other than producing, which he said he'll start focusing on as he gets older). Whereas his older songs were filled with genuine passion, it's clear his newer songs are filled with faux emotions. It's artificial, and it's obvious. It's also unfortunate.

TL;DR - if you don't like Kendrick, that's fine, but don't act like he's some bullshit oriented rapper appealing to a certain demographic while placing Eminem (and especially post 2009) on a throne of artistic integrity. It's embarrassing.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Crazyman

[drtydane]

I agree that eminem isn't what he used to be. I'm just saying I could never get into Kendrick Lamar. As far as em having singles that are good for the radio and don't represebt the rest of the album, that's pretty much been the formula since sslp, or really from the beginning of hip hop in general.

[Crazyman]

I agree that eminem isn't what he used to be. I'm just saying I could never get into Kendrick Lamar. As far as em having singles that are good for the radio and don't represebt the rest of the album, that's pretty much been the formula since sslp, or really from the beginning of hip hop in general.

Like I said I have no problem with anyone not being able to get into Kendrick, that cup of tea isn't for everyone. My problem is with disrespecting the guy like he's Tyga or Drake or some bullshit.

In regards to the radio single/rest of the album, it's true that on his first 4 releases it was more of an anomaly (maybe not so much for Encore, considering most of the content), but the problem is that lately it's become much more representative of his work as a whole. Love The Way You Lie, Lighters, The Monster, Guts Over Fear all follow the same exact formula. Famous pop star sings the hook to some bullshit radio-produced song. The Eminem of 2000 would blow his brains out if he listened to The Marshall Mathers LP 2 or Recovery. If I ever had to listen to "Stronger Than I Was" again, I'd probably do it myself, too.

And before anyone brings up Dido, remember that Stan was a carefully crafted song that wasn't suited for radio at all.

[Jakey Styley]

At least we can all agree that Drake sucks. I respect how much of a star he is I guess, if that's something to be respected, but I just see no creativity in him at all. I also cringe when he tries to act tough, which seems to be more and more often right now.

[Crazyman]

Drake is the modern day Vanilla Ice, in that he's the biggest fraud in rap (and his music sucks). Nothing about him is legitimate at all, especially when he acts tough

[TeeJay410]

Kendrick's new album is the antithesis of a college frat boy album. It is the blackest and most political mainstream rap album in decades. It's embarrassing how obviously little you know about Kendrick lamar.

[TeeJay410]

Kendrick didn't make the album college frat boys wanted to hear, he made the album they needed to hear. There are no "swimming pools," "bitch don't kill my vibe" or "backseat freestyle" to make the political raps go down easier. It might end up being the most important rap album of the decade.

[Len Cnut]

This thread...what the fuck?

Hmm, what's more college-boy rapper than featuring Rihanna on two separate radio-produced, bullshit singles that have literally no artistic integrity and were only made for the sole purpose of keeping that rappers name popular with young people?

What's more college-boy rapper that, after returning from a hiatus and dropping a pretty good album that simply didn't connect with as large of an audience as he was used to, that rapper changed his entire style to mimic what other popular rappers were doing? Dropping terrible punchlines throughout his songs? Featuring hooks from random singers (the guy from Fun? What in the ever-loving mother fuck is he doing on an Eminem album?!)? Only featuring the most popular rappers of the time, such as Lil Wayne and Kendrick, whereas he used to feature people he actually worked with and had chemistry with?

Questioning Eminems pedigree is a joke.

Kendrick's voice is annoying? And Marshall's "THIS IS THE WAY I'M GOING TO RAP ON EVERY SONG BECAUSE I'M IN MY 40'S AND CAN NO LONGER PORTRAY EMOTION OTHER THAN SCREAMING FOR NO REASON" isn't? Not to mention, when's the last time he had any sort of original voice on anything worthwhile? Even Encore, which is easily his worst album has songs like Mosh and Like Toy Soldiers, songs that went beyond his own personal problems and dealt with larger issues. I don't want to hear stadium-rock bullshit like "Survival" and fucking Joe Walsh samples while you rap about Kmart and McDonalds for the 100th time...

My main problem with Em', or the closest i have to a problem with him is similar to whats touched upon here, i don't like the more emotional stuff, kinda a bit much at this point. And the whole we can make it you can make it inspirational stuff, I could agree with that.

Despite all that I actually enjoy Eminem, but to say that Kendrick is "college boy rap" and Eminem isn't is ridiculous. Kendrick can't tell stories? Bullshit, he's released two great concept albums in a row.

I didn't say he can't tell stories, i said that before you had rappers who were storytellers and their story was engaging and Kendricks aren't to me, there's nothing interesting about any of the stories he tells and there's nothing interesting about him.

if you don't like Kendrick, that's fine, but don't act like he's some bullshit oriented rapper appealing to a certain demographic while placing Eminem (and especially post 2009) on a throne of artistic integrity. It's embarrassing.

Well if you're embarassed I'll turn face the other way and say it, Kendrick is a bullshit orientated rapper that doesn't have an interesting story to tell to me, i don't see anything there like that with him, there's nothing he can tell me, it's just like that, nothing about any story he tells is interesting.

[Len Cnut]

Kendrick's new album is the antithesis of a college frat boy album. It is the blackest and most political mainstream rap album in decades. It's embarrassing how obviously little you know about Kendrick lamar.

i never said shit about frat boys, i dunno what one is, I mean college boy album as in it's staid and studious and boring. And it's not political at all, it says jack shit political, if anything it cops out, it doesn't commit to any kind of political position, it has all this pro black stuff and then all this 'well y'know we should look at ourselves too' bullshit effectively neutering the point, what you're left with is 'we all need to all do our little bit and work together and make the world a better place'...thats fuckin' politically charged? Its a joke and it's the perfect album for a mainstream audience because it's totally non-commital in the overall message it presents. Try Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z for political, try Return of the Boom Bap for political, that ain't political, thats going for that thoughtful audience and making sure nobody gets offended in the process.

I dunno why you guys keep getting embarassed, i dunno if it's like a hormone thing or what but it's OK, i love you all too, i feel it, i feel it

[Jakey Styley]

^But I mean, it's honesty, all the issues that Kendrick is bringing up and his opinions on them are honest. I'm sure he doesn't go into something telling himself to tip toe around and not offend people, I think he's actually just intelligent enough to understand that things aren't black and white and solutions often sit in the middle. I think he's thought all of this shit through more than almost any other rapper and that's why his stances often end up not at an extreme, and I respect people who are able to see things like that rather than lean too heavily towards one side to the point of not being able to see it any other way. I don't listen to Kendrick looking for a direct opinion as much as I listen for the story he's telling and just for his insight on the themes he's bringing up and the way he weaves all of it together into an album is impressive, because he's really saying a lot. I think it's harder (like, takes more skill) to say everything he says in a musically cohesive manner than to just do some straight up black power album (or whatever subject it is thats being dealt with)

I wouldn't call his music political because I do think that word implies that there are strong opinions being shared, I'd just call his music fascinating and really thought provoking.

[Len Cnut]

But I mean, it's honesty, all the issues that Kendrick is bringing up and his opinions on them are honest. I'm sure he doesn't go into something telling himself to tip toe around and not offend people, I think he's actually just intelligent enough to understand that things aren't black and white and solutions often sit in the middle.

Solutions? So he's got the answer? I just figured it was one mans opinion but wow, if we're being offered solutions thats kinda more into the corny. But assuming thats true for a second then it comes back to what I'm saying about there not really being anything interesting to his thing, this non-commital thing...and thats how he is generally. And thats not to say that interesting means taking a side but some kind of unique perspective, i don't see it.

I think he's thought all of this shit through more than almost any other rapper

No comment.

and that's why his stances often end up not at an extreme, and I respect people who are able to see things like that rather than lean too heavily towards one side to the point of not being able to see it any other way.

I find people like that kinda easy to not listen to because they're not saying anything you don't learn in grade school, this is again what i mean about not interesting, nothing to tell, nothing at its core, insubstantial, i don't need Kendrick Lamar to tell me there are two sides to every story and lets be good and not be bad, in a very wordy kinda way, it's tedious.

I don't listen to Kendrick looking for a direct opinion as much as I listen for the story he's telling and just for his insight on the themes he's bringing up and the way he weaves all of it together into an album is impressive, because he's really saying a lot.

I haven't seen any kinda insight yet. And the stories are kinda boring, there's nothing cool or sharp about them. I'm really starting to think maybe I'm too old and this is kinda young persons music and thats why a lot of the stuff he says isn't relevant to me.

I think it's harder (like, takes more skill) to say everything he says in a musically cohesive manner than to just do some straight up black power album (or whatever subject it is thats being dealt with)

I think you have a point here. He's strong as fuck like that, in the expression part. You're given a lot. And he's got it there to be something of a monster with the rhymes. There's a point where, as a rhymer, you get so good i gotta almost by default give you a 7 out of 10 just for being able to do that with words and Kendrick can do that, I must admit.

I wouldn't call his music political because I do think that word implies that there are strong opinions being shared, I'd just call his music fascinating and really thought provoking.

I wouldn't call it political either.

[Crazyman]

We're gonna simply disagree on Kendrick, which is fine, but I cannot accept calling him college boy or bullshit rapping. He has legit content, legit thoughts (even if we disagree on it completely), etc. When you call him something like that you compare him and his content to some ordinary, run of the mill rapper, when in actuality he actually lived the life he talks about. That's what draws a lot of people to him, outside of his actual rapping ability - he's authentic. He's not an actual college boy bullshit rapper with fake content like Drake.

[TeeJay410]

Lenny, my comment was meant for

Dirtydiana or whatever.

If you can't hear the politics on the new album, I don't know what to say. But not only is it political, it's unbelievably personal and honest. It's honest in the fact that while he is speaking this pro black politics, he refuses to admit he knows everything, or that his experience represents all black experience. It's an amazing record, and if you can't respect it, you haven't listened.

Just because there isn't a defined position doesn't mean it's not political. It's just honest that he doesn't pretend to know the solutions. He's representing his experience.

Edited March 20, 2015 by TeeJay410