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Old School Hip-Hop


J Dog

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^^^^Everything he said is true too. And the thing with the list, that's how it should be. Not all this goat, who's all time best talk. You almost have to bunch them together and just say, these dudes are it, they are standard, doesn't really matter who's the best.

I forgot just how good this soundtrack was...

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I saw Kane over the summer at a festival. Shit was awesome.

Man I missed a chance a couple of years ago to see a show with Kane, Slick Rick, Biz Markie, MC Lyte. Kicked myself hard for missing that.

Couple more from Juice. Treach shows why he is one of the most overlooked mc's ever and Too $hort shows he was more than pimps and sex back in the day.

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Yknow technically none of the stuff we've posted here, according to the gospel of hip hop counts as old school :lol: Old Skool is like Cold Crush, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Busy Bee etc. What we're listing here is mostly golden era hip hop, old school died in like 84/85.

Old School as a term has suddenly come to mean anything 15 or so years ago (not just in hip hop but generally) but the literal parameter of old school in a hip hop context is very narrow and specific.

And the thing with the list, that's how it should be. Not all this goat, who's all time best talk.

I see what you're saying and i think in the overall reckoning thats the way things should be but that should only be in your head, in the back of your mind, so's you don't find yourself taking life too seriously. Outwardly though, it should be all about whoose the GOAT, keep the fuckin' spirit of competition going. Hip Hop will die the minute you make it into this hippie dippy rock n roll thing where it's like *takes a deep toke* oh well man like, it's all like, subjective man and there's no betters and worses, fuck that shit, I'm telling you Rakim is God MC...now you prove me wrong...and thats where the spirit of hip hop is. That competition, like teachers asks a question in class and the kid who gets picked to answer is the one who lifts his hand up the highest and pushes the other kids hands down to get fuckin' picked, thats the spirit that keeps it alive.

There's something unique about this genre above all other forms of music and one element of that is the competitive aspect, it's kinda like music crossed with sport, it's the fuckin' complete masculine pursuit y'know? And thats why I'm so puritiannical about it and always the first to be like 'NO, NO, NO!!' when some 'innovation' comes in because hip hop is a perfect equation and though it is bound to evolve it's core principles simply cannot or we'll fuck it up, this good thing here. I feel about hip hop the way Islamists feel about Islam :lol: Y'know, like fuck that, it's perfect, follow it :lol: It'll grow itself, it'll evolve itself but the foundation HAS to be those principles of you will lose the fuckin'...neucleus of what makes it such a fuckin' sick culture.

Edited by Len B'stard
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Yknow technically none of the stuff we've posted here, according to the gospel of hip hop counts as old school :lol: Old Skool is like Cold Crush, Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Busy Bee etc. What we're listing here is mostly golden era hip hop, old school died in like 84/85.

Old School as a term has suddenly come to mean anything 15 or so years ago (not just in hip hop but generally) but the literal parameter of old school in a hip hop context is very narrow and specific.

Yeah I screwed that up. I saw Rakim freestyle and had to post one of my favorite songs by him. Then I saw that Kane interview and thought damn he has a song on the same album as my Rakim song. So you are to blame too :lol: The other two I will admit was me being lazy and using the same soundtrack. It was easy. I can't post vids right now but I will try and do better when I get the chance Len Bastard.

I'm with you on all that other stuff you said. Thing is, hip hop is kind of flirting with going down that path right now. The rock n roll thing you said is perfect. Not saying there isn't good stuff out there, but the competition isn't strong. You don't even have to go back before the 2000's to see it. Eminem, Jay-Z, Nas, 50 Cent, Outkast, T.I., DMX, just to name a few. That is some serious competition, and all of them were trying to prove they were the best. Since then, the competition just isn't like that, not from what I can see anyway.

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Since we've started down that path lets let the golden era in too :D. Yknow what i miss? The DJ cut, like Eric B and Polo and them would get their own tracks. Rappers need to start rolling with their DJs again, redeveloping that shit.

Edited by Len B'stard
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I'll go out on a limb and say nobody since the days of The God Rakim has substantially expanded on what HE gave to the art of MCing enough to where you can REALLY say that they've taken it somewhere. The Blueprint is there and you might get faster or fit more rhymes per bar...but those actually ideas? They are all Rakim Allah and thats why there is no better MC than him. The guy was a fuckin' beast and still is.

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I'll go out on a limb and say nobody since the days of The God Rakim has substantially expanded on what HE gave to the art of MCing enough to where you can REALLY say that they've taken it somewhere. The Blueprint is there and you might get faster or fit more rhymes per bar...but those actually ideas? They are all Rakim Allah and thats why there is no better MC than him. The guy was a fuckin' beast and still is.

You are probably right. I thought about it, and everbody I think of it's like, but they really didn't change shit, they were just really good. Even great mc's like Biggie or Eminem. Thier flow is pretty much an updated extension of Rakim and Kane, they were just really really good at it. I give Slick Rick a lot of credit too. He didn't change things like Rakim, but he kind of showed that, you could do more than just rhyme words together in rap.

The first rap battle (or at least first recorded battle)

Edited by J Dog
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For a little battle history for yous, the great Kane and Rakim battle that almost was but never quite. The story goes Biz Markie, G Rap, Kane and...i can't remember the fourth one came to watch Rakim in the booth. So anyway, he's recording Microphone Fiend right and these guys are listening in. He's taking some time getting the shit done, so long in fact, an hour or so, that Kane remarked 'i could've done 2 albums in the time this guy takes to spit one verse'. So Ra' rips up the one he's doing and scribbles out My Melody end to end which is full of little digs and disses to all of em. Which include:

'...my names the R.A.K.I.M, not like the rest of them...' (could be argued is not even really a dig but it is said to be, as they were there while he was spitting it)

'...so what I'm a microphone fiend, addicted soon as i sing, one of these four MCs so they don't have to scream...' (4 MCs i.e. Kane and them, don't have to scream i.e. shut the fuck up when I'm in the booth)

'...so stand back, you wanna rap? all of that can wait...'

'...i wouldn't have come to say my name and run the same weak shit, putting blurs and slurs and words that don't fit in a rhyme...' (making fun of their style, particularly Kane)

'...til i finish droppin' science, no interruption...' (once again, due to their moaning about the time he was taking in the booth)

'...I'm not a regular competitior, first rhyme editor...' (first rhyme editor i.e. Kane hadn't made an album at that point so who is he to be criticising him?)

Apparently Kane didn't take too kindly but since it was fairly subliminal he settled with just a a small dig on Set it Off in which he goes 'the rap soloist? you don't want none of this!' as I'm sure you're aware the rap soloist was Ra's moniker. To which Ra replied in Microphone Fiend 'I'm a smooth operator, operating correctly', a reference to Kanes song 'Smooth Operator'.

What a battle that would've been...

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Great stuff. Rakim vs Kane, that's a real deal heavyweight bout right there. I'm not knocking Kool G or Biz, or whoever the other one was, Kane would be the only one that could go toe to toe with Rakim. Not saying he would win, but he was the best competition.

That story, that's a big difference from then and now.

I've heard stories of Wu-Tang back in the day during recording sessions, battling in the booth to see who got the best RZA beats. Think about that, RZA breaks out a sick beat, Rae and Ghost want it, but Meth wants it too. Well, get in the booth and who spits fire gets the beat. That shit aint happening today.

You know on Pac songs with the Outlawz sometimes all of them are on the song, sometimes only 3, sometimes 2. That's because in the studio Pac didn't fuck around. If one of them wasn't ready to get in the booth and spit right there on the spot, they got left behind. They had to be ready all the time just to make it on the record.


Get in where you fit in. Life is too short and short dogs in the house are classics.

Cocktails too. Even gettin it is real solid.

My new hero. Shorty the Pimp too. And I always loved Gettin It. Never Talk Down on a Player is perfection.

Edited by J Dog
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I've heard stories of Wu-Tang back in the day during recording sessions, battling in the booth to see who got the best RZA beats. Think about that, RZA breaks out a sick beat, Rae and Ghost want it, but Meth wants it too. Well, get in the booth and who spits fire gets the beat. That shit aint happening today.

I would give my mothers womb to've been a fly in the wall for that shit :lol:

BTW the other MC was Shan.

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