Rolling 2006 Hip Hop Thread

"Stay Fly" is great; so is "Poppin' My Collar". But after six months, I still haven't gotten through that fucking album. That's my big problem with hip-hop these days -- Trudging through those 20-song monstrosities is *work*, not fun, especially when, half the time, you have to dig under vocals and lyrics that just get in the way to find the potential future-of-pop beats underneath (not saying that's the case with those particular 3-6 songs, though.) I always figure that there will be a handful of songs I'll like a lot on the Juvenile album, or the Dem Franchize Boyz album, or the E-40 album, or the T.I. album, or the Cam'ron album, or (okay, I'm gonna be toally blasphemous now) the Ghostface album, but it takes me so long to dig through all the useless shit I just give up. (And right, that's partly *my* problem, but it's also a problem with the 20-song monstrosities.) (Mix "tapes" are better and worse because, sure, they often have a few songs that jump out and sound good, but often the songs have nothing to do with each other, and the rest usually sounds inconsequential. So does that means it's a good mixtape or a bad one?) (And all that said, I put Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh in my top ten last year. I LIKE hip-hop now, just don't love it. Same goes with electronica -- I have nothing *against* the stuff. It's fine.)

-- xhuxk (xedd...), May 15th, 2006.

(Actually, more like 10 months, probably. When did 3-6's CD come out? (And, I mean, I've *played* the damn album; just haven't been able to give a shit listening to it. I always end up with "Why am I expending so much time and effort with this thing? I didn't used to have to do that with hip-hop. And sure, people selling drugs and killing each other {or whatever they're rapping about; what do 3-6 rap about again, once you get past the stuff about staying fly and popping collars?} is interesting, but not *that* interesting, for Crissakes. If I need that stuff, I'll just watch a DVD of *The Wire*.) (Ha ha, in this morning's Times, Kelefah mentioned a new Cam'ron song about irritable bowel syndrome, then asked "Sorry, you were saying you wanted rappers to rap about something different, for a change?" Funny. But hey, I can kinda *relate* to I.B.S., you know?)
-- xhuxk (xedd...), May 15th, 2006.

sweet james jones stories? I was just revisiting this and it's holding up real well ---- lots of sick beats "slow down","everytime" --- I love that part where he theorizes that prescription medications make you die young.

When I first came to ILM thinking about rap music this way (and timbaland neptunes et al) seemed like it was opening up a whole new world of appreciation to me; I'd never thought of Timbaland's beats as different chapters in an auteur's diary, and Tim F's posts on it made me think about music very differently. But what attracted me to rap in the first place was vocals and lyrics over beats, a) the way that monotone just sounds awesome whether it's Mase ripping a disco track or T.I. talking shit over Toomp beats and b) lyrics I connected with, like "Passing Me By" and "Juicy". So just looking for future-of-music beats is fun but if I limited my main appreciation of rap to that sort of thing I would feel so limited.

The new Suga Free is, as expected, kinda disappointing minus DJ Quik. There are a lot of faux-Quik beats on it though and its growing on me. The faux-Quik beats are like unfinished real Quik beats or something; they have a very similar feel but never quite come together, don't have that tenderlovingcare Quik brings to the table. He's still fun though, and funny, in a weird-tangential-rapping way, sort've like Devin the Dude except he's a pimp rapper so I suppose that's kept him from being totally embraced by folks Devin's done well with. Good thing he and Quik are cool again.

As far as rap albums, xhuxk I think this is why folks are confused by yr anti-ipod sentiments. But still no one says you have to listen to a whole rap album. I'd rather have more bounce for my buck.

BLUEPRINT 2 (first cd most of the time, second cd when i want to hear some how some way and u don't know remix. a girl was in my car the other day and she asked me what this was, then she said she liked "more hardcore rap." jeez sorry)

50 CENT - GUESS WHO'S BACK (no bad songs on this)

SCARFACE - LAST OF A DYING BREED

i think it was a j-love mixtape i was talking about there. just google pre-illmatic nas mixtape. everything on it is classic classic.

http://dl31cg.rapidshare.de/files/19348041/1472691744/Nas_-_Pre-Illmatic_Mixtape_1993_.rar

nas or serch or whoever owns that music, if anyone even does, be cool. ilx people, if it's not cool, erase it.

i've stopped checking for new stuff pretty much except the occasional. but i have like 20 years to listen back to. there's so much shit i've never heard. if not rap, what else am i going to listen to? it's the only music i hear in this city (other than country) and the only music i hear in my house (other than country) and the only music i've ever really felt deeply and invested myself in. i don't think any other music is worth caring about but it's not even something i have to consciously decide, it's just my default automatic thing now. thanks for announcing that two 40 year old music writers have stopped listening to it. what do they plan on listening to next?

"Deja vu" was very dope too but that aint come out until later on in '95 on a Clue tape

I've lovd rap since 1980 or '81. Still love a lot of it now.

>pretend hiphop is dead<

Hip-hop is very much alive; I never said or implied it wasn't.

>i assume chuck still gets down to critrock<

ha ha - yeah, critrock. you got it.

>if a cd has songs you dont like you SKIP them (& eventually love them) <

sure, you CAN skip them, once you've waded through them enough to figure out what they are. which means the good stuff better be REALLY REALLY GREAT, which it rarely is. It's easier to wade through 20 minutes of shit to find 20 minutes of good music than to wade through 59 minutes of shit to find that same 20 minutes of good music. There are too many CDs out there now by artists who don't feel the need to throw everything at me for me to waste too much time with the ones who do. (I'm not just talking hip-hop here -- I've yet to make it through the new Garth Brooks album, either. And I'll never care about Robert Pollard.) And hip-hoppers didn't always feel the need to surround their great moments with so many useless ones; there's nothing inherent in the genre that forces them to do that. Maybe a couple should have the guts to buck the stupid trend, and work up a little self-editing discipline. And nah, you're wrong, I *won't* wind up loving all the useless shit--not often, anyway.

Obv he's pretty shakey as a moral figure or whatever but I don't think he's amoral. Its a good album although conceptually it sounds way too much like he's pulling a young jeezy. He's still a great rapper with a magnetic voice, the way it sounds like he's fighting through his drawl every time he (literally) spits. His new album is good.

on the whole I think the Juvenile album is pretty boring and unrewarding but I love "Holla Back." I really can't remember anything particularly good on the Youngbloodz album.

How come nobody ever talks about how much fun that Pitbull "Shake" remix is?

because Pitbull was on the original too? and the version with Elephant Man isn't anything special?

I think maybe the problem here is that a lot of rap fans are bothered by the way rap is treated as just another strain of the postmodern pick-and-choose style of crit/ILMing, where folks see it as another color in their listening spectrum which is weird when it seems so central to the pop music narrative right now. As if rap is a genre is as much a part of the spectrum as a certain style of indie rock or microhouse when it has so much more cultural resonance in this country than either of those genres (not a dismissal of either).

I definitely like the "Shake" remix (on Pitbull's remix album, which is way better than his non-remix album, and on the Ying Yang Twins' most recent outtake album, which is way better than their previous "real" album) better than any non-remixed version I've heard. But the true star of the song is George "Din Da Da" Kranz.

more like the world ------

Seriously, though, I'd actually deign to say the cultural influence of country (at least in America) is perhaps even greater than that of hiphop. Don't underestimate the red states.

"kidnap the president's wife without a plan" might be my favourite rap boast ever

June

Ice Cube-Laugh Now, Cry Later June 6
Purple City-The Purple Album June 6
Busta Rhymes-The Big Bang June 13
Field Mob-Light Poles And Pine Trees June 13
Mr. Lif-Mo'Mega June 13
Raekwon-Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II June 20
Obie Trice-Second Round's On Me June 20
JR Writer-History In The Making June 27
Pimp C-Pimpulation June 27
Lupe Fiasco-Food & Liquor June 27
Lloyd Banks-Rotten Album June 27

July

Hell Rell-Welcome To Hell July 11
J Dilla-The Shining July 11
Slim Thug-Still Platinum July 18
8Ball & MJG-Pure American Pimpin July 18
Freeway-Free At Last July 25

August

OutKast-Idlewild OST August 22
The Roots-Game Theory August 29
The Game-The Doctor's Advocate August 29

Summer

Ol' Dirty Bastard-A Son Unique
Pharrell Williams-In My Mind
Missy Elliot-Respect Me
Saigon-The Greatest Story Never Told
Project Pat-Crook By The Book
Masta Killa-The East Is In The House
The Fugees-Reconciliation
DJ Muggs & Inspectah Deck-The Rebel And The Assassin
Papoose-The Nacirema Dream
Ghostface & MF DOOM-Swift & Changeable
Clipse Hell-Hath No Fury
Mike Jones-The American Dream
Ludacris-Release Therapy
Young Buck-Bad Influence

Autumn?

Nas-NASDAQ Dow Jones
Pharoahe Monch-Desire
Kanye West-Graduation
Paul Wall-Get Money, Stay True
Sean Price-Jesus Price Superstar
Common-Finding Forever
Dr. Dre-Detox
Lil' Jon-Crunk Rock
Snoop Dogg-The Blue Carpet Treatment

I do kinda wish that it was all like the Just Blaze tracks though! Is that boring of me?

Chuck I want a new Field Mob album too! And I haven't even heard the much-feted Ciara collab-o yet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRg7PpKQLhw&search=field%20mob%20so%20what

But here is my favorie Field Mob video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-phGHkFU6c&search=field%20mob%20lonely

And here is an even better song called "So What":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzKMEqBoFys&search=anti%20nowhere%20league

backwudz is real dope, too bad they went w/ the novelty joint instead of picking from one of a dozen nicer tracks

respect the ogs

I figured it out btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZNrIzVTuZQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xb0LYWqt4&feature=related

hoosteen otm

― and what (ooo), Monday, November 6, 2006 12:45 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark

never forget

eh @"hip hop" tho