rolling regional thug thread 2012

i never heard him! he's on the list of all those greats i need to check out.

oh shit dude, you really should
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoBWy72t2gA

http://tofuhut.blogspot.com/2005/09/jumpin-jive-glisten-louis-jordan-louis.html

deej do you consider the present moment a great one for lyricists? srs q

dizzy had ridic flow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy-A5FYn27c

deej do you consider the present moment a great one for lyricists? srs q

― same old song and placenta (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, April 20, 2012 3:36 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

i think this depends on who you're talking about? is it presently a great time to be a lyricist? no, probably not. is it a great time to be a rap fan who privileges lyricism? i think it almost always is, if you know where to look/who to look out for

i think this depends on who you're talking about?

i didn't mean for this to have a ? btw, comes off dickishly, which i didn't intend

no it's cool I didn't take it in any off way

i dont think i really agree with jordan. I think it's the same as it's ever been--if you know where to look, you can find great lyricists everywhere. I do wish the industry was propelling more of them, because in retrospect i feel like mainstream rap did do a good job of building talent in a different way back in the early 00s relative to now. but lyricists who can really kill it are everywhere. King Louie's "Bars," for example, doesn't even have a chorus; it's him obliterating the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i2yR3-eYkk

Then the kevin gates stuff posted upthread ... he gets pretty lyrical on, like, love songs & sex songs, which is kind of unusual. I think he's one of the best writers out right now. For example, on that song "Dangerous," there's this great part where he's like "passing through the hood with memories of the block / left hand holding the wheel our fingers are interlocked," just these kinds of details where 90% of rappers would rhyme it with 'glock' ...

i think that artists who have an ear for pop hooks & musicality are always going to win, whether or not they are lyrical. but i don't think there's a dearth of lyrical rappers or anything

digital underground f. j. stalin

wtf is this new? I thought DU was done

i dont think i really agree with jordan. I think it's the same as it's ever been--if you know where to look, you can find great lyricists everywhere.

i think this is what i said

it's like 6 years old

digital underground f. j. stalin

xxxxxp

that king louie is p good, but doesn't totally grab me for whatever reason.

i liked the one kevin gates song i listened to upthread. i like that letter to my son by don trip a lot, that's probably my favorite song i've heard in a while,..and then like action bronson is fun but i'm not sure how much is THERE in the long term.

gunplay seemed cool, pretty talented and charismatic and stuff.

honestly deej it's more just my mood lately i think. i kinda run in phases.

haha i was gonna say, deej you're totally agreeing with j0rdan

is it presently a great time to be a lyricist? no, probably not.

this is the part i disagree w/ jordan about. i dont think its really like ... ever been a 'great' time to be a lyricist? because lyricist is one dimension of the art form

there are great hip hop artists and great hip hop lyricists but ppl focus too much on the latter. like its healthy vegetables or something. i feel like that actually serves to make lyricism seem lame, rather than cool, which is annoying (i mean in terms of critic nerd discourse, not w/ how it is for rappers per se)

al did you ever get to hear the k gates?

nah not yet

hes one of those artists i could see you really liking, like the only thing that you might not dig is the same thing i think a lot of ppl might have trouble with which is just the visceral reactions to for example his singing style or w/e

this is the part i disagree w/ jordan about. i dont think its really like ... ever been a 'great' time to be a lyricist? because lyricist is one dimension of the art form

i think there have been times where lyricism is much more dominant and appreciated than it is now.

and obv yeah like no one says oh shit chino xl is a better artist than too short

but on balance i like lyricism even corny lyricism

but like...lyricism is so complex & vague & impossible to unpack

effective lyrics are better 'lyricism' than intricate or complex ones

i dunno i feel like its really hard to talk about w/ out concrete examples

effective lyrics are better 'lyricism' than intricate or complex ones

this is definitely right.

that said, i'm predisposed towards liking more complex lyrics (though obv great simple lyrics are better than bad complex ones)

this is just more my taste though and coming out of when i first discovered rap...a lot of the really great guys were doing stuff that was both better and more complex than what had come before (like BDK, Kool G, Rakim, etc)

effective lyrics are better 'lyricism' than intricate or complex ones
― man down (D-40), Friday, April 20, 2012 3:05 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I KNOW SOME RAPPER USING BIG WORDS TO MAKE THEIR SIMILES CURVE... MY SIMPLEST SHIT BE MORE PIVOTAL

simile and pivotal are kinda fancy tho IMO

REALLY?!

NOT THE POINT, ANYWAY

end caps lock

ok

well, good lyricism has nothing to do with complexity or simplicity imo, it's just about good writing x good delivery. good writing by itself doesn't do it or it's not really a lyric so much as a poem, but good delivery is potent enough & immediate enough to make less interesting writing sound/feel better than it is often. (this isn't at all unique to rap I don't think, it drove me nuts about rock when I was a kid that songs where the vocalist was just in a killer pocket (Paul Rogers is, like, a fondly-remembered chief offender here) would feel so fuckin real and then you look at what he's saying and go OH. THANKS. YOU LIKE TO ROCK. FANTASTIC)

I do know in some lyrics-focused rap dudes' minds it's not great lyricism unless it's really blowing minds but that's not what I mean, I'm more or less just looking to avoid things like deej's "hmm, what's the rhyme I need...'block'...cool, I'll just get out the glock again, who doesn't like some glock"

it should be said that my demands on lyricists in all genres are completely unrealistic & ridiculous and this will never change btw so like grain of salt here

word, word

Feeling this: Front and Center - Mush Millions featuring Twista

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svfClcUNAWU

Visuals are p cool too.

This Chief Keef thing is getting out of control. the vultures are swarming

that doesn't sound right, i would've gone with "circling" or "flocking"

flockaing

flocking is probably closer, circling a bit too relaxed.

diplo shouted out his 'homie' chief keef on twitter this morning "#realtrapshit"

lol

that mush millions/twista is great

this thread title is like prophetic.

https://twitter.com/#!/HOT97/status/194457527130402816

kudos 2 brandon

really enjoying the kevin gates mixtape, like a more pop-attuned juvenile.

so what do the goons think of future's album ? the first 3 songs are a bit average but the rest is good to incredible.

right now i'm in love with 'truth gonna hurt you'
https://twitter.com/#!/LITO615/status/194484014323736576
it makes so much sense to me that (one of) my favortie rapper(s) likes it too.

the other great songs are what mike will produced (he is definitely the best producer of the moment), i'm trippin & permanent scar.

p. sure i heard dj khaled of all people give a shout out to "chiraq drillinois" recently. love "bars" by the way.

i like future's new album, bit more polished than "true story" which got mixed reviews on here. not super different in terms of future's input but the production is v. good

Pluto is great.

Pluto is awesome.

i like most of pluto especially the r kelly track - apart from that the bangers are better than the garbled spaceballads

The R Kelly track feels totally out of place to me. Makes sense to get it out of the way, but sort of an awful way to start after the Big Rube intro. And I like the track.

the kells track has grown on me -- before hearing it i was seeing delusions of something on the level of "i'ma flirt" or w/e, but i'm okay w/ it being a better "booty wurk"

i'm partial to the garbled spaceballads, but some of the bangers really kill ("permanent scar" and the one w/ snoop are the only ones i skip)

<3 'neva end'

my favs are "turn on the lights," "truth gonna hurt you" and "straight up"

oh and "you deserve it" obv

Has anyone pointed out the sheer audacity of immediately following the Big Rube track with the Kells track yet? The man seeks out contradiction and conflict.