So that's it for rap rock?

[Al B. Sure!]

Some years ago, I asked a friend of mine who had an early cable modem and cd writer to make me a few cds which included Primer 55's and Crazytown's debut cds. Back then (99-2000), traditional rap was getting real dull what with the Big Tymers, Juvenile, Hot Boys, etc. and rap rock (what limp bizkit is/was) seemed dynamic but, like most emerging music, with no real point. But I thought it would keep going until some months ago when my sister got a promotional, bootleg copy of Primer 55's most recent cd.

what the hell happened? the gangster rap rock group that made Appetite for Destruction (based on the NWA song) is now singing rock music, singing all vaguely about suicide and ****? And Crazytown, the group that got the old school hip hopper KRS-One on their songs, probably went down the same route... and from that new Limp Bizkit song, apparently there's no more Rollin' Rollin' or nothing coming from them. kottonmouth kings had alright beats but stupid lyrics... and I know rage against the machine no longer exists...

so is that it for rap rock? just a little fad around 99-2000?

[St Leo]

C'est la vie.

[Pekka]

Body Count will return!

[BustaMike]

**** Limp Bizkit! **** Fred Durst! **** Rap Rock! That whole fad was quite possibly the worst thing ever in music. What a colossal pile of ****!!! And, sorry to say, we still have garbage like Static X and Adema and Slipknot (grrr god I hate Slipknot).

What happened you ask? Hopefully people realized that it all sucks. Limp Bizkit only sold because of the giant marketing machine behind it, definitely not because of talent.

Body Count was pretty sweet though, but that's cause Ice T is funny.

[Al B. Sure!]

i'm just surprised that the rap rock groups just turned into rock groups instead of fading away intact... the change in primer 55, for example, is ridiculous... how they went from "like a snake, i'm the most wanted viper, busting on punks, like the neighborhood sniper, right from wrong, i just can't decipher, strapped with a mack and an automatic rifle, the ten most wanted, i'm on top of the pile, rainin' down on punks penitentiary style..." to "you've got no self-esteem, and you think you're so mistreated. you can't stand your face, and you cannot, cannot believe that you cannot control your fate. this isn't what you wanted someone to break you down every mother****ing day it's not the life you wanted someone to break you, someone to make you"

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT????!!!!

[BustaMike]

It's all marketing Speer. None of these groups ever had any talent to begin with from what I can tell.

Ooo, as long as I'm ranting about how much I hate this crap I should bring up Linkin Park. Now there's a band . We wrote one song, then a different version of that song, then a different version of that song, now we have two full albums and a remix album all of ONE SONG. And people love it. It just boggles the mind .

[Namaste]

Most mainstream music trends only have a shelf life for a couple years in general. The market became so inundated with tons of mediocre rap rock acts in the last few years that the commercial interest had faded utterly. Now these acts are trying desperately to conform the changing tastes in the hopes that they can retain something from their falling sales. It's no different from how many hair metal acts tried to change to a grunge image and sound in the early 90's, they were trying to hold onto some shred of relevance and, quite honestly most of these rap rock bands are the hair bands of today.

[Al B. Sure!]

you're missing my point... the vocalist in primer 55, practically the whole crazytown group, etc... they were all rappers, rapping about 'rap topics' (money, whoes, and guns if you will), but now they're 100% rock, singing about 'rock topics' (suicide, depression). it's not like they just switched from rapping to singing... their whole image did a 180.

[Namaste]

That actually is the point. More traditional rock is making a resurgence in the market and a backlash against rap rock is occuring simultaneously. They're completely altering their image, songs, lyrics etc to conform to the changing market forces.

[Al B. Sure!]

i directed that towards Bustamike...

[BustaMike]

Actually Speer, the first thing I said was that it's all marketing. Namaste just explained it whereas I only bothered writing 1 sentence . "Conforming to changing market forces" ...

[Namaste]

sorry, couldn't tell

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Re: So that's it for rap rock?

Originally posted by Albert Speer
Some years ago, I asked a friend of mine who had an early cable modem and cd writer to make me a few cds which included Primer 55's and Crazytown's debut cds. Back then (99-2000), traditional rap was getting real dull what with the Big Tymers, Juvenile, Hot Boys, etc. and rap rock (what limp bizkit is/was) seemed dynamic but, like most emerging music, with no real point. But I thought it would keep going until some months ago when my sister got a promotional, bootleg copy of Primer 55's most recent cd.

what the hell happened? the gangster rap rock group that made Appetite for Destruction (based on the NWA song) is now singing rock music, singing all vaguely about suicide and ****? And Crazytown, the group that got the old school hip hopper KRS-One on their songs, probably went down the same route... and from that new Limp Bizkit song, apparently there's no more Rollin' Rollin' or nothing coming from them. kottonmouth kings had alright beats but stupid lyrics... and I know rage against the machine no longer exists...

so is that it for rap rock? just a little fad around 99-2000?

Funny, I actually was thinking about this last night. Here's my theory. I think white people doing rap rock is dead, but I think it will be taken over by black people. What I mean by this is that before you had the likes of Saliva, Limp Bizkit, kid rock, etc, etc who were basically rock bands where the lead singer would rap. Rage against the machine is another example of this (I know zach is chicano, but he's from Irvine, CA = he's whiter than I am). I think this seems to be dying out.

Now, you have groups like N.E.R.D. who are traditionally rap people doing rockish type music. I personally (while I'm not fan of rap rock in any form) think this type is much better than the former, simply because these rock MCs don't seem to know much abour rap and it shows because they aren't that believable. While NERD types know rap... I know you could say "well, NERD doesn;t know anything about rock" and that might be true, but I think its easier to fake passable rock music than it is to fake passable rap. I'm not saying easy to fake great rock, I mean passable rock.

I'm just hypothesizing... not fact or anything.

[self biased]

rage wil be back. mark my words on that.

and there's also the fact that body count was technically a hardcore act. go back and listen to biohazard from that era. there's actually a good similarity.

[Namaste]

Yeah, Ice-T is a pretty big fan of Henry Rollins and Black Flag. He also is a big fan of a lot of thrash bands from back in the day.