Well that's the end of rap music!

[Al B. Sure!]

All rap is is yakkin' to a beat.

All rock is off-key screeching to distorted guitar riffs.

what's your point?

and what's your stereotype of rappers? what's your popular conception? Is it the flava flav-looking, will smith-acting fun hip hopper rhyming all silly and it's fun for the kids? Is it the thug in a hoodie holding a 9mm? Is it the angry black man in military garb hollering fight the power?

how can all rap be the same when there's at least three (fairly negative) stereotypes of how rappers are?

similiarily, rock has black-wearing hardcore bands with all the loud-ass distorted guitars and screeching about demonic, gothic things; white boy punk bands with all the loud-ass distorted guitars and screeching about how bad conformity is; slow rock bands singing about love and ****.

see, 3 stereotypes too.

[DaShi]

Can't they claim parody?

[Az]

All rap is is the same damn beat over and over again. You know why Outcast's "Shake it" was so popular? Because it was the only damn original hip-hop in years

*points and laughs at Lonestar*

There is so much cool stuff that you don't know about. So much cool stuff that doesn't get any airplay. Hell, in the US, electronic music gets no air whatsoever, so I am not really surprised, I guess.

[Whaleboy]

This isn't a thread about the merits and demerits of rap, I can only speak for myself but any anti-rap sentiment was in jest. Sure you won't find any rap records in my cd collection, barring a ripped version of Chris Moyles parody of eminems "Stan" but that doesn't count.... but freedom of expression, and no-one has actually addressed my argument.

[Al B. Sure!]

All rap is is the same damn beat over and over again.

rap producers have sampled rock, soul, rnb, bebop, jazz, etc.

yet somehow Ghostface Killah rapping off of a Delfonic's song, Common rapping off of a swing jazz sample, Cam'ron rapping off of an altered form of the carmina burana, Erick Sermon rapping off Indian music, and the Clipse rapping off of a digitized, computer-produced bass line sound all the same...?

all rock has are guitars and drums. there's only so many ways to play the guitars and drums before everything sounds the same. At least hip hop, by sampling, has a huge variety of sonic landscapes.

[Whaleboy]

there's only so many ways to play the guitars and drums before everything sounds the same

I've been playing guitar for four or five years now (and the piano for close to 16), pretty progressively I like to think, yet I have merely scratched the surface in terms of style. In terms of the variables affecting sound, the combinations are mind-boggling.

Now, I think sampling is legitimate, as per my argument, however, speaking purely musically, it wouldn't hurt rappers to create their own samples as it were and rap over that. I think that's the next logical progression if rap is to survive, considering mixtures of influences, hopefully it'll become fertile ground for talent muscians, though in my opinion because of the instrumental nature of rock, that will always have the edge in innovation.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Now, I think sampling is legitimate, as per my argument, however, speaking purely musically, it wouldn't hurt rappers to create their own samples as it were and rap over that. I think that's the next logical progression if rap is to survive, considering mixtures of influences, hopefully it'll become fertile ground for talent muscians, though in my opinion because of the instrumental nature of rock, that will always have the edge in innovation.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it will have an edge in innovation. Sample-based synths are already very close to being able to produce almost any sound an instrument can and have a bunch of other built-in effects on top of that. Honestly, I think that's the direction that hip hop should be heading...while sampling can be used effectively, it doesn't have the flexibility of producing your own sound from scratch.

That being said, my major problem with the (admittedly limited) hip hop I've been exposed to is that the human voice makes a horrible percussive instrument, and it's not much better to listen to as a monotone drone. I'd much rather hear singing (even if it's bad) than either of those, but that seems to be all the majority of hip hop offers.

[Whaleboy]

dv8ed: Agreed, though I suppose what rock may lack in potential sounds it makes up for in ad lib, but that's beside the point.

We can debate the merits and demerits of rap and other musical forms until we're blue in the face, and get absolutely nowhere, fundamentally, we are reduced to the age-old aesthetics argument. However, that argument is irrelevant to the issue at stake here, which has more to do with freedom of expression and intellectual property than the actual musical form itself, considering the issues at work here could apply to any musical genre / artist.

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Sure you won't find any rap records in my cd collection, barring a ripped version of Chris Moyles parody of eminems "Stan" but that doesn't count....

[Az]

We can debate the merits and demerits of rap and other musical forms until we're blue in the face, and get absolutely nowhere, fundamentally, we are reduced to the age-old aesthetics argument.

This is probably the most pompous way of saying "different strokes for different folks", ever.

[Whaleboy]

This is probably the most pompous way of saying "different strokes for different folks", ever.

Bah! Destroy the proletariat!!

[Natalinasmpf]

Music should be open source, which will encourage musical innovation and encourages everyone to improvise! Viva la revolution musique communiste!

I detest proprietary music makers.

That also partially explains why I usually don't buy any music (get them for free or else), and save for Les Miserables, nor do I really pirate them either.

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by Natalinasmpf
Music should be open source, which will encourage musical innovation and encourages everyone to improvise! Viva la revolution musique communiste!

I detest proprietary music makers.

That also partially explains why I usually don't buy any music (get them for free or else), and save for Les Miserables, nor do I really pirate them either.

Since you can get your music free, I guess it makes sense that you would have no sympathy for the artists being ripped off.

[Az]

Originally posted by Whaleboy


Bah! Destroy the proletariat!!

I hereby declare that there is a concrete possibility of having me cut off your testicles and swiftly place them deep inside your rectal cavity, come the revolution.

[Whaleboy]

I hereby declare that there is a concrete possibility of having me cut off your testicles and swiftly place them deep inside your rectal cavity, come the revolution.

Azazel - The opiate of the masses