Music versus Lyrics

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

"The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. "

That's the definition of "music", incidentally, and I'm struggling to believe that I actually bothered to look it up.

[Immortal Wombat]

music

[Al B. Sure!]

Well I said music in the title so my bad...

and Buck:

I dont know about Barrington Levy. It was just being showcased and it featured a rapper i'm obviously familiar with so I figured I'd give it a try. It's still being downloaded though. I'll also add the TOK one to the queu.

And I was meaning to ask you... have you ever heard of producers like DJ Premier, Alchemist, Large Professor, and Havoc? Their production is more instrumental sounding (and darker) than something like Neptunes or Timbaland, but I prefer their beats over the party kind.


thanks

[SlowwHand]

Albert! You've gone all young and modern on us! Avatar-wise, that is.

[Al B. Sure!]

That Barrington Levy track is from 1999. The production sounds real odd... like West Coast but different from the west coast production I'm used to hearing (dre, and all the producers who worked with 2pac). It still got that West Coast bounciness though.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
Boddingtons:

I always thought this was interesting..

Ghostface Killah's The Forest

Albert, I'm a recent fan of hip hop myself, and I value lyrics over music anyday. Although its great when they can sometimes come together like in the song "Nas is like" by Nas. I think thats got a wicked minimalist beat with really intellectual lyrics.

But trying to convert rock fans into even admitting that rap is music is like asking a straight man to go gay. I don't know why, but it is. Rock has kind of a propaganda machine behind it that says if its not played on a guitar or recognized as "good" by the white musical elite (as in jazz or classical), its just drivel. I used to believe this too, but once you start learning about rap and hip hop, I realized that its the only form of contemporary music left with anything up its sleeve (of value that is).

Its sad really, all these alterna-rockers who think they're just so smart and that they're taste is just so good are really being dwarfed intellectually behind their own backs by the likes of Nas and Rakim, etc...

I wish they'd just give it a chance (and not judge it by what they hear on MTV) instead of dismissing it as sh*t hop like old boddy did.

I think what it is is that rock is background music, as in you can enjoy it but not really have to listen to it, while rap is something that you pro-actively have to follow (lyrically) to really get. But once you get it, oh boy, what a new world it opens you up to. Rockers just don't seem to have the attention span to make the leap it seems.

But I'm not worried. Sooner or later, they'll all see who the prophet is

[*End Is Forever*]

Anyway... to answer the question, definitely the music, but the lyrics can enhance a fine tune further.

[Al B. Sure!]

Slowwhand:

Say what?


Buck:

I got the TOK track... what the hell are those men saying? I can only pick up a few words. Their accents are too strong. That'll probably prevent me from getting into dancehall and probably also is what's stopping them from getting a big american audience. Their production sounds notably east coast though. It's probably like UK rap or something... people might really get into it if they could understand what they're saying


thanks

[Asher]

They're both important.

A good song has good lyrics and good music.

There are many songs in my collection, however, without lyrics.

There are zero songs in my collection without music.

So, by basic logic, music is more important.

Rap is crap, although there are the rare artists who can write beautiful lyrics they rarely have the music to back it up so it ends up being beat-centric poetry...no thanks.

[Al B. Sure!]

Jimmy:

Yeah Nas is Like is a good song... and for Buck, it's a perfect example (albeit from 99) of DJ Premier's production to an excellent rapper's lyrics.

And did you get Nas' new CD, God's Son? Rakim is also slated for a new CD this spring. Rap has been twindling for a little bit the past two years but I think it'll be coming back. Are you a fan of AZ and Cormega too?


thanks

[Al B. Sure!]

oh yeah Jimmy, and you should download some Killah Priest. He's probably the best lyricist out of Wu-tang and has a group, The Four Horsemen, which in my opinion is the best rap group around... Killah Priest, Cannibus, Kurupt (Philly!), and Ras Kass. unfortunately, they still haven't made an album together but only appeared on each other's individual cds


thanks

[Adagio]

Lyrics is defently most important... I can't stand to hear a "song", when there's no good lyrics, or no lyrics at all... While a song without the instruments can be good...

Too bad, only few people around the world, knows how to make some really good lyrics... Most people only make standard lyrics (= heard before)

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
Jimmy:

Yeah Nas is Like is a good song... and for Buck, it's a perfect example (albeit from 99) of DJ Premier's production to an excellent rapper's lyrics.

And did you get Nas' new CD, God's Son? Rakim is also slated for a new CD this spring. Rap has been twindling for a little bit the past two years but I think it'll be coming back. Are you a fan of AZ and Cormega too?


thanks

Yeah I am. I think we have the same taste in rap... sort of that QB style.

Yeah, I've downloaded a bunch of sh*t from God's Son (yeah yeah, I'll buy it eventually though ) and though I haven't had a chance to get deep into it, I think "Made you Look" and "heaven" are the best ones so far... btw, Jully Black (the chick from heaven) is Canadian which is wierd for a major release... oh and she sucks by the way in all of her other stuff. Just a little aside there. But all in all it seems pretty solid. Although I think Stillmatic was better, but then again I haven't really given God's Son a very good listen yet.

Lately I've been going and finding some unreleased/underground Nas raps on kazaa. And there are some really good ones out there. Like check out "the god" or "true dialect"... just some off the top of my head, there are others though.

If you want to hear some BAD rap on the other hand, check out some of the great Canadian "Emcees" out there such as "choclair" or "kardinal offishal". They blow so so so hard. They're so fake too... they have to fake the accent and they don't do a good job either.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Albert:

I didn't know Rakim had another CD in the works. What do you think of Rakim's solo stuff anyways? I think that while lyrically, he's still pretty sharp, his stuff kind of lost its edge since he left Eric B. It just doesn't move me like his old stuff did.

[Al B. Sure!]

Jimmy:

I should be repping Philly but Queensbridge has the best rappers out now.

As for Nas unreleased tracks... God is on a limited edition Bonus disc on God's Son which also got another hot song, P_ussy Killz. That song is yet another good example of Nas' amazing ability as a story-teller. Also, he had a cd, The Lost Tapes come out on Sept. 24 with unreleased songs that didn't make it on I Am and Stillmatic. Every song on there is the ****. You got to get the Lost Tapes.

I personally think God's Son is better than Stillmatic. God's Son's only downfall is there's nothing brand new and creative like how Stillmatic had Rewind and what not. Still, songs like Last Real Nigga Alive and Get Down show Nas as the best story-teller in rap, Book of Rhymes is creative because he's spitting from his unreleased and half-written songs... and the rest of the songs (except for the weak Zone Out) are intelligent and hot as ****.

As for some unreleased tracks, go check out One on One...

and I know about Canadian rappers... Snow got to be one of the most mocked rappers besides Vanilla Ice and Hammer... though that man did do a song with MC Shan who brought Queensbridge on the map.

and I agree, Rakim is kind of falling off. But he's signed to Dre's label now and hopefully with Dre's production, Rakim will come back to his old standing


thanks