kill the mc

[egypturnash]

I am quite amazed to find myself enjoying hip-hop.

No, really.

Not the gangsta rap pablum that fills our lives from passing cars. DJs working away at turntables and samplers and who-knows what without anyone chattering away about how much money they have and how bad-ass they are.

Ashy put on some Mix-Master Mike from her collection, and when I expressed amusement, followed it up with a few other things. It's just weird to realize that people are investigating the fundamental coolness of the 'scratching' sounds without all the stupidity. I mean, the track listed on this entry... it's in the same sonic territory as Arcane Device. Wow. Some of this stuff is deliciously itchy and difficult. I could slip it right between a pretentious μ-ziq track and a King Crimson improvisation.

New musical domains to explore, if I had the funds. Cool. I was starting to worry my tastes were getting ossified, but it seems this is not the case.

Comments

[raki.livejournal.com]

Hip hop as a musical genre has really awesome origins... what would you expect of the creative output of an oppressed racial minority? Especially the one which invented jazz, blues, rock 'n' roll, motown, funk and rhythm 'n' blues...
Hip hop is cool because it has wordplay, poetry, social commentary, and it gives voice to a marginalised social group. Totally revolutionary, man.

And like all genres, there are parts of it which I dislike as well, because they don't feature those elements...
These days, my hip hop consumption is limited to Michael Franti and Spearhead, which I know isn't a typical representation of the genre, but they're groovy anyway.

hip hop you don't stop

[eselgeist.livejournal.com]

yep, hiphop can be love ^_^

i would highly recommend anything by A Tribe Called Quest,
particularly the albums "Midnight Marauders", "The Low End Theory", but anything really.

and er, to fully date myself, "Paul's Boutique" by the Beastie Boys (the recent "Hello Nasty" is charming too, the really really new album I haven't heard yet. just came out) and Public Enemy's "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back", along with "Fear of a Black Planet".

yeah, i'm stuck in 1989, as far as hip hop nostalgia goes.

it's a big tent genre, alright. lots of different stuff going on under it that isn't all aimed at eleveteen year olds with identity issues.

Erykah Badu is lovely too, and Lauryn Hill(!), though they sing as much as they rap (wonderfully, too).

Re: hip hop you don't stop

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes! Tribe Called Quest! Public Enemy! Paul's Boutique! 1989!
Man, the last rap CD I bought was Coolio's "Gangster Paradise".

No, wait, I bought The Marginal Prophets' "Twist The Nob" directly
from Keith Knight at San Diego Comic Con in, like, '96 or something.

And somebody gave me a copy of Handsome Boy Modeling School a couple of years ago.
Does that count?

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

There's lots of good hip hop out there. It just gets buried among the piles and piles of drek as you describe. Same as any musical genre, really. It isn't until a style goes out of fashion and the wanna-bes have all stopped making money with it that the good stuff shines through.

Hatch showed me a DVD called "Wave Twisters" a few years ago, it was just amazing stuff. Oddball animation and imagery with a hip-hop soundtrack. If you can find it, get it.

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Yo, that's DJ Q*BERT yo!
Turntablist extraordinaire!
D'ya like scratchin'? You betta, 'cuz that's all he doez...

I guess that's hip-hop too.

[zrath.livejournal.com]

Hee-hee, Peggy's going all wikki-wikki on me!
Right on!



Signed: Unca Ol'Skool

[electricdog.livejournal.com]

You might want to check out some of the stuff on anticon (http://www.anticon.com)... why?, odd nosdam, dose one, busdriver, radio inactive, cLOUDDEAD... all good stuff, if more than somewhat weird. They just released a label sampler that you should be able to find very cheaply if you're interested.