Real Headz....

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

I have questions about rap.
Does ANYONE who can read music, and play an instrument like the stuff? (not somebody who self taught themselves to play guitar, and can't read a note!)
Classical music, swing, jazz, and DooWop 50s, Motown, Blues, and even Disco is still being remade, and performed. Will a rap "song" last beyond 5 years, or, like cheese, (or a topical comedy bit) it just isn't any good unless still fresh?
It seems to me, as the machines to make music got smarter, the artists get dumber. I personaly love the Motown sound, from back when poor black folks couldn't afford instruments, and thus had to compensate with talent in both singing and writing. Sort of like preSFX movies.

[Mayabird]

And video games. Back before the pretty 3-D eye candy, you needed good stories and characters. A lot of games now are just rehashing old stuff and covering it up with cool looking stuff.

Not to say I don't like eye candy. I like candy, but a straight diet of it will makes me sick.

Also, my band plays a couple rap tunes as pep band shorts for time outs and the like. "Move, Bitch" is a wonderfully obnoxious thing to play for a great many occasions. Incredible annoyance values.

[revprez]

I have questions about rap.
Does ANYONE who can read music, and play an instrument like the stuff? (not somebody who self taught themselves to play guitar, and can't read a note!)

Plenty of people. Like the Roots rhythm section, Ten Degree Chill (MIT's resident funk band), and hundreds of hip hop music professors across the country.

Classical music, swing, jazz, and DooWop 50s, Motown, Blues, and even Disco is still being remade, and performed. Will a rap "song" last beyond 5 years, or, like cheese, (or a topical comedy bit) it just isn't any good unless still fresh?

Hip hop has classics that have lasted five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty five years, from "The Message" to "The World Is Yours" tp pretty much anything on "The Chronic" and "Doggystyle" all the way up to Jay-Z's "Black Album." Furthermore, these tracks are remade--"remixed"--over and over again.

I'm also sure a lot of hip hop fans feel the same way about classical, swing, doo wop, and disco.

It seems to me, as the machines to make music got smarter, the artists get dumber.

Let's see you try some turntablist techniques, or do hip hop improvisation.

I personaly love the Motown sound, from back when poor black folks couldn't afford instruments, and thus had to compensate with talent in both singing and writing. Sort of like preSFX movies.

And in the 1970s Black America discovered something new; it blew up and dominates the music scene thirty years later. And for the first time it is a genre that is identifiably rooted in the Black community.

Rev Prez

[revprez]

I dunno, let's ask Snoop Dogg. He's survived very well, considering he used to be a Crip...

Lets ask Tupac and Biggie Smalls instead

Tupac and Biggie never flashed colors.

Rev Prez

[Spanky The Dolphin]

what's "flashing colours" mean?

[MKSheppard]

Tupac and Biggie never flashed colors.

And they're dead now, idiot

[Dahak]

And in the 1970s Black America discovered something new; it blew up and dominates the music scene thirty years later. And for the first time it is a genre that is identifiably rooted in the Black community.

Thank Heavens they are only strong in your music scene.
I think I'd have to kill me if they'd be anywhere that strong here...
*shudder*

[Larz]

Hmm, its been a while since I've seen so many non-objective thoughts and attitudes until I rummaged through the past 6 pages...

Anyway, I personally don't care for the culture because for the most part the music hurts my head and so does listening to someone speak the dialect at more then slow speeds.

As for the job arguement, anyone who shows up acting, wearing, or speaking anything other than socially proper attitudes, cloths, or launguage is an idiot and deserves not to get the job.

Though I must say that it is easy to maintain a negative opinion of the members of the culture when you see the sterotypical ones who honostly must work on being such annoying asses.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Rap hasn't even been AROUND in the mainsteam for 25 years prez. That would be 1979.
MC Hammer was the one that made rap acceptable to white middle class teens. (by taking out the "kill whitey, and resist his racist police" message) Hammer was a late 80s early 90s thing! I heared rap played by "the brothers" in my army unit, in 83, but no classics are being redone from that era, and it was strictly a ghetto thing, despised by most blacks in my unit!
When exactly rap was born, I don't know, but only thugs, gangsters and "ghetto heads" liked it prior to Hammer.("The MAN is keeping me DOWN! All whites are racist! Don't fuck with me, because I'm violent!" was the only real theme) Motown and Fusion jazz were considered "black music" at the time. I know, because I was there, and you probably weren't born yet, much less had a clue about current events and culture.
Physical coordination at the silly turntable thing has no bearing on musical ability. can any of these turntable jockies play 5 fucking notes in a row that aren't prerecored? The "cut and paste" method of "composing" impresses me none.
I meant FANS, not performers who can read music.
As to remixing.
BAH, humbug. plagurism via electronics! Those morons doing the "sampling," create no new riffs, coda, melodies, or harmonies.What would they do without their massive bank of prerecorded bits?

Taking the lead guitar from "Day tripper" from the Beatles, the bass riff from a song who's name escapes me, and adding in the rythem guitar from "I can't get no (Satisfaction)" by the Rolling Stones was the song "I like to Rock by April Wine. (Journy to the stars, rock and roll guitars, some like it hot, I like to rock.) Palgurism! It sucked when rockers did it, and it sucks when rappers do it.

Finally, can any of the rappers actualy sing ON KEY? Or is singing off key no longer considered a sign of musical ignorance, like ebonics, and proper pronunciation and grammar?
Give me someone that knows the rules, why they are the rules, and can follow the rules, but may occasionaly break them, any day. (Some Led Zepplin is off key on perpose, as is some jazz, but it is a needed part of the song, not a byproduct of ignorance/inability.)

[revprez]

Tupac and Biggie never flashed colors.

And they're dead now, idiot

So's Jesus, Elvis, Jim Morrison, Dr. Huang Ngor, Kurt Cobain, and Emperor Hirohito. What's your point?

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

In case you are wondering, 1979 was the PEAK of Disco! My generation was smoking pot, snorting cocain, and watching "Saturday Night live."Before Eddie Murphy even joined, much less left!

[revprez]

Rap hasn't even been AROUND in the mainsteam for 25 years prez.

No shit. What does that have to do with anything? Rock was a ghetto phenom until it went big in the mid-1950s.

That would be 1979.

Ah, Sugarhill.

MC Hammer was the one that made rap acceptable to white middle class teens.

You're off by like three or four years. Run DMC and Beastie Boys are widely acknowledged as the first to bring rap to the suburbs; Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Wu Tang are arguably the ones that made sure it stayed their. MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice were simply the first to go platinum

(by taking out the "kill whitey, and resist his racist police" message)

You're talking about a very small subset of politically oriented hip hop -- and who else can you point to besides Public Enemy?

Hammer was a late 80s early 90s thing!

He was an early 1990s marketing vehicle.

I heared rap played by "the brothers" in my army unit, in 83, but no classics are being redone from that era, and it was strictly a ghetto thing, despised by most blacks in my unit!

Well, sounds like you had a unique experience.

When exactly rap was born, I don't know...

In 1973-5, around the time DJ Kool Herc came up with the pioneering emcee role.

...but only thugs, gangsters and "ghetto heads" liked it prior to Hammer.("The MAN is keeping me DOWN! All whites are racist! Don't fuck with me, because I'm violent!" was the only real theme) Motown and Fusion jazz were considered "black music" at the time.

Bullshit, what about Whodini, Afrika Bambata, BDP, MC Shan and Melle Mel, etc., etc.? Most hip hop from the 1980s was aimed at the club and house party scene and had no political or street undertones at all.

I know, because I was there, and you probably weren't born yet, much less had a clue about current events and culture.

More like you're talking shit out of your ass. I was born into the culture and I've probably personally known more of the pioneers, both old and new school, than you can find on Google in any given day.

Physical coordination at the silly turntable thing has no bearing on musical ability. can any of these turntable jockies play 5 fucking notes in a row that aren't prerecored? The "cut and paste" method of "composing" impresses me none.

Sure, turntablism is a finishing part of the art. Most beatsmiths arrange their own instrumentals before mixing them with sampled pieces.

I meant FANS, not performers who can read music.

No more or less so than rock fans to my knowledge.

As to remixing.
BAH, humbug. plagurism via electronics! Those morons doing the "sampling," create no new riffs, coda, melodies, or harmonies.What would they do without their massive bank of prerecorded bits?

They'd probably arrange music for rhythm sections, like most of the rap acts in the 1980s.

Taking the lead guitar from "Day tripper" from the Beatles, the bass riff from a song who's name escapes me, and adding in the rythem guitar from "I can't get no (Satisfaction)" by the Rolling Stones was the song "I like to Rock by April Wine. (Journy to the stars, rock and roll guitars, some like it hot, I like to rock.) Palgurism! It sucked when rockers did it, and it sucks when rappers do it.

So says you. I have an entirely different view.

Finally, can any of the rappers actualy sing ON KEY? Or is singing off key no longer considered a sign of musical ignorance, like ebonics, and proper pronunciation and grammar?

Can you come up with complex rhyme schemes off of the top your head, with multis, punches, and a flow that continues to astound critics?

Give me someone that knows the rules, why they are the rules, and can follow the rules, but may occasionaly break them, any day.

Sure. Me.

(Some Led Zepplin is off key on perpose, as is some jazz, but it is a needed part of the song, not a byproduct of ignorance/inability.)

The same goes for hip hop producers and emcees.

Rev Prez

[revprez]

what's "flashing colours" mean?

Representing your gang affiliation. Tupac and Biggie were never affiliated.

Rev Prez

[revprez]

And in the 1970s Black America discovered something new; it blew up and dominates the music scene thirty years later. And for the first time it is a genre that is identifiably rooted in the Black community.

Thank Heavens they are only strong in your music scene.
I think I'd have to kill me if they'd be anywhere that strong here...
*shudder*

I don't know. Where are you from?

Rev Prez

[Dahak]

And in the 1970s Black America discovered something new; it blew up and dominates the music scene thirty years later. And for the first time it is a genre that is identifiably rooted in the Black community.

Thank Heavens they are only strong in your music scene.
I think I'd have to kill me if they'd be anywhere that strong here...
*shudder*

I don't know. Where are you from?

Rev Prez

Germany
While there is the occasional hip hopper in the charts, it definitely is not dominating the market. And only a small percentage of your rappers actually sell here.
Most stuff is pop, dance, and the like

[revprez]

Germany
While there is the occasional hip hopper in the charts, it definitely is not dominating the market. And only a small percentage of your rappers actually sell here.
Most stuff is pop, dance, and the like

That's true. Germany's hip hop scene is still pretty underground. Your neighbor France though started to see credible hip hop acts selling multi-platinum albums (MC Solar comes to mind).

Rev Prez

[Chardok]

Oh, Um. Aerosmith anyone? Walk This Way? pioneers of the rapidly spoken word-lyrics.

[revprez]

Oh, Um. Aerosmith anyone? Walk This Way? pioneers of the rapidly spoken word-lyrics.

Pioneers? Walk this Way was recorded in 1975. You had Black slam poets in New York already teaming up with rhythm sections and DJs in the late 1960s. Even the choice of "rap" as the name for this new spoken word artform comes from H. Rap Brown, a decidedly unsavory character who is credited as being the great grandfather of hip hop's emcee element.

Rev Prez

[Slartibartfast]

Molotov rocks.

They're bad, they give everyone the