"I think it's pretty evident - and everybody says it - that hip-hop is definitely not as good as it once was.

Funny thing is that in a roundabout way, he's part of the problem. A Tribe Called Quest set the bar HIGH. The Low End Theory, in my book, is the best rap album ever. He's right, it's not as good if only because it used to be consistently great from about 1987-1995.

It's sort of like disco was.

I love you Tip, but no.

/you on point Tip? all the time Phife
//so play the resurrector and give the dead some life

...rap is dying a slow death

Oh please oh please oh please be true

It'll never be slow enough for me.

strangeguitar: It'll never be slow enough for me.

I menat quick enough!
/Damn you IPAs!

Rap is a strange issue for me. I love Public Enemy, Special Ed, Trouble Funk. Also NWA and all derivatives.

Problem now is, for roughly $500 anyone can own the gear needed to make a rap album. Notice I didn't say own the knowledge how to make a rap album, or any other kind of album.

Rap back in the day sounded different to me. You can tell it was new, the artists worked hard on it. Each song and record sounded different.

Now it's about ringtones and being a thug. Can you even go to a rap concert now? Do they have rap concerts?

Yeah, I like Jurassic 5 too. But I just don't see another Public Enemy around the corner.

If you think all rap is bad, allow me to direct you to Rhyme Torrents.

Problem now is, for roughly $500 anyone can own the gear needed to make a rap album.

It doesn't have the soul that it once did. Everybody just says the same thing. There is no message other than "bling, girls, bling, hawd, bling" all laid over a track that is just a drum beat and a bass line.

Used to be there were more people out there trying to tell stories, send a message. Care and thought was put into the track behind the lyrics. It all had a soul to it. Now, its just about the dollas.

/get yo punk ass up off my lawwwn, dog

iron_city_ap: It doesn't have the soul that it once did. Everybody just says the same thing. There is no message other than "bling, girls, bling, hawd, bling" all laid over a track that is just a drum beat and a bass line.

That might be true of hip-hop, but not necessarily of rap. Rap is only a lyric delivery method. i don't like country, but it would be silly for me to say i don't like singing because of country. There's some signing i love. Rap isn't about bling and hos. It's about speaking lyrics in a cadence or to the timing of music, and nothing else. Hip-hop is also very broad. Gangsta rap is not quite hip-hop. To me, hip-hop is "Just throw ya arms in tha air, and wave em like ya just don't care". i could do without the pimps and hos stuff. It doesn't speak to me because i'm a geeky white dude. i can ironically enjoy some snoop, but that's the limit. Give me some MC Chris, Futuristic Sex Robotz and MC Hawking.

2and4: Problem now is, for roughly $500 anyone can own the gear needed to make a rap album

a little more that that...but not much.

apeiron242:
That might be true of hip-hop, but not necessarily of rap. Rap is only a lyric delivery method. i don't like country, but it would be silly for me to say i don't like singing because of country. There's some signing i love. Rap isn't about bling and hos. It's about speaking lyrics in a cadence or to the timing of music, and nothing else. Hip-hop is also very broad. Gangsta rap is not quite hip-hop. To me, hip-hop is "Just throw ya arms in tha air, and wave em like ya just don't care". i could do without the pimps and hos stuff. It doesn't speak to me because i'm a geeky white dude. i can ironically enjoy some snoop, but that's the limit. Give me some MC Chris, Futuristic Sex Robotz and MC Hawking.

Well spoken; I will check those acts out. Rap and Hip-Hop are definitely two different things.

mr lawson: 2and4: Problem now is, for roughly $500 anyone can own the gear needed to make a rap album

a little more that that...but not much.

Depends on who you know...

submitter: rap is dying a slow death

I'm more concerned about the shiat that will replace it.

mr lawson: 2and4: Problem now is, for roughly $500 anyone can own the gear needed to make a rap album

a little more that that...but not much.

Actually, let me expand. I wasn't trying to be a dick.

$200 digital recorder on craigslist.com.

$100 microphone + cable

$200 keyboard

Creativity, time, talent, perserverance: Priceless.

Too many have the former, not enough the latter. But that's why music is fun, cool, and can change lives!

Q-Tip is the shiat too. There are still good rap artists out there. They just get overlooked by all the crap. It is very similar to rock in that aspect.

Anyone who doesn't mind a little mind fark should listen to Deltron 3030

2and4: mr lawson: 2and4: Problem now is, for roughly $500 anyone can own the gear needed to make a rap album

a little more that that...but not much.

Actually, let me expand. I wasn't trying to be a dick.

$200 digital recorder on craigslist.com.

$100 microphone + cable

$200 keyboard

Creativity, time, talent, perserverance: Priceless.

Too many have the former, not enough the latter. But that's why music is fun, cool, and can change lives!

I don't know if he's being sarcastic or not. $500 will buy what you say, but you're giving them too much credit there. They keyboard implies that they have the talent to use it. I'm going to go with a breakdown of $650

$350 - Cheapest computer from Dell
$200 - USB audio interface
$100 - Mic and cable

Download some beats and loops from the net. Cubase LE or something like that is usually included with the USB thing to handle production. That should be enough to make for an okay sounding recording (quality of actual work may vary).

The keyboard. Not they....

Nemo's Brother: Q-Tip is the shiat too. There are still good rap artists out there. They just get overlooked by all the crap. It is very similar to rock in that aspect.

Anyone who doesn't mind a little mind fark should listen to Deltron 3030

This.

It's killing me that Deltron Event II keeps getting pushed back.

i just came in here to say two things:

"bust a nut inside your eye, to show you where i come from"

"if my mom don't approve, then i'll just elope
let me sink the little man from inside the boat
let me hit it from the back, girl i won't catch a hernia
bust off on your couch, now you got semen's furniture "

/why yes i'll have another samuel adams!
//love tribe
///they're still one record short to filling their contract
///a boy can dream can't he?

ApatheticMonkey: $350 - Cheapest computer from Dell

Here's the problem, you said it yourself.

The keyboard implies that they have the talent to use it.

No, it doesn't. That's why some pop songs nowadays sound like they were written on the black keys only.

Download some beats and loops from the net.

No! Don't do that. Make your own on whatever platform you have, run them through a $10 pawnshop stompbox, then re-record it with whatever mic you have through a paper-towel roll. And make sure it sounds GREAT before you move on to the bass line or the vocal track. And you'd better have the arrangement down before you do any of this. That is creativity.

See DJ Shadow's "Entroducing" for an example. Not rap or hip-hop, but still an example of talent and creativity.

A talent is something you are born with. A skill can be learned. DJ Shadow, Michael Jordan, Tiger woods, and Johnny Cash have talent.

If you work hard and have skills (sorry, skillz) then you can hang for a bit.

Public Enemy had both. Well, Chuck D. did anyway.

iron_city_ap: It doesn't have the soul that it once did. Everybody just says the same thing. There is no message other than "bling, girls, bling, hawd, bling" all laid over a track that is just a drum beat and a bass line.

Up in them five star tellies sayin two mic rhymes
be them average emcees of the times.
Unlike them, we craft gems.
So systematically inclined to pen lines
without sayin' a producers name all over the track.
Yeah I said it! What 'cha need ta do, is get back
to reading credits. (We the Medics)
Alphabetically stuck on that A grade shiat, now
quit now, before we pour that sure shot
pure rock co kane flow

Die MotherFarker! Die!!!

Put a DNR order on that sucker!!

\Danny and the Juniors were wrong..obscure?

It happens.

/80s metal head

On a related topic, from Wikipedia:

The inventor of the cotton swab is supposed to have been one Leo Gerstenzang, in the 1920s. His product, which he named "Baby Gays", went on to become the most widely-sold brand name, "Q-tip".

Learn somethin' new every day.

Q-tip, whatchoo on the mic for?

2and4:
$200 digital recorder on craigslist.com.
$100 microphone + cable
$200 keyboard

What the shiat are you going to do with a keyboard?

Assuming you already have a computer, this is how it breaks down:

$50 microphone (EV or other bang-for-the-buck brand)
$50 sound card with decent inputs
$50 decent headphones for mixing on
$99 FLStudio FruityLoops Edition
$0 Audacity (FLSFLE doesn't do recording)
$0 freeware VST plugins (Kjaerhus Classic effects, synths)
$0 freebie samples

So, computer + $249. Less if you buy some stuff used - a dusty old Audigy sound card should be good enough, you might score an EV Co4 for like $15 used, and so on.

Of course, you don't have to do everything as cheaply as possible, but above about this level diminishing returns start to kick in.

If you want live instrument/band stuff, add another $500 or so for a full complement of mics and an audio interface that'll record more than one or two channels at a time.

There's good rap, good metal, good pop, good rock, good country, good R&B and good folk out there out there, it's always been out there - sometimes it's a bit more difficult to find.

Right now as we speak, there are kids working in their basements with their friends planning to turn the music industry upside down.

apeiron242: If you think all rap is bad, allow me to direct you to Rhyme Torrents.

Nercore is the crap we end up with when geeks buy 2and4's $500 worth of recording equipment.

There's just something wrong with rapping about D&D, the RIAA and the internet.

tip is wrong.
rap isn't going to die... it'll suffer the fate of jazz.

the easily digestible shmaltz rap will be found on fringe radio in urban markets, and the rest will play in small nightclubs and places where .007% of the population will hear it. in 40 years pbs will make a documentary about rap, wistfully recalling rakim and nwa and outkast and a representatives of dozen sub-genres. someone will visit tupac's grave, someone will interview 'lil wayne and treat him like an expert/innovator. then people will go back to listening to whatever garbage gets play in 2048 - old timers will holler about lawns, and the earth will continue to rotate on its axis.


/that being said, give a listen to q-tip's remake of the tribe classic "midnight." its as if someone (cool & dre) mixed tribe lyrics with kanye's synth-hop sound. good times.

Heard a Rapper once saying that rap is going through it's "Motley Crue" phase. Seemed like a great way of putting it.
Theres still great rap out there (Went to an Edan gig a while ago) but the mainstream has just been strangled by businessmen that churn out plastic crap.
Stations like MTV that used to be a stage for talent just play whatever arrives in the Sony envelopes.
Happens to every genre at some stage but theres still enough albums from '96 alone to keep me happy.

A TRIBE CALLED QUEST

My new favorite. Who can argue with positive lyrics, great voices, a catchy beat, and breakdancing mascots?

DJ Format featuring Jurassic 5
Link (new window)


/Chali Tuna rules!

There is a lot of different things happening in rap nowadays. The shiat on the radio and in the clubs is really bad. But in the more obscure underground there are a lot of greats things happening. A lot of djs and producers are pushing the bounds of music can be rapped to. Take El-P's Fantastic Damage for example. It doesn't sound like a hip hop album. Its all futuristic and strange sounding. But its farking great.
I don't know. this could be ranted about forever and ever. we'll have to see in the years to come.

They've been predicting the imminent demise of rap since 1986.

/Not news

i like all the people who say "anyone can make a rap song, it takes no talent" i'm like ok jerkstore throw one down and make a million. oh whats that? you can't rap? then shut the fark up.

Tip pretty much nails it (except for the disco part).

IMHO, a few things have contributed to HIP-HOP's demise:

1. The blingifcation and stagnation of East Coast rap. Most of the inovation that came out of NY has evaporated. No longer art but a way of making and flaunting money.

2. The rise of crunk and ringtone rappers. I would have said Southern-based rap but there have been a few acts, namely Outkast and Goodie Mob, that were inovators. If I had to name one, and just one reason for the demise of hip-hop, this would be it. The "Superman that hoe" dude (whos name escapes me at the moment) is the unfortunate future. No real lyrical content, a catchy dance and you're on your way to millions.

3. Like everything else in this country, the lowest common denomenator is a gold mine. The many and stupid decide what is heard and seen in the media. The demise of hip-hop is a small part of were this country is going culturally.

Kazuya: Heard a Rapper once saying that rap is going through it's "Motley Crue" phase. Seemed like a great way of putting it.

THIS

/I refer to it as a "Van Halen" phase
//same idea, though