There’s allot of good stuff these days from Sosa to Dolph to G herbo to lil baby. #freemeek #freeherbo
Don’t know if this fits under the label “street rap” but I’ve been pretty damn infatuated with Pharoahe Monch’s debut record “Infernal Affairs” over the past month or so. It is one of those things where from the moment he starts rapping you just kinda slap your forehead and go “Jesus, there is noone who is really like him, is there?” Pharaohes flow on that entire record almost reminds you more of a jazz solo than a traditional rap flow. he slows to a crawl, speeds it up to the 6th gear, juggling multisylabic rhymes and triple entendres mixed with alliteration after alliteration after… You get the picture.
It’s a pretty uneven listen overall, and there’s a pretty significant drop off in quality in the second half, but for those first 8 songs or so, Pharoahe is a fucking god. The storytelling on Queens, the punchlines on Show No Mercy, the skin crawling double meaning on Rape, it is just goes from strength to unfuckwithable strength. Pharaoahe just dances completely uninhibited over every single beat like Fred Astaire in Zero grav, while flinging out immortal lines left and right, like " too melodic
Melodies, never melodramatic but hypnotic like cellos for fellow fanatics"
Come on now, Pharoahe, Come on now!
lol I dont think it qualifies as street rap. But I’m down to talk Monch anytime! I should have just opened the topic to rap in general anyways.
i need to go check out Internal Affairs, I havent listened to that in awhile, thanks to my new found dependency on spotify. I thank you for inspiring me to go listen to good music today.
What else you got? who are some of your other favs? street or not?
I was raised on Wu-tang, Mos Def, and Jigga. but Im from New Orleans so Juvenile was a God to me lol
Shoot, sorry for not staying on topic, never heard of the term street rap before, haha.
Well, I came up with a lot of early 2000’s stuff, restless era Xzibit and progressively more Eminem. As a white kid growing up in the rural part of Denmark it was pretty difficult to find the more underground stuff or even anything older in general. I honestly think that what initially informed my taste in rap the most was the Def Jam fighting games, but I’ve tried to make up for that as I got older and more internet savvy. Still though, I will kick it to an old Xzibit song in a hot second if I get the chance, same with DMX and the rest of that Def Jam roster.
I’d say that these days I’m really into Mick Jenkins and have been since the Waters back in 2013, and I really feel like he deserves to be bigger than he is right now. I really appreciate his writing and on top of that he actually has a really nice voice whenever he decides to utilize it that way. He’s like my favorite out of a shitload of young artists that I really dig in general, like Noname, Vic Mensa, Logic. I’m generally pretty jazzed for most of the newer rappers out there right now, haha.
Sounds like to me you have some excellent tastes.
and no worries about the topic, one thing I often complain about is that hip hop/ rap really doesnt have defined sub genres so we just kind of make it up as we go. To me trap music implies a southern style, drill music is trap music with a Chicago twist, and Street rap is basically like modern gangster rap. I think of Meek Mill, an artist who has allot of songs that dont exactly sound like trap, but cover the same basic subjects. But I literally made it all up based on my experience sowho knows, maybe Monch should be considered street.
You’re really talking my language with the Def Jam stuff. DMX! is/was great! I love "And Then There was X"
I remember Redman was prominent on those games, didyou get into him as well? Those defjam games made me a N.O.R.E. and Capone fan, so even being from the states I learned from those games.
Mick jenkins is real top notch pick, allot of people really do overlook him. I’ll have to look up Noname.
Are you a Kendrick Lamar fan?
It’s a running joke with my friends that I’m like a Kendrick/Nas hater. (I respect the guy, but think he’s over rated) I like to poke at Kendrick fans I meet lol
Denmark huh? that’s fascinating to me. Ive never left America unfortunately. It’s interesting to see what Black American culture makes it past international waters.
Capone-N-Nore are so amazing on those def Jam ost’s! everytime stompdashitoutyou would come on in the game myself and my friends would damn near bash our 12 year old heads into the wall. Fucking tremendous song, Redman does hold a special place in my heart due to those games, definitely, even if I never got too into his music. I did see him live with Method Man some years ago which was unbelievable, especially considering how they started off the show by complaining over the speakers about how bad the Danish weed was compared to Amsterdam.
It’s funny you mention the sub genre thing, 'cause I’ve always kinda felt the same way. Part of it stems from being a huge metal fan which has almost the opposite problem of having too many sub genres, so it really makes the rap sub genres stand out in contrast. In a way I almost find it preferable because so much of it is just kind of minutiae and keeping it under a more broad term helps expanding the culture in a way. In another way, though, I really like labelling music…
I’m a complete Kendrick stan, haha, Have been ever since I saw him live. I can’t profess to say that I think his music is aimed at me and my demographic but I think the work he’s doing is damn important and truly significant in the grand scheme of things. The only reason that Live performance wasn’t one of my 3 best rap concerts is that I went to an RTJ concert immediately after that Kendrick Show that blew it and everything else out of the water, haha.
hahaha man. The one thing about kendrick I always have to say is, a bulk of the people I respect in life seem to really like him, so there has to be something there. Literally like twice a year I put on a Kendrick album and try to force myself to enjoy it. I think my devout East coast rap childhood, has tarnished my ears against certain west coast rap features.
RTJ is pretty awesome as well, and I appreciate your perspective on the genre thing. Maybe it is a good thing that the rap genres aren’t so rigid or even real.
I see your kendrick Lamar, and raise you one Jay Electronica. have you heard of him? He has a video of himself talking on periscope calling kendrick his son thats pretty funny. Jay Elect and Killa Priest (lupe Fiasco as well) are always my go to artist when it comes to deciding who actually raps the best.
Has any trap or drill music peeked your interest? Depending on your background sometimes it takes awhile to grow on you and for you to begin to appreciate and notice the value.
I haven’t really gotten in to either Drill or Trap, honestly. The only, like, rap genre wave I can remember getting on in a big way was, embarrasingly, the Crunk trend in the mid-00’s, haha. Like, I listen a lot of different music, and I don’t think there’s any such thing as a guilty pleasure or songs to be ashmed off, but… man, in retrospect there was something about 15 year old me and his music taste went off the fucking rails, what with being white as rice and bumping everything from yin yang twinz, to trick daddy, to David Banner, Paul Wall and Bone Crusher, and then spicing it up with the most sleazy 80’s glam and hair metal to be found. Just a bad look all around.
Welp, tangent aside, I haven’t really checked out a lot of trap. I generally find that the vocalization annoys me but that’s the type of shit that you get used to. I did hear a Migos song that I didn’t actively dislike a while back, but then it got stuck in my head for like 3 days and I ended up getting super annoyed with it again.
Lupe is definitely a good pull on best rapper. I’m personally partial to Pharoahe or Black Thought but Lupe pioneered such a unique style that a lot of the “real rappers” are biting today that I kinda feel like you have to give him a lot of props.
hahaha you was getting crunk for real, listening to that Bone Crusher lol. Paul Wall is kind of underrated lyrically, his subject matter isnt too deep, but he has a nice grasp on word play.
Migos’s sound can get repetitive very quickly, I definitely understand that.
You went from 00’s crunk to 80s glam
’These days I often go from trap to early 80’s post punk and new wave.
I’m one of those The smiths Joy Division fans. I feel like those to bands are so special.
on the rock /metal side of things these are my favorites, I wonder if you are a fan of any: Marilyn Manson, NIN, Gojira, Fall Out Boy, Bad religion, Ghost BC, Sabbath, brand New, H.I.M. I’m kind of all over the place when it comes to rock. Ive also grown to like Elvis a bit. I used to be into the metalcore scene as well, bands like A skylit drive, Asking Alexandria, We came as Romans. I remember there was a arms race to see who could get the most high pitched lead singer
Do you have any good Metal suggestions, i could definitely use some more bands in my life. I recently got DragonBall FightersZ and Dynasty Warriors 9, two games that will be fun to listen to music to while I play
It’s getting pretty late in my part of the world so I hope you’ll forgive me for just throwing a couple of band names your way and then call it a day, but thanks for talk man, it’s been a pleasure!
Check out Bask and their record Ramble Beyond. It’s like a mix of americana folk and stoner metal, very soothing and melodic. Then, if you’re feeling a bit more adventerous, check out Inter Arma’s The Cavern. It’s a single track EP that runs around 40 minutes and is a really good example of post metal and how to build up tension and release it in perpetuity.
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Appreciate you! enjoy the rest of your “day”. I’ll listen through these in a bit while I’m practicing on DBZ.
