whats the pont in rap, what can you honestly relate it to other than fuckin and all this other bullshit....help me understand..
I laugh at your ignorance. HAHAHAHAHAHA. What a dumb fucking moron. Close-minded and ignorant. Once again: HAHAHAHA.
Not all rap is bad, there is some good stuff out there, but 97% of what you will hear in today's mainstream is bad.
He's not a moron for not liking rap, or for not being able to relate to it. This counts for all music: if you don't like something, you just don't like something, there doesn't need to be an argument really unless you're claiming that they're not good. For instance, everyone who loves metal, loves Slayer. I don't. And I have no idea why, I just don't like them all that much. I don't say they're not good or that they're not talented. I leave that to the experts. Music can be both be the product of talent and sounding awful to you at the same time, as well as requiring no musicianship but being fun to listen to at the same time. Depends on taste, and someone's taste can't be right or wrong, it's just your taste. You are the close-minded and ignorant one for not respecting other people's musical preferences.
It is all opinion, but like I always say, there are only 2 things that can be legitimately guaged and those are technical complexity of the song structure, and technical proficiency required to play or sing the song. In my opinion rap lyrics are culturally, intellectually and creatively void. The beats are enjoyable, but the lyrics are always trite and never have any deeper meaning. I was okay with it when it was east-coast hip-hop that had no desire to say something violent, misogynistic, egomaniacal and meglomaniacal. There are some "rap" artists today creating politically motivated music, but I wouldn't call a lot of them rap. Most are singer/songwriters or R&B or a mix of the two, really. Wyclef comes to mind. The Roots, as mentioned before, aren't too bad either. Most rap today speaks solely on one level (what I've got, what I don't want to give you, how easily I could beat you up, and therefore how very great I am), and the "singers" wouldn't know a high D# from a low E, let alone sing it. This, combined with the incredibly trite lyrics, in my opinion, makes for some pretty one-dimensional and annoying 'music'. You don't like Slayer? I wonder why. lol Jeff Hannemann is an all right guitarist, but Kerry King's 'solos' are random chromatic noodlings with no regard for phrasing, mixed with annoying tremelo arm squeels. Give me neoclassical or progressive/classic rock any day!
Maybe, but even if those are missing or underdeveloped I can still like the song, as well as I can dislike songs in which skill and complexity are abundantly present... I'm not a musician myself so usually, the only thing that counts for me is the whole "picture" of the music, and only with music I know very well I will ( be able to ) pay attention to one individual aspect of the music. I don't like rap. Not at all. I tend to dislike music which isn't mainly melody-based. Some rap songs have a nice tune and are okay but most fail to do anything but irritate me like a swarm of mosquitoes. The beats are part of that too... they're sluggish and sound sooooo obviously digital ( I hate that ) and in really irritating patterns IMO. For me, music has got to flow and have sufficient melodies. That's why I don't like technical music with all its breaks, it disables the music to get a good grip on me. Black metal, especially the melodic blasting bands, is heaven to me because it's got really awesome melodies and it might often be dissonant and repetitive and underproduced and sharp and vicious but it flows and flows and flows, and it's really entrancing music, especially with the ridiculously fast drumming and the cold, murderous rasping / screaming vocals. I'd say it's the most advanced music in the world but everyone would disagree and they'd probably be right.
im just not a big fan of rap im the least, mainly because of the lack of intelectual and cultural knowledge that is displayed in the lyrics....
I think the most technically advanced music in the world was created between 1600 and 1750, which is Baroque classical music. I don't think you can even argue that. I hate black metal. I used to listen to Emperor and Nocturnus and stuff like that. The singers are absolutely rediculous, as are the lyrics, usually. The guitars are fairly melodic, but I wouldn't go nearly as far as to say they're complex. Progressive and Neoclassical guitar work, with 8 finger taps, is pretty complex, simply because instead of playing a melody in a certain scale, they can use contrapuntal technique that is similiar to a piano or organ. I don't know how anyone could listen to those shrieking singers. The reason why progressive music doesn't seem to "flow" is because they use a lot of paradigm and meter shifts. I think odd-time signature shifts are actually really very "grabbing". You'd have to listen to it more than once or twice to have it really flow properly for you. The drums in black and melodic death metal are pretty good, I suppose, the double bass is intense and works well for the music, but it is headache inducing after a few minutes of it. I'd take Michael Schrieve playing under Carlos Santana any time. Michael Schrieve is a drum-god, simply put. Just an opinion by any old rocker, though.
Theres just as much crappy rap out there as there is crappy rock....All mainstream music right now is so bland and predictable....
now if you would listen to some will smith, you will notice all rap is not pretentious, attention-grabbing, show-off hiphop. that guy has some true street cred. hardcore.
my god, I can't stand rap. I mean, who knew that talking really fast about bling, pimpin', violence, and all that BS would become so popular?? The same goes with someone hitting a sanio keyboard in order to generate a drum beat and then proceed to hit another key in order to generate a Pee Wee Herman laugh.
Hey man, I agree with you completely but there is a ton of sweet hip hop out there that has intellectual and cultural knowledge and curiousity. It's just under the radar. Check out: http://www.alhowardk23.com/ - revolutionary jack kerouac rap http://www.petemiser.com/ - underground brooklyn rap http://www.speechmusic.com/ - earthy crunchy revolutionary rap
I won't, don't worry. I'm rather surprised that you name Emperor as first black metal band that got in your mind and after that say that it isn't complex... ESPECIALLY Emperor was complex, progressive, and ahead of its time. That is, unless you listened to the "Emperor" and "Wrath of the tyrant" EPs, which were still rooted firmly into the old-school minimalistic black metal of the Norwegian scene in the early nineties. Every full-length they brought out afterwards was more complex, incorporating unexplored soundscapes, song structures and for-the-time unusual influences like death metal, classical music and even progressive rock ( ! ), leading the way for all bombastic avant-garde black metal that would emerge in their wake. I don't understand how you could listen to a song like "Thus spake the nightspirit" or "Ye entrancempirium" and not find it complex. In fact, Emperor have a tendency to be a bit over the top on that account, and I find them rather tiring if listening to them for a long time. I can faintly agree with your comments on the singing and the lyrics, but still, I just happen to like it that way ( well the lyrics are often crappy, I admit ). I get it when other people don't, though. I don't think the blastbeats ( I don't know if you're familiar with BM terminology ) of black metal ( melodic death doesn't really have blastbeats... well only "Behind space" from In Flames, maybe ) are headache inducing, though of course some variation in the tempo and rhythm is necessary to keep the music from getting dull. I have to say though that a lot of bands who thrive mainly in the hyperspeed section of black metal sound a bit at a loss of what to do when the rattling falls away, and aren't as convincing at low speed as at high speed. Though there's just as much bands who keep it slower pace and couldn't work up a proper epic riff over blasbeats either. I haven't put as much research into progressive / neoclassical rock at all though... if you could recommend some bands to me I'd be very grateful.
The biggest problem with today's Rap music is Biting. Too many Rappers are rapping about the samethings and putting out the same images today. In my opinion the best Rap era was the mid-80s' to early 90's which I still listen to. This era was a good one for Rap because back then Biting or copying another Rappers style was looked down on and this caused more Rappers to focus on their own thing. Plus,as far a dance music, Rap was more dance oriented back then than it is even today. Here's some Rap Albums/CD's you all should check out: "Back To Wreck Shop" by The Tuff Crew "Critical Beatdown" by Ultramagnetic Mc's "Criminal Minded" & "By Any Means Neccessary" by BDP "Long Live The Kane" by Big Daddy Kane "No One Does It Better" by The D.O.C "The Best Of MC Shan" By MC Shan "Paid-N-Full" by Eric B and Rakim "Mecca & The Soul Brother" by Pete Rock & CL Smooth Enjoy!
The phrasing in Emperor was honestly not that varying, and therefore not really that complex. Some progressive metal would be Dream Theater, Queensryche or my favorite band, Symphony X. The lead and keyboard harmonization in Symphony X is perfect. The exotic scales used for melodies on Michael Romeo's guitar work is awesome, and his 8-finger tapping on a lot of his solos is just amazing. There's a contrapuntal technique that is very baroque influenced and has great bass and tenor notes played at the same time. It's like 2 guitarists playing simultaneously. He's so accurate and fluent it sounds like he's playing a harp. John Petrucci of Dream Theater also has awesome chops, but I don't favor him as much. All three bands have crazy meter changes from common time to some compound signature like 6/8 or 12/8, so a lot of people find it hard to follow at first, but most get over that. Neoclassical musicians would be John Bjork, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Ulrich Jon Roth, and Vinnie Moore. Yngwie J. Malmsteen has a lot of repetitive phrasing, I mean, he plays a lot in the Phrygian mode, and the minor harmonic scale a lot, but he has a lot of great classical phrasing and some great pedal tone runs. His chops are undeniable! You should take a listen to the album "Magnum Opus" or "Concerto Suite for the Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Eb minor". They're great albums. He does some great arrangements of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony" and Bach's "Tocatta en Fugue in Dm". Vinnie Moore is more of a classical/flamenco guitarist, but he has some great electric guitar masterworks as well. The only heavy metal band I really like now is Children of Bodom. Alexi can't sing for shit, but his chops are great, and his phrasing is nice. I can't stand the vocals, though, so it's really a hard decision to make to put thier C.D.s on. I've not yet heard the side project, Sinergy, but I'm told the vocals are better.
