This is more underground stuff… it doesn’t get played on the radio, it was recorded in Iraq:
[quote]Otep wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]Otep wrote:
I don’t think there are many sub-genres to hip-hop that really matter. All the nerdy white college kids that spend hours ruthlessly sub-categorizing their music listen to bands like Spain and Oneida. You’ve got Gangster-Rap, and Backpack-rap, a couple of groups that act like they’re blurring the boundaries but really aren’t, and that’s pretty much it. Everything else is negotiated on a per diem basis. Scarface is gangster today but horrorcore tomorrow. Things like that.[/quote]
I listen to a lot of rap - I mean A LOT of rap - and I’d never heard the term “backpack rap” until reading a thread here a few months ago. To me there’s gangster, lyrical and mellow and maybe something else to describe older stuff like Big Daddy Kane or something, but I usually just call that old school rap. Gangster’s Mobb Deep/Geto Boys. Mellow’s Tribe/Pharcyde. Lyrical’s Canibus/Eyedea. It’s all rap to me, and I dig what’s good. Actually had an arguement with a friend 'cause he said rap’s a music, Hip-Hop’s a lifestyle. I told him he took that shit way too seriously. Oh, I call most of todays commercial rap “shit”.[/quote]
Same thing here, but I asked a couple of friends who know a lot more about rap and they pointed out the term is old and well-used, but not so often anymore becuase if you don’t know by now…
That’s KRS-ONE’s line. And I agree. That is, in fact, exactly how you can tell someone takes it too seriously.[/quote]
Well at least now I can call my buddy out for being unoriginal.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Well at least now I can call my buddy out for being unoriginal.[/quote]
Sorry, I thought you were aware of the statement:
‘Rap is something you do: hip-hop is something you live.’ -KRSONE.
If you want, you can give him points for being able to hide his sources. That’s originality.
I’m surprised by the amount of nerd rap that has been listed.
I used to listen too a lot of it but it gets boring and all ends up sounds like the same thing over and over again. I don’t want too learn about astrophysics when I’m patrolling for poon, you get me?
[quote]carlcarlson wrote:
I’m surprised by the amount of nerd rap that has been listed.
I used to listen too a lot of it but it gets boring and all ends up sounds like the same thing over and over again. I don’t want too learn about astrophysics when I’m patrolling for poon, you get me?[/quote]
LOL
I’m Production oriented.
Essential Producers:
J Dilla* –
Pete Rock* – – 3 Production/remix Gods
DJ Premier* –
RZA
MF Doom
Marley Marl*
Dr Dre
Large Professor*
Erick Sermon*
Beatnuts (hip hop group and production duo)
Rockwilder
Hi-Tek
Just Blaze
Easy Mo Bee
Mark Baston
Godfather Don*
The Bomb Squad
Havoc (Mobb Deep)*
*personal favorites
DJs/Producers are the 3rd rail of the game. Wikipedia and Youtube are great tools for schooling/researching up on their work. Which reaches every corner and every level. And I gotta say apart from the Fresh Prince days Jazzy Jeff has produced some great tracks. He gets much respect among the most revered producers in the game.
For the sake of brevity the only rapper I will mention in detail is Big Pun.
A lyrical “Mike-Tyson-in-his-prime” powerhouse.
He had an insane flow. Quality lyrics. Outstanding wordplay and razor sharp wit.
Big Pun - Capital Punishment - Essential.
As a bonus your travels may also lead you to some funk/soul artists who composed the original tracks many hip hop songs sampled from. One group I would say must be given a listen is The Meters, namely their album entitled “Good Old Funky Music” These guys put some nasty sessions on wax.
[quote]Otep wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Well at least now I can call my buddy out for being unoriginal.[/quote]
Sorry, I thought you were aware of the statement:
‘Rap is something you do: hip-hop is something you live.’ -KRSONE.
If you want, you can give him points for being able to hide his sources. That’s originality.[/quote]
Haha.
[quote]40thStreetBlack wrote:
I’m Production oriented.
Essential Producers:
J Dilla* –
Pete Rock* – – 3 Production/remix Gods
DJ Premier* –
RZA
MF Doom
Marley Marl*
Dr Dre
Large Professor*
Erick Sermon*
Beatnuts (hip hop group and production duo)
Rockwilder
Hi-Tek
Just Blaze
Easy Mo Bee
Mark Baston
Godfather Don*
The Bomb Squad
Havoc (Mobb Deep)*
*personal favorites
DJs/Producers are the 3rd rail of the game. Wikipedia and Youtube are great tools for schooling/researching up on their work. Which reaches every corner and every level. And I gotta say apart from the Fresh Prince days Jazzy Jeff has produced some great tracks. He gets much respect among the most revered producers in the game.
For the sake of brevity the only rapper I will mention in detail is Big Pun.
A lyrical “Mike-Tyson-in-his-prime” powerhouse.
He had an insane flow. Quality lyrics. Outstanding wordplay and razor sharp wit.
Big Pun - Capital Punishment - Essential.
As a bonus your travels may also lead you to some funk/soul artists who composed the original tracks many hip hop songs sampled from. One group I would say must be given a listen is The Meters, namely their album entitled “Good Old Funky Music” These guys put some nasty sessions on wax.
[/quote]
Thanks for this. I’m most definitely production oriented and in fact do live mixing, recording, and prod local musicians. In fact, my draw to rap (and most music for that matter) has been production.
Honestly, most lyrics (in any genre) are lost on me as my ear is drawn toward instrumentation, beat, and production. The trade mags I get are all production oriented. The producers are always the silent extra member of the band that makes the band sound good.
There’s a saying about great rhythm guitarists which applies to producers – you don’t know they’re there until they stop playing.
Dre is certainly one of the greatest producers ever in music. Yeah, I said that.
As far as the term Backpacker rap goes, it was something that came along during the nineties. Tribe, De La, Soundbombing mixtapes, they were all considered the backpacking genre. The term came along because of certain hiphop heads that used to ALWAYS travel with there backpack full of underground mixtapes and a little tape player. Sometimes they would also be down with the Graf writers so there might be some spray paint in there for impromptu tagging.
Early Kanye can be considered backpack rap. He actually called himself a backpacker a couple times in his raps.
I thought this was nice.
x2 on 40thStreetBlack’s post
[quote]Pootie Tang wrote:
As far as the term Backpacker rap goes, it was something that came along during the nineties. Tribe, De La, Soundbombing mixtapes, they were all considered the backpacking genre. The term came along because of certain hiphop heads that used to ALWAYS travel with there backpack full of underground mixtapes and a little tape player. Sometimes they would also be down with the Graf writers so there might be some spray paint in there for impromptu tagging.
Early Kanye can be considered backpack rap. He actually called himself a backpacker a couple times in his raps.[/quote]
I thought it had to do with kids carrying around spary paint to underground shows because tagging was one of the elements of hip hop (mc, dj, dancing, tagging/visual art)
[quote]polo77j wrote:
[quote]Pootie Tang wrote:
As far as the term Backpacker rap goes, it was something that came along during the nineties. Tribe, De La, Soundbombing mixtapes, they were all considered the backpacking genre. The term came along because of certain hiphop heads that used to ALWAYS travel with there backpack full of underground mixtapes and a little tape player. Sometimes they would also be down with the Graf writers so there might be some spray paint in there for impromptu tagging.
Early Kanye can be considered backpack rap. He actually called himself a backpacker a couple times in his raps.[/quote]
I thought it had to do with kids carrying around spary paint to underground shows because tagging was one of the elements of hip hop (mc, dj, dancing, tagging/visual art)[/quote]
Exactly, one thing kind of evolved into another, by the mid to late 90’s tagging and Graff writing wasn’t as popular as it was in the late 70’s to early 90’s. But the backpacks were still around carrying notepads mixtapes radios ect.