Was older hip-hop/rap music (90s) really better than modern hip-hop/rap music (2010s, 2020s) or is it just nostalgic old head boomer talk? If it is, does it have something to do with modern rap music tendency to avoid sampling as much as older rap?
>>129843069Rap/hip-hop peaked somewhere between 2002-2011. Wasn’t very good before and it hit a precipitous decline after. Biggie and Tupac were both overrated plants. DMX was unironically better than both of them.
>>129843417It died right around the moment when trap took off. now it’s considered “unc” to listen to anything made before it, and intellectualism (which was a core identity in hiphop) is looked down upon in favor of things like hood culture.
>>129843417ballet
>>129843069It's not just the sampling that faded away. There used to be a more energetic "call and response" style to rap, because all of the biggest acts in the 80s were groups and that DNA bled even into the solo rappers of the 90s and to some extent the 2000s.It's not an amazing song or anything but if you listen to The Moon Cave off the new Gorillaz album you can hear how much more interesting the first half of Black Thought's verse sounds compared to the second half. Unfortunately even when you have modern rap groups like Run the Jewels they keep their verse separate most of the time rather than doing "routines" the way Run-DMC or Beastie Boys would have. You can still get hints of it when they intentionally use the same flow like on Blockbust Night by RTJ or even on Tobey by Eminem, buy it's not quite the same. I think this is why Wu-Tang Clan have managed to endure for so long, because they still have that PUNCHy kind of delivery. It's crowd pleasing.All of this boils down to 80s and 90s rap being funner to nod or rap along to regardless of what they were actually saying. Obviously in rock music songs get bigger if their fun to sing along to, why wouldn't the same hold true for rapping? A$AP might have some cool songs but not a whole that you could rap along to the way a room of people will go "bah bah bah" if Sweet Caroline comes on. But play My Name Is and you will absolutely get drunk bitches to go "chicka chicka chicka".
>>129843513/mu/ is not ready for a well thought out response like this.
>>129843417Absolutely garbage opinion. This has to be a troll.
>>129843513Mmm you have a point but that call and response quickly faded. I mean you had groups like Bone Thugs, Wu Tang, doing that sort of thing, but I can not think of many others. Even if you listen to Gravediggaz, that shit wasn't call and response either, and that was before Wu Tang. Modern rap, to me, can be boiled down to one specific thing, the skill expression of rap changed. At one point, it was how many words can you rhyme while sticking to an over arching idea of a song, generally speaking. "Duel Of The Iron Mics", right? So when the bling bling era came, the actualy lyrics took a back seat to how the vibes are, how the song feels. Even take Missy Elliot, great music, but the lyrics took a back seat. The trend just continued, fuck even take Kanyes first albums.
Honestly, even hedonistic and violent gangsta rap of the 90s was way "smarter" than today's trap rap. It was just better lyrically and the way it was conveyed was just better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw0uz88E2gI
i wouldnt say better, but more competent, you had to have skill to be a spiritual lyrical miracle type of rapper, you had to have skill to free style, rap was gate kept by this.but then it started breaking down, became mumble rap, became stupider, all on purpose, the idea of conscious rap became lame.now you have "rappers" who are absolute ass, like 2 slimey or whatever who are "bad on purpose", oh isnt it sooooooo ironic.where is all of this headed anyways, its an arms race in stupidity and dumbing down rap
The oldheads are wrong, rap peaked in the 21st century
>>129843721Care to refute it?
>>129843844Yep it was ironic detachment that happened. Same happened to rock btw. Rap had a counter-movement with the lyrical miracle wave halfway tho
>>129843417Mostly spot on. It may not have been as good artistically in the 90s, but you can't say it's broadly not very good. It was a gradient up to its peak and a (faster) gradient on the way down, punctuated by Good Kid Maad City.>>129843438I can't stand this low IQ soundcloud trap. Hip hop deserves its fate, though. It's especially zeitgeisty.>>129843513Interesting assessment. It seems the sunsetting of the call and response form coincides with the '00s renaissance. Only a few artists were still doing it and largely as a deliberately retro callback or they just had really East coast roots, like Aesop Rock and Hail Mary Mallon. >modern rap groups like Run the Jewels they keep their verse separate most of the timeI would call that cypher rapping. Taking whole verses instead of sharing them. Also remember that El-P is an genuine old school East coast MC. Long, big brain verses with catchy hooks were the Company Flow style. Although thinking on it, Beastie Boys were from Brooklyn too, right? Both styles were happening at the same time in the mid 90s.
>>129843069only white boys and weirdos listened to dr octagon because they weren't black enough to relate to nigger rap like camron, 50 cent, or the game >>129843844>>129844525white boys and non-blacks require easy-to-understand lyrics without any slang, wordplay, poetic devices, or hood reference they wont get that is why they call rhyme patters "lyricism" and listen to boring rappers that just whine and rap about how real they are. They think if a rapper rhymes some big words or can do multi-syllable rhyme patterns that it's somehow "wordplay" even though convoluted babble without any metaphors, analogies, or play on words is literally the opposite of wordplay which i how these underground whiteboy-catered rap is these internet crackers have no concept of flow, style, culture and how it meshes together on a musical track. they just wanna hear forced rhymes and weak flows without and punchlines or buildups like eminem. that is why asian and white hip hop fundamentalists on the internet have the absolute worst opinions about hip hop because once rappers stop leaning on rhyme patters and dry lyrics easy to white people to understand, they were no longer able to enjoy it
>>129843069Heavy and tastefully selected sampling carried it. I went to see the Wu Tang Farewell tour and holy shit does their music sound weird when they rely on live bands and live singing instead of using the original samples. Still, that late 80s to mid 90s era is unmatched. So many absolute banger songs.
>>129845711what does the chink have to do with that?
>>129843069Fossilized shit is still shit
Depends on what you think is better. Bragging was a part of hip hop from the start so where it's at now is in many way a fulfillment of that aspect.
>>129843069I liked hip hop when it had more synths and less 808shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0fk6syQ7iY
>>129845496You are exactly the kind of anti-intellectual that others are talking about in this thread. You're offended somehow and are pulling shit out of your ass to cope. Everybody can see you're a fraud.
>>129843417>>129844323DMX is the epitome of sanitized, soulless corporate rap aimed at a white male audience. It's the shit you find on the playlist of some white guy in his 40s who listens to mostly country and buttrock. That's where you'll find a couple token DMX songs (you know which ones) that he added to show how open minded and cultured he is.
the only thing that matters is production. there's good and bad production for all eras. anyone can rap well not everyone can make a good beat.
best rappers: krs one, kool keith, scarface
>>129843069Rap is worse now because it's way too easy to gain popularity without being any part of good, as well as niggers getting number[citation needed], but it's not like it's dried up and there are no more good rappers and rap songs. Also part of the reason for better perception of older rap is that it had some pseudointellectual tendencies to appeal to whities
>>129846661White zoomies love modern rap
>>129846692Yea you're right. What I meant is that rappers like Tupac really appealed to the boomers with their half-baked 'conscious' rap.Regarding the zoomies, they more or less just want to be part of an in-group, they could not care less if 'bitch' is rhymed with 'rich' then back to 'bitch'
>>129843417spot on frankly
>>129846727Or could it be that trap rap is actually really catchy and appeals to zoomers because of that?
