Me and my ex got into a headed discussion about EM. I said something on the lines of "him not being great" and her rebuttal was "well on BET/MTV it was black people that nominated him the best rapper". I told her she knows nothing about hip hop just stick to country and r&b..LOL But for real IMO his best stuff was when he was more funny with his witty flow. IDK if people realize EM was heavy into drugs when he first started. So a lot of his better material was just drug induced rage that brought fourth some good shit by him. He's apparently sober now so hence the lame sounding EM we have now. He has talent but dude was better in his prime. BTW 2pac wasn't just another rapper he was a good poet. He could evoke emotion with his songs. 2pac's "Dear Mama" raps how he loved his mother/"keep your head up" love for black women..etc. You don't hear real emotion today in hip hop.
We're going to have to agree to disagree about Eminem bro. I mean Eminem is a great lyricist (he will go down as one of the greats), but at the same time after The Eminem Show his music became very unappealing to me. Its like he lost his edge or something. GOAT lists tend to be very wish washy lol. A LOT of rappers get overlooked, because they werent as commercial etc. For ex: I think Mos Def, Talib, etc deserve WAY more props then what they get.
Well that's what I meant by voice/tone. They don't all have to sound like Treach. EPMD is probably the best example, where Erick Sermon had a lisp and Parrish Smith had a very crisp delivery. They had a way of controlling their vocals. With Em and Jay, their voices can get really, really high, like they don't have control of their vocals.
That would be a fair arugument.... I mean Rakim changed the whole game up, his rhyming schemes (internal rhyming) and everything were way before his time. Im not even a big Tupac fan, but even I can admit that he took rap to a whole other level. His rhyme schemes were nothing new, but his work ethic pushed him over the top.
Yeah Dear Mama mad it to the Library of Congress. Im going to have to disagree about the end of what you said though. There is hella good hip hop around, you just cant go to the radio to find it for real. You have to look around on the underground. Blu, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T etc. are great underground artists of today.
I don't know if I would say "outdated" I think he's just not "into it" anymore. the watcher feature "Rakim" was fucking SOLID and proved that Rakim would still command a place if he wanted it. [YOUTUBE]YO-R69IU75E[/YOUTUBE] 3:47 ONE MINUTE OF FUCKING FIYA
The underground argument has been going on since rap started and it always used as a reason for "Why you ain't heard it". yo, that are cats that could shake the shoes off a good number of our top NBA players....but you don't see them play. ...it takes nothing away form their skillz, they are still amazing players.....but they are not counted. And KRIT ain't saying shit different that cats on the charts are spittin' (though I am a fan)
I like BIG K.R.I.T "Moon and Stars" which is one of my favorite songs but other than that I'm not feeling all of his other stuff. There is only ring-tone raps on the radio and I'm ashamed to say most of it is from here "ATLANTA".
[YOUTUBE]vOrnKiKFvHw[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]-ozEnxFuBW0[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]cQxxcn7c3f4[/YOUTUBE] Krit Wuz Here was one of the best projects to come out last year. Heres some Blu [YOUTUBE]Ml5RhkyKXyc[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]cIhY62SRWXY[/YOUTUBE] Heres some Kendrick [YOUTUBE]e-ud1wW1X_Q[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]qUqWCxFDkO0[/YOUTUBE] J Cole is also a great new artist.
