hip hop generation on bbc 1!!!!

After the news.....

could be interesting!

 

Ill be watching that!

Did you see the Channel4 prog about UK soul and RnB last night (Trevor Nelson hosted it). Pure class.

Not enough about Loose Ends for me. Hey Ho //lamboy

 

The UK soul program? Yeah, not really my cup of tea but it was a really good program! I think that was just the first in a mini series on it.

Watching this hip hop one now though and it's really good!

 

I can think of only one Hip Hop tune that I really like, just not my bag I suppose. No, in fact this hard-ass gangsta crap is bloody awful IMHO!

 

Hi

Was the Hip Hop programme very good? I was watching the UK soul program with Trevor Nelson that I taped. Very intertesting some good points made, some points missed. I watched the first 2. I totally forgot about this hip hop programme.

I wanted to watch it.


SCIDB

 

and what might that one tune be? Hip hop doesn't have to be "hard-ass gangsta rap" Infact it doesn't have to have any rap/mc going on! Not that i'm saying I don't like rap too. Just don't judge it by till you've tried it further. That is, if you want to. I don't know enough about the history of hip hop to write a sort of introduction to it, but if someone else was to, i could certainly add about the artists I like.

Someone over on GH posted not long before it closed about wanting some "proper" hip hop. I reccomended a few vocal and non who I think are pretty damn good. Reminded me of a few purchases I need to make myself!

SCIBD. Was quite good yeah. Not really a documentary in the way that the UK soul program was/is though. It started with a little about the roots, and then MOved onto a sort of look at hip hop culture in different places on both sides of the pond. Then it MOved onto a sort of eminem program. It was MOre of a white middle ages father investigating what it is that kids are into than a full on documentary. As I said, started off good talking about the roots, culture, and how it's percieved. Then went off a bit. Still interesting viewing though. Could have done with being longer.

 

It was Alan Yentob - BBC appointed culture vulture for the masses.

He missed a shit load. Some nice bits about Ice -T though (damn, I just thought of a good pop trivia question)

Usual ground covered - rap culture infecting the youth and the black community. From the view of the blinkered middle england middle class white over 40s, to the new york projects african american community who are living the dream/nightmare.

Interesting, but too much of an 'eminem is good even though he is white' attitude. (it may be true, but I personaly dont think he is anything compared to Ice-T, BDP, NWA, Ultramagnetics (Kool Keith et al), Schooly D (phew getting older) and loads more from my disenchanted youth.

 

Eminem never won a Scribble Jam. That said, his delivery isn't bad, but it's not where his talent lies. His appeal lies in teen angst marketing.

If you are missing Ultramag, I suggest grabbing Primitive Plus by Edan as a good start. FWIW, my favourite hip hop release so far this year has to be the Makeshift Patriot EP by Sage Francis.

 

Apart from Trevor Nelson, some good stuff. For me it would have been better as a "documentary"

 

That would be The Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like That) by the Digable Planets.
My brother is into the hard-ass gangsta stuff, and I find it quite funny sometimes, but it is never anything I'd put on myself. Are you thinking about DJ Shadow for instance? Much better, what little I've heard and not really what I'd call Hip Hop...

 

DJ Shadow, not hip hop? Notwithstanding that horrible housey tune on the awful Private Press, Josh's oeuvre falls well within the four elements that encompass hip hop.

 

Like I said I've only heard a bit of DJ Shadow, and it just wasn't what I'd call Hip Hop. The track I know by him is called Mutual Slump and it was very good indeed!

 

The only DJ Shadow album I have is "Entroducing" and it would be a serious genre stretch to call that Hip Hop IMO!

I too have found it very difficult to get into hip hop, having only the odd CD single here and there and just a couple of albums:

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Come Find Yourself
A Tribe Called Quest - Revised Quest for the Seasoned Traveller (containing possibly my favourite hip hop record ever: Can I Kick It, with the Lou Reed "Walk on the Wild Side" sample :v: )

...and..a band that most of you almost certainly hav NOT heard of:

Fettes Brot - Auf Einem Auge Blöd

Fettes Brot (literally fat - or should that be PHAT - Bread) are 3 white guys from Hamburg who rap about normal every stuff like girls, relationships, getting drunk etc. The songs are hillarious (helps if you understand German though ) and just really melodic happy tunes. Very intelligent and philosophical lyrics aswell. My favourite is a track called "Nordisch by Nature" (a pun on Naughty by Nature, obviously, but Nordisch means Northener, which is what they are in Germany). I large chunk of it is sung in the North (far North) Germany dialect called Platt Deutsch - which is like a cross between English and German. Since the German part of my family comes from that region I can understand it, and it makes the track all the funnier

As a general rule, I tend to like continental European hip hop a lot more, especially if it's also sung/rapped in a lanugage other than English. It always seems to be much more laid back and melodic than US/UK rap which I find (in the main) just too aggressive and "violent" (in musical character as well as what is rapped about). It's also true that I can get on quite well with Eminem, indeed, he has a lot in common with the type of continental European rap that I like. It's much less about guns, drugs, bitches and hos and much more about normal life. Also, I don't see Eminem making videos packed with 100s of babes in skimpy outfits, pool parties and $200,000 dollar cars/SUVs. I just don't like the materialist/hedonist message that 90% of US rap gives out.

No doubt some controversial statements :duck: but there you go...

Michael.

 

Was into hip hop as a youth back in the early eighties, seemed more about fun and having a good time than the current shite about ho's muthafukas etc etc etc...

New York was always way ahead of LA in the early days but now that's reversed and hip hop is just meaningless crap that says nothing to me anymore.. It's a shame but as with most things commercialisation improves the look of a thing but often removes the soul of it..

Listen to the Message by Grandmaster Flash and you have pure poetry set to a simple track which touched millions, modern hip hop has the audience but is saying so much less..


It's a shame because it could be so much more than it is, I'm sure there are Hip Hop artists who I'd like but I can't stand trawling the crap for the gold...

 

Well you have a definition of hip hop not shared by hip hop heads. It was the definitive instrumental hip hop album of the 90's.

Fun loving criminals? The frat-rock band? Never heard anyone describe them as hip hop. As for A Tribe Called Quest, buy everything they've done. Part of the Native Tongues, and as such, perfect. Check De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, etc. You may want to check Common, Mos Def, The Pharcyde, the Roots, etc, as they share a similar aesthetic.

The UK hip hop scene in blowing up in a big way too. Check out Born of Man and Flies by Mummy Fortuna's Theatre Company. It's on Lexoleum records, a subsiduary of Warp. The guy that does the beats is an undergrad in my dept. at uni.

The distinction you are making is described by Def Jux rapper Mr Lif in terms of capitalist vs real rap. Underground vs commercial are the terms I see used most frequently. Maybe 90% of the rap on MTV is commercial, but the US is at the vanguard of the rise in what The Wire called avant-hop. Check the output of anticon. and Def Jux for starters.

Hopefully not too controversial .

 

word to the mo-fo.


did I just say that? Jungle brothers RULEZ - 'By the forces of nature' kept me sane during college years.

 

Hi

DJ Shadow is classed as a turntablist. This part of Hip hop was developed in the 70s as hip hop grew in parts of New York. A turntablist is a DJ with well above average skills on the deck.

Back in the 70s, the DJ had to 'rock the crowd' (get them dancing) & provide music for the rappers & singers. DJs had to use tricks as well as having the right tunes to be at the top of the pile.

One of the first areas of development in Hip Hop DJing was the breakbeat. It was known & noticed that certain dancers would go wild when the instrumental break on a funk record kicked in. To increase this effect, A DJ isolated & repeated breaks off records to create a longer section for the dancers. This man was Kool DJ Herc. The dancers to these breaks were known as B-Boys (Breakdancers).

Other DJs came along & got the technique down to a fine art, using breaks & samples from record of various styles of music. From this other techniques & skill were developed. The scratch was invented by Grand Wizard Theodore. Grandmaster Flash developed things such as cutting, back spinning & phasing.

As Hip Hop progressed, DJs got more & more skilled. The first Turntablist record was Grandmaster Flash with The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on The Wheels of Steel. This groundbreaking record set the standard & helped developed Hip Hop.

Over the years from that records, DJ came more to the fore. More records came out featuring quality turntable skills. DJs gathered wide musicial influences.

Another ground breaking record was the Double D & Steinski. This included funk breakbeats mixed in with samples from films, TV & cartoons. This showed that the Turntablist could move into the studio.

Some turntablist do it live & direct, while other (like DJ Shadow make epic studio releases first then try & create them live.)

It's all part of Hip Hop.

SCIDB

 

In which case I like some Hip Hop. Cheers for that, very interesting. Now all go and get that Digable Planets tune!!

 

Thanks Mekon - some suggestions I'll follow up on. Incidentally, just thought of another album I have which is probably best defined as hip hop: The Streets - Original Pirate Material. I just wrote a little review of it here. One of my faves

Michael.

 

SCIDB! Great write up!

I find it quite a blindfolded aproach when people say "I don't like hip hop cos it's just people rapping about shootin, bitches, an gettin high"

To me hip hop is MOre a description of the musical side of it. The breaks and the beats. The mc/rapper/singer is optional. It doesn't need vocals to be hip hop!

Some personal fav's would be, the earlier mentioned DJ Shadow with endtroducing one of the MOst amazing albums i've ever heard! He's got a new one out the end of the MOnth too DJ Krush, Dan the Automater, Peanut butter wolf, Kid koala, prefuse 73......

Vocal (with Rapping)
Deltron 3030 (Del the funky hoMOsapian/kid koala/and Dan Automater). Del' and Dan both featured as part of Gorillaz. Dan Automater is also the guy who produced Dr Octagons album which is probably my fav' vocal hip hop album.

Outkast shouldn't be dismissed as just "the band who did that sonf about Miss Jackson". One of the other few bands whom I own all their albums (that I know of). Heavy doses of funk with a parliment/funkadelic flavour!

I've also been listning to quite a bit of Beat Boxing lately too! Amazing stuff! The fifth element!