Hip Hop/Rap Fanatics Unite!

[noiseredux]

I've been listening to a good amount of De La Soul with my coworker. Any opinions on them?

They're pretty great. Buhloone Mindstate and Stakes Is High are my favorites. De La Soul is dead is excellent though. The Grind Date doesn't get enough praise either.

[catnip]

They're pretty great. Buhloone Mindstate and Stakes Is High are my favorites. De La Soul is dead is excellent though. The Grind Date doesn't get enough praise either.

Heh, those are the two albums we've been listening to most (Buhloone Mindstate and Stakes Is High, that is). I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

EDIT: You know what Buhloone Mindstate ("Eye Patch", specifically) kind of reminds me of? Soul Coughing. I wouldn't call SC hip hop necessarily, but they've definitely got some great hip hop elements.

[Hobie-wan]

Listening to the Celluloid history comp. Old school.

This has been your semi-whenever thread drive-by from your friendly neighborhood Hobie.

[noiseredux]

been on an Outkast kick the past few days. My opinions on their albums seem to change the older I get.

When Southernplayalistic came out, I loved it (*though was always pissed that the "Player's Ball" remix wasn't on the album). Then they dropped ATLiens when I was like 16 or so, and I just didn't get "Elevators" at the time. I was like "where's the music?" Right? It sounded so quiet to me. But 10 years later I listened to that album again and it become my favorite Outkast record. With "Elevators" being one of my favorite tracks of their career. In my older age I adore slow atmospheric spacey beats like that.

And when "BOB" came out I remember just being like "what the heck is this drum-n-bass BS doing in an Outkast song?" I just couldn't get into it in 99. But now I'm just amazed at how brilliant that track is.

Then when Speakerboxx/The Love Below came out I felt like Andre's disc was the clear winner at the time. (This is gonna sound so hipster-cat...) It just seemed like The Love Below was the really interesting half because it was 'experimental' in the sense that Andre was singing and all. I felt like Big Boi was 'stuck in the past' or something. But now I listen to those and realize that Big Boi made this super solid disc and while Andre's side is still interesting... it's not really that solid from beginning to end.

I'm def rambling here, but I guess my point is just that Outkast has a considerably small discography, but it's one that's so incredible, forward-thinking and interesting that it is super-enduring because your first impression of a song/album might not be remotely the same as when you finally 'get' that song/album. And 'getting' it might take some time. Outkast's body of work is one where repeated listens always seem to reveal new things that you didn't catch before, no matter how many times you've heard it.

[Luke]

"Elevators"

"BOB"

That's the beauty of outkast; they don't fall in to a comfort zone. I always loved Elevators as it's a great record to wind down to/with. I made a mix tape of hip hop that falls below the 70 BPM mark, and Elevators is one of my favorite tracks on the tape (Regulators is also up there).

And then you have BOB that has to be over 150 BPMs. Loud, in your face, out of this world. I don't know what's crazier on that song, Andre's lyrics or the drum machine.

Speakerboxx is a hoot. It really is. It obviously doesn't take itself seriously and shoves some "Miami" bass in yo face. Has to be Boi's love letter to the music he grew up with.

As far as Andre goes, he's bizarre and brilliant. Ill Mitch (please tell me you guys have heard of him) said it best:

"Erykah Badu. She will make you dress like a maniac if you are red. Remember Common? She made Common dress like a flowery fella. You know why, Erykah Badu. She infected his brain, moved on, Common stays really flowery. Goes to Andre 3000 and look what happened to him, Erykah Badu's brain waves. Most people think the power lies in the big wrap on top of her head. She cast a spell on Common, she cast a spell on Andre 3000, who will she mutate next? Not Mitch, smart money on Tyson. I heard Erykah Badu dated Tyson before he had the tatoo on his head. They dated for about a week in which time Tyson bought one of those hybrid cars."

[noiseredux]

haha, yeah - A$AP Rocky has a line, "my style's wild like Common after Erykah"

Btw, I think it went Andre to Common and now Jay Electronica. (Do I have the timeline right?)

I made a mix tape of hip hop that falls below the 70 BPM mark,

I'd be interested to see the track listing?

I don't know what it is, but super slow hip hop just thrills me. It's like... there was a small period of time where I got into chopped n screwed music right? But then I found that I loved it if the music sounds chopped n screwed, except the vox aren't slowed. That's just how slow the damn song is. I love that stuff.

[Luke]

I'd be interested to see the track listing?

I'll have to dig it out one day next week. It's actually quite calming.

[noiseredux]

this is a long shot, but one of my favorite albums of 2013 was Chance The Rapper's mixtape Acid Rap. Apparently, late 2013 some small shady distributor pressed up some bootleg copies on CD and managed to get them into some record stores. So these are actual pressed CD's w/ full color artwork. Anyway, there must have been a cease & desist pretty quick, because they got pulled from any stores (or presumably just stopped shipping new copies after they were sold out). SO.... if anybody sees a copy of this bootleg CD at their local record store, I'd be more than happy to have a copy rather than the mp3's and burnt CDR that I currently listen to.

[noiseredux]

watched Rhyme & Reason (1997) last night. Pretty mixed on it. I feel like they tried to cram way too much into a 90 min running time, which meant that while interesting considerations were touched on, they were rarely explored fully. But overall it was pretty good.

[flex wood]

So yea I've been listening to Ghostface's 12 ways to die in the car a ton lately, besides the Drive soundtrack but that's just for irony while, wait for it, driving. I can't help but wonder, and maybe noise you might have had this thought, why isn't this becoming a movie? Ghost, RZA and Tarentino or Jarmusch. I want this to happen but I know it never will.

It's definitely my favorite Ghostface album by a long shot now. Every track is just awesome and I don't really feel that there are any duds at all on the album.