When I was in high school it was all 2Pac.... Biggie.... Wu Tang.... Snoop.... Ice Cube..... Eminem. And each one of those guys had a distinctive sound. I don't even understand modern rap. It all sounds the same. To me it sounds like garbage.... and I like a lot of current music. I just can't connect to modern rap at all.
Kinda like modern "country" music. Hot garbage that's more rock than country, with every song sounding like the last one. Where's Tammy and George when you need them?
I can listen to James Brown talk through a ballad or Johnny Cash but when Country meets Rap the baby is CRAP! I like the Acid Jazz stuff of the 90s with real instruments and vocalists who could actually sing and harmonize. The rest of the Rap and Hip Hop trend has really nothing for me and never grabbed me...I like poetry over jazz music but we used to call that skat singing. I'm not a big fan of music that is "programed" rather than "played" I'd appreciate Prince incorporating it in funk but the gangster hood stuff I don't care for. I love Zeppelin and I guess Eminem did too. One thing is certain. Young people could give zero shits about the music I love. It's human nature to love what you loved when you were a teenager.
Was just listening to the new Travis Scott album and I enjoyed it. I think modern rap is a lot more melodic than in the past. Flows once took up the whole frame, now they're just part of the picture. Autotune vocals become another texture to add to the song. That Migos flow that Snoop is parodying isn't at the peak of its popularity anymore, but guys like Future get lumped into that category still. If you listen to modern rap for the MC or the lyrics, at least in the mainstream, you'll probably be let down. It's more about the vibe. The second track has a wonderful Dave Bixby sample in it. A very creative flip if you ask me.
that second track (PARASAIL) sounds a bit like Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors by Radiohead: It's neat to me that this has become a mainstream texture of modern music, 20 years later. This stuff was weird and out there in 2001, and I loved it. It's fun hearing these textures again (along with the vaprowave/chillhop vibes in the samples).
I definitely hear the Radiohead influence on modern production. I think hip hop sort of losing a bit of steam in the charts will lead to more experimentation, which is a good thing. Definitely took me some time to accept that lyrics aren't as important as the sound engineer these days, but once I did, all sorts of hip hop entered my world again. Always thought those two songs shared the same wavelength. Wish Peep lived longer than he did, even if just to prevent MGK from having a career revival after jacking his entire aesthetic. Also worth mentioning that Travis Scott is the sequel to Kid Cudi in many ways, who was sampling a lot of interesting progressive rock and psychedelic music in his songs in 2010. People use their voices now in more extreme ways than just bathing it in autotune and crooning. Playboy Carti has these high pitched vocals that will probably turn off some, but come off as very punk to me in their own way. Yeat is very similar. Uzi Vert takes those sounds and blends it with that Rebirth, skateboarding and alternative rock era of Lil Wayne. I think the kids are making some incredible music, honestly. I was on the opposite side of this argument about 5-6 years ago.
It's still so strange to me how as most people get older they enjoy new movies, new TV shows, new books, but new music?!? NO FUCKING WAY!
To each their own, and I will try to never disparage someones musical tastes. We like what we like, and what sounds good to us sounds good to us. But from a general hip hop stand point, I don't care about the sound behind it. I much prefer a simple beat and a dope lyricist to some mediocre rhymes and a cool beat.
Nothing wrong with that. Some guy drowning himself in reverb and mumbling nothing over repetitve hihats can suck, definitely. So can lyrical miracle rhymes over a kitchen sink being dragged across a parking lot type beat. I like a lot of old-school hip hop though, just enjoy the new stuff too.
