I was reading your posts on Jay Z and I realized that why you've written many many many words here about hip hop not a lot of it is about about the mainstream guys

I like to hear of your thoughts on a lot of these guys maybe get off 10000 words per topic (lololol Sini writes long posts)


But seriously interested in your thoughts always and definitely on hip hop...

Will start at the top with Nas

He doesn't share my love of Macklemore.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Psy and Nelly need to do a joint together

Maybe have skrillex produce

Sini?

jesus christ almighty.... welp, nas is fine. illmatic is obviously one of those times and places in rap history where things converged and a classic ensued. a few weeks back i said in a nas thread that illmatic wreeked of a "desperation" to get out of his situation and advance, no wait, i meant an "urgency" to get out of his situation and do better. i've got his second album on CD somewhere, and i've got the lost tapes on vinyl. maybe i'll give that a listen later on and try to be fair, but his later stuff doesn't really move me that much. i bought the [n-word] album on CD for the hell of it and while that fox news cut was a novelty, i didn't really care all that much. he's alright, he's fine... he's paid, and as such the whole jay-z/nas battle thing never really mattered all that much to me cuz it's like watching a bentley and a lamborghini get into a demolition derby and you're like "man, fuck this, you know they're just gonna both go buy new ones when they're done" while you think about that muffler you should get fixed on your old buick riviera.

are you implicitly asking me about aceyalone there, or is that shining the sinisignal to get me to spout off about rap? what else you got?

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Aceyalone was the Sini-Signal

And Im 100% serious and interested in your takes on the mainstream guys.

Maybe because I read a lot of your thoughts on guys I didnt know so in that thread where you talked Nas/Jay Z I was even more interested.


How bout Tupac?

OK tupac is a whole different ballgame. To preface this, I got into rap in mid-late 1998 when a friend @ UIC got me listening to the underground/backpacker/conscious/whatever stuff, so it took awhile for me to get off of my quasi-elitist high horse and percolate around the rap world.

A friend of mine had made a random compilation CD circa ~03-04 and on it was a rather smashing dre-beated track off of "all eyez on me" --- can't c me. When I heard that song I was simply in a state of "whoa" cuz it simply delivered.... off the top of my head, the lyrics go like this

give me my money in stacks
and lace my bitches with nine figgaz
real niggaz fingaz on nickel plated nine triggaz
to see my enemies defeated
i catch em while they're coked up and weeded
open fire! now them niggaz bleedin
see me in flesh and test and get your chest blown
straight out the west (don't get blowed?)
my adversaries cry like hoes
open and shut like doors
IS YOU A FRIEND OR FOE!?!?!?!
NIGGA YOU AINT KNOW?!!?!?
they got me stressed out on death row
i see money but baby i gotsta get mo'
you screamin GO 2PAC
but i ain't stoppin til i'm well paid
bail's paid
now nigga look what hell made
visions of cops and sirens
niggaz open fiaaaaahhh
a bunch of thug life niggaz on the ride (til i die)
ask me why / i'm a boss playa gettin high
and when i'm rollin by niggaz can't c me!?!?!?!?

then george clinton comes out and like.... yeah. tupac can rap. i had a friend who always claimed that pac had the presence cuz he always wanted his vocals higher in the mix than everybody else's, and like, when you find out his back story you realize that the dude just kind of figured it out and went for it at the popular level. i mean, seriously, this motherfucker can rap. out of principle you should metaphorically smack the shit out of anyone who'd be stupid enough to claim that a jay-z or someone newer is better than tupac.... no way, when he's on point he's got an euphony to his lyrics combined with a stone cold professional delivery that went along with the subject matter and the sporadically legendary beats to create someone who is infused in the pop music consciousness of countless millions.

so yeah, in terms of "the biggest rapper in the world" status, tupac was pretty easily the best one of all time. once you realize that everything he said is bullshit and made up and engineered to sell records to stupid people, you just laugh at all of the extreme shit this lil faggy backup dancer for the digital underground got away with saying to the point where people consider him an illuminati-fighting superhero and all of that. he's gotta be alive somewhere sitting on all of his cash like "damn, i'm a badass motherfucker"--- he gets bored, tmz catches him clubbin in southern florida and people are pretty much ho-hum bored with it. he did the right thing tho, he cut off his music and saw that when kurt cobain died he was deified and immortalized and the record sales went through the roof so he went for an aggressive retirement plan in his mid-late 20s, but hey, it's the same mentality of "smoke 'em if you got 'em" --- the dude was clever, and his run in the rap game from 93-96 is just about as good as any run that anyone has made in terms of the mainstream/commercially-viable stuff.

so yeah, i am a bit biased as short of 2pacalypse now i've got just about everything pre-"death" on vinyl and whatnot (including 12s off of that first LP) but still, that's cuz he's "quite good" at rapping and likely the peak/pinnacle of what's gonna be considered "the greatest rapper in the world" or whatever. it's a fucking insult to compare people like kanye/wayne/drake/whoever to tupac cuz like..... holy shit, tupac could rap. that's not necessarily a pre-requisite to being the greatest rapper on earth nowadays.

so who you got next?

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Yeah, its hard to square Tupac's upbringing and thespian training with the image he portrayed as a rapper.

Unfortunately, I kinda stopped listening to rap around 95. I remember buying Strictly 4 my __ on the strength of his performance in Juice and the I get around single, but after that I was gone for a few years.

Interesting what you say about his vocals being louder (and there is a whole production discussion there) because Ive never heard a lower volume voice than Daz on "Got my mind made up"


Next: Dr. Dre

*Getting popcorn ready wondering which part of Dre's career will be featured*

ok dre is different for me cuz being born in 1980 in suburban america, when you're ~12-16 from 92-97 and you can be e-mailed at emessiah@smoke.dope.org obviously you're going to have all kinds of exposure to the chronic whether or not you like it. now this isn't as unfortunate as, say, having to hear cypress hill like 40% of the time you smoke weed in the 90s because of dumbass friends of yours (OMFG WE'RE GONNA SMOKE WEED PUT ON CYPRESS HILL) -- fuck off this is my weed smoking song. from chicago no less.

i was largely numb and immune to any cultural influence from the chronic circa ages 13-14. i was too busy being into techno and industrial and punk/ska and eventually discovering aphex twin and that's the gamechanger for awhile. so dre doesn't walk hallowed grounds in my rap world by default, i mean, part of me wanted to be extra clever and just quote cube from "no vaseline" and say "hey dre, stick to producin'" --- truer words have never been spoken.

obviously, as a producer dre has made eminently classic pop-rap beats. nothin but a g thang, keep their heads ringing, california love, can't c me, and the oft-forgotten "i think my dad's gone crazy" off of eminem's third album.

but yeah, like i said with nas up there, the chronic was one of those "time and place" moments in rap history where shit got together and he happened to have a hot lyricist on the virge of superstardom in snoop and it worked out largely because of his production. dre isn't a rapper, but by virtue of the fact he can/could produce those beats and team up with an in-his-prime snoop and say some gangsta shit, shit, how many dre lyrics do you remember from NWA? you obviously remember him from his own shit more cuz he's gonna place himself all over, but it was the production and snoop that set him up there and he worked it.

so yeah, at a record store off of the massapequa stop of the babylon line of the LIRR in 07 i came across a vintage 91-93ish copy of the chronic still shrinkwrapped with teh $8.99 sticker on it for like $15, so i grabbed it. nothin but a g-thang single? sure. but you gotta keep in mind i'll nab 12s for the instrumental to freestyle on....otherwise, by the time he got to pimping eminem to us he was pretty much done and he's got the rap equivalent of duke nukem forever with his new LP but it doesnt matter cuz the old queen* has sodded off into pure business with those stupid headphones that get ppl droppin $200 so they can still go buy AAA batteries and put them in... lol dumbasses the sony studio monitor style headphones are $20. CVS has some big colored ghetto headphones for $10 that work. anyone who spends $200 on headphones to wear around the neighborhood/pubtrans is a goddamned idiot.

so yeah, dre knew people. the * = that he came up in sparkly purple sequins with a jhericurl but again knew the right people got into NWA and the rest was history. dre's not a dummy, but like, it aint him lyrically or as a rapper that makes him a legend. it's the beats and his friends..... so he's not a lyrical great by any means and like, chronic 2000? LOL whatever... nice try. look at how quick tupac turned on "gay ass dre" and read about the stories with quincy jones, rashida, and some of the legends of who had to do what to get where and like..... yeah man, can't knock dre as a businessman cuz he definitely surrounded himself with the right people, he had one time and a place LP, but he could never do it alone. ever. none of his hits are all him nor will they ever be.

who's next?

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I havent read /\ that one yet. I will in a bit.


NEXT: Guru and Premier

Edited from Premier to Gangstarr cuz,...ya know

this is a really interesting stuff.

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@audioidkid

Seattle a chronic 2000 and it wasn't the original chronic but it was good. I'd even say real good.

You make a good case against Dre the rapper. His little circle of partners is similar to what Rza has in Wu etc (obviously Dre way more popular.)

I used to say the DRE should have been the artist of the decade in rolling stone (Kurt Cobain died in four years in a decade and everything) I just think of the movement to mainstream (suburbs) rap made in the 90's and if you look at it was a biggest part it was him.

I'm loving these takes though. Thanks.

i can't say too much about guru and gangstarr. short of referencing the song title "you know my steez" and the obligatory 12"s for mass appeal and ex girl to next girl, i can't say i care that much. jazzmatazz was one of those things that was always over towards the native tongues type of white suburban hiphopdom which was OOOOH LOOK AT ME I'M DIVERSE I'VE GOT NATIVE TONGUES AND JAZZMATAAZZZZZ IN MY CD COLLECTION and, as a whole, the native tongues clique can blow me.

obviously premier's a hell of a producer. i've got one of the vinyls of his UNRELEASED INSTRUMENTALS VOL 2 or something and they're fun to rap on. you can nick those old gangstarr 12s for the instrumentals.... he's done his thing quite well, but like, while there's respect for guru and i'm sure i'd be quite fine with the gangstarr LPs/greatest-hits and whatnot, i can't claim that i've got some sort of otherworldly awareness of them short of those two tracks i mentioned.

so what's next on your agenda?

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NEXT: Eric B. and Rakim.

ok that one's a bit different. i gained a bunch of appreciation for older stuff thanks to sirius satellite radio's backspin 43. indeed, christmas 05 my dad up and got me a sirius satellite radio and a yearlong subscription for the howard stern thing (he had no idea what to get me short of a tiner and a carton or something) and one of the byproducts of that was that i discovered backspin 43 (not to be confused with the noticeably-inferior backspin 46 on sirius/XM nowadays)

backspin 43 had the kurtis blow show and some chick lady b in the place to be or whatnot, and i think it was while driving listening to the kurtis blow show that i heard follow the leader. suffice to say, getting into rap via underground stuff and being a bigtime aceyalone/latyrx/blackalicious fan, that song resonated with me.

from there, thankfully someone went and took all of eric b & rakim's greatest hits and put them out on a 4xLP so i've grabbed that and some singles (juice/know-the-ledge, etc) and yeah, rakim had his moment in the sun.... you can see where he's an influence to the aceys and monches of the world but like, holy shit dude fell off hard. i have no idea what eric b does nowadays.... but for that moment in time and space i find it ironic they did the whole gold rope-chain thing with all the LOOK AT HOW PAID WE ARE but dude was lyrically ahead of the game for a few years. ah well, c'est la vie..... how much rakim have you listened to since he and eric b stopped circa 92-93 or whatever?

so yeah he's got a legendary status that lasts eternally but like, really, it was only a ~3-5 year run or whatever and then.... welp, he just didnt have the longevity to be atop the list of the rap gods.

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I am just waiting around to sini gets around to breaking down the Beastie Boys

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Yeah, the Rakim solo stuff is good, not great.

I was late to the Rakim party (later than most anyway) but he's awesome.

Its weird I dont know what happened. Its not like Eric B was so good, he couldnt go on without him.


Weird.


Phil McCracken wants Beastie Boys.

So lets go with Eazy E and NWA as a whole

How about Kool Moe D?

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I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out. - Bill Hicks

Let's do it for Johnny!

If you don't think I can enjoy analysis of DJ Yella you are crazy.

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fuck the beastie boys. circa early 99 when i was still @ UIC for the first time, a friend of mine (who decided college wasn't for him since he was working post-CS-bachelor-degree jobs already while signed up for CS @ UIC, altho he needed a place to live 2nd semester) introduced me to a guy who is now RAPE WOLF OF MACHINA MUERTE and back then (i guess it aint the end of the world since he boasted such back when he had a twitter) it was the ounce + monday night raw mondays..... and that was back when you could get an ounce of nice 3060 crystal coated regs for 130.... so that was a monday thing, and after raw/nitro ended and we got to the ECW tapes and whatnot, there was rap/talk and we used to wonder how awesome the beastie boys would be with just the production and no beastie boys... i mean hurricane and mixmaster mike handled their business production/DJing wise and like, the beastie boys just fucking blow.

"yo i'm mike d and i'm real RICH / gonna leave the party with the finest BITCH / smoke fine weed that ain't from a DITCH / don't listen to what we say cuz we love the DICK" --- whatever. stupid quasi/oldschool party rhymes with too much emphasis put on the final rhyming word/overdub and just like.... tehy can't rap. they blow. it was genetically engineered "crossover" white rap to get latently/racist white people to embrace rap as a (commercial) artform cuz like, tehy started that rap/rock shit and put out three jewish guys who were tragically unhip to the point that massmedia proliferation made them hip.... nevermind the fact that they can't rap.

so they're a great marketing exercise, it worked..... made everyone involved a bunch of money, and like the beastie boys knew they sucked at rap and thats why by the mid-late 90s they were doing those jazz instrumental LPs that showcased them as quality musicians in their own right cuz they knew they fucking sucked at rap. how could you go listen to an organized konfusion LP or something and call yourself a rapper with that weak ass shit, no matter how much you sold?

btw, my first ever (freestyle) rap line came during those raw/nitro mondays.... "just got back from the 36th chamber and man that place is packed with basehead flamers" --- and so it goes </hemingway>

next?

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I'm not going to ask about my favorite rap group, 'cause I'm pretty sure I've already read his feelings about them.

Most people get hung up on 3Stacks' concept album anyway...

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This is my signature...

Alright let's stop fucking around here.

We all know what this is leading to

Even though Ive heard some of your thoughts on em before....

I wanna hear Sini's thoughts on Public Enemy.

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I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out. - Bill Hicks

Let's do it for Johnny!

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i have no thoughts on public enemy. next?

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If you can also get around to my personal hip hop icon, Royce Da 5'9", that would be great.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

i don't know shit about royce, honestly.... i know he can rap. that's about it. i'm doing a youtube safari thing now

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ok well popping around with these songs, yeah i was right royce can rap, and that leads me to a slight tangent from my gut feeling..... royce was the black rapper guy that eminem personally pushed out there to have his credibility established. lemme explain:

white rappers can fundamentally blow up harder than black rappers. sorry, but it's true..... there's so much latent/racism left in america that the white suburbanites are more likely to embrace someone who can rap well like eminem than a rakim or a royce or what have you.... .so when a white guy figures it out, like entering in iddqd in toom and turning on god mode and whatnot, they have a chance to blow harder than any black dude ever can. and that's just the society we americans live in.... i mean how is kid rock considered a great rapper? ever heard his pre-blowup str8up wigger rap shit? exactly. bubba sparxxxxx charted. everclear. LMFAO is half white and half music exec sperm club and they got half a career out of that.... so eminem, literally i mean, go listen to infinite dude knew what was about to happen he wasn't stupid.... dre heard him at the rap olympics and dreamed of both fucking him up the ass and making $$$ off of him, but being the best rapper in the room eminem knew that he needed to appeal to types like me, you know, people into rap.... he needed to let me know that even tho he was gonna go on track and ponder which olsen twin / spice girlhe wanted to impregnate, hey, he's going that to set up his daughter for life but deep down somewhere beaneath all of that shit is a rapper with a soul.

and that's where royce came in..... royce was the dude from the d eminem propped up to have his underground/cred established, and as OKC can testify to... due can rap. from the ~6 tracks i've flipped through since the last message, it's all str8up no bs 1-2-3 boombap stuff with no pretense. dre was there to give eminem pop cred, and royce was there to keep him grounded in the world he came from. that he was really cool with all those black guys who could rap for less than a mil per year.... and it worked. and hey, if you believe in pop music blood money, there's a reason em gave up proof over royce =P

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I can upload some mp3s for you. I have like his whole damn catalog pretty much.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

yeah if you wanna... should i give you the pw for my filehost or do you got a spot?

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