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Originally Posted by The Batlord
A pleasant surprise. I figured you wouldn't hate it completely, but didn't think you'd be anything more than indifferent. I also agree that hip hop albums tend to go on too long, BTW. Don't know why that is, since the songs are often more to the point and structurally stripped down when compared to a lot of other genres. I'd love it if hip hop artists started releasing more thirty-to-forty-minute-long albums.
So, would you say it's more the subject matter and language used in a lot of hip hop that turns you off to the genre, more than the actual music? I can't imagine any totally anti-hip hop people like my mother or uncle getting into this regardless, so clearly you're not as close minded to it as you might appear at first glance. Your slowly growing appreciation for more extreme forms of metal certainly undercuts your assumption that you "know what you like" as well.
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Yeah, like I've said before, it's the whole culture, the violence, the strutting and preening, the disrespect to women, the expletives, and often the speed of the rapping that I don't get. Honestly, a lot of the music itself is not bad, but sometimes, most times, listening to some guy go on about how hard or tough or mean or rich he is just doesn't do it for me. I was thinking of trying out a guy I think DJ repped, or maybe it was Antonio: Chance the Rapper?
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Digression: Honestly, I suspect you just got too used to being in an isolated musical bubble throughout your long, long, loooong life, and possibly never had the experience of a community with the free flow of ideas between music fans that exists here, and so just assumed that your tastes had become set in stone to an extent. With your opening yourself up to all sorts of recs through this thread and others, I think you should give yourself more credit and really consider abandoning altogether your stubborn stances against such genres as punk, hip hop, jazz, etc, since they really don't seem to reflect the reality of your potential musical evolution. TBH, you're coming off as a late-blooming Goofle ATM.
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Thanks man, that's a real compliment. And yeah I think you're right. For a long, long, loooonnng time all I had was the radio, my LP then CD collection and that was it. Nobody at work was really deep into music, and the only guy who was was into Bowie, Eagles, that kind of thing. So there was no incentive or encouragement to expand my musical tastes. Plus, remember back then (Triassic Age) there was no real internet and certainly no free downloadable music, so if you wanted an album you paid your 15/20 Euro for it, and if you didn't like it you were ****ed, so you were VERY careful about what you bought. Even second hand, I'd only buy albums from bands I knew. There simply wasn't the money to allow experimentation.
Also factor in my mindset at that time, really up to about 2009/2010 really: I was like a moody child folding his arms and saying NO! I was not abotu to try new music because I thought I hated it and sure why would I spend money or just listen to "that crap"? Not to mention that there was very definitely a feeling of superiority --- "Oh I don't listen to chart music/rap/punk/jazz --- I'm a REAL music fan!" Jesus!
It's only now that I'm breaking out a little, and really you guys all deserve a lot of credit for that. Other people, when faced with my stubborness in the face of their music, could have said, fine, sod ya, ya don't know what you're missing.
But in general people here really tried. Like, if I wasn't into jazz they'd try to find something accessible, you'd look for a way into death or black metal for me, and it's really only through your forbearance and patience that I'm beginning to stir a little outside of that bubble you so correctly mentioned I was in. So thanks to you, and to all of you for helping to educate me. Even if there is still some of your music I don't and will never get.
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Getting back on topic: I'm not trying to flood you with hip hop recs, but right now I'm just academically curious about testing the bounds of where your like/dislike for the genre lies. If you can like it at all, then clearly you can connect to music which is rhythm-focused, rather than melody-focused, even if you have a limit to how "hard" the rhythm is, and how little melody there is.
Would you say that something like this is to your taste (just a song, not an album)?
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yes, I loved that! Great upbeat lyrics, innocent almost and no violence, almost more sung than rapped, something I could listen to. No expletives, or very few, and no misogyny. I know, but still...
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Another test. These guys are definitely gangsta rap, but they combine their vocal approach with actual singing (at the same time, so not just changing from one to the other), creating a unique combo of hip hop rhythms and often mellow melodies that I really don't think would fall into any stereotype you might have in mind when you think of gangsta rap.
You don't have to listen to those just to make me happy, but I'm really curious about your reaction to both.
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Yeah, that one was ok as well. I'm not sure I'd listen to a whole lot more of that sort of music, but that was certainly not too bad.