[the chef]

(07-16-2012 03:30 PM)Moma Wrote:  

@the chef - I have never listened to a Kanye album. Can you recommend a good one? I am into cats with clever lyrics and delivery.

if you're looking for an album based off just lyrics then kanye will not satisfy you (pause).

he definitely won't spit bars like a nas, but what he has an edge over 90% of rappers is his vision. he isn't straight hardcore "hip hop" with typical boom bap 90's sounds neither is he the kinda person to follow the radio trends (he sets the trends). he's really in a lane of his own. for example, in his last album "my beautiful dark twisted fantasy" he would get sample some classic soul sample, get RZA to lay down the drums, get an orchestra to play the strings, and get john legend to sing the hook. i personally have the utmost respect for his musicianship. but all of my homies who listen to reasonable doubt all day don't show love towards him. not that there's anything wrong with the old school 90's shit... i grew up with it, it's just that when i listen to kanye it's a breath of fresh air and i find it hard to deny his genius.

my personal favorite album from him was his second: "late registration". but it's kind of hard to pick. each of his albums has a different sound as he's drastically matured as an artist from each one of them. i'll post some songs from each album and i'll leave what album to check out up to you.

his first album: "the college dropout" - 2004

"late registration" - 2005

"graduation" - 2007

"808's and heartbreaks" - 2008 (least favorite) people said he went apeshit on this album cause his mom died and he divorced his fiance.

"my beautiful dark twisted fantasy" - 2010

sorry for the long post, but it's really interesting to see how different types of people react to kanye's music.

[Rurik]

It's funny how no one has mentioned the fact that Drake is/has collaborated with Justin Bieber, and even made a cameo in Justin bieber's "baby" video.

Most of these rappers with stage personas are actors. There's only so much of it I would take literally, meaning not much. Drake was an actor for years, doing mixtapes on the side.

Tupac did theatre.

[Adam Michaels]

G, Drake gets a pass because he is a soft rapper! Haha his target market is woman. I have no problem with him rapping for women, be yourself, I don't care.

My problem is when he tries to make street anthems too. That's where he needs to be put in check by the OGs. If one song has you begging to a girl to pick up the phone then the next your talking about mobbing and putting bodies in a dumpster, there's no congruence there. Thats where the OGs need to tell him to stay in his lane and keep rapping to women cause he ain't really about that gangsta life.

The problem is his OGs are bird man and Wayne, and all they care about is making another dollar with no respect to the G code at all. I'm just sick of him fronting. I saw u on degrassi, ur not killing anyone. He's like the keyboard jockeys who never get girls but brag about it online. He fantasies about a thug life and raps on songs, someone should call him out but all the rappers won't because they want a feature from him. The whole rap game is weak cause they all Co sign him.

[Newb#3]

my favourite music is cooler than ur favourite music

[Goldin Boy]

(07-15-2012 07:55 PM)Timoteo Wrote:  

I know Ghostface puts out an annual "10 Softest Rappers" list on a hip-hop site (I can't remember which one it is right now), and there's ALWAYS a spot reserved for Drake on it. Where he is on the list changes, but he always has a spot.

Edit: I found it...

http://rapsandhustles.com/2011/07/09/gho...-the-game/

That's actually not Ghostface Killah, it's a blogger named Big Ghost. The author writes the way Ghostface talks(nonsense words, etc) so alot of people assume it's him.

Here's the blog it's from, hilarious stuff. Most of it is focused on Drake.

[sine wave killer]

(07-16-2012 01:20 PM)kosko Wrote:  

Yea man my friends good hommie and loose friend of mine is literally Toronto hip-hop ambassador (mindbender). He's a writer and is literally at evrey show, battle, comp. you name it. He even was given a shoutout when Drake when he was interviewed:

The issue with Drake is that he is in a position of most kats that would of taken 10 years to get to. He is a pop star whom was self made, versus some young kat whom was made in a NYC boardroom. He has no street cred but he did grind his way in the underground like any other struggling rapper. he just had more resources and exposure to work with from his acting gigs. But when he was comming up he was doing small shows and linking wit kats on myspace just like any other. In the interview he alluded to Little Brother and 9th and prior to him blowing up he collab with a lot of justice league kats and underground dudes in Europe like Hazel and Onra.

Drake is basically just a hip-hop nerd with a ton of money he could use to fund into himself. Degrassi paid his Jimmy ass well and he used his funds accordingly. He didn't take any short cuts though things just happened for him really quickly.

I would have never even imagined to see Onra, Häzel, and mindbender mentioned in a post on RVF, that's why I love this forum.

You're right on the money about the CDN scene and Drake. Although his early mixtapes aren't bad at all. I like the work he did in the past with Slakah.

Though some of the songs I heard like his covers of Aaliyah or TLC songs have been undeniably suspect

though for good measure here are a few of his quality older songs.

[Screwston]

This lame, disabled actor is fucking horrible. I can't believe people are sticking up for his music. Do all Toronto rappers say "y'all" and rap with fake American accents?

[Hencredible Casanova]

I never liked Drake. Never actually listened to a Drake album, but that's because I wasn't impressed by what I had heard from a music standpoint. However, I knew he was going to blow up very early thanks to my Nostradamus-like friend. I was in NYC back in 2008 kicking it at my boy's crib in Harlem. He works at Sony Records and is onto shit way before it ever comes out. He's correctly predicted rises and falls in the music biz for years. He played that song "Ransom" where Drake first rapped on a Lil Wayne track. My boy kept saying "I think this dude is gonna blow." Sure enough, he did just that.

That being said, there's one mashup that pairs Drake, Lil Wayne, and Eminem with a Coldplay track. I like Drake's verse. I've listened to it a few times on my iPod during my travels in various cities (London, Montreal, Madrid). Chill track.

[Deluge]

(07-16-2012 02:14 PM)kosko Wrote:  

Drake is just the another version of Childish Gambino. Both of these kats can create masterpieces when they are locked in a studio but are shytt live. Hip-hop nerds turn into 'artists' more-so than 'rappers' we grew up knowing.

For real Childish Gambino's crap live? I'm going to be seeing him at at a festival in January.

His most famous song:

This shows off his skills better though:

His real names Donald Grover, he's also a stand up comedian, a writer for 30 Rock and plays the main black dude on Community.

[Sourcecode]

All you gotta do is sell your soul to the devil and your'e in

[Saladin]

Yo G, have you listened to The Weeknd(Drake's friend). He's not a rapper but a singer(I'd say a genre of his own). But all my player friends love him. Lot of dark lyrics, His music is unique as in it sounds really beta, but when you listen to the lyrics its the opposite.

A few of his songs-

I'm pretty sure Initiation is about a gangbang(hence the creepy faces)

[kdolo]

The Weekend, Drake, Gambino.........all absolute trash !

Garbage ........absolute garbage.....

but the problem is that most of the fans are not really old enough to be able to distinguish the good from the bad because they aren't old enough to have experience the full spectrum of "urban" music from the 80's to present.

The Weekend should be shot - and so should anyone who calls that music

[kdolo]

(07-18-2012 01:30 AM)torontokid Wrote:  

Yo G, have you listened to The Weeknd(Drake's friend). He's not a rapper but a singer(I'd say a genre of his own). But all my player friends love him. Lot of dark lyrics, His music is unique as in it sounds really beta, but when you listen to the lyrics its the opposite.

A few of his songs-

I'm pretty sure Initiation is about a gangbang(hence the creepy faces)

No its about Satanic initiation.

[the chef]

(07-21-2012 06:58 PM)kdolo Wrote:  

The Weekend, Drake, Gambino.........all absolute trash !

Garbage ........absolute garbage.....

but the problem is that most of the fans are not really old enough to be able to distinguish the good from the bad because they aren't old enough to have experience the full spectrum of "urban" music from the 80's to present.

The Weekend should be shot - and so should anyone who calls that music

Lol here comes the "holier than thou" hip hop head zealot a.k.a the grumpy old man.

And before the bashing begins, I don't fuck with drake, gambino, or the weeknd.

[ccurtis189]

Drake sold out and now makes music for the bitches. When he started out making mixtapes he often rapped about the stuff we enjoy - kickin' with the homies, making money, braggadocio, and the bitches. But chicks don't wanna hear that shit so he had to adopt that pretty boy/little bitch persona. It works for him though, because he makes millions telling girls what they wanna hear, when really he's free to do as he pleases. Dudes who bump Drake now are merely trend-followers, it's cool to play him if you're at a party if there's girls around, but no man should try and emulate Drake through his music.

[Hencredible Casanova]

One thing about Toronto is that it has some incredibly serious hip-hop heads. Probably one of the most loyal and resourceful fan bases in the game. I've met so many people from that city in my travels and their taste and appreciation for hip-hop always amazes me.

[the chef]

Why do people have to take this so seriously? Drake isn't fucking ruining hip hop... There's still awesome music being put out on the daily. I mean in the past year there literally has been so much good music put out hip hop wise.

There'll always be people saying "hip hop" is fucking dead. De la soul said it... Nas said it... Etc. I mean I never understood why older hip hop heads always feel the need to hate on fucking 14 year olds who listen to the Drakes, Lil Wayne's and whatnot; why you gotta hate on kids having fun? Isn't that what hip hop is all about? What 14 year old wants to shake their ass to AZ and GZA?

It isn't fucking 1996 again and things have progressed music wise; and the people who haven't realized that yet are lost. Yea, the younger generation needs to appreciate the classics more often, but there has to be progression.

If hip hop never moved on from the boom bap esque sounds of the 90's we wouldnt have talented musicians like OutKast, Eminem, Kanye, and in more recent times MC's like Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T., action Bronson, El-P, etc.

If you don't like the radio shit then turn that shit off... It's for the kids, that's not to say that there still isn't good music being put out there on the daily.

And how could hip hop every be dead if Wutang is forever?

[thegmanifesto]

(07-21-2012 07:53 PM)the chef Wrote:  

If hip hop never moved on from the boom bap esque sounds of the 90's we wouldnt have talented musicians like OutKast, Eminem, Kanye

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik came out in 1994.

Eminem's Infinite album came out in 1996.

The Slim Shady LP came out in 1999.

Kanye started producing in the mid-90's.

[the chef]

^yea definitely understand that but I was referring to the outkast that made below/Speakerboxxx, one of their most succcessful and critically acclaimed and recognized albums. I threw out OutKast as an example to show a progression in artistry. Speakerboxxx/the love below was a total game change up in comparison to anything pre-Aquemini IMO.

Edit: G, I understand that Ye, Em, Big Boi and Dre3000 all started in the 90's but the point that I'm trying to get at is they all have managed to grow as musicians. Like for example... How could you compare My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to the College Dropout? The overall sounds are completely different because kanye has managed to grow through time; whereas some MC's could never progress from the typical boom bap sound. Same goes for a dude like Jay Z who dropped reasonable doubt in 96, but could also make the black album... A modern classic as far as hip hop is concerned.

I've argued this over and over with my older homies over many spliffs... Styles change... Tastes change... But that doesn't mean musicianship and artistry have deteriorated. The Love Below may sound completely different and 180 compared to southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, but that doesn't mean it isn't quality. The same could be said about current MC's now.

[kdolo]

Just because the music is new doesn't mean it is progress. There is such a thing as good music and bad music. Not all new music is bad, but some of it is - inparticular some of the biggest so called stars

Lil Wayne ??? ... that homo coon !! God awful !!!!

[kdolo]

(07-21-2012 07:32 PM)the chef Wrote:  

(07-21-2012 06:58 PM)kdolo Wrote:  

The Weekend, Drake, Gambino.........all absolute trash !

Garbage ........absolute garbage.....

but the problem is that most of the fans are not really old enough to be able to distinguish the good from the bad because they aren't old enough to have experience the full spectrum of "urban" music from the 80's to present.

The Weekend should be shot - and so should anyone who calls that music

Lol here comes the "holier than thou" hip hop head zealot a.k.a the grumpy old man.

And before the bashing begins, I don't fuck with drake, gambino, or the weeknd.

No, I am by no means a zealot. But the reality is most the stuff today is garbage and I'm not even that old (33).

Lil Wayne ???? Soulja Boy???The Weekend ??? Nikki Minaj ???(who is actually quite talented btw)Rihanna (the dying cat)????Kanye

you have got to be kidding me - most of the stuff today is materially worse .... it actually is.

[kdolo]

Meek Mill
Rick Ross
Whiz Khalifa
......

all garbage. makes a guy just wanna blow his brains out when you hear it ......

."..boom...boom....nigga nigga....bitch...bitch....nigga...nigga ...boom...boom"....

[the chef]

There's always a few bad apples, it's like that for every genre of music during every era. Ice ice baby came out in 90, does that mean you could compare vanila ice to rakim?

And as to whose talented... Are you shitting me? The list goes on and on. Big krit is on the radio but you've got to be kidding me if you think he doesn't make quality records. Kendrick Lamar is getting a ton of Internet press bthaws gonna try and act like he didn't have onethe dopest albums in a LONG time. Odd Future is full of some weird ass teenagers but they're getting cosigns from respected older heads like GZA... The list really goes on.

And kanye? Seriously? I don't want to sound like a stan but you've got to be living under a rock for the past decade to deny his genius. What kind of musician can get plays in the hood, strip club, and at a Dior homme runway in the same day? What kind of rap artist will produce a track with a live orchestra, get RZA to lay out the 808's, and throw Bon iver on the chorus? Yea the dude is a dick, but his vision is second to none.

[Screwston]

Rap fans are pretty emotional.

[thegmanifesto]

(07-21-2012 10:08 PM)the chef Wrote:  

Ice ice baby came out in 90, does that mean you could compare vanila ice to rakim?

I think that is the whole point.

If Vanilla Ice came out today he would have a long career.

Hell, he is probably 50 times better than Drake (which isn't really saying much).

Wack people used to get destroyed in the past.

Now they are revered.

That is the difference.