TruthJones said...
Other than battling, Em is garbage. In fact half the mainstream rappers now corny as fuk.Hundreds of underground cats better than them.
Denmark Vesey said ...
I hear you Truth.Cats been toutin' "underground cats" for years.
I've come to find there is a reason they are underground. Aint got the hustle or flow to blow.
For example. Name an "underground cat" better than Fiddy.
Name an "underground cat" better than Lil Wayne.
Post a link.
KP said ...
DV, Blu is a "better" emcee than 98.9% of these pop formula rap cats... he's abstract so no recycled formula, no radio, but "better" by far.I'm not mad at the formula guys, I just prefer art over disposable product, ex. 6 pack abs required for R&B cats.
You'll hear Blu on the upcoming Roots album slated for a late June 09 release.
excuse my imbed link game.
Blu joints:
Denmark Vesey said ...
KP, Blu is "better" than Lil Wayne the way PBS is "better" than HBO. I like dude. He's cool. In a 1998 kind of way. But rap's been there done that. You know: "I'm sincere, I'm down to earth, I'm just like ya'll, system is no good, let's just kick it, remember Malcolm, fuck the rap industry, fight the power yada yada yawn".
Like an animal struggling in quicksand drowns quicker, these "underground" counter-culture rappers struggling not to conform, conform the fastest. They blur. They are invisible in the media landscape. Perfectly camouflaged as human back drop.
Whereas Weezy F. Baby jumps off the screen. Can't teach that. (Heard muhfuggas sayin' they made Hov, make Hov say, well make another Hov).
In 1989 you could tell who were the dopest rappers because they held the mic. in 2009 the dopest rappers hold down YouTube. Thus 60,000 views for a Blu and 32,000,000 views for Lil You Know Who. Rap will get you but so far. When a rappers actions speak louder than his words he becomes a Hustler.
19 comments:
Like most battle MCs, he sounds live, raw and rugged in battles or freestyling on radio shows.
Put him in a studio though and he sounds wack.
Wow, Em's looking a little thin there. May need to get checked out.
"Studio Killing" is getting a little old for Em, but Hell, well, the WK needs a soundtrack to slit their wrist to.
Gonna big a big fuckin' hit. White kids love that type of stuff.
It'll sell but Paul Wall took his crown.
I'm not really feelin' it. Em is slippin'.
Clearly he's rich and losing the itch to spit flame and select slick beats. I'm not impressed.
slightly off topic, although the last couple joints haven't moved me much (like "the mayor"), PacDiv is prolly next to shine from the west.
- KP
Other than battling, Em is garbage. In fact half the mainstream rappers now corny as fuk.
Hundreds of underground cats better than them.
*Ahem* If I may, Saigon would eat alive any MC in the top ten right now. Youtube "True Story", or ANY (yes ANY) thing from his Warning Shots Mixtape. Just youtube saigon warning shots, his mixtape was a 5 mic classic, straight up. I think it's some personal ish keeping him from blowing right now, label drama, all that...
And Cory Gunz literally ate Lil Wayne on his own ish. Since he signed with Jay, though, his ish sounds poppy now, he lost what made him special. You tube a millie and "cory gunz".
And UBJ.... haaaaahhh.... Paul Wall. Mayne, dudes have been seriously debating whether or not handing Em the G.O.A.T. crown, and u say paul wall took his slot. Wow, there's just so much wrong with that statement.
And just so you won't think i'm hating on Wayne, DV, youtube "what u know about this" and lil wayne, for a song where the opposite happened. Gunz held his own, but Wayne murked the track. The point is, I think both these guys are ready.
Rash judgements.
Em's album will sell 5 million copies.
You don't like it because his game is further advanced than yours. He's a visionary.
You will like it one day.
After you get beat over the head with this song on the radio, you will be singing it in your sleep.
Sorry, mayne. Em might go plat, i'ma give him that. Maybe double, his following is huge. But not much more if the real music isn't there. (And from these previews i've been hearing, it looks like it isn't)
But then the real question is, why do I have to be beat over the head with something before I like it? That's not entertainment, it's brainwashing.
"You wanna know what kinda n---a I am,
let me tell you 'bout the n---a i'm not
I don't fuck with the cops
Platinum don't mean that it's gotta be hot
I ain't gotta love it even if they play it a lot.
You can hear it when you walk the streets,
How many people they reach,
How they use music to teach.
Radio program ain't a figure of speech.
Don't sleep, cuz you could be a radio freq.
-Stic.Man, "Turn off the radio"
@ Doc - I'm not talking skills - but the "packaged white guy to sell to blacks" crown (And I also gotta' put someone up from Texas.)
Here's an example of an underground vs mainstream rapper:
UndergroundMainstreamOk, actually they're the same artist, yet vastly different. One is hungry, tite and focused on his game - the other bloated, lazy and lost all motivation and inspiration.
His voice is annoying but writing skills are up to par.
DV, Blu is a "better" emcee than 98.9% of these pop formula rap cats... he's abstract so no recycled formula, no radio, but "better" by far.
I'm not mad at the formula guys, I just prefer art over disposable product, ex. 6 pack abs required for R&B cats.
You'll hear Blu on the upcoming Roots album slated for a late June 09 release.
excuse my imbed link game.
Blu joints:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia0VxX1y-1M&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QWaKYJXrSQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkIHCZ4BfdM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gs6gVp2AUU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml5RhkyKXyc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPfw7eRPRWQ&feature=related
Mykestro is slick too. He needs a lil polish but he's nice wit the spit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQsprf_Pgu8
Diz Gibran is worthy of a mention.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0EiPxww01c
Jay Electronica (New Orleans own)... remember that name. this joint is special:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHiWrvGWeUU
- KP
Wayne can spit & he's creative. The purp might be gettin to him but for the most part he's aight with me. I have far more respect for him AS AN ARTIST than your fav Fiddy. Minus a handful of club bangers and strong buzz from "How to rob" (a gimmick), Fiddy AS AN ARTIST is pretty much trash. Hustle galore, great branding yet skill in music is poor. Which is why he's fulla gimmicks and gunplay. He will out sell plenty of ppl but he can't rap circles around DV or Big Wayne. But stroke him if u must.
are you really putting an underground artist youtube #s vs a branded, mass marketed mainstream artist's to add cred to your argument that one is a better arist?
I can put two crackheads in an mma battle and see it on Ellen next wk. But that holds weight I suppose.
the problem here is you let the industry lead rather than the culture.
if wit and intellect have gone the way of the do-do the industry model is leading not the culture. You co-sign the industry's leadership and I call bullshit. Chips ahoy mass produces like a mufuggah but they can't fuck with Mrs fields in a taste test... on no day.
We're talking Dr. Seuss vs Poe. You talk poetry but only youtube studs get love. for real? dig a lil deeper in the crates.
KP
Wayne can spit & he's creative. The purp might be gettin to him but for the most part he's aight with me. I have far more respect for him AS AN ARTIST than your fav Fiddy. Minus a handful of club bangers and strong buzz from "How to rob" (a gimmick), Fiddy AS AN ARTIST is pretty much trash. Hustle galore, great branding yet skill in music is poor. Which is why he's fulla gimmicks and gunplay. He will out sell plenty of ppl but he can't rap circles around DV or Big Wayne. But stroke him if u must.
are you really putting an underground artist youtube #s vs a branded, mass marketed mainstream artist's to add cred to your argument that one is a better arist?
I can put two crackheads in an mma battle and see it on Ellen next wk. But that holds weight I suppose.
the problem here is you let the industry lead rather than the culture.
if wit and intellect have gone the way of the do-do the industry model is leading not the culture. You co-sign the industry's leadership and I call bullshit. Chips ahoy mass produces like a mufuggah but they can't fuck with Mrs fields in a taste test... on no day.
We're talking Dr. Seuss vs Poe. You talk poetry but only youtube studs get love. for real? dig a lil deeper in the crates.
KP
Au Contrare Mon Frere!
Man, what city you in? We going to have this conversation over some beverages a CD Player and an amp.
First of all Fiddy is a lyrical genius.
Damn near a magician.
He don't rap, he casts spells.
You call it gimmicks and gunplay ... as if other muhfuggas can do it.
Who?
No.
It's not WHAT you say. It's HOW you say it.
Many painters painted cubes. Only one Picasso.
Many painters threw paint on a canvas, but you can tell a Jackson Pollack from across the street.
"On a scale of 1 to 10,
I'm a 9
with 2 m's." Fiddy
Rap Industry?
There is no such thing.
That's a myth.
Name a major label A&R ____________ ?
There was an industry ... back in the Mike Fisher days.
But quiet as it's kept, a label hasn't produced an artist who can move units in years.
Artists Produce & Market Themselves - Cash Money, Fiddy, TI, Kanye, Jay-Z ... all them cats followed the Master P model.
All them cats are stars. You could tell the moment you met them.
Of course they leveraged the machinery the moment they put themselves in position to do so. But putting themselves in that position was testament to their Rap / Hustle.
Blu is cool. But he's background singer. He's a Pip. Not Glady's night.
A spoken word poet.
Buddy of mine just got back from Oman. He was in some little village off the beaten path. Little Arab kids were bumpin' A Milli.
Didn't understand a WORD Weezy was spittin'. But they felt him.
Aint nobody going to feel Blu. Not even If Time Warner, Sony and Universal launched a joint venture to market him.
Connoisseurs like you will buy him and rock him because you like the "idea" of an "underground artists".
It gives you that warm fuzzy nostalgic feeling when rap was a sub genre niche experience synonymous with young urban culture in the early 90's.
Rap has grown up man. It's dominated by big boys doing big boy things.
Buying teams and shit. I like that.
I appreciate the debate brother DV...
If you ask your favs who inspired them, who influenced them, it will not be a list of chart toppers. it will be a list of artists they respected as peers regardless of who was mass marketed and embraced by the most ppl.
The point of placing better in quotes in my original post was to state that there is no best, just more units sold or more awards won, more hits on youtube. Popular has never been a measuring stick for best by the culture.
Back to influence. I submit that the artist with a consistent following of 250k is just as important as the guy selling 800k in a week because of his contribution to the culture. the former is well known among peers, occupies his lane properly and makes significant noise among the fray to receive consummate hat tips from chart toppers cuz they know whats up.
Doubt me? Then ask Lil Wayne, T.I. Jeezy, Outkast where they'd be today without Bun B and Pimp C.
KP
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