I know a lot of Hip Hop stuff that I have been listening to has the intro tracks, or talking, or answering machine messages, or they have their kids on to say something, or they just have 30 seconds of some interlude music, but what's the deal?
I find it pretty annoying. I want to hear music, not someone listening to their bank balance, whether it's a joke or not, I don't want to have to hear it over and over again. I want to hear the music.

Bands that have done it:

Lyrics Born
Jurassic 5
Mink Lungs
Cee Low
QOTSA
Blackaliscious
Modest Mouse
Kanye West
Outkast

Can they not make the music flow on it's own? Do they really need this to transition between songs?

Could you have made the answers more biased. I personally have no qualms with these tracks. There is some classic stuff on old Death Row albums like Doggystyle. Also does The Beatles Revolution #9 not qualify as a track of this ilk.

what about that track on HEartbreaker where Ryan Adams and the producer are arguing about Morrissey? brilliant!

I like most of them. Pagoda is right about Death Row. Without the interludes we would never have:

"I treat a bitch like this. Bitch, you without me is like Harold Melvin without the Blue Notes, YA NEVER GO PLATINUM!!, (cackling), Daz, gimmie a light nigga." ---Doggystyle

Some can be annoying though.

It just depends on the album. I don't think interludes/skits would work on, say, Franz Ferdinand's album.

YO METH WHERE MY KILLER TAPE AT?

Please don't forget the all time classic:

If you had some nuts on the wall, would they be walnuts?(yes). If you had some nuts on your chest, would they be chestnuts?(yes) If you had some nuts on your chin, would they be chinnuts?(yes) Hell no bitch, you'd have a dick in your mouth!

How is Yes and No biased?

but I don't get what that has to do with the music.
If they wanna make a comedy cd, go ahead. Why does all hip hop have to do this, and why does rock have to copy?

You really like to listen to that nuts thing, everytime you put the cd in?

One word

"hater"

classic.

What about the new bright eyes? I've found myself listening only to the cracked-out opening of "It's Wide Awake"...It's almost as funny as the conversation Conor has with himself on "Fevers and Mirrors"...

William Shatner has made two entire records of these.

It really depends. I don't like a long track. If it's a brief intro and it's presence is justifiable, I like it alright.

I agree 15 seconds and under is cool, but anything that approaches a minute, gets me a wtf am I listening too attitude.

This also applies to hidden tracks on cds. I hate listening to a minute of nothingness before the secret tune starts playing.

The intro to the first track on 'Kick Out The Jams' is great, but I'm not sure if that counts cos it's a live album.

I like musical interludes, but not so much the skits in between songs. It bothers me when there are so many on an album. Outkast, I'm looking in your direction...

Seriously so many are just not funny and unnecessary, and even if they are amusing the first time, they get old and I just end up skipping through them.

The secret track thing is just stupid. It was maybe cool the first time someone ever did it, but now it's just so far beyond OLD. You're not being cool or clever by having secret tracks, you're just making me mad. I have a strict policy of never listening to secret tracks.

That's kinda nutty.

I agree....but it also riles me when they do the silence, and then the hidden track. I mean, I don't want to use my ipod hard drive space putting 5 min. of silence on there instead of axing the last 2 songs on an album...

It's just inconsiderate, it is...

I don't know about Itunes or Ipods, but in Nero, you can crop out silence like that in the program when burning. It's a pretty handy tool in the program.

The Ruff Ryders have years of experience in making at least three 5-minute long skits per album. And every single skit has exactly the same theme.

YO NIGGAS CAME OVER THERE 40'S AND BLUNTS KID

Prefuse 73 has mastered the interlude. In fact, I'd even venture to say that I prefer his 'instrumentals' that clock in under 1:30 to most anything else he's touched.

Intros to Ice Cube's AMW & Predator are still pretty suave, and seque seamlessly into the first track of their respective albums.

Boards Of Canada have some pretty sweet intro's and interludes. 'Olson' on Music Has A Right gets put on a lot of mixes as an opening track. The public service announcements are wicked cool to. I agree with the hidden track sucks theory, but when I was a kid I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. It was like 'damn the cd's over, OH WAIT A HIDDEN TRACK!!! YAY!!! and it was also felt very mysterious....like I new something that other kids didn't. Weird.

Don't forget the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

pete rock's another one that's gotten great at this, to the point where you scream "why didn't you just use THAT?!"

I got rid of Basehead's Play With Toys just because the little "bits" between songs had become tiresome.