I promise I'm not trying to start a board war here.

I'm curious to know your opinion about in general. And by that I mean to leave that for you to interpret however you define it...gangsta rap, indie-rap, east coast/west coast thing, Houston/southern-style, hyphy stuff, world beat, turntablism, whatever. Please click on the poll option that defines you best or feel free to explain your views in this thread.

Thanks.

I have never really cared for Rap, and, other than the big hits, wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a rap song from today and one from ten years ago.

The poll options alone amount to almost half a Spade Kitty post.

Yeah, I was really trying to cover all the bases here. Probably missed a few though. Sorry it got so lengthy.

I was a huge hip-hop/rap/whatever fan in the late 80s and early 90s but gradually (for better or worse) my tastes changed and I started to mostly listen to other genres. I don't know that the quality of hip-hop has risen or fallen dramatically over the last 15+ years, but it seems like the worst of the genre (Lil Wayne and others I can't recall at the moment) get the heaviest rotation. At it's best, the music might get my head bobbing a little but not enough to make any purchases. At it's worst, it can be even more grating for me than the slickest of pop-country tunes.

Would have much less trouble if they'd cut out the 55-second shout-outs at the beginning of nearly every single.

If I were black I'd be the Biily Dee Williams-looking guy in the audience shouting out for Kool Moe Dee's "I Go To Work."

Half of the albums in my Top-10 of 2006 are hip-hop, so yeah, it's still pretty awesome to me.

I like rap about selling cocaine, murder, rape and robbery almost exclusively. If you add a bunch of shit talking, its even better.

That mask wearin/off beat/ no hook bullshit is for honkies who want to appear down.

I like big hooks, lots of shit talking and dissing, at least out of today's rappers. I still listen to Tribe/Pharcyde/early Wu and NWA/Ice Cube type stuff pretyy frequently as well.

Also, my #1 of the year is T.I. King...far and away the best album I have heard this year, and one of my fave rap albums of all time.

My #2!

i have never really been exposed to a lot of rap or hip hop unless it's had either mass crossover appeal or the wide support of my few friends who could, like, name every dude in cam'ron's posse.

as with any genre, there're a handful of really good or great albums and singles every year. i usually listen to the ones that metacritic hails.

one of my friends took a picture of herself buying the new clipse album, so i suppose i need to hear that soon. it's supposedly spectacular.

in the hip hop world i listen exclusively to the immortal b lite.

it represents a very small percentage of what I listen to...a lot of it just doesn't do anything for me, and that goes for the commercial stuff AND the indie stuff

You might want to give it a few spins before judging it because it's a lot different than most hip-hop in general. Even a big Neptunes fan like me was scratching my head on my first full listen, but it grows on you fast.

I'm confident that you'll be shouting the chorus to "Trill" in no time, even if you have no idea what they're talking about.

It's overrated and people like it because they feel they have to, not because its really any good

this thread is an embarrassment

although both TI and Clipse albums will make my top 20

You are so not trill.

Not so, Young V.I., I, Like Cee-Lo, have the word tattooed above my ear.

I was "present at the creation." Me and Pimp C were smoking trees and he said he was so true he was real, and that made him Trill. The rest is honky history.

I occasionally hear something current in hip hop I like, but to be honest there's too much cookie-cutter gangsta crap for me to sort through so I don't look as much as I once did.

I'll take LL Cool J, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, and Run DMC over the current crop anyday.

And, really, has any rap outfit had much to say since the demise of Public Enemy? I hear an occasional song, but who's consistiently talking about anything worth talking about?

Then again, if I heard more, I may well find something I dig a lot, but only places I hear hip hop don't seem to have much good stuff going on.

I like some hip hop, and would like to get into it more. But it bothers me that so much of what is popular now in the genre has really horrible, negative lyrics. All of the violence and glorifying selling drugs gets old pretty quickly. Not too mention the constant disrespect towards women.

Plus, there's something reprehensible about people who got rich by making art constantly sending out this message to kids that the real way to success is selling drugs/violence/doing whatever you want.


I think those comments officially make me an old man.

btw all you people complaining about 'gangsta' shit would like Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

I was a huge fan from the mid 80's (mostly because of my older brother) until sometime in the early 90's. Albums like The Chronic, Bizzareryde, and Midnite Maruders are the last hip hop I really dug for several years (hearing and loving Outkast at parties notwithstanding);

I went back a few years ago and polled some of my friends about shit I've missed and downloaded or got a bunch of it from the Senator. So I feel pretty good about what I've got and what I like even though I probably only by 1-2 and download another 3-4 albums a year.

I fucking worship Jay-Z though.

I don't hate it, but I don't really seek it out.

The only rap I have been listening to lately is this A Tribe Called Quest anthology I bought a while back. But, I was in Waterloo the other day while they were playing Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury and it sounded good to me.

i voted some good some bad. there are literally hundreds of rap songs that i enjoy, but on album scale, i find most artists don't cut it. i don't know if hip-hop is more a singles-based genre than other genres but it's only once in a grand while that i'll enjoy a hip-hop album from start to finish. i'd rather listen to mixes and mash ups.

also, my experience at hip-hop shows is slim to nil, but the few "bigger" acts i've been to have been like 60% entertaining and 40% "watch the mc pace around the stage, give shout outs, and do a bunch of posturing". I saw Jurassic 5 once and they were pretty cool. They just did their raps with no bullshit. At the end they said "Thanks for not throwing stuff at us."