"srsly poptimists need 1x CRASH COURSE in contemporary hip-hop"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

(That's the Lex speaking)

1. Do we? Or "Do you?" I should say, since we're a loose clumping of individuals innit.

2. GO ON THEN! What's the best hip-hop you've heard this year?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This is where my "getting older" caveat surely applies but I think, except maybe Luda, their slang *was* easier to pick up on. This is the regionalisation thing - when G-Funk hit, OK, you needed a few listens to pick up what "indo" etc meant, but all the stars were from the same place and using the same slang. Whereas something like "whips" - I may be being totally stupid but I'm pretty sure I've heard this mean cars, rope jewellery and wraps of coke. And even on a reasonably localised comp like Hyphy Hitz the level of slang is really dense.

I blame Scrabulous.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I have always just let the slang mystery sort of roll on without ever really investigating. Going all the way back to 'cold lampin'. I like slang and that it's so prominent but at the same time it can be off-putting, intimidating even i.e. if you don't understand this then this isn't for you.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't understand the intimidation, "this is not for me" factor at all - it's not as if I understand every piece of slang either but that's not the point, the joy isn't it boring "what it means" but the way language is played with and words are recontextualised.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

But also hip-hop's a storytelling, joke-telling medium, and that element of it will be lost on listeners who can't follow the rhymes (and if you're only casually listening the rhymes can be hard to follow anyway). Of course it's still rewarding but for a non-native or non-local audience it's harder work.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Of course it isn't hip-hop's fault if a bunch of thirty-something Brit guys don't understand the slang!

[zenith.livejournal.com]

I dunno, though, with a lot of rappers who are acclaimed within hip-hop the acclaim comes from rhymes that can't quite be deciphered on a first listen - the whole idea that they make you rewind the track and listen again to full understand it, and then you get it and are like, "damn!" - inventing new slang terms is rewarded, especially if they then become popular. So I think this idea of the proper rap fan who understands every single word and phrase immediately isn't that accurate. Although I guess among the fans there can also be competition to be the person who can break it down and understand it quicker (as ever with fans).

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

that's a good point. not something i would do but the idea of it seems fun.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i think a sense of disconnection is quite normal tho if someone is saying something and you're not quite sure what they're on about.

to give a reverse example, why is the N-word still so widely used? it's thought that this is the main way to get a large chunk of the audience interested in terms of being able to relate. i find this terribly depressing (even if i end up dancing to it).

it is not otherwise a problem for me if they are saying stuff in a way i find entertaining/interesting way or the music is entertaining/interesting.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

The N-word is still so widely used on record because it's still so widely used in the day-to-day life of the majority of the people who use it on record, surely? Rightly or wrongly.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Well maybe so but that was my point re 'being able to relate' pretty much.

Either way it's a vicious circle. Life imitating art imitating life. COSBY OTM.

[koganbot]

It's partly a class thing, I think, the dealers and the club guys telling off the black middle class, embracing "nigga" to distinguish themselves from the proper African Americans. Also, "nigga" tends to mean male and "ho" female.

(I do not know what I'm talking about, so don't take this as definitive of anything, but it is based on listening to Trick Daddy albums.)