"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

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'd rather say that most hip-hop tends to do downright daft and po-facedly serious at the same time, and that's why I love it. I mean...the guns/hos/drugz stuff that stupid people castigate it for IS daft, really, but it's not performed as if it was daft, which means I can take it (the music) more seriously. Like...both Fannypack and Lil' Kim have filthy, funny lyrics, but Fannypack's are so obviously there for the LOLs that you don't feel they're really invested in the filthiness.

I can't think of that many big US male rappers who aren't both silly and serious, really. Lil' Wayne, certainly. Crime Mob, too.

Also, yeah MIA is a rapper, and I love her, but don't we think there's something in the fact that her (tiny) fan base is almost entirely indie kids, and that she barely figures in actual hip-hop circles?

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Also, yeah MIA is a rapper, and I love her, but don't we think there's something in the fact that her (tiny) fan base is almost entirely indie kids, and that she barely figures in actual hip-hop circles?

Well, there might be, but what exactly?

There might be a sense in which MIA's music has a better 'fit' with the taste of 'indie kids' but that doesn't imply a qualitative inferiority (or indeed superiority.) Nor does having a smaller fanbase...

On another note, I suspect I probably haven't really heard enough big US male rappers' stuff to comment properly. There's also stuff like Wu-Tang which obviously fits my criteria (especially ODB.) So I was, as I kinda guessed, talking rubbish really.