Episode 1 in SirBiatch Concert series: Lyricism killed hip hop

[SirBiatch]

Hip hop is a feeling. It's not a computer printout (word to Chris Rock).

When a new track comes out, and some nikka's first thought is: 'is he lyrical', that's when I know the dude has no musical ear. Robots like that have fukked hip hop up BIG TIME.

Bars, metaphors, alliteration... all that middle-school poetry class shyt is borderline irrelevant. We're talking MUSIC. Melody. Feeling.

The two most important things in a hip hop track are (in order)
1) The beat
2) the flow: The rapper's voice and how his/her voice grooves with the beat.

After that, we can start talking about other things. but if you don't have number 1, your track is dead on arrival. If you don't have number 2, your track is a waste. Number 2 happens often. E.g. J Kwon - Hood Hop

The greatest rappers in history have always had the best beats and the best flows. That's how they became great rappers.in the first place.

Till next time... *violin music outro*

 

[mr.africa]

the reason why lyrics are so important to hip hop is because that is one of the only ways you can judge a nikka's talent.
over 90% of rappers have nothing to do with the production side of the song except pointing on the computer screen and telling the producer : 'yeah, that's the beat i wanna rap on.' i know having an ear for a beat is very important,but how much talent does that REALLY take.
every time one of my rock loving school mates would argue that rappers don't play instruments and thus have no talent, i would always point out the writing aspect (lyrics) of hip hop.
bars is how you judge a rapper!!
how can having hard bars be the downfall of hip hop
how far has this shyt fallen!!!

 

[SirBiatch]

the reason why lyrics are so important to hip hop is because that is one of the only ways you can judge a nikka's talent.

nope

over 90% of rappers have nothing to do with the production side of the song except pointing on the computer screen and telling the producer : 'yeah, that's the beat i wanna rap on.'

yeah, for the wack and mediocre rappers. But the rappers that have made classic shyt? You'll be surprised at how much they're involved in the production. They know their shyt. They know when their voices fit with certain beats/producers and why they do/don't.

i know having an ear for a beat is very important,but how much talent does that REALLY take.

A TON of talent. Bruh, it's one of the biggest things that makes you a good rapper and just a good musician to begin with. You have to have a musical ear. On a list of things, it's in the top 2. You have to be conceptual.

Why do you think Jay-Z has been winning?! There's an interview with Quik talking about how Jay-Z practically put Justify My Thug together. From samples to the overall concept. Jay-Z has done this numerous times. He'll go to 9th Wonder and say, "take that sample and make this beat"



That's the problem. 99% of modern nikkas don't think like artists. They think like mediocre wannabes.

every time one of my rock loving school mates would argue that rappers don't play instruments and thus have no talent, i would always point out the writing aspect (lyrics) of hip hop.

fukk your rock-loving school mates! They don't know this hip hop shyt. and frankly, hip hop started falling the fukk off when it started paying attention to what funkless White dudes thought. Yeah your average suburban White guy is gonna value lyrics over everything because he doesn't understand rhythm, soul and hip hop culture as a whole.

 

[Niqqa You Gay]

I blame the bicycle shop owner's molesting of Dudley

 

[Wild self]

@ black folk thinking that lyricism is a "white" thing.

 

[SirBiatch]

@ black folk thinking that lyricism is a "white" thing.

to the outright exclusion of funk and soul... yeah. Absolutely.

 

[mr.africa]

Why do you think Jay-Z has been winning?! There's an interview with Quik talking about how Jay-Z practically put Justify My Thug together. From samples to the overall concept. Jay-Z has done this numerous times. He'll go to 9th Wonder and say, "take that sample and make this beat"

like i have stated in my previous post, YES, jay heard a cool sample(in other words showed his producer-this is the sample i like) and told HIS PRODUCER to go and produce.
producer and his team are on all the instruments creating the song, not jay!!
if jay produced the shyt himself then the conversation changes,but as long as someone else does the production for him, the lyrics are the only tangible thing he contributes to the song - the one thing you judge him on.
for example:
a lot of the people who were disappointed with magna carta admitted that a lot of the beats were dope (timbaland and other producers work), but jay didn't bring the usual lyrical fire (jay's work)
people made that distinction and will always make that distinction unless you're a rapper/producer.
hell, why do you think people like jay pride themselves on being great lyricists, because that is the bread and butter!!!

 

[toomanydoses]

You're feeding into stereotypes by saying lyricism is a white thing. And listen to instrumentals if you don't like lyrics.

 

[Wild self]

People are pushing that shyt as being "real" to be dumb and try to look cool. On some dumb down black folk musicals skill.

You're feeding into stereotypes by saying lyricism is a white thing. And listen to instrumentals if you don't like lyrics.

 

[SirBiatch]

if jay produced the shyt himself then the conversation changes,but as long as someone else does the production for him, the lyrics are the only tangible thing he contributes to the song - the one thing you judge him on.

If you think the only tangible thing a rapper contributes to the song are the lyrics, you guys are not listening to rap properly

I realize that what I'm saying may sound crazy to some of you. I think it's because a lot of you have been misinformed and are only familiar with one era of rap. The one that you grew up in, which was probably the most recent era.

If you look at rap in its totality.... how it started, the different eras... what I'm saying starts to become obvious.

a lot of the people who were disappointed with magna carta admitted that a lot of the beats were dope (timbaland and other producers work), but jay didn't bring the usual lyrical fire (jay's work)

Those beats were not dope. That's why people didn't fukk with the album first and foremost. They marketed it as a super-producer get-together just like the Black Album. Didn't you see the Youtube ads? It was all about the beat and who Jay-Z was gonna work with. Except Black Album ended up having way better beats.

 

[SirBiatch]

You're feeding into stereotypes by saying lyricism is a white thing. And listen to instrumentals if you don't like lyrics.

I'm old enough to know what's been going on with this hip hop shyt. I bought Slim Shady LP on tape the moment it came out.

This whole myopic focus on lyricism went through the roof when Eminem dropped. Because that's how Eminem was marketed and that's what brought A TON of White people into hip hop. The issue of "who or what is lyrical" had been in hip hop for a while, but it was assumed that you already knew how to flow. So rappers argued over who said realer shyt.

But the over-emphasis on technique/bars/lyrics was not there. That shyt blew up in the 2000s because of Em's overly multi-syllabic rhyme style and the need for 'real hip hop' fans to take hip hop away from the jiggy shyt. I remember those days well. Remember "key-styling" on ICQ and counting your multis?!

one thing people don't realize about Em is that his flow is limited (and corny in many situations). he raps like a robot. At times it can be kinda cool to see where he can go with technique and angst, just like it was cool to see what Chino XL, Canibus and Tech N9ne do it. But that shyt was never sustainable. Most of the time Em will come off as monotone and emo. Just like Chino XL did.

my point is that 'real hip hop' fans have overly-focused on bars to the detriment of the song as a whole.

 

[The Ruler 09]

I know where you're coming from but you're wrong, look at all the greats and they had lyrics, if they didn't they wouldn't have been great, lyrics are a vital component to being great.

 

[SirBiatch]

I know where you're coming from but your wrong, look at all the greats and they had lyrics, if they didn't they wouldn't have been great, lyrics are a vital component to being great.

Of course they are.

Homie, my favorite rappers of all time are Nas, Jay-Z and Ghostface.

But people forget: those nikkas, first and foremost, came into the game with mindblowing flow and mind blowing beats. As in, they could actually rap and had their own sound. The moment they spoke one word, you were like: 'whoa... who the fukk is that?' There was a way Rakim spoke that made you shiver. Or even Melle Mel.

Because rapping at its core is a vocal and musical skill.

Snoop, Q-Tip and Missy Elliot are some of the greatest rappers ever. They were never 'lyrical' in today's sense of the word but they made phenomenal hip hop. Just like Cold Crush did. Or Run DMC.

Trust me, I love a great lyric. Great lyrics take a song to a whole other level. What I'm trying to say is that beats and flow are the foundation of this hip hop shyt. If you don't have those two, it doesn't matter how lyrical you are. You're still shyt.

 

[The Ruler 09]

Of course they are.

Homie, my favorite rappers of all time are Nas, Jay-Z and Ghostface.

But people forget: those nikkas, first and foremost, came into the game with mindblowing flow and mind blowing beats. As in, they could actually rap and had their own sound. The moment they spoke one word, you were like: 'whoa... who the fukk is that?' There was a way Rakim spoke that made you shiver. Or even Melle Mel.

Because rapping at its core is a vocal and musical skill.

Snoop, Q-Tip and Missy Elliot are some of the greatest rappers ever. They were never 'lyrical' in today's sense of the word but they made phenomenal hip hop.

Trust me, I love a great lyric. Great lyrics take a song to a whole other level. What I'm trying to say is that beats and flow are the foundation of this hip hop shyt. If you don't have those two, it doesn't matter how lyrical you are. You're still shyt.

It's a mixture, you can't just have lyrics and nothing else certainly, you need the right balance but lyrics are a key element too.

I agree that you can't just have 1 element, you need the full package to be great.

 

[Supa]

I'm old enough to know what's been going on with this hip hop shyt. I bought Slim Shady LP on tape the moment it came out.

This whole myopic focus on lyricism went through the roof when Eminem dropped. Because that's how Eminem was marketed and that's what brought A TON of White people into hip hop. The issue of "who or what is lyrical" had been in hip hop for a while, but it was assumed that you already knew how to flow. So rappers argued over who said realer shyt.

We were talking about lyrics since Rakim or Nas when Illmatic dropped. White kids really started getting into rap heavy when The Chronic came out and way before Em.

But the over-emphasis on technique/bars/lyrics was not there. That shyt blew up in the 2000s because of Em's overly multi-syllabic rhyme style and the need for 'real hip hop' fans to take hip hop away from the jiggy shyt. I remember those days well. Remember "key-styling" on ICQ and counting your multis?!

The Rawkus era was more of real hip hop vs jiggy shyt before Em. Not that many rappers even do the heavy multi, technical stuff.

Lyrics and flow are the most important things a rapper needs. Most only have flow and sub par lyrics. They usually don't last long. There's a reason why Nas had lasted 20+ years.