Is "What They Do" the most pretentious Hip Hop song of all time?

[Cladyclad]

More like QuestLove. Like I said. It ain’t Jay fault and he’s not the wrong one. It’s them.

how is quest on jay z dikk sir

 

[FluffyEyes]

I love this song and video, it was the only Roots song I knew for awhile. I was a kid and recognized they were spoofing other videos I liked but I didn't really care.

 

[Greenhornet]

never could get into the Roots
the hipster "band" element was never iconic or groundbreaking
Black Thought was wasted on too many songs
and alot of the songs were boring or throwaway

it always felt like they were rapping for the sake of rapping with no definite direction or waypoint
no charisma or breakout shyt really

 

[Secure Da Bag]

Nah. I think if more did the same, you wouldn't have all these kids dropping bodies to get a record deal. Talking about keeping it real.

 

[Atsym Sknyfs]

Didn't Big have static with them nikkas for this song
I know he had OGC stomped out

No he didnt ... that is not what happened..

yes it was somebody in the crew but your wording is 100% not what and how it happened

 

[semicko82]

Some of the post in this thread

 

[DANJ!]

We are nearly 28 years removed from "What They Do" and theat song wasn't predicting the future. It was criticizing Hip Hop then. Whatever matket share Hip Hop is losing now or whether you can bump "No Flex Zone" is absolutely irrelevant to the discussion because when The Roots dropped this song, Hip Hop was on its way to being the biggest thing in Popular music.

Regardless of how great of a song "What They Do" is, it was still dissing what was popular at the time. Everybody asking "were they wrong" were huge fans of the music that "What They Do" was dissing and its laughable to leap frog and gloss over that to use that song to dismiss music that came decades later.

People also use that with "I Used To Love HER" as if Common was being "prophetic" of what was going to happen in the future... and that is absolutely not the case. He was specifically speaking about the changes that had taken place prior to and DURING 1994. It's crazy in hindsight to think it, but it also proves that even in the times we now praise and worship, there were people who weren't hella crazy about it.

 

[DANJ!]

And a lot of people gloss over the fact that "What They Do" took shots at nearly every popular act. This wasn't just a song aimed at the commercialized acts at the time. Look at how they also parodied the grimier, more street themed videos at the time as well. A lot of artists were playing follow the leader and the leader was whatever and whoever was hot at the time.

By 1997, even with Bad Boy dominating with shiny suits and the whole jiggy sound, 1997 was still a year where artists were kind of going back to having fun while being original. You had Busta Rhymes really break out with his sophomore album to become one of the more popular acts in the game. He was being original, but also having fun. Missy Elliott debuted that year.

Correct... I know people zero in on the "Biggie" scene but everything in that video was a collection of every other video that was being made at that time. If you were watching Rap City in '96, you saw every scene in that video done a million times, even by artists we liked. That to me is what made it so dope, because I got the satire of it. The lightning, the running down the street for no apparent reason, the roof scene, the R&B club scene, etc... shyt was funny to me but I do remember thinking some rapper were gonna take it as a direct dis.

 

[Rasille]

 

[Digital Omen]

What kills me is that nowadays these nikkas will swear on their dead that they weren't going at anything in particular but the songs and videos were blatant as fukk.

De La acted like they had no idea why Treach tried to jump them on stage after they mentioned Naughty by name

The songs were incredible but these spineless fools like Quest not standing on their square take away from the message