Filthy_Rich said:
And while most rappers don't know any music theory, most producers do.
Do you have any way of proving that statement? Just reading the siccness studio forum, I see an awful lot of complaining as to how most rap producers:
a) Aren't even producers.
b) Have no idea what they are talking about.
c) Are nothing more than attention whores and big talkers.
If you use the radio as your precedent, then of course you'll think that it takes no talent.
Oh yeah? So if I was to pick up a Messy Marv or Yukmouth album I wouldn't hear faux-Neptunes or faux-Lil Jon production? Oh that's right, I do. Or maybe you're talking about the underground backpack scene where the producers still sample and loop Herbie Hancock and do their best DJ Premier impersonation.
You can't use that argument because rock artists are the same. How many guitar players do you know that can't read music and only read tab? Or drummers that can play every metallica beat just by memory.
No. A rock musician is just that, a musician. He is capable of playing in a jam session, or playing a tune by ear. Put your average hip hop producer in a jam session. He'll sit at the keyboard and try to play with his two index fingers before calling everyone a hater and leave crying.
Look at a rock band composing a song. Even if they're playing from memory or by ear, that's a lot to memorize. Your average hip hop producer turns on the sequencer and takes a 3 second snapshot of himself, which he can loop at will. Your punk bassist has to have presence of mind, a calm head, and plenty of practice if he's going to play live. Your hip hop producer can just sit at home with a thumb up his ass while the rapper just plays his instrumental.
It's takes INFINITELY more skill to write and produce for any other genre of music.
Tell me that "Crossroads" isn't music.
It's looped bars with leads coming in and out. Just because it's in a sombre chord doesn't make it beautiful or valid.
Ok, so every rap song is in 4/4. So is every reggae song i've ever heard.
Reggae is even worse than hip hop.
90% or more of all music is in 4/4.
Here is a prime example of how hip hop has destroyed your brain. Did you ever stop to think that a song can change signature? Most other music does, because it's pleasing to the ear and it's not difficult to a trained musician. Ask a hip hop "producer" about time signature and he'll probably think you're asking him when his UPS package arrived.
While his music was groundbreaking, it wasn't much more than poetry over breaks. That's why he said that.
Damn do I long for those days. When the beats slapped hard, and the lyrics slapped you around harder.
The beat and the rhyme didn't have to match.
Can you cite me an example of one song PE ever did where the lyrics obviously didn't match the beat? I.e. a love song over an aggressive beat.
You could take any of his verses and put them over any of his beats and it'd still work (as long as the tempo was the same). That's how hip hop was back then. Nowadays, hip hop is a little more advanced.
That's moronic. The same time PE was making music was the same time LL Cool J put "I need love" over a slow jam, and when NWA made Straight Outta Compton over those angry horns. "That's how hip hop was back then?" Were you even born yet?
I admit, A LOT of hip hop is very basic and shows little musical talent, but it doesn't mean that it's not music.
To call it music is an insult to people who slave over an instrument to learn it, and those who study theory. I have another word for it. "Crap."
Hip hop lives and dies by lyrical content. If the artist has something to say, he'll have a successful album. That makes it a verbal artform, not a musical one.