"The Art of Rap" Official Discussion Thread

[Amaranthine]

How in-depth did Em go about his writing process? Anything interesting or new?

[BigBoss]

How in-depth did Em go about his writing process? Anything interesting or new?

This.


I remember on 60 Minutes he talked about it, and showed his black box of secret verses or some shit

[Nick419]

he said something along the lines of he gets technical with every single line. once he writes a line he'll go over it and try to "sandwich" in more words that rhyme. He also said that his mind is constantly thinking of new lines from the moment he wakes up n theres times he'll write raps all over his hands if theres no paper near by and will copy it down on a sheet later

[Eedee]

No theatres in Alaska otherwise I'd see this beast in a heartbeat... Damn. Hopefully a bootleg does come out.

[ShadysDisciple]

he said something along the lines of he gets technical with every single line. once he writes a line he'll go over it and try to "sandwich" in more words that rhyme. He also said that his mind is constantly thinking of new lines from the moment he wakes up n theres times he'll write raps all over his hands if theres no paper near by and will copy it down on a sheet later

I wanna see Em's interview sooooooo fucking bad! God dammit i'm dying inside.

[Amaranthine]

Friday night, Ice-T's new hip-hop documentary The Art of Rap opened in theaters nationwide. I went and watched it at the AMC Studio 30 at Westheimer and Dunvale. Here are ten things from the movie that are interesting and one thing that will be picked over:

10. Grandmaster Caz Is Ruthlessly, Seamlessly Brilliant: A considerable amount of the documentary is emcees rapping directly into the camera. Nearly all of the interviewed parties participate. Snoop, Eminem, Kanye, Melle Mel, KRS-One, more, more, more.

It's mostly a fun thing, with only a few feeling unnecessary. Chino XL must've just been walking by while they were filming or some shit, because why else would he be included? Grandmaster Caz's offering, a blindingly cool collection of "I'm that [SOMETHING] nigga, that [SOMETHING ELSE] nigga" punchlines, was the best.

It was perfectly done: Smart, funny, pulverizing, etc., and rates, without hyperbole, as profound. It unintentionally pulls the legs off of any other rappers trying to sprint past him. When he finished, people in the theater clapped.

9. Brand Nubian's Lord Jamar Is Called Lord Jamar For a Reason: The first interview Ice-T conducts is with Brand Nubian's Lord Jamar. During their discussion, Jamar crafts what very well may be the most logical, most well conceived, most HOLY FUCK HOW HAS NOBODY EVER MADE THIS POINT BEFORE? observation for how rap birthed itself of all-time.

In Chuck Klosterman's Eating The Dinosaur, Klosterman describes rock critic Rob Sheffield's assertion that Garth Brooks became so unfathomably popular because America missed Bruce Springsteen as something "so simultaneously obvious and unseen that only someone as supernaturally brilliant as Rob Sheffield could possibly make it."

As soon as Jamar stopped talking, that was the first thing I thought about. Lord Jamar is called Lord Jamar for a reason.


8. Ice-T Loves Aerial Shots: He does. There are 1,000 of them in the film.


7. Ice-T Has A Bunch Of Bad Shirts: He does. He wears 1,000 of them in the film.


6. Ice-T Is Considerably Funnier Than You're Expecting: There are several parts during the movie when Ice, comfortable as he can be, jokes and jests without hiccuping. It's really a fun thing to see.

Highlights include when he describes some of the tricks he'd use during shows when he'd forget lyrics, which gives him an excuse to use the phrase "human teleprompter," and when some people wander into the shot while he's interviewing Q-Tip (he basically tells them, "Hey, move the fuck on"). He works as a proper vehicle for the documentary's narrative.


5. Chino XL, Immortal Technique, Xzibit and Royce Da 5'9" Must Be Friends With Ice-T: Those guys all make appearances in the film, though it's never clear why. They don't offer much, and mostly serve to just clog things up.


4. People Really Like Bun B: When he showed up in the movie, people in the theater started clapping.


3. KRS-One Has the Best Story For How He Started Rapping Somehow, in the 400,000 things that KRS-One has said to media since people started caring about what he had to say, the story about how he began rapping was neglected. To summarize: While standing around watching two other guys battle-rap, he became an incidental victim (one of the guys made fun of his clothes).

He chose to defend himself, rapping his rebuttal. Things grew from there. (He tells the story about a million times better.)


2. You Might Walk Out of the Movie Not Knowing What the Movie Was About: This might be the most prescient point of the movie, or it might be the most confusing, or it might not be anything at all, but still: While walking out of the theater and towards the exit, a man a few paces ahead of my wife and me pulled out his cell phone and (I'm assuming) returned someone's call.

His words: "I just got out of the movies. [Other Person Talking] We saw Ice-T's rap documentary. [Other Person Talking] Um... I don't know. They talked about rap."

This might've been a common feeling. For an hour and 40 or so minutes, you hear Ice-T ask a bunch of men (and two women) that like to say words that rhyme questions about what it means to them to say words that rhyme. Conversations are never pushed beyond that point (or any directly related points, to be more specific).

And that's part of why it's such an interesting documentary. Ignoring that Ice-T is clearly of the mind that rap as an entity needs to be defended (curious, considering it is the driving force in popular culture today), it never feels heavy-handed or preachy. You get to listen to brilliant people (and Chino XL) talk about being brilliant at things. It's serious and it's funny and it's entertaining and it's enlightening.

I suppose you could argue that Ice finds a way to reference himself in each conversation, but there are worse things in the world.


1. Dr. Dre Never Once Talked About Himself As a Rapper: Not once in his entire interview. He is a producer. That's it. That's how he sees himself. And that's pretty remarkable.

Oh, also, there's one part where he goes into that whole "I Don't Do It For The Money" spiel, and that's cool, except he's giving it while standing in front of his new $13 million home on top of goddamn Zeus' mountain.


One Nit That'll Inevitably Get Picked: Omissions

1. How about the Southern United States? Minus Bun B's brief cameo (shot in New York, mind you), there aren't any interviews done with Southern rappers. Where are OutKast, Lil Wayne (or any of the guys from that family), Master P, Goodie Mob, T.I., Scarface, Willie D, so on and so on? They belong.

2. Also not included: Anyone from The Roots, Busta Rhymes (let him talk a bit about Leaders of the New School), The Pharcyde, keep going and going.

Maybe get rid of those guys from earlier and throw some of these in their places? Just thinking out loud.

Other than that though, really, The Art of Rap is a documentary worth seeing.

Source

[BigBoss]

So Em's freestyle...

[Nick419]

I wish people on here didn't want to see this movie just for the specific reason em's in it -and will probably only watch his part (I know there's some on here that are genially interested in the film as whole) but still i encourage all of you who only want to see em's part to actually WATCH THE WHOLE THING to truly understand the films title "the art of rap" and why em's even here in the first place

[Amaranthine]

^Of course! I'd love to see it just for the educational opportunity, but at the same time you do have to remember that this is an Eminem forum, so naturally we'd like to focus on Eminem's part in the movie.

Anyway, since it looks like no one else has had a chance to see it yet, here are some specifics on Em's part from a 9 minute Ice interview with Sway:

Sway: "Eminem's in the movie as well, and he talked about being a rapper who was white and wearing that burden, and knowing that he had to really, really step his game up and sure he was on point, and you also asked him about his writing process, and how he writes rhymes, and you remember what he said when he was explaining?"

Ice: "Oh, man, he went into some intricate - it was like you were listening to a scientist, right? He's like, 'I see the words and I'm trying to put the word and make that word rhyme with the word that's in the middle, and have that rhyme come out on the end on the snare'...I'm like, 'Really?!'"

Fantastic interview, go watch it.

[BigBoss]

Em da goat IMHO tbh

[WakeUpShow]

wow.


It was fantastic...First of all, to all the stans, if you liked that little part of Em's freestyle on youtube, you're in for a treat. That's about 1/3 of the verse and seems completely choppy and amateur compared to the other 2/3. He flows like the old him, and his rhymes are beautifully concrete and colorful. He even has a few lol moments in there (chewbacca's nuts). In the interview, he gets in depth about his complex rhyme schemes and writing patterns.

Joe Budden drops an incredibly powerful, emotional, story-telling verse, that just may have been the highlight of the documentary. There are a few annoying people thrown in (KRS) but overall, there are alot of great MCs with stories and verses to tell.

Must see.

[Amaranthine]

This really sucks... this movie is not playing in my city.

Yeah, limited release sucks. What's the closest one to you? My closest theater is an hour away, and I really can't justify driving an hour just to see a movie. It sounds amazing though, I really hope it'll be online soon.

[Amaranthine]

Well I'm in Ottawa and i checked everything theater here and it's not playong anywhere so i don't even know where to look

http://www.theartofrap.com/theaters

[Amaranthine]

Well I'm in Ottawa and i checked everything theater here and it's not playong anywhere so i don't even know where to look

http://www.theartofrap.com/theaters

Are those not all American? Lol.

Yup. Canada's out of luck.

[ShadysDisciple]

The closest theater to me is like 4-5 hours depending on traffic.