General Hip-Hop Discussion Thread

[classthe_king]

99 is pretty damn good...

[dead prez]

it had gud-gr8 albums (just like every year) but taking it as a whole especially the state of the mainstream it was pretty damn dire.

[dead prez]

2000 would win by an overwhelming landslide and 94 because ILLMATIC.

[Notalius]

2000 was indeed amazing

[classthe_king]

1986-2014

[classthe_king]

00-02 wouldn't be my first choice for going up against 94-96

[dead prez]

94 is the token hip hop head's best year (not that it wasn't great or isn't a viable candidate) but most people just say it cause it's almost the status quo.

Anyways does anyone else feel hip hop more than any genre especially recently (ever since the 90s past) lacks "atmosphere". Idk, like the 90s was brimming with albums that had it (The Infamous, illmatic, Enter the wu, blah blah. But idk, there are ofc exceptions here and there MBDTF, The Cold Vein but other than a few of the top of my head it kinda lacks that. I guess it could be cause of all the different producers which makes the genre more rap driven and the beats are built around the mceeing, which is why rappers like slaughterhouse can jump off a bridge.

94-96 by a country mile btw

if you wanna compare than make it 94-96 vs 04-06, only 00 is rly outstanding that collective

[dead prez]

04-06

[classthe_king]

Well I think it's that in hip-hop rappers are trying to appeal to too many people and do too many styles. Back then rappers didn't give a fuck and just made an entire album the same sound and that's where you get that atmosphere. I really think Biggie changed the game where people are like damn I could sell way more with soft AND hard shit on the same album and then it evolved into what we have today.

2002 is goat now that I look at it but it fits my preference of music almost perfectly lol

[dead prez]

I guess like illmatic has a shit ton of producers but it has a fuckload of atmosphere so I don't think it's just different producers fucking up the feel and structure of the album. But back than a lot the albums just evoke moods and take you on a trip through grimy new york city (corny as that sounds), I mean where's the hip hop album anser to burial's untrue which evokes a fuckton of moods, or boards of canada albums?

Likewise SSLP had a lot of atmosphere it evokes 90s nostalgia, tony hawk, mtv at the time, slapstick ren and stimpy humor etc. I dunno, nowadays a lot of albums have no particular flavor to them

[dead prez]

Sadisitk albums actually have a lot of atmosphere cause of Blue Sky Black Death

[Chazi]

Great thread btw

[classthe_king]

well the disappearance of regional styles also has a lot to with that too. rap albums have become lowest common denominators because why appeal to your region when you can appeal to the whole county

sadistik is great at creating atmosphere in his albums with his intros/outros, movie quotes, female vocals, etc.

He's a huge radiohead fan though so i'm not surprised.

[dead prez]

And ofc Flockaveli is the holy grail of atmosphere even though waka sucks as a rapper. Bustin at em literally feels like you're gettin shot at.

[dead prez]

well the disappearance of regional styles also has a lot to with that too. rap albums have become lowest common denominators because why appeal to your region when you can appeal to the whole county

sadistik is great at creating atmosphere in his albums with his intros/outros, movie quotes, female vocals, etc.

He's a huge radiohead fan though so i'm not surprised.

You're definitely on to something there, the globalization of the genre and rappers like Asap rocky being able to emulate south also comes with certain regions have no distinct sound to them anymore.