Rap- one of the most misused artistic mediums of all time?

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02 Feb 2010, 10:57 pm

What a tragedy mainstream rap is. For thousands of years poetry has been stuck in the written form. Clearly though, poetry is meant to be spoken. The meter, the rhythm of any given poem, is expressed so much better when spoken from the mouth of the poet.

If you think about it, rap was an inevitable result of introducing audio recording technology to the world. Eventually, one way or another, it simply had to form. I don't care what anybody says; most written poetry sucks. The written word simply does not do poetry justice.

Considering that, how in the world did mainstream rap come to be the way it is? I mean, if rap (or something like it) was an inevitability of modern technology, what happened? It should have ushered in a new renaissance of thought. Though rap is slowly entering that stage, it's slow going, and most mainstream stuff is still about b*****s 'n' bling.

I guess I'll just wrap up by saying that the current state of "popular" rap is one of the greatest intellectual crimes since religion appropriated the field of cosmological discovery.*

I'm sorry, I just had to throw some hyperbole in. God, I love that word. Just listen to the sound of it. Hy per ba lee. Hy per bol ik. mmmmmmm

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sgrannel
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02 Feb 2010, 11:39 pm

The only rap song I've ever liked....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWRL9NLQqP8[/youtube]

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SquishypuffDave
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03 Feb 2010, 1:37 am

I'm in total agreement. My eyes were opened when I heard Massive Attack's take on 'rap', it's just amazingly done. Although I guess 'rap' as a genre differs from general musical use of spoken word, which more accurately describes what Massive Attack does with it.

masterdieff
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03 Feb 2010, 1:46 am

Holy crap, the first song I found on YouTube of Massive Attack was Teardrop, the intro theme of House MD. Sweet.

SquishypuffDave
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03 Feb 2010, 1:49 am

So awesome Try 'Inertia Creeps' or 'Risingson'

Danielismyname
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03 Feb 2010, 3:31 am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVdR1Vw7Xrs[/youtube]

The second "song" (it's spoken word in reality), "Mullet", sums it up.

Rap has some of the greatest pieces of art in it IMO, and it's a shame people don't get to experience it as mainstream has blinded them.

psych
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03 Feb 2010, 5:52 am

lots of art-forms get corporatised, then mis-represented to the general public. The unfortunate fact is the guns'n'b*****s model is probably more amenable to marketing and mass-production. I guess it hits the largest demographic - which im guessing is 'rebellious' adolescents.

Look at the UK, Austrailia - this corportatization doesnt seem to have happenned. Theres a vibrant, underground scene, but the results is it stays completely underground, hidden to the general public in the UK. Austrailia seems to be better - eg. hilltop hoods can get #1 spot album sales.

Ambivalence
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03 Feb 2010, 6:14 am

psych wrote:

Look at the UK, Austrailia - this corportatization doesnt seem to have happenned. Theres a vibrant, underground scene, but the results is it stays completely underground, hidden to the general public in the UK.

Sway's first album ("This is my Demo") is brilliant and really individual, but his second ("The Signature LP") has a lot of collaborations (well, more mainstream collaborations, anyway) and isn't anything like as good.

I think getting into the UK mainstream did not work well for him.

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03 Feb 2010, 6:47 pm

I'm a rapper, and I approve of this thread.

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Hector
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03 Feb 2010, 8:22 pm

masterdieff wrote:

For thousands of years poetry has been stuck in the written form. Clearly though, poetry is meant to be spoken. The meter, the rhythm of any given poem, is expressed so much better when spoken from the mouth of the poet.

If you think about it, rap was an inevitable result of introducing audio recording technology to the world. Eventually, one way or another, it simply had to form. I don't care what anybody says; most written poetry sucks. The written word simply does not do poetry justice.

I'm afraid I agree with pretty much none of this. If a poem is good and evocative, I should be able to read it myself. I read novels rather than listen to them being read, and the same with poetry.

That said, I like quite a lot of rap music, but mostly because of the "sound" rather than the lyrics. I used to care about lyrics more but these days I feel like, if I want clever writing, I might as well read a book.

TonyTheTiger
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03 Feb 2010, 8:28 pm

Agreed. My problem with rap is the shallow subject matter it often navigates toward, not the medium itself.

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