Interview: Danny Brown Talks About Rap Pt. 2
If you missed Part 1 of the Danny Brown interview, check it now.
So going back to your timeline, how do you jump from the Bay to Rawkus?
That was just my hip hop timeline. My pops he trained me not to listen to just one genre of music so I was always listening to other shit. I was going through music phases just like everybody else who was a music nerd. I went through the whole grunge shit, I went through the whole Rage [Against The Machine] phase, I went through the whole Korn, System of a Down rap-rock shit. I went through those phases right along with the people that wasn’t listening to hip hop, all the way up to when they was bumping M.I.A. and shit like that. I was a music nerd bro. I studied all this shit instead of just one genre. That’s really how I run my shit. I run my shit more so like an indie rock artists than a rapper.
How did that play with other hip hop heads, if you were to bring around Korn or something?
You know, niggas ain’t fucking with it. It’s the same shit though. These niggas don’t really understand what hip hop is supposed to be. It’s just like my music. The people that fucked with all the shit I named and still branched out into all those other genres and shit, that’s who fuck with my music. It ain’t the super hip hop heads who think hip hop is just supposed to be what it is. They think hip hop is supposed to sound the same way and it’s supposed to be what it was. Really I thought hip hop was supposed to be an expression of youth. If you just doing something that’s true to yourself then that’s hip hop.
Well you look Bambaaata who took music from all over the world and then somewhere down the line a rulebook came into play.
[It's] this East Coast boom bap shit. How you gonna say E-40′s not hip hop? There’s people who feel like that though!
And it’s crazy because if you go back you can find pictures of him head to toe in Adidas, busting B-Boy poses.
And not even that but like I said it’s an expression of yourself. He was doing something that no one else was doing. He was rapping off beats that no one else was. He was doing something that’s so original and so ahead of his time. How can that not be hip hop? It was pure. If he had been trying to rap like Craig G or someone, been on some digging in the crates type shit, that would’ve been fake. That wouldn’t have been hip hop. That’s what’s so fucked up right now. New York, they created the rules of hip hop and now they the ones that’s breaking them. They making the fake down south songs, they’re doing anything to get hot. I ain’t trying to diss New York or whatever. I got love for New York and they got love for me too. But if you look at it that’s kinda how it is. It’s almost like they they alienating themselves from everybody else because they want the hits too and they tired of other people getting hits. So however the hits sounding, they gonna make the hits and they gon’ force it. They gonna tell themselves that it’s a hit and it’s gonna be a hit out there too. I’ll be in New York and I’ll hear some shit that’s popping [there], then I go back home and don’t nobody listen to that shit.
Yeah it seems like there’s always like a Red Cafe or Fabolous record that’s on the radio there and nowhere else.
That’s what I’m saying. That’s the only time you hear it. But to them it’s big. You can’t tell them that that’s not a hit. Like “no, man. Hip hop has changed and y’all don’t run shit no more!” I don’t even care no more. I’m at the shit where I’m so comfortable, as long as I make good music I’ll be straight.
Top five rappers of all time?
Man I got so many lists. I guess I’ll just say the niggas that influenced me the most. It was Nas first, then like I said E-40, then it’d be Ghostface, then it’d be Dizzee Rascal and then it’ll be MF Doom to top it off. He’s bumping Andre 3000 out.
I actually get a lot of shit from my overseas readers about this but I’ve never gotten Dizzee and the whole grime thing.
A lot of people feel that way about it but… I think Dizzee… I don’t know. Maybe he was just touching on the same shit that I was going through at the time and I related to him more so than his music and the music just went along with it. But he just talk about a lot of shit that I talk about too. I don’t know. That nigga like The Beatles to me. I think he’s so ahead lyrically and song structure wise in hip hop that he’ll never get the props he deserves because America don’t really respect hip hop from another country like that. Song writing-wise he’s fucking over a lot of niggas. If you just read the words, he’s fucking over niggas, bruh. He’s got a lot of strongs. I understand why people probably couldn’t get into the production or his accent or maybe they can’t get into it because he’s rapping in double time. But if people studied Dizzee Rascal they’d know E-40 was his favorite rapper. He studied E-40.
Why do you think international rappers struggle to find audiences over here?
I’m not saying it can never happen. Right now at the rate ears are changing and we’re getting more into world music and shit like that it’s becoming more and more possible. But before [grime] all their best people they presented to us, they were just making fake versions of what we was doing. They was just trying to do some American shit. And the ones that was doing progressive shit like Dizzee or The Streets it was too far ahead of its time for us to gravitate to. Like a Dizzee Rascal album never gets old. Like The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come For Free that album will never get old. They make timeless music. Where America… I can’t put on a Lil Jon album [today]. I used to listen to that shit. Lil Jon ran the radio. But you just can’t put on no fucking Lil Jon album and bump that shit right now. It’s so trendy over here.
I wonder if it’s just a matter of overexposure too. Like there was that one year where we heard nothing but Lil Jon.
You might be right. Because he still makes some incredible music but I don’t know. I just think we so trendy and we get burnt out so quick and we always looking for the next thing.
Well it’s scary. I look at what’s happening with Odd Future and I’m genuinely worried because those kids are so young and the hype is happening so quickly. The backlash seems inevitable.
Yeah [laughs]. We’re pretty much just all watching that movie. We know how it goes. It’s on them though. All they gotta do is make good music. We all in the same boat. All anybody gotta do is just make good music right now. I look at all of us like Odd Future, me, Lil B, Das Racist, Ninjasonik. It’s all the same shit in some sense.
But none of you guys sound alike.
That’s the thing about it! Because it’s hip hop. We all doing what’s pure to us. Everybody else is just doing what they think they need to be doing.
Is there anybody else you’re checking for currently?
I listen to all the new leaks and shit that’s been coming out but it hasn’t really been nothing out that I’ve been fucking with besides Lil B and Odd Future. I’ve been going back and listening to old albums, I’ve been actually listening to like E-40 and Dizzee Rascal.
You heard the Kanye yet?
Yeah. I heard Kanye’s album. I’m too ADD for that. Six minute songs is not what I’m trying to do right now. I can’t really get through it. It’s cool though. Me personally, I think it’s his worst album. My favorite Kanye album is Late Registration so go figure. I actually like the Kid Cudi album more than I like Kanye’s. People might criticize me for that but the thing is about Cudi is that he writes from almost a rock singer point of view. I don’t want to call it that but it’s almost white boy rap. Like how Linkin Park raps. And I think that’s the genre that he wants. He’s trying to take the Linkin Park fans. But because he’s got the swag he presents it the best way to me. So I can like that more so than I can like a Fort Minor album. If you listening to it from a hip hop nigga point of view like “yeah? this nigga ’bout to bust some bars?” then yeah [you're not gonna get it]. I know girls like him, that’s all I know. [Laughs] He figured out something.
So let’s talk about Def Jux. I know they’ve maybe been unfairly written off in some circles.
I mean they closed it down. They wrote it off themselves. At the end of it the music wasn’t as good as it was in the beginning. I think after Def Jux it was Detroit hip hop to me. That’s what underground head turned to next. After the Def Jux wave we just turned to Madlib and Dilla. It’s just like I said. At first [Def Jux] was hip hop and then they started making white boy rap.
It seems like Cannibal Ox was something of a missed opportunity.
There’s a story that go with that. Cannibal Ox did it to themselves. You can’t really blame the label. They put out a classic album and didn’t follow up.
Well I just mean it set such a high standard as the flagship release.
Yeah then it was placed on Aesop’s and El-P’s shoulders. It started with Cannibal Ox. I don’t know. I think a lot of people forget shit or weren’t into shit but that album man… If that album came out right now it’d be album of the year. If Def Jux was around right now the hype probably would be like it is right now with Odd Future. I think they dropped the ball with that Danny! album. It’s amazing. I’m on the album by the way, so of course i’m plugging it. If they would’ve put that album out Def Jux would’ve been rolling again. That would’ve been the new Def Jux. It’s supposed to reinvent itself. Even when they put out the Murs album. That nigga was popping in Cali forever. They really was doing shit for the underground. Right now it ain’t no underground hip hop label since that’s done that.
Stones Throw maybe?
But Stones Throw is trying to be more on some hippie shit. If you see what they putting out now they not putting out no hip hop shit. It’s almost like it was a phase for them. It’s upsetting because it’s like they was riding the Dilla bandwagon but they not trying to keep the Dilla shit going. They jumped off it just like it was a trend or a phase or something. If you was really on the Dilla wagon, if you was really into Detroit hip hop like that then y’all would be progressing it. They would have the new Detroit artists that’s popping. I’m not trying to say myself because I don’t want to be on Stone’s Throw but they should still have some type of connection with Detroit hip hop. They did they shit with Guilty [Simpson] but it’s supposed to still be going right now. Don’t just stop at Guilty. I guess they feel that was the last person Dilla cosigned so that’s all they owe to it.
I wonder if it’s just easier for them to market a James Pants or whatever. The same thing that happened with Def Jux, these guys get in with the indie circle and get on the Pitchfork radar and then they slowly become their audience.
Yeah it gets to the point where even in their indie [world] they turn commercial. They forget how that shit happened. It [should be] about them putting out the dope shit that they want to put out. So what if one album did better than the other? Y’all want every album to do good now. I know every record company want to make money at the end of the day but I’m just saying if [I ran a label] I could just break even at the end of the year and everybody tight and we’d put out good music. I would love for Def Jux to be around and [I'd be] on Def Jux, but maybe it’s better that it’s not that way.
I saw Aesop championing The Hybrid on Twitter a while back.
Yeah. Think about something like that! That humbles me more than if Jay-Z told me my shit’s tight. C’mon man! Bazooka Tooth?! He’s like a lyricist of lyricists. That nigga is in his own ball game. No one is fucking with that dude. So for him to think I’m nice?! I really must be nice! That gives me that type of confidence. Even with somebody like 50 Cent. You got 50 Cent saying I’m nice in one corner, you got Aesop Rock saying I’m nice in the other. That type of shit keep me going. So when niggas be telling me they don’t get the shit it’s all cool because there’s people I never thought would get it that’s getting it.
Tumblin' Erb
January 18th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
This guy is a goddamn amazing interviewee.
January 18th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
No apostrophe in Stones Throw.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Stones Throw jumping on the Dilla bandwagon is sort of mixing up the chronology of things, there wasn´t no Dilla bandwagon to speak about when they started to work with him. And I actually think there is a lot of things that would be a lot easier for Stones Throw to market than James Pants and those type of records. The first releases they did in that vein seemed to flop completely, including a few really good records like the Gary Wilson “comeback” record. This is a great read, and a good series, though.
January 18th, 2011 at 5:21 pm
I got love for New York and they got love for me too. But if you look at it that’s kinda how it is. It’s almost like they they alienating themselves from everybody else because they want the hits too and they tired of other people getting hits. So however the hits sounding, they gonna make the hits and they gon’ force it. They gonna tell themselves that it’s a hit and it’s gonna be a hit out there too. I’ll be in New York and I’ll hear some shit that’s popping [there], then I go back home and don’t nobody listen to that shit.
============================
I took offense to that, especially since Detroit has adapted the whole Boom Bap aesthetic that New York pioneered.
There’s a decided “anti-New York” bias that has crept into the Hip-Hop landscape the past few years.
For years, the South had regional hits that never made it past the Mason-Dixon. Did that mean they were inferior records or did it just mean people weren’t trying to hear that shit regardless of how it sounded?
I fux with The Hybrid as well as alot of stuff from outside of the Tri-State area, but lets not get it twisted or misconstrued.
“Yeah it seems like there’s always like a Red Cafe or Fabolous record that’s on the radio there and nowhere else.”
Cause NY makes regional rap now, just like every one else. The pendulum will swing back our way eventually.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
“For years, the South had regional hits that never made it past the Mason-Dixon. Did that mean they were inferior records or did it just mean people weren’t trying to hear that shit regardless of how it sounded?”
Well I think Danny’s point was that these records that are hitting don’t *sound* like New York records, they sound like southern records. (“Lights Out” for instance?) This is like a worst case scenario. It both deprives NY radio of its own local sound and crowds the playlists so that actual hits from outside of the city get less burn.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
“Stones Throw jumping on the Dilla bandwagon is sort of mixing up the chronology of things, there wasn´t no Dilla bandwagon to speak about when they started to work with him.”
I don’t think that’s really true. His mythology was already building pretty tough in the Okayplayerish circles going all the way back to Fantastic. Yeah a bunch of dudes jumped on his dick when he died but that doesn’t mean that nobody wasn’t on his dick in life either.
(True story: I “street teamed” Fantastic Vol. 2 but ended up just taking all the stickers and putting them on desks in my high school social studies class.)
January 18th, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Props to D. Brown on that Ninjasonik shout out though.
They got some shit with em that not many are likely to catch onto on first listen.
I’m surprised that Noz hasn’t given them some sort of a mention considering his love for fringe acts with cult followings.
January 18th, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Well, Dilla going form being signed and dropped by several majors (w/Slum VIllage and solo) to releasing stuff on an indie on Stones Throw indicates he wasn´t exactly at a career peak at the time they started working with him.. Sure he had a cult following but he wasn´t ecactly Lil B. (that was a joke BTW)
January 18th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
“Well, Dilla going form being signed and dropped by several majors (w/Slum VIllage and solo) to releasing stuff on an indie on Stones Throw indicates he wasn´t exactly at a career peak at the time they started working with him.. Sure he had a cult following but he wasn´t ecactly Lil B. (that was a joke BTW)”
IIRC, he wasn’t dropped per se. MCA went under.
I haven’t heard much Ninjasonik and I can’t say I was super impressed by what I linked either. Would their most recent tape be a good place to start?
January 18th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
and all acts that were commercially viable got the contract transferred to Geffen, or something like that, right? pretty much a pure technicality.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
“and all acts that were commercially viable got the contract transferred to Geffen, or something like that, right? pretty much a pure technicality.”
No, you’re confusing it. When Geffen went under, their roster was transferred to MCA. At the time I think The Roots were the only urban act left on Geffen. Universal later devoured MCA. But that’s besides the point.
IMHO Dilla shouldn’t have been on a major to begin with but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a rising underground artist. Plus he was still placing beats on big records from Common, et al. Stones Throw didn’t exactly sign him out of pity.
January 18th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
actually:
“in 2003, UMG folded MCA Records into Geffen. Though Geffen had been substantially a pop-rock label, its absorption of MCA (and its back catalogues) led to a more diverse roster; with former MCA artists such as Mary J. Blige, The Roots, Blink-182, and Common now featured on the label.”
and Dilla went from having actual hits (and/or singles) for Busta and Tribe (plus selling beats to Jimmy Jam and Lewis or whaetever the hell the exact situation with Got Til It´s Gone) to placing album cuts (mostly). Of course he had a following, but it didn´t exactly look like his career was RISING at that time.
It is sorta beside the pont; anyway I bet Stones Throw could have EASILY captialised a lot more on Dilla´s posthumous following than they did if they wanted to jump on bandwagons. I´m sure ANY halfassed J Dilla tribute album with a Stones Throw logo on would have made them a lot more money than James Pants entire career is likely to do.
Oh, and sidenote: when I added Tyler The Creator on Facebook our one mutual friend was Gary Wilson.
January 18th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
When he was making hits for Tribe and Busta he was mostly either hardly known or known as the guy who ruined Tribe.
The consolidation of the Soulquarians and that era is what really set it off for his legacy and that was still snowballing when SQ crumbled and he got dropped. “Fuck The Police” was a biggish underground record. “Ruff Draft” had a sort of mythical quality to it because it went oop so quickly. He was a name/bankable underground act when he linked with ST.
I don’t necessarily cosign everything Danny is saying about Stones Throw here btw. But the idea that Dilla was some sort of forgotten major label reject before he signed to ST is just revisionism plain and simple.
January 18th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
Yeah Dilla had a heavy following all major label album deals aside, doing one-off 12″s on indy labels.
There is no debate there, if you think otherwise you were sleeping.
January 18th, 2011 at 10:23 pm
I haven’t heard much Ninjasonik and I can’t say I was super impressed by what I linked either. Would their most recent tape be a good place to start?
===========================================================
When Anxiety Attacks
deckalot.com/ninjasonik/?p=8332
They still have the same B-More Club sound but the lead MC, Telli aka Bathroom Sex, has definitely stepped up as a lyricist.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:42 am
“Telli aka Bathroom Sex”
that alone has me downloading their tape
noz, ha you get paid for that shit?
January 19th, 2011 at 4:32 am
Man, first Curren$y was talking about listening to Dizzee Rascal in a recent freestyle and now Danny Brown too.
And The Streets, dude? Awwwww, Danny.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:05 am
Oi. The first The Streets album (named the Streets) is nice. Honest, unique and very easy for a northern european to feel at home in, both musically and lyrically. If you don’t think of it as rap, you might enjoy it.
Saying a Grand don’t come for free has longer longevity than Lil Jon, though :D lol. I think over exposure must be the case there.
Dizzee is the shyt. One day America will realize that. Until that I’ll try and help you along the way :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0RZq70Y1o
January 19th, 2011 at 6:19 am
Even if I was the one who brought it up I´m getting pretty tired of the argument by now. So just point to ANY moment in Dilla´s career where his standing was lower than it was at 2002/03 (pre- and early Ummah days excepted) and I´ll give it a rest. I don´t think you can find such a point, which makes it a strange time to “jump on a bandwagon”, and calling Dilla a rising underground star at that point is really a bit weird. If anything it was a transitional period for him.
Also noz I don´t hold you responsible for Danny Browns analysis of Stones Throw but I did question the validity of what you yourself is saying in the conversation with Brown, in regards to James Pants being easier for them to market … And I do get the distinct impression, from this and the previous thread, that you think I´m attempting to take shots at you or something, which I am definitely not doing so chill.
January 19th, 2011 at 6:49 am
And by the way, the way I remember it people started acknowledging Dilla, or should I say Jay Dee, at around Labcabincalifornia (which had a couple more Dilla semi-hits, which he DID get some love for, for instance in the “rap media”). Rap nerds were around at time too (I was one of them), and you don´t do beats like Woo Hah and Drop (maybe the two biggest records of his entire career, no?) without getting some recognition and exposure from it.
January 19th, 2011 at 6:54 am
Actually it got him enough recognition and exposure to GET HIS GROUP SIGNED BY A MAJOR LABEL.
January 19th, 2011 at 7:07 am
But to make a more general point: Browns path as a rap listener is really eerily similar to the average semi-trendy overseas rap listener, identical almost (the bay fetish is admittedly a little twist, but I know people who has gone through those exact same phases in that exact order). You could also say that that makes him a hypocrite for calling out other cats for “jumping on a bandwagon” -he´s clearly jumped on a few himself as a listener so why should a label be any different? Anyway: the one thing that sets him apart is growing up around house and ghetto tech, which is why I would have found a slightly more indepth discussion of that more interesting than another Lil B discussion. You feel me?
January 19th, 2011 at 10:02 am
More cbrap.com posts and less tumblr. This interview was fantastic and the comments section has been equally as engaging. I love y’all.
-e
January 19th, 2011 at 10:05 am
K-bave: i admit used to like it and some of the song concepts/beats were great but its hard to listen to nowadays. and well thats the problem, if you dont think of it as rap it falls into that shitty massive attack spoken-word/mumbling about nonsense with no style or flow catagory that any gobsheen can do which is basically terrible. its like these dudes just heard rap and decided “its just talking i can do that” and then actually did.
but i like dizzee and england actually does have some good rappers, its kinda coming into its own nowadays with grime dudes paying more and more attention to rapping well. of the old gaurd tho london posse, klashnekoffs first album and a small handful of others are the only ones that hold up for me. most of the rest of its a pale imitation of american rap or worse a pale imitation of what i hate about rap in general, like the rapping on klashnekoffs second album. skinnymans albums good too but i had to wait til i was properly desensitized to uk rap before i liked it
if anyones feeling adventurous i reccomend scaryeire’s album, its irish rap from the early ninties thats honestly actually really great. seriously. and yes their name is ridiculously bad.
seriously, its actually good.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:29 am
Best UK MC is Trim, hands down. Dizzee is great if you need a gateway, and his mentor Wiley is also great… But Trim is this weird dude with abstract bars and styles, who makes ridiculous concept records. I suppose over here the best comparison is Cam?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckBIpDlrdOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHqmm6OLUb8
As far as the talk of NYC hate, I’m of there and from there as of late. And let’s be fair, while not ALL of NYC is awful, there is a generation of dickriders (It starts with Fab and it ends with French Montana. Red Cafe fits somewhere in the mix, though he looks older than everyone.) that will follow the South like sycophantic tools. Nothing proves this more than every one of these dudes flopping like dead fish on Lex Luger beats.
You know who can do a Lex Luger beat justice from NYC? MOP. Will they do that? No, ’cause they probably can’t afford it and will just end up with the same old Premier rehashes. But a man can dream.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Dilla didn’t produce any of Busta’s hits actually. Rashard Smith did Woo-Hah.”
As far as I can tell his mid-to-late 90s buzz seemed like something that was mostly limited to industry circles. Most rap fans still thought Jay Dee meant Jermaine Dupri. Or they considered him the guy who ruined Tribe. It wasn’t until the turn of the century that his popular legend as an eccentric genius was starting to form. The fact that he was only dropping rare and secrete underground releases helped contribute to that myth. I don’t have hard statistics to back it up, only my personal experience of running with backpacky dudes, working college radio, hanging out at record stores. Sometimes you can’t measure these things by just tracking production discographies and record deals. Dude was just never ever equipped for a major label. A&M shelved the Slum album in ’98 just like MCA did his solo a few years later.
And I said James Pants was easier to market than Guilty Simpson and other post-Dilla Detroit rappers. I said nothing about Dilla himself.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
my bad on woo hah. he still had singles and semi-hits for tribe and pharcyde so doesn´t really matter as far as the general argument goes. “running with backpacky dudes, working college radio, hanging out at record stores” pretty much sums up my years from 95-00 as well, besides DJing and doing interviews with rappers (and making rap records or at least attempting to make rap records) -so don´t assume my opinion is formed by searching discogs -if that was the case I wouldn´t have made that mistake with Woo Hah. basically WHILE HE WAS ALIVE noone ever cared about J DIlla besides people who read liner notes (and later on spend too much time on rap message boards) and bought underground rap tapes. And the myth of his early, rare secrete stuff was strong enough in those circles to have reached Norway by around 1996 or so (which was when I first heard about what eventually became known as Fantastic Vol 1).
And I know for a fact Guilty Simpson makes more tour money overseas than James Pants, for whatever that says about the marketability. And don´t act like people didn´t buy Guilty´s album because they thought it was a Dilla tribute album, or come to his show because they think of it as a Dilla tribute show. (Guilty is a pretty competent rapper, occasionally great, but just stating the facts here)
January 19th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
(I meant “community based non commercial radio” not college radio and rap twelves not tapes but that´s just geographic differences)
January 19th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
I guess if I was gonna throw thinly veiled snipes like you seem to be doing, I could also ask exactly how old you are and what exactly you were doing as far as rap related stuff in 96-97-98.
January 19th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
“WHILE HE WAS ALIVE noone ever cared about J DIlla besides people who read liner notes (and later on spend too much time on rap message boards) and bought underground rap tapes.”
And who exactly do you think cares about Dilla today?
January 19th, 2011 at 1:58 pm
“I guess if I was gonna throw thinly veiled snipes like you seem to be doing, I could also ask exactly how old you are and what exactly you were doing as far as rap related stuff in 96-97-98.”
You are being paranoid as fuck. But to answer your question I was a teenage rap fan in New Jersey in 96-97-98. I was playing basketball, buying records and jerking off. In that order.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:21 pm
OK, because in those years I was doing what I mentioned above (plus paying the rent (sorta) by writing about rap music. and having sex with an actual woman, maybe not one that could have been casted in a rap video, but still an actual woman). so you were not assuming/insinuating I was forming my opinion from searching production credits on the internet? it definitely read like that to me, and I would guess to most anyone else reading that too. actually your whole attitude seems pretty paranoid, or maybe you´re just an asshole. I still find your blog an interesting read, and one of the few places were it could theoretically still be interesting to discuss rap music on the internet, so let me try doing that instead for the last time:
I can go to a rap show today and see a hot girl in her early twenties wearing a Dilla Saved My Life tshirt. and as stupid as this sounds: the minister of education in norway wrote a blog post about the Jaylib record -two years ago (he´s a mid/late thirties dude who I have never seen at a rap show in my life, and I´ve been to most of them over here). Stuff like that. I didn´t see him or her the one time Dilla played Oslo, just a few months before his death (it wasn´t even close to sold out, at a club with a max capacity of 400), and both of those scenarios would be pure science fiction at any point of his career. And I am actually pretty sure you could find some SIMILAR (but different) scenarios overseas as well.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
I’m not sure what I care less about: your sex life in the 90s or the Norwegian reception of dead underground rap producers today.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
dude you´re the one who brought up your own sex life in the 90s in the conversation. The only reason this convo drifted into pointless recaps of our respective life and career in the nineties is because YOU TOOK IT THERE, dude. but if we are still talking about when the whole Dilla thing became a bandwagon, yes as a matter of fact the norwegian reception of dead underground rap producers is highly relevant. and the only reason we are still discussing this is because you for some reason stubbornly refuse to acknowledge an obviously twisted chronology in Danny Browns take on Stones Throw. I don´t know if that comes down to some sort of paranoia or just plain being an asshole to amuse your own fanboy crowd (blog fanboys are a sad fucking sight, I know because I have a coiuple of those myself). And I don´t really care. Why am still in this conversation then, you might ask? Because I care about rap music. And I´m bored while dodging deadlines.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
though I acknowledge “going in” in this discussion probably makes me look just as bad. again, I´m bored, I love rap music and arguing over it.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Please stop now.
January 19th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
also the words “the norwegian reception of dead underground rap producers is highly relevant” is admittedly something I thought I would never in my life type on a computer. (it still is in this context)
January 19th, 2011 at 3:24 pm
I have one more, slightly more relevant thing to say before I´m done: the whole point is that when you prefer to talk about Lil B (and thereby also somehow implying your own semi-personal report with him or at least “Involvement” in the “movement” -not really as far fetched as it sounds as you and brown also follow each other on twitter as you yourself pointed out) and maybe, possibly also you preferring to co-sign (sorta) what Brown says about Stones Throw (instead of asking a critical follow up question which I do believe you are highly capable of) is what blurs the line between you and the “fawning fanboys” you mentioned in the new rap music posts. It´s also part of the reason this blog is a good read and I don´t really hate on it, just pointing it out. And yeah I do think the way you called out Giraffo and SH was unecessary -Giraffo being an aqquaintance of mine and having shared a drink with the SH dudes once so none are in my inner circle and I wasn´t taking any of this personally before you started taking personal snipes at me -but they are all good dudes doing something constructive, for the love of this music. I realise I probably look like an idiot for ranting this much in this thread but thankfully I have a life outside of internet, rap blogs and writing about rap so it´s nothing I lose any sleep over. OK, NOW I´m done.
January 19th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
holy moley. maybe tumblrs not such a bad idea after all.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
as I said I´m sorry for ranting but the passive agressive snipes for no reason is the one thing I don´t appreciate about CBrap and noz´s writing. I´m sure I could have said it in a lot less words but main thing is I wanted to say it, and I guess I got a little heated along the way and said some dumb shit too. Whatever, I said it and I promise I´ll stop now.
January 19th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Done says :if anyones feeling adventurous i reccomend scaryeire’s album, its irish rap from the early ninties thats honestly actually really great. seriously. and yes their name is ridiculously bad .
Will do, mate! When it comes to Klashnekoff, I like the persona, but his rapping seems to me to be a shed too much of a reconstruction of mid ninties east coast street rap, which, by all means I love, and mind you, he uses this “universe” to full extent, going many places thematically, its just muscially not so interesting to me.
I have others (american) rappers performing that for me, just more sterling.In some senses, Dizzee is the same, but the beats are def. more English sounding, as well as his use of his accent’s muscial range, pace and capabilities (just like e-40, his greatest mentor, people mention Wiley but Wiley isn’t in Dizzee’s muscial class at all, what he could learn from Wiley was the tricks of the trade, the craftsmanship). I think also the ego, the subject, or the rapper, if you will, comes of much more British than in klashnekoff’s music. Thus, because its more “british”, it seems “truer” to me, and more important. This of course, rests on the argument that rap must be “real” or somehow intrinsically linked to a person’s life, daily speech, surroundings and culture. This might not be the case, but I think for both those rappers, this is what they “aimed” to do, and perhaps this is why I prefer the one before the other. He’s “realer”, haha. but this scary eire stuff sounds really interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiSDF1bT59A&feature=related
this was really nice .
on the same path so to speak, this one from Oslo, in Norway. Mind you, this is not nationalism, in Norway, regonalism goes back some thousand years, we all hate each other, but we can also all agree that we all hate Oslo the most. But Opaque is really nice, and he also obliberates all the arguments I made in regars to Dizzee and Klashnekoff; he even raps in his second language. But I find, that Opaque places emphasis on the fact that a rapper is a creation of someone, just like MF Doom does, although this character speaks of his life and of himself. His english is tainted and weird, and heavily west coast rap influenced, highlighting the fact that he is in “foreign territory” so to speak, this musical tradition is not from his own people, but now they’ve embraced it.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOUp4IAbQAI
And he’s a natural slick, shittalker, which is a good thing, if you want to become a rapper.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
[...] Part 2 of Noz’s illuminating Q&A with one of Detroit’s most talented emcees. [cocaineblunts.com] [...]
January 19th, 2011 at 5:38 pm
I think noz might need a restraining order
January 19th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
man i still dont know who the fuck jay dilla is
January 19th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Brad: I think a 2000 $ planeticket might do the same job…
I agree with Hele Fitta though, Noz being a bit edgy, it seems. Internet discussions is a bitch, though, for everone involved. Someone should write a paper on that.
on a side note; that shit giraffo did was tacky. He went from being mr. Internet hype-man to honest poster in a hearbeat.
But again, fucking internet, man^^
January 19th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
nice one that dudes nice and actually has more of an original style than you give him credit for. he might actually be the first rapper to bypass my automatic dismissal of someone based off their fake accent which has been a huge bone of contention with me for a lot of foreign rap along with using no longer relevant slang/signifiers and a bunch of other over-compensating shit like being hyper-referntial that your from somewhere thats not america, but he manages to sound fairly natural and comfortable despite it. maybe it is that doom “rapper as a charachter” stuff that makes it work, i kinda hear what you mean with regards that. il reserve judgement til iv listened to more tho. i hear you on klashnekoff but “murda” “before you Die” “son of naia” “jankrowville” “black rose” and “zero” are undeniable. despite not fully breaking free of his influences, he does a fairly good job and made some amazing raps in the meantime.
the scaryeire link you posted is only the lesser demo version but it was an anthem for pre-boom time ireland back when we were one of the poorest countries in europe and the poorest one in the eu so basically everyone was on the dole (social welfare) the current recession actually pales in comparison to back then despite us once again being one the worst affected in europe (our politicians and bakers arent known for being scrupulous to say the least) that and a handful of other rough cuts of songs made the rounds in like 1992/3 before their album was shelved only to see the light of day in like 2007.
the fully mastered album versions way better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzANWRojZKQ
heres a few other highlights that i think are far more representative of the album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79RjiJCCWhM (for some reason i can only find the censored version of this which is far inferior)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j8RwObxqp0
they made a really great political song too, its a lot more affecting if your aware of the ira hunger strike from the seventies its referring to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eD_IDDEuVo
its a genuinely great album but its an anomaly unfortunately. its the only album i know from anywhere outside america thats sounds 100% natural and comfortable being from where its from and doesnt in some way identify itself as “non-american” or even try to draw attention to that. you wont find one moment that sounds like that in fact you kinda get the impression that that never even occoured to them and all they were concerned with was using rap music to make good songs strictly about stuff they and local people could relate to, rapping in exactly the same manner they speak in with zero concessions to accepted rap norms. im strictly speaking about the rapping tho, the production, while great is standard fare for the time and not all that innovative.
matter of fact, the only time they actually sound somewhat out of their element is on the weed song (i know i said they were unique, but its still 1993!), but thats probably just mostly to do with their being a lot less irish slang for weed back then due to it not being as popular here back then. but saying that, its still a pretty good song which is an achievement as a lot of weed songs are disposable and boring as fuck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYfglUtPDQ
im aware that this is a innapropriately huge rant for a comment section and im sorry if this is looks like spam/press release but this album is rarely, if ever championed outside my country and its also the ONLY full example of a succesful foreign rap album iv heard that can compete with american rap on its own terms and iv listened to a lot of uk rap and grime (along with a decent smattering of french and other nationalitie’s rap). im also concious of the fact that my objectivity is questionable due to patriotism or whatever but im harder on my own countrie’s meagre entertainment output than anyone elses, this is the only irish rap anything i feel comfortable recomending.
again sorry if my fanboy rant was a bother to anyone
January 19th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
omg im lovin these threads takes me back to the days of message boards
January 19th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
whats the deal with the moderation? wasnt aware i was trolling
January 19th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
whoops never mind, its just far too big a comment shoulda known. ha i almost went on a butthurt tirade which would obviously be very out of place on this thread
January 19th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Jesus christ this got weird, man all talking about how he was having sex during the 90s. What the fuck.
January 19th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
it was kind of an attempt at an analogy: noz talking about jerking off and buying records. while I was having sex and making records. Uh, I do see how that comment came off a little weird. I´m not the one who went down that path, but I clearly took a weird turn somewhere and it might have come off a little WTF but whatever. I guess analogies and sonning people is something I should reserve for my first language.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:16 am
now now guys, stay based, keep it positive, relax yourselves and let the unconscious mind free
January 20th, 2011 at 3:17 am
dope interview!
January 20th, 2011 at 4:52 am
Nah Done, you aint ranting or trolling, you shedding som light to something few people know about. I thought that was the purpose of these message boards.
Thanks to you I got some new music to check out. And recession wise, I know all that shits, we always checking you out from over here (no twilight) since we populated the Island you live upon :)
Cheers man, Good weekend to all.
and Hele Fitta, I agree with your understanding of the turn of events, but one should never talk about ones sex life on the internet^^
January 20th, 2011 at 8:13 am
@done, this “Ten Victories” cut is sick. I’m not gonna make any conceptual statements halfway into the song, but damn son.
January 20th, 2011 at 8:21 am
I have no idea what we’re arguing. I’m just glad more people are talking about Dilla on the internet because THAT NEVER HAPPENS.
-e
January 20th, 2011 at 8:50 am
K-Bave: I never say anything I don’t mean, but I might at times mean more than I say, or more than there is room for saying, at the very least. Different formats and genres allow different forms of writing and thoughts, and at its best, CBRap is still one of a few places where deserving artists can be discussed seriously.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:48 am
k-bave: well this is more of a post with a specific topic than a message board and no one wants to see this turn into the nah right comment section but i get what you mean and its good to hear bout new shit, cheers anyways. any reccomendations for good albums from your part of the world? ha yeh i imagine we are a bit of a joke to the rest of europe with how the recession is hitting us. and its a shame the vikings didnt bring more of them tall blonde broads of yours over with them, our women dont tend to be oil paintimgs to say the least
Ak: hes stylin like fuck on that tune and that songs one of the few times that whisper-flows appropriate. its also one of the few songs on the album were the production feels particularly irish-sounding and original. it kinda sounds like hes talking mystical nonsense til you realise its rapped from the perspective of a nationalist political prisoner in the middle of a hunger strike/ dirty protest where all ten participants died, just google 1981 hunger strike if your curious. not that background knowledge is essential to enjoy a song, but it certainly gives it a lot more emotional weight.
January 20th, 2011 at 9:53 am
and thats probably my favourite song on the album, along with “rev it up” (one of the best live crowd partipation songs iv ever seen performed) and “hauld your whist” (which wasnt really worth posting due to the likelyhood of literally all of the references and humour being lost on anyone whos not irish)
January 20th, 2011 at 9:56 am
the only thing that should stop someone from enjoying the album i think, is gettin over the accents which is probably a huge turn off for anyone unaccustomed.
January 20th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
done: as far as albums from our part of the world, even though I´m very much biased as I worked on the album I will recommend my homie (and production partner) Salvador Sanchez´s new album, “Happy Daze”. A taster here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo4RnOTDY6w
I thought SOME of the scary eire songs sounded like the label wanted them to capitalize on the House Of Pain-hype (which was HUGE around then). Others sound a little more interesting. Remember them very vaguely from that Tommy Boy comp.
January 20th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Also here´s a clip (with (quote) “AMAZING 3D GRAPHICS”) from his old crew Darkside Of The Force and their last album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg1879SX988&feature=related
January 20th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
@emynd: Truth, because if you ever mention Dilla anywhere people get strangely defensive and start claiming you are a “dickrider” and only “jumped on the bandwagon post death”. I wasn’t old enough to know his shit when it was really popping, yet he is potentially my favorite producer of all time – so because I enjoy something people want to label it false. Hip-Hop fans are often as bad if not worse than hipsters.
And Danny Brown is the truth, that’s all I can ever really say about him. It is what it is.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
@ giraffo , none of your posts were bad or “untruthful”, nor do I think you consciously did what you did, but you can’t go from making an eccentric, biased post to upholding the laws and conduct of internet discussion in one and the same thread.
Because it becomes impossible for other people to critizise or ask questions; am I now talking to Giraffo the “member” of the G-side movement, or the impartial Giraffo, discussing how one should approach discussing something on the internet.
These things are incompatible.
sorry if my lousy english blunders my point, but I hope you get my drift.
@ done: you are welcome to come and see the women we stole from Eire and the Great Britains (among other places) here in Bergen any time. I think your lamentation on the state of Irish women will be perhaps even greater then :)Actually, we look at the situation in Ireland with grief, same as Iceland. Greece on the other hand…
vikings were smart, go for nice bitches before wealth, it pays of in the long run.
Last input on The Dilla discussion. Here in Bergen, Dilla came with Pharcyde , particularly “running”, and I feel his presence on the hip hop world decreased gradually after those years in the mid ninties. That’s how I see it
January 20th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
since this turned into a conversation between euro dudes anyway let me check in with some truly inessential trivia, Opaque (dude from the video K-Bave posted) is heard on the chorus, doing his best falsetto voice, on this Heltah Skeltah track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Plp9XEAw_hs&feature=fvw
I got a sneak preview of his new mini-album (or his group, or choir as they prefer to be called) two years ago. Sounded pretty weird and pretty good. Sean Price is a member-of-sorts of the group (The Loudmouf Choir) and is on two or three tracks, although I´m sure if they ever release an album it will be a whole new set of songs (he´s been recording for over a decade (with a *cough* hiatus of a couple years) without ever putting out a follow up to his one album). I also think “Church” offa one of the Sean Price albums was intended for his/their album at one point.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:31 pm
You’re talking to Giraffo, who always likes to discuss music he finds interesting or incredibly good, and whose biases and preferences are out in the open. You can ask me anything, really. I just don’t see why I should be excluded from participating in a discussion about the music I like best. I don’t own any truth about these guys, I just want a broader, preferably informed, discussion about what they’re doing and why that matters or doesn’t – and mostly for personal reasons: I listen to this music a lot. That’s why we talk about the music we like or don’t like, isn’t it?
I started putting people onto HSV rap back in 07, and thankfully for the most part most of these guys still make music that I think more people should listen to. So I try to make that music available, at least until they start making music that doesn’t appeal to me any more. If no one else likes their music it only makes me look like an idiot. It hurt me when the DB49 album turned out to be less dope than I had expected it to be, and the OThird album sounded unfinished too. I wanted them to be awesome, but none of them scratched my top 20 last year. You didn’t see me in here trying to spark discussions about those albums because there wasn’t that much to discuss outside of a few highlights.
When I come here, though, it is because I’ve heard an album that I want to talk about with other people who I happen to respect, people like you for instance, who might have opinions about that album. Again, if someone doesn’t agree with me about how good this particular album is, I doubt I can sway them. My words don’t carry that much weight around here. But I’m interested in hearing what you all think about the album anyway. And I hope you’re interested in hearing what I have to say about it too.
The only thing I’m not very interested in is a discussion that revolves around my person. But if you have any valid reasons for why I shouldn’t be able to participate in a discussion about G-Side, I’ll certainly consider them, and if you can convince me that my ties to them are so strong that nothing I say about them can be taken seriously, I promise to withdraw. But I would prefer it if we kept the argument to what I’m saying and not to who is saying it. While I don’t know this for sure, I would not be surprised if you had found yourself at some point discussing Nokke Feita Vol 3 with someone somewhere. In fact, I would be more interested in hearing what you had to say about it than what the average joe thought about it. In an interactive era of twitter, blogs and message boards, it’s difficult to not be involved on some level, and it’s always hard to draw the line, even though we all know that there has to be one. The question, of course, is still just when a person should be disqualified from public utterance on a subject. I’m open to suggestions.
But do check out that Cole Boyz album. It’s the shit.
January 21st, 2011 at 9:49 am
You’re talking to Giraffo, who always likes to discuss music he finds interesting or incredibly good, and whose biases and preferences are out in the open. You can ask me anything, really. I just don’t see why I should be excluded from participating in a discussion about the music I like best. I don’t own any truth about these guys, I just want a broader, preferably informed, discussion about what they’re doing and why that matters or doesn’t – and mostly for personal reasons: I listen to this music a lot. That’s why we talk about the music we like or don’t like, isn’t it?
I completely agree, things of such quality and statue as G-side should be met by qualified and passionate critics, for everyones sake. My point was in regards to the discussion between Hele Fitta and Noz were a point was made about the previous thread, on which I could understand Noz way of reacting, which Hele Fitta couldn´t. That was all.
Im sorry my not so good english may have blurred this out.
January 21st, 2011 at 9:52 am
And my other point was that if your a passionate, involved party, you can´t switch and take the position of the inpassionate, analayzing party in the same thread, while discussing with someone. which you did in that thread, not here.
But I dont think noone cares about this, Its the internet :)
January 21st, 2011 at 10:13 am
Ha ha, I always switch between passion and analysis, quickly. If there’s no passion, what’s the point of analysis? But it’s all good. None of what we say counts anyway, since we’re from Europe.
January 21st, 2011 at 11:46 am
Hele Fitta: i hear you on the house of pain thing, maybe the label saw them on the tommy boy comp and thought they were just a more irish version of them. but that only applies to the production i think, the rapper has a really original style in my opinion, from delivery, rhyme patterns to switching styles and even the fact he only uses irish slang and never makes any concessions to the usual rap topics or signifiers. like even when does talk about battling/freestyle type shit you probably wouldnt even notice if your werent paying attention cos he never say shit like “im better/ i spit” “emcees” “rappers” “style” “Hip hop”, or anything youd recognise really from rap music in general. well he does say “the hip, the hop” or whatever but that was tongue-in-cheek. i forgot to mention their djs pretty nice and that dole q tune has a good pay-off at the end despite the kinda awful last verse from mister browne.
they kinda remind me more of house of pain (outside of the fairly obvious dj muggs influence on the production) with the main rapper, hype man whos only allowed rap (badly) once and the dj/producer line up. i cant stand house of pain and the “irish” gimmick just makes em worse. we dont tend to be very fond of irish-americans here due to the crazy amount of them coming here to “find their roots” annoying the hell out of uswith their corny self-seriousness, low alcohol tolerance and lack of understanding of irony. our prejudice for them actually rivals our one for english people (who we have a decent excuse to hate). i dont get most of that identfying yourself by your ancestors ethnicity shit either, if your raised in america your as irish as i am norweigan. i know its xenophobic/racist but if ye all quit coming here asking if we know the murphy family or directions to ballymacklaroorahreen itd probably subside, plus its ok to hate americans cos theyr not aware the rest of the world exists anyways
January 21st, 2011 at 11:47 am
cheers for the recommendations man il check that shit out. nepotisms not cool tho, but least you owned up to it eh
i hope cp and em dont get too influenced by all their blog reading. while some of them dudes are great writers, most of em are very far from infallible.
fuck im in permanant rant mode or somethin, irish rap must set me off.
January 21st, 2011 at 11:55 am
oh and in case this sets off a racism debate with the people with english as a second language, im joking. im sure if i met americans that werent tourists i might like them. theyd still have a terrible sense of humour tho
January 21st, 2011 at 12:01 pm
oh and in case this sets off a racism debate with the people with english as a second language, im joking. im sure if i met americans that werent tourists i might like them. theyd still have a terrible sense of humour tho.
and its actually considered an insult for a lot of people here if someone says theyr acting/talking “american” so its not like im just tryna hide my prejudice by saying other people do it. um the serious tone of that last sentence might negate me whole joking defense.
January 21st, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Europe has officially fucked up the comments section.
January 21st, 2011 at 1:49 pm
i just realised i played myself somewhat with all these comments, whoops.
and yeh we did kinda fuck up the comment section.
January 21st, 2011 at 2:48 pm
See this is why I only cover American rap. One mention of Dizzee Rascal and it all goes downhill.
January 21st, 2011 at 3:27 pm
or has CBrap become a phenomenon for clueless euro dudes, like Dilla and possibly G-Side, and therefore irrelevant?
January 22nd, 2011 at 7:58 am
Noz:See this is why I only cover American rap. One mention of Dizzee Rascal and it all goes downhill.
hehe.
Football now, good weekend!
January 22nd, 2011 at 9:47 pm
done Says:
January 19th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
holy moley. maybe tumblrs not such a bad idea after all.
^
Seriously. What started as a very interesting discussion of hip-hop turned into… something. Whatever it was, it wasn’t worth reading after this comment.
JihaD
January 22nd, 2011 at 10:07 pm
yeah this took a turn for th worst early on, no more mentions of european rap would probably be a good idea. ha dizzee has some joints tho
January 23rd, 2011 at 7:43 pm
This two-part has been really, really interesting.
I love this kind of stuff coming from CB.
Curious about one thing:
people saying that Dilla ruined Tribe – is there any story behind that or is that just based on the production side?
January 23rd, 2011 at 9:34 pm
That’ll probably never get answered because of the European invasion that just went on.
January 24th, 2011 at 12:36 am
“Curious about one thing:
people saying that Dilla ruined Tribe – is there any story behind that or is that just based on the production side?”
Popular consensus at the time was that the quality of beats dropped off considerably between Midnight Marauders and Beats, Rhymes & Life and the presumption was that the addition of Dilla to the production team had something to do with it. I don’t know how realistic that allegation is in retrospect, Tip’s record collection burnt down around the same time and that seems like it might have been more of a catalyst for the beat fall off. Also general old man rapp malaise.
January 24th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Wasn’t ‘Amplified’ considered a big sell-out move initially as well? All things considered, I remember hearing those records and being told that was garbage by mystical elders. Now though, Dilla Died For My Sins, and suddenly those two records are classic.
(Q-Tip making songs about Angie Martinez is possibly up there in offensive quality with European Rap)
January 24th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Popular consensus at the time was that the quality of beats dropped off considerably between Midnight Marauders and Beats, Rhymes & Life and the presumption was that the addition of Dilla to the production team had something to do with it. I don’t know how realistic that allegation is in retrospect, Tip’s record collection burnt down around the same time and that seems like it might have been more of a catalyst for the beat fall off. Also general old man rapp malaise.
Beats Rhymes & Life is a much greater album than Midnight Marauders to my ears, production included. Of course that was the first ATCQ album I layed my ears on, so I guess it formed my opinion on how they should sound, just as much as the people who started off listening in much earlier in ATCQ´s career. I would still maintain that if there is possible to valuate music, Beats rhymes & life is the greater album.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
“Beats Rhymes & Life is a much greater album than Midnight Marauders to my ears, production included”
um i dunno bout that, but beats rhymes and lifes not as terrible as people make out. it had a few joints like “the jam” and “1nce again” but yeah the rest was filler with the odd decent moment. i think “get a hold”s nice enough too. i think its just a case of it seeming like a huge fall off relative to the last one cos it raised the bar so high.(although on some days low end theory trumps it for me, especially on the right system/headphones). love moment deserves all the hate it got, that shit was confused and amplified was sort of a snoozefest bar a few standout tunes.
it never occoured to me to connect tips record collection burning down to that, makes sense. but yeah i still think dilla had way more of a negative influence. any time i hear producers fawn over him they talk about all this production innovation shit which is cool but i never saw that reflected in much of a catalogue of actual bangers. i like a lot of his beats but i think tip just got blinded by all the innovation and “genius” to where his skill in making good songs and quality control just fell by the wayside.
chopping up some obscure sample in a new way and double-tracking your snares or whatever he dids cool but that shits not much fun to listen to unless your a production nerd.
it kinda sucks how this may possibly have stopped tip producing much too, he was great. i dont include them unreleased albums, they mostly sounded like half-finished ideas to me and some “this is more than rap cos im using”real instruments” and singing” nonsense.
January 24th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
oh and the first album seems to have been forgotten about by a lot of people for some reason, i think it was great and in retrospect sounds really experimental and unique compared to other albums from the time.
January 26th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
on the geek tip, but …since I was a Tribe fanboy at one time I´d like to add that the fire happened AFTER Beats Rhymes and Life, at the early stages of production for The Love Movement, so it was hardly a factpr for BRL at least.
March 15th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Good looks on this interview!
wouldn’t have got to listening to the Hybrid for a minute…
the tape is CLASSIC!
March 23rd, 2011 at 3:55 am
Nice reads
May 15th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
[...] recently gotten around to reading this interview with Danny Brown where he talks about how if the Cannibal Ox record came out now, it [...]
June 29th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
[...] I interviewed Danny Brown earlier this year, the piercingly accurate Detroit rapper expressed a surprising fandom [...]
July 24th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
[...] Bonus: Danny Brown lists the UK’s Dizzee Rascal amoung his Top five rappers of all time. [...]
December 30th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
[...] was recently reading an interview of rapper Danny Brown and the rap group Cannibal Ox came up. Cannibal Ox, like Panda Bear, released [...]
April 30th, 2012 at 10:15 am
[...] his songs shows a connoisseurship of grime, and he’s a known fan of British rap—he once told Noz that Dizzee was his Beatles, and, before rapping over a Joke beat for Pitchfork last December, [...]