Here’s the deal, AW headz. You get ONE choice. Just one. Your favourite hip hop track of all time. If someone else has already picked it, move on to your second favourite. I’ll start below, with a bona fide, nailed-on classic of the genre.
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Bum. That was my choice too.
Not really my general area, but I do love these boys, and this is excellent:
Rap / Hip Hop not sure but it is what I’m going for:
https://youtu.be/O4o8TeqKhgY
Ooo a tough one but I’m going to have to go with Chessboxin’
It has to be Sir Mix A Lot, doesn’t it?
This guy is the Bob Dylan of hip hop. Not the dated reference to the late Flo-Jo, who ran in the 1988 Olympics.
“NOTE the dated reference”, rather
For me it’s The Message too. But that having gone I’d say Eminem’s Lose Yourself. The opening guitar chords sound fantastic, the lyrics are inspiring and I love the story of how director Curtis Hanson asked Em to come up with a song that tallied with the film and he came back the next day with this masterpiece. My favourite song to run to.
Ho hu. This isn’t really my specialist area.
I’ll have to go for this, I suppose – not exactly an original choice, but there you go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWTE1Uj9Z8c
Well, Chessboxin’ has already gone, so I think it’ll have to be Juice (Know the Ledge):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUzDcxDQTyI
Very tempted to go for “Oi!” by More Fire Crew, but I think we’d need a judge’s ruling on whether it’s actually hip hop.
PE, Wu Tang, Message already up so let’s have an early example of Dr Dre’s unerring ability to locate an earworm hook (even if it’s someone else’s):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig5Xi-S0Fjo
Couldn’t have The Message, so I’ll have this:
*shakes fist*
That’s my first and my second choice gone! (you have excellent taste)
Another vote for Nas
….drum roll
There are half a dozen tracks on Illmatic that would be a worthy choice for anyone.
Totally agree with this. A top top album
some absolute stormers on this list. A lot of my favourites have already been taken unfortunately so I will go for this one. It’s a new ‘un but a good ‘un
Blackalicious – On Fire Tonight.
Also an honorable mention to my favourite tune of the moment;
DJ Shadow & Run The Jewels – Nobody Speak
Really hard to choose, but today it would be this.
Great choice.
So good I just now had to watch it twice.
That was a definite candidate for me too mini
Oh it’s a belter, that tune.
If I wanted to bend the rules, it’d be the first 22 mins of this (after which it goes off a bit).
Have you heard Night Ripper? It’s totally awesome.
I do have it too, but All Day is the one that makes me beam, especially the first third.
I have Night Ripper. Not so much totally awesome as Jive Bunny for hipsters.
Yep. Like I said: totally awesome!
Instead of spending all day pondering and then regretting my choice, I’m just going to treat you to this new favourite from Emicida from Brazil. Passion, great melody and marvellous beats and I don’t understand more than about two words. You can’t have everything!
And everything I do is funky like Lee Dorsey.
TUNE.
Ol’ Dirty Bastard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AYY4EqFBWM
Well, my first and second choice have gone, so I’m plumping for this.
(There’s a teeny little bit of me that nearly went for Ice Ice Baby. Nearly. I can’t help it.)
Kwords! Strings! We brings! Melody!
G-Funk: where rhythm is life…. and life is rhythm….
A tin-eared musical halfwit writes.
I have never got into hip hop at all. Sounds stupid, but always found it a bit intimidating. I’ll have a listen to these choices, see if it does anything for me. Thanks Poppy for starting thread.
Nothing tin-eared about it – there’s no obligation to like the hippety-hops.
If you give some prompts as to what you generally do/don’t like then I’m sure people will provide some tailored recommendations to help see if you can find a way in.
Really not my genre. I like Can I Kick It but couldn’t find the UK single version on Youtube. So I’ll settle for this
In all its glory…
The TTQ track is surely this…PITATPoR may be one the most under-rated and greatest hip-hop albums ever. What a great moment in rap De La/Jungle Bros/Money Love/PM Dawn etc all provided.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA9kQdE9rCA
Au contraire! This was very very close to being my top choice:
There’s a lot of excellent choices here already, mildly surprised I’m the first to post It Was A Good Day by Ice Cube…
Toughy. I think it’s this (Blackstreet – No Diggity).
It’d be this I reckon. Really don’t understand how this guy didn’t become huge. Seems to me, to be the UK’s version of Kool Keith, who I’m also fond of. Perhaps like KK, he is just too erratic for his own good. The one track in my house that we can all agree on liking.
Silvah Bullet – Chemissinyadiss
Actually, on second reflection, this is the greatest hip-hop track ever. I’ll stop now (three posts and your out). ‘Charlie Mingus, such nimble fingers’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is5xMd1nT5o
Loads of great choices but it has to be
‘I Know You Got Soul’ by Eric B & Rakim.
Perfection.
ATM, this:
Wow. I love Jedi Mind Tricks but when Stoupe left I thought it was a bit like The Fall without Mark E Smith. But that’s really good!
Do you like La Coka Nostra, Ill Bill, Heavy Metal Kings, Army Of The Pharoahs, Outerspace all those guys?
Powerful stuff BJB. Excellent video.
“whispers comspiratorially”
Come on Poppy! Break your own rule and treat us to a few tracks by those artists . No one will notice.
No. Won’t!
All new names, so I’m going to bung a track by each of them on my playlist to broaden my horizons.
I like Army Of The Pharoahs, but I am just an amateur, so don’t really know much about all the others. TBH, I loved JMT early stuff, but thanks from a head-up from Fatima of this parish I caught up with their latest release The Thief and the Fallen, which is really good.
I’m going to have to catch up. Your vid above is the first Stoupe-less JMT I’ve heard.
Stoupe is actually back with them, rejoined for the last album.
Psycho Socio…and Violent by Design are tow of my favourite albums by anyone.
Whoosh, that’s awesome!
BJB, that’s incredibly good. Thanks!
Keep those hits a coming and I’ll add them to this list.
Kaisdfatdad this is fantastic but I’m useless at Spotify. I think I’m following you, though… what’s the best way to get this playlist onto my own @dadwardo list? Thanks in advance.
Hi @dadwardo
It took me a while to figure how to share a Spotify playlist with a friend.
For a long time I thought you needed to know their Spotify username. All you need to do is copy the playlist link and send it to them.
It’s simple. You put your cursor over the title of a playlist so that the “hand” Is showing.
You then left click on your mouse and you will get a number of options:
Copy the link (which is what I did here)
Or
Copy the Spotify URI. N which case I get this:
spotify:user:kaisfatdad:playlist:0sNY9ObyVDFE9RxOObpMG1
If you copy that and paste it into the search box on the top left of the Spotify page, you should then come to the list.
You then mark any tracks you want, left click and you get the option to add to any playlist you like.
Hope that’s clear, If it doesn’t work, just get back to me.
BTW, did you know that you can choose certain items to listen to off-line? Very useful if you’re going to be somewhere with crap internet. But it does take up some memory on your device.
Ka-chow! Worked perfectly. Thanks so much.
this.
I don’t know a lot about hip hop but I tend to prefer the weirder more surreal stuff I hear (and see -the visuals are important to me). I like Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator too.
Really not my area of strength but I heard this somewhere and I started jumping up and down exclaiming that I knew the song that had been sampled. Needless to say, the people around me were not particularly impressed. But anyway, as I love early Roxy Music, may I offer the suggestion below? It’s a real toe-tapper 🙂
Ice-T: That’s How I’m Living
Right now it’s ‘All for One’ by Brand Nubian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uisHTDkB7iA
Far too late to this thread and a lot of goodies have gone, so I’ll have this. It’s probably my fifth or sixth favourite hip hop track
Not an actual track, but this is my all time number one hip hop related video. I’m sure I’ve posted it here before, but it never hurts to watch it again
(I am not sure they are real Tibetan monks)
For one hot summer this was the soundtrack of New York City:
Pretty near impossible to pick one tune but there is a moment that springs to mind. It’s early 1990. It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back was already a classic. Fight The Power and Welcome To The Terrordome had amazed, but there was still as much anxiety as anticipation about the new PE album. Then a promo 12″ popped in the box. It was a double “A” side. On one side was the track we considered a bit of bone-throwing to Flavor Flav: 911 Is A Joke (what did that title even mean?). It was alright. But one the other side.. Oh man!
Yo! Bum Rush was great but had Sophisticated Bitch. Nation Of Millions Was Awesome but it had She Watch Channel Zero? Here (after a fashion!) in Revolutionary Generation, our boys were growing up in their sexual politics. The Bomb Squad racket included a sample of Aretha’s Respect (and Musical Youth!), and while Chucky D wasn’t quite on message (Hey, it’s PE, not P.C.) he had come a long way.
History records the single as strictly 911 A side. I can’t find a video of RG on YouTube.
Looks like the B side wins again:
GREAT PICK!
Here’s a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH1VUsURuuU
This one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJbT1DEqoKo
Quannum, the loosely linked bunch who include Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Latryx, Joyo Velarde et al have too many good tracks to choose from. But I’m picking this one.
Lady Don’t Tek No by Latryx. Funk and sexy as hell…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osnCVm0lCdE
Me love Quanuum also. Is there any more dazzling example of the MC’s art than Alphabet Aerobics by Blackalicious?
That was almost what was chosen. It is indeed astonishingly brilliant, but this one is funkier and I plumped for that…
Here’s wee Harry Potter doing it…
LOVE Quannum. Storm Warning by Latyrx is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard.
Skee Lo – I Wish…..hello!
Yes! ‘I wish I was a little bit taller I wish I was a baller, I wish I had a girl who looked good I would call her…’
We used to have quite a giggle at this one because Mr Moore’s pronunciation of “love” sounds so close to the Irish word lámh which means “hand”, so Luka’s asking for a hand job..
Ultramagnetic MCs – Give the Drummer Some
I have listened to a few of the “tunes” above,
It is all just a “noise” to me in a bad way as I am sure many hip hop fans would find prog,
Diversity is good!
Have a big Up for that comment @Uncle Wheaty. Exactly the kind of respect for each other’s musical interests that make the AW what it is.
Some hip hop can be very melodic. Like the very catchy Addis Black Widow song, Innocent.
Sometimes one song can serve as the gateway drug to a new genre. Back in the day when Yes, Genesis etc had hit singles, for example, the casual listener could get interested and then choose to explore more.
If I wanted to get someone curious about jazz, I would not kick off with a ten minute long honkathon.
I’m going for this one
Andy Cooper – Do The Charlie Brown
This one always puts a massive grin on my face
TUUUUUNE!
Great tune, and I rate Dan Nakamura so highly. Love the Handsome Boy and Deltron 3030 rekkids: “Things You Can Do” would make my top 10 hip hop tracks every day of the week.
https://youtu.be/JOp2E39ZaPg
Two Prince Paul productions in a row and I’m wondering if he’s the producer who will win this thread? And will anyone nominate anything from his concept albums, or his work with Gravediggaz, or his tremendous psychedelic opus, My Field Trip To Planet Nine, by Justin Warfield? I’m just wondering that.
Gravediggaz! Oh what a great record Niggamortis is.
Is this hip o hop?
2Pac
There is an alternative video which acts out the lyrics in graphic fashion if you must seek it out.
Tupac Shakur
How Do You Want It.
Many of my favourites have been chosen already or I can’t find a YouTube clip (Lose Yourself, Fight The Power, Television The Drug Of The Nation). K-Dot’s The Blacker The Berry is truly unbelievable but I’m voting for Kanye. This one starts with a delicate melody which slowly builds to a beat. The rap is rueful and self deprecatory, as far from his usual cocksure self as is possible. The video is wonderful, too. A work of art?
Runaway
Almost went for MARRS but that’s not really Hiphop. This is also gimmicky, maybe it isn’t either.
Actually, I can’t name my favourite Hiphop track, which was top 40 in the early Noughties. Bootsy Collins type long bass riff, a real saxophone, pop sensibility, and the group intoning a hook that went ” moo-moo the moo the moo” (or something)> Would be great if one of the Massive could identify it.
Could be lots of things. Assuming you don’t mean they literally say “moo”.
This maybe?
(Oui 3 – Break From The Old Routine)
Hah! The chorus/hook does morph into a literal moo! The falling melody goes ( as per ” moo-moo the moo the moo” and if you’ve got an instrument) e d d-c c-a. Name of the group was 3 words as in Archie Bron Outfit, I’d recognise it if I saw it. Must have been a one-hit wonder. Certainly the poppier end of Hiphop.
Do try again. @Sewer Robot
It’s not What Time Is Love by the KLF is it?
‘Fraid not, Poppy, and sorry for hijacking your fine thread.
No sweat, blud.
Guess what? Now I think the title is Pump, from the depths of my memory. So, a one-hit wonder poppy Hiphop tune from about 15 years ago.
Someone must know.
Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic?
Is it this?
(Forward to about 30 secs for the proper track to begin.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZaz7OqyTHQ
No and no. Number of hits for pump on YouTube: 9.8 million.
Pump It Up by Joe Budden?
Thanks Bingo, that’s the one. Result!
(Ironically, the damned thing won’t play here in Germany for copyright reasons)
Brilliant – this had been bugging the hell out of me.
Gotta laugh: “moo-moo the moo the moo” turned out to be do my thang let me moo my thang.
It doesn’t really fit the description, but something is telling me that it might be I Got 5 On It. Going to post it anyway, because it’s ace.
Fresh out of “moo”s, but here’s a “hmm”
Just keeps getting better:
Big beats and a reminder of the rap battles of the eighties. There have been some great women rappers and none more in your face than Roxanne Shante.
I retain a fondness for What’s Goin On by Mekon featuring Roxanne Shanté. Proper dance floor material.
Thanks, bob – good track. Even on my tinny headphones I can hear it would be good from a decent sound system.
https://youtu.be/qGaoXAwl9kw
This is AWESOMENESS ….
Yes it is.
I will add this hypnotic one to the mix
Not sure if this counts, but I adore this
Gary Bird – The Crown
It certainly does Jack. A great song but a bit of an oddity. It reached No 6 in the UK but got no higher than 69 in the US. It was released on Motown, and co/written by Byrd and Stevie Wonder who also performed.
The full version lasted 10.35 minutes making it one for the record books.
I wrote on here about my new found love of hip hop a short while ago. Basically, I’ve been listening almost solely to hip hop for the past 6 months or so, buying far more CDs than I could conceal from the wife’s notice and downloading dozens of mixtapes. I had a fairly basic knowledge of hip hop at the outset. I’ve always been a fan of the Beastie Boys, for example, and had a dozen or so of the most popular albums by the likes of NWA, Public Enemy, Eminem, etc, but there were giants of hip hop that I had never heard of, let lone heard any music by.
My lack of knowledge has been a good thing really, because I haven’t been influenced b what is seen as cool, and what isn’t. I’ve just meandered through it all by listening and reading, deciding what I do and don’t like long the way. I’ve used what seems to be trusted hip hop websites’ greatest artists/albums lists as guides and have ammassed a pretty impressive collection, if I may say so myself!
I’ve ammassed so much stuff so quickly that it is going to take me some time to really get to know all the music, but having recently been signed off work long-term due to the after effects of major neuro surgery 12 years ago, I have plenty of time to do just that. I have, however, quickly realised that he role of the producer is a lot more significant is rap music than in most other genres. So I have new favourite songs, artists, rappers, albums and producers. I don’t really have favourite producers in rock/pop music, even though I have been listening to it for 40 odd years. George Martin, of course, Danger Mouse I like (although he’s done his fair share of hip hop) and I love the ZTT team, but the artists are far more important than producers in that world. In hip hop, however, I have my favourite producers. Admittedly, they are the more critically acclaimed ones – Pete Rock, Madlib, RZA and especially, DJ Premier.
I have plenty of new favourite artists and albums – Nas and Illmatic (THE best hip hop album), Pete Rock & CL Smooth and their album Mecca and the Soul Brother, Notorious BIG and Ready To Die, Madvillain’s Madvillainy, A Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def’s Black On Both Sides, too many to mention really. I didn’t think my creaking old brain could learn so much at my age, as I seem to be forgetting stuff at a much quicker rate, but I know so much more about hip hop now than I did 6 months ago. My new favourites are definitely Gang Starr. I just wish I’d got into all this stuff as it was coming out (and whilst many of my new favourite acts were still alive!), because I have got into Gang Starr and Guru 6 years after he died of cancer. Many of my new favourites are long gone, usually as a result of more violent circumstances. You can’t help but wonder how much great music went to the grave because of America’s stupid gun laws. If guns were easily available here would we have seen an Oasis v Blur gun war, rather than a race to number one with two of their worst singles? Actually, I have considered taking a gun to meet members of each of those bands myself on a few occasions.
Anyway, Gang Starr are my favourite hip hop act (apart from the Beastie Boys!) and they also did my favourite hip hop song, which is what this thread is asking for. I have spent a ridiculously large amount of time trying to work out how to get the URL of youtube videos when the ipad keeps diverting me to the youtube app, but I finally cracked it, so let’s hope the link works, cos I’ve never embedded a youtube clip on here before and I’m not sure if I have followed the instructions on the FAQ correctly! If it doesn’t, the track is called Code of the Streets and it’s ruddy fab. A great lyric from a great rapper, superbly produced with a great sound by Guru and DJ Premier. What more could you ask for?
By jove, I think it worked! This means I can now join in on threads I previously haven’t been able to. So the next time we have a plagiarism thread I can show people how Led Zeppelin ripped off Ricky Nelson!
Wasn’t that Deep Purple?
This one, in fact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izsVZup02-4
No, that’s the more well known one and Roger Glover has actually admitted that the Rick Nelson riff was an inspiration for the song. Led Zeppelin have never commented on this one though (56 seconds in)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U944WwvkNmc
Ah, the “And as we wind on down the road” rundown at the end of “Stairway”. I never knew about that on, thanks!
Hope you noticed, @Paul Wad, that your previous post about hip hop, inspired this very lively thread:
Glancing at the OP, I see I got your name wrong and thought you were a David for some reason. My apologies!
Don’t worry about that. With all the medication I am taking at the moment I sometimes get my name wrong myself! In fact, I wrote the above when the medication was keeping me awake last night, but now I’m in front of my CDs I can see that I have gathered around 200 rap CDs. My wife has a point when she tells me off for sitting ordering things, now that I’m not working, but my defence is that because I am so late to the party I am picking most of it up for pennies.
I did miss off a lot of favourite albums though, such as Mobb Deep’s Hell On Earth, Company Flow’s Funcrusher Plus, Group Home’s Livin’ Proof, J Dilla’s Donuts, Eric B & Rakim’s Paid In Full, A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique and Check Your Head, Guru’s Jazzmatazz series, the Soundbombin’ 2 compilation, Common’s Resurrection and the album that non-hip hop fans are allowed to like, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly. Big Prince influence in the last one.
As you can tell, I have had a right old time exploring a genre that I have only previously dipped my toes in. Maybe one day I’ll do the same with the blues, rock music or reggae, although I very much doubt it. I really wish I’d been more into it at the time though, so I could have had the anticipation for new releases by these groups, like I did for Stephen Duffy, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp and whatnot.
If anyone is reading this and doesn’t know where to start with rap music I’d recommend the Grandmaster Flash Collection. It’s a 3CD set and isn’t a Grandmaster Flas greatest hits, as the title would suggest, but more of a rap music greatest hits. It has plenty of the more well know rap tracks on it, but also has a lot of great songs by artists that won’t be familiar to a hip hop novice like I was 6 months ago. It certainly made a great starting board for me.
I’d also recommend a book. Actually, the Hip Hop Family Tree books are also great, but Shea Serrano’s The Rap Year Book is excellent, both informative and witty. He picks his favourite rap song of each year and writes about that (with many diversions), whilst inviting a different writer to choose an alternative fom each year. Most of his choices are on the money, but it really is a good read and, again, helped give me starting points.
Unfortunately, rap music, along with most genres, seems to be beyond its golden years and most of my collection is from the 80s, 90s and early 00s. Not a great deal from the past 10 years. Although there is still some great stuff coming out, like Kendrick Lamar’s offerings, but you have to listen to a lot of rubbish to find the good stuff these days. Some of the more interesting stuff is being issued as free mixtapes.
When it’s late and I’m too tired to get myself off the sofa and up to bed, I am generally disappointed when I flick through the channels and find a hip hop selection on a music channel, as it mostly tends to be insipid nonsense aimed at an age group that should have long been tucked up in bed. Then again, if you brought a fan of the Stones and the Animals from 1964 to today and stuck an R’n’B selection on they’d be more disappointed!
I’m glad we’re on to the subject of hip hop books. I haven’t read either of those you mention, but I can recommend some others. Here’s my top five. (Note that I haven’t read the Nelson George book, which is supposed to be good.)
1. Westsiders by William Shaw
Part-novel, part-reportage, an essential account of outliers trying to make it in the rap game. Shaw’s a British journalist but he hangs around with wannabe rappers on the mean streets of LA and uses their struggles as a prism through which to look at all of hip hop. I’ve put this at number one for a good reason. (i.e. because I think it’s the best one.)
2. Have Gun Will Travel by Ronin Ro
The one most people know is a gobsmacking account of the rise of Death Row records. Really, properly, jaw-on-the-floor stuff. I don’t want to repeat any of the stories for fear that Suge Knight might come after me. Suffice to say: Vanilla Ice. Hotel-room window. That’s all I’m prepared to say.
3. Triksta by Nik Cohn
I suspect Nik Cohn read Westsiders and thought, ‘I’ll have a bit of that,’ but focused on New Orleans rap instead. What’s particularly interesting is Cohn’s wholesale rejection of rock and embracing of hip hop — to the extent that he decides to support the New Orleans scene by starting his own label.
4. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop by Jeff Chang
A somewhat simplistic but nevertheless very readable account of the genre’s roots. Tip for you: if you get it on Kindle, be warned it ends at about 70 per cent, the rest of it being an index.
5. Where You’re At by Patrick Neate
Hip hop from, like, all over the world!
Thanks for all those reading tips Paul and Poppy. On first glance, Serrano’s Yearbook and the Patrick Neate sound particularly appealing.
http://www.avclub.com/review/patrick-neate-iwhere-youre-at-notes-from-the-front-4903
The Patrick Neate is good, it really is. But don’t go neglecting Westsiders, it’s the bomb.
Can I give a shout to Patrick Neate’s novels as well? I can? Thanks!
Read Patrick Neate’s novels, everyone, they’re really good! (Especially Twelve Bar Blues!)
Great list of albums. Funcrusher Plus is definitely one of my favourite rap records of all time – if you’d not already done so, check out Fantastic Damage, the first El-P solo album.
Soundbombing 2 – brings back a lot of memories. It was pretty much the soundtrack to a very happy university summer. Not only does it have the absolutely superb Crosstown Beef on it, it also has Patriotism, which is the tune that was my gateway to Co-Flow and Def Jux Records.
I’ll search that one out. Although I proudly told the wife that the Bill Pritchard CD* that came yesterday was the last piece of my CD rack jigsaw and that absolutely, positively no more CDs would enter the house except newly released ones going forward. I may have made that promise several times before though…
*I haven’t totally given up on non-rap music. In fact, I would have liked to have seen the face of the person packing up a pile of CDs for me that I’d bought from some eBay shop or other. I think I bought 7 CDs by the likes of Public Enemy, Ice-T, 2Pac, etc, along with an album of country tinged songs that Joe Brown released in the 90s. They must have thought it was nice that some young bloke bought a load of hip hop and a nice gentle CD for his old dad. Nope, I am the old dad!
Here’s a taster.
https://g.co/kgs/FFdNht
Balls. Try again then…
Great choice (and post).
Going to add Full Clip here, just because it’s ace.
http://youtu.be/au1S0i2HFHY
Lovely post, PW, and a great tune. The ‘upbeat’ version of Lovesick is the tune I play to people who claim they don’t like hip hop. Its funkiness can’t be denied.
I think about producers a lot, as I find myself constantly reassessing what it is that I like about hip hop, much more so than any other genre of music. The two types of hip hop I tend to like best are the more old skool-sounding stuff, like Jurassic 5, Tribe, De La Soul, Gang Starr; and the really dark, doomy epic stuff you get from Muggs, RZA, Blue Sky Black Death, and Stoupe.
DJ Premier really straddles those two worlds, I think. Upthread I wondered if Prince Paul would be the producer who ‘won’ the thread, but now I think it could be Preemo.
We haven’t had many female rappers on this thread, so I’m going to break my own rule and post this classic from Jean Grae. A great story track with production from Blue Sky Black Death.
I liked that a lot.
Well…… If Poppy can break the rules, so can the rest of us!
Let’s have a few more female rappers!
Like Missy Elliott
Get your freak on
More female rappers you say KFD?
This was nearly my first choice…
Simple E ‘Play My Funk’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N2vzTsan7Q
Another great female rapper:
Azealia Banks – 212
She is great but she hasn’t at all followed through on the promise of 212, which at the time I first heard it I thought was the most exciting new hip hop tune I’d heard in years.
It’s probably Snoop Dogg’s rapped interlude on Katy Perry’s California Girls but as its not a proper whole tune by one of those rap fellas, I’ll have to go for some NWA. Title track. Kills it every time.
I had a few in mind. Considered Pause by Run DMC, Juicy by Notorious BIG, Daddy Fat Sax by Big Boi, Back Like That by Ghostface Killah and several tunes by MIA.
In the end I went for By the Time I Get to Arizona by Public Enemy. It’s a wonderful racket.
Great choice! Interesting that you like the racket because it was created without the legendary Bomb Squad.
This track gives me hope that music can change the world. The governor of Arizona, Evan Mecham, cancelled Martin Luther King Day after he was elected. In 1990, there was a public vote and the people of Arizona decided to keep it cancelled. Chuck D was incensed and wrote this tirade. The video drew criticism because it depicts violent retribution against the governor, seemingly counter to King’s peaceful approach. The ‘bad’ publicity actually helped Public Enemy’s cause. Visitors and conference goers boycotted Arizona. The 1993 Super Bowl was switched to Californa. It is estimated the state lost over $350 million.
In 1992, Public Enemy supported U2 for a gig in Arizona. They played this one song (“fucking loud”) and left the stage. The year after, Martin Luther King Day was reinstated. The 1996 Super Bowl was held there.
My running playlist this morning was inspired by this thread.
1. DJ Shadow & Roots Manuva vs UNKLE — GDMFSOB
2. Mobb Deep — G.O.D Pt III
3. Bomb The Bass feat Justin Warfield — Bugpowder Dust
4. The KLF — What Time Is Love?
5. The Notorious B.I.G — Things Done Changed
6. Underworld — Shudder/King OF Snake (live)
7. Silver Bullet — 20 Seconds To Comply
8. Snoop Dogg — Tha Shiznit
9. Nas — NY State Of Mind
10. Cypress Hill — Another Body Drops
11. House Of Pain — Jump Around
I did wonder if we were going to see Bug Powder Dust on here somewhere.
Will you all ruddy well stop it! I’ve already told the missus I won’t be buying any more CDs (albeit for the umpteenth time, but I’m going to try to stick to it this time).
I’m a massive fan of the KLF and Bill Drummond in particular, by the way. If you’re keen on them search out the Recovered and Remastered series that have been produced by a talented bunch of remixers. They’ve done some brilliant remixes and their version of the Chill Out album is nothing short of fantastic. They had to release the last few under the counter, or whatever the interweb version of under the counter is, due to record company pressure, but I’m lucky enough to have collected them all and it’s a great project. With 2017 coming up, it will be interesting to see if they stick to their pledge of not releasing anything for 25 years, because there’s a goldmine of stuff ripe for special editions.
On another note, a mate of mine recently returned from a long spell of living in Australia and he gave me a memory stick full of Aussie hip hop. I haven’t had time to give it too much attention as yet, but on first listen it’s a mixed bunch, some of it terrible, some of it very good. Wierd listening to skits with Aussie accents though. I’m not fond of the skits on rap albums anyway, as I don’t really find that hearing somebody simulating sex adds much to the music!
What is interesting about it though, is that one of the bands rap with a South London accent, rather than assuming American accents. I guess they’re more influenced by stuff like Roots Manuva then.
Oh Tha Shiznit is a TUNE. Freestyled in one take by a very caned Mr Dogg. It’s so great.
Bending the rules a little further, my favourite bit of guest rapping on someone else’s track is Nicki Minaj’s spot on this from a Lil Wanye mixtape. “That’s orl, fokes!” Ace.
This.
I dont kowhow to post direct links now. Perhaps someone else can help? Here is Public Enemy, with Black Steel in the hour of chaos. Genius.
Great choice.
The most exciting vibrant record since Anarchy in the UK. Gamechanger.
I think this thread has been a bit of a game changer too. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think there was really a place for rap music in The Word magazine.
But on this site there certainly is.
Along of course with jazz, prog, reggae, folk, psychedelia, soul, punk, blues, latin, country, classical, early music, pop and Albanian bagpipes.
Yes, brilliant. “Blacks Steel” was sort of my joint first choice, along with “Welcome to the Terrordome”.
For me it has to be this one from Paul’s Boutique. Monstrously funky production from the Dust Brothers with the B-Boys busting routines and rhymes all night….
Shake Your Rump-aaaaahhh!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcy-MmpTkek
Superb shout. For me, on PB, I always come back to The Sound Of Science just because of its frenetic good humoured ass-shakiness. But Shake Your Rump (AH!) is such a great tune.
He is a bellend of the highest order, but I love this tune..when he started out, he was a breath of fresh air.
Kanye West – Gone
Loads of potential choices gone by this stage (interesting nobody’s picked any Run DMC yet though) so I’ll go for this from what’s left.
(“Know How” – Young MC)