by EminemBase » Oct 11th, '12, 12:00
Not bad, although half way through I was struck with the thought that... rap feels like it's lost, losing or at least struggling to reconnect with its gritty creativity...
When I think of some of the top-tier underground shit of the 90s, so much of it had a weird, thrilling edge to it, you couldn't define it so simply and its sound was unique (Outsidaz)...
Where as now, I rarely hear a beat which doesn't sound like the last beat, the music seems less thrilling and songs seem to tend to be more simplistic in tone and aims now; like they'll either be 'emotional' / introspective, 'hard' (guns, bitches, fuck life) or punchline-driven...
I also think one of the main-differences is self-deprecation. The best rappers to me don't brag, they insult themselves, they make being a creepy, loser asshole sound cool (Em, Redman)... and I feel a lot cool rappers of the late 90s did that. Where as now, everything seems so self-serious, even when rappers are a little silly they still wanna remind you how rich or hard they are, yawn.
I think they're too connected and care too much about public perception, I wish it was looser again.
I wanna hear some spazzy funky shit like "The Last Hit" (gonna go listen to that now!).