U need to read rap is dead not only in the east but the gay azz midwest when NELLY came out and u got weak moneys like lil john yelling all the time I think the south is fading out to.  These clown rappers claim to be the KING like TI who told him he the king??? Well u know that the rap game is all sold out and back in the day we shot hammer for it and look happen selling out is cool because when u got 106 park, TRL and the local radio play the same lame sh*t to death people got no choice but to like it. I just listen to OSL and my own mixes I let the Rap and some R&B go the only new music I will listen is New Soul because they can sing it is not all about looking like Beyonce and can not sing a lick.  And the sad thing is that images sell not talent and please let american idol dye!!!!!!!!!!!!!

will buy the old school hip hop classics in a sec... the new school.. will always be free to rip... woudlnt buy a vowel if i was on wheel of fortune...no doubt lol

Jesus christ are you kidding me with this tripe?  Old school hip hop is great, but lyrically most everything produced before about 1991-92 is just elementary.  Rakim, Kane, a couple cats were really nice with the verbs, but dudes now have far more complex lyricism. 

This is what kills me with some "old school" rap fans.  They act like cause it's old and has a gritty beat that it's better than high production values and complex rhymes.  Beanie Siegel would annihilate ANY old school rapper.  It just so happens he's over 30 so he's technically old school himself, but don't act like everything old is the best.  There was a LOT of simplistic junk back then. 

oh, my.

Dream on, Mr. anonymous.......

Beanie's got a few tough jams, but that shit definately ain't my music of choice. All his shit sounds like everyone else's shit these days, man. Nobody's got any F'n style no more. It's like peeps are biting hard off one another... Even De La's newer stuff started to go that route. It's sickening.

YO! get real man, to listen to these NEW kats  now days is disrespecting yourself,as well as HIP- HOP. DO YOURSELF A Favor go play some real old school, (COLD CRUSH BROTHERS, FUNK FOUR PLUS ONE,etc.) then some new stuff - that you realy don't understand what the HELL they're saying, and give us (old school) our respect. PEACE; you do know what that mean, my bad you must be from the new school.

-- Edited by richdogg1 at 15:52, 2006-03-07

YOU JUST DON'T GET IT

there's realy nothing to explain except that it's all in the style and it is all the same to me.

***Standing Ovation***

Mac: by the way... Born, raised, and currenly living in DC... Yea, surf's up.

-- Edited by ghosT at 00:12, 2006-03-10

Ghost, I'll use a term I know you're familiar with, you a bama, straight up bama.  Better?  You should be more concerned with Junkyard and Essence classic PA's than old school hip hop. 

Odyssey I feel you on some of what you're saying, I  really do.  I also see old school as pre-run DMC to be honest.  But as we all get older, old school becomes newer, it's a fact of life unfortunately.  Ooh, you know crips, I'm sooo scared. 

We can separate the culture(way of life) from the music just for the sake of this paragraph.  As far as the music itself is concerned, the production values are VERY VERY important.  This is why we have sampling and advanced mixers, because people realized that standard drum machine tracks are  boring and simplistic.  Also the simplistic monosyllabic raps are outmoded and no longer popular and haven't been for 20 years or more. 

As far as old school culture, I still retain some of that, but people who get stuck in some mode that's outdated and can't update are just morons to me.  There's a reason fashion changes, there's a reason music changes, it's called modernization, keeping up with the times.  Yeah I like to hear old ass music from my youth, I love to see videos of that time, but it's called history, and if you try to relive the history every day of your life you're just behind the times, a relic. 

Now, what you felt when you watched that video isn't described as old school, it's described as nostalgic glee.  All of us when we see things that remind us of a great time in our life feel that way.  Those of us who live for recalling the past are just afraid to step into today, and tomorrow.  I lived hip hop in the early 80's all the way through the late 90's and into today.  But I don't get stuck in some time warp like the only thing that was ever good occurred in a 5-10 year span 25 years ago when I was growing up. 

You remind me of the old school used up rocker guys you see around.  The guys who have a mullet and wear tight jeans with a fringe leather jacket cause that's what they wore in high school in 1971.  The guys who can't get with the times and think that their particular form of music and fashion is the greatest ever. 

Yeah yeah, back then you lived hip hop, now you don't.  This is just more of the same "it was better when I was a young'n" talk.  Why don't you tell us how you had to walk uphill 5 miles in the snow to go to school and how us whippersnappers have it so easy.  More people live hip hop now than ever have.  Even the fake suburban white boys I rail against live hip hop to a certain extent.  But since they aren't breakin and wearing kangols they can't be as hip hop as you are right?  It's laughable. 

Rakim is better for these reasons :  More extensive vocabulary, more complex rhymes, more erudite and dynamic selection of topics, better flow, better voice, better ability to rap to any beat, his breaks are as complex and dynamic as his verses, sometimes moreseo.  Please don't make me further elucidate Rakim's towering presence in the early hip hop world. 

Live shows : I saw Beanie 2 years ago, I saw Nas 2 years ago, I saw the Roots twice last summer.  In the late 80's I saw most everyone, Lords of the underground, Ra, Kane, King Sun, lots of cats.  If you really think that a hip hop show was better in the 80s compared to today you're smoking some boat.  The production values alone make today's shows infinitely better than yesteryear.  The only exception for me was Ra who was as transcendant 15-17 years ago as he is today. 

 

I feel your hatred of how watered down the culture has become, I feel you on how much more real cats were back in the day, but that alone doesn't make "old school" this superlative juggernaut you're describing.  You aren't the only one who lived through it, try stepping into the present, or at least the 90's.  Maybe you could go one decade at a time if you can't modernize that quickly. 

Damn. I don't came around for a couple days, and I miss all the action.

Well, I'm going to put it like this:

Both sides made good points. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion, so there's no need for all the disrespect between one another just because we all can't agree.

I think we can all chalk this one up as "to each their own".

Alright, after this, I'm done.....

Let me start by awarding triple word scores to anonymous for eurodite and elucidate..

Next, let me apologize for "scaring" you with my references to crips. I don't just know crips, back in the day I WAS a crip. was. (see, contrary to your last post I AM able to move on with my life) I only brought up ganbanging to counter your statement using the term "dude" somehow wasn't "street".

But seriously though, I DO apologise if you took anything that I posted as a diss, because it wasn't. You have your opinion, and I have mine...Like the man said, opinions are like butt-holes; everybody has one, and most of them stink.....

Now, regarding my reminding you of ANYTHING, dude, you don't even know me, so how can you begin to judge me? The reason that you are catching so much static on this site is that you seem know everything, and some people are liable to take some of what you say personally.

How can you say that just because I love old school hip-hop, I'm stuck in a time warp? Did I say that I dislike modern rap? What about the rest of the people on this site? Are we all washed up losers? If so, why are YOU on this site? See, hip-hop is about creativity and inspiration, while modern rap is about bandwagonism(my word) and exploitation...Instead of coming on this website and hating, why don't you start up your own?

As far as production values,Rakim and live shows go-Dude(there;s that word again) I make my living in tha audio world, so I think that I might know a lil' sum-sum about what goes on...Case in point #1-Do you realize that Nelly's D.J. doesn't use turntables? Sure, he has some 1200's on stage, but he doesn't use 'em. He uses the same machine that they use on sports video trucks, it has like 32 touch pads (like an MPC) and each pad has a song assigned to it (actually, I was impressed, from an engineering standpoint, yet dissapointed from a "fan" standpoint) #2 during the soundcheck for his AOL rocks! concert, after the first song, Lil' Jon said "Dude"(j.k.) No, really, he said "do you guys need to hear the rest of the songs, I mean, they pretty much all sound like this one". And he was dead serious...#3. Why is it that you can buy "modern software" that will introduce "that vinyl sound" to modern masterpieces, and why does all sampling software (or hardware, for that matter) STILL have that CLASSIC 808 and 909 patch? Hmmmmmmmm.....Last, but not least, EVERYBODY (yes, even the great Rakim) raps over a recording of the vocal track. Back when I was a youngin' we used to uprock 5 miles through gang infested streets(and blzzards, tornadoes and floods) just to hear some M.C. actually spit a rhyme live....

Once again, I'm not saying that this newfangled, sophisticated sonically superb rap sucks...I'm just saying that I don't FEEL IT...My son will be going to college next year(pre law, full acedemic scholorship-that's m'boy) And I have been fighting the good fight to keep him out of ginormous clothes and tattoo free. See, he want's to wear that stuff because all his friends do (just like I did) The only problem is when I was in high school, we straight looked ridiculous(flips of hollywood shirts, "flooding" levi 501's, crayon shoes) while nowadays everybody want's to look "thugged out". Would my son have done so well on his weekend visit to the campus if he had tattoos and a mouthful of gold teeth(or platinum?) Now, there's nothing wrong with that gear, exept that society views people that rock that gear in a certain manner, and even if you are merely being fashionable, if you dress that way, then you will be judged.That's what I meant in my reference to cazzeles, kangols and the like. Back then, a B-Boy was a B-Boy.  Period.

I haven't worn Lee's for like 20 years, and I can't remember the last time I wore a Kangol, but no matter WHERE I am, if I hear "it's just begun" I WILL uprock........

Lyrical skills/styles, etc. Back in the day, hip-hop was about a party...M.c.'s rocked the party, hence, lyrics were about partying....Simple....Soon m.C.'s stareted to give way to rappers (t-la rock, Kool Moe Dee, etc) and the rhymes were about skills...Next came the golden era (my favorite time) of, yep, like you said, 84-89 when we had gangsters(nwa) pranksters(fresh prince, biz, etc) positive rappers, black knowledge rappers M.C. Hammer and.....Vanilla Ice (DON'T FRONT, ICE, ICE BABY WAS DOPE)After that I for one became kinda bored with the whole thing after Biggie/Tupac...It all became about who could say the most insane, crazy thugged out braggidocio, and people actually died behind it.

You missed the whole point of my wild style analogy.Too bad, if you don't get it, I can't give it to you...

I'll end with this; Remember cyndi Lauper? Duran Duran? Remember "new wave" If you go down to a record store, there is no "new wave" section (exept maybe at record & tape traders) Why? Because after a couple of years of exploitation, "new wave became POPular MUSIC, just like HIP-HOP has become rap.

Dude, lighten up and enjoy the tunes on this site. Go to the game area and play astroids....Of course, you can't get on the high score board 'cuz I got it on LOCK!!!!

PEACE.......

 

Comic Releif

I live in Kansas City now but I grew up in the Bronx. I know old school hip hop because I was there from the start in the 70's. This crap right now is not old school. Old school was about LYRICS. Back in the day you would remember a song word for word because what the artist said was clever, flowed and MADE SENSE. With todays rap I am willing to bet that all you can remember is the often repeated chorus and beat. There are a few exceptions of course (like Jay-Z but he grew up in the old school). The further hip hop strayed from the north-east coast, the more watered down it got. Yeah, there are catchy toons out there but it's all hip-POP.