hip-hop is an appropriation-heavy genre and is sometimes defined mostly/entirely by what specifically it appropriates.
The jazz rap label is just one of the more obvious examples. Something like "cloud rap" is largely just people riffing on psychadelic ambient music (there are a lot of Boards of Canada samples I've heard in rap beats in recent years).
At its best its experimental and interesting and at its worst its cannibalistic. It's kind of a problem unique to the genre, imo.
anyhoo i have listened to like three eminem songs in my lifetime i think
I don't like Eminem as much as most people seem to but I think he's pretty good at what he does (which is mostly rapping quickly and stacking syllables on top of each other in interesting ways) and his most recent album is a decent pop-rap record even if some of the more left-field stuff falls flat.
Meat Loaf and Queen do songs about similar subjects, but with Meat Loaf I get the feeling he actually felt the emotion he's talking about at some point, whereas I can never tell with Queen.
I like Meat Loaf better, in case you couldn't tell.
Queen is like, halfway between Supertramp and Meat Loaf and I like both better than Queen.
Bohemian Rhapsody is untouchable though.
/random music thoughts from Odradek that are one page late.
anyhoo i have listened to like three eminem songs in my lifetime i think
I don't like Eminem as much as most people seem to but I think he's pretty good at what he does (which is mostly rapping quickly and stacking syllables on top of each other in interesting ways) and his most recent album is a decent pop-rap record even if some of the more left-field stuff falls flat.
Same basic feeling here. He has talent, but that doesn't mean I love his work.
Comments
The jazz rap label is just one of the more obvious examples. Something like "cloud rap" is largely just people riffing on psychadelic ambient music (there are a lot of Boards of Canada samples I've heard in rap beats in recent years).
At its best its experimental and interesting and at its worst its cannibalistic. It's kind of a problem unique to the genre, imo.