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I'm posting this here because I see this happening here.

I know I'm new and all, but one thing I've noticed already is that as soon as someone asks about rap music, the reply might as well be "Rap isn't music, get a gold plated bucket and some string to record it"

Forget that rap is the hottest selling music genre for the past few years, or that it's a multimillion dollar industry. It's still a valid expression of someone's art and emotion.

I don't like rap either, but if a client wanted to record some with me, I would approach it with the same enthusiasm as any other project. And when someone comes here looking for some help and advice regarding their art, it's a pretty crappy thing to make jokes about it.

I know a lot of it is said "in jest" but the last few threads regarding it have had the first replies be "Throw up something gold-plated" or "throw up a 57" which, if someone said that about recording anything else, wouldn't be "funny".

Look at the production in rap, there's a lot to learn there, especially about sampling, orchestration and such. I'd kill to sit in on a session with Dr. Dre or Kanye West.

Not trying to offend anyone, just a bit irritated by this.

/rant

Comments

anonymous Tue, 04/12/2005 - 16:00

I am a lover of all music, or, at the very least an "appreciater" of it all.

im riding my "later" 20s now, and I can say hip-hop was my first love in music back in the day (early to mid 80s)

I find myself now, in a rock band, with a deep love for recording music. I have never worked on hip hop in a studio session. I cant say I would be thrilled to to be honest.

And im sure i would sound like an old-geezer, but modern hip hop/rap is simply horrendous and almost unbearable to listen to. My tastes havnt changed, since I could pop in some early BDP, Cool Herc, Bambatta, Furious Five, or hell, even the first Fat Boys album (;)), and love it still to this day.
the stuff nowadays is silly to me. lyrically weak, recylcled beats, synthetic sounding, and filled with pretentious and superficial subject matter. I could care less.

Would I sit in with Dre for a session? you damned right I would...but is he new school? I wouldnt say so. He's old school, and one of the only reasons the art form still exists. As soon as snoop left, he turned into a corny idiot IMHO.

art form? absolutely. worth expressing? sure, who am I to censor?! any good? haha...nope!

this is all IMhumblestO.

McCheese Tue, 04/12/2005 - 16:23

overlookfran wrote: and why is this in this forum anyway?

Because I see it occuring in here mostly, like I said on the first line
:wink:

And the issue wasn't whether or not anyone is old/new school or even if anyone likes rap, it was that when someone says they want to record rap and would like some advice on some gear for it, the usual line they get is "Something gold and diamond plated" or "Hell, it's rap just throw out a 57" which is a pretty crappy response.

anonymous Tue, 04/12/2005 - 17:04

I totally agree with you about the comments. THere are plenty of stupid stereo types I could throw out about people asking questions about recording country or metal music. Those genres haven't had NEARLY the creativity enigineering-wise that hip hop has gien to the music world. For example, Amon Tobin, (not really hip hop, but part of the electronic genre that hip hop started), scores entire orchestras, then chops and resamples and sequences the whole thing.

I hate to say it, but I notice a lot of these jokes coming from forum moderators themselves, and it's kind of funny, because many of the biggest hip hop producers use great gear and engineer very well. For example Pete Rock is said to favor Amek boards for mixdown, rafael saadiq has TONS of great gear including an SSL, la2as, 1176s, neve's etc.

Pisses me off as well to be honest, because even though people pretend to be kidding...there's still a little sincerity behind their comments.

anonymous Tue, 04/12/2005 - 17:32

Most people would view me as a metal head before they got to know me. I wear all black and band t shirts, and my hair is getting pretty long. The one thing that gets me more then anything is how someone can be so narrow minded to music. Even though metal is my favorite preference, it's really not all that much included in my day to day listening.

Metal, "slower stuff", Punk, Jazz, Rap, Techno, Country. Thats the kind of music I listen to. I'll even go ahead and list some of my favorites from each genre:

Metal - Dream Theater, Blind Guardian, Symphony X, Yngwie Malmsteen, Iron Maiden, lots of 80's stuff etc etc.

"slower stuff" - Elliot Smith, Coldplay, godspeed you black emperor, low, beulah, etc etc

Punk - Anti Flag, NOFX, AFI...

Jazz - John Coltraneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Rap - Bone thugs, Too short, Easy E..

Techno - ehhhh Daft Punk but its just techno so whatever someone has i enjoy it.

Country - Clint Black - Like the rain...one of my favorites i must say.

Yeah though I can't listen to one genre of music, thats just ridiculous I don't know how anyone can. I'm constantly switching. Some of the old rap i'll listen to from time to time has real drums, bass, guitar and keyboards in it, which I love.

AudioGaff Tue, 04/12/2005 - 18:58

-Being a mod doens't mean we have to walk some fine line in being afraid to offend someone or a musical style. We are allowed to say we want. Don't like it? Too bad. Lot's of comments I have sift through that I don't like as well. That's how the world works. If the comments being made by anyone bugs other people that much, they can go away and join someplace else that caters to their own kind.

And for those that think that just because RAP or anything else sells more or has more #1 hits than any other musical style at this point in time is a measue of sound quality, those people have much to learn. Providing that they are even capable of learning when they don't seem to understand that simple basic fact.

And anybody that has any experience using a sm57, knows that it is a mic that can be used with great sucess in ANY application. And that's no joke...

Since this post is not gear related, I'm closing it down.

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