never denied ifluence of illmatic, IN 1999 maybe! Not now. No up and coming rapper gives a flying fuck about NAS or Biggie or TuPac. that shit is their grandma's hip hop. have you guys forgotten what it is like to be 19 and making new shit? KILL YR IDOLS> fuck 2pac and biggie and M&M. fuck them HARD. the young cats are making new shit drawing on TODAY not twenty year old "classic dad rap"

I don;t know who this Bon Iver you refer to is.

Van Gogh was definitely NOT a genius. he was a decent idiosyncratic painter who shot every chance he had in the foot because of mental ilness, causing him to die impoverished.


BTW, before I started frequenting this thread I had not been up to date on modern hip hip in years and years. I thank all of you or turning me onto much of the shit I listed above.

BTW, NAS Illmatic was actually a DERIVATIVE album, with all his good ideas stolen from and by Prince Paul. whatyougottasayaboutthat??????? boring fucking album. always thought it was boring. Now, BLack Star? shit son, I spin that all day!!!!!

I was just listing what I listen to. not referring to Kanye.

Are you being sarcastic like what's his tits up there? If not, I apologize, and you're right. Even before I liked Kanye I believed that to be true. And for a while I was just like Rob. I just thought he was a pussy and an opportunist, but by the time his third consecutive album received unanimous praise from everyone who's opinion mattered, I had to admit that whatever he was doing, he was basically forging modern pop culture.

Wow. Chance is low. What happened there?

Sure, up and coming rappers are too busy emulating Kanye (who took more than a few cues from Illmatic) to give a shit about Nas.

Educate yourself.

No sarcasm.

Kanye may be forging modern white boy middle-upper class culture, sure, I will grant that, but so is Beyonce, Drake, and now J. Cole. modern white boy middle-upper class culture is never groundbreaking. It is watered down shit son. you know this!

I am spinning the last three Kanye albums though. will get back to you on assessment.

is Bon Iver the ex-singer for Fleet Foxes?

Look out dude! Your ass is leaking words.


You're welcome, but frankly by insisting on taking a superficial, trivial stance on Kanye, you're missing out on stuff that's worlds better than anything in your current rotation.


It wasn't supposed to be a "Sgt. Pepper" and nobody thinks it is. Illmatic wasn't breaking new ground for rap as much as it was upping the ante for what rap could be at the time. It's a distillation of NYC sounds. All of hip-hop is a bit of a scrapbooking project. Pieces cut from past and present to provide a guidebook for the future. Illmatic is the most New York City album of the era, and it helped steer the world away from amusical gangsta rap (which, let's be honest, was the hair metal of hip-hop, even if some good things came from it.)

Anyway, whatever.

never mind. fuck that Bon Iver shit. jesus fuck that's some soft ass bullshit . I almost BARFED.

Spin Yeezus (you like Travi$), MBDTF and Watch the Throne. Try to come at it from a non Kanye-loathing perspective. If you listen to it thinking about how much you hate him, you're just going to confirm your own bias.

Listen for production, allow his personality to shine through a bit. Let it in. One of the most common things I hear from Kanye fans is that they love the personality he brings to his music. When he says he's rocking a "Chewbacca" Star Wars fur, don't get all haughty and high-art snobby about how he's using a low-culture reference. Just be open to it.

I totally understand how anyone, myself included, could watch Kanye or read about Kanye and just hate the fuck out of him based on that. But I cannot grasp how anyone with even a cursory appreciation for hip-hop (or any kind of music really) could listen to Kanye highlights without being impressed, and immediately recognizng that he's in his own class.

"22 (Over S∞∞N)" is one of my favorite tracks of the year. I know he's soft, and he sounds like fucking indie Coldplay a lot of the time, but the first half of 22, a million is full of some really fascinating production and sweet chopped up chipmunk sampling.

His best work has been with Kanye. "Hold my Liquor" etc.

Am I to understand that not you know neither Justin Vernon nor Father John Misty? No shame in that really, I guess. Father John Misty (Fleet Foxes' past drummer, went solo and got big in 2015)I swear overrated and makes me want to hear Jim O'Rourke.

But Jesus man, you must actually put considerable effort into not paying attention to music.

Bon Iver is awful but no, Kanye has made the most interesting and creative music of this century so far. Sorry you ain't feelin' it Rob.

Yeah, Bob Iver is, in general, quite quite bad. But I still really like the first half of the new album, probably because it sounds more like a Kanye record than a Bon Iver one.

I refuse to say the name "correctly" because I will not make an ass of myself in that way. I say it like Bob Jovi... "Ivor" like "ivory." Fuck that nonsense.

I do like his vocals on Kanye tracks though. :)

Look how influential Kanye is to the young black and hispanic kids coming up in the hood and trying to make a career in entertainment. http://abc7.com/entertainment/kanye-...-york/1653734/

;)

Like I said, I am rolling through the last three Kanye albums to give it another "fair shake"

"I wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues.

These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago.

I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future President if we truly want change."

Honestly.. at this point I find myself bumping individual songs off the project, mostly those with features, but never the entire thing anymore. I guess a part of me wishes it was more hip hop and less Churchy, if you know what I mean.

The first 2 mins and a half of "How Great" (which is, by the way.. if I ignore that part of the song.. my favorite song on the mixtape. Thank you Jay Elect for my favorite verse of 2016) for example are way too much.

The gospel elements on Coloring Book are too "in your face" sometimes. I wish they were subtle, like they're on D'Angelo albums, Common's Be, and yes.. TLOP.