This year's Swagga Like Us
 

A track by Drake, Lil Wayne, Eminem & Kanye West drops Friday, its called forever. Yes, all of them, on one track. I expect it to be nothing short of classic.

what ?

hmmm. Interesting. Semi-related. I think Drake's "Best I Ever Had" is my track of the year, although most of the rest of his mixtape was a letdown to me.

Yeah, Drake is gonna be the next big thing. He came out at the LIl Wayne show in Houston, only show other than Toronto he's doing it for due to his injury. Mannie Fresh also made an appearance, as did Birdman

Do you find it weird that people who grew up listening to the Beatles, The Stones, Black Sabbath, The Who, The Kinks and all those other classic 60s bands when it came to the 80s they were all listening to Phil Collins, Simple Minds, Level 42, and all this other high production value/low content bullshit?

So I heard the track this morning. The beat is a real let down. You have these four rhyming on something as just-okay as that?? I mean, the first time I heard "Swagger Like Us" for instance, the beat was like "Woah."

This actually excites me.


Help.

I need to hear it again. Didn't blow me away on first listen.

i hated swagger like us, and i have a feeling that anything featuring drake will be no different

brooklyn goes hard was so much better than swagger like us,i have no idea why it wasn't really that big

"Swagger" was great. The beat was great. Every verse was great.

75% of the time I'm listening to hip hop.

I have never been able to get into any of these guys though.

just can't get into that crunk shit. I don't want to say that it's "too pop" (but I don't know what else to call it). am I doin' it wrong?

I'm not going to spend money to try to change my mind, but next time one of y'all make a mix, feel free to upload it and send me a link. I'm stubborn, but somewhat open-minded.

I dont like crunk either. That was separate from this right? Cuz none of these guys are crunk.

I have no idea what these guys are called. if they carry around a large diamond studded pimp cup, I call 'em crunk.

dunno...I'm clueless other than "I don't really like them that much". Kanye's good at beats though.

edit: I just tried to find a picture of Lil' Wayne with a pimp cup and it's ALWAYS styrofoam. doesn't matter. I'm calling him crunk too. crunk rhymes with junk. again, I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

edit edit: I was obviously thinking of Lil' Jon. fuck it. billy dee williams, y'all.

wayne,kanye and eminem are good a small of portion of the time

yeah yr thinking of Lil Jon. Lil Wayne is not Crunk by any means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHVCQc6cbSw

new wu,better

yeah, i don't get that shit either, i've been listening to hiphop for almost 20 years and the newish generation of stuff just mystifies me, what i hear are wack rappers, predictable subject matter & corny catchphrases, and flashy expensive production, etc. the only good examples of this stuff i've heard are on DJ Shadow's Funky Skunk mixtape, which you can probably find to download quite easily.
whenever i try to get people to explain what they like about this they just get defensive and don't point out what it is they find enjoyable to listen to and why.

I'm not defensive. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I dont' know. I've been listening to hip hop 20odd yrs as well. It's hard to explain but I like a lot of newer stuff as well.

Jay-Z, Kanye, etc I like as sort of a throwback to Biggie, Big L, etc era. Same way that The Game is like a great throwback to 2Pac for me.

South Music (Lil Wayne, TI, Young Jeezy, etc etc etc) I love becuz it's very pure to me. The speak in their natural regional dialect. They use simple drum beats. The use simple major-chord keyboard melodies. It's a sort of non-fancy minimalist approach to music making that reminds me of (dare I say it?) punk.

As far as this "crunk music" thing... or the so-called Hyphy Music or whatever, that's South Bay, CA scene. I've never really been exposed to it. I've checked out a few things, but I don't really get it. But who knows. Maybe one day it'll click and I'll like it. I used to hate Southern Hip Hop until one day it just made sense to me.

Punk sux

thanks. Yr really adding to the conversation.