Friday, June 20, 2008
The Lesson: Flow
Aiight. I'm fed up with the bull. These kids just dont get it. Hell, half of these grown cats got brainwashed and straight forgot. I just can't get with lil wayne being this generations G.O.A.T. Please tell me theres a recount. I know Jeb got something to do with this. Lets face it. These new rap kids need to step their game up. I mean... back in the day, you had to have skills just to touch the mic. Even the dude that wraped up the mic cord and placed it in the travel case had skills. Shit, Pac was a damn roadie/back up dancer. You just cant be jumping on the mic all willy nilly. These kids need to step it up. Matta fact. They dont need to step it up. They can just leave. Get the hell out!! Turn in your mic and leave your hip-hop hall pass and get out!
Excuse me for the rant, but this shit is just retarded. So I'm gonna have to hand out a few lessons. This may be a refresher course for some of you.
First lesson: Flow
The basic definition of flow is an emcee's delivery. Or how well he/she rides the beat. Flows vary. Fast, slow, simple, complex. Some flows have a certain rhythm to it. To make it simple... A good flow should make you feel like you could listen to this cat rhyme all day. It shouldn't sound like some drug induced haze. Or just some nigga talkin. So heres some examples of some really great flows. Keep in mind, there are a lot of songs i left out. But this should get your mind working again.
Da Two // Pete Rock and CL Smooth
CL jumps in and is just so..... well, smooth with it. This is the cat that you can have rap at your wedding. He really is the best thats ever done it on a pete rock track.
Braggin writes // J-Live
J-Live is witty, intelligent, and rhymes while cutting the track up on the truntables.
Close Edge // Mos Def
This is what I'm talking about here. I absolutely love this song. I could listen to Mos for days.
Rhymes like dimes // MF Doom
Doom got one of them styles. Complex but not too complex. The type of cat where you catch something different in his songs each time you listen to it.
I saved these 2 for last. Common and Black Thought both put out some "no hook" tracks. Just straight up lyrics that will leave you wondering if they even stopped to breath.
Hungry // Common
75 Bars // The Roots
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4 comments:
Great post. I was just referencing J-Live the other day. He's an MC's MC. I don't blame the youth as much as I do the record companies. They're not giving them a choice. And since that's been happening for years, the kids grow up with no form of reference. Old to them is Biggie's READY TO DIE! With the fall of the music industry, I hope the youth are forced to seek out better music.
actually, i kinda did some math. i work with this kid thats 22. kid told me that there was nobody on this planet that was better than wayne. blew my mind. so, i did some math. you figure the average person starts paying attention to music around 10 or 11 years old. so that means that old school for these kids is around '97 or '98. right smack dab in the middle of puffy/mase shiny suit era. thats around the time most of us pulled the plug on the radio and went straight to the cd's or vinyl that you got at the mom and pop shops. we already lost yo! mtv raps. viacom bought bet and kicked big lez and joe clair off of rap city. Hits from the streets.... what the fuck was that shit about??? BG introduced the phrase "bling-bling". Tribe broke up. our youth had no chance. i just saw that "10 hottest MC's of today" show on mtv that they was talking about on hip hop digest a while back. man, somebody actually argued that lyrically, wayne was hotter than kanye.....lyrically......... are you serious??!? have people really started to drink the kool-aid?? or am I just a hater?
the children better listen and stop drinking that damn cool aid lol......i tried to listen to his cd just wanted to see what all of the HYPE was about and just to make sure i wasn't too harsh on the stinky lookin dude but i was right he's not an MC hell i can't really say he's a rapper....go figure
i'm glad you included Close Edge is an example. Mos is a beast on that. the way he rides the beat (especially during the chorus) never ever gets old.
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