Why I love hip-hop

[fatcat]

[youtube=425,350]oJDO-NyNIKc[/youtube]

"the rich get richer and the poor get poorer"

What could be tired typical socialist ranting, turns out to be an intelligent reversal of the saying, to celebrate independence, self reliance and making money

The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer
And in the final hour many heads will lose power
What does the rich versus the poor really mean?
Psychologically it means you got to pick your team

Let go, it's not a novelty
You could love your neighborhood without loving poverty

When someone says the rich gets richer
Visualize wealth and put yourselves in the picture
The rich get richer, 'cause they work towards rich
The poor get poorer, 'cause their minds can't switch from the ghetto

But first you and I got to unify
Stop the negativity and control our creativity
The rich is getting richer, so why we ain't richer?

Could it be we still thinking like niggers?
Educate yourselves, make your world view bigger
Visualize wealth and put yourselves in the picture

[patrickj]

krs one is one of the more libertarian hip hop artists for sure

to name a few others mos def, talib kweli, del tha funkee homosapien


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-vdKiGJM9M

this song has pretty good lyrics

[Ecolitan]

The rich is getting richer, so why we ain't richer?

Yeah..  We should ALL have cell phones and microwave ovens and fast internet by now 

[fatcat]

The rich is getting richer, so why we ain't richer?

Yeah..  We should ALL have cell phones and microwave ovens and fast internet by now 

Did you actually listen to the rest of it? It was a rhetorical question. The next lines where "Could it be we still thinking like niggers? Educate yourselves, make your world view bigger. Visualize wealth and put yourselves in the picture"

The whole point was that "The rich get richer, 'cause they work towards rich", and that you shouldn't abdicate personal  responsibility for you personal circumstances, and that specifically black people shouldn't use external excuses (racism/slavery) for why they aren't well off.

[hellbilly]

I didn't listen, but I like the lyrics.

[CaL DaVe]

Everything about that clip was Bomb. The beatbox, the flow, and the lyrics...I wish I had skills like that.

Thanks for posting Mr. Cat.

[LordMarius]

This is from one of my favorite albums, I Got Next, and also one of my favorite things to quote when i discuss liberty with others. They never see it coming. It's so damn empowering. It doesn't make it any worse by these fantastic words sliding over to one of the best beats I've ever head on "The MC" wich is the next track on the album. I still shout "THE MC! every time someone asks "Who am I?" in a movie or whatever. God, I love that album!

[hellbilly]

Maruis.. I.. I never would have thought you were into this sort of thing... !

 

[LordMarius]

Maruis.. I.. I never would have thought you were into this sort of thing... !

 

And I would never have thought that any ignorant Amerian bastard would ever have heard of Royston Vasey

[Dylboz]

The rich is getting richer, so why we ain't richer?

Yeah..  We should ALL have cell phones and microwave ovens and fast internet by now 

FAIL

[anarchir]

I didn't listen, but I like the lyrics.

Ditto.

[jeffersonish]

I generally don't care for hip hop and the appeal of this musically for me was low, but the lyrics rock. (pun intended)

Generally there has to be something interesting going on musically which includes an interesting vocal pattern. Just because the words are compelling isn't enough for me to add it to my iPod. Examples that ARE on my iPod are...

  My Projects - Coo Coo Cal (it was on THE ANIMAL soundtrack that I picked up cheap)
  Stan - Eminem + Dido
  Walk This Way - RunDMC + Aerosmith
  Can I Get a Flicc Witchu - Snoop Dog + Bootsy Collins
  Where is The Love? - The Black Eyed Peas
  Mr. President - LL Cool J, featuring Wyclef Jean
  Waterfalls - TLC  (listed as R&B/Soul)

Based on these, anyone who wants to suggest others I might like would be appreciated.
 

[patrickj]

I would question whether or not some of those artists are actually hip hop or not, but i think if i recommended some artists that were hip hop, many you wouldn't like.  In hip hop, sometimes artists will use a looped track without much musical variation as a means of showing off their lyrical ability.  In this sense, your kinda screwed.

Heres a few, i'll try to choose lyrically and musically interesting ones. Hope my choices don't scare you away from the genre, they are sort of the deep end of the pool in comparison to the artists you chose. 

Artist/Song



Gravediggaz - Diary of a Madman - Subgenre Horrorcore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE-5Q_xyiwo
[youtube=425,350]gE-5Q_xyiwo[/youtube]

Horrorcore is hip hop, but kind of has a "dark" side to it.  Horrorcore artists aren't very common, and not many do it as well as gravediggaz. 
The gravediggaz name means digging graves of the mentally dead, and it stood for resurrecting the mentally dead from their state of unawareness and ignorance



Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Don't Forget the Bass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUetHjrhzrY
[youtube=425,350]SUetHjrhzrY[/youtube]

This song criticizes all of the phony rap artists on TV and the radio who have no talent, and tells people to stick to the original stuff.  The "bass" is the true hip hop music.  Don't forget the bass. 



MF Doom - HEY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NTbia6g3ck
[youtube=425,350]_NTbia6g3ck[/youtube]

MF Doom takes on the persona from Dr. Doom in the fantastic four.  He raps from a third person perspective often, and uses actual audio samples from various cartoons (mostly fantastic four).  In this track you might notice that he sampled a few audio bits from scooby doo and i think fantastic four.  I have a feeling that MF Doom is for you in terms of lyrical genius combined with very interesting and diverse beats.  Also, if you a closet comic book nerd then you will love it.  He has done an album from the victor Vaughn perspective as well. 



The Pharcyde - Runnin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gUnEvmIMGI
[youtube=425,350]7gUnEvmIMGI[/youtube]

I think you will like this one the best. 


Juggaknots - Epiphany

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZradKNT7SI
[youtube=425,350]CZradKNT7SI[/youtube]

I'll warn you that this is one of those tracks designed to show off the MC's lyrical ability.  However, it also shows you that an interesting and deep beat can be made using a very simple musical range.  The lyrics are also out of this world if you can catch them.  This is far less mainstream than all of the artists above. 



EDIT: took out wu tang clan (stupid choice for the audience) and put in the pharcyde. 

[Dylboz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO18F4aKGzQ

[youtube=425,350]OO18F4aKGzQ[/youtube]

Best Hip Hop Song EVAR!!!

The rest of his stuff is pretty awesome, too. But this is far and away the coolest song I've heard in ages, in any genre.

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and proud
Lets do this shit for real, come on now

Verse 1:
Smoke and mirrors, stripes and stars
Stolen for the cross in the name of God
Bloodshed, genocide, rape and fraud
Written to the pages of the law good lord
The Cold Continent latch key child
Ran away one day and started acting foul
King of where the wild things are daddy's proud
Cuz the Roman Empire done passed it down
Imported and tortured a work force
And never healed the wounds or shook the curse off
Now the grown up Goliath nation
Holdin open auditions for the part of David, can you feel it?
Nothing can save ya, you question the reign
You get rushed in and chained up
Fist raised but I must be insane
Cuz I can't figure a single goddamn way to change it

Chorus:
Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief home of the slave
The grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

Verse 2:
All must bow to the fat and lazy
The fuck you obey me and why do they hate me (who me?)
Only two generations away
From the world's most despicable slavery trade
Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can't be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think we no longer need chains to be slaves
Lord it's a shameful display
The overseers even got raped along the way
Cause the children cant escape from the pain
And they're born with poisonous hatred in their veins
Try n' separate a man from his soul
You only strengthen him and lose your own
But shoot that fucker if he walk near the throne
Remind him that this is my home (now I'm gone)

Chorus:
Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief home of the slave
The grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

Hold up give me one right here
Hold on

Verse 3:
You don't give money to the bums
On a corner with a sign bleeding from their gums
Talking about you don't support a crackhead
What you think happens to the money from your taxes
Shit the governments an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habit
And even if you ain't on the front line
When massah yell crunch time you right back at it
Plain look at how you hustling backwards
At the end of the year add up what they subtracted
Three outta twelve months your salary pays for that madness
Man, that's savage
What's left get a big ass plasma
To see where they made Dan Rather point the damn camera
Only approved questions get answered
Now stand your ass up for that national anthem

Chorus:
Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief home of the slave
The grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

[vocals: Mankwe Ndosi]
(You're so low)
Custom made (You're so low) *
To consume the noose (You're so low) *
Keep saying we're free (You're so low) *
But we're all just loose (You're so low) *

[Ecolitan]

The rich is getting richer, so why we ain't richer?

Yeah..  We should ALL have cell phones and microwave ovens and fast internet by now 

Did you actually listen to the rest of it? It was a rhetorical question. The next lines where "Could it be we still thinking like niggers? Educate yourselves, make your world view bigger. Visualize wealth and put yourselves in the picture"

The whole point was that "The rich get richer, 'cause they work towards rich", and that you shouldn't abdicate personal  responsibility for you personal circumstances, and that specifically black people shouldn't use external excuses (racism/slavery) for why they aren't well off.

You think anyone but the choir would realize he was speaking in character there?  I don't.

Also it completely ignores the fact that the poor ARE getting richer.  They don't get much poorer than me and I have no patience for people who don't appreciate even we poor folk have cell phones, comfortable sneakers and fresh fruit in the winter.