From Rodney Perkins Sent Wed, Apr 21st 1999, 01:45
From Rodney Perkins Sent Wed, Apr 21st 1999, 01:45
Four words - David Toop's "Rap Attack" You will *not* find a better history of hip-hop/rap/whatever. There is also a "Rap Attack 2" (the one I have) which brings the history into the late eighties/early nineties. MCs rapping conscious lyrics didn't have much to do with "denser" music. Read Chapter 9 entitled "Tough" which presents a very good argument that conscious lyrics in rapping were there all along. -----Original Message----- From: Sam Frank <xxxxxx.xxxxx@xxxx.xxx> To: xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx <xxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx> Date: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 5:26 PM Subject: (idm) Hip-hop history/CD philosophy >I'm trying to work out a possible paper topic, and I have two in mind, but >I'm not sure how much documentation there is in magazines and books, so >I'll raise my questions here first... > >1) In a discussion with a friend about how dinky old-skool hip-hop beats >were, >and how cheesy the rapping was, he said something to the effect of "the >lyrics evolved because the beats evolved." By that he meant that the >electro sound determined the cheesy party rapping, and that once electro >was appropriated by Freestyle, and hip-hop became denser, then rhyming >styles evolved too. Now, I'm sure this "beat determinism" isn't entirely >accurate, but it has a certain amount of possibility--Chuck D wouldn't >have sounded the same without the Bomb Squad fucking shit up behind him, >etc. Is there any literature out there on the development of hip-hop >production? What about on the x0x instruments, and their relationship to >hip-hop? My teacher said something about dub/reggae behaving the sme way, >that the toasters keyed off the production with their rhyming style. I'd >also postulate that the reason jungle MCs tend to suck is because the >beats are too fast for them to stress words right, among other >difficulties, so their rhymes sound enormously awkward. Anyway, any >literature on instruments/drum patterns/production/rhyme styles in >hip-hip/dub/jungle, etc would be greatly appreciated. Is there a good >magazine article on drum machines? > >2)Have any artists besides Oval exploited the theoretical possibilities of >the CD medium? What can you really do with the mdeium anyway, besides >playing a disk straight, or making it skip? Are there any other possible >manipulations? Hidden tracks don't particularly interest me. > Obviously, with records, plenty of people have fucked with the >medium itself--Marclay, turntablists, etc. Cd's are obviously harder to >manipualte, but that doesn't mean people haven't done it. Are there any >writing which theorize about the consequences of didgital playback and the >CD medium? Has Lesser done much with skipping CDs? I've heard the name >Gilles Deleuze dropped now and then--what relation does he play to all of >this? > >Any leads would be much appreciated, whether they're artists to listen to, >things to read, or people to contact. I'm trying to figure out whether >either of these are feasible topics. > >Later >Sam > >