Hip-hop songs that build to a crescendo?

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I'm trying to think of hip-hop that really builds in dynamics. 'One Mic' has the builds up to the choruses, that's all I've got so far.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:06 (twenty-one years ago)

'The Message'

― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess some noisy El-P and Dalek stuff counts as well.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"white lines" has a couple crescendos

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Coolio - "Gangsta's Paradise"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooh, good call.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"millie pulled a pistol on santa" - De La Soul

― arch Ibog (arch Ibog), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"Get By"!!!!!!!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I apologize for the gratuitousness of those exclamation points. I just really like that song.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I do too, but I haven't heard it in forever (I only have it on vinyl and haven't used my turntable in like a year). I remember it more as sustained bombast than build, but I'm probably wrong.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Choice Is Yours" remix by Black Sheep has some good internal dynamics: the part If my train goes off the track, Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up! is a little crescendo within the track

― arch Ibog (arch Ibog), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

M.O.P. - Fire

maybe Glue's Lullaby For The Sun...that kind of builds up

― Sergio, Friday, 24 September 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

nas "one mic" (multiple crescendoezzz)
eminem "lose yourself"

― equinox, Friday, 24 September 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh yeah, how could I forget Lose Yourself!

(I mentioned One Mic in the question)

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Spoonie Gee was GREAT at this - try "Love Rap," "Spoonin Rap," and "The Godfather."

Also, LL Cool J -- the original "Rock the Bells"? and maybe "Boomin System"??

― chuck, Friday, 24 September 2004 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"Humble Mumble" by OutKast. Actually, "The Way You Move" as well, now I come to think of it. Kind of.

― Wooden (Wooden), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Has hip-hop ever really been big on dynamics?

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 24 September 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Night of the Living Baseheads

― mucho, Friday, 24 September 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Has hip-hop ever really been big on dynamics?

If it was, I wouldn't have to ask this question!

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Last Trumpet" on the Lyrics Born album.

― mike h. (mike h.), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

BINGO

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

With "Get By", I was thinking more specifically the last 30+ seconds of it.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The Roots "You Got Me"!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

That song doesn't crescendo, it ORGASMS.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Ahem, what about Blackalicious' Alphabet Aerobics?

― Isaac, Friday, 24 September 2004 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

MF Doom "Fall Back/Titty Fat"

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got to hear any song with that title.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

deltron 3030 - "3030"

― lemin (lemin), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Which reminds me, Handsome Boy Modeling School (with J-Live at the chick from Moloko) - "The Truth".

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Lil Scrappy - "FILA"

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:12 (twenty-one years ago)

oh oh oh

wu-tang clan - "i can't go to sleep"

― lemin (lemin), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

blackalicious & cut chemist = chemical calisthenics

― rex dart - eskimo spy, Friday, 24 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Cee-Lo "Big Words (Damn)". The last verse, the one that ends "SINCE MY BIRTHDATE I BEEN TIGHT".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Jesus Walks" by Kanye West -- at least a crescendo of emotion and urgency if not a huge change in volume.

― Hurting, Friday, 24 September 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The problem with the crescendo is that its a bit of a hackneyed way to build tension, especially if you've got people rapping over the top of it where the words have to remain audible. Better to have the flow intensify and the actual rapping get faster, surely?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 24 September 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Good point, in which case the last track off of T.I.'s Trap Muzik is a perfect example.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Friday, 24 September 2004 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

first one that pops to mind is definitely Deltron 3030 - 3030, which someone mentioned above, it's an awesome crescendo at that

― daziz, Saturday, 25 September 2004 07:09 (twenty-one years ago)

movement ex - universal blues

― gaz (gaz), Saturday, 25 September 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Cee-Lo: "Glockapella" (my favourite rap track of this year)
Rubberoom: "Born" (my all-time favourite undie rap track)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 25 September 2004 08:30 (twenty-one years ago)

just blaze, bleek and free.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 25 September 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"Crossroads" by LL!

― kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 27 September 2004 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like almost every song on this thread.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 27 September 2004 02:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"mama said knock you out"

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Why not both? As for hearing the words, I guess I didn't mean that the actual volume of the track gets louder, more that the parts build and intensity build.

It's not like one way of build a track is better, I think. If the rapping gets more intense it makes it seem as though the music is getting more intense and vice versa, it's just that the former happens so much more often.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 27 September 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

It's funny, when both "One Mic" and "Lose Yourself" came out, the rumor was that they were inspired by Atmosphere songs: "Scapegoat," for starters...

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 27 September 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Huh. Are dynamics emo, then?

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

The Fall's 'C'n'C-S Mithering' sorta does in places.

But I suppose that's more of a rap song.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 00:31 (twenty-one years ago)

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