letz talk abt gucci mane

i do think that gucci would've been a huge star 6 years ago

to me "dead presidents" was a straight classic the first time i heard it, and i don't think it's fair to say that "no one" liked reasonable doubt, as much as jay complained about it after the fact...he was up and coming and frankly mind-blowing at first listen for me....

but there was always a certain rilvary there and roc-a-fella was a distinct camp in NYC apart from bad boy...i perceived biggie as being tighter with pac (pre feud) than he was with jay

Jay-Z Vol 3 is a guy coming off of a 4x platinum album and having a hit on the scale of "Big Pimpin'." there are no download statistics or regional radio spins you can wave around for Gucci that are comparable to that.

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:48 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

because no one goes platinum any more!!

like, sometimes i default back to "maybe people just can't understand what the fuck he's saying" but juvenile was as mush-mouthed at times and mystikal literally rapped gibberish at times on his singles -- that's why i was entertaining this theory about him being hurt a bit by there being no zeitgeisty producer

fucking C-Murder went multi plat, if you dont think gucci's selling at least that many copies you're crazy!

yeah i think deej is otm in this regard

Gucci's got the most important rhyme style out, which us why Ludacris and Bun B are tripping over themselves to copy "lambo/Rambo/Evan Dando" rhyme schemes instead of "...GROCERY BAG" drakeisms

― Vuvuzola Jesus (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:50 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

why the fuck would u check with post-peak rappers to see whats hot with rap right now anyway?? look dude this is like starbucks rap. is e-40 copying those styles?? no. but he does have gucci mane guest verses ~~~think about it~~~

part lack of great gangster rap, part other factors that are harder to put a finger on

― hell hath no furry (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 23:06 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't think anyone disagrees that gucci would have been a star during the boom years, or even if he was just marketed better last year.

Matt- oh I am not saying Jay was treated like 3xdope but considering he had the biggest rap superstar bigging him up, no pun intended, then reasonable doubt... i don't think even going gold at the time just makes it seem like most people heard Aint No Nigga or I Know What Girls Like, thought it was the 'worst' side of bad boy mainstream pop (or were sick of that 7 minutes of funk break being used AGAIN) and just went meh, so what. Even if he did have bangers, and most people needed a late pass, at the time he was seen as a bit of a sideshow, non?

unlike jay-z and biggie (then), i'm not convinced gucci means much at all, persona-wise, to a non-rap audience

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:51 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think jay-z then is absolutely comparable to gucci now. at least in the states. cmon didnt the uk just discover jay-z around '99 problems' anyway?? i mean everybody new 'big pimpin' but 'lemonade' has been all over radio for like 6 mo right now, not sure how its much different

"I don't think anyone disagrees that gucci would have been a star during the boom years, or even if he was just marketed better last year."

its not that he would be more popular during the boom years -- its just that youd have a way of actually measuring it back then! he is a star...?

he's definitely a rap star, full stop -- he's not a pop star tho

"lemonade" absolutely shoulda been his "rubberband man" tho

― لوووووووووووووووووووول (lex pretend), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 5:02 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how is it not?? did rubberband man chart any higher?

jay got minor uk chart hits from the off, first BIG hit was "hard knock life", which is when i first became aware of him

"a generic track that showcases gucci at his least gucci-y"

this is a 100% inaccurate description of 'wasted'

jeez you guys!

this is the best gucci mixtape in terms of rapping. it is completely mind blowing stuff imo but yeah i prob wouldnt try and get non-rap friends to listen to it. 7 years ago i might have but it kind of seems a different world in the uk anyway. i blame it mostly on the uk music industry deciding 5 or so years ago to push "real british indie music" over anything else. irrelevant here cos we are talking about a US rap artist i know but anyway.

still at a party a couple of weeks ago i put on 'wasted' pretty late and everyone went ham even if they'd never heard it before hah! this is the thing tho i still feel that non-rap people could still love a rapper like gucci but.....well i've no idea!?xxxxxxxxxxxxxxp

gucci is def more popular nationally than jay was around vol. 1. i can tell you that jay wasnt even that big in chicago til hard knock life. known by rap nerds bu that was it. EVERYONE who likes rap knows gucci

& so do lots & lots of pop fans. gucci is much more a crossover artist than jay was then

UK's love of hiphop post90s:

Slick Rick goes to jail, no-one really cares about the westcoast sound. Rap fans still f with the hardcore obv.
Fugees go huge, obv. Boom time for Bad Boy singles and sound, up until Hard Knock Life really.
UKG becomes more important while us rap sorts itself out.
Eminem and Outkast duh.
No-one really knows how to react to crunk.
Post crunk rappers be huge.
Dizzee and co do shiny bouncy shite, ppl feel let down by buying shitty kanye and 50 albums and hiphop is at a down period anyway so absolutely noone cares unless they read the rolling ringtone thread or write for the guardian.

Jay was always kinda a big deal post-Hard Knock Life. Big Pimpin, I Just Wanna Love U, Izzo were e'erywhere on the radio/mtv. kinda a big deal in a em/outkast > jay/lol ja rule > second tier way tho.

ummm deej...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URLtnX_YqXs

also waka flocka has a legitimate rap career solely because he was gucci's understudy, which is a classic sign of influence & popularity in rap music

so absolutely noone cares unless they read the rolling ringtone thread or write for the guardian.

lol otm

US rappers who do shiny bouncy shite are pretty huge atm - flo rida, t.i. thanks to "live your life" &c

also insert missy elliott and kanye west being two of the most popular US rappers in the UK, thanks largely to their sui generis nature

forgot missy exists :( also cannot see anyone care for anything kanye does anytime soon tbh

do <3 that busta was like the biggest rapper in uk popularity for like a year, gives me hope for the future

is t.i. actually huge though? maybe. it could just be a personal thing in that the ppl i know irl didn't give a shit abt 'king' or anything

Jay-Z Vol 3 is a guy coming off of a 4x platinum album and having a hit on the scale of "Big Pimpin'." there are no download statistics or regional radio spins you can wave around for Gucci that are comparable to that.

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 4:48 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

because no one goes platinum any more!!

― blap...tremendo (deej), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 6:07 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

fucking C-Murder went multi plat, if you dont think gucci's selling at least that many copies you're crazy!

― blap...tremendo (deej), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 6:08 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

of course Gucci's a bigger star than C-Murder ever was and of course it was easier to sell big numbers back then...but you said he's as big as Jay shortly after Hard Knock Life, which is insane.

i dunno theres this bizarre subset of rap songs that crossed over in the uk. like you can go out to a random club in any county town and they will regularly drop 'gravel pit' or something

i don't get this whole "noone listens to rap anymore" thing. EVERYONE under 40 pretty much listens to rap, possibly far more than in the '90s, even if it's just big singles or cheesy crossover artists that you don't consider real rap.

i know there's always gonna be a core of corny white people who are totally isolated from rap but i don't feel like that percentage of the music audience is any bigger than it ever was.

he wasn't big circa king (though "what you know" has become pretty accepted/known as canon due to DJs still playing it all the time), it was "live your life" that broke him and "dead and gone" that consolidated - who knows whether people will care about king uncaged, but the foundation's there now. might be an interesting litmus test of the extent of gangsta the UK public can get into.

xps

also waka flocka has a legitimate rap career solely because he was gucci's understudy

for real? i had zero idea that anyone really gave a shit about wacka flocka outside of a couple songs, i guess i thought he was like...i dunno...maino or kia shine level

i mean, i can see gucci being huge in chicago. tbf, it is a big "pitchfork town" with drag city and thrill jockey and numero group and everything. i think bands like fucking champs and oxxes are regarded as pop stars in chicago too

like you can go out to a random club in any county town and they will regularly drop 'gravel pit' or something

ha yeah!

also, b.o.b. got a UK no 1 the other week o_0

"o let's do it" was a legit hit, and he gets more respect in the rap world i think than those guys ever did, but maybe it's just a subset of rappers cosigning antyhing that is hot theory

like you can go out to a random club in any county town and they will regularly drop 'gravel pit' or something

go england! :) :) :)

i think bands like fucking champs and oxxes are regarded as pop stars in chicago too

hahahahaha oh no u didn't....whiney will u just make me happy and say that powerhouse sound is bigger than gucci mane?

i mean, i can see gucci being huge in chicago. tbf, it is a big "pitchfork town" with drag city and thrill jockey and numero group and everything. i think bands like fucking champs and oxxes are regarded as pop stars in chicago too

hahahahahahahahaha

fyi: oxxxes never even played a joint bigger than big vs in mpls and we eat that shit UP here

i think pelican regularly sells out the Empty Bottle, so Gucci could prolly do the same

his new song with earthless is pretty good tbh

ha yeah <3 that you can go out on a friday night and still expect to hear say dead prez's hiphop or any busta single or dmx or whatever xposts

whiney can you not help but be an asshole?

Oxes were a 'big deal' in Baltimore but in an era when no rock band from Baltimore was genuinely a big deal in any meaningful sense

we're actually having a legit conversation here, save your self-hating deej zings for when it's only you too throwing wet paper towel balls at each other

you two

oxxxes were fucking great live, they ran all over the fucking place cuz they had wireless units on, super fun, love the first (?) album where the cover is them at some business meeting

Now I’m rich as a republican
stay flyer than pelican
I’m ridin’ in my new yellow Benz
with yellow rims and yellow tint

http://soundcloud.com/hoodinternet/the-hood-internet-pillz-between-the-wallz-gucci-mane-x-pelican/comments

this tangent is almost as boring as when sam and lex started about what rappers are popular in the uk

Oxes were a 'big deal' in Baltimore but in an era when no rock band from Baltimore was genuinely a big deal in any meaningful sense

― ripe dink (some dude), Wednesday, June 30, 2010 10:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

weird, i guess from afar i figure lungfish was big

wasn't clutch from bodymore murderland?

was the whole oxes album art thing a huge gossipy thing in baltimore at its time?

Clutch are kind of from a wierd rural Maryland no man's land, wouldn't make sense for any major city to claim them it feels like

j0rdan, deej totally picked a fight w/ whiney and pretty much invited him to come on this thread and crack jokes, i don't blame whiney at all for taking the bait for once

i don't feel like it was any more gossipy here than just on the net in general, but i don't really know many people around the rock scene at that time.