rolling ringtone thread 2008

it seems like no one in this thread is able to be otm about hipster rap (self included) ... everyone's all BLANKET STATEMENT + EXCEPTION but none of them seem like really good tim f. style summations of the 'movement'

its just so easy to hate and there are so many shitty rappers, this is the kind of shit that would be best on a one-disc compilation. u could call it 'run the road'

'ronson the road'

I wasn't trying to zing u J0rdan, I was trying to figure out where and what's zing was directed.

Also, maybe I'm being presumptious about Wale since I wasn't exactly sold on Wale until like 24 hours ago. "Nike Boots" sucks, but there's like 3 or 4 pretty insane tracks on his new mixtape if you can make it through the whole thing.

well done

xp

it seems like no one in this thread is able to be otm about hipster rap (self included) ... everyone's all BLANKET STATEMENT + EXCEPTION but none of them seem like really good tim f. style summations of the 'movement'

-- deej, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 6:16 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

See also "blog-rock," "blog-house"

Or anyone big-upped by fashion magazines and slow-to-pick-up print mags trying to understand kids who themselves are still trying to understand the way we're supposed to listen to music in 2008.

going off the artists whiney brought up:

kidz in the hall and cool kids are the ones indebted in fun times fat beats for driving type rap, kidz in the hall are the more lyrical (or the one dude is at least) of the two, but cool kids success is more built on stacking up rhymes and syllables and just generally flowing, since their kinda inexperienced they kinda stumble over themselves at times but when it comes together (cf opening thread of "black mags") it's great

mickey factz and jay electronica are pretty good, i haven't heard that much of mickey but he seems like he's on like some boho mature common tip (isn't he 30 or something) and lots of songs are kinda jazzy w/ no name wanna be floetry chicks singing. jay electronica sounds kinda like a little bit of madvillain stuff (more dusty boom bappy beats tho?) and a little bit of nas. whiney saying that he's getting hyped cuz of how he dresses is lunacy.

wale's been really jocked but i think he's kind of wack imo-- if anything he's the most creative of the bunch, but that means you also get him doing shit like making a seinfeld themed mixtape (dnw). my main problem w/ him is that he's got the charisma of a desk chair on the mic, but idk he sounded alright over that big band-y fast paced track w/ bun and pusha t so maybe there's hope for him yet. i think ronson doing production for him is kind of a good look actually.

uffie and whoever else (spank rock?) can gtfo

opening thread = opening verse

going off the mickey factz boho thing, i don't mean like granola early common, but like nu-common who "Respects women"

btw not firing a shot at whiney there i just think if anyone of those dudes are hyped for superficial reasons jay electronica is the one who's least

i think the biggest thing to me is that 'hipster rap' isnt defined by the fashion or any of that bullshit - party like a rockstar is full of 'hipster fashion' and pharell was rocking trucker hats back before that shit blew up/blew over, but he was as mainstream a pop star as you can get. same with the silly bullshit about kanye being hipster rap or lupe being hipster rap - those dudes are pop stars

hipster rap to me, and the objectionable thing about it is tied up in this, is rap music that gets where it is bcuz of trendy media connections rather than the ability to make actually-popular music; rappers who get on the cover of magazines because of who they know and not cuz anyone actually knows there shit.

Cool Kids do not have a hit. Their buzz is entirely top-down and
media-originated. Kid Sister was on the cover of magazines and newspapers before she got kanye on her fake-hypnotized minds beat, after she said shed been rapping for a year. Corny hipster rap DJs in chi get in urb's "next 100" but dudes who have been spinning juke and rap together in mixes on the radio, and have much larger fanbases, dont get any coverage at all.

let me clarify cuz that makes it sound like im just about who is making it rather than the quality of the music - im willing to come around when dudes make a track that is actually hot. cool kids to me are still pretty sub-average. i mean check this:

http://www.cocaineblunts.com/blunts/?p=934

make sure to listen to both the big tuck & cool kids versions, and explain to me what makes the cool kids 'ones to watch' while big tuck remains a local phenomenon? How is Big Tuck not bringing 'fun' back to rap, and with much more banging production?

perspective is so distorted but i havent been paying enough attention on a track-by-track basis to make the most comprehensive argument on the 'genre' - i know i liked a few trax, like that knux one, and i know which ones id want to hear at a party and which ones i wouldnt (i checked that whole cool kids ep and its pretty zzz)

man i dont know enough about how people get on the covers of magazines to care about any of that really-- that big tuck song is good, but the cool kids aim for the type of audience they have, i.e. i'm sure they were much more hyped to see their songs posted on pitchfork than on nah right

big tuck isn't exactly shooting for the cover of urb i don't think, and maybe kid sister or jay elec aren't explicitly either but they're going about finding a different audience, an audience that is for lack of a better term urb-friendly (lol herb-friendly lol). i don't think people in houston or memphis or la are really bemoaning the fact that kid sister is getting urb covers instead of mixtape rapper x

it's weird seeing Wale and Jay Electronica on magazine covers. Since there's no real story there yet, it feels like a commenter on a website yelling "first!"

it feels like a commenter on a website yelling "first!"

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:51 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

i mean this is the other thing-- now mags who have a large readership crossover with webzines have to get into the WE BROKE THEM FIRST game and that's why you end up with ppl like that on covers

but i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, i mean i dont know how jay electronica sells magazines, but shit it's better than seeing craig finn or nas on the cover of more magazines imo, and if it gets people on the internet a little hot and bothered what really the big deal

i mean the key term to "hipster rap" is obv hipster, so if you're really out there caring what kind of rap hipsters listen to and who gets on their magazine covers you might want to take a step back

but then again i dont live in a big city so idk maybe it is annoying

http://hosting03.imagecross.com/myspace-image-upload-6/3871steveocover5.jpg

seriously what is that and why

i mean this is the other thing-- now mags who have a large readership crossover with webzines have to get into the WE BROKE THEM FIRST game and that's why you end up with ppl like that on covers

but i don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, i mean i dont know how jay electronica sells magazines, but shit it's better than seeing craig finn or nas on the cover of more magazines imo, and if it gets people on the internet a little hot and bothered what really the big deal

-- J0rdan S., Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:56 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

u dont think its important to interrogate the motives of the ppl who put these artists on covers or why those are the artists they choose to put on covers or what artists are getting ignored while 6 million bloggers decide to talk about, whether in favor or disapproval of, the same 4 dudes who happen to wear ironic dookie ropes

xpost
It's a better cover image than Carter III is what it is.

deej i think it is important to do all those things, i mean i say right there that i think the motive now is for magazines to start scooping the internet-- as to why it's the cool kids and not big tuck, i mean, again, the cool kids are a "hip" rap group going on the cover of a "hip" magazine

i think the better question would be why isn't murderdog or dirty south writing about big tuck not why isn't urb writing about big tuck

what makes cool kids hip? shitty beats and boring rapping?

ignore the pejorative part if u want serious discussion and just answer 'what makes cool kids hip'

i just think its pointless to bug out about internet sources like pitchfork or mags like filter or urb covering the 4 dudes w/ dookie ropes since those 4 dudes are so obviously aiming for that mostly white, rock audience

i used "hip" in quotations on purpose cuz im not jamming dudes thinking about how hip i am (save that for yo gotti), but to their credit they've got an aesthetic that appeals to the people who read magazines like urb and paste-- mostly white people who listen to rock and think lil boosie is a joke, but really love the beasties and the fat boys and whoever else

if we're talking purely about the cool kids' aesthetic wrt to them being hip i think it's kind of genius because it has, in a way, got them places

and we're never going to meet in the middle because obv i think they can rap and you think they suck, but i dont think it should be bewildering that they are getting burn, they sell what they do really well and they sell it to the right people

"and we're never going to meet in the middle"

n/h

weak, unless deej is actually a chick

http://branthansen.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/djcandace_1.jpg

^ waiting all year for this

IF
that is deej
AND
me & deej are sister/sister
THEN
i want to be these
http://celebslam.buzznet.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/stephanie-tanner-huge-rack-front1.jpg

^ waiting all year for this

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:20 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i self zinged with that a year ago

ya i was gonna say

i realize this

j/b

anyway i have no problem with hipsters liking music hipsters like, its more about the disproportionate media coverage they get. it skews history, and i do think this shit matters

yeah i feel u and i dont think anyone really has a great answer for why lots of our favorite rappers can't get any shine in SPIN or w/e

xlr8r had a tite bun b cover a little while back though

Problem is that when white hipsters like shit, that usually means advertisers like shit, which means we're in for a long year of same4dudes having tours sponsored by Prius and Converse while guys like All $tar or whoever stay on the mixtape grind.

Scion sponsoring a Too $hort show is the goddamn highlight of my summer so far

... but to their credit they've got an aesthetic that appeals to the people who read magazines like urb and paste-- mostly white people who listen to rock and think lil boosie is a joke, but really love the beasties and the fat boys and whoever else...

-- J0rdan S., Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

why are these the artists that appeal to cool kids fans
what about the cool kids actually reminds you of either the fat boys or the beasties, other than the clothes they are wearing being mid 80s oriented

I can see why Cool Kids fans would be into Fat Boys/Beasties since their rhyme schemes are really simple, their themes are innocent and their vibe is strictly party-based; plus their beats are skeletal in an 80s way.

Though I kinda like their beats because they remind me of snap.

i was about to say, that description sounds just like snap music but i dont see 'hipster rap' articles about dem franchise boyz either

Because snap artists talk about fellatio and fancy clothes and ecstasy and grey goose; and Cool Kids talk about Sega and bikes and Star Wars. What do YOU think a bunch of Dan Deacon fans would be more quick to get behind.

dan deacon fans dont like fellatio, clothes, drugs and vodka?

see yr giving me plenty good reasons not to like this scene right there

Have you ever met a white person, deej?

i know a few

Then I don't understand why you're befuddled by the fact that they would gravitate towards non-threatening dudes who talk about the nerdy shit that not only compliments their scenester peter pan syndrome but also their blog-reading "otherness" that makes them feel so superior and urbane; as opposed to a copping a ringtone by bunch of Atlanta dudes talking about getting their dick sucked.