Recommendations for hip-hop without braggadocio (or these other tropes)?

*yourself, goddamnit.

Context!!

yes brad but you didn't really answer correctly because as you note drexciya are actually danceable

whether drexciya is dj-mixable is another issue entirely ...

how about most undanceable dance music is danceable

☺️

idk the issue isn't really dance music

i'm pretty sure melomane is trolling so this conversation will probably go nowhere good but ...

i'm surprised someone asking for music without references to sex drugs violence misbehavior and misogyny is equated to anti-blackness

surely we have better definitions for blackness in 2020
than "acting like a rapper"

if he asked for gospel without references to god would
ppl freak out about anti-blackness? gospel is more popular with black audiences than rap is iirc and yet i sense ppl would answer that qn w/o getting upset

I thought he asked for rap where the rapper doesn’t talk about themselves or how the streets are dangerous or something.. I guess I should read the op again (not!)

i'm surprised someone asking for music without references to sex drugs violence misbehavior and misogyny is equated to anti-blackness

surely we have better definitions for blackness in 2020
than "acting like a rapper"

― the late great, Sunday, 31 May 2020 17:44 (ten seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

wanting rap without hedonism or bragging is probably fine (if questionable), but melomane specified further that they didn't want references to rapping itself, or any sort of struggle - is it so easy to approach rap without any reference to its use as a rallying-point for social justice issues?

if this thread had just been called 'recommend abstract hip-hop' it would just have gone so much better, is all

Again, the accusations that I am trolling are inappropriate. I have participated on this board completely authentically for some time now. Instead of attacking me and calling me a troll, can't anyone be happy that I am trying to find hip-hop that connects with me, instead of writing the genre off entirely as so many people (even on this board) have done?

idk but a fair qn and as ppl note melomane's timing and name are awful suspicious ... so ... brimstead otm
i think

Well, you’ve certainly hit a nerve.

xps

xp to imago

is it so easy to approach rap without any reference to its use as a rallying-point for social justice issues?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-kAnNgqN9o

What’s suspicious about the name?

Mélomane, how do you know you like hip hop ? You like the instrumentals ?

melomane? it sounds like melanin

mellotron mane = melomane's abstract hip-hop artist name

Lol mélomane in French just means music lover, it’s a super common term.

Melomane ... Melania ...

ah thanks

As in melo-mania.

xp to pomenitul

Yes, what is suspicious about the name? Melomane is a French word meaning "a person obsessed with music", which struck me as appropriate for a username on a music forum when I registered a couple of years ago. I also assumed that "melomane" was a relatively international word now – I see that it is even in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the standard reference for American English.

Melomane, there's a whole thread of stuff perfect for you:

frat rap

That just proved you're all Americans :P

mellow out mang

Should have gone for something innocuous, like Mallomars.

come on i speak 3.5 language just not french

"Baby melo my mane
Make me feel like a schoolboy on good tame ... "

Nabozo, I like the beats, sure. But I also like the delivery, the musicality that is inherent in language. Purely sonically, independently of any semantic content, some hip-hop that I have heard is thrilling. It is just the lyrics themselves that don't connect with me, the particular concerns which hip-hop artists usually have. I feel like someone could take up this music genre in terms of reciting intricate words over a beat with explorations in timbre and sampling, but instead use lyrics that are more similar to the poetry which I appreciate in other musical genres like Scott Walker or 20th-century modernist lieder.

Melomania is good record shop for classical stuff if you're ever in Paris .. oh maybe not.

any buff knows the real key to hip-hop albums is running time

again: police brutality and white supremacy are not specific to the US

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/solidarity-protests-over-george-floyd-death-take-place-cities-around-n1220286

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-london-36752461/black-lives-matter-protest-marches-through-london

https://variety.com/2020/politics/global/george-floyd-protests-berlin-toronto-london-black-lives-matter-1234621350/

Few would dispute that, roxymuzak. But why is anyone obliged to listen to music dealing with the problems that society faces?

Nabozo, I like the beats, sure. But I also like the delivery, the musicality that is inherent in language. Purely sonically, independently of any semantic content, some hip-hop that I have heard is thrilling. It is just the lyrics themselves that don't connect with me, the particular concerns which hip-hop artists usually have. I feel like someone could take up this music genre in terms of reciting intricate words over a beat with explorations in timbre and sampling, but instead use lyrics that are more similar to the poetry which I appreciate in other musical genres like Scott Walker or 20th-century modernist lieder.

― Melomane, Sunday, May 31, 2020 8:02 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

As a non-native speaker, that is pretty much how I listen to hip hop and other genres, largely ignoring the lyrical content. I am sure that plenty of fans never open Genius to study the lyrics and only react to the lines that appeal to them. So I wonder why you absolutely cannot do that. As others have pointed out, selectively picking up what you think is "wrong" or "uninteresting" in the way hip hop conveys its stories / message is suspect (whether it's on political or ideological grounds does not matter). Rap reimagined with the aesthetic of a 20th century lieder is insulting and has colonial-racist undertones.

no one cares what shit music you listen to, but you should learn to read a room

and you should also expect culture to deal with culture

I feel like someone could take up this music genre in terms of reciting intricate words over a beat with explorations in timbre and sampling, but instead use lyrics that are more similar to the poetry which I ...

there are a trillion songs on SoundCloud like this that have 10 plays each

Rodney Dangerfield - "Rappin' Rodney"

*delivered over a set of 'ignorant beats', as per Chris Rock's dictum*

With usura hath no man a house of good stone
each block cut smooth and well fitting
that design might cover their face,
with usura
hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall
harpes et luz
or where virgin receiveth message
and halo projects from incision,
with usura
seeth no man Gonzaga his heirs and his concubines
no picture is made to endure nor to live with
but it is made to sell and sell quickly
with usura, sin against nature,
is thy bread ever more of stale rags
is thy bread dry as paper,
with no mountain wheat, no strong flour
with usura the line grows thick
with usura is no clear demarcation
and no man can find site for his dwelling.

If one understands a language, one cannot *not* pay attention to what is being said. And considering that hip-hop is reduced in terms of musical parameters compared to other genres, for the lyrics to be lacking means that the work overall is lacking. Perhaps, Nabozo, you are different, but my tastes and approach to listening are what they are and I'm still searching for something to satisfying those tastes.

Some of the best late 20th-century modernist classical music can be said to deal with matters of injustice (colonialism, the Holocaust) – I have an especial fondness for settings of Paul Celan, for example. So, one cannot claim that wanting to hear the same poetry in hip-hop form would mean approving colonialism or racism. But I personally prefer poetry that deals with historical injustices only obliquely, because it is the lack of any specific referents that allow the lyrics to exist at a level that is truly abstract and eternal.

If other people on this thread like different stuff, if they want hip-hop grounded in contemporary social concerns, then I'm happy that they have plenty of hip-hop that speaks to them. But why attack someone who wants something different?

eternal

Hmmm…

Has anyone linked “Rapture” yet?

Maybe I'm an asshole for this response, but

Hiphop was born in 1970s Bronx, New York City. One of the most textbook examples of urban decay, governmental neglect, and economic inequality in modern history. To expect it betray its origins is selfish on the part of the listener.

Maybe the question isn't if there's hiphop "without braggadocio (or those other tropes)", but if you actually like hiphop at all. And it's okay if you don't.

Is there a hiphop equivalent of a Scott Walker album? No. And thank fuck for that.

(To be clear: Scott Walker is fine. But come on.)

I only listen to delta blues by 1920s echt-modernist white dudes.