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

This somewhat obscure and not very funny bit just popped into my head, although I do like the trail-off at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqhJIvNCjy8

But the problem here is that one of my biggest hobbies is language-learning, so I probably would not be oblivious to the lyrics for long. It is hard to invest in an artist if you know there is a big risk of disappointment at some point.

did everyone miss this giant "i'm a troll can't believe you're all still engaging me in earnest" sign

yeah can't believe nobody called him a troll itt before u

just trying to be a light in the darkness 🙏

I’m still siding with “problematically eccentric” over “troll”, personally, if only because I can’t imagine what kind of person would go out of their way to antagonize ILX in this specific manner in 2020

well, in the long run, best bet is a lifer

This would be overly convoluted and yet extremely restrained trolling I really don't understand why people go to that assumption so quickly around here. Earnest longwinded requests for recommendations of hip-hop that contains atypical lyrical themes OMG what a great idea for a trolling exercise... give me a break. I also vote "eccentric".

i hate tropes, unless they have been properly Deconstructed in which case they're good now

support the tropes u commie!!

Tropes covered within Hip Hop & the industry itself:
Abusive Parents
Anvilicious/Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped
Angry Black Man
Banned in China: After gaining widespread popularity thanks to the success of the Chinese rap reality show, The Rap of China in 2017, the Chinese government started clamping down on hip hop the following year.
Big Apple Sauce
Black Sheep Hit
Boastful Rap
Broken Base: And how! Read the entry for details.
Controversy-Proof Image: Exceptions being Ice-T's cop killer controversy, which for all intents and purposes ruined his mainstream career as a rappernote and Nelly, due to the tip drill controversy. Possibly Public Enemy as well thanks to Professor Grif's comments about Jews.
Cool Car: Exotic cars , low-riders and modded car culture in general has always been a huge part of hip-hop culture.
Distaff Counterpart: R&B music has become this to Hip Hop. It's very rare for a urban radio station to play Hip Hop and not also play R&B. And much like Rap is a male dominated genre, R&B is female dominated. Record labels often feature upcoming R&B acts on established Rap artist singles since the genres share overlapping target demographics.
Domestic Abuse: There's a lot of songs covering the issue.
Enemies Equals Greatness: A lot of rap songs are all over this trope, especially songs from the Glam Rap and Swag Rap sub-genres. Just about every rapper loves to talk about their "haters" in their lyrics.
Executive Meddling: Especially after it became profitable.
Fandom Rivalry: Whoo boy!...
Follow the Leader: Oh yes, also a huge cause of Hip-Hop beef and Fandom Rivalry
For the Evulz: The lyrics to Horrorcore Rap, and some forms of hardcore hip-hop and gangsta rap.
Freestyle Version: Extremely frequent in the culture.
Genre Turning Point: Circa 1988, where hip hop broke into the mainstream, and the beginning of the Golden Age.
Gun Porn: A feature of the Gangsta Rap subgenre - discussing guns, and on rare occasions showing them off in music videos.
Hotter and Sexier: Specifically the music videos around the turn of the century. Which ironically makes the old 2 Live Crew videos tame by today's standards..
Intercourse with You: This is dirty rap's very fundament, although songs about sex from artist who don't fall into that determinate subgenre are not unheard of.
It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Many fans of the genre (especially ones who are music enthusiasts) often cry foul when one of their favorite rappers becomes "too popular", and tend to ignore what tops the charts deliberately.
Lighter and Softer: Current form of hip-hop is accused of this. Not just for specific artists but the genre as a whole, according to some.
Magazine Decay: Some feel this way about hip-hop magazines, And not just The Source either.
Mean Character, Nice Actor: Most rappers and hip-hop artists are genuinely nice person in real life, despite many of them having incredibly mean, hateful, rude, arrogant and/or narcissistic lyrics to their songs.
Motor Mouth: Fairly common in the genre as a whole, especially among Midwestern artists (Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Twista were the first major mainstream proponents of the "chopper" style, which emphasizes extremely fast and precise deliveries with no pauses and sharply enunciated words that tend to blur together). Eminem and Tech N9ne are the most famous purveyors of the style.
Murder Ballad
Murder Simulators: Rap music has been a popular scapegoat for almost 20 years. The media frenzy died down around the mid 90's, then in '99, Eminem made his debut and the controversy went right back into full swing. People often blame it (and video games) for teens' insensitivity to violence and for promoting stereotypes about women.
Music Is Politics: Discussed and invoked.
N-Word Privileges: Many black rappers use the word "nigga" constantly, White and Asian rappers do not. Hispanic rappers, oddly enough, do use the word however.
Though some white rappers either challenged this concept, or were caught using it in the past much to their embarrassment. White rapper Lil Wyte has used it numerous times in his songs and White/Asian rapper V-Nasty mistakenly thought she had these privileges in her earlier songs and faced a huge backlash over it, much to her embarrassment (though she still continues to use it to this day). While Iggy Azalea hasn't used the word herself in any of her songs, she's used the word in public saying that "it's OK because black people do it". In general though, most non-black (or hispanic) rappers won't touch this word with a ten-foot pole.
Pop-Culture Isolation: The genre at its core is mostly known by urban audiences
Protest Song: The genre produced a wide variety of these during the 90's. The biggest one arguably is " Fight The Power" by Public Enemy.
Public Medium Ignorance: Sometimes almost to a racist degree.
Rape as Drama: There have been rap songs talking about rape.
Sassy Black Woman: Some female emcees, and songs discussing said sassy women.
Screwed by the Network: See Deader Than Disco above.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Rappers some time talks about bypassing rules due to having lots of money.
Shaking the Rump: Commonly done by women in a lot of rap videos, most especially if the song is about that particular body part.
Singer Namedrop: Almost every rap song has one.
Soapbox Sadie: Conscious hip-hop, and political rap.
Token Minority: Female and/or non-black rappers, at least in North America. In countries where Africans are non-existent or a tiny minority, the majority of rappers will be whatever is most prevalent.
Interestingly enough for most of The '90s female emcees was quite common. So much so that arguably they wouldn't count as a Token Minority. But after the turn of the millennium all that changed. This has been brought up in a lot of Hip Hop mags and blogs.
Female rap does seem to be entering something of a renaissance as of the early 2010s, though.
In Australia, talents like Diafrix, 1/6 and N'fa (who worked with Heath Ledger, believe it or not) head the very small number of African-Australian emcees. Indigenous hip-hop is another significant minority subculture.
Villain Protagonist: The viewpoint adopted in several songs.
Voice of the Resistance: Some see the genre as this, or is capable of being this.
A Wild Rapper Appears!: Crossovers with other genres have been around from the start, but have been growing in popularity since the 2000's.
Wolverine Publicity: Rappers tend to promote themselves by guest-starring in other artists' songs.

I really don't understand why people go to that assumption so quickly around here.

To guard against being duped. There's little downside. It can almost never truly be proven that someone isn't trolling. But if it is, one can just go "well it sure seemed like trolling so I was right to be suspicious". Same type of thinking that's at play with conspiracy theories.

look either he's a troll or the type of person to say

But the problem here is that one of my biggest hobbies is language-learning, so I probably would not be oblivious to the lyrics for long. It is hard to invest in an artist if you know there is a big risk of disappointment at some point.

tbf I didn't actually think the thread was a troll, just that the level of failure to read the room was so breathtaking that trolling seemed the kinder explanation

It puzzles me how ✖ and the other poster above find it weird that I would want to learn the language of world music I listen to. The global popularity of Irish traditional music in the 1990s led to significantly higher sales of Irish textbooks and more people in summer courses, because some people wanted to understand the songs they were hearing. I hear the same happened to some degree with Bulgarian after 4AD and Nonesuch released the Le Mystère des voix bulgares recordings and Bulgarian dance was taught across Europe and North America. No, I don’t think that I am any kind of "genius" by doing this, I'm just one of those people who enjoys the process of learning a language.

well if you're too modest to say it i will, you sir, are bordering on genius level in your appreciation of the arts, i doff my hat to you, sir, you are not just one of those people, you are one of the best people, a true friend of the arts

I get that my responses seem "longwinded" to some others here. For my part, I am disappointed that most posts on ILM consist of only a single line, when on some other music fora people write paragraph-long posts at least. Strangely, this has apparently always been the culture on this board, and isn't just a recent development due to so many people writing on their phones now instead of a proper keyboard.

So, with the overwhelming sentiment that I am unwelcome here for whatever reason, I guess I should move on and limit myself to those other fora. Thanks nevertheless to those who gave honest recommendations to my question – some of them do seem promising. Thanks also to those people who sent me private messages to apologize for the behavior of other posters in this thread. Sorry that I can't individually respond to thank you – there is no Reply button in the emails that ilxor.com sends out, and it is not clear to me how I can go look up a person’s profile based on their user name and send a PM to them there.

farewell forever and adieu, newcomer never to return! you will be fondly missed for the duration of your absence, long as it is sure to be not only in the annals of board events but all the more so in our hearts

[mic drop]

the lurkers support me in PMs!

(as a lurker, I do not support Melomane in PMs.)

don't let the door hit you.

or do. may knock some sense into you.

although your skull does appear to be especially dense, so it probably won't make any difference. and violence is never the answer.

so ya, anyway: kindly fuck off.

Melomane, I've sort of been wanting to defend you because I don't think there was anything wrong with your original request and people here can be harsh about certain viewpoints, so please take this as well-intentioned. I don't think you need to leave the board but my impression is that what is frustrating people might that you seem more concerned on this thread with repeatedly defending your right to ask the question than with engaging with the content of the abundant recommendations or reflecting on what your criteria actually are and where they come from - since they don't seem as simple as just "hip-hop without braggadocio"; my spouse listens to even less hip-hop than I do and we were able to easily brainstorm multiple examples of hip-hop songs that are not about braggadocio, weed, or life on the streets, many of which are on the thread. I don't think it shows very close listening at all to write off the entirety of To Pimp a Butterfly (which wasn't the album that won the Pulitzer btw, although maybe it should have been) as just being about these topics, for example. I don't even think "Walk This Way" is about those things, or De La Soul's "Eye Know", or Eminem's "Stan" - there are lots of well-known examples throughout the history of hip-hop. I don't think people here, many of whom are professional writers, would have any problem with paragraph-length posts if they showed more critical engagement with the material or self-reflection regarding your reactions to it.

Anyway, at least I know that Albiach poem now.

Sorry Sund4r, you can't possibly read this...

The global popularity of Irish traditional music in the 1990s led to significantly higher sales of Irish textbooks and more people in summer courses, because some people wanted to understand the songs they were hearing.

... and think this person is serious?

Notwithtstanding the fact that traditional Irish music sung in Irish was not globally popular in the 1990s.

Come on man, Fairytale of New York was massive

Ha, I wasn't into that stuff in the 90s so I wasn't going to judge that. Did Enya and Clannad sing in Gaelic on their popular albums?xp

Michael Flatley danced in Irish in the 1990s.

I learn the language because I need to understand the song vs I like slowdive because I can't hear what they are singing ? bobbins.

the impact is the exact same whether they're serious or not

Flatley would conduct his Riverdancing in a very showy vulgar manner that the threadstarter would not approve of at all.

bobbins. in the asda

xp the term is bragh-a-do-si-do

xp to Sund4r: people offered up some examples of hip-hop lacking in braggadocio very early on but they rejected them all because they wanted artists who had never used any 'tropes' in their entire career which is a blatantly absurd request

more recently, they typed "I hear the same happened to some degree with Bulgarian after 4AD and Nonesuch released the Le Mystère des voix bulgares recordings and Bulgarian dance was taught across Europe and North America," and mused on how if only ILM posts were fuller discursive paragraphs rather than short zingers; not sure how much more obvious they could make it that they're trying to wind up longtime posters. terrible thread.

Sorry I got distracted by the quote about people all over the world learning Irish but, you're right, that's even more blatantly a wind up.

Yeah, even Kate Bush probably didn't learn Bulgarian.

I was thinking more of the dance part.

Какво по дяволите каза за мен, ти малка кучко? Трябва да знаеш, че съм завършил като най-добрия във випуска ми сред морските тюлени, участвал съм в множество тайни нападения на Ал-Кайда и имам над 300 потвърдени убийства. Обучен съм в горилско военно дело и съм най-добрият снайперист във въоръжените сили на САЩ. За мен не си нищо повече от просто поредната цел . Ще те очистя с точност, каквато никога преди не е била виждана на повърхността на планетата, не забравяй шибаните ми думи. Мислиш, че ще ти се размине с това да ме псуваш през интернет? Помисли отново, шибаняко. Докато говорим се свързвам с тайната ми мрежа от шпиони на територията на САЩ и IP адресът ти се проследява в същия момент, така че по-добре се подготви за бурята, скапаняк. Бурята, която ще унищожи жалкото нещо, което наричаш свой живот. Мъртъв си, хлапе. Мога да бъде навсякъде по всяко време, мога да те убия по над седемстотин различни начина и то само с голите ми ръце. Не само че съм широко обучен в невъоръжена борба, но имам достъп до целия арсенал на морската пехота на САЩ и ще го използвам в пълна степен да изтрия нещастния ти задник от лицето на континента, малко лайнарче такова. Ако можеше да знаеш какво безбожно възмездие малкият ти "остроумен" коментар ще ти донесе, може би щеше да държиш шибания си език зад зъбите. Но не го задържа, проговори, и сега ще си плащаш цената, проклет идиот. Ще изсера целия си бяс върху теб и ще се удавиш в него. Мъртъв си, хлапак.

Haha

:D

Meolmane, choose wisely. After listening to a Hendricks, Lambert & Ross record I spent several years mastering this strange new language. But people only laugh when I use it in public.

My family have been communicating exclusively in Hopelandish since 2001.

A-choo-woo-woooooo

^^ in mind it's always been 'eh-tu-wie-ieeeeeuuuuueeeee' but yours works just as well :)

True sign of a universal language.

Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped

I think it's incredibly tacky (to be generous) to ask this question in this manner, especially at this time.

In fact, if I wasn't being generous I would say it's obvious racist trolling* and the number of posters who are all "wait a minute, there's a serious discussion here we should entertain" is sickening.

* remember, trolling doesn't need to be insincere; it just needs to evoke a reaction

the number of posters who are all "wait a minute, there's a serious discussion here we should entertain" is sickening

rt

DJP otm and also

I was so sure this was an ancient revive

― lukas, Saturday, May 30, 2020 5:37 PM (two days ago)

tbf most of us have been 'engaging' while also being extremely critical of the suspicious-at-best OP and basically asking them to rethink their ideas (which they haven't done)