Musical Geniuses Of The Last Decade - your choices?

[DiegoSapiens]

It's just a loaded buzzword tbh.

It's just a 'favorite artists of the decade' thread in disguise where various people pull out some standards they personally believe are semi-objective.. sort of.. kind of.. by their standards and then argue them and disagree with people who don't share their taste or that magical standard

[Harkat]

Big Pun does not sound dated...his shit is hardcore, defo not a backpacker sound, from what I've heard of him.

[kidshuffle]

Dooms been around since like 91 if you count KMD

I also dont see how pun could be interpreted as backpack

[Genevieve]

People will probably post up links to shit but I don't think it would shake me much. It's no jab at hip-hop either because I think style beats lyrics any day. But we haven't had that many Pharoahe Monches, Eminems, Ras Kasses or Shabaam Saadiqs. In fact, I'd say Eminem was one of the last truly lyrical MCs to come out and that was in the late '90s.

DOOM tho

That's what it's like with rappers too. Tbh, lots of people give props to rappers for being super lyrical merely because they like them..

I think he's a classic example of backpack style over substance.

Which, again, I'm not knockin' the dude for it because hip-hop always has been style focused. But he's just nowhere near lyrical enough to really warrent him the title of 'lyricist'.

[DiegoSapiens]

I think i like ATCQ and early jeru the damaja lyrics the most

[Harkat]

No Gen,
I'm with you that backpack shit is unwarrantedly wanked over. Guys like Aesop Rock get way too much credit for corny white boy rhymes for instance. But Doom is genuinely *at least* a lyrical genius, if not a musical genius.

[Laszlo]

Can someone please give me a definitive explanation of 'backpacker'. I still don't understand it.

[hubb]

Big Pun does not sound dated...his shit is hardcore, defo not a backpacker sound, from what I've heard of him.

Thats not what im saying, I loved it back in the day.
Expecting people to go through text and interpret the references for what they really mean, has become a thing for a 'closed' circle of entusiast, most likely rappers, whereas back then everyone was so into lyrical meaning, atleast in comparison. Now you have to charm the audience so to speak and can't expect people to go find out who the prophet elijah muhammed was just because it rhymed with im the god retarded.

[Genevieve]

I didn't mean it in a deragatory way, just a descriptor (I like my share of backpack music). But generally what I perceive as 'backpacker' is hip-hop with a predominantly non-street based appeal that usually has a fanbase outside of what is classically associated with hip-hop. Pretty much started with DJ Shadow and Kool Keith.

I think think the term originated with kids trading obscure tapes of underground artists at shows, that they carried in backpacks. Could be a myth tho

[Pedro Sánchez]

Can someone please give me a definitive explanation of 'backpacker'. I still don't understand it.

Lyrical content that is semi political with beats from a specific period of the sampled laden boombap variety. Or what used to be known as Underground Hip-Hop before the internet.

[Harkat]

Pretty much started with DJ Shadow and Kool Keith.

DJ Shadow isn't really connected with the Hip-Hop world is he though? Despite the obvious hip-hop influence I mean.

[Pedro Sánchez]

Pretty much started with DJ Shadow and Kool Keith.

DJ Shadow isn't really connected with the Hip-Hop world is he though? Despite the obvious hip-hop influence I mean.

DJ Shadow is definitely hip-hop it's not rap but Endtroducing is Hip-Hop, his newer stuff falls under the genre of 'Shite'.

[wolf89]

Pretty much started with DJ Shadow and Kool Keith.

DJ Shadow isn't really connected with the Hip-Hop world is he though? Despite the obvious hip-hop influence I mean.

Yeah he was. Have you never read anything about his background? There's one of those short books out there somewhere with called something like 33rpm that's about the making of endtroducing. Goes through Shadow's history and he was definitely involved with hip hop.

[kidshuffle]

I dont even know if i'd say Kool Keith, but stuff like ATCQ, Heiroglyphics, Pharcyde...

It was pretty much old school rapping made for the suburban crowd, in the midst of the original gangsta era

[Genevieve]

Shadow got his big break doing turntablism work for Paris, he later founded the Solesides crew (now known as Quannum) with Blackalicious, Lyrics Born and Lateef. 'Endtroducing' was produced on Dan the Automator's gear, etc.

Endtroducing is one of the purest hip-hop albums you've ever heard. Ironically. Just samples and turntables.

[Pedro Sánchez]

I dont even know if i'd say Kool Keith, but stuff like ATCQ, Heiroglyphics, Pharcyde...

It was pretty much old school rapping made for the suburban crowd, in the midst of the original gangsta era

This, Pretty much, counter to gangster rap.

[Harkat]

Pretty much started with DJ Shadow and Kool Keith.

DJ Shadow isn't really connected with the Hip-Hop world is he though? Despite the obvious hip-hop influence I mean.

DJ Shadow is definitely hip-hop it's not rap but Endtroducing is Hip-Hop, his newer stuff falls under the genre of 'Shite'.

Sure, it's fair to label beats on Endtroducing hip-hop, I just didn't realize he was actually associated with Hip-Hop scenes cos there are no MCs on any of his first three albums.

[Pedro Sánchez]

Pretty much started with DJ Shadow and Kool Keith.

DJ Shadow isn't really connected with the Hip-Hop world is he though? Despite the obvious hip-hop influence I mean.

DJ Shadow is definitely hip-hop it's not rap but Endtroducing is Hip-Hop, his newer stuff falls under the genre of 'Shite'.

Sure, it's fair to label beats on Endtroducing hip-hop, I just didn't realize he was actually associated with Hip-Hop scenes cos there are no MCs on any of his first three albums.

He has some b-side with rhymes over his stuff and a few on collabs like the U.N.K.L.E stuff.

[Harkat]

BTW, I've only heard the first three albums. Stopped after Private Press because it was nowhere near as good as the stuff before. How bad/good is his new stuff?

[SCope13]

I dont even know if i'd say Kool Keith, but stuff like ATCQ, Heiroglyphics, Pharcyde...

It was pretty much old school rapping made for the suburban crowd, in the midst of the original gangsta era

Kool Keith just suffers from next-level inconsistency, unfortunately :/