/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.3252314]

What does /lit think of rap?
I'm not trying to make a music thread, but I guess a rap equivalent of the 'Are Bob Dylan Lyrics literature?'

Is there any rap or rappers out there that you genuinely think are good with the pen ?

>inb4 lil wayne sucks

captcha: village coonsol

[Bullkowski !!DDFKjfJhPl/ No.3252328]

Doom.

[Anonymous No.3252323]

Lil B

everyone else is beneath mention

[Anonymous No.3252335]

>>3252323

[Anonymous No.3252331]

>>3252328

there's some DOOM that i like, but I can't take his fucking voice seriously. Every song he's got that lazy sounding and huffy voice that makes all his flows sound the same.

[Anonymous No.3252338]

>>3252314
Post some good rap lyrics pls

[Bullkowski !!DDFKjfJhPl/ No.3252345]

>>3252331
And Bob Dylan has a whinny, nasally voice. The question was the most storytelling-/lit/ like you know.

[Anonymous No.3252349]

alright, here's a personal favorite of mine

"Now who's the king of these rude ludicrous lucrative lyrics
Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics
Using his music to steer it sharing his views in his marriage
But there's a huge interference they're sayin you shouldn't hear it
Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit
Maybe it's beautiful music I made for you to just cherish
But I'm debated disputed hated and viewed in America
as a motherfuc'kin drug addict like you didn't experiment?"

[Anonymous No.3252352]

>>3252338
cash roolz e'erything around me
cream get tha money
dolla dolla bill y'all

[Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ No.3252355]

>>3252314
/mu/

What does OP think of origami?
Answer: WE DON'T CARE

[Anonymous No.3252358]

>>3252345
whats a good song of his to check out?

[Anonymous No.3252361]

>>3252355
>implying music and literature are as mutually exclusive as music and origami

[Bullkowski !!DDFKjfJhPl/ No.3252362]

Also I HEAR Tech N9ne is a pretty lyricist. I haven't listened to a ton of him, so don't hold me to that. But I think he has some ties to the Juggalo scene, that's my prime reason for keeping my distance.

[Bullkowski !!DDFKjfJhPl/ No.3252376]

>>3252358
Bob Dylan? I hate him. But people like "Blowing in the wind" "Like a Rolling Stone" "The times they are a-changing".

[Anonymous No.3252378]

>>3252362
yeah, man. I've heard that, too.
He's definitely worth checking out, though.
it looks like he's breaking away from that crowd, though, and rubbing elbows with hiphop heavy weights now like eminem and other mainstream guys (i.e. lil wayne)

[Anonymous No.3252380]

>>3252362
He plays the Juggalo Gathering every year and collabs with some people in that world, but his music has nothing to do with it. He also used face paint before knowing the ICP existed. It's an ode to his African culture or something.

[Anonymous No.3252382]

“I'm a go to Starbucks in the morning for some coffee./If there ain't a girl there I WON'T BUY NO DAMN COFFEE" - Lil B, "Erybody Kno"

[Anonymous No.3252402]

From a literary perspective, there are some great metaphors and similes in hip-hop lyrics.

[Anonymous No.3252417]

>>3252402
true dat.
alotta rappers overuse the metaphor in my opinion, thought. But that's usually the overnight radio pop rappers who exemplify all the bad things about rap.
Like, we get it, you're hotter than the sun, bigger than a mountain, and have more money than infinity + 1

[Anonymous No.3252435]

Try Doomtree (or their solo stuff, especially Dessa and Cecil Otter).

[Anonymous No.3252455]

I love rap music for reasons totally separate form why I like other styles of writing.

I think all rappers are good with a pen in their own way, except for the really bad ones obviously. Some rap verges on poetry, mostly alternative hip hop or east coast stuff like Nas or OutKast (but not west coast gangsta rappers like Dre and Snoop, good music but not good poetry).

While they aren't necessarily my favorite rappers, here are some examples of lyricists I know of who write that deep/sophisticated lyrical content.

> Aesop Rock
> Blackalicious
> BlackStar (Mos Def and Talib Kweli)
> Cage
> Company Flow
> Edan
> Lupe Fiasco
> Nas
> OutKast
> A Tribe Called Quest
Most rappers write about themselves though and poets almost never do that so even then the comparison is awkward.

As to why I think rap is good writing on its own terms, I think these links will give the gyst of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miIxNCn-vjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I53vWm8dJGk

[Anonymous No.3252467]

Is this /lit/?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjKVhPNCMo

[Anonymous No.3252488]

>>3252467
> The Who sample

I can't listen to this shit

[Anonymous No.3252493]

Logic is my favorite rapper.

[Anonymous No.3252537]

>>3252435
Doomtree crew is a good example of a lot of artists coming out of there who were performance poets that were paired up with the right producer.

[Anonymous No.3252566]

Money comes and goes like that two bit hussy that night that tried to rush me
Dwight pass the dutchie
So I can calm down so they don't get it twisted
Take it from the fireside it won't get blistered
Got it, what happened
Oh, it's not /lit/

[Keaton Shake !!WAJ+ZY5fOOH No.3252642]

As idiotic as most of it is, rap - even the stupid stuff, subject matter-wise - does a valuable thing in keeping interest alive in wordplay and showing people the power of a clever turn of phrase. I really can't tolerate listening to Lil' Wayne freeform about macaroni and cheese for very long, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate hearing someone put together a beautiful rhythm and sound with their words, or distilling a rhetorically loaded statement down into a double entendre. I love those moments where you hear something said that's got face value, and you accept it as just that, only for the joke or the dig or the insinuation to hit you an hour later, a day later, a month later; other music seems to be moving in the other direction, but rap lives and dies on trying to do that kind of thing. I never really agreed with the idea that a pun is the lowest form of humor, so I'm glad that there are professional wordplayers out there keeping the art from getting a bad -- Well, y'know.

[Anonymous No.3252663]

WU TANG

The roots are good too.

[Anonymous No.3253109]

>>3252566

[Anonymous No.3253358]

>>3252376
>I hate him.
Aaaaaaaaaaand welcome to the filter, you dense fuck.

[Bullkowski !!DDFKjfJhPl/ No.3253592]

>>3253358
I gladly welcome it.

[Anonymous No.3253600]

>>3252349

I'm sure it's a lovely song
But it's not good poetry

[Anonymous No.3253613]

I can't stand it. I really can't cope with a single minute of rap music.

I'm not making any claims about it. I just hate it, find it annoying as hell and people tried to introduce me to "no, but listen this, this one is good" but it did nothing for me.

[Anonymous No.3253616]

how is this thread still up

fucking reported and saged

[Anonymous No.3253630]

is ambient music literature?
is tai chi literature?
is drinking wine literature?

[Anonymous No.3253641]

Das Racist - Rainbow in the dark

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdWxo3e3Kzk

Mos def - Mathematics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5vw4ajnWGA

DEM LYRIX

[Anonymous No.3253647]

>>3252493
UK or US Logic?
UK is the only right answer

Also Akala and Lowkey

[Bullkowski !!DDFKjfJhPl/ No.3253654]

>>3253630
If you read about it in a book it is.

[Anonymous No.3253664]

>>3253641

>Yeah, we could eat Gruyère
>As if we care We could eat Roquefort
>Or we could just kick it like Rockports
>In the periphery of Little Sicily little did she know I’m tickling boo she so giggly
>Catch me solving mysteries like Wikipedia Brown
>It’s the future get down
>We make a sound even if nobody’s around

[Anonymous No.3253670]

i assume your definition of 'good rap lyrics' = appeals to white people

[Anonymous No.3253699]

>>3253670
>i assume your definition of 'good rap lyrics' = appeals to white people
>implying 'appeals to white people' is not simply the definition of objectively good

[Anonymous No.3253702]

SEE I BE RIDING THROUGH MY OWN HOOD
YES I AM A BLACK MAN
YOUNG MONEY, X-GAMES

[Anonymous No.3253711]

"These 'Wu Tang' characters sure spit hot fire, honey!"

[Anonymous No.3253716]

>>3253711
I am always confused by what the little girl is doing in this GIF.

[Anonymous No.3253729]

>>3253699
0/10

[Anonymous No.3253772]

Tripping off the beat kinda, dripping off the meat grinder
Heat niner, pimping, stripping, soft sweet minor
China was a neat signer, trouble with the script digits
Double dipped, bubble lipped, subtle lisp midget
Borderline schizo, sort of fine tits though
Pour the wine, whore to grind, quarter to nine, let's go
Ever since ten eleven, glad she made a brethren
Then it's last down, seven alligator seven, at the gates of heaven
Knocking, no answer, slow dancer, hopeless romancer, dopest flow stanzas
Yes, no? Villain, Metal face to Destro
Guess so, still incredible in escrow
>check the annotations
>http://rapgenius.com/Madvillain-meat-grinder-lyrics
>mfw Doom is the Joyce/Pynchon/DFW of hiphop

[Anonymous No.3253810]

>Lil B
>Death Grips
>A$AP Rocky
>Flabush ZOMBiES
>Danny Brown
Death Grips and Danny Brown are the only ones with good lyrics. ZOMBiES and A$AP's lyrics are painfully repetitive.

[Anonymous No.3253815]

everyone in this thread claiming rappers are 'good lyricists' or some derivative of having literary merit is a charlatan

[Anonymous No.3253993]

I'm curious to know, if rappers don't read (generalization, but I have yet to hear of a mainstream one who does) where do they learn words and phrases to use? Movies? Some of their shit makes me think they might actually read. Then I remember kanye's 'imma praowd illiterate' thing

[Anonymous No.3253997]

Anybody have the link to DFW's essay on Rap music?

[Anonymous No.3254006]

>>3253993
A lot of them are big readers.

I know Tupac was an avid reader, and when they went to his home/apartment to sort his stuff out after being shot they found books everywhere

[Anonymous No.3254017]

>>3253997
http://www.missourireview.com/content/dynamic/view_text.php?text_id=1362

[Anonymous No.3254023]

>>3254017
Thanks m8

[Anonymous No.3254039]

>>3253993

They read. Or they have ghostwriters.

Maybe some of them play dumb just to appeal to the public?

[Anonymous No.3254044]

>>3252314

[Anonymous No.3254076]

>>3254006
That's interesting... what kinds of books, do you know?

I'd love to have the image I have of them as illiterate street creepers shattered.

>>3254039
I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Maybe they know the key to good lyrics is reading and they don't want to share their secret weapon

[Anonymous No.3254084]

>>3252338

You see the young mother capital is where I live,
little kids being raised by slightly bigger kids,
society seems unphased that this is how it is,
while I'm constantly amazed that this is how it is,
they confuse love at first sight with lust at first light,
it must have hurt right when trust first took flight,
you're young, you've no rights, you long for new heights,
but some of those nights leave more than love bites,
tops cropped, skirts stop at the top of their thighs,
and the boys got that hungry look in their eyes,
they wanna be grown up and have respect you see,
but they're acting uneducated sexually,
I ain't saying' be celibate,
go out and have your fun,
but there's plenty you can do without impregnation,
and there ain't nothing wrong at all with having children,
just build yourself a little before you try to build them,
and,
Get better, get better, get better, get better,

- Scoobius Pip.

[Anonymous No.3254088]

>>3253616

7. Submitting false reports or otherwise abusing the report system will result in a ban of indeterminate length. Replying to a thread stating that you've reported it or another post is also disallowed—please do not announce your reports.

[Anonymous No.3254089]

>>3254084
>they confuse love at first sight with lust at first light

that's pretty clever way of putting it

[Anonymous No.3254093]

>>3254017
anyone else think he gets a little too excited to delve into the misogynist and violent themes of rap? he stops finding round-about ways of explaining details and simply just starts channeling these themes like he has been given "the excuse"

[Anonymous No.3254094]

>>3253997

There's a whole book if you're not too poor/mean to pay for it.

[Anonymous No.3254099]

>>3254039
>ghostwriters.

Ghostfacekillahwriters, I think you mean.

[Anonymous No.3254105]

I find it annoying that rappers never miss to tell you that they are the best.

[Anonymous No.3254106]

>>3254089

He's quite a clever guy for a beardy hipster terrorist-lookalike.

Every now and then I cower and I need to find empowerment
Empowerment is paramount to how I can begin to mount
A plan that I can implement
to make a dent on ignorance
Instead of drunk belligerence
and the dissidence of miscreants
Especially in this instance
with the never ending persistence
to use the words in each sentence
as if they were blunt instruments
to beat a hole in the defense
of this beauty and her innocence
which serves to build resistance
in spite of all my good intents.

The beat that my heart skipped
This is the beat that my heart skipped
This is the beat that my heart skipped

This is the beat that my heart skipped when we first met
Now that I've heard it, it leaves me with a kind of regret
No disrespect
But we left a lot of people upset
And what we had wasn't really what we'd come to expect

[Anonymous No.3254109]

Of course!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYoigdZnl44

[Anonymous No.3254113]

>>3254105

Have you listened to rap since 1998, gramps? All that muh dick, muh lexus, muh rolex is strictly for the edgy white kids these days, when (white) people still even make it. Rap's moved on quite a lot.

[Anonymous No.3254117]

>>3252338
Mermaids are Seasluts by Sage Francis

I am nothing but a shell of the man I once was
So you can put me to your ear and actually hear yesteryear's ocean
I was in shape then
A much better built body of water with infinite waves and fathomless depths
Where you could have deep sea fishing for compliments
And caught plentiful schools of reassuring comments
Now all you get is the boot
You fell for the bait and got hooked on what you thought I was
Now we're both struggling to win this tug of war of the worlds
Where we breathe the same air, it's just done differently
And I'm tryin to figure out ways to have comfortably survive outside your element
Compromising intelligence
I dabbled in watered down thoughts that filtered in from the main stream
I'm offering mind altering ideas that make the most quiet natured brain scream
from exposure to the types of things that won't necessarily make you happier
They'll just give you a greater range of emotions
And I can feel myself getting lured into deeper oceans of [?]
Where people think they're as safe as cartoons simply because they speak in bubbles
A sanitized safe-haven where you could face Satan and have his faith straightened
His new goal would be to dethrone Poseidon and have Neptune's place taken
They'd swashbuckle with their pitchforks
While Lucifer shit talks and rips forts of coral reef
For relief they be like "bitch walk"

[Anonymous No.3254118]

>>3254117
From this oversized aquarium that daddy kept cleanly to unhealthy degrees
Writing suicide notes with invisible ink on transparences
And posting them to the glass boundaries that surround the seas of change
Strangely enough, while bringing back the real
I could sense intense resistance so I had no other choice but to cut the line
I'm not saying you're overly naive
I just think you should get into the habit of seeing when strings are attached
Fortunate for you I'm compassionate enough to throw back what I catch
If it's underdeveloped and needs time to grow
Though I'm remorseful of the pain I've caused you
And I want to kiss your lips better
I sympathize with the sorrow by stroking the scar
of my own traumatic experience with my excommunicated tongue
Say I know exactly what you mean when you say it hurts too much to talk
I've been there; I don't plan on returning cause
No matter how much distance I kept or how long I waited for my wounds to heal
They'd re-open with the slightest flashback
So I sued time for malpractice
That bastard's a hack with a rusty scalpel and barbed-wire stitch thread
Instead of seeing things clearly, they're pitched red
And there's this glitch in my head that's got me thinking contradictions, it said:
"There are more fish in the sea
Whether you hear me not or you listen to me
Whether you listen to me or hear me not
There are more microorganisms in my teardrop"
But fear not, I'd never sink as low as to make my ears pop
And I imagine now you only want to swim with members of your own league
And you don't need me meddling, sending sonar signals
High pitched notes are symbols, my voice has grown far
But ripples are only caused when you cast stones
But you shouldn't throw rocks if you live in fragile fairytales

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spqRffgOztA

[Anonymous No.3254127]

>>3254117
I was just about to make a Sage Francis post. The whitest and most pretentious rapper out there. You all would love him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ7w-z4BvMo

[Anonymous No.3254132]

>>3254105
This. What is it with rappers and an insane and unhealthy degree of self-confidence/aggrandizement?

Are people like that drawn to rap as depressives are drawn to writing?

[Anonymous No.3254136]

>>3254132
>What is it with rappers and an insane and unhealthy degree of self-confidence/aggrandizement?

De La Soul broke away from that thirty years ago. Where the fuck have you been, under a rock?

[Anonymous No.3254143]

>>3254132
I believe anything less than an insane and unhealthy degree of self-confidence/aggrandizement is seen as weakness among lumpenproletariat urban black males.

[Anonymous No.3254155]

>>3254136
busy not worrying about what rappers break away from or don't.

[Anonymous No.3254157]

>>3254132
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braggadocio_(rap)

[Anonymous No.3254178]

>>3252382
Just watched the video on Youtube. Is this what they call post-irony?

[Anonymous No.3254210]

>>3254155

So why comment on a subject in which you're uninterested you stupid cunt?

[Anonymous No.3254265]

>>3254210
Because it was on /lit/ and caught my eye you vapid clit

[Anonymous No.3254267]

>>3254265

Do you also crash your car if you see something shiny? j/k - I know your mom won't buy you a car.

[Anonymous No.3254268]

>>3254265

>makes asinine, uninformed comments
>claims others are 'vapid'
>doesn't know what 'vapid' means.
>typical, vapid, /lit/ cuntposter.

[Anonymous No.3254275]

>>3254267
Is that what happened here? I though I clicked on a fucking thread to kill some time not wrecked car. Also, and I didn't want to point it out to embarrass you (you seem to be doing a fine job of that yourself), but your argument that 'one rapper brok awai frum that so rap isn't for egomaniacs no moez' is retarded as all shit I'm done with you.

[Anonymous No.3254282]

>>3254275
>not wrecked car.

I'm guessing you're done with your English lessons as well?

[Anonymous No.3254340]

Getting back on topic, Serengeti and Yoni Wolf (aka WHY?) are amazing story-telling rappers. Wolf's lyrics really accurately describe hopelessness in such an abstract way, it's beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQi7Dm2hfxE

[Anonymous No.3254624]

>>3254340
Serengeti is fucking amazing, the man is basically /r9k/ personified.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa344tDslsw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsWr9J67EJk

I also really enjoy Louis Logic, he's not as "unique" sounding as Serengeti, but he's got some great songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQKIWr972ko

[Anonymous No.3256091]

>>3254275
>de la soul
>one rapper

stay white.

[Anonymous No.3256414]

>>3252358
Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie is a poem by Dylan that you MUST listen to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0OdNY8Aybw

[Anonymous No.3256422]

Aesop Rock is legitimate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyeHgGqob9g

He seems like he'd be a cool guy, but a lot of his music is border line abstract. His content is like Busdriver's but a little more sensible. Busdriver is a fucking nut, fyi.

[Anonymous No.3256423]

>>3256091
lol'd

[Anonymous No.3256433]

>>3254624
tfw Louis Logic replies to all my IM's on facebook

[Anonymous No.3256459]

it's super boring
the music is made for american urban black kids and those who identify with that boring culture, there's nothing gained by anyone if I listen to the dreck or not

[Anonymous No.3256521]

Atmosphere tells the story of the poor white modern American man shuffling through The America like no one else.