how far can you go and still be hip hop?

[Cold Truth]

just wondering, since the last few of my tracks have been more "movie" like, sounding more like a fim score than a hip hop beat, and the last one utilized full on distortion guitars and a very rock-type break at the end....... so, how far can you go and still be considered hip hop? what do you guys think? i am growing less and less concerned with the hip hop aspect of my work than i am with just making music. i am at a point where the style it self is of little significance..............what about the rest of you? is it important to just be hip hop?

 

[themucka]

IF U CAN RHYME OVER IT... IT'S HIP HOP ???.. IN SOME FORM

2 me theres no line 4 what can be called hip hop...
if the spirit is there.. it's hip hop...
wether u like it or not

 

[dacalion]

Remember "Walk this Way" by RUN-DMC? Well anything past that isn't hip hop anymore...hahahaha j/p But seriously, I think that there is a line when it comes to whats hip hop and whats not. Like themucka said, " if the spirit is there..." that part is true. But, I think there is a line that once you past it, you're in another realm. What Limp Biz does is not hip hop to me. What KORN does is not hip hop to me yet both groups rap.

As far as you "growing less and less concerned with the hip hop aspect of your work", well thats cool too. There is plenty of money in the R&B industry or whatever direction your music is going { unless its DISCO...hahaha }. Whatever you're feeling is cool. Just like Country Music isn't for everybody, neither is hip hop. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you the very best.

As for me, it is important to just be hip hop because its gives you more versatality, freedom and most of all, its what I love.

peace,--dac

 

[Cold Truth]

i hear what you are saying about versitility, but i feel like versatility comes when you focus on making music, not trying to maintain a specific genre.

 

[bigdmakintrax]

Hey man thats what I asked myself when I started making tracks, I mean the listeners would say oh thats too pop....or thats more RNB, well Imma tell you had to to stay true to myself and really listen to what the genre really was made up of......I mean...to me....hip hop music stays close to the roots.....sort of if you look at Reggae, Ska, Dancehall or other forms......outside listeners put it all into one genre but the roots reggae lovers will tell you quick if it don't fit with the genre of BoB marley or sound like that it's not reggae....but to me....hip hop music has to maintain certain rhythms or follow certain patterns that yes I hate to bust bubbles but most hip hop drum patterns that exist or the 1&2 samples have been done...so you're basically either speeding it up or slowing it down or changing samples...just that simple.......you go strip down any track from 10 or 15 years ago to the drum pattern and speed it up or slow it down and then put a 2003 sound layer on it or new sample and there you go....hip hop but you know....new ish....even with the Neptunes or Timbo it's all about the drums and the BASS, you have to have that...........whether it's Hi TEk, Havoc, RZA or whoever they will kind of give a template to work from....but look at mannie fresh and the south beats.....to me they took what were timbaland patterns with triplets and sped it up and sort of added in the good ol Luke bottom....so that's considered hip hop nowadays and a lot of other ish...so just be thinking about....1 can an MC spit on it...... will the crowd be moved....and mostly will it make a hit record

 

[Cold Truth]

making a hit is the least of my concerns. i wouldnt mind being that artist who doesnt have a true radio record but has a cult following.... or whatever. i have just come to a place where keeping it soley hip hop with my abilities would ultimately be a waste, since i do have a desire to do so many other things...

i am a christian and so i would like to venture out into worship, but, you now with my own flair because i just have a different flavor- besides the fact that there arent many christian artists in hip hop that i think are any good musically- but there are a few- anyways, i think i just want to make music and i think the core of it all will remin hip hop, but there is just so much out there to do creatively, you know?

the bottom line is just being true to myself, but it is a bit difficult to gain respect as a hip hop artist when you dont conform to the general aesthetic. when you dont really fit a certain demographic within this culture, which loves to rip you to shreds critically because you dont "kep it real" within their reality- what? im just rambling.....

i just think i would rather carve out my own little niche somewhere and it would be great to just make music that everyone has a hard time labeling!!! anyhow i'm liking the input i am getting from this thread..

 

[inrctyhoodmusic]

Just make what comes out don't think just pound and search for sounds whatever it ends up being is what it is wether it comes out rock pop R&B
hip hop east west north south...It's about music....One mans trash is another mans treasure...Someone will like it

 

[MaximeRobin]

Originally posted by Truth Told
the bottom line is just being true to myself, but it is a bit difficult to gain respect as a hip hop artist when you dont conform to the general aesthetic. when you dont really fit a certain demographic within this culture, which loves to rip you to shreds critically because you dont "kep it real" within their reality- what? im just rambling.....

So true. And everybody SAYS they are open minded but when you do something just a little different you get this "keep it real" attitude. I'm doing what one could call experimental hiphop, a fusion of hiphop, idm and some rock/punk esthetic. The worst that been say to me is that I don't have talent of any kind because I put distortion oon my beat. The violent critic like this always come from the hiphop heads...

For me it's important to be hiphop but my definition of hiphop is so large. I think that there is more in hiphop that just boom bap or mainstream type hiphop.

Anyway I'll continue on that way cause I like it that way. And in your case, I advise to do what you like too. I'm christian but not very convinced I guess, but a cristan kind of hiphop artist that is good, that would be interesting.

 

[cathedralceilin]

I feel whatever you comes out of you, is hiphop, if your hiphop know what I mean. dont limit yourself, to a certain genre or style like hoodmusic said. You have to let your ideas flow, thats when the masterpieces come. when you try to do a certain sound I feel it limits you. As far as what is hiphop and what is not, I think thats hard to say, since hiphop has borrowed from many different genres. Ive met cats on the street, who tell me my stuff isn't hiphop, becuase its jazzy, even there knowledge of beatmakers and hiphop only extends timbo, and the neptunes. In my eyes thats what is missing, is the rawness, and the expression, now cats try to mimic there sound, and in a sense, I think that is hurting the artform. My boy Grendel, makes some of the illest beats I have heard, and most are abstract, but you can feel them, because he puts his soul into them. if you want to check him out go to www.mp3.com/grendel as far as korn and limp not being hiphop I feel that, they have a hiphop element in there music. but then again who am I to say, they might feel that they are completely hiphop, so in reality I guess its a complicated subject

 

[Cold Truth]

well as far as production, most cats ae really limited in what they like, and so that is all they know and that becomes the scope of things.... its hlarious when people tell me they "cant dance to it" or "it sounds to much like a movie".... because they think of things in terms of what gets play in the clubs and radio.... ultimately hip hop will continue to grow and change and innovate, and go through the growing pains it has been through so many times before, because no other musical artform combines so many combustable elements and philosophies under one umbrella, and everyone tends to believe that the piece they happen to stand under is the "realest".. ah whatever im just rambling now.....

 

[JP hardboiled]

hey music is music..and people who can't see outside of hip hop are missing out on a whole lot..all music is interelated and if you didn't notice the cats who make it in "hip hop" bring something from another musical style in..take Just Blaze for instance..he uses alot of soul music..it's put to a "hip hop" beat but the foundation is soul..Timbaland uses alot of synth sounds which was really created from the founding fathers of electronic music..like Robert Moog, John Cage and others whom without them there would be no synths to play on..he also uses a lot of ethnic drums..you telling me those ethnic drums are "hip hop"? and some cats like alchemist can take any record and make it an alchemist beat with their own style imprinted on it..eveyone, no matter how hard they deny it, are influenced by other musical styles..all the illest cats just make "their" music plain and simple..

 

[Cold Truth]

yeah but thats a given.... almost every sample comes from some other form of music before it is transformed into hip hop..but i mean ranging out into extremely different style of that, of what is here... sound wise, i kind of want to push the envelope a bit. thats a bit hard to do with great success, at least for my taste.. i really dig what timbaland does, butcats like manny fresh irritate me, and i dont personally think that the tracks they do are very musical, but they went and created a unique sound (yes, i know they use that planetrock-esque, mantronix type sound, but they really put their own stamp on what they do themselves) and changed everything up. the neptunes as well, heck even swizz beats... i guess i will say that he takes a "Minimalist" approach..! (that was sarcastic... i cant stand him) so even cats that i dont like at all, i do see the innovations and different approaches. i dont think very many people deny that they are influenced by other styles. every time i read an interview, they always mention some soul artist of jazz player or rock star... me personally i have been feeling van morrison for some reason lately... never new he was that soulful.. but yeah i think you hit the nail on the head right there, THE ILLEST JUST MAKE THEIR MUSIC, PLAIN AND SIMPLE!

 

[Freakwncy]

Hear me.

Make what you feel...plain and simple...Leave it up to the non-music makers to classify it.... Our J>O>B is to make the music, not classify it.

 

[Cold Truth]

yup.... hey dnt, you said you werent convinced as a christian.... why is that? anyhow i have heard a few kids that are nice... mars ill comes to mind... it just gets a little gimmicky some times because everyone just spits about moses or whatever and thats cool, because their is a place for that but as for me, my faith (biblically) is shown by the life that i choose to lead and the manner i conduct myself, and yes my content very much would go a long way to show that, but i dont think that it is necesary to just ryme about moses and the apostles and all that. ...

hmmmm.. that was off subject, but those two things were themes inside of the context, so i guess it was ok!! anyhow yeah i think we get too cauht up in the hip hop "realness" subject sometimes... music is music and it truly is a tool for many things, and so i just want to do music... i doubt i will be considered "real" hip hop by ourists and certainly dont fit the gangsta mold and i aint flossin or pimpin.. and i refuse (unless God says so........) to just sit there and rap to, for, and with only christians ( that isnt biblical... but there is much to that subject in itself..) so i guess i will just end up where God guides me!!!!

 

[MaximeRobin]

I beleive there is a god but I don't beleive in the church or in all the rituals. But I guess it ain't really the thread to talk about this. I used the word convinced because I'm not an english speaking person and it was the word closest to what I tought.