too bad, I mean I listen to all hip hop especially far left field not what you are calling backpack, Dan the automator, Thurston Howell III, cocoa brovas, yes Madlib, shobiz n AG.....Yes to understand hip hop, once upon a time there was abstract......Hip Hop Has no rules how many times have I said it...LOL but people continually try to put it into some pretty structured box based on some music theories or other stuff.....sure we want good listening instrumentals dont get me wrong....but what he is doing is an art.....like the difference in an abstract painting and some fucking Picasso or Monet masterpiece....seems like the problem is you are not a lover of the abstract but the purely sublime works that have structure...nothing wrong with that but you cant discount it because its closer to the original sound of the genre or at least the elements......once upon a time there was actually music based on an MC not an MC based on music but turntables, 12bit samplers and pure breaks.....Vinyl elements and what he is doing with the music in the background probably seem simple to you classic but you have to really hear what goes on with the sampling.....some people might say wack or whatever .....but true hip hop that is MC BASED....NOT a majority of the straight to the garbage can rap shit of today where the essence of the MC is lost and commercial appeal drives what might seem hot.............is gonna leave lot of people really bewildered and lost when they hear it....especially if they identify with what pretty much lately don taken over what the labels pimp on the air and people accept as music or hip hop.....I dont feel all of Madlibs stuff either but its not all backpack.....a lot of the real hip hop transitioned to what you are calling backpack.......4 years or maybe longer around When Water for Chocolate dropped..... I went to go see Tribe called Quest and Common here in DC at the 9:30 club and there was not too many of us there which surprised me because when they came out.....not too many other people than US listened to it....on the real.....anyhow things change and so do peoples likes and dislikes........if you just now really getting into hip hop and using what you hear today or the last 4 or 5 years to define it.....then a lot of the classic shit gets left in the dust unfortunately.........but you know to be honest what he is doing though is something that if I could not find and MC I would do and it might sound just as Ruff......I mean its just him producing the beats and MC'ng having fun with it......