[Severian]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

"where I'm from the cokeslingers are the rock stars."

ha!

It's "where I'm from the dope boys is the rock stars." Educate yourself.

Kanye is an upper middle class kid raised in Chicago and China who was priviledged enough to attend art school then University when he felt art school was not cool. Come on...

First off, you really don't understand Kanye's whole thing. This is obvious now.

"I don't know I just wanted better for my kids
And I ain't sayin' we was from the projects
But every time I want it, layaway or a deposit
My Dad'll say "when you see clothes close ya eyelids
...
I don't know what he did for dough
but he would send me back to school with a new wardrobe"

Never claimed to be Thug Life, but he did grow up on the Chicago's south side. Went to school there, lived there, tried to thrive there... one doesn't live and work and go to schoo in the south side of Chicago if one is "upper middle class." My mother was a tenured college professor and we weren't "upper middle class." You've either never been to Chicago, or you have a faulty perception of class, especially with respect to black people in big cities in America.

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Kanye's music is to Hip Hop what Radiohead is to rock, seems great to people who do not know much about the music, but derivative and played and BORING to anyone whose ears have actually been tickled by the avant garde.

Sure about Radiohead comparison. Sure. If only because no other rock shaken anything up in a platinum-selling kind of way in this time period. Radiohead has largely stuck to the same formula, though, so again, THE BEATLES are a much better referenc point.

But derivative? Are you on Thorazine again? He reps No ID and Dilla, and Tribe and the Beatles and MJ all influenced him in ways he'll readily admit. Who exactly is Kanye derivative of? Every rapper you like is derivative of Kanye, but who is HE derivative of? Who's done what he's done before to the extent that he can be considered a mimic?

Also, my ears have been "tickled by the avant-garde" (barf) -- I live on a Sonic Youth board. I'm into weirder shit than you are, and MOST of the music I love is actually far from the mainstream. I also know hip-hop. So, that whole last thing your said? Total and complete bullshit.

I'm not even sure you have a firm grasp of what avant-garde means. It's hard for me to think of a better term to DESCRIBE Kanye in the context of hip-hop. He always takes chances and does weird ass shit. He doesn't mumble over someone else's beats like a bitch.
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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

I HATE SINGING ON RAP TRACKS. That shit ruined hip hop.

So you don't like Tribe then. You don't like Wu-Tang. You can't like "Nothin but a G Thang," you don't like FUTURE, because what that dude does is not really rapping. It's slurred singing. FUTURE SINGS, YOU CLOWN.

Oh, you also don't like Outkast.

You only like rapping. Which means you're REALLY easy to please and REALLY easy to disappoint. If it's not rapping, disappointed. If there's MORE than rapping, didappointed.

Kanye's above your rap processing skills bro. Stick to the same redundant shit artists who make the same song a hundred times over five years and then fade into memory.

I'm disappointed in your ass.