re: is rap done?

Still come good ones left. Joe Budden, Immortal Technique, Future, Jedi Mind tricks, Snowgoons, OF, Pusha T and hopsin. Most of the shite on the radio sounds the same, come back tupac

Is nobody going to mention B.o.B? Don't hold Airplanes against him now. He gave us 7 high-quality mixtapes* before his first album. The man provided me with a lot of free listening, and it was good for him to finally get monetarily compensated for that. I still like his mixtapes as much or more than his album material. The good thing is that he still puts out mixtapes.

*The B.o.B vs. Bobby Ray mixtape is probably my second favorite hip hop 'album' in the past five years. I liked it that much.

i think if you are 30+ it's hard to listen to any of this new rap, i still like Jay and Kanye and GAme and all the older rappers but B.o.B. i can't relate. it's not about a scene anymore with those rappers they just rap.

i just feel as a whole, while some of these up and coming rappers can rap, they are entertainers, not artist. they aren't bringing anything new to the table. they all use the same producers and all sounds the same. I have no doubt though there are some talented rappers out there that aren't being heard it's the suits fault for pushing this shite they play in the mainstream these days.

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i think if you are 30+ it's hard to listen to any of this new rap, i still like Jay and Kanye and GAme and all the older rappers but B.o.B. i can't relate. it's not about a scene anymore with those rappers they just rap.

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I'm 32, and I'm a big B.o.B fan. I saw him in the summer of 2009. It was him, Kid Cudi, and Asher Roth. Cudi was the headliner, Rother was the second guy, and bobby ray (this was back when he couldn't figure out whether he wanted to be b.o.b or bobby ray) was the first act to go on. I had never heard of the guy.

You can imagine where this story goes. Dude just blew my mind. I may or may not have jizzed a little bit in my pants during the song "Satellite". I have absolutely no recollection of seeing Asher Roth or Kid Cudi on stage. And i wasn't wasted.

The next day this bobby ray guy is all I'm talking about at work (of course nobody had heard of him). I first downloaded and listened to the B.o.B v. Bobby Ray mixtape, and I was hooked. I got all of his mixtapes, and basically listened to nothing but b.o.b / bobby ray for like the next four months.

All the while, I knew he was going to blow up. His songs were pop without him even trying to make them pop. To hear songs like "Satellite" and "No Man's Land" on a free mixtape, means you're dealing with a seriously talented artist.

And he blew up. But it's cool. I had him to myself for like a year. And I saw him at the 930 club -- a venue he'll DEFINITELY never play again -- three different times.

Quick example:

Yesterday I was listening to Juvenile's "Ghetto Children" and the bass line for that song is shockingly...played with a real bass guitar! Now I understand this doesn't mean that real instrumentation is not being used every now and then in songs but it is getting rarer and rarer. Go back and listen to that track and actually hear the notes being bent and there are a couple of quick breaks that sound great. I think it is the best bass line on the whole album, not best song.

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've been incorrectly predicting rap's demise since the early 1990s.

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Great post.

The thing about hip/hop or rap. Is that it changes alot. Most people wouldn't like the furious five or RUN DMC today. We live in a different time. In the late 80's early 90's hip/hop was pro black and more conscience, and almost exclusively made by young black kids in NYC. The avg twenty something is so far removed from that era they have no idea what rap used to sound like back then,let alone if they would even like it or not.

With the exception being Run DMC, LL cool J, and the beastie boys, rap didn't go mainstream until if hit the west coast and NWA, and white kids started spending money on it. Since then hip hop has gone from gangsta, to ballin, to drug dealer, to nice guy. I couldn't tell you what the next five years hold, but I'm sure there will be an audience for it.