Cornell to Digitize a Rich Hip Hop Archive | Hacker News Reader

Cornell to Digitize a Rich Hip Hop Archive

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52 pointspepys11 comments

This is terrific.

Would be great if someone could do the same favour for Jungle music, another genre that had many tunes exist solely on dubplate.

There aren't many forms of music I cannot listen to, but Hip Hop is one of them. Can't really call it music to be honest, its just agony to listen to, nothing to feel good about, mindless unintelligible lyrics, caustic sounds, and 'singers' who can't sing to save their life (no autotune does not make you sound any better!).

I mean no offense, but it is a very futile and somewhat worthless effort to insult a genre of music and to some extent those who listen to it on a site like Hacker News. I would also encourage you to branch out and listen to different kinds of hip hop, for hip hop like any genre is very diverse (some songs don't event have "mindless unintelligible lyrics"). No harsh feelings but stay classy ;)

Music is one of those things where it can take a little effort to explore and expand your boundaries. Still, in the end while I personally think that's a worthwhile undertaking, the benefits are personal so all I can do is (like you) encourage others to make the effort. It doesn't really affect me at all if someone else doesn't like [insert genre or style or artist here] but I will say that in my experience, it's almost always a positive thing to get into.

I wrote off broad swaths of musical styles when I was younger because I thought I actually had a clue about what was out there. I wrote off country because I'd only listened to a little bit of country and didn't like it. I wrote off house and trance and a lot of other electronic music because I had heard a bit of that and also didn't like it.

But in both cases, I was lucky enough to be exposed to a wider variety thanks to the internet, streaming radio like Shoutcast, and yeah...even a good bit of unauthorized downloading when I was younger and options for discovery weren't as robust. Now I doubt I could bring myself to write off any broad genre if only because I had to reconsider both times I'd done so in the past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVbQo3IOC_A

As a rap fan from childhood, I respect your opinion and I am not offended at all.

Personally, I cannot stand alternative rock, grunge, garage, thrash & death metal.

For me, hip hop beats in my heart.

Every person is different.

I grew up mostly on urban / hiphop, and now most of it I found shallow, but there are some gems. If you have an ear for jazz harmony try JayDee (musical wonder), Pete Rock ... rarely caustic nor mindless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cc4UAmXG9Q

J Dilla is truly a legendary musician.

I could never find it again, but long ago I read an interview of Amp Fiddler telling how Dilla used a bare tape deck and a pencil to sync samples to be overlaid when making beats[1]. Talking about hacker.

[1] which would explain the unfamiliar nasty swing of his productions

"There aren't many forms of music I cannot listen to, but Hip Hop is one of them."

No beef, that's an opinion.

"Can't really call it music to be honest...mindless unintelligible lyrics..."

That's wrong and silly at best, closer to closet racism/classism at worst.

>closer to closet racism/classism at worst

I wouldn't go that far, but mindless and unintelligible? Have you been exposed to the variety of hip hop that is out there?

Aesop Rock, Action Bronson, Deltron 3030/Del the Funkee Homosapien etc etc

Here is an interesting post that classifies hip hop artists based on their vocabulary and word usage:

http://mfdaniels.tumblr.com/post/93313634355/updated-rappers...

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