Today I feel like writing about the genre in general since I can't think of one artists particularly for some reason. The earliest of Soul singers that I can think of is Otis Redding who pretty much layed the foundation for the genre. In a world that was pretty much run by whites he found a way to spread his soulfull message of how he's hurting from this pain in the world. While this was happening Mo-Town was booming. With artist like Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, and Stevie Wonder. It was something.
Then shortly after Ray Charles stepped in with his kind of Rock N Roll type and showed us that you didn't have to see to play piano... scratch that, you didn't have to see to play kick ass music. Ray dropped some good Rock songs like "I Got A Woman" and "Mess Around" but we showed us his true talent when he sang his ballad of the state that betrayed him in "Georgia On My Mind"
During Ray Charles reign names like Aretha Franklin and Tina & Ike Turner appeared on the scene. Particularly Ms. Franklin made a HUGE splash with her HUGE voice.
And now we move on to when the King of Pop Michael Jackson appeared in the 70's with some killer stuff at a young age of like 10. He stole America's heart so quickly we didn't notice that he grew up. Later in his career he made more Rock influenced and Pop stuff but every once in a while he would slip in a Soul song on an album just to go back to his roots. His most famous Soul song is probably his hit with his brothers The Jackson 5 with "I Want You Back"
Sly & The Family Stone are an unbelievably unappreciated group that made an impact on music immensly. Every member of that band could sing. Not just sing a simple melody... but a fucking harmony. They were boss especially with their amazing cover of "Que Sera Sera"
Marvin Gaye had probably the sexiest voice ever. EVER. "Lets Get It On" is the sex anthem forever and ever. That is probably the first song I listened to that made me aroused. Not kidding. He had such a smooth voice that everyone loved and people now still talk about his greatness. He kept you moving with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" and loving with "Distant Lover"
Now lets fast forward to my generation of R&B which mainly consist of mad man/mad talented R. Kelly and Usher. R. Kelly has a voice that no man would want to walk away from. He sings in such a perfect pitch and everything. It's almost as if he is auto-tuned... but trust me he's not. He had many hits such as "Bump and Grind" and "Ignition" but my favorite of his songs is him on the new Kanye album "To The World" which is a message that he doesn't care what the public thinks of him. He did what he did and if you don't like him now fuck you.
Now is Usher and he was and I guess still is one of my favorite artists ever. His album "My Way/8701" was the second album I've ever owned. Of course I wasn't old enough to even understand his lyrics but I loved it. Now he's somewhat getting too advanced he's almost forgetting where he started. He's so caught up in the techno phase that he almost forgets where he came from. My favorite song by him is possibly "U Got It Bad" or his new song "Climax" always an Usher fan and supporter. Just hopes he goes back to his roots before he loses a true fan.
And for the future of R&B lies in the hands of Frank Ocean who I hope will change the genre forever. He's certainly changed on how I've viewed the genre. He sings about some fucked up shit that no one should have to experience but whats crazy is he has experienced them all. And he knows exactly how to deliver his story to the public. He should not go underappreciated because of his sexuality, and his sexuality is not what makes him so good. It's his god damn way of singing and performing without the flash and flare you see so much now adays, you don't even notice the music. But not with Frank in the song "Thinkin Bout You"
Well thats a long ass blog. I wrote it this long cause I know you actually read my posts!
P.S. I know I've missed out on some huge names and I wish I knew more about them. I really hope we go over this genre and all music genres in class in the future.
Every song on this album is a masterpeice.... From start to finish its art. The starting song just shows you how good it will be.
To think it was that good and if rejected songs like "Strawberry Fields Forever" were on the album.... it would be even better. Such creativity with such advancements in sound and technology made this probably my favorite Beatles album.... it's only missing a few of my favorites such as "Love" and "Let It Be" but besides that it has my favorite Beatles song "A Day In The Life" a song which could be an album on its own. That song, no, this entire album showed all different styles of The Beatles genius music. I loved every second of it.
This is my favorite Beatles song of all time, "A Day In The Life"
Recently I found my old Speakerboxxx/The Love Below CD and popped it into my Iphone and it felt like I fell in love again. OutKast is the perfect mix of Hip/Hop-Rap and R&B-Soul. Andre 3000 is one the most smooth, talented, funny, and creative rappers to ever hit the studio. He is a tripple threat. He raps, sings, writes, and also plays a couple of instruments. He is also the perfect hype man for any type of group. He represents southern rap the best in my opinion.
Right next to Andres insane rhymes and creativity come Big Boi who is not exactly a bad rapper himself. He's much harder but can pull off the smooth sound as well. But where he comes in to the play is the beats. He makes some crazy unique beats that only Andre and himself could ever think about rapping to. They wouldn't be qualified as nasty, or dirty, they're qualified as instrumental, creative, and orchestrated. He puts sounds of animals, screams, some freaky samples, horns, tubas, drums, pianos, and whatever he damn wants on a track.
These two together are a dangerous pair, but when both went single Andre definitely ended with the better career. He featured on so many of todays tracks because they all bow to his expertise and his master of the mic, and how he presents him self on stage where he is king. Big Boi is producing for many artists and gets no where near as much credit as he deserves. But even if he got all of his credit Andre would still reign ahead because of his creativity factor. The man is a rapper who wrote a god damn musical! He knows how to tell a story, make you feel cocky, or just make you move. He sings what he wants, raps what he wants, and not to mention he doesn't write when he raps. He freestyles all of his raps. And to have the improvisation skills, and quick thinking to do that is the trait of a god MC. God Bless OutKast and their impact on music today.
One of OutKast most Hip/Hop song in my mind "B.O.B."
And a full R&B song with a catchy piano hook and is 3 stacks doing his thing "Life is a Musical"
And a perfect mix of both of their Hip-Hop and R&B styles "Roses"
In class we listened to Revolution which is kind of the beginning of The Beatles growing into genius song writers and expert players. And their growth is a result of the master peice Pet Sounds release. Pet Sounds had much more orchestrated music along with even better harmonies and melodies than The Beatles had. Brian Wilson is genius for this album and he doesn't get anywhere near as much credit as he deserves for it.
And John, Paul, George, and Ringo responded with Revolver which kind of showed that they could make the orchestrated sounds its just they had already been half way done once Pet Sounds was released. The best song on Revolver in my mind is Eleagnor Rigby because although it is overplayed and over sang and over done.... its a god damn masterpeice. I'm just so excited once we start listening to even harder stuff thats more complicate, more rebellious, and more meaningful. I'm pumped to start listening to Sgt. Peppers, Sabbath, and the guitar god Hendrix.
Here is a comparison of how much rock changed from 1965-1971
Now we all know that RHCP was the best performance their and probably the best headliner for ACL ever. But Childish came nothing short of amazing. I'm a fan of his acting, stand up, singing, and rapping. He did what we does best and he entertained the crowd. I was 2nd row for him and seeing him in person was just weird in a funny way. I like him cause he is really good with metaphores and similes and throwing them into whats going on with his life. We waited a long time for him and when he came out we all flipped!
His show was fun to me because he was having fun with it. He told the crowd what he wanted from us and he got it. He went into the crowd, touched us all, jumped with us, basically he was like part of the crowd.
Also Childish took a break from rapping for a bit at the concert and him and his broke out into Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" acapella. It was badass. All there was was Childish in the middle with a spotlight on him. His crew all had drum sticks and started a beat with the crowd and they all sang in harmony. And he did that until he came out of the circle and screamed "ON 3 I WANT YALL TO LOSE YOUR SHIT!! 1! 2! 3!" and I felt Zilker Park jump a little bit. Definantly a must see if you like creative rap and a good show.
Here is my personal favorite song of his "What the Fuck Are You?"
Big Gigantic tore it up. Even though they were just an opener for Bassnectar they killed it. Not alot of lights or fancy shit, just plain good music and good DJ-ing. I mean the guy played the Sax while dropping the bass hard. And another guy was banging on his drums and dropping it. Plus with the rain it was just a good show. They definantly knew how to entertain a crowd. All the songs were perfect and what seperates a good DJ from a bad DJ is that every drop can't be the same thing. It has to have different tempos and pitches somewhat and they did that for sure. Definantly one of the most fun concerts I've ever been to.
For Bassnectar, all I have to say is wow. That was my reaction after seeing this dude tearing the bass up. It was the first concert I was actually nervous for. Because before he went on, when they were setting up, the roadies brought out these big huge boxes on each side of the stage rapped in a trash bag. And I was thinking "Hmm how odd?" And 5 minutes before he went on, they unrapped them and it was sub woofer, on top of sub woofer, on sub woofer, on sub woofer. 2 stacks of 4 sub woofers on each side of the stage. I was legit afraid I might go deaf. Then I saw security handing out ear plugs to the front row people. That's when I really started to worry. Plus the crowd was swaying and people were having panic attacks it was a nightmare.
But when he started with that "Intergallactic" remix by the Beastie Boys all I thought was "OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!" then he dropped the bass and the whole crowd went nuts. It was bananas. People crowd surfing, girls on shoulders, I'm pretty sure I saw a guy get carried out on a streachter.
What I liked most about the concert was that he didn't pull a Skrillex and just pull out a computer and push the spacebar. He scrathed, dubbed, mashed up, and dropped all together. I could tell because the screen showed what he was doing. First off, Bassnectar is one of the fore-fathers of dubstep, and 2nd, he's a damn good DJ as a whole.
I would have to see it was the most electrifying concert I've been to. It was insane. And how you could tell he was freestyling it all was that the drops and beats to his songs on record sounded different than live. He was just plain awesome.
Here is my favorite Big Gigantic song "Notorious Thugs Remix"
Here is my favorite Bassnectar song "Wildstyle Method"
As I was waiting for Weezer and AVICII, I heard the DJ A-Track scratching so hard and the bass was booming I was afraid I made the wrong choice by camping. But then Weezer came out and I knew I would not be dissapointed.
I will admit I was waiting at front row for Weezer so I could get front row for a very dissapointing AVICII... but Weezer kicked ass. I was so worried they would play their new god awful dog shit with Lil Wayne but thank the heavens they didn't. They're that type of band that when you listen to them live your like "I didn't know they sang that!!??" And it was just a fun experience and everyone in the crow was singing along to every word it was just awesome.
They opened with "My Name is Jonas" (I thought that was going to be their closer) and it got everything rocking. One of my friends who doesn't really smile alot had a big smile on his face because thats the emotion everyone got from them. The interludes they did were beautiful. Especcially the transition from "Memories" to "Island in the Sun". Next to RHCP they were the best band their.
I love it when they sound just as good on your ipod as live. They were all pitch perfect and knew how to get a crowd going. Then they closed with "Pork and Beans" to say goodbye to Austin and on with their tour.
In my opinion they were definantly one of the Top 5 performances at ACL this year.
This is probably their most famous song "Beverly Hills"
And their opener "My Name is Jonas"
Their closer "Pork and Beans"
And my personal favorite song and music video "Perfect Situation"
I don't know why but lately I've been listening to rap of all kinds and I wanna blog about it.
Sadly when you turn on the radio you won't hear alot of depth or meaning in songs today. It's just a dark age that we are passing through today. No rapper since 2009 I would say, has made songs with meaning and has gotten rewarded truly for it. Now that might have been a bad statement since every song has meaning. But there has been to many songs of the same meaning. The whole "Good Life" fantasy of girls money and drugs is what the public craves to hear because it's something most of us don't have. But sometimes the public is fucking stupid for making songs famous. Just because of the catchy hook and mediocre lyrics.
What's bad is everyone is blaming the wrong people in the rise of bad rap or "hip-pop" In my mind Lil Wayne and Drake are not the cause of this. The people themselves are responsible. We can't hate on Lil Wayne when just 4-6 years we were worshipping him for The Carter III. And y'all bash on Drake when he is actually pretty talented with lyrics and singing. But you just gotta know that any song that has to do with love and has a catchy beat.... it's a number one hit. And you can't get mad at the rappers doing this also because they are rapping about what they know. Yes it's a peice of shit and is probably really repetitive... but if y'all would actually listen to the words y'all would catch these things and maybe it could be fixed? And maybe Pitbull would'nt be concidered a human being?
And it's obvious... rap in the late 80's-90's was the best. Not any of the "These are the breaks!" shit. Just voices of rebellion telling stories of their life good or bad. There is some of that still today... you just have to stay away from the radio and search.
Now when it comes to the best rapper... I would say BIG because he made two albums and was compared to Pac who had dozens of records by that time. Now I can totally see an arguement that Pac is best because he was literally the voice of the streets during his reign. So I would say it's BIG, others say Pac, so they should probably be tied.
Here is my list of my FAVORITE rappers of all time:
1. Jay-Z
2. Kanye West (he throws a kick ass show)
3. Biggie
4. Nas
5. 2Pac
6. Kid Cudi
But here is who I think are the best rappers of all time:
1 and 2. BIG and Pac
3. Jay-Z
4. Eminem
5. Nas
Here are my favorite rappers right now that are still making stuff and have more to come:
1. Kanye
2. Cudi
3. B.o.B
4. Drake
5. Lupe Fiasco
6. Kendrick Lamar
And here are who I think are the greatest hip-hop groups of all-time:
1. Run DMC
2. Wu-Tang Clan
3. N.W.A.
4. Beastie Boys
5. A Tribe Called Quest
6. OutKast
Kanye West is tied for first for my personal favorite rapper ever with Jay-Z. He is big mouthed which is what some people consider his downfall but I see it as like a way to get motivation. He makes songs talking about the stuff he did and peoples reaction and his reaction which is great. He also raps about real things and his life and problems in the world. At times he goes off into the mainstream type rap which is about the "Good-Life" of girls and money. A lot of people will disagree with me on this but he is a musical genius. Not because of his rapping but because of his beat making. He looks for old soul, R&B, and even rock samples for his beats. And he repeats the part of the song that you wouldn't exactly recognize and use it to make an insane beat. That's for every album he makes. One of the few rappers to make his own beats and kill them as well.
Kanye's first 3 albums were genius in my mind. Few albums are able to be listened to multiple times, and those 3 are on the list. "The College Dropout" was a good rookie album. You could listen to all the way through for the full story of the album. It's about how he dropped out of college to follow a very unpromissing career and worked out. It's truly a piece of art with great songs and small skits.
Kanye's 2nd "Late Registraion" was going along with the trend of skits and songs to tell a story. Except this album was about the struggles of being broke in urban Chicago. All these great songs were in the making for a good album with unusual features. Until the tragic death of his mother inspired the amazing song "Hey Mamma" talking about how he could of been a better son.
Kanye's 3rd "Graduation" was by far his best album ever. Every song went along with what he was going through and his rise to fame. Beats and features and samples were pure genius. Everyone helped on this album. He went all out and snagged a grammy in the process for Best Rap Album.
After that Kanye changed. He didn't forget his past but he just matured. His next three albums mostly had a theme of pressure from fans, going crazy, his relationship with Jay-Z, crimes in America, pop-culture, and his new music group G.O.O.D. Music with an album out right now.
My favorite song from his first album is "Last Call" (he raps at first, then tells his story of how he got discovered and signed)
My favorite song from "Late Registration" is either "Hey Mamma" or "Heard Em Say (feat. Adam Levine)"
My favorite song from "Graduation" was "The Glory"
My favorite song up to date would have to be.... "See Me Now (feat. Beyonce, Charlie Wilson, and Big Sean"
This is Kanye doing what he's best at... making beats. He made this one in mere minutes and it's probably my favorite Kanye beat ever. It sounds like something that would be on "The College Dropout" The only thing is.... he never rapped to it or gave it to anyone. I think he just thought that a beat that great couldn't be performed. So it's lost... never to be rapped on. But here is him making the beat.
Now were starting to get into The Beatles that I know and love. Brilliant song writing and great lyrics with killer melodies. This point in their career they didn't only make kick ass music.... they started a revolution. Introducing the Sytar into the music enviroment in America was genius. They wanted to make something different and they accomplished in every way. Paul making a brilliant song like "Yesterday", George with the Sytar, and Johns voice developing and going "Bob Dylan" and making "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", and Ringo is yet to make some great songs. I really can't wait till we get more in depth of the genius of The Beatles.
I don't care what anybody says this guy is one of the best rappers today in my eyes. People say he's pop and a sellout and that's because they only hear is poppy stuff on the radio. And he isn't only a good rapper, yet a great song writer and singer. He knows how to make songs that have a message to the media, his fans, his former fans, and lovers everywhere.
B.o.B (aka Bobby Ray) should be seen higher by every music listener today. He uses creative and almost genius ways to rhyme words with others so they make sense and hit you hard. He also plays guitar and piano while he raps. He has respect from artists everywhere yet his fake fans call him a "fag" or "Hip-Pop" or "he fell off". Me personally I hate those type of fans. Why wouldn't you want success for your artists? What's the point? Those "hipster underground rap fans" are kind of whats wrong with fan bases nowadays.
At first this Atlanta native started with mostly mixtapes that went under the radar but he made noise when he put out his first album "B.o.B Presents The Adventures of Bobby Ray" That was a terrific rookie album which got him noticed with hits like "Nothin On You", "Airplanes", "Don't Let Me Fall", and "Magic". Now out of those songs I really only appreciate the two versions of "Airplanes" and "Don't Let Me Fall" because they really speak to me. P.S. it was nomitated a Grammy for Best Rap Album.
After his first album release his former fans bombed him saying he went mainstream. With all the anger that brewed up inside of him he started working on disses and a whole new album to send his message that they are fake fans and he will do with his music what he well pleases. At the BET Awards he said a line "They say my musics pop? I call it getting a house for my momma, shakin hands with Obama." and when I heard that line live I knew his next album was gonna be short of soft.
"Strange Clouds" didn't sell as well as his first album which is definantly a dissapoitment but I think his goal for this album was to get his word out that he makes music. Not raps. He showed that by choosing some very unique feature choices for his tracks. Like Morgan Freeman for "Bombs Away" to start off the album. And Taylor Swift for the hit "Both of Us". The beats for this album were completely different from his first. He wents towards the underground somewhat dubstep-like beats for his harder songs which was a brilliant move considering everyone was hopping on the dubstep bandwagon at the time.
I just hope in the future we will truly appreciate the music he makes, and realized that he didn't change, but matured much like Eminem did.
This is from his mixtape days. This is one of his early songs called, "Generation Lost"
This is from his first album and my personal favorite off of it, "Don't Let Me Fall"
And this is a song from his most recent album "Strange Clouds" called "Where Are You Now?"
