so you wouldn't listen to an album by an artist you didn't consider lyrically exceptional from the modern era?

It is a shame the people you showed "Get By" to wasn't into it. It was a huge song for Talib Kweli and would get people moving at clubs when it was played.

No I would, I hope it didn't come off that way. I just really don't like Kanye, similar to how you don't like Em, I suppose. I've listened to a large portion of Kanye's discography. However, some artists I just refuse to listen to, like Lil Wayne, because I find him to be incredibly obnoxious.

You just won't catch me praising those albums and I doubt I would ever buy one. I don't go out of my way to listen for that stuff though because generally as DJ said it's not something I have a high appreciation for. I'm content listening to "Liquid Swords" and searching for underground artists whose lyrics I appreciate even if the production is straight garbage.

I'll give almost any album a chance to prove itself to me.

Tell me about it :(

@DJ and Manky, anyone else

How do you guys define talent in hiphop? What makes you value the artists you like above the music that I gravitate towards?

See that's the thing, I like a good lyricist just as much as the next person but I don't tend to value them higher than other artists.

I appreciate different artists for different things. It can easily just boil down to how the song makes me feel and if I can grove to it. I will acknowledge that they don't have the best lyrics but if their production is on point. I will still be into it.

I do have a pet peeve against certain artists that have been coming out lately. YG, French Montana, Lil Dirk, Chief Keef. They annoy me and at the same time they are so popular so people are always bumping their crap songs while driving through the block.

I do tend to like production/beats more than lyrics though. A hot lyricist with a whack beat isn't one that I would listen to.

I'm not sure what music you gravitate towards so I'm not sure if we overlap or not. Talent for me can mean a lot of things, but mostly it's just people who are bringing something unique, interesting and immersive to the table. Generally it's about the overall sound of the music, including the vocals, and how it all flows together. I don't care too much about lyrics (which is good because lyrics rarely stack up as quality writing), all I ask is that they not be distractingly bad, and it's a bonus when they actually are interesting in some way.

What do you all think of Only One?

That was pretty awful honestly.

Bad, sooo bad.

I hate to say this, because it's from the perspective of his deceased mother, but this is really poor. Why the Auto-Tune? Would have been a bit better without it.

I listened to this without reading the lyrics, and I actually thought he was singing about Tenerife at the end. I kept wondering, why is he singing about Tenerife (thinking maybe that was where his daughter was born?)? Then I learned the lyric is "Tell Nori about me...". :o: