Illmatic - is it worth the hype?

Engine · 12-31-2012, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goofle11

Engine's last two posts are pretty strange. Not really sure why I would want to listen to an artist who "conjures" others. I want an individual voice to be represented by each artist. Obviously I can appreciate similarities, but that doesn't make me like them more or less.

And saying "A knowledgeable rap fan would consider the album pretty great." is quite ridiculous, especially considering "knowledgeable" Hip Hop fans are supposed to look beyond MTV's Top 10 Hip Hop Albums list, and compare what they find with the classics. I find it compares well, but I rate many albums more.

Strange, eh? Let me attempt to clarify my thoughts for you then.

Please forget my use of the word 'conjure' if you think that I mean 'emulate' or, to dumb it down further, to 'sound similar to' because what I mean is that Nas on Illmatic represented a natural progression of hip-hop MCs. You don't need to respect the originators of hip-hop. I see that it's all just a bit of fun for you. But the original artists were actually historically and artistically important, believe it or not. And Nas (on Illmatic) made his mark on hip-hop's history because he has a talent for the thing. Ignore that history if you want. It's just intellectual stuff like the timeline of rap that I am talking about.

What I meant by 'knowledgeable rap fan' is one who knows and respects hip-hop's origins. You are, of course, free to ignore that old stuff and just listen to whatever strikes your fancy but it definitely shows a lack of depth of your understanding of the genre if you don't care about the originators. And you, Goofle, are really young and inexperienced with music so I don't expect you to know or care much about the rap masters. That's fine. Just go rock out and have fun. I realize that there is too much good music out there for you to care about all of it.