(And in other news, we're going global this morning, with a rant on W&M basketball over at Storming the Floor. Thanks to Marco and Eric for the opportunity to spread our misery. Even if you don't go there to read our palaver, you should check out the great work they do on college hoops.)
Yep, you've come to the right place:
ReplyDelete"Cal Bowdler stiff"
the block was even better viewed from the courtside television angle. it's my favorite play of the year so far. many thanks, teej.
ReplyDeleteBill Simmons sucks, as does his mailbag.
ReplyDeleteHe said that if he were to build a Mount Rushmore of rap (Mount Rapmore) he would put Tupac, Dr. Dre, and Jay-Z on it. The fourth spot goes to either Biggie or Eminem, but he's leaning towards Biggie. He says Chuck D can't go on there alone "because it would belittle teh contributions of everyone else in the group." The contributions of Flavor Flav, Terminator X, Professor Griff, and the S1W's?!? This is a bullschtein Mount Rapmore, constructed by a guy who never listened to hiphop outside of what he heard on frat party dance mixes.
He should just stick to writing about the Celtics circa 1986.
Attaboy Zoltan...embrace the hate...
ReplyDeletewhy the fuck can't i get fucking blogger to put a fucking space after the fucking youtube?
ReplyDeletefuck.
zoltan! preach it, brother.
ReplyDeleteI fixed it for you donkey...that's why I'm here.
ReplyDeleteof course, now the space *before* the youtube is screwed up.
ReplyDelete/anal retention
No, Tiny, that is the way I put it. Does you Highness desire a space there as well?
ReplyDeleteindeed - the current layout offends my keen sense of balance and proportion.
ReplyDeleteyou tall freaky-freakies can't understand that whole proportion thing.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Mount Rushmore comprised of (at least some of) our founding fathers? How do you leave the likes of Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, and LL out of that conversation? That's like starting your baseball Hall of Fame with Joe DiMaggio and moving forward in time from there.
ReplyDeleteReally, LL over Afrika Bambaata or Grandmaster Flash? Thanks for nothing Whitney.
ReplyDeleteI smell a comedy pyramid...
ReplyDeleteI know this Mt. Rapmore discussion has probably gone on too long already but this inclusion of Dr. Dre is pretty ridiculous. The guy is a producer who occassionally rapped, often poorly, and most of the time didn't even write said raps. Zoltan is right, lets make sure Simmons never talks about rap again...(cocks sawed off)
ReplyDeleteFair enough, Mark. I ony had a second to comment and failed to dig deep into my 7th prep school rap-lovin' white boy history. "The Message" is square one in any history lesson.
ReplyDeleteCan't include the poseurs from Sugar Hill, though. Wouldn't sit well with the others.
I demand Slick Rick get some love...maybe as a lesser landmark though. Hoover Dam?
ReplyDeleteThat's why I'm here Whit. Growing up in the rough, palm tree lined neighborhoods of central florida naturally leads to a connection with hip hop culture.
ReplyDeleteBig Bad Hank and the rest of the Gang from on Sugan Hill can go to hell. Slick Rick will be honored in a beautiful mural displayed on the front of the Corn Palace located in South Dakota.
whither the beastie boys?
ReplyDeleteBoogie Down Productions (KRS-ONE and Scott LaRock) and Public Enemy were the first groups to sample James Brown and other soul/R&B songs, which is now ubiquitous. They also talked about more than sneakers and 40's. I'd put at least one of KRS and Chuck on Mount Rapmore.
ReplyDeleteDr. Dre is a poseur. He had an anti-drug line in "Express Yourself" when he was with NWA (I don't smoke weed or ses because it gives a brother brain damage). After Cypress Hill made a wildly successful album about pot, Dr. Dre did a 180 and dropped "The Chronic."
Eminem is a clown. He complained about getting censored while simultaneously being on the cover of every magazine at CVS. Everyone knew what he was saying in his songs so he was not being censored.
Biggie made two albums. Probably shouldn't be on Mount Rapmore.
You can now return to your regularly scheduled programming of deep deep CAA coverage.
Coverage so deep that one might say it puts your ass to sleep?
ReplyDeletezoltan - we welcome all viewpoints here. if you'd like to pen a history of rap music column, we'll post it. and then talk about all manner of other things in the comments.
ReplyDeleteEPMD and Eric B and Rakim were always personal favorites. Tupac is the Bernard King of rap...everyone loves to talk about how great he was because it makes them sound smart. He made one great album, a couple good ones, and bunch of trash. I loved All Eyez on Me more than any other 90s album...but he's a little overrated.
ReplyDeleteSlick Rick's work holds up better than most.
Damn right it does...and along those lines, where do people stand on Doug E. Fresh?
ReplyDeleteand jazzy jeff and the fresh prince?
ReplyDeleteNow Rob, please don't ever compare Doug E. to those guys...come on, you might be old and like banjo rock, but you know better.
ReplyDeleteyes, teejay, that's what's known in the blogging business as a joke. i'm not the rap aficianado many of you appear to be (though i do love me some old-school kool moe dee), but i recognize the difference between slick rick and will smith.
ReplyDeletespelling is fundamental.
ReplyDeleteDid you make the conscience decision four years ago to forego all capitalization when commenting on blogs? I'm just curious...I certainly think it works given your diminutive stature, but somehow I doubt that was your reasoning.
ReplyDeleteyes, i did it because my conscience was bothering me. how did you know?
ReplyDeleteDagger...15-Love Rob.
ReplyDeleteit's an homage to ee cummings.
ReplyDeleteNice Ice Cube reference.
ReplyDeleteI know you welcome all viewpoints, and I appreciate the CAA banter. I (incorrectly) doubted anyone would care about my hiphop-related opinions, but I had to vent about Simmons. That said...
I don't think a Mount Rapmore works because hiphop is largely collaborative, typically one or more emcees and a dj/producer. Does Guru go on Mount Rapmore because he's the frontman for Gangstarr when DJ Premiere is the reasons Guru sounds so dope? Are Q-Tip, Phife, Jirobi, AND Ali Shaheed Muhammad carved into stone all together? This is what makes Simmons so preposterously wrong - Chuck D IS Public Enemy, just as KRS-ONE is BDP.
I saw Slick Rick and De La Soul this summer. For free. At Government Center. Hosted by Ed O.G. And Mayor Menino. It was a peace/stop the violence rally. Which is ridiculous because Emcee Ricky D went to jail for attempted murder when I was in college. De La still has juice, but Slick Rick is washed up. He joked about being 40. Skiddit.
I concur on Rakim. Mos Def and Talib Kwali are really really talented. You should buy their music, either together as Blackstar or as individual emcees.
The Fresh Prince deserves consideration, in all honesty. He won a Grammy or two, an NAACP (not the same as NCAA TJ) image award, and he's enjoyed tremendous commercial success as a musician and an actor. He is not on undergroundhiphop.com's radar, but he did help bring hiphop to the masses.
Does anyone else really care about this?
I'm surprised that Simmons left off Snoop Dogg. Sounds like he would be up there with him also.
ReplyDeleteActually, Doggystyle still remains maybe my favorite album in its entiriety to this day. Fuck the Police was also very good.
I'm got a big vocabulary. Huge. Maybe 100 words.
ReplyDeleteHey...Marcy Playground has a grammy...
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with his list.
ReplyDeleteYou know what's great about this rap conversation? A bunch of thirty-ish whiteys are having a more informed discussion of early hip-hop than half the rappers currently employed in the music industry would be capable of...EPMD was great, but Parish Smith was trash. As for the question about Guru, only need only listen to the Jazzmatazz series to realize how crucial DJ Premier was to Gangstarr. Finally, Geoff...if Tupac is Bernard King, then who is rap's Michael Ray Richardson?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, Will Smith can blow me but Jazzy Jeff is actually a really talented and prolific producer. He's put out a number of good solo albums recently featuring his production and various solo artists. Definitely worth a listen.
Can't stop laughing at "I'm got a huge vocabulary."
ReplyDeleteI think Dr. Dre absolutely deserves to be on the list. He brought rap to the masses. I'd rank him as the most important figure in the history of the genre.
ReplyDeleteSo, DJ Zoltan, I'm thinking we abandon the constrictive Mount Rushmore idea and go with something more akin to the cover of Sgt. Pepper's.
ReplyDeleteAcross the front we have a few of us in our most pseudo-authentic looking
street garb -- LL's Kangol, Melle Mel's leather pants, Ice-T's chains, Chuck D's ballcap, DMC's glasses, Flav's clock, Humpty Hump's schnoz glasses, whatever. Behind us is a montage of cardboard cut-out - 50 or 60 of the greats in classic poses. We call it Sgt. Popper's, with a nod to breaking, we plaster it all over the 5 Boroughs and myspace, and become an underground blogging sensation.
Who's in?
Contrary Jerry, at it again. Nice.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many people credited with bring hip-hop to the masses it's silly. Sugar Hill Gang, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Fresh Prince, PE, and many more. Starts to be a slag more than a compliment. Sort of a sell-out characteristic.
That has some serious comedic potential.
ReplyDeleteJerry's like Skip Bayless sometimes, there, I said it.
And for what it's worth, don't go from me. I was always partial to the acts with the least amount of staying power, Run-DMC/Beasties excluded.
ReplyDeleteI thought UTFO was the greatest trio of MC's going. Loved the Fat Boys, at least before all that Beach Boys & Chubby Checker bullshit. Whodini, Newcleus, and Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic 3? Tip-top. Actually, I still like it.
And I thought the feud between LL Cool J and Kool Moe Dee was pretty bad-ass. Yeah, I'm pretty white.
I'm just the common man. You guys are overthinking things. Dr. Dre was huge. He was a mega-star. His albums were awesome. They sold a ton of copies. He was massively influential.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Jerry also has the same pure hate for Lebron that Skip does? Seriously, Skip's Lebron-hate is really frightening to watch. He almost starts convulsing when he even hears James' name.
ReplyDeleteAnd how am I being contrary? I'm arguing for the mainstream choice.
ReplyDeleteTake a damn stand on something Teejay. Stop skirting around the edges with whimsical observations.
ReplyDeleteWriting about music is like dancing about architecture.
ReplyDeleteAs the only owner (and wearer) of a Kool Moe Dee shirt, I'm a bit upset that my opinion wasn't sought to settle this topic.
Random thought: Revenge of the Nerds was on one of the HBO channels the other night. It remains marvelous. I was thinking how much I would pay to own every shirt Booger wears in that movie (assuming I could get each in my size). I would definitely pay over $500 for the collection. I'd go over $1,000 if you threw in the Booger Presley jumpsuit.
Sir, I'm the Slick Rick guy. Been pushing him from the beginning. And shockingly, Burr agreed.
ReplyDeleteNow, despite the fact that you are being Skip Bayless, I too in fact love Dr. Dre.
But even having said that, it's the Beastie Boys for me. I still listen to my Licensed to Ill TAPE for god's sake.
You then also need to obtain all the shirts worn by "Booger" in Better Off Dead.
ReplyDeleteCurtis Anderson had a fantastic run. I almost wrote a post about it. In fact, maybe I will, despite all of you who were hating on the Gaylord...
ReplyDeleteOf course, by "Anderson" I mean "Armstrong".
ReplyDeleteLet's get back to talking about Gonzaga's chances in the Mountain West...
Please, we hate what Rob does a lot more than your stuff...
ReplyDeleteJust kidding Rob. We really hate Zoltan.
I think the Zags have a chance to dethrone Duke and Carolina in the ACC this year.
ReplyDeleteteejay's conscience is still bothering him, i see
ReplyDeleteIs Eminem regarded as the second greatest Caucasian hip-hop act in music history?
ReplyDeleteI know, it's like the Jewish Sports Legends leaflet in Airplane!, but I think we know who the undisputed worst Caucasian rapper of all time is. (No, Rob, it's not Snow.) And we probably know the worst Latino one, too.
3rd Bass faded away too soon, and House of Pain was a bit of a novelty; Random Idiots had "Dr. Seuss," an all-timer, but they were largely crossover. Although there where honkies in Cypress Hill and the Fat Boys, I'm not sure that they count (or contend). That leaves Eminem and Kid Rock vying for #2 -- if Kid Rock is regarded as true hip-hop, which I'm not sure it is.
Huh. Seems like we need a new challenger.
Beck?
ReplyDeleteclint dempsey?
ReplyDeleteI should have said:
ReplyDeleteBeck, 'im a whitebwoy. Jamiroquoi, 'im a whitebwoy. De Beastie Bwoys ... tree Jewish whitebwoys! White people takin' over rap music!
The German guy from Ace of Bass?
ReplyDeleteslow day at salt mines all over the east coast, it appears
ReplyDeleteAny minute now you'll hear "Mmm, yeah, 'rob,' I'm going to have to ask you to come in on Saturday. And Sunday too."
ReplyDeleteSee, it's easy for Rob to sneak out though...no one sees him down there. Stealth (lack of) height advantage.
ReplyDeleteAll this discussion of hip-hop and not one Too Short mention. Typical east coast bias...
ReplyDeleteno, teejay mentioned me just one comment above. try to pay attention.
ReplyDeleteI've met Too Short, and you sir, are no Too Short.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Grand Puba...
I see Rob as more of a Joe C.
ReplyDeletewe ever gonna see that san diego band bunny recap from you, stretch?
ReplyDeleteI'm still shaking off the hangover. Not sure it's still pertinent.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe when Cary sends me some of the pictures.
ReplyDeleteI assume "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" is not original Rezvan...but if it is, kudos.
ReplyDelete