Hip Hop and Guitar

[Infinite Ego]

I'm like the least knowledgeable person when it comes to hip hop and associated styles (hardly even aware of any of it) but what I have noticed is that actual harmonic movement is being introduced? Chord progressions? And I'm seeing more and more the hip hopper holding a guitar?

Anyone notice this?

[mirth]

Oddly enough, if I play a gig and there are "hip hoppers" there they almost are always the.most receptive to what I'm doing. They're really interested in the sound and use of guitar. I think the general culture gap between black and white Americans has stopped guitar from being more prevalent in black music. I don't think its for lack of taste or something, its just the circles don't mix often and the language of music spoken is different.

I think we'll see more and more. There also seems to be more rap artists using live bands, which for me makes them 100 times more interesting as most of those drummers just absolutely kill it.

Hip-hop = savior of guitar?

[brucestevens]

I listen to a bit of hip-hop, though I am not expert. Some great examples with guitars:







Even though the last two are samples they are still pretty killer. Also, anyone remember the Judgement Night soundtrack?;

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_Night_(soundtrack)

Loved that when it was new. Haven't heard it in years.

Bruce

[dasein]

Well, there have always been hip-hop with a fascination with electric guitars or more advanced harmonic content.

See:



Or...





(Last one has amazing wordplay, too)

You're certainly right that most hip-hop is harmonically barebones, if it has any harmony at all. If it seems like people are introducing more harmony, it may simply because they had nowhere else to go... they couldn't take away MORE harmonic information.

But I can't really blame hip-hop for this anymore. I try to keep tabs on the indie rock scene, and I play out enough that I get to hear lots of up-and-coming guys/starving artists and so on. And it's flabbergasting to me how harmonically simple these guys' songs are. All in one key, nothing unpredictable, hardly anything as simple as modal interchange. They make The Beatles sound like Mahler.

At the very least with hip-hop, the best of it is really rhythmically happening (a good flow has very similar phrasing and feel to bebop) and has great lyrics/wordplay (and often times a real sense of humor)... something that most Pitchfork darling bands couldn't do with a gun held to their heads.

[aliensporebomb]

I've noticed it myself - Minneapolis has a large hip hop scene and a subset of that scene are large bands of people that play backing music to the rapping that sometimes is a lot more dancy jam bandy type stuff than you'd expect with grooves driven by bass, rhythm guitar (semi clean and a lot of Prince-style rhythm guitar with occasional power chord stabs) and drums.

[brucestevens]

Jul 24, 2012 12:09:06 GMT -5 dasein said:

But I can't really blame hip-hop for this anymore. I try to keep tabs on the indie rock scene, and I play out enough that I get to hear lots of up-and-coming guys/starving artists and so on. And it's flabbergasting to me how harmonically simple these guys' songs are. All in one key, nothing unpredictable, hardly anything as simple as modal interchange. They make The Beatles sound like Mahler.

At the very least with hip-hop, the best of it is really rhythmically happening (a good flow has very similar phrasing and feel to bebop) and has great lyrics/wordplay (and often times a real sense of humor)... something that most Pitchfork darling bands couldn't do with a gun held to their heads.

+1. SO much indie rock is craptastic. A lot of it sounds like things I listened to in college - My Bloody Valentine, Joy Division, Swervedriver etc...

[mirth]

Todd, do you ever check out Steve Coleman? I'm pretty sure he's from your parts. His sense of rhythm is unparalleled I think. (ridiculous jazz saxophonist, but composes some really interesting stuff, and uses hip-hop etc... for grooves, layered on other grooves).

[bear]

What I want is an inside track on alternative hip hop. Some of it is much more musically interesting than current alternative rock. Catch a name here or there (Georgia Ann Muldrow has some stunning work) but haven't found a good clearinghouse for exploring the stuff.

[aliensporebomb]

Jul 24, 2012 12:59:36 GMT -5 mirth said:

Todd, do you ever check out Steve Coleman? I'm pretty sure he's from your parts. His sense of rhythm is unparalleled I think. (ridiculous jazz saxophonist, but composes some really interesting stuff, and uses hip-hop etc... for grooves, layered on other grooves).

I've heard his stuff, and an ex-co-worker even got to jam with him once but I've never seen him live around here.

[ck1]

Did you guys catch that Quite Sane track I shared a month or so back? EXACTLY what you're talking about. Let me see if I can find the link...

[ck1]

Here it is: grooveshark.com/s/Once+As+Queens+Freedom+Hides/3YRVml?src=5


The band does more outright hip-hop sometimes, but this is an interesting r&b hybrid thing.

[Infinite Ego]

thanks for the links, dudes

[hexabuzz]

7th Octave



www.reverbnation.com/the7thoctave

They don't seem very prolific, but what's out there is worth tracking down.

"Psychodelix Holy Ghost" ROCKS!

David

[chromedinette]

I do like some hip hop, though I mainly have older stuff and don't really keep current, so most of what I know about is like the stuff in this thread based around older guitar samples.

I felt I should mention Signifying Rapper by Schoolly D. It is based around the Kashmir riff(I think replayed, not sampled, though I could be wrong), predating the P Diddy thing(from the Godzilla soundtrack).

The Schoolly D track was also used in a movie, The Bad Lieutenant, which caused some kind of legal problem.

In 1994, Live Home Video and distributor Aries Film Releasing were ordered to destroy any unsold copies of Bad Lieutenant as part of a copyright infringement ruling.[3][Request quotation on talk to verify] Director Abel Ferrara was angered by the incident, which he felt "ruined the movie":
"Signifying Rapper" was out for five years, and there wasn't a problem. Then the film had already been out for two years and they start bitching about it. [...] It cost Schoolly like $50,000. It was a nightmare. And meanwhile, "Signifying Rapper" is 50 million times better than "Kashmir" ever thought of being. [...] Why sue? You should be happy that somebody is paying homage to your work.
—Abel Ferrara, The A.V. Club interview[2]
[edit]

[Infinite Ego]

check out "Lounge Out" on this guy's page

www.reverbnation.com/seanlmcmorris