I couldn’t come upon with any better headline than “Why Hip Hop Sucks In ‘96″, ironically, the title (which is a nifty interlude from Dj Shadow’s 1996-album “Endtroducing…”) defines something which is completely insignificant if we compare today’s hip hop music with the 90’s good old records. To be honest, I was a big fan of rap and other forms of hip hop music back in 90’s: from old school to softened Mtv hits, there was always good spirit on the tracks. (Well, let’s say most of the time) I’m no hip hop expert for sure, but as far as I can see hip hop -as one of today’s biggest selling genres- has lost its charming presence on the mainstream level.
I guess I’ve stopped listening to popular hip hop music around the time when Jennifer Lopez started to collaborate with well known rappers at the beginning of the century, however, there is a fact that today’s situation is no healthier than that, actually it’s much worse. I can’t even stand hearing any of those musics when I encounter them on TV or radio by mistake. It’s obvious that patrons of the music business don’t want rappers to express difficulties of today’s world since majority of listeners won’t be willing to buy it. Rather, they’d like to hear how many bitches they screwed and watch how many expensive cars they show on the videos. Beside the lyrics, I don’t find most of the beats interesting, either. Maybe they sound fatter on car stereos but lost the funkiness in a way.
While mainstream hip hop remains as a pretty awful genre, there is a lot of creativity takes place on the underground. So many different styles of hip hop have emerged in the last decade and there are still many rappers representing the spirit of the times when hip hop was developed by the aim of giving messages. … Alright, I wasn’t planning to complain about mainstream or analyze the genre; as a matter of fact, the very reason I wanted to give some thoughts about hip hop was to build an introduction to a hip hop mix I made few years ago. But since the topic has come to this point, I’d like to recommend some underground hip hop albums that were released in the last few years, too.
Black Milk – Popular Demand [Fat Beats, 2007]
Cyne – Starship Utopia [Project Mooncircle, 2008]
Dabrye – Two/Three [Ghostly International, 2006]
Guilty Simpson – Ode To The Ghetto [Stones Throw, 2008]
Headset – Spacesettings [~scape, 2004]
MF Doom – MM..Food [Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2004]
Prince Po – The Slickness [Lex Records, 2004]
Quasimoto – The Further Adventures Of Lord Quas [Stones Throw, 2005]
Thavius Beck – Thru [Mush, 2006]
Wildchild - Jack Of All Trades [Fat Beats, 2007]
Tufan Demir – Sense Of Sensible Mix 01
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About the mix;
I decided to put some mixes that show different influences on the project Sensible Sucker, before I’ve launched this page, but typically I forgot to accomplish it. Anyway, I compiled this mix which consists of beats, breaks and hip hop in 2007 and it was broadcasted on my friend Kez YM’s Chill Size Radio around that time. You can also download it if you don’t like to listen to it from the application above.
