>With the exception of Co Flow, Rawkus' roster wasn't exactly
>reinventing the wheel here, they were making traditional beats
>and lyrics music that stood out because everything in the
>mainstream was sounding super-glossy and commercial.

I said the sounds (plural) that Rawkus helped to make acceptable, specifically in contrast to that super glossy commercial sound. It's not that they were the creators or even for the most part the innovators but they paved the way. I get the DITC comparison you make below but by example DITC never could achieve what Rawkus did. You can just look at the rosters from both labels and what they were able to sustain. The biggest success DITC has is Fat Joe and that's mainly because of his abandoning of what made DITC DITC. Meanwhile Talib, Mos, El-P all have sustained a level which was only possible because of the work Rawkus put in. Not to mention the peripheral artists that past through their doors the most prominent of which is probably Eminem. Sure Dre brought him 'out' but Rawkus held his hand in a sense.

>I've
>always considered MMG's core roster (the Diamond District
>crew, Apollo Brown, Sean Born, etc.) as much the heir to DITC
>as anyone. Regardless, both labels center on music making back
>to basics hip-hop music that appeals to heads sensibilities,
>nothing wrong with either.

There's nothing at all wrong with back to basics hip-hop. But i tend to find the folk that are purists about that sound tend to be so dismissive of anything going beyond that it disgusts me. Not even saying they have to like it, but to pretend like it doesn't have its place in hip-hop is absurd. I mentioned Em above because you can pretty much link him to Co-Flow through Rawkus. We've almost gotten to the place where folk can accept Em's place in hip-hop and he owes a part of that to Funcrusher.

>And I also vehemently disagree that Mello Music doesn't put
>out "imaginative" hip-hop music: off the top, I'd site both
>Has-Lo's "In Case I Don't Make It" and the remix album
>"Conversation B", Castle's "Gas Face," and both L'Orange
>albums as pretty clear examples of "Imaginative" hip-hop
>music.

My comment wasn't meant to say MMG was unimaginative. They've broaden their lane over the years but still none of that measures IMO to the gauntlet Funcrusher laid down.


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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."