https://medium.com/cuepoint/gza-speaks-the-lost-art-of-lyricism-ee84510e7268

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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."

GZA is spot-on with this article and as I have an attention span to enjoy long reads like this, I do not disagree with what he said about rappers imaginations being sterile because, as it was for many rappers in the 80s and 90s, that sterility is just as apparent today. I've hated for as long as I've been into Hip Hop cats who say they live what they rhyme about and vice versa. He is also right about how the negative energy cats bring about as a result of what they rap about but ain't really about changes the industry. As a lyricist I don't plan to limit my imagination.

"If one forces the process, it comes out fake. And to me there's nothing worse than being fake." - Heavy D

are basically incomprehensible and you can't understand a single verse in full context save for a few lines here and there

~Experience is the currency of the soul.

>are basically incomprehensible and you can't understand a
>single verse in full context save for a few lines here and
>there

And every verse that requires a 5th grade reading level
isn't "incomprehensible."

Motherfuckers need to sit down and listen to some lyrics.

Hell, 'Illmatic' would be considered "too dense" for today


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O_E: "Acts like an asshole and posts with imperial disdain"




"I ORBITs the solar system, listenin..."

(C)Keith Murray, "

Long live the MC....

Integrity is the Cornerstone of Artistry...

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=5&topic_id=2795075&mesg_id=2795075&listing_type=search

also like what Afkap said a while ago that you had tv and radio with limited channels and then print media so an artists mind had to fill in the blanks with their own imagination and mental projection

obviously there's no need for that now

_______________________________________
When discourse of Blackness is not connected to efforts to promote collective black self determinism
it becomes simply another recourse appropriated by the colonizer

http://hardboiledbabesanddarkchocolate.tumblr.co

But as I've aged, I'm about PERFORMANCE over everything. If you're delivering your bars with conviction, clarity and precision, I can rock with "empty" verses. My gold standard of lyrics just being holistically great are the last two records from KA, Roc Marci's first two joints, the Durag Dynasty/Alchemist one-off, Blu's Good To Be Home...I could go on.

On surface, it's just bars bars bars to some but it's more than that for me.

*********************
www.dumhi.com -- We are ALL dumhi

>But as I've aged, I'm about PERFORMANCE over everything. If
>you're delivering your bars with conviction, clarity and
>precision, I can rock with "empty" verses. My gold standard of
>lyrics just being holistically great are the last two records
>from KA, Roc Marci's first two joints, the Durag
>Dynasty/Alchemist one-off, Blu's Good To Be Home...I could go
>on.
>
>On surface, it's just bars bars bars to some but it's more
>than that for me.

Right...but some people haven't moved on from being amped about syllables/multis and stuff that looks great written down. But even cats that folks consider wack can slang some syllables in watered down doses because stuff like Illmatic made it a thing to strive for. Nas's 'stature' on the mic and as a person who 'understands' what he's presenting is what seems to be missing. IE: a bunch of cats can WRITE something that reads dope/lyrical/etcetera. The great ones can handle that part of it AND deliver something with clarity, precision, and conviction (I like how you put that hence the theft). But if can only be one, give me the better performance. Either extreme is a flawed experience for me though. So many cats think lyrix is the 'singing a gospel song on the Apollo' of rapping...like 'lyrics' alone is supposed to propel you..we have too much proof that this isn't true.

Since 1976