more than likely its a sum of all its parts but if you break down the elements in songs which element are you able to forgive being okay if everything else is great? which element will carry an otherwise average song?

im trying to keep a spreadsheet of all new music i listen to and i break it down to three elements beat/music - verses - hook

in theory they are all equal and my overall score for a track is the average of the three elements. if a song doesnt have a hook or verse it doesnt get factored.

i know for sure a dope beat will make me fudge the verse and hook score so the overall avg will hit how much i like the whole song. a bad hook will make me bring the whole song down. verses in general ride with the beat/hook avg. sometimes a really great verse will carry an avg beat but the hook might still bring it down.

i know this could be broken down even more and differently as well.

how do you guys do it?

even a loose jam should manifest into an idea

after that what is and isn't there makes sense.

Nothing is more satisfying than that sense of release at just the right moment.

was 'Workinonit.' Dilla's use of tension and release on that track is just phenomenal.

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Two things that hit me first about a song is the production quality of the music and its originality.

Great music tends to have great mixing and mastering but I think a lot of the songs I come back to are solely because of the aural quality.

Originality, whether it be an unfamiliar time signature or sample / musical influence piques my ears more than a song that is well-crafted but keeps within the boundaries of the genre (if that makes sense).

But of course there are exceptions or clauses. Like I like Madlib but its not like he spends anytime polishing the track by mixing and mastering usually. And 36 Chambers sounds like a bad demo but it's done with such forethought that it sticks out to me.

As far as music v lyrics, music stands out to me more than lyrics. For instance there are lyricists like Nas who would rap circles around The Pharcyde but outside Nas' best albums I'd rather listen to Bizarre Ride II than most of Nas' catalog.

beat
hook
verse

any one of those? is it possible for a beat to be so good that a mediocre to bad hook or verse wont keep a song from being a classic or a personal favorite. can you think of some songs that fall in this category?

i think i agree if thats the case. especially one weak verse. im sure there are many examples, especially with posse cuts. hook is bit more tricky. i think a mediocre hook with a classic beat and mediocre to good verses still makes it a classic.

the beat by far is the most important thg to me. if the beat is an A and the rhymes are a C im good. but a terrible beat is getting turned off immediately, i dont care how dope the rhymes are. Group home from gang starr always comes to mind in this discussion for me. Rick ross too (both on the good side). Nas comes to mind too unfortunately, on the not so good side.

>i think i agree if thats the case. especially one weak verse.
>im sure there are many examples, especially with posse cuts.
>hook is bit more tricky. i think a mediocre hook with a
>classic beat and mediocre to good verses still makes it a
>classic.