BET, Lupe Fiasco, west coast not getting love and success

[Tanjential]

During my lunch break today at work the friends that I usually smoke with were all busy so i hit up a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a long ass time. Now, last time I'd seen this dude I wasn't into hip hop but he never left it. he'd always dug that east coast shit, which is cool, we waxed about nas and wu and shit and he kept goin' on and on about Lupe fiasco and showed me this video on BET of Lupe, styles p, and papoose standing next to some brick wall in a city ass city rappin' over a classic ass drum break....for like minutes upon minutes and before the lupe verse could even finish I was enraged, "I'm fuckin' straight. you never see crooked I, tray deee and sly boogy just flowing for 15 minutes on BET" and my friend says 'the west coast isn't even that tight anymore...' and I said that there is tight stuff that just isn't getting the exposure and corporate love that the previously mentioned dudes are getting. he proceeds to show me lupe songs where Lupe is talking about being a robot, being muslim in a very aspiritual environment...real topics and i realize,I have to concede to some criticisms he has for the west....the east is blowing up people like Kanye and Lupe who are talking about some creative original things whereas if a rapper in CA came out saying "i don't wanna call women bitches.." the way Lupe is, said hypothetical west coast rapper would get laughed out of the beach party you feel me? The west coast has a machismo thing that I feel stops creative progress from happening. I was shocked when my friend was showing me the material lupe is getting hits with: sonically I don't like it like I like the west coast stuff (don't care for dudes voice) and topically I can't relate to freestyles when styles and pap talk about whatever it is people cooped up in little ass grimy places talk about but I am shocked and enthralled that lupe is getting success from being creative and damn, even the most creative people on the west coast mainstream scene (sly and crooked come to mind) are not that creative topically.

does anyone know of any one on the west coast, that has that funky good production that's really talking about some different shit on the west coast? someone not afraid to show vulnerability? not that I wasn't aware of this lack before being more exposed to Lupe today, but to see that someone is doing it and being succesful at it says something to me...perhaps the masses aren't as unready for some mentally heavy shit as they once were.

crazy, when I went to VIP records(where 213 did their demo), the employees there were telling me to peep Lupe.

now, I just don't dig Lupe's sound as much as other artists that we discuss here but it's what he's doing that has me interested right now....thoughts?

-T

[We Fly High]

i feel the same way. and its been discussed numerous times on this board, but basically the west coast is still stuck in this 80s 90s time zone. we STILL talking about khakis, chucks, crips, bloods, lowriders, etc. I thinnk G Malone also addressed this in a recent statemant about JayZ kingdom come and people starting to grow up and mature.
On the east coast you dont hear people talking about timberlands, and shit like that no more. they've switched it up, brought new things to the game and brougth new talent.
West coast we're still operating under the same NWA tree umbrella, and the truth is, whether its media exposure or not, I myself working in the industry and also working with dubcnn.. I just dont see any new talent coming up that has anything special.

[Invincible]

i feel the same way. and its been discussed numerous times on this board, but basically the west coast is still stuck in this 80s 90s time zone.

It's onle Game thats stuck in the past ain't it?

[Tanjential]

I know plenty of people here in CA that are dope rappers/poets speaking on real creative shit (I don't want to speak on it too much till I start posting my stuff up on the appropriate part of the board, but I feel I'm one of them, and the cats I work with) but

a) it ain't commercial
b) most of us are not black


Also, I've thought about it alot, and as we've discussed often here, the best thing the west coast has in its corner commercially speaking is ear pleasing production: to me the west has just SOUNDED better for a long time because the west coast uses real bassists, real guitars, real drums, real music whereas east coast shit is alot more sample driven, the music sounds a hell of a lot more fake and thus is less ear pleasing...I've often felt that if the creative poetic underground on the west coast(myself, people like me, other sick poets I've observed and seen) could get the level of production the uncreative unpoetic mainstream west coast, we could compete, you know?

me and my dude sham, one of my best friends the guy that i rap with(and don't be like 'didn't you just get back into rap?' i just got back into the kind of rap that is discussed here but as i've said i never stopped listening to hip hop and especially never stopped writing poems, verses, listening to spoken word shit like that) have this producer our friend Josh and his shit is sick but I don't like alo of what we do cause it sounds so east coast, Josh will sample really cool thelonious monk piano riffs and put 'em over cool drum breaks and me and sham will drop our sickest poems and shit and I think it's creative in terms of ideas and lyrics and poetry, but on a sonic level it reminds me of dope east coast/underground stuff I've heard and though it's good and I like it I'm not interested in doing that. i'd like to do what i do over dre/storch/battlecat/meech etc. style production(not for the commerciality, but because that's what I like sonically)...I guess this discussion is becoming a circular expression of these ideas, but it's just what's running through my head right now

and I KNEW the west coast was lagging in that respect before today but I didn't realize anyone was doing it any better eastward...or is it just cats like kanye and lupe? maybe it's a chicago thing? maybe we should look there for what's next or what?

and homey I wish it was just game stuck in the past....can someone point me to someone on the west that ain't though? maybe bishop and glasses?

-T

-T

[Juronimo]

I agree. Outside of a few artists, you look at most of these "new west" artists that come out, they rap about the same played out topics of gangbanging and shit with marginal talent. Then you see 38 year old washed up rappers still gangbanging all over the albums. The one west coast rapper to blow up, Game, raps about the same bullshit that west coast rappers have been rapping about since Ice-Tand they were better at it. Snoop is 35 and still promoting bullshit in his music.

There aren't any Common's, Kanye Wests, Talib Kweli's Nas type rappes coming out here, just a bunch of dumbasses that think they deserve a record label because they sport a blue or red rag, gangbanging on youtube and myspace. That shit is wack as fuck. In the meantime, real underground talent goes unnoticed.

I wonder what potential an artist like XL Middleton or Clinton Wayne have of blowing up, those are talented dudes right there. Murs has been around for a minute but he's crazy slept on.

Anyway, I've pretty much lost faith in west coast music. Shit is ass backwards right now.

[Tanjential]

isn't murs the cat doing all those girl songs with slug from atmosphere? I've heard nothing but bad things about those works.

what do xl middleton and clinton wayne talk about? and see the problem with dope underground acts is that they don't have dope production most of the time, they just can't afford it(or even if they're creative....i need live music, so just being sick on the mpc isn't much, but who underground has a funk orchestra at their disposal like dre? even dre had to work his way up from samples and drum breaks to being able to hire all his bassists and guitarists), to me that's half the battle. I won't listen to a rock band that has a dope guitarist and singer but a whack bassist and drummer, so why would I listen to a dope rapper without a dope producer you know?

but to be fair, as much as Kweli, Nas and West and common are tight lyrically...NONE of them can TOUCH a lyrically simple ass dude like Snoop on a sonic level. and I like those rappers you mentioned but everything the east coast has in content, they lack in style.

even that Lupe guy i mentioned in the first place's voice ain't nothin' special.

i guess what i would like is a rapper with the sonic prowess of snoop, the lyrical prowess of nas, and production on the level of dre or at least just a creative producer that uses live musicians.....I saw the roots live, and while they are the closest thing i've seen to what I just described that I've observed...nothing they talk about enthralls me, and none of the rappers have snoop's charisma or anything resembling it. Bah, we need a new Parliament, with sick funky rappers that talk about psychedelic and political shit like g clinton did!

-T

[CHUCK KNOXXX]

isn't murs the cat doing all those girl songs with slug from atmosphere? I've heard nothing but bad things about those works.

sumone straight lied to you homie, murs is the most slept on and at the same time one of the dopest cats in the game, period....the first felt(slug&murs) album is hit n miss, but the second one is incredible.........but check his solo work........3:16 is incredible front to back, as is murry's revenge.....varsity blues, the end of the begining, and good music are also all equally great albums..........he's the most original artist out here, deffinately what you would call the everyman rapper......if you cant relate to at least one of the songs off 3:16 100%, than your too ignorant to get it and its way over your simple minded head, or your just plain hating............i dont know of one person that i've played 3;16 for that wasnt feelin it, even my homies who only bump pac and whatever's on power asked for a copy................do yourself a favor and download 3:16 at the very least...........then go cop it after you become convinced

[Juronimo]

isn't murs the cat doing all those girl songs with slug from atmosphere? I've heard nothing but bad things about those works.

sumone straight lied to you homie, murs is the most slept on and at the same time one of the dopest cats in the game, period....the first felt(slug&murs) album is hit n miss, but the second one is incredible.........but check his solo work........3:16 is incredible front to back, as is murry's revenge.....varsity blues, the end of the begining, and good music are also all equally great albums..........he's the most original artist out here, deffinately what you would call the everyman rapper......if you cant relate to at least one of the songs off 3:16 100%, than your too ignorant to get it and its way over your simple minded head, or your just plain hating............i dont know of one person that i've played 3;16 for that wasnt feelin it, even my homies who only bump pac and whatever's on power asked for a copy................do yourself a favor and download 3:16 at the very least...........then go cop it after you become convinced

No doubt, 3:16 is heat.

[R-Tistic]

isn't murs the cat doing all those girl songs with slug from atmosphere? I've heard nothing but bad things about those works.

sumone straight lied to you homie, murs is the most slept on and at the same time one of the dopest cats in the game, period....the first felt(slug&murs) album is hit n miss, but the second one is incredible.........but check his solo work........3:16 is incredible front to back, as is murry's revenge.....varsity blues, the end of the begining, and good music are also all equally great albums..........he's the most original artist out here, deffinately what you would call the everyman rapper......if you cant relate to at least one of the songs off 3:16 100%, than your too ignorant to get it and its way over your simple minded head, or your just plain hating............i dont know of one person that i've played 3;16 for that wasnt feelin it, even my homies who only bump pac and whatever's on power asked for a copy................do yourself a favor and download 3:16 at the very least...........then go cop it after you become convinced

Yeah for real though....Murs is easily the closest (probably better than) thing we have to Lupe and those types of rappers. He doesn't have many party-type songs, but he has songs that could be "underground-crossover" enough to appeal as Lupe's songs have done. Concept wise, he's definitely the same way...and he's hit stories from angles that most of us have never heard on rap songs.

[Sanford - V. President of the Dangerous Crew Movement]

Bishop Lamont and Clyde Carson are 2 of the West Coast young dudes that have a great chance to blow up.  and i dont think they are one dimensional(talking about the same west coast shit like everyone else has, gangbagin, vogues, daytons, bitches)

[Blue Smooth]

SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!  The west is what it is. I am from the south and what do you think they "rap" about? I like west coast music for, the dope beats and gangsta music. You don't change in order to sell you music, instead you end up selling your soul. Hip Hop no matter where you are from ,is the voice of the streets. On the west, the streets is gang life. The problem is not the west whether its old or new, but simply with radio and club play......I respect Snoop, not because he is a crip, but because he has stayed true to his colors, gang, and coast. Enjoy the music for what it is and if someone hates on it, then its up to ALL of us to show what the west is all about.

Blue Smooth

LPC, 40oz, Sigmas,

[The-Leak (aka) kingwell (bka) JULES]

Check out XL Middleton, he produces all his own shit, and they are mostly all bangers too.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Most people that say they are West Coast fans are really just fans of the old era. They really don't give a fuck about modern day hip-hop on the left side. And your right, most these artist don't talk about anything new or innovative becuase that's not what these so called WC rap "fans" want to here. They'd rather listen to there old favorite's music. Stuck in the 90's? Damn right.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Bishop Lamont and Clyde Carson are 2 of the West Coast young dudes that have a great chance to blow up.  and i dont think they are one dimensional(talking about the same west coast shit like everyone else has, gangbagin, vogues, daytons, bitches)

They are 2 really talented rappers in the West, but the odds are against them. Bishop is signed to Aftermath, so he will obviously get exspoure. But when. His album will probably be puched back to mid 2008. CC is also very talented, but right now people are feeling this South right now, hate it or love it. Nobody is giving West Coast artists a chance. Not even West Coast rap "fans".

[Sikotic™]

When the West Coast decides to get its own sound and stop living in the 90's, then they'll be a dominant force in hip-hop again.