Does the West Coast sound need to be revolutionized?

[Soulful]

Turf Hitta - "You entitled to your opinion and all that shit and thats cool east coast shit is more your taste, but that dont mean shit is superior"

Soulful - imo there are no rappers on the westcoast that are as good lyrically as cannibus, big pun, big l, notorious big, nas etc. still i always liked westcoast music more simply cause its been more entertaining and more musical.

your reading skills aint to good homie..

Turf Hitta - I love east coast shit so It aint about that wit me but when people say dumb ass shit like "the west coast aint shit compared to ny" that shit is just retarded. You aint gotta love it but it sayin ny shit is superior when its obvious you aint even heard 10% of what the west has to offer is bullshit.//

^^yea that is bullshit i agree..but i didnt say none of the above..i simply said that they make different music, eastcoast more lyrical, westcoast more entertaining n more musical..i would never say none of that shit above cause i dont feel that way..learn how to read

[Realbiggsteele]

To be real, rap is rap, its some muphucas that are more vivid than others, and not to get off the subject as far as lyricism, simple sells. these kids aint tryna hear no complex metaphoric expressions, the audience dictates what they wanna hear.and Rass Kass will serve any of them niggas soulful LOL good points though

[Turf Hitta]

@ soulful

Off top, miss me with that message board disrespect shit.

I know you said you are more entertained by west coast shit, but you basically said west coast rappers aint got lyrics and east coast rappers are superior, which is faulty information. Regardless of what you like to listen to better you still said west rappers aint fuckin wit east lyrics. thats what i was addressing.

[Soulful]

turf hitta - how the fuck u think im gonna react when im expressin myself n u call my post bullshit? c'mon thats what i call disrespect..dont comment on my shit if u dont got anything to say except "bullshit"..why say that when u only makin your self look like a idiot

i never dissed anybody on a forum..thats a big waste of time

i agree with what steele sayin: simple sells(n rass is tha shit no doubt)

[Turf Hitta]

turf hitta - how the fuck u think im gonna react when im expressin myself n u call my post bullshit? c'mon thats what i call disrespect

if its bullshit im a call it what it is mane. enough of this back n forth shit.

[Soulful]

let it go..dont ruin my mans thread that was real interestin before u came in..

EDIT: Bishop Lamont has been on some of the best trackz ive heard this year..hopefully him n others will put the west on tha map again

[FunkTechNician]

If you think west isnt lyrical you havnt heard any westcoast underground hiphop. Havnt been to project blowed or things simular to that..


For me if the west needs to change i dont think it needs to change to bitting the south style like ny does these days.

NY Used to have there own sound in the 80s and early mid 90s
Westcoast Had there own sound in late 80s early mid 90s gfunk etc.
Back then the south was either bitting the west style or bitting ny
Now NY and the south sound the freakin same outside of the underground hiphop on the eastcoast jedi mind tricks, necro etc.
Also to me bay area and south sound the same to me these days. i cant stand either one of them these days.. besides maybe 10 artists that been in the game for a long time. but i respect it because they are sticking to being original. even if its not my thing.

Because the west or South Cali doesnt bite that sound of the south coast they wont grow? There is a bunch of new name people from cali that make mixtapes trying to use the gangsta rap flow over them shitty south beats but it just dont match for me. If they gonna grow its gonna have to be something that matches what they are doing.

I think that NY should stick to evolving there own style or making something new quit trying to be like the south.

I think that Cali Needs to make something new but not bite the south or NY.

South samething but they doing it and ny and others are biting that now.

I respect every style but each coast needs to be original and stick to it.

I dont understand how someone can say the westcoast sound is played out. atleast it aint like every other coast trying to have that damn crunk South sound.. to me that shit is played out. the south started doing there own thing and stoped sounded west or Eastcoast. but we dont need to be doing what they are doing either. we had our own thing and ny too. South has there sound too. why sound like the south now? We Need to stick to being unique if we gonna grow

[R-Tistic]

FunkTechNician....so with that...do you feel the West needs a "new" sound, or that they should stick to what they used to do? I'm a bit confused.

I feel that some NY shit sounds similar to down south music, but generally, they sound a whole lot different. Within the south, there are actually many different styles of beats and different vibes that they are doin right now, and none of this sounds anything like what they did in the 90s. Some of it is 80s influenced 808, but even with the 808, the style they have evolved into is something that has never really been done in many cases. What I was sayin is that most people still see the whole "west coast sound" as being a direct product of what G-Funk was, and that many people do feel that sound is played out....not because the west doesn't bite the sound of the south. As much as I love that true west coast sound, I accept the fact that it doesn't have much appeal to people outside of the west. With the south, I can name tracks that were all big within the last year, but don't sound too similar to each other....."Play/Whisper", "ASAP", "Some cut", "1-2 Step", Go crazy", "Stay fly", "Earthquake", "Go DJ", "No problems", "Still Tippin", "I ain't heard of that", and I can keep going and going and going. These are all tracks that sound a lot different from each other, however they are all Down South. You have to remember that the west is only a few major sections, mainly within one state, that are really represented...with the south, it is the biggest region and has the most major cities and states, so they have a much broaded spectrum of artists and styles of music.

There have not been many west coast songs that have been big since 2001, and when there are songs, they usually are produced by producers outside of the west. I can't say we are to blame for that...but you can raise the question that if these songs were produced by producers from the west like Quik, Battlecat, Fred Wreck, would they have been as big? In many cases, those producers drop beats that the whole nation could fuck with...but personally, I don't see too many beats that would really hit everybody like "Drop it like it's hot" did. The current west coast sound is not club compatible aside from Rick Rock and Dre, and that is something that definitely needs to be developed in order to help get us into the mainstream.

I agree that there are many sub arguments that deal with this topic...such as "if west coast artists got promoted as much as everybody in other regions, our sound would still be considered modern" and "it doesn't matter if the rest of the nation doesn't feel our music as long as we do" and "the reason the west is not in the game is because nobody fucks with each other", but then it depends what your concern may be about the west coast and the current state of it. I have been in Florida for college since 2002, meaning I'm out here 70% of the time and in LA the other 30, so I am around people from all over the nation and I have heard how many of them feel about west coast rap, so I'm not just going off of assumptions.

[Realbiggsteele]

you hit the nail right on the  head  homie, we  really not making music to compete, nobody out here really makes music for the club, and when some one out here does, you get the barrage of foolsr saying its "not gangster" enough, so you are right, there are just a grip of problems when i did the thicky thick joint with uncle luke, i got some flack from people( mailnly LA artist) about not keepin it gangster, but when you went in white lotus, and other spots they was knockin that shit! so we also need to expand our minds more. BTW Florida is off the fuckin chain! what part of florida are you in?

[BizzyR.I.P.]

West does have lyrical guys, Rasco, Planet Asia, Ras Kass, Kurupt was , 2Pac(what his lyrical content touched upon)
Ice Cube(Same as Pac) just to name a few.

[WestCoasta]

fuck what other people outside the West think 

[R-Tistic]

you hit the nail right on the  head  homie, we  really not making music to compete, nobody out here really makes music for the club, and when some one out here does, you get the barrage of foolsr saying its "not gangster" enough, so you are right, there are just a grip of problems when i did the thicky thick joint with uncle luke, i got some flack from people( mailnly LA artist) about not keepin it gangster, but when you went in white lotus, and other spots they was knockin that shit! so we also need to expand our minds more. BTW Florida is off the fuckin chain! what part of florida are you in?

Yeah...and to me, what's happenin with rap in general and especially with west coast rap, is the same thing that happened with Pop, Rock, Jazz, and R&B. For a cat who grew up in the 60s and 70s, their perception of what "real" Jazz, R&B, or Rock is, is a lot different from what somebody growin up in the 80s and 90s feels. With that, people who loved Coltrane and Miles Davis usually aren't gonna like too much Kenny G or standard generic modern day Jazz. With west coast rap, many older cats are stuck in the gangsta phase, and if it's not gangsta then they don't like it...on the East Coast, cats who grew up in the 80s couldn't stand most 90s rap and definitely can't stand modern day rap. But what the west needs to do is let it go, just like the east and south have done. We have to accept that in order to grow, we can't rely on the same formulas that we used back in the 90s, and if certain fans don't like whatever the west is doin that is current, then they just don't. It's hard as hell to appeal to some people, because they complain about new gangsta shit "just not soundin the same" but they complain about it if it ain't gangsta. But it's all about who the artist wants to appeal to...and me sorta being involved in the music business, sometimes you have to "sell out" a lil bit if you want to live off of music...otherwise, you can get a 9-5 and make the rap for your fanbase to enjoy, but then you can't get mad at the world for not likin what you do if it doesn't appeal. With Jazz, they have a style called Fusion, and it only appeals to a small segment of Jazz listeners who are usually musicians and are highly inclined musically. They realize that only a small segment will enjoy their music, so it doesn't bother them. But rappers get offended and want to blame the world when they should just realize they aren't doin what really appeals.

With that....I say artists such as Bishop Lamont, Sly Boogy, and a small few number of others are the TRUE future of what the west needs to evolve into. Hearin Bishop rip club tracks like "Do it" is what we need to take us to the next level, because we have become too complacent and static in our music. I want to challenge all upcoming producers to expand what they do, and try to focus their production in a direction that isn't typical to what's stereotypically west coast, or to what is the hottest, most modern soundin music you hear in the south and east. We came in by taking what was hot on the east and evolving it into our own distinct sound, and that might be what we need to do this time to get back in there.

Either all that.....or we can stay the only west coast rap fans there are. It all depends what your focus is.

[R-Tistic]

fuck what other people outside the West think 

As much as I hear that....I feel it's nothin but a defense mechanism for us to have that kind of attitude. 10 years ago, it wouldn't have been neccesary to say somethin like that because we ran shit. It's easy for us to say "fuck what everybody else thinks" but it's much harder to figure out why they think the way they do, and even harder to admit that we should care or at least listen to what they may have to say.

One thing that may separate me and many artists/producers from most fans on this site is the vision that we have for the west, whether it's returning to the spotlight or just getting respected in general. For some reason, fans who are not involved in the process of making music seem to love artists and styles of music a lot more when nobody else knows about it or likes it, but when it is exposed to everyone, they lose that love and feel as if they can't identify with them as much. This happens outside of rap too. It's evident because fans are very quick to point out "sell outs" when the artist may not even be selling out at all. So I definitely believe that one reason the fans on this website don't care if people outside the west respect or support west coast music is because they feel closer to it as it is now, and they may even feel closer to the artists because they don't seem too far from their reach.

With artists and producers, especially those who are young and upcoming, we have a much different mentality from many of y'all and most older established and even "washed up" artists/producers, because we realize that we could never make a living or "blow up" with the west coast being at the state it's in right now. Personally, it's not a major concern to me whether or not I get big in the industry, and it's not something I depend on because I am going to have a college degree within the next year or two. But I just want to see West Coast rap and music back on the spotlight and in rotation, regardless if I'm in there a lot, a little, or not at all. I realize that there are numerous problems right now, and the whole sound of the west coast is one of the main problems I see right now that many people may not agree with or realize.

[WestCoasta]

I don't care about fools that blow up, I want the good to blow up and be recognized for what they can do
but a sell-out is another thing, switching up style when unnessecary is awful in my opinion, being a lil more marketable can slide, but if you completely change and all of a sudden blow up by selling-out, I think that's different and kinda insulting to fans

[R-Tistic]

I don't care about fools that blow up, I want the good to blow up and be recognized for what they can do
but a sell-out is another thing, switching up style when unnessecary is awful in my opinion, being a lil more marketable can slide, but if you completely change and all of a sudden blow up by selling-out, I think that's different and kinda insulting to fans

I feel u...and I think it's actually possible to appeal and be marketable but still be dope. I don't see any immediate, overnight switch up being neccesary, but I do think it's time for us to progress and slowly but surely change or at least expand into different styles. And it's kinda funny to see what's defined as "sellin out" and "being marketable" in 2005....at one time, everybody who rapped was rappin positive and about party shit, and in the 90s, many rappers would attempt to be marketable by turnin gangsta, such as how Hammer did "Pumps in a bump". Nowadays, it's the opposite, and many people only did gangsta rap because that's what was hot at the time, so if they tried to change up to anything else then they'd be seen as sell outs. It's also bad when people who usually do negative music try to do a song that isn't as negative and may be about females or partyin or whatever, and they get insulted and branded as a sell out. But that's how the dynamics in hip hop are right now.

I still feel that the fact remains that not many west coast artists are gonna blow up from relyin on old formulas, and it's gonna take completely new blood to start doin somethin different to be accepted by the majority of west coast fans and regular mainstream fans.