Why Albums Suck (article)

[Chad]

I think everybody is in aggreeance that musiuc today sucks.  Well, I have three opinions on why that is: 1.  No creativity, 2.  Production, 3.  The Formula. 

No Creativity -  In today’s hip-hop/rap landscape everybody is talking about the same old things.  Bitches, guns, drugs, sex & violence.  It’s the same story, every time.  It’s just simple played out.  The wwest wonders why they don’t any love, it’s because they’re still stuck in the 1988-1993 era.  Instead of creating something new, or improving on something old, they’re still trying to make hits with an old stategy.  I don’t think gangsta rap is dead, I just think it needs a voice, a new sound, and a new direction.  The west cannot wait for Dre & Snoop to come back around and save them.  Look at Cube, a west coast icon.  He came back out with a new album, independently, and what was his first single?  Why We Thugs.  It was gangsta, it was west coast, but it wasn’t bitch this, bitch that.  It was vintage Cube talking about the government, society, and asking pertinent questions in regards to that.  Not to pick on the west, but u have to get creative and rap about something new.  You can only say u wanna fuck this bitch, pimp that bitch, drink this 40, slap this ho, ride my ’64 so many times before it gets old and nobody wants to hear it anymore. 

Production – Ok, let’s look at this seriously.  Listening (or trying to for that matter) to labums now, versus back in rap’s “Golden Era,” one thing stands out more than anything else:  the production.  Not the producers themselves, but more the quality & sound of the albums.  Look at Snoop Dogg for example.  Doggystyle vs. R&G.  Doggystyle had 1 producer/composer (Dr. Dre) with musicians (Warren G, Daz, Soopafly) follwing that producers arrangement/vision of that album.  Therefore, providing listeners to a continuous flow of good songs & grooves.  R&G on the other hand had 12(!) producers (on 20(!) Tracks), with all sorts of different musicians follwing polar opposite directions in styles that there was no continuity to the albums flow.  You had south (lil jon), east (neptunes) west (LT Hutton) and everything in between. Add a different mixing technique for each song, and you have no solid sound emanating fromthat album.  It’s just trash.  Now, individual songs may be able to stand on their own, in their own right and be very good songs, but as far putting an album together, there’s no cohesion.  On Nas’ Illmatic, he had 10 tracks produced by DJ Premier, Pete Rock & Large Professor.  All 3 were similar in style, and that album was classic.  The look at Stillmatic:  14 tracks, 12 producers.  If you go back to rap’s “Golden Era (88-94/95)  albums were produced/composed by 1 production group.  NWA (Dre & Yella) had a distinguished sound, All Death Row’s albums (Dre, Daz, Soopafly, Warren G) had a distinguished sound, LL Cool J (Marley Marl) had a distinguished sound, Nas (Primo, Pete & Large Professor) had distinguished sound, etc.  You get the picture.  Look at what we call certified classic albums and check the credits. 

The Formula (The Jimmy Iovine Treatment) – This has ruined rap/hip-hop for me.  There’s no love for the art anymore.  It’s all about dollars.  Everything is a formula now that goes like this:  club/radio single, love/sad song single, gangsta/street single.  50 Cent (In Da club, 21 Questions, Wanksta), Eminem ( Just Lose It, Mockingbird, Mosh),, etc..Can we please get an album with no filler songs?  I understand that the album has to sell, but they take really good songs off the albums, only to plug crap songs in place of them because teenie boppers like those songs.  Meanwhile, the people that realy care about quality of lyrics, quality of beats, and such get shafted because of label politics.  Busta’s album was dope, don’t get me wrong, but how much better would it have been had Dre been able to put more of his shit on there and some poopy shit that Iovine wanted on there?  I’m all for artists collaborating, but can we save that for a mixtape or a soundtrack instead of an album?  Mellowmanisback said guys like Dre don’t want to start over by going the independent route, but if that’s the only to release albums that they WANT to release, the way they want to release it, it may time for them to rethink that strategy, since it is their legacy they’re leaving behind when their time comes. 

Feel free to drop opinions!

[eazye]

I agree with you completely.Hip-Hop today lacks direction and creativity.

Just curious (Off topic):Were Daz, Soopafly and Warren G really musicians for "Doggystyle"?

[Young Bo$$]

I think the Wwest is getting creative with the new Hyphy/Thizz movement that is growing.

[WestCoasta]

well you're somewhat contradicting yourself

why be creative and go different directions if it's not gonna benefit you and you're not gonna enjoy doing it

seems forcing yourself to go that route is trying to please some hierarchy

it's obvious there is a decline in the music, basically because of time change and the guidelines in the business

people get older and think different and egos get involved and money, it's all just politics

we don't control what goes on the radio and TV, the insiders do and they force feed people stuff subliminally, it's obvious

why else would some of these ridiculous tracks come out

because they're trying to plant shit in the heads of a certain group of people

usually people who don't have a clue what they're looking for

just don't worry about it cus there ain't shit u can ever do about it, be happy guys can operate independently

[Shawn Nutt]

i think everyone can agree on points 1 and 3... but in 2 u brought up a really good point that not many people have thought of, im sure... i agree, i plan on being a producer and when i do, i'd much rather do 1/2 an album than 1/20 of an album...

and lets look at "36 Chambers"... all done by RZA, with help on one song by ODB, and one song with Meth... u made a great point here, nice read

[thyzzkyd510]

I think also is because if a persons first album is about strugglin and hustlin and they make it big they real can't talk about that any more so they try something else and most of the time the shit is weak

[Eihtball]

I agree wholeheartedly with #2 and #3, and especially #2.  I've always been disappointed that rappers have forgotten these days that the best hip-hop albums are always those that have a consistent sound that lets each track flow smoothly into the next, in contrast to the current approach of weighing down an album with every A-lister that money can buy.  "Straight Outta Compton", "The Chronic", "Doggystyle", "Illmatic", "The Infamous", any of the Wu's first few albums...those are all records that sounded so good because they relied on 2-3 producers at most, and (in the case of the first three plus the latter) sometimes only one.  A perfect example of a rap album that IMO suffers from the "too many cooks in the kitchen" approach is Game's "Documentary" - it has a lot of excellent beats by Dre, Kanye, Just Blaze, Hi-Tek, etc., but none of them are anything but cheap ear candy, and they don't bring out any particular sound or tone in the album.

I do, however, disagree with this:

No Creativity -  In today’s hip-hop/rap landscape everybody is talking about the same old things...Look at Cube, a west coast icon.  He came back out with a new album, independently, and what was his first single?  Why We Thugs.  It was gangsta, it was west coast, but it wasn’t bitch this, bitch that.  It was vintage Cube talking about the government, society, and asking pertinent questions in regards to that.  Not to pick on the west, but u have to get creative and rap about something new.  You can only say u wanna fuck this bitch, pimp that bitch, drink this 40, slap this ho, ride my ’64 so many times before it gets old and nobody wants to hear it anymore. 

First of all, LNCL was chock full of all the same old shit we've come to expect from West Coast rappers, including misogyny, Six-Fos, getting loc'd, etc.  Second, if it's "vintage Cube", then how is that being new and creative?  Honestly, there ain't nothing on LNCL that Cube (or a million other rap niggas) haven't rapped about on wax time and time again...what made the album good was the fact that Cube was simply rapping about that shit and sounding dope again when he did it, instead of sounding washed-up and boring like he did on his past couple solo albums.

[big mat]

music sucks because people buy what other people tell em to buy, pop music bullshit, it always been like dat, we are only assisting to the industry and business aspects taking over creativity.

[Mr. O]

they sold their for money.

[Roman]

But hip-hop is slowly moving away from all of these factors. Just look at some of the bigger albums to come out recently... Nelly Furtado (Timbo/Danja), Late Registration (Kanye/Brion), Gnarls Barkley (Dangermouse), Demon Days (Dangermouse). Christina Aguilera is getting half of her double album produced by DJ Premier & RZA is doing most of OB4CL2. I mean, you have a point but it would have been better made in 2003 when the biggest albums were on a 1 producer/1 track ratio, like GRODT or TBA

[KURUPTION-81]

I defiantly agree with number 2. Rappers dont make albums any more they make singles and then throw them all together.

[ABN]

I agree with you completely.Hip-Hop today lacks direction and creativity.

Just curious (Off topic):Were Daz, Soopafly and Warren G really musicians for "Doggystyle"?

i don´t think any of them were musicians on Doggystyle. i think Colin Wolfe played most of the instruments on Doggystyle.

[eazye]

I agree with you completely.Hip-Hop today lacks direction and creativity.

Just curious (Off topic):Were Daz, Soopafly and Warren G really musicians for "Doggystyle"?

i don´t think any of them were musicians on Doggystyle. i think Colin Wolfe played most of the instruments on Doggystyle.

Thanks, homie.That's what I thought too.But what the thread starter said got me thinkin'.

[Shawn Nutt]

I agree with you completely.Hip-Hop today lacks direction and creativity.

Just curious (Off topic):Were Daz, Soopafly and Warren G really musicians for "Doggystyle"?

i don´t think any of them were musicians on Doggystyle. i think Colin Wolfe played most of the instruments on Doggystyle.

Thanks, homie.That's what I thought too.But what the thread starter said got me thinkin'.

just addin to this... dre plays piano so he mightve done some of the piano shit, dunno though... yeah i think colin wolfe did just about everything as far as instruments go

[Klue]

and that's the reason why all dj quik album are fuckin dope