Taking a Look Back

One thing I've consistently loved throughout my musical life is Hip Hop. I'm not sure what it is about the music, the cadence, the wordplay, the sampling, or just the all of the above but I've loved it ever since I first heard it. I remember when I was much, much younger I would listen to Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Bone-Thugs, and Dr. Dre. I lived in Hawaii and all they really played was West Coast rap. When I got older and moved to Washington, the South started getting hot and I heard Outkast and the Hot Boyz. The East was back to prominence at that point to so I heard the Fugees, Nas, and Jay-Z. Biggie had, unfortunately, died at this point, and my introduction to him was the Puff Daddy (or Diddy to those who know of him now) tribute song.

When I started getting a bit older, when I got to high school, I started exploring. Del the Funky Homosapien, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Kanye West, Aesop Rock, Brother Ali, De La Soul, etc. These were the people who I came home to. These are the people I would listen to before my parents got home. These are the people who would help me to explore what I thought and not just let myself be spoonfed an answer.

As my hip hop knowledge progressed, my exploration became even more diverse, Madlib, MF Doom, J Dilla, Deltron 3030, Kid Koala, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Prince Paul, DJ Shadow. I didn't just for the rappers, I went for the producers, the DJs, the all-the-aboves. Anything. I watched B-boys doing their things, DJs cutting at breakneck speeds and rappers going off the top because they can't stop, won't stop.

So, I bring to you a small tidbit of what I love. The raw type stuff. The LIVE stuff. I love freestyles battles, DJ shows, and B-boy battles because they're spur of the moment. The participants may have some idea of what they're going to do, but most of it all comes off the top. And that's what I want you to see. The stuff that has a few slip-ups. That's when rap is at its purest.

Here is DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist and DJ Numark doing a show with samplers. It's pretty dope.




Here is DJ Kentaro doing his thing on the ones and twos



Here's Black Thought of The Roots and Skillz having a freestyle battle in their tour bus. The object is to start with two bars of another song and then do a freestyle off of it.



The last video I can't embed, but it is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wCVkYX8wWQ