OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

He will be missed.

Rest in peace and thank you for all the wonderful years. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rant.gif

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

My opinion on this is...

...eh.

His music wasn't to my taste at all. It's too bad he died, but no more so than anyone dying in my opinion.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Almost all the great artists are gone. He and Roy Orbison were two of my all time favorites. Rod Stewart…

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Its not to taste in music as to why I feel a true legend has passed Ren, its the fact the he made the music he made that makes him a legend.

I may not like RAP, but those artists who make RAP special are just as important to the history of RAP and music in general as Elvis Presley or Tex Williams were to their respected chosen musical asperation.

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"His rapid- footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger"

'nuff said.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

<removed>

Never mind. I can't be bothered getting into a debate about the merits, or lack thereof, of rap music.

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Don’t get me started on that genre. It’s hard enough to remind myself that it is music.

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I only know of a few people who really enjoy and like RAP. I like some of it, but that percentage would be around 2% of the total overall RAP avaible.

I too do not want to comment about RAP listeners as RAP in general is made for a specific class of people who for the most part generally don't like people like me. Oh well.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Rap, whether you happen to like it or not, is a field of music from which a great deal of innovation comes. Personally, I don't listen to it for pleasure very often, but I do keep an eye on the directions it goes in and I pay attention to the best artists. As someone or other probably said, art doesn't have to be nice. It's got value because it's art. Not that I'm saying all rap is art, just like I wouldn't consider all country-western music to be art, or whichever genre you happen to like best. I do strongly believe, however, that if enough music of a given type is being made-whatever the process-some of it's going to be very good. It seems to be human nature. Good music is as close as anything to being universal.
James Brown seems to have been a deeply flawed person-just like the rest of us-and he also made the world richer and better. I personally like his music (probably, I admit, because he is an innovator and a legend as much as for the music's merits) and I can't fault anyone for giving of themselves to the world, which if you're an artist, you'll understand that he did.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif A very good post HoneyBadger. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

I must say that I disagree. The majority of rap music that I have listened to, and that I have seen the music videos for (which I admit, is very few, but still more than I would have liked), is definitely not art.

Anything that predominantly talks about "nig****, *****es and hoes", and which, in their videos, shows nothing but scantily clad women dancing provocatively can't be art, in my definition of the word.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

It is art, it's just art about *****, *****es and Hoes(not very apealing, and possibly destructive in some senses and very simple or shallow but art none the less).

Also it seems to be there are certain sub genre's within rap depending on the type of beat, lyrics and style of the atists just like with rock(me, I want to punch evanessense, 30 seconds to mars, avril and most of that 'i'm angsty because my hair is black and I wear earrings where they don't go and have a pale powder white complection' genre in the throat, but that doesn't mean I can't rock to Metallica or Sponge if I want to).

I don't have much experience with rap, it's like land mines in CD format, mostly certain catchy songs from tv shows or videos I like, stuff I know is good going in, but there is some good, fun stuff out there. I do like Cee Lo, the Danger Doom album, Gnarles Barkley, and some of the free stuff they used to post on adultswim.com(some is catchy, some is funny, other stuff is just good poetryand it was free), but not much of it focuses on the *****es and hoes aspect. The N word however seems to be a staple though, hard but not impossible to get away from, but then most rock at one point or another makes refference to motherf***ers, s**t, drugs, and probably degraded women as much as or more then rap did, so you can accept some vulgarity as a part of the lyrical content, approaching it with a sense of humor or intellectually or go listed to christian rock. I don't get the double standard or why it is somehow acceptable when said with the A instead of the er at the end or how it became some sort of term of empowrment[reminds me of how the brittney/paris/lohan generation of girls is somehow sexually 'empowered' by being ****teases wearing ****ty outfits with 'spooge bucket' printed on their too tight short skirts, but thats a paradox for a whole nother topic...] , but however or whatever it has lead to some very interesting if not vulgar works. Give Cee Lo green and His Perfect Imperfections a spin, it's the one that won me over, n-word and all, not much of the *****/hoe references and much of it seems to defy the genre.

As for James Brown, he sang, he danced, he innovated, he entertained, he owned, and I kinda wish some ofthe artists nowdays would get some more "influence" from him then they currently seem to. Here's to the Old School....

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

There are several really good RAP based songs available that I enjoy listening too. While I am not at all into the ever increasing racist anti-white RAP, many songs from earlier times do appeal to me.

Is it art, well its an art form of music to be sure, but art is often held in the eye of the beholders so I leave it to each person to make up his or her own mind.

95% of RAP is crap. But that 5% that remains is usually very good music.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Kinda on topic, Is it me or did we seem to lose alot more famous people this year then in the previous few years?

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

We need a dead pool for next year.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Well at least Saddam is dead too Sorry but that bastard deserved worse

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

I am a firm believer in the idea that celebrities die in threes. If a famous person dies I fully expect two more in a short time. So James Brown dies (James Brown is dead. Isn't that the lyrics to some song I hear occasioanlly?). Then Gerald Ford died, so I wondered who next? I guess if they are hung it still counts, so I guess famous people are safe for a little while.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

We lost President Ford, wasn't that number 2?

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

There's nothing wrong with rap - the problem is the rappers. How about some rap that attacks the racism, sexism, materialism and ignorance of the rest of the genre?

Read some of these lyrics:
http://www.completealbumlyrics.com/s...Miss+Dynamite/
and maybe pick up some of the songs. "It takes more" is probably her biggest hit yet, but I always liked "put him out."

Or, for something a little more light-hearted, look up the Goldie Lookin Chain. They are crude, unsophisticated, about as subtle as a housebrick but they are refreshingly silly, occasionally hilarious and they do like to take the piss out of many rap conventions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldie_Lookin'_Chain

Also, although I disagree with a lot of his lyrics, I find it impossible not to respect Eminem- When he really lets go, his talent with words and rhythm is nothing short of breathtaking.

Re: OT: An A Legend Is Gone
 

Is that kind of like "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?"