Wanted to share a song I heard recently.

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An artist I'm a big fan of, very intelligent guy, his music has a whole lot of content, no B.S here, and he is actually in the mainstream! I could enjoy this song just for the beat, I love the sax!  He touches on quite a few topics in this song, & I wanted to share it, thought someone might enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S77zUWqawag

If you click on a line it pops up with an explanation, if you don't get what he is referencing to in any particular line.

http://rapgenius.com/Lupe-fiasco-around-my-way-lyrics

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That beat was originally produced by Pete Rock with CL Smooth - "They Reminisce Over You". Classic stuff, I'm a huge Pete Rock fan, he's one of the best hip-hop producers alive. Check it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiOcVWQY2bc

Here's some Tribe just for the hell of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9B7rxtxZs4

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Ahh I was literally just read some of the comments on the original video, saw someone else let him use the beat, was just about to look it before I read this! Feeding me tribe! Good man!! Cheers!

Edit - gonna have to chuck some Arrested Dev for any passers by - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyDjRd0Tjss

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OK, I'll take the topic of this thread as "smart, intelligent, or/and creative hip-hop". Riding on that, I've always thought this song as a great example of hip-hop as poetry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28al2nc-Pjw

lyrics:

The second somebody dies somebody else is born
People are celebrating while other people mourn
Home may be home to you but to me it's foreign
Even the matador don't pull the bull by the horns
One man's enemy is another man's friend
One man's poisons is another man's medicine
So let us stand, let us sit and let us view
The changing of the guard oh it's so hard to keep it true
It's the balance of the scales it can't be challenged or expelled
Soon as somebody lost somebody else prevails
Some someone is quiet at the same time someone yells
Half full or half empty water in the well
It's the Half and Half Hypothesis the 50/50 theory
Eerie as it may seem check your balance beam
It's the Half and Half Hypothesis the 50/50 theory
Eerie as it may seem check your balance beam
Now check your Balance Beamer with a feather and a rock
Wheath or not you find the answer is really not the plot
See it's like Love and Hate (love...and hate)
The same emotion different weight
People Love to Hate so I know you know just how this all relates
It's the posa and the nega tive
Mini and mega live
Arm a leg a leg an arm headed by a _____
Like big and small
Short and tall
Night and day and so on
Some people are bashfull
Some people just love to get their flow on (they flow on)
So here goes one to grow on
I'm a go on and on and on till the principles are laid out
The scales of justice weighed out
Till your memory starts to fade out and your game of life is played out
Got to balance out the power don't we?
Balance your emotions
Push and pull positions like the moon pulls on the ocean
Balance on one foot that's equilibrium
Opposites attract and retract that's a fact
I'm a Libra y'all!
180 degrees but not that hot
So whether or not you find the answer is really not the plot (really not the
plot)
Because giving is recieving (and) and seeing is believing (and)
And the solar system rotates so harmonious and even
It's perfectly balanced
Verse 2:
Some people say life is about taking chances choices and decisions
Voices and opinions, politics and religion
Clues the past and cash and keys to the future
It's a possibility and probability on who's gonna execute yo butt
Some slow and analytical
Some quick fast on the dash
Like heads or tails but the head usually leads the tail
So I tell my tales from the head
Cause they're embedded inside my cells
Real quick let me tell you about a fact I know things will even out
You can disbelieve or doubt or even shout or leave it in your mouth
Cause how you gone reason wit grand Mother Nature
Running mother Earth controlled by Father Time who's the chaser
It's living and dying homey
Laughing and crying dude
Trying or lying my brother
Walking or flying fool
Now half of you are gone find the time to shine
The other half gone find crime, money weed wine
Till it's to late in a disillusion state of mind
I just found my peace of mind
Now they want a piece of mine
To late in a disillusion of mind
The orthodox is the unorthodox they just got you on the names
The insane and the sane are the same
It's a damn shame so many people's aim is so lame
And their gain is so minimal
Caught up in the subliminal
It's pleasure and pain, water for the flames, the wild and the tame
The style still remains if you use the right side of your brain
Instead of going against the grain
You can penetrate the vein to the point where what remains is a stain
Of this universal thang
That we call Balance...

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yes that's a better subject line!

'Riding on that, I've always thought this song as a great example of hip-hop as poetry' - Yeah that's how I see hip-hop, that is a very good example of it. I saw this video you might enjoy, an mc showing how hip hop relates with Shakespeare -

http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=DSbtkLA3GrY

My fav bits @ 5:30 & @ 17:30 - though the rest is very much worth the watch

[Stookie_]

That's a nice video, I watch a lot of TED vids and never saw that one. It's a nice take on it. Hip-hop taken seriously is an art... or even a culture. It's just a shame that the radio doesn't accept much lyrical hip-hop. They assume people want to hear party chants. I saw Busdriver a few years ago and there weren't many people at the show and he said "yeah, I guess people aren't really into words".

Here's an underated MC, One Be Lo. Not only is it a beautiful beat, but check the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mw_75MKtQo

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That got added to my fav list before the end of the first verse Too many quotables in there to count - 'You only get honest expressions when I spit in your ear, that means even when I'm dissin you I'm being sincere' loved that one

It genuinely saddens me that so many people hear the joke music sold to them as hip hop & miss out on the wonders of the real deal. & to add insult to injury so many of those fans when shown some real hip hop, Jurassic 5, blackalicious your man One Be Lo, will just reject it for some nicki minija - Im'a bad beech

But to make things a little better, & this really made my day, nay, my week, some random guy on youtube in-boxed me this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V07zTYOaN1U video is wicked. But yeah made my week that someone just randomly fed me some hip hop out the blue!

[Stookie_]

But to make things a little better, & this really made my day, nay, my week, some random guy on youtube in-boxed me this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V07zTYOaN1U video is wicked. But yeah made my week that someone just randomly fed me some hip hop out the blue!

Awww yeah! He put out so much positive music and worked with so many staples of hip-hop, and that's not even including the Gang Starr stuff. RIP Guru.

I love hip-hop and have listened to it my whole life - my first tape as a kid was Run DMC "Raisin Hell". I spent my 20's & early 30's making beats and going to tons of shows. I listen to all kinds of music and have an equal love for everything, though what's separated hip-hop is I've always felt a part of it, not just an observer.

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I know, he went way too early! I heard 'gangstarr - battle' when I was a teen & got way into Guru & premier from then on, & when I heard 'moment of truth' jeeez mind exploded! I still got a lot of GURU to hear yet though & a lot to bed learned, which pleases me!! 

I listen to all kinds of music and have an equal love for everything, though what's separated hip-hop is I've always felt a part of it, not just an observer.

Same here, to maybe a lesser degree I was seeing the things they often talk about, the negative aspects in poorer communities, & living around those things then hearing people articulate it through music in a way I could understand & relate to, really made hip hop stand out to me over other forms. Though, some artists take those issues & glorify/promote them, as being 'cool' and pack their music full of egotism, which is what seems to get promoted through mainstream.

A lot of theories about why, some involve the way a culture has grown, & music has grown along side it or maybe vice versa, some talk about a connection between private prison & the glorification of these socially negative, often criminal aspects being sold to a working class generation as being 'cool' through media, being dumbed down, the phrase 'area's designed to breed crime' have been said. Me, I couldn't say myself, I'm not informed enough on any of these aspects to make a judgement, I just know it's B.S I don't hear the kind of knowledge I do through the internet, being put on T.V & radio. Though admittedly I started out on that egotism trip, but quickly stepped over into the more intelligent expressions, thankfully!!