why cant all live hip hop be this good?

[htsamurai]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=410fKOP-WjI[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsWyFGNn7_Q[/youtube]

[archlilim]

Saw them a long while back. It was pretty rad.

The best hiphop live related thing I've ever seen was the Octopus Project laying down a crazy heavy space beat while Aesop Rock and Mac Lethal freestyled over it. One of the greatest things I've ever seen.

[bigchiefbc]

I saw Black Eyed Peas live back in 1998, and they knocked me on my ass. Back then, they had a full live band that they played with, and they did a lot of cool jazzy Digable Planets-type stuff. This was way before they got Fergie and went all commercial.

[smile_man]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jztRZ34AEcY[/youtube]

[less_cunning]

hip-hop is not supposed be live. it defeats the modus operandi & the origins of hip-hop. (IMO...)

[archlilim]

In those cases wouldn't hiphop only be live?

[less_cunning]

no disrespect but those Atmosphere clips sound mad corny. like some smooth jazz or something. very lifeless. the live version of "God Loves Ugly" sounds very weak. & i think that's the problem. live bands can never sufficiently translate the "boom-bap" heaviness which is essentially the "essence" of hip-hop.

[Antero]

Lots of groups go harder than that these days - that Atmosphere stuff is kinda "eh" all things considered. Ghostface and Rakim went on tour with the Rhythm Roots All-Stars, a huge Afro-Cuban funk band; that was a blast. Jay-Z hit Glastonbury with a full band that kicked out a stupendous set. Wale toured with a DC-area go-go band. The big performances at the Grammys and such always have a live band these days - see "Swagger Like Us." DJ Quik has been playing out with a live band for a while now. Live bands are becoming more common in hip-hop tours these days in general, especially with more established artists.

Just because there isn't a live band, though, doesn't mean it has to be boring. See also Method Man and Redman, who could start a riot with nothing more than a midi click track.

hip-hop is not supposed be live. it defeats the modus operandi & the origins of hip-hop. (IMO...)

But... the origins are exclusively in the realm of live performance. Leaving aside all questions of the actual value of sticking to the "origins" of a form that is already over 30 years old, if we were going to be purists it would be entirely DJ and drum-machine based, all live, and all improvised.

[less_cunning]

yeah i mean i don't wanna be a pursuit per se or be inflexibly rigid & say that it should "only" be confined to 2 Turntables & a Mic; but, i mean personally, i have never heard it done well. the "hip-hop band" seems to be a relatively new phenomenae: i mean Common did have is his own band, "A Black Girl Named Becky," or whatever... & obviously the Roots have been doing it strong for like a decade & a half now. but yeah--

i could see DJ Quik & other LA artists doing it w/ a live band becuz their stuff seems to be more funk-based & less "boom-bap" heavy.

not saying it cannot be done: just saying aesthetically it seems "less conducive." ya dig?

[archlilim]

Oh, I thought you meant studio vs live.

[less_cunning]

Oh, I thought you meant studio vs live.

yeah that's kind of the irony of it becuz hip-hop initially started as a "live," performance-based music. there were no "studio" records.

[sev]

live bands can never sufficiently translate the "boom-bap" heaviness which is essentially the "essence" of hip-hop.

I tend to agree with this. The sound of hiphop has become more associated with machines and samples (apart from a brief period circa the very first rap records, when studio musicians would copy disco tracks for MCs to rap over).
In the '70s it was DJs looping breaks on two turntables.
In the early '80s it was drum machines: 808, 909, DMX, DX, and Linndrum...
In the late '80s and beyond it was samplers/sampling drum machines: SP12, SP1200, MPC, Studio 440, EPS, ASR...
To me, hiphop with live drums just doesn't capture the raw flavor, and relentless repetitiveness that machines/samples produce.

[less_cunning]

& energy. i remember when the Brand New Heavies did a record w/ some rapper guest spots & that album didn't sound corny becuz it channelled the energy & spirit of hip-hop w/o being an ineffectual facsimile.

& i love Yesterday's New Quintet. more so than the Madlib stuff. again. not saying it can't be done in a live band setting. but yeah i'm just saying...

[Derelict78]

calling this hip hop may be a stretch (it does have hip hop elements) but it is far from "thin" you just have to look for the good stuff

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diONxk9NzEg[/youtube]

[smile_man]

Live hip hop needs to be dirtier.