Artists I'd rather hear freestyle...

Listening to as many artists as I have in a while has shown me one thing, just because you can rap, doesn't mean you make good music. Being a good rapper and making good songs are totally independent of one another. For example, Nelly makes good songs, but he can't rap worth a damn. Canibus could rap and 'freestyle' his ass off but as far as songs, eh, not so much. See rappers have ill metaphors, flows, and 'punchlines' but when forced to try and contain them in a topic, they normally struggle and try to force more of the things they are known for where they don't fit.



It seems today, that more than ever there are less songs and more mix tapes on original beats. Whenever I listen to albums like the recent Teflon Don, or one from Lil Wayne, all I hear is endless verses that could go on any song. While they may have some hot bars, none of the songs have verses that truly are unique and make them into coherent songs. I'm going to talk about some of these guys now.

1. Fabolous- I don't really want to rank people but Fab is probably the biggest waste of album space ever. The new model of itunes, singles, and EP's benefits Fab greatly as he has never actually made a complete album worth listening to. Most artist's first albums are the second or third best. Fab has never reached the potential he showed early on Clue tapes or what he still shows on freestyles and songs about nothing. Even his singles are mostly lame and ridiculously formulaic.




2. Lloyd Banks - Banks is actually one of my favorite rappers. He's like 50 Cent with less 'gangsterness' and more lyrics. Fif can be blamed for not being the one to help craft more songs for Banks, though he also just fell into the trap of the change of guard in album purchasing, promotion, and what was popular. His first album is what any of Fab's albums should have been so he is no where near as bad as Fab, but I just like hearing him spit.



3. Papoose - Now I wasn't thinking about him at first but I heard a freestyle and was like this is why NY fell in love with him. Dude can be a beast but he seriously over thinks his actual songs and his "hood knowledge" always pisses me off. The affiliation with DJ Kayslay didn't help in his career either.



4. Joe Budden - Budden is one of my favorite rappers but he has the Nas syndrome. his album tracks are always just terrible. He also leaves all of his emotion on mixtapes and freestyles. The Green lantern freestyle was serious, the G-unit diss-fire, the Ransom diss records- ridiculous. If he could ever pick some decent beats he would be dangerous for real.



5. Jadakiss - One of the most over rated rapper of all time dead or alive. Yeah i said it. Dude says the same thing on every song, the only thing that would make it slick was to do it on beats other people have made hot. He doesn't even do that many freestyles but the Lox used to and that was his highlight.



6. Corey Gunz- I never want to hear Corey try to make another song again in his life. As of right now, I haven't heard anything resembling a concept that makes sense and he doesn't really know how to control when to go in and when to take it easy and let just the lyrics to carry the weight. He is a guy who always seems to try too hard and on his songs so far none of them have worked. Being on Young Money is not going to help.



Who are some other artists who can spit or rap but who cannot make good songs?

Comments

  1. Cool post!

    Basically commented to tell you I digg what you bring here constantly. Good articles, fresh reviews covering almost every album released, though I've noticed I disagree more often than agree with your views, mainly ratings. You an old-head, I can just tell. Pilot Talk deserves a decent 2.5 at least, beats are top-notch quality. And simply WTF for Big Boi's 2.5 rating. Really?

    Oh well keep doin' your thing. I enjoy visiting on a regular.

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  2. lol thanks for reading, honestly, Pilot talk was more for people who smoke and I don't so i didn't feel it. I look for consistency and songs that matter consistently when I review albums. I feel like a record should be able to convey some sort of story and when they don't I feel let down. Some of these so-called best rappers out can rap but all of their songs are just verses with none having any meaning. Honestly, an album has to reach classic status to be a 5 for me and many of these records are less than half of that by a large margin. In fact after I review, hardly any warrant a further listen for my own pleasure.

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