I read another thread labeled madlib vs. dr. dre poll. i thought it was a bit random of a mix, so i decided to take this thread in a little more focused of a direction. (no offense or hate to the other threads op! just going off your idea)
to start this off, i took a class my sophomore year of college at California Institute of the Arts (Calarts) called "Boom, Bap, Boom." the class was led by a scholar of hip hop and poetry named Prof. Douglas Kearney. in boom bap boom, the curriculum covered the emergence of hip hop culture as a whole, hip hop as an umbrella term over mc'ing, turntablism, graffiti, and breakdancing.
our first assignment was to bring something that first interested us in hip hop. a lot of kids brought tags of ny trains, some of breakdancing videos with afrika bambaataa dj'ing. i brought in pete rock/cl smooth's "all souled out" album to play a couple of tracks for the class. pete rock first got me really into hip hop. this put the thought in my mind, being an L.A native, home of NWA, Tupac, Death Row, the riots of 1992, and gangsta rap culture as a whole, what drew me closer to the vibe that the east coast hip hop heads were bringing to the nation?
in a short summary, strictly speaking hip hop music, i've come to the conclusion that the west coast and east coast lifestyle is so different culturally which harbors different aesthetics when it comes to the music itself. i always prefer the boom bap of the east coast, the drum breaks of the east coast compared to the 808's of the west. i love the james brown sampling over the george clinton sampling of the westcoast. ( i still love the george clinton and the parliament funkadelics though). i feel that east coast vibe is more of a headphone subway style while the west coast is bump in your system kind of a energy. even the way the coasts murk is different. east coasters will run up on you and shank you, versus west coast is the home of the drive by. (they are both synonymous with each other at times).
i could write an essay about this, but i'll stop here, share your views, your opinions. could be about music, it could be about just the lifestyle in general. and don't forget to vote fam!
