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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3961 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 3, 2023

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No, I don't view him as a rapper, and I don't know anyone who does, but that was kind of my point. But let's look at this album objectively—most of the vocals are more spoken than sung, the Dust Brothers are producing, there's liberal use of turntables and drum machines, and the live instruments are often recorded in a repetitive way meant to mimic sampling. "Where It's At", the best known song on the album, is literally about rap battles, and most professional reviews of the album at least mention the copious hip-hop influence. If we were to make a list of the unique defining characteristics of rap, Beck certainly hits a lot of them here. But no one considers him a rapper. Whether that's because there are enough other criteria that he doesn't meet or simply because he never presented himself as one (and his more conventional albums bolster that argument), I'm not sure. But what I do know is that Beck certainly seems interested in exploring where the line is, and that's what makes this album interesting.

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