Irish Hip-Hop

Walsh

I'm just going to keep this nice and short, Why is there no interest in home-grown talent? There are some really good Irish artists out there and not one would be recognised in the Irish main-stream it baffles me!

ItsNugget

Lots of reasons. The accent puts people off and they dont give a chance a lot of the time. The first time i heard an irish accent rapping i thought it was **** but after a few listens i think it sounds good. Just kinda a mad thing to hear for the first time.
Another reason is that no labels are gonna gamble on it. It is pretty much a major gamble to make. It could go one way and be mad successful. However it could be a huge disaster or troublesome like it has been in the past. A label can sign an indie band and do alright with them. Theyre gonna stick with that.
If someone is given a half decent chance and makes a decent go of it then it maybe that could change things but sure **** it. The people who like it enjoy it!

tomottosam

i got into irish rap last year, and i could not believe how i hadnt heard any of it before, there is irish rap out there that deserves time on the radio and the likes of channel aka/flava
theres songs out there like redzers be someone, nu-centz and terawritz - rap 9-5, scary eires dole q and riras follow are 4 good examples of songs for air time
but im sure theres plenty more out there, im still discovering irish rap, but i want more

Shapey Fiend

There was a great show on RTE last year called The Raw Sessions and a rap group called The Infomatics won the whole thing which was a wonderful surprise. They tore the house down live.

Siyo won Blackrocks Got Talent against a ton of indie bands earlier in the year too. Audiences were responding very positively to him.

Messiah J & The Expert and The Rubberbandits tend to draw pretty good crowds too. They've both got serious live skills so it's well deserved.

Thing about Ireland is there's hardly any rap on the radio in general, nevermind Irish stuff. Most of the stations are playing hardly any Irish music anyway, or they fill the quota with safe stuff like The Script or U2. Only way I see it happening is if some Irish rapper gets a successful single in the US. Rob Kelly might be in with a punt but it's hard to say.

Other person I'd be tipping to go places is Maverick Sabre. He's on Professor Greens album and getting pretty big shine off that. His accents sort of half way between Wexford and London which can't hurt his chances over in the UK either.

In fairness there's like a bajillion more indie bands in this country than there are rappers and only a tiny proportion of them get anywhere either. Irish radio isn't interested in breaking new Irish artists just maintaining the status quo and not pissing off their advertisers by playing anything too unusual.

tomottosam

mav sabre is deadly, heard him on tera's and nuies album sense the terror on the track lucky nd another one that the name just come to mind

Shapey Fiend

Rob Kellys DJ Mo-K just got promoted to a new slot on 2FM on Fridays at 10pm. Used to be on RTE Pulse. Should be Irish hip hop tracks getting played on that to some extent. And lads coming in doing freestyles.

tomottosam

thats someone to listen to so of a friday nite,

leinsterrugby

because its embarassing u no wat i mean like? who wants to listen to some scobe rap about life in ballymun lol

Shapey Fiend

Arguably the best rapper the country ever produced mostly rapped about life in Ballymun. Snoop Dogg heard it and wanted to meet him and have him play support so technical excellence resonates wherever you're from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kXSkJFnrBg

leinsterrugby

i honestly cud not listen to that accent for more than 5 seconds but i like the beat

gogo.ie

:rolleyes:

Shapey Fiend

Ah I'm being a bit officious about it Lunitic passed away a little bit over a year ago and he's sorely missed. Urban Intelligence are worth a punt anyway. Their beats were pretty savage and while I'm not massively into the whole heavily accented 'me friends are on gear' stuff they wrote and delivered the stuff with a level of authenticity that's admirable. Check out Straight Spittin'. Huge track.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=123454

That whole style has kind of fallen out of favor anyway because you're not going to really top what's been done already. Most of what's about at the moment is more lighthearted in tone.

ItsNugget

The show on 2fm was a one off as part of pulses 2 fm invasion.
What i was saying about indie bands is that they are a safer bet than irish hiphop. Most major labels irish division only have a quota of signing one homegrown act a year. And they will go with the safe option. Thats not my own presumption, i was told that by someone from one of these labels.

Shapey Fiend

They just told you that to get rid of you.

You have to be posh to get signed. They don't want people who sound like scumbags. I'm in talks with Jedwards manager at the moment. Big things in the pipeline.

ItsNugget

Ah i'd never approach a label. I just have a mate who works for one.

Edgehead

The first successful Irish Hip Hop act will be an alternative one. Of a Kid Cudi ilk. Who can blend an indie sound with Hip Hop.

ItsNugget

Bit of a specific prediction there. Psychic?

Edgehead

Just an opinion. There isn't a big market for hardcore rap these days, never mind Irish hardcore rap.

Look at the American freshmen and which ones have been successful. Cudi, Roth, B.o.B, it doesn't take a psychic to work out light hearted party hip hop is what people want to hear right now.

ptepete

have a listen to this track out

http://www.reverbnation.com/pl​ay_now/song_7580727

conor.hogan.2

Lots of people just plain dont like hip-hop in general so thats a major block along with everything else that was mentioned.

Jordans n Timbs

Edgehead wrote: »

The first successful Irish Hip Hop act will be an alternative one. Of a Kid Cudi ilk. Who can blend an indie sound with Hip Hop.

agreed

ptepete

have a look at this music video from an irish hip hop artist. its for suicide awareness, deadly track

http://youtu.be/g_X7unDbsoI

Shapey Fiend

Jordans n Timbs wrote: »

agreed

Likes of MJEX, Infomatics and Super Extra Bonus Party already did. The Original Rudeboys although very much on the pop indie side have also got a huge following by doing this.

Frankly I think indie has gotten quite stale in the last two or three years and Irish audiences are probably a bit more open minded about listening to music without guitars, assuming they're very good.

Oranage2

The crowd here gave me a good laugh and the song is pretty trippy

Tandey

These guys gonna be on that republic of telly soon, have a listen not bad.

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Be like Nutella

the voice/accent is the main barrier...anyone who thinks otherwise is kiddin themselves... I'm a south side fcuk and I wrote a few raps for the laugh and recorded them and changed the voice pitch a bit and did some other stuff and it didn't sound the worst not that I'm that good but the voice diidn't sound too bad...allbeit I put on my 'rap' voice : ) which tends to get all hippidy hoppidy ... it's just a voice thing.... too posh... nobody wants it.... too weird and underground like messiah thingy and wont really take off big style... it's gotta be fat beats and neutral good rap voice good flow ... if anyones gona get off the ground internationally... I'd say not knowing anything that Ireland is a shiite place to try and get signed for a rap deal anyway mind you I'm sure many in the bus will tell me otherwise.. and rappin bout shootin drug dealers and all that crap is not gona do it.. hiphops sposed to be fun n real and funky and all that... not just a feckin 'how hard am I' show... biggin up yourself is a huge part of it but only when done smatly funnily or with good ryhme and flow like eminem obviously and all the greats... voice tho - the main barrier! at least to gettin signed internationally and gettin played.. unfortunate that our brains are hard wired to only hear American singers and rappers... and at a stretch British but brit rap is not mainstream in the US and never will be... black street british accent is too strong for most over there even tho theres serious British rap talent out there

Be like Nutella

Tandey wrote: »

These guys gonna be on that republic of telly soon, have a listen not bad.

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actually theyre good... they put on their rap voices n **** but they are good.... takin the piss and not too heavy n all that but yeah deffo would listen to them... good luck to them

scoldy Irish accents are never gona fly internationally .... not my Rathfarnham accent and not a`Limerick accent... just not gona happen...ya gotta get all hip hop when you're rhymin...which is grand like coz it feckin came from their anyway...no shame in it

mufcboy1999

I think the Irish culture isn't urban enough to actually except hip hop. In America it's not just about the music,, it really is a way of life and a culture within itself over there.

As far as the uk scene, there's also a very urban/hip hop scene over their too and it's successful and excepted because they actually went out and created there own unique sound to represent them I.e garage or grime music etc.

As far as the Irish scene in hip hop, IMO it will never break the commercial market unless there is some form of comedy/humor in it.

The majority of the Irish publics music preference isn't Irish hip hop or infact hip hop at all unless it's commercial like drake, eminem etc with a lot of it basically being pop or techno influenced these days.

The fact is the Irish hip hop community just isn't big enough for it to be successful over here and personally I think Irish artists that are aspiring rappers etc need to create somewhat of a hip hop sub genre just like the Uk did with grime and garage to have any chance of being big really .

In other words they need to make there own lane because I can tell you this most of the Irish hip hop I hear is just music without any proper substance/meaning behind it, when i listen to Irish hip hop, I just think wow honestly what are you taking/ rapping about? It's just meaningless words that rhyme thrown together in most cases.

Like i said in America It's a way of life over here it's a hobby just like playing football etc that's another big reason IMO why it's just not succesful.

conor.hogan.2

Not all rap is Urban, not even in America.

"You don't be getting crunk like everyone else man, you from Carolina"

I swear some people just won't listen to anything outside of the Bronx, or America, or sometimes England or France but never Ireland for some odd reason.

mufcboy1999

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Not all rap is Urban, not even in America.

"You don't be getting crunk like everyone else man, you from Carolina"

I swear some people just won't listen to anything outside of the Bronx, or America, or sometimes England or France but never Ireland for some odd reason.

my main point is hip hop is a culture and a way of life in america, imo the reason why people don't listen to irish hip hop is simply because the majority of it isnt good enough.

conor.hogan.2

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

my main point is hip hop is a culture and a way of life in america, imo the reason why people don't listen to irish hip hop is simply because the majority of it isnt good enough.

Hip-hop is a culture that started in America which has since spread everywhere.

The majority of it in America is not good enough either, you filter it out.

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Not all rap is Urban, not even in America.

"You don't be getting crunk like everyone else man, you from Carolina"

I swear some people just won't listen to anything outside of the Bronx, or America, or sometimes England or France but never Ireland for some odd reason.

because the majority is shyt, people who like ihh are like atheists, always trying to convince the world their right.
admittedly there will be some good stuff here and there but if the majority is awful people will tend to ignore it as a whole.
thats life, people ignore things that are not good, when it starts to improve people will take notice.

conor.hogan.2

Hugh Cream wrote: »

because the majority is shyt, people who like ihh are like atheists, always trying to convince the world their right.
admittedly there will be some good stuff here and there but if the majority is awful people will tend to ignore it as a whole.
thats life, people ignore things that are not good, when it starts to improve people will take notice.

The majority of US Hip-hop is bad too.

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

The majority of US Hip-hop is bad too.

maybe your right, its not a competition, my point being, if ihh as a whole was better people would give it a chance.

Camac Hibs

Hugh Cream wrote: »

maybe your right, its not a competition, my point being, if ihh as a whole was better people would give it a chance.

And that is definitely starting to happen at the moment

Fall_Guy

Hugh Cream wrote: »

maybe your right, its not a competition, my point being, if ihh as a whole was better people would give it a chance.

Jumping in totally out of nowhere here, but just wondering if you've listened to lethal dialect's new album yet? I'm not a massive fan of Irish Hip Hop either, I'm just a fan of Hip Hop. And LD50 2 is a seriously good album, and lethal dialect is an excellent rapper, technically better than a huge amount of successful american rappers in recent years.

conor.hogan.2

Hugh Cream wrote: »

maybe your right, its not a competition, my point being, if ihh as a whole was better people would give it a chance.

The difference is because Ireland is smaller and the media only hypes up the bad ones or the comedy acts what people perceive to be the best we have to offer is nowhere near the actually best talent in the country.

Because we are small any idiot can post online claiming to be a rapper and people take them as representative of the whole which would never happen in America or most other places.

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

The difference is because Ireland is smaller and the media only hypes up the bad ones or the comedy acts what people perceive to be the best we have to offer is nowhere near the actually best talent in the country.

Because we are small any idiot can post online claiming to be a rapper and people take them as representative of the whole which would never happen in America or most other places.

I cant disagree with that, but by the same token people are not completely stupid either, you have to give people some credit as well.

Hugh Cream

Fall_Guy wrote: »

Jumping in totally out of nowhere here, but just wondering if you've listened to lethal dialect's new album yet? I'm not a massive fan of Irish Hip Hop either, I'm just a fan of Hip Hop. And LD50 2 is a seriously good album, and lethal dialect is an excellent rapper, technically better than a huge amount of successful american rappers in recent years.

Ye and it sounds like the rest, same flow, same beats, apart from it not being that good it sounds too similar.
I was watching one of those dfi YouTube videos recently, funnily enough lethal dialect was one of the guys, during the intro a clip of each guys songs are played, both songs sounded like the same song, same sounding beat and flow.
It's like everyone is influenced by the same rappers.

conor.hogan.2

I have lost track of the amount of times I have heard two rappers sound alike, it is not unique to IHH or even music. It happens.

Shapey Fiend

To be honest your man who does Lethal Dialects beats doesn't sound like anybody else. It's kind of based off 90's classic boom bap but he takes it in a very hazy cloud rap sort of trip. Nobody else doing that kind of thing. SertOne has his own take as well. Most Irish rappers use **** production but there are some very competent Irish producers.

Hugh Cream

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

To be honest your man who does Lethal Dialects beats doesn't sound like anybody else. It's kind of based off 90's classic boom bap but he takes it in a very hazy cloud rap sort of trip. Nobody else doing that kind of thing. SertOne has his own take as well. Most Irish rappers use **** production but there are some very competent Irish producers.

Most of the beats I've heard mate sound very 90's to me, the flows sounds 90's as well.
Like I said, to me it sounds like a lot are influenced by the same rappers.

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

I have lost track of the amount of times I have heard two rappers sound alike, it is not unique to IHH or even music. It happens.

But it's not two rappers conor its the majority, its almost like you agree with me but are excusing it.
You can't keep countering an argument by saying it happens else where.

conor.hogan.2

Hugh Cream wrote: »

But it's not two rappers conor its the majority, its almost like you agree with me but are excusing it.
You can't keep countering an argument by saying it happens else where.

I can and I am.

It happens in all music, even Hip-hop. It is not the majority, it might be the majority you heard but then again when you try to tell Nugget to stop talking about guns it is not as if you give it much of a listen either way.

Imagine some hip-hop being influenced by the 90's, you would not get that craic in America anyway never.

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

I can and I am.

In one sentence you've made a mockery of the whole point your trying to make.

Your comparing an industry as huge as the American market to the Irish market.
Your saying that everyone in the tiny Irish market sounding alike is pretty much the same as a few artists in the huge American market sounding alike.

You feel it's fine, I feel that because the Irish market is so small people should try and be individual.

conor.hogan.2

They do not all sound alike, I never said they all sound alike you did and you are wrong on that.

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

They do not all sound alike, I never said they all sound alike you did and you are wrong on that.

Your not agreeing with me?
It seemed you were by what you've be saying.

The majority of ihh sounds alike, of course it does, it's not original.
we've done this before Conor, why are you beating a dead horse, your arguing black is not black.

Boom_Bap

Hugh Cream wrote: »

Your not agreeing with me?
It seemed you were by what you've be saying.

The majority of ihh sounds alike, of course it does, it's not original.
we've done this before Conor, why are you beating a dead horse, your arguing black is not black.

You say the majority sounds alike....just curious, who are the exceptions?

Hugh Cream

Boom_Bap wrote: »

You say the majority sounds alike....just curious, who are the exceptions?

Why do you think I've never listened to ihh?

conor.hogan.2

You have shown on at least two occasions that you clearly have not listened to a lot of it.]

You do not accept the fact that they talk about particularly Irish things and in an Irish way yet they all sound like they are influenced by American rappers somehow more so than any other rapper?

Hugh Cream

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

You have shown on at least two occasions that you clearly have not listened to a lot of it.]

You do not accept the fact that they talk about particularly Irish things and in an Irish way yet they all sound like they are influenced by American rappers somehow more so than any other rapper?

Sorry conor, you come to your own conclusions, I for a fact have never denied ihh artists talk about anything but Irish things.
I have said certain ones rapped about guns and stuff, but that was in a thread where many people were saying the same thing.
Your problem is you will not accept anyone's opinion, the over riding opinion on here is ihh is not good, but according to you those who say so have only ever listened to maybe one ihh song.
You act like there's a huge array of brilliant Irish rappers, there's not, you need to deal with that, it's mainly shyt, it could improve, but at this moment it's mainly shyt.