DO YOU FEEL AN ARTIST CAN BE..

[J-FUNKTION]

too varied?

like with beat selection? or should he find his lane and stick with what he sounds best on..even though he loves spittin on all types of beats (g-funk, hip hop, south, new school, etc)?

example..i prefer albums with a certain theme, sound, whatever to them, that follow through yet slightly vary.....im kinda iffy about projects that come out with extreme differences from track to track..you dont wanna be limited to one or two things..but you dont wanna be the guy with no direction either..

do you feel artists should group up their same feel tracks? and release those as a whole on a mixtape/album..or does a mixture of everything get a pass with you?

 

[Darkshowdown]

90% of all the rap shit that dropped this year so far been garbage everything sounds the same all beats sound like duplicated lex lugar and zaytoven beats

 

[Dhadnot]

I like an overall theme for an album and I don't mean it has to be a story album but just something that has a complete feel like Doggystyle, or Illmatic, Temples of Boom

 

[Count_Slapula]

I like an overall theme for an album and I don't mean it has to be a story album but just something that has a complete feel like Doggystyle, or Illmatic, Temples of Boom

^

Theres nothing wrong with variety as long as the artist expresses himself well in whatever approach he chooses to take.

Some albums with great variety can still feel like a complete experience:

Apathy - Wanna Snuggle
Immortal Technique - Revolutionary Vol. 2

 

[ThaG]

Variety is the enemy of style and identity.

Albums of the past were great in large part because the people who made them we trying to establish their own sound or when copying something, they weren't trying to copy everything that's trendy at the same time. They were also usually produced either by a single person or a limited number of producers. The result was albums that had identity and style.

In the late 90s this changed, and albums started being made by a formula that required a little bit for everyone to be present in them. The first single for the club, the second single for the ladies, etc, etc. More than a decade later, the end result is that we have one completely faceless interchangeable clone releasing the same album as everyone else after another. No style, no identity, nothing.

So yes, not only can you have too much variety, variety is not good in general. That does not mean you should release 12 tracks sounding like slight variations of the same theme, but 12 tracks with no coherence and no identity is much worse.

90% of all the rap shit that dropped this year so far been garbage everything sounds the same all beats sound like duplicated lex lugar and zaytoven beats

They aren't even doing that well. I hear a lot of Lex Luger imitators too, but it is usually easily recognizable when it is not Lex Luger himself.

BTW, to continue my point above, as much as people like to criticize Luger for the lack of variety in his beats (and for a reason), he is one of the very few people in the last 2 years to have come up with something distinct (even if it's firmly rooted in the classic southern aesthetics of heavy bass and hard hitting drums)

 

[BIGCHILL]

90% of all the rap shit that dropped this year so far been garbage everything sounds the same all beats sound like duplicated lex lugar and zaytoven beats

as soon as i hear that kind of production i dont even give the rapper a chance to start rapping.i click out or change the song.

 

[Foul Mouth]

The result was albums that had identity and style.

and when an artist creates an identity and style due to an album he released, when he tries to change it up and "grow", he gets hated on.

i like albums that flow like Doggystyle and Dubee aka Sugawolf, S.O.T.S. but then it kind of brands you to a certain style. albums like that cant have a better follow up.

albums with extreme differences showcase an artists' broadened craft. too much of the same shows that rapper aint got much of anything besides what he's doing.

 

[ThaG]

and when an artist creates an identity and style due to an album he released, when he tries to change it up and "grow", he gets hated on.

i like albums that flow like Doggystyle and Dubee aka Sugawolf, S.O.T.S. but then it kind of brands you to a certain style. albums like that cant have a better follow up.

albums with extreme differences showcase an artists' broadened craft. too much of the same shows that rapper aint got much of anything besides what he's doing.

Nothing prevents you from crafting an album that's different from your previous one but nevertheless also has identity and is not simply a little bit of everything that's hot at the moment. Note that making a whole album of only one thing that's hot at the moment is also very bad

Season Of The Siccness was an unique album, Loaded was also an unique album, but a different one. What he dropped in the last decade - not so much.

Wacka Flocka making a whole album of Lex Luger crunk bangers - that's something that has style and identity (lyrical sophistication aside). Gucci Mane making an album with a little bit of everything in it (i.e. lots of bubble gum pop BS) - not at all. Kanye West making a whole album of autotune electropop - even worse.