What do you prefer more, lyrical artists or artistic artists?

Capital_C

New member
Don't get confused by the title I'll explain what I mean.
When I say lyrical artists I'm talking about people who are famous for their lyrical talent. People who's fans would be devastated if they found out this artist used a ghost writer. People who may not maneuver the beat well enough to make the perfect match of lyrics and sound. But, they make up for it with their amazing metaphors, word play and syllables.

This opposed to someone more artistic, which I call an artistic artist. This may be someone who does not have the best lyrical talent. Someone who just clicks with music and feels what is necessary to make a song amazing. They know what sounds need to be placed where and on what beats. They know when slow singing is needed and when obnoxious voice fluctuations are needed.

Now, let me give you some examples of these types of artists and tell you why they will always have traits from both categories.

A couple lyrical artists I could name right now would be Nas, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. These guys are known for their lyrics because they tell amazing stories with insane detail. Metaphors for nearly everything in black history/rap history have been made by these three artists alone, which is not to say the hundreds of others out there haven't done amazing things for music themselves. The fact they are amazing lyricists set aside, they still have to have artistic ability to be able to transform that lyricism to music. Some of these guys have insane ability to make appealing music and mix it with amazing lyrics. But, I'll get back to that after I explain the type of artist that is strictly artistic.

These artistic artists are people like Future, Young Thug, Rae Sremmurd, and Fetty Wap. They can make insane hits and have sounds and words hit on the beat perfectly, almost every time. They don't miss. Those guys combined have gathered well over a billion plays on singles and album songs in the past year. They are not lyrically gifted like the others I mentioned, but they do have good things to say and talk about, things that people are interested in currently.

So obviously you see there is always a compliment of one type of artist with the other to make someone who is good enough to be famous and successful in the industry. But this is not to say there is a definite line between an artist and that you can make a list of lyrical ones and artistic ones. All of those lyricist I named are on different levels artistically. J Cole has some crazy variety and talent and has studied music and produced music since his childhood. He has proven to be very artistic and lyrical. Someone like Kanye West though. He is know for making art, he is expected to have a good final product when he drops music, but he is not expected to drop bars and amazingly lyrical content. He does happen to come out with good lines himself and does admit to having people write for his songs and no one cares that he does that as long as the final product is good. Future and young thug are very similar in their ability to be on par with any beat. They hit every beat exactly how it should be hit and that's why it always sounds amazing and blows your mind. That's why they are poppin. To me, Young Thug is more artistically talented in the way he chooses to do things with his music. He takes more risks and they work out very well. While Future is more about making very relatable music that has amazing hooks.

Let me know what you guys think about these definitions of a lyrical verses an artistic type of musician. Tell me who you think fits in one side more than the other and what about them makes them fit into both categories, thus determining why they made it big.
 
"words hit on the beat perfectly" its easy to land on beat with your flows when you're using slow ass simple flows with one to two syllable words. Half of what makes them sound interesting is the production.
 
They don't always use slow ass simple flows though. Young Thug, for example. He spaces his voice out and sings with the beat and he'll still have amazing adlibs that hit random peaks in the beat perfectly. Him and Future have amazing producers don't get me wrong, but not all artists can make a song that's appealing with just its sound. They have nearly incoherent lyrics but if you can decipher them, you should appreciate it slightly more than your initial impression. Either way they can rap insanely fast and still make syllables sound great with the beat despite their mumbling. They can slow it down and do all kinds of things, they're versatile. They just don't have the lyrical capacity as other artists, meaning their lyrics are nothing special.
 
Lol it depends,i like making beats so i have a lot of "artistic rappers" on my playlist even tho sometimes i turn it down a notch and listen to real life talk like eminem.
 
I'll disclose that I'm not really a rap fan. But I think your question can apply to all music.


I think that the listener will have his/her own preferences. Some prefer stunning lyrics and don't mind when every song on an album sounds nearly identical. Some just want to be swept away in amazing, fresh musical content, and the lyrics don't even register.

Of course, the best result is when you find a rare gem who can do both. Or, more likely, you pair a gifted lyrics guy with an equally gifted musical guy. One of my favorite albums is Continuum by John Mayer, produced by Steve Jordan. With the exception of track 12, every single song is a perfect marriage of lyric artistry and musical artistry.


When I was young and didn't know much about music, I listened primarily for the lyrics. Now that I'm a musician and engineer and producer, the artistry matters very much to me, and even trumps the lyrics. I don't listen to stuff that has crumby engineering, and out of what remains, I get most excited about really superb instrumentation and groove and general musical creativity. I'm certainly on the artist artistry with my own work, though I hope to grow in my lyrical artistry through practice.

I have a friend who poured out his heart into the lyrics of some songs, and totally winged the lyrics for others. He finds it nuts, because people totally miss his true lyrics, but find his filler lyrics so profound. He's throwing in the towel on lyrical artistry, thoroughly convinced it doesn't make a difference how much effort you put into it. I think he's being a bit extreme. He has a rea; point, and it may apply to people like me too. But there are people who are truly doing it right who I respect very much. I love the lyrical artistry on the first two Keane albums, for example.
 
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