How Pink Floyd's "The Wall" relates to hip hop

Leo's Productions

Leo's Productions

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I am listening to Pink Floyd's 1979 album "The Wall" and I was thinking how much better hip hop would be if an artist could put together an album like this. Bear in mind that there are many better albums than "The Wall", but I think it's concept could be applied well to a hip hop album. It is about a rock star and his alienation from everyone around him and how he gradually builds a metaphorical wall around himself. I was thinking that if rock artists make albums like this why can't hip hop artists? I think some of the more lyrical artists should step up and really try to put together a conceptual album. An album that tells a story about something that is important to them, instead of just a series of "dope rhymes over hot beats." There is "progressive rock", why isn't their "progressive hip hop?"
 
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Leo's Productions said:
I was thinking that if rock artists make albums like this why can't hip hop artists?
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because they're not smart enough
 
sh4k3 said:
because they're not smart enough
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Lol I was thinking that too. That's why I said some of the more lyrical artists should step up and just put an amazing album together. An artist like Nas has the intelligence to write an amazing album and the access to the best producers to get the musical aspect of it right. Why doesn't it happen though? Artists seem to be scared to step up and do something really creative.
 
We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.

Detox was supposed to be a concept album. I don't know if that idea was scrapped tho. I liked the concept of idlewild. even the songs that weren't in the movie wouldn't have been out of place in the movie (except hollywood divorce). Only Built for Cuban Lynx kinda was a concept album. Hip-hop is driven by singles tho so concept albums would fall on deaf ears. I'm sure in the underground there is more room for concept albums, but I'm not too well-versed on underground hip-hop.
 
Darko said:
Only Built for Cuban Lynx kinda was a concept album.
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That's one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time. This thread isn't necessarily a concept album rant on my part, but it's more a rant about the lack of good albums from hip hop in recent years (rock too for that matter).
 
this due made this thread earlier where chammillionaire was talking about his new album telling a story

it should be interesting
 
Prince Paul didn't make a concept album?

Oh wait, he did, it was critically loved, and commercially panned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Prince_Among_Thieves

The reason that there aren't concept albums like there were among prog rock (Progressive rock) is for the following reasons:

1. Rappers want to make club hits, and they don't know how to fit it in
2. Rappers don't know how to make an album theme-based, as opposed to something story-based. The Dark Side of the Moon is about the human experience, Wish You Were Here is about Syd Barrett, their original lead singer, Animals is about the book Animal Farm, and so on. A lot of prog rock has a lot of theme based albums (look at Dream Theater and Rush lol).
3. Nobody except weird white guys listen to prog rock, pretty much. (Exceptions to every rule).
 
you could say Kanye does a pretty good job of making concept albums, even though he talks about different things on each of his albums you know that he's telling his story with the whole college dropout, late registration, and graduation theme.
 
honestly to me Biggies Ready to Die album was a dope concept album, it went through his birth I guess you could say and his death (which is pretty scary) but all the tracks fit like pieces to a puzzle creating this dramatic movie like ending.....there are very few albums in hiphop to pull this off.......
 
Hip-Hop has it's limitations. You're not gonna find many albums if any similar to Pink Floyd.
 
someone mentioned raekwon, and yes,

ob4cl is on a level with the wall

easily

but the wall is amazing. and speaking of hip-hop/floyd parallels, is there such a thing as "the syd barrett of hip hop"?
 
Klezmer concept album?

Rockabilly concept album?

Techno concept album?

There have been theme-driven hip hop albums by Mr. West, and others. It is not a popular format for some of the aforementioned reasons.

If the purchasing public wanted them, you best believe most CDs released would be like this, though.
 
Deltron 3030 - space age
Idlewild - good music period
A Prince Among Thieves (ridiculously dope)
Kanye West - college dropout
B.I.G - life and death

are just a few good concept albums. i think stuff by the Gorillaz, El-P, DJ Shadow, PBW are also good concept albums. although they are more on the instrumental side, the producer/dj is telling their own story with sounds...
 
A album that was totally told from the story of a fictitious character and the peril of that character in the story would be very hard to market for a major artist. I think prog rock is dope to be honest. It was made in a era where musicians wanted to play and move the music forward with complex ideas. I think there will be ProgHop one day, no ones ready for it. Check out this band called the The Ruins. Its a drum bass band--not drum and bass. The band only has two players but they recorded the music like it was fronted by 5 players with two drummers. And the drummer is furious.
 
PROTator said:
Dan the Automator, DJ Q-bert and no other than Kool Keith created Dr. Octagonecologist... now thats a dope concept album.
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a few of those beats blew my mind...but sometimes kool keith loses me. I think someone like nas or andre 3000 have the potential to make a concept lp that appeals to a wider audience. Ima look for Lupe to drop one sometime in his career
 
I forgot, the love below was a concept album. Andre talked/sang about a different chick on each song.
 
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