Juuso Koponen (mekaanikko@dlc.fi)
Fri, 03 Dec 1999 20:27:49 +0200
> Europeans are buying a lot of hiphop, and
> im sure they know that US hiphop is better than most of their hiphop.
I have to comment on that. I'm no hiphop freak, but my personal opinion
(shared by many here at the edge of Europe, that is, Finland) is, that
lately (say, from 1996 or so), French hiphop in average has been a way
more innovative, interesting and maybe even techincally on a higher
level, than its US counterpart.
I'm not by any means dissing contemporary American hiphop, I mean, the
originators came from US and they have a grand tradition, and lotsa
lotsa fine current hiphop artists, too (Mos Def, Sir Menelik, Peanut
Butter Wolf, just to name a few), not to speak of turntablism, which by
all means is a US phenomenon at its best. But yet I have to say, that
there are so many even greater French acts (IAM, Saian Supa Crew, Oxmo
Puccino, Mafia trece..) kicking the stuff out there.
It's very different in many ways from the US stuff. More melodic often,
and there is a great emphasis put on the background, as US acts often
tend to concentrate on the verse and def rhyme-saying. This is of course
just my humble opinion, but I think many in Europe share this. All
respect to the originators, but there is a lot great stuff out here too.
From France, Germany (tho that's not so much my cup of tea), UK, Sweden,
even a few groups out of Finland (well, mostly it's not so great, but
there are some nice groups) for example.
But hey, after all it's just a personal preference thang. I don't think
you can objectively say "US hiphop is better than European hiphop" or
vice versa. What you can say, tho, is that US hiphop has had a greater
impact on the world of music than any other national style (quite
obiviously), and is still having.
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