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rap songs on acoustic guitar


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Check out my friend Andy Scheer

Ellen

 

Ellen,

 

No slam by any means, I percieve a Bob Dylan influence, especially on some of his other tracks. Actually I like the 'rawness' (?) and 'honesty'. But in my opinion, that's not rap due to his intonations and the harmony.

 

Am I wrong? :freak: (Won't be the first time!)

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Jonathan Coulton's version of
Baby Got Back
is brilliant.

 

That's a nice melody. Certainly not rap as I've come to hate. (I gotta listen to the crap in the middle of the night til I get up and tell 'em to knock it off). I think treating women as pieces of meat to be had like a party favor is stupid. Why waste your talent making up lyrics like that. Old fashioned I know, but with a 15 year old daughter at home I've reshaped my thinking a little over the years. :blah:

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Ellen,


No slam by any means, I percieve a Bob Dylan influence, especially on some of his other tracks. Actually I like the 'rawness' (?) and 'honesty'. But in my opinion, that's not rap due to his intonations and the harmony.


Am I wrong?
:freak:
(Won't be the first time!)

 

I hear the Dylan influence too, especially on Promise Land. But I agree with Ellen that Drop Love could be considered rap-like. The guy won't be confused with 50 Cent anytime soon, though the lyrics remind me a bit of the middle verse of the Black Eyed Peas' Where is the Love, or even Fred Durst's verse in the What's Goin' On AIDS tribute.

 

Personally I think there's a huge middleground between rap and not-rap, and I'm sure there are quite a few acoustic musicians who could fit in that crossover area. Lauryn Hill raps and sings on her MTV Unplugged album. Jason Mraz does some fairly melodic rapping on Curbside Prophet (with a banjo helping to keep the rhythm!). Dave Matthews has a rap-like bridge in Ants Marching. John Popper of Blues Traveler crams a lot of rapid-fire syllables into the Pachelbel Canon chord progression at the end of Hook. Popper also uses some slow rap-like inflections in one of his ballads, Alone. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones do an odd rap version of The Ballad of Jed Clampet.

 

About a year ago I actually transcribed Eminem's Lose Yourself for violin and guitar. It was for a Name That Tune segment for a closed-circuit TV program. It was all in D minor. Even without the backing music, a lot of rap is often in a key. In that song Drop Love, on Ellen's friend's page, he's staying well within F minor pentatonic. It's just up to the guitarist to figure out a way to use the rhythmic and harmonic possibilities of the instrument to fit in.

 

I would think that with all the tappers out there, someone must be trying it with rap lyrics, and hopefully creating something good. There's probably plenty of bad stuff too.

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Ellen,


No slam by any means, I percieve a Bob Dylan influence, especially on some of his other tracks. Actually I like the 'rawness' (?) and 'honesty'. But in my opinion, that's not rap due to his intonations and the harmony.


Am I wrong?
:freak:
(Won't be the first time!)

 

No, no, man, you're absolutely right. I should have clarified. Mostly what I was pointing to was the phrasing of the lyrics and the way they were set up. There's a few rhythms that he sings which are generally more common to rap music than to what is known as "acoustic" music. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

I'm glad you all listened to this guy! He's quite good. I've played a few shows with him and he is a fantastic songwriter.

 

Ellen

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