tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-371838407458930719.post3940941538074327262..comments2023-11-02T08:27:04.487-04:00Comments on One Man, 500 Albums: No. 426: The Battle of Los AngelesR.J.http://www.blogger.com/profile/10383814114949080690noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-371838407458930719.post-36602831084031030782008-03-26T18:25:00.000-04:002008-03-26T18:25:00.000-04:00Of course I loved "Evil Empire" when it came out b...Of course I loved "Evil Empire" when it came out because I was a 12 yr old boy who listened to Q101 and at the time knew next to nothing about hip hop and absolutely nothing about funk. It's kind of a shame, b/c unlike all the godawful nu-metal that followed in their (and Faith No More's) wake they could really play - I think a big key to their sound was that instead of just throwing terrible rapping over tepid hard rock, they incorporated the funk on which hip hop was initially based. The rapping was still terrible of course, but the beats knocked, so to speak. In fairness I think most of their material is tougher to flow over than say, a Pete Rock beat, but I can only wonder what they would've been like with a Masta Ace or Pharoahe Monch on the mic. <BR/><BR/>Of course by the time this album came out I had, like a lot of people, totally outgrown their college revolutionary schtick. Which doesn't really make sense if you think about it - you'd think that intelligent dudes like de la Rocha & Morello the Harvard poli-sci major would be able to construct a political message that wasn't so cliched and boring. And I WANT to agree with them most of the time but they generally come off like student activists who know just enough to pretend that they know what they're talking about. <BR/><BR/>And it's really a shame, for many reasons, that Limp Bizkit & Co. blundered along and ruined the commercial viability, if not the concept, of mixing hip hop and hard rock.padraighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14495953504448929836noreply@blogger.com