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Originally Posted by excellrec  On the same token though, who really gives a shit about trying to prove that there is or isn't less technical musician competency in hip-hop? |
As a general rule, I don't. It's not a genre focused on musicianship per se (which is not at all the same as saying it isn't music). BUT, given the adulation aimed at ?uestlove, the issue of musicianship naturally comes up, because only a genre with a lack of actual live drummers would spend so much time being amazed by his playing. It's kind of like the attention that Scott Storch gets for actually knowing how to play a piano/keyboard: he's only notable because that skillset is relatively unusual in Hip-Hop. And don't get me started on bass playing. Quick: someone name me a Hip-Hop bassist. Can't, can you?
This is not a complaint about Hip-Hop. I've been listening to it since the begining (and no, motherf00kers, that doesn't mean 1994...more like late 70s/early 80s), and I have a lot of love for the genre. But that doesn't mean that there is, on the whole, any great level of skill with instruments in Hip-Hop.