Irish Accents, good/Bad?

bombidol

Just wanted to get the opinion of people about irish hip hop. you think an Irish rapper should spit in his original accent or in the more traditional Americanish accent?
Personally i believe in Whatever works and whatever you feel comfortable with.
egg most rap in our own Dublin accents but every so often we run into problems with it changing as sometimes it fits the track better.
when i say a more traditional accent im talking about the rhymes themselves not the slang. Obviously any Irish punter rapping about drive by's and the 'hood etc should never be taken seriously.

www.eggireland.com

jonny68

Why not an Irish accent?If the likes of Dizzee Rascal from London can rap in his accent then cant see why anybody regardless of where they are from shouldnt rap in their native tongue........ :rolleyes:

ChRoMe

I (and several of my american friends) think that the Irish (well more so Dublin) accent is actually very suited to mc'ing. What sounds so sad is a irish mc trying to speak in something other than their natural accent it just sounds very wrong.

For example one of the things that I love about IRish mc's is that the most of them play off the fact that they are irish and not from the "hood" so to speak. I've always found IRish hip-hop not to take itself too seriouslly by using rapping about funny topics and things that would be unique to Ireland. Perfect case in point is the old classic Scary Eire's "Dole Q".

The arse is outa these and the wind blows up me hole me two cheaks are freezing, I just want me ****ing dole!

ChRoMe

Doctor J

I can't stand put on American accents. Always stick to your own accent, and stick to what you know, lyrically. Rap doesn't need it's own version of the Thrillls...

At the risk of sounding cliche'd, keep it real

bombidol

yeah but dizzee rascal is from the UK, who have a very different style of rapping than anywhere else.
To me though Scary Eire didnt sound like they were from Dublin lol, for some reason it always sounded like a limerick accent to me, but thats just me.
to me though, The funny side of irish rap gets old real quick, sure a few tracks here and there are cool. but sometimes you just wanna do something a bit more serious.
Like i said before im a believer in whatever works for you.

Kristok

The problem with irish rappers (as i see it) is that there is nothing to really rap about. The fact that the only ones anyone knows about are the ones who rap about silly things says allot. Honestly the accent makes no difference although it really sounds silly when an irish person raps what matters is having something to rap about and we have it too good to be complaining about anything on a world stage. Now i could see someone from the north making a good song but who could understand them and noone from the south can really get any further than making a good joke song that might get played on something like wez darcy if your that lucky, or unlucky :-)

bombidol

Irish punters have just as much to rap about as their american counterparts. half of them have it better than us and grew up in better surroundings!

DoctorEdgeWild

Putting on an American accent is the worst thing I think you can do. But almost as bad is putting on a Dublin accent if you don't naturally have one. If you happen to come from the Inner city and have a heavy accent, then thats cool but if you don't then PLEASE keep your accent, whatever it may be.

Makaveli

Kristok wrote:

The problem with irish rappers (as i see it) is that there is nothing to really rap about. The fact that the only ones anyone knows about are the ones who rap about silly things says allot. Honestly the accent makes no difference although it really sounds silly when an irish person raps what matters is having something to rap about and we have it too good to be complaining about anything on a world stage. Now i could see someone from the north making a good song but who could understand them and noone from the south can really get any further than making a good joke song that might get played on something like wez darcy if your that lucky, or unlucky :-)

You would swear you have to be oppressed to rap.

Tha Gopher

What i wonder is could an irish rapper ever make it big with an irish accent. Generally speaking,european rappers have had little success outside their homelands. The Streets sold some records in the states,but it wasnt exactly massive. I think Dizzee Rascal is over there promotin himself at the minute,and there was a feature on him in either the last Source,Vibe or XXL(im a cheap **** who reads em in easons when im waitin on people-i forget which ). But it remains to be seen if he will make it there,and seein as i barely understand a word he says i doubt the americans would either. In fact UK rap and garage isnt even big in England outside of London,Birmingham,Manchester basically anywhere with a large black population. It just never caught on the same as it did with whites and American rap(particularly garage music),and you dont even hear of garage much anymore,i think more general rap has taken over
While I understand what your saying about irish lads rappin about drive bys etc you gotta remember that 99% of american rappers didnt do 5% of the stuff they claimed,or live the life they claimed. Much is about image these days. Look at G Unit-50,Buck,Banks and their affiliate Game have all been shot. 50,Buck,Yayo and Game all claim to have been crack dealers. A bullet wound,or a drug conviction,or preferably both,seem to be prequisites for getting signed. These days you only gotta look at the unsigned pages of Source/XXL and read the profiles of new and upcoming rappers,and 3 out of 4 have claimed to have been dealers(or,if they dont want to sound stupid,just go for the less specific "i spent my time hustlin" line)
Honest to jaysus,are the only black lads who are capable of rapping ex drug dealers? Or,more likely,its all ****e. For all the complaining about Irish rappers who rap on guns and drugs topics,some of them have more experience with it than the americans who do it without criticism. If a white irish guy from a nice area of Dublin with a rich dad and a university professor mother rapped about moving car bootfuls of coke,encouraging crack dealing and welfare fraud,he would be condemned as a ****in eejit who should concentrate on trying to pass his exams at Trinity
Now-transfer that scenario to Chicago. A black guy,parents in those professions,from a nice area. You guessed it,its the years most talked about artist Kanye West. There just seems to be somethin more cheesy about white lads doin it

Makaveli

Kanye West doesn't rap about being a drug dealer.
But anyway, more importantly, who reads the Source anymore? Load of crap.

bombidol

is xxl anyuse?

Cannibal Ox

Don't trust magazines. There designed to make lots of money these days, not to show off talent. So they showcase Nelly and all that other bull****.....

I like Messiah J, he raps in a purely dublin accent and made an album about normal stuff and it works well. It ain't a classic album in terms of worldwide hip hop, but in terms of Irish Hip Hop it's easily our best album imho.
Rob Kelly's not bad either, and the Gudmen are alright too.
So yeah, rap in your own accent.

Tha Gopher

Makaveli wrote:

Kanye West doesn't rap about being a drug dealer.
But anyway, more importantly, who reads the Source anymore? Load of crap.

"A trunk full of coke rental car from Avis
My momma used to say only jesus coud save us
Well momma,I know i act the fool
But ill be gone till november ive got packs to move....."

And then theres the kids singin that "drug dealin just to get by hook"

Fair enough,he isnt exactly on a Biggie Smalls scale for frequency of mentions,but he does it regardless

True,the source did itself diservice whoring Benzino and keeping up a war with Eminem over racist tapes nobody cared about(the only thing that shocked most people was how sh1te a rapper eminem was back in the day)but its still a good read imo for interviews etc


EDITED in response to Kristok yeah I know Kanye never claimed to have done it in interviews etc but he still talks about it in lyrics.

Kristok

Makaveli wrote:

You would swear you have to be oppressed to rap.

Well sorta yea. I cant think of many rappers who dont rap about their circumstances in some way, well theres the nelly/fabolous kind but they just get the kiddies with the hooks and acting like their cool. I mean 50 cent, 2pac, biggie and on and on all rap about their hard lifes. As someone said earlier someone talking about slanging crack etc will be laughed at in ireland so theres not going to be allot to talk about, not saying that theres nothing else to talk about but if you cant talk about your life what else you gonna do. Most English rappers act like their from the hood and it sorta works sometimes but they never last.

Gopher, your taking those lines out of context hes not claiming to have done them things infact he has always claimed to have spent his youth working Sh!t jobs to afford to make music.

As for the source its only worth reading in easons theres not enough in it to spend a fiver on and the same gos for xxl their as bad as each other although the source did loose allot of credibility in the whole trying to ruin eminem and the rest of shady period, and yellow niggas editorial in xxl needs a phd in bull just to understand. Vibe is a non runner.

Wertz

Cannibal Ox wrote:

Don't trust magazines. There designed to make lots of money these days, not to show off talent. So they showcase Nelly and all that other bull****.....

I like Messiah J, he raps in a purely dublin accent and made an album about normal stuff and it works well. It ain't a classic album in terms of worldwide hip hop, but in terms of Irish Hip Hop it's easily our best album imho.
Rob Kelly's not bad either, and the Gudmen are alright too.
So yeah, rap in your own accent.

Beat me to it in respect to Messiah J; if anything most of his stuff is far more accesible than some of the sh*te that comes off the American Gangsta Rap assembly lines these days.
What's wrong here is that we simply don't have a strong culture of rap (yet) but what we do have is a history of poets and storytellers stretching much further back than the discovery of N. America. Rap doesn't have to be about ghettos and bitches; it tells a story in a uniquely musical way. The Irish always have a story to tell...

patsmear

yea, I heard a demo of a dublin rapper with a strong dublin accent. didn't really like the sound of it. I dunno, I'd need to hear more to be able to make a good decision.

Klimseven

dayum, y'allz juzt ig'nant yo

bush

Scary eire is the only irish hip hop id listen to cos its funny, couldnt take irish rappers seriously.

echomadman

you people are forgetting about dangerous dave, he's the next tupac, straight outa somewhere in clare!. i heard he used to deal angel dust (albeit to farmers as a growth hormone).


Edit: I think irish "Gangsta" rap would be ridiculous, "cruisin in mah nine-eight civic type-R, hangin out in petrol station forecourts" doesnt make compelling listenign, but as was already said, lyrical storytelling type rap, ala slick rick or general social commentary expressed musically would work well with an irish slant. The horrendous PR machine thats pushing the faux thug-life ethos at the moment is obscuring other better styles of hip hop and rap, and dont get me started on crap artists like Nelly et al.

L!aM

Thing about Dizzee is that he actually is real. That kinda stuff does happen in South London. His song Jezabel is very creative. However, move to another British rapper, say Blak Twang or Roots Manuva and they're also talking about what's real in their lives, speaking out with their real voices. They're not pretending to be gangstas and they're very talented artists. Just say what your saying and if you're really an artist you shouldn't look like a dickhead.

LegacyUser

Irish and English people can not rap no matter how good their lyrics are...

the american accent is the way to go.

IRISH RAP IS NON EXISTANT! Creative Control were good but only because of their Dj and that one song about the fat woman in a supermarket...lol

Makaveli

French rap > American rap

FX Meister

cheesedude wrote:

Irish and English people can not rap no matter how good their lyrics are...

the american accent is the way to go.

IRISH RAP IS NON EXISTANT! Creative Control were good but only because of their Dj and that one song about the fat woman in a supermarket...lol

That's complete crap, plenty of good rap has come from England. Hold on, are you taking the p1ss?

FX Meister

bombidol wrote:

To me though Scary Eire didnt sound like they were from Dublin lol, for some reason it always sounded like a limerick accent to me, but thats just me.

Maybe it's cause they weren't from Dublin. They came from Kildare.

bombidol

Tullamore wasnt it?

FX Meister

Newbridge if I remember correctly. I've only ever talked to Mr Brown and Mek and they both had non dublin accents. Mek is defo from Newbridge, I've seen old flicks of them from back in their starting days.

LegacyUser

FX Meister wrote:

That's complete crap, plenty of good rap has come from England. Hold on, are you taking the p1ss?

No. I should phrase it better. In my opinion, rap does not sound good unless it has that american accent backing it...

FX Meister

Fair enough, I prefer the rap I listen to have varying styles. I'd prefer Roots Manuva or Rodney P over most US rappers anyday.

Kristok

I agree with cheese dude, americans invented rap and they are the only ones who really sound good doing it and its nice to see im not the only one to openly say that, youd sware i was racist for saying it the way people react somethims. Irish guys who try seem like wiggers and while they might have a small crowd of loyal supporters i really doubt they even listen to their music they just like to big them up as the saying gos.

LegacyUser

Ye like that ****ing disgrace of a bloke called Tom who raps on grafton street with that beat boxer dude(beat boxer dude is cool)...this ****ing junky called tom who raps about being raped in mountjoy and having a drug problem and "whats my name...my name is tom"...would someone kill him please? He is a ****ing joke.

magpie

Celtic Tiger Rap by SpermDotCom is pretty good.

FX Meister

Yeah that guy on grafton street is pretty crap, but he is rapping about his own circumstances. As for what was said about Americans inventing rap and them being the only one sounding good saying it, in my opinion that's an ignorant opinion to have. Do you automatically discount all white rap and rap that isn't from New York? Afterall, rap did originate there.

L!aM

Why does Blak Twang sound crap to you? Hip hop is international.

Kristok

Here we go again, how on earth can you say that im being ignorant. Hip hop is not international that statement is ignorant if anything. Hip hop is american and sometimes and i mean sometimes england gets in on the act. Yea france has its own scene but they dont really export and they dont need to as their market is big enough to support their own acts internally.

The AMERICAN hip hop culture is a global force BUT its an american hip hop culture not an international one. Im a real big hip hop fan/addict but there is nothing other than american hip hop and thats fine cause the culture is international. Now if your real good you could make it as a producer and im not saying anything about production cause that can really be international but rappers, 99.999999% of em are american and thats simply a fact.

Makaveli

Hip-Hop is a culture, and it is international. How is it not?

To be honest it's probably more pure in Europe than in the States, because it hasn't been raped here.

Yea france has its own scene but they dont really export and they dont need to as their market is big enough to support their own acts internally.

What, and America's market isn't big enough to support itself internally?
What sort of rap do you think you would listen to if we spoke French instead of English?

You have a very narrow minded view, and to be honest from reading your posts on this board you don't seem to listen to much beyond what MTV Base shows. That's not snobbery on my behalf, it's just the way you come across, to me anyway I dunno what others think.

Kristok

ok if its so international name some well known artists from outside america or england ?!? Perhaps im totally wrong but there aint many, i cant think of one.

And when i say the french market can support itself internally i mean that they can continue to have a market dispite the fact that the majority of the world wont understand them and when they rap in english they will never be able to be as good as in their native language.

Anyways im far from narrow minded im just being honest which is what most of the people who claim to like these irish acts are not. I dont mind if you think im narrow minded from what ive read of your posts on this section I feel your just as narrow minded in your views (and i dont mean that as an insult unlike you) but hey its not my place to say that about you cause i dont know what others think of you either :-)

Oh and mtv base sucks as does mtv for the most part.

L!aM

Just because something isn't marketed as well as something from another country, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You're saying that Blak Twang, Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Skitz, Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Asher D, MC Solaar, Funkee Familie etc are automatically sh1t because they're not American. What can we do but say that is an ignorant view as these guys are talented. And if we define hip hop as being more than music, the French kicked arse at the World Break Dancing Tournament and as for Italian graffiti... It's f**king brilliant compared to most US stuff.

Makaveli

Kristok wrote:

ok if its so international name some well known artists from outside america or england ?!? Perhaps im totally wrong but there aint many, i cant think of one.

Anyways im far from narrow minded im just being honest which is what most of the people who claim to like these irish acts are not. I dont mind if you think im narrow minded from what ive read of your posts on this section I feel your just as narrow minded in your views (and i dont mean that as an insult unlike you) but hey its not my place to say that about you cause i dont know what others think of you either :-)

It wasn't an insult. Did it need a smiley to not make it seem insulting?

Do you actually want me to list artists?

Kristok

L!aM wrote:

the French kicked arse at the World Break Dancing Tournament and as for Italian graffiti... It's f**king brilliant compared to most US stuff.

And ? What has that got to do with accents ? Im talking about the music here not the culture, not that any of those things orignated outside the ameircan culture as i said the culture is worldwide anyone can copy the culture but the music is almost 100% american.

Makaveli that is up to you and you can ad as many smilys as you want onto it but its still an insult although not a very bad one but the fact that you felt the need to make comment about me and not what the thread is about speaks volumes to me.

Look guys you honestly think an irish rapper is going to have a top 10 hit in america or england ?!? You can blame people like me for putting them down or blame the kids cause they just dont get how good they are but it just aint going to happen and that is something that is not going to change any time soon.

L!aM

Because top 10 hits are the best songs ever. Graffiti has been around for centuries btw.

If an Irish rapper proved himself a highly skilled lyricist, there's no reason why he couldn't make hits. The problem isn't the accent. America produces a lot of music. American companies ensure we hear it over hear. There's no reason to immediately dismiss something just because of the nationality of the artist. This is just your silly little opinion. Nothing you are saying is fact. I would rather listen to a bit of Twang ahead of many American rappers. I can honestly say that I enjoy listening to Solaar.

Kristok

Well i have my silly opinion and you have yours but mine is based in the real world yours in based in a world where everyone accepts everyone but the reality is different.

dubadub

Far to many Cultchees in Dublin

Badly Drunk Boy

Far too may Dubs in 'Cultcheeland'.

Makaveli

Kristok wrote:

Makaveli that is up to you and you can ad as many smilys as you want onto it but its still an insult although not a very bad one but the fact that you felt the need to make comment about me and not what the thread is about speaks volumes to me.

My comments were on this post:

Kristok wrote:

Here we go again, how on earth can you say that im being ignorant. Hip hop is not international that statement is ignorant if anything. Hip hop is american and sometimes and i mean sometimes england gets in on the act. Yea france has its own scene but they dont really export and they dont need to as their market is big enough to support their own acts internally.

The AMERICAN hip hop culture is a global force BUT its an american hip hop culture not an international one. Im a real big hip hop fan/addict but there is nothing other than american hip hop and thats fine cause the culture is international. Now if your real good you could make it as a producer and im not saying anything about production cause that can really be international but rappers, 99.999999% of em are american and thats simply a fact.

Which has nothing to do with accents what so ever, but came across as a very narrow minded view in my opinion. If you're insulted by that I'm sorry.

Kristok

na im not that insulted keep it comming its all good )

Anyway this thread is after going way off topic

LegacyUser

Mc Solaar is amazing.

Nobody wants to hear some ****ing culchee on a mic rapping. It sounds terrible and awful. Irish rap is non existant and it will never be big. American Rap is the way to go. Period.

Wertz

cheesedude wrote:

Mc Solaar is amazing.

Nobody wants to hear some ****ing culchee on a mic rapping. It sounds terrible and awful. Irish rap is non existant and it will never be big. American Rap is the way to go. Period.

The bolded text is so telling . Cheesedude and Kristok in this thread are the epitomé of the wigga fanboi. "I wannabe a yank and live in the hood with my brothas, peace out yo, bling to da fo'shizzle my nizzle etc."
Closed minds, open pockets, awaiting the next multi-platinum release from the US. No offence intended: that's just the way you are both coming across.

Note that no-one standing up for non-US rap acts is belittling US rap, but yet both of you denegrate any style of rap/hiphop that doesn't conform to a strict set of criteria, the main one being a US accent.
Accents matter, sure, but so does the content. If you're not prepared to even take that on board then fine, but please don't try to tell the rest of us why our taste is crap because we honestly like non-US accented/produced rap.

Finally I like a lot of hip-hop. It's origins matter little and I'll admit that the vast majority of it is either US based, or influenced, but I'm prepared to open my ears when something a little differentcomes along. If it's crap then it doesn't get a 2nd listen. Just like any music...

LegacyUser

That my point and that is my opinion. Irish rap is **** and non-existant. I don't get why that makes me want to be a yank. But ye, ok...

Klimseven

Graffiti has been around for centuries btw.

Not graffiti in the hip-hop sense, where one adopts a tag and does handstyles/throwups/pieces with that name. People have written on things, yes, but there's far more to graf than that...

oh and by the way, the essence of hip-hop culture is originality...having an original style and not biting is what pushes the elements forward, not people conforming to a set of strict criteria in order to please the masses. What do you think the term 'fresh' actually means? It's pretty scary actually that a culture that was formed on the principles of free expression has become so conservative lately...

but anyways, like I said before, y'allz katz iz juzzzt ig'nant yo...chekk yoselves...

ubu

No southern hip hop was taken seriously in the U.S until Outkast came along,
they had different accents but because of their talent they were accepted, the same could happen here with irish rappers i suppose, it has more to do with the talent than the accent imo