and cappas.  u-gods.  

none of those three have been noted for their ability to expound on topics.  just rhymes.  many fragments.  

hell, half of u-gods verses are damn near haikus.  sixteen bar lists of vowels.  

interesting note about the metal vs rap background, regarding deciphering lyrics.  

also, perhaps ive mentioned it already in response to psyrals pov, but if i had to pick, id haveta say the beat edges out the lyrics, most of the time.  

astoundingly deep and thoughtful lyrics over a lame beat kills the song.  or at least, takes a lot of replay away from it.  think thy unveiling.  

but standard ass, pedestrian rhyming [or maybe even less than that], over a slammin beat?  i can still bump it for years.  think 60% of the rest of icps songs.  and about 80% of what they did before the sixth.  

take post mortem boredom [please!].  

underground til im underground has no verses at all, and yet just might be my favorite cut.  

maybe.  a hundred and nineteen listens later, im still not real sure how to rank most of it.  

love the shit outta the intro, too.  probably makes my top five all-time, among intros.  

somehow, i missed a couple posts on the previous page.  noticed em lookin back for the tbma reference.    

entrappedmind said  
Well, scruff, you've gotta take perspective into consideration. Sean I think was the very first person on here whose stuff I listened to, and I became a huge fan of his nearly instantly. And for yours, since I thought your boasts were unfounded, I had lower expectations - expectations that you completely annihilated.    

expect to be disappointed, and you will never be disappointed.  

If you're offended I didn't criticize you, I'm sure I could pick it apart and find something... But then again, even if I did, I'd be talking out my ass - because as I've made clear numerous times... I have the talent of a brick. What room do I have in criticizing anyone for doing shit I can't even dream of doing?    

people do it all the time.  nearly every time.  

and, despite the cliche, theres nothing inherently false about criticism.  unless you are falsely claiming to have some expertise that makes you an authority on what is good and what aint.  as some are prone to doing.  

in addition, entrappedmind said  
I think I figured it out. Most of your bits on the CD are verses, and one full song. Now, that one song, "Why I Carry", I think I can agree is the weakest point of the album.    

yep.  

BUT - That's not a diss on that specific track, that's a compliment to the rest of the songs. It's not a shitty song among mediocre songs. It's a good song that only pales a bit against the GREAT songs on the rest of the album.

its filler.  

Now, with that in mind, maybe whatever flaws you have are evident on that song, because it's just you. On the rest of the album, perhaps those flaws you see in yourself are overcome by the artists you share those tracks with. In the same vein, Sean's got a lot of solo stuff. So maybe that makes his stuff easier to pick apart. Who knows?

also, i got an insider point of view, which may work against objectivity.  

breakin that down a lil...  i know, cuz i was there for it, that sean whips up a lot of his shit in unbelievably rapid fashion.  im talkin rough drafts in a couple hours, final verses in like a day.  bein capable of that kinda output means you can do a lot of work, and being a worker is a huge plus, in the music biz.  so he gets extra points for that.  

LuckyNumbrXIII said  
You can remix good lyrics till you find a good beat.    

pretty rare that anyone does, though.  [post-release, obviously]  

even then, remixes only hold up about half the time, id say.  and are only an improvement over the original about a third of the time.  the wraith remixes illustrate this.  

But a good beat can't give bad lyrics a feeling. That's in my mind though. Some people I'm sure it's the opposite.    

for me, i dont get as much feeling from lyrics, unless the lyrics are hyper-poetic.  even then, imagine a song like ldlha with a cheap, droning, inappropriate, generic beat.  woulda hurt the emotional content quite a bit.  

goes without saying that its better to have both.  but if i gotta choose, great beats and average lyrics is the lesser of two evils.