12 thoughts on “No Country For Old (Rap) Men: The Thin Line Between Imitation and Biting”

  1. Droog may sound similar to Nas but he’s got his own thing in terms of style for sure. I really thought of Action Bronson as a GFK clone at first because of the sound of his voice, but his rapping about fine cuisine, Eastern European connections, women and comedic punchlines goes to show how he differs from the style of GFK. And we all remember when everyone said Diddy just signed Shyne because he sounded exactly like Biggie.

  2. Out of the three that @gstatty mentioned, Droog is the most egregious in his imitation.

  3. Bronson never sounded like Ghost to me, other than voice at first. Droog sounds like he came through the birth canal with a copy of Illmatic…

  4. stanning droog and shitting on nas is like bieng a elvis fan that hates on bo diddly.

  6. I show love cause its a terrible thing to hate…
    Seriously big these two cats up. Real NY music, always complaining theres not enough and then when arguably 2 of the best in recent years come out we gotta shit on em..

  7. both Action and Droog are trash. Can’t believe hip hop heads are giving these guys a pass. Aside from the fact that they’re flat out biting the emcees voice and rhyme delivery (and in Action’s case, biting Ghost’s colorful personality outright), their music is just shit overall. Well, certainly in Action’s case. I haven’t heard Droog’s music and frankly, I’m not interested. All great artists have influences, but what separates the real from the fake is that the real evolve PAST their influences to do something stunning that their previous influence just wasn’t up on. Nothing about Bronson’s art is stunning.

  8. I haven’t heard this stuff, but good luck to them or whatever.

    Not critising, but a question- Robbie, you and others on here always said Hard 2 Obtain were Grand Puba clones, and some dismissed them. So how come all the bloggers flipped over this new Nas?

    Is it because rap is stagnated, if there’s no new acts coming up, there is basically no industry in the wider sense? Just wondering.

    As I get older it’s probably healthy to laugh at the absurd side of rap music. Or just skip it all and read interviews or whatnot.

  9. If there’s a need to write a column addressing the sharking, Chances are, its some major sharking. That being said, if he cut out the obvious voice imitating, he’d truly be nice. Has some very clever lines. The flow wouldnt bother me at all if he wasn’t voice jacking.

  10. In talking about comparisons, I think the thing that sat Droog and Bronsolino apart from is that the similarities came at totally odd times. With the other acts and clones you mentioned, they always come directly during the era of years when those styles were all the rage. I have yet to hear a Droog track. That’s just laziness on my part thus far. I promise I will. As for Bronson, I immediately disputed his thing. I gave it some time, though, and I could see that he was able to carve his own niche. I just hate the Vice/beardo contingent that’s largely pushing him. Those vultures will abandon you in a flat second once they get bored and their next “dangerous enough to claim authenticity but not too dangerous to where I get stole on” act comes along.

    To be honest, I’m torn. I want as much good CRC stuff getting exposure as possible. I love a lot of music, though. There is this style called ’emo revival’. It’s basically a lot of bands that sound just like some of my most beloved of the 90s (American Football, Capn Jazz, Mineral, SDRE, etx). Some of it is *very* pastiche, but I can’t get enough.

    Someone wrote that if an article has to be written to address biting, it’s likely occurring. There is truth in that. At the same time, I think about what if there were an absence of guys like Droog and AB. Would that fare better for the sounds we love and often miss? In this war, you take what you can get. There are still many true gems out there doing their thing. Support what you want (and can). We all are vested in moving sound in a great direction. Motion, indeed.

    Thanks for everything you do with the blog and the site.

  11. I like Droog’s Music. Shit, if an MC came out sounding like a hungry Rakim today, I’d very likely be checking for his music. Hus Kingpin sounds very similar to Roc Marciano, but I appreciate the quality of his music as well. I can’t be mad at anyone who doesn’t fuck with these dudes because of their similarities to their predecessors. I truly don’t think Action is much like Ghost aside from his actual voice and actual personality, it’s not like he’s striving to be like him. Shit, anyone who is a hardcore purist could have argued that Big L’s flow and cadence sounded too much like Lord Finesse’s but since that was his actual protege there would understandably be influence and similarities there.. All in all, I am a firm believer in dope is dope and wack is wack. I do think biting is wack, but I also think Droog is dope.

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