I generally don't listen to hip-hop but with other music I get lured in by the beat and then realize the lyrics are dope.
the beat makers usually find the sickest artists to compliment there styles so i always find the sick producers and beat makers and they lead you to their choice of artists followed by the artists choice of lyrics
It has to be a perfect combination of the beats and the lyrics to make me like a song. I couldn't choose one. I rarely RARELY get instrumental albums because they tend to be pretty boring especially the ones with a looped beat over 3 minutes. But neither would I buy a whole album with pure vocals. I love listening to both. It's always nice when you hear beats and you recognize the samples and breaks used but it's also nice when you hear an MC and takes you a few listens before you truly understand what reference he was making and what he meant in a certain line. The two have to be combined in perfect harmony.
Balanced i would have to say. I wouldent get pumped without the beat and wouldent be feelin the track without the lyrics
its all about the lyrics but you gotta have a good beat behind it....but if you have great beats and shitty lyrics...youll just turn into lil wayne
haha sooo true. I'd say lyrics. I prefer both. The thing is though, I can listen to good lyrics with a simple beat. But I can't listen to a good beat with stupid lyrics. A good beat with Lil' Wayne/Soulja Boy bullshit type lyrics is just another generic beat to me. So even though I'd rather have both, lyrics do more for me...
well i like if it all sounds good, its wierd, first time i listen to a song, i pay attention to the way the person is spitting and how his voice goes along with the beat, sometimes i cant even pay attention to the lyrics if the beat and the rapper go together, i just get lost in the sound of it all, i guess i should vote beats then
I enjoy instrumental hip-hop over stuff with vocals, so usually I go out to seek that perfect sounding beat, lyrics often come second.
id rather listen to to a shitty beat and fly lyrics then a fly beat and shitty lyrics but the beat does catch me first.
it's a combination of both, really. wack beats don't tend to catch anyone's attention. and i won't listen to any type of music if the lyrics are garbage. i lose respect for most mc's after a while because once they are established, it seems like they slack on the lyrics. i pay attention to the lyrics most of the time. especially when i'm high. so i look for those punchlines that make me go "oh shit".
Lyrics You can rap ocopella. Tone of voice justifies the mood of the song. Biggie smalls for instance. I could listen to him spit all day. Why? Because his "slow flow is remarkable" Bet makes it a little easier to listen to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hbwdAOogBw&feature=related
has to be the beats. its what makes me listen in the first place. no a massive hip hop fan but its the same no matter what choons yer into. perfect example is Sigur Ros. they have albums with no lyrics which are fuckin immence. even the lyrical ones are in Icelandic so a dont know what the words mean. still fuckin supreme music. like i can easily listen to foreign choons purely because of the beat.