This post however is about none of that. This post is about songs that in one way or another take a different spin on the word love, whether through metaphor, simile or onomatopoeia. You got a long work day and I got 14 good songs here for one reason or another. Kick ya feet up, click and listen.
As I write this post I’ve listened to each of these songs more than once over the course of the night. You’re not going to find and Boyz 2 Men “I’ll make love to you” here. Some of these are Anti-love songs.. some of them examine love in the non classical sense. Oh and this isn’t a Top List. These are just some of the ones that stand out to me.
Dru Hill had the game on smash at one point. This song was actually made after they split and regrouped. This song is great and the video is a nice compliment. The last scene is what puts this on the list. The ol I can’t stand you/ wanna be with you conundrum.
I remember when I first heard this song. This might have been the first rap song I sat down, listened to and analyzed. Shit was crazy to me, the imagery blew me away back then. Love’s gonna get you.
This is a great song.. about a break up. Dude is caught up apparently and more than likely you’ve been there. It’s a shame the biggest thing to come out of this video was people saying “Yooo you saw homies eyes.. crazy!” I mean yea.. they are twisted out, but he went in on this track.
This song is a fuckin CLASSIC… at least where I’m from. I remember being a young kid who looked forward to going to John Jay just so I could spit game like this. sufficed to say I didn’t end up studying law. But the visuals and imagery painted an excellent vision of an NYC love story.
Off of the classic debut ‘Capital Punishment’ This shit held me down on some gully shit during a break up. Puns wordplay was sick… the message and progression was on point. My Fav line “I’m insistin you chill forreal before you come up missin”. Good times.
Biggie might have spit the gayest line in the game in the first verse, but he managed to capture a real gully relationship here. Tragic yet poetically expressive. Also Puff’s adlibs were crazy on point. “Yo don’t lie to me muthafucka”
I was born and raised in Brooklyn and I can’t even lie, I wasn’t up much on Pac, but when my boy from cali played me a tape with this song on it.. I spazzed out. The energy, the beat, the metaphors. All ridiculous.
Classic Jay. This examines a love you don’t typically associate with today. I really don’t have to say much about this track.
The rhyme scheme on this track only enhances the angst he’s spittin.. gettin into his personal demons and ultimately his fatal flaws. Rap lacks this conviction largely nowadays.
Before everyone praised snoop for his diversion left of center with sensual seduction… Andre 3000 Dropped one of the best albums of all time In My Opinion doing just that with far less adoration. The Love Below was an amazing venture into the melding of jazz, funk, pop, hip hop and electro amongst others. The fact that he went on this limb musically is also extremely admirable. This was my favorite song off the album. The laughing is eerily alluring and the track itself is an auditory roller coaster. Andre top 5 D.O.A. for this one.
One of the best tracks Jay ever put out. This song touches on loves forbidden, forsaken and forlorn. The track is nothing short of mesmerizing and when I first heard this song, I must have listened to it the next 6 months straight. This is one of those songs you sing to your reflection in the mirror trying to see the sentiment evident in your visage in an effort to get it out. “Try to understand…. please”.
first.. yes I know there is an actual video for this.. but lemme say Fuck universal for messing with my embedded video game. They must not know I average 45 million readers daily. But yes… This song.. you had to know was coming. Flawless production, and a sentimental Jay we up until that point seldom heard when it came to women. This song entered my life at a peculiar point and quickly became a track that I played to clear the mind. Yea… music used to mean a whole lot more than it does now. “They say you can’t turn a bad girl good, but once a good girls gone bad… she’s gone forever” deep shit.
This Song… exhibits the art of storytelling. This is off of Nas’ third album I Am and is nothing short of a masterpiece. The imagery is unparalleled. You see it as it unfolds effortlessly. The chorus is simple in it’s inception yet expresses all it needs to and more. The Line “Got up with horse yo the look on my face was mad lost, I aint know whether to cry or just … try to laugh it off” sometimes the best way to say something.. is without ornate writing. We’ve all been there where we didn’t know whether to cry or just try to laugh it off. Cinematic in its conclusion.
This is the definition of The Anti Lovesong. Eminem in Kim is the counterpoint to Nas on Undying Love. While Nas’ story lyrically is as dramatic, Eminem exhibits those emotions through his delivery. He went above and beyond to present a picture of what in essence is a madman and shit.. if you’ve ever been truly in love and everything went to shit… that is EXACTLY how you felt. “So long.. bitch you did me so wrong.. I don’t wanna go on.. living in this world without you.” They say there is a thin line between love and hate… this song is a glimpse of the hatred that resides on the other side of that line… still steeped in love.
Honorable Mention
So there you have it.. my list of songs that are in a sense anti-love songs. I hope you enjoyed it.
um.. Me & my girlfriend was about his gun.
Andre 3000 Dropped one of the best albums of all time
^^ Yo aint the only one….. I love this fucking album and this song was my favorite….or Prototype
Ok Question? Greens a girl I havent spoken to since the day I met her and got her number, sent me a text “Happy Valentine’s Day Sweetheart” …….Ok I have seen her friends around but not her, what does this mean. I mean that day we met we hit it off tremendously but I never called her, cuz I was seeing someone and needed to fallback on all the fuckery. Am I reading too much into a text?
If You can look up a Cormega song called ‘All I Need’ off of Hi-Tek’s First album ….that song goes so hard
*puts Nation on the Horn*
I am going to blow up the comment section today, I feel lovingly
Andre 3000 Dropped one of the best albums of all time
^^Probably why it sold millions of copies and got universal praise. But blowing up resulted in the end of OutKast, so I’d gladly give it back if it meant they’d make an album better than Idlewild, the few good tracks on it notwithstanding.
^^what he said.
Good post…
Ill post…very fitting…and it had 3 Jay Z tracks…that’s all I needed!
dope post Bk, I fucks with the concept, and you definitely got some classics on here, especially Renee and Punish me and o yeah can’t forget about those Hov tracks definitely some of my favorites
Nice list. I really need to get off m’arse and buy The Dynasty.
Might I also suggest Fall Out Boy’s entire “Take This To Your Grave Album”? No? Well fuck YOU!
YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You went in on this post. This is crack at it’s best {I guess..lmao} All the songs you put up gets heavy rotation…..well maybe not the Kim song and I never heard the glenn lewis song{i’ma look into that} but seriously classics all across the board. LMAO @ you adding uncle sam to the list….you probably sing that song in the mirror…j/k
and yes! that nigga musiq soulchild got some crazy eyes….especially when he hits a high note…them shits run rampid… Andre 3000 did drop some shit on the love below…common had some some on electric circus as well{don’t know if you listened to that album…that shit takes you somewhere else}, but anyway good shit BK! It’s cool to see niggas admit to listening to shit like that
gold star for marcus {c} boomerang
some shit*
It’s cool to see niggas admit to listening to shit like that
^^
SMH…spoony I know you seen this:
http://phuque.alumnah.com/2008/01/10/r-b-is-not-faggotry/
@ phuque…I responded to your post
I’ll be back later tho…..holla!
@ Greeny.. I Know it was about his gun.. sheesh
@ MK yea i know the album went sextuple diamond.. but “hip hop” fans on average act like the shit was ehh.. “Yea tha love below shit was aight, but he singin n shit… fuck outta here”
@ Rey.. this was kinda hip hop oriented.. I had to tell myself numerous times not to add NIN “The Perfect Drug” or Tonic’s “The way she loved me”
@ Spoony.. yea I Listen to all kinds of shit.. Thanks for the appreciation
*salutes*
“renee” has, and will always be, my shit.
a couple more: pharcyde’s “she said [jay dee remix],” the game & mary j blige’s ‘s “don’t worry,” ghostface’s “camay,” and, of course, meth & mary’s “all i need to get by.”
Ahhhh Dapz Meka.. you know I had a couple of issues with embedding songs.. and that Meth Mary shit woulda fit perfectly.
I wrote this at 6am so thas my defense for such a slip up. I was just watching that video like 2 days ago too.
my mind is perpetually set to a soundtrack, so damn near any scenario i can put a song to.
my all-time fave? pharoahe monch’s “the light.”
I thought you loved me, I thought you cared for me, I thought you needed me, do you believe in me?
One of the best songs on “I Am”. Nas really does have a decent storytelling game. “Rewind” anybody?
Fuck this day!
Thank you for a post that’s kinda for the bitter heads.
LOL no problem amanda.
I mean it’s not so much for the bitter heads as for showing a different perspective on the whole “love” thing
Last I heard hate was the new love though.. so who knows.
BK, I meant to add something in my first post about how hip hop fans suck if they can’t recognize a great album for what it is despite not being “hip hop” but I got distracted. I mean, I still miss Aquemini OutKast but I can still appreciate how great The Love Below frequently is, hip hop fans have their heads up their asses if they can’t do the same. He’s even got Rosario Dawson on a track, and when you add that to the fact that my old landlord’s guitar was the one she used in Josie and the Pussycats, I figure I’ve got a solid 5-6 minutes of conversation with the goddess should the opportunity arise.
Dammit Rey, Fallout Boy is worse than Hitler. Don’t be a musical Neville Chamberlain!
Oh, and I thought The Perfect Drug was about Absinthe, which incidentally, is awesome.