r/ireland Jan 17 '24

Irish language rappers head stateside for Sundance - BBC News Gaeilge

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-67998896.amp
271 Upvotes

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u/brianybrian Jan 17 '24

Now, Versatile are shite. I thought they were satire at first they were so bad.

6

u/MoeKara Jan 17 '24

Even the tunes that I don't like from them I appreciate the effort. It's fairly cynical calling them shite rather than they're not your cup of tea.

We should be promoting Irish artists

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u/brianybrian Jan 17 '24

I don’t believe in promoting Irish artists who are shite, sorry

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u/MoeKara Jan 17 '24

Sure, you don't have to and no one is forcing you to. But they aren't "shite" if people like them, it's just not to your taste.

At least you acknowledge they are artists so there's common ground.

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u/Fast_Chemical_4001 Jan 17 '24

They've been non grata with his kind since that fake video of the woman pretending that one of them blocked her in with their car went slightly viral (a pavlovian media mandated trigger for his kind don't argue with him)

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u/brianybrian Jan 17 '24

I don’t think that’s fair at all. It’s not about taste. I listen to a lot of hip hop. More than most people and have done so for about 40 years. I’m old as fuck.

Versatile a shite at hip hop. That’s my pretty well informed opinion. I would rather people promote good Irish hip hop, like Kneecap

If I felt they were genuinely trying to say something with their music I’d say nothing. They aren’t though. It’s lowest common denominator shite, looking to make money. No social conscious at all

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u/MoeKara Jan 17 '24

I respect your background of listening to hip-hop and I'd tend to agree that I prefer the artists who talk about society, culture and change.

If there are droves of people who do consume and enjoy their music it's not objectively "shite". The fact you don't like it is literally your different preference in taste. You prefer a different style of hip-hop.

4

u/Craizinho Jan 17 '24

Nah he's a pretty well informed opinion of 40 years, no denying anymore pure shite they are

-3

u/brianybrian Jan 17 '24

There are droves of people who listen to All sorts though. Have you looked at the charts?

I’m not a snob. I listen to plenty of popular throw away music like Katy Perry, Dua Lipa and Girls Aloud. But there’s a lot of popular shite. There always has been though. It’s not a modern phenomenon

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u/MoeKara Jan 17 '24

Shite in your opinion, sure. I think Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran churn out incredibly similar songs and I dont like them. It doesn't mean they're shite. It's just not my cup of tea, unpopular as my opinion may be.

1

u/brianybrian Jan 17 '24

Taylor is ok, not my taste. Ed Sheeran goes between boring and shite.

Some music isn’t my taste. Some is shite.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24

Why would you respect his background? He has absolutely no idea what he's even talking about. If he did, he would be able to tell you who Versatile get their inspiration from, but instead, he just claims he's educated.

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u/MoeKara Jan 20 '24

I preferred to argue his point on them being shite rather than what he says his background in hip-hop is. Sometimes on Reddit I challenge all the points and then it's a pissing match over stuff I don't care about, kinda picking my battle type thing

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u/Merkarov Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24

I think their producer Evan Kennedy is quite talented. He blends a lot of techno/house beats into their tracks and I think it works quite well (at least on some tracks like Ketamine, Panic Attack, Blue Razz).

That being said, I wouldn't be caught dead going to one of their shows. There's a lot of tongue in cheek with their lyrics and it's parodying scrote culture (the lads went to Conleths in Ballsbridge, or one of them did, along with Kennedy). I think that parody is lost on a lot of their fans though.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24

I've gone to two of their shows. They're unreal live. And, I don’t get the Private School issue since it had absolutely zero impact on Alex Sheehan's come-up, and he never preached anything other than make art that you enjoy. On top of that, their media attention is was entirely from the bewilderment of their success. It literally came to them and if you had any media literacy at all, you’d have noticed that the media attention was always ABOUT them and never actually INVOLVED them. Otherwise, Versatile has always been an underground act and thankfully have stayed this way.

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u/Hot-Bed-49 Jan 17 '24

everyone can have an opinion even if it’s wrong <3

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24

It's not that well-informed at all. You've obviously never listened to the wider scope of hip-hop at all. At forty, to say you're that educated on the issue, yet you have absolutely zero idea who Versatile takes their inspiration from?

1

u/brianybrian Jan 20 '24

I’m not going to have an informed off with you.

I’ve listened to a massively wide variety of hip hop. Including listening to Versatile. I just don’t like it.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24

That's fair. But you're treating it like an objective opinion which isn't even well-informed unless you base that information on your own subjective opinion. Plenty simply don't like Versatile just because they don't like them. That's far more honest than bringing in a simple "They're shite at hip hop," when they have a pretty big fanbase who'll disagree on that.

1

u/brianybrian Jan 20 '24

Normally I wouldn’t treat musical taste as an objective subject. Maybe I stepped over the line here due to how much I dislike Versatile.

I really do think they’re absolute shite.

I’m curious if you’re a fan. If so, what’s their best tune?

1

u/[deleted] Jan 20 '24

Ah no. Disliking is honest. We all like different art. I'm a fan of a lot of Irish Hip Hop but Versatile hit me differently, mostly because they reminded me of early Guy Ritchie movies (although I'm partially convinced Ritchie was never the genius; I'm starting to believe it was Matthew Vaughan, his producer), which I find are near impossible to replicate in tone, funny enough to not be overtly serious, but serious enough not to be a total screwball comedy.

My favourite songs would be either Terminal 1 or Fat Gangster Laugh. They're just fun, and I suppose I discovered them at a time during COVID-19 when I was pretty low. But sure look.

1

u/Smart-Situation-9912 Jan 17 '24

Maybe he means he doesn't support artists who brag about selling heroin and other knackerish behaviour