"Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

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"Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by IAmTheMilkMan » Sun Jan 15, 2017 2:32 am

Ran across this on the front page of the lyric website Genius.com and thought it was interesting. I'm not an avid listener of hip-hop but I remember a thread a while back about celebrities who were into Dragon Ball and a few hip-hop artists were mentioned, so I knew that Dragon Ball had a presence in the hip-hop community but I had no idea it was like this. A pretty cool read, check it out:

"Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Side-note: It's a pet peeve of mine when articles such as this don't look into the origins of Dragon Ball properly and completely ignore that it's based on a comic, even going so far as to call Dragon Ball Z a spin-off (which is just plain incorrect). I really can't blame them, I guess, given how the show has been marketed here in the west, but it still irks me every time I see it.
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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:55 am

Nice, I'm a huge fan of hip-hop. It's cool that DBZ has been getting mentioned more and more as the kids who grew up with it are now making music.

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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by 8000 Saiyan » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:59 am

Wow, I'm impressed.
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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by Kerunou » Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:17 pm

Great read. There's a similar article out there that you can probably find pretty easily, regarding the connection between Street Fighter and Hip-Hop. Comics/video games/anime are all fairly prevalent in hip-hop, now more so than ever probably. I won't link it here, but to shamelessly plug my own projects, I made a DBZ-inspired electronic metal EP last year. It wasn't a very serious thing but I had a lot of fun making it and sampling bits and pieces of DBZ. The samples I used were all ocean dub, I think. Combining two things I was passionate about was really cool. I think the themes/characters/ideas in DBZ lend themselves well to all sorts of media in general, but certainly to music.

That dub teaser with Danny brown playing in the background is rad as hell. I never noticed that when I initially watched the teaser. Fits nicely too.

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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by SaiyanGod117 » Sun Jan 15, 2017 10:26 pm

Cool, I hear a lot of DBZ references in Hip-Hop and Rap music; so it's not surprising, I remember Chris Brown had Kid Goku and Krillin as his instagram profile pic.

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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by huzaifa_ahmed » Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:06 pm

Kerunou wrote:Great read. There's a similar article out there that you can probably find pretty easily, regarding the connection between Street Fighter and Hip-Hop. Comics/video games/anime are all fairly prevalent in hip-hop, now more so than ever probably. I won't link it here, but to shamelessly plug my own projects, I made a DBZ-inspired electronic metal EP last year. It wasn't a very serious thing but I had a lot of fun making it and sampling bits and pieces of DBZ. The samples I used were all ocean dub, I think. Combining two things I was passionate about was really cool. I think the themes/characters/ideas in DBZ lend themselves well to all sorts of media in general, but certainly to music.

That dub teaser with Danny brown playing in the background is rad as hell. I never noticed that when I initially watched the teaser. Fits nicely too.
One thing I think needs more mentioning: I think that, while it's true the dub is inaccurate, largely miscast, & not a good representation of the show, a ton of folks who don't like anime in general, were brought to DB by the Americanized dub, not necessarily "well you could do anything to DB & make it successful" but because it's heavily localized (also: not very quality at all). I think fans of a niche medium (rightfully so) are proud of the successes of their fandom in the mainstream, & accurately (well, generally speaking) Kai-onwards dubs proves that DB does reasonably well...but still, many of these folks are fans for very different reasons than most of the folks here. The article is generally full of things that would be treated with disgust, eye-rolling, haughty dismissal, or even anger, if a user here said them (& this community generally tries to be nice & point folks in the right direction, but still).

Don't get me wrong, this is cool acknowledgement of DB, even if it's often heavily entrenched in something that we (speaking in broad terms here) wildly rebuke in general terms, I just find it be worthy of caution not to be like "Hey, look, DB is cool!" when it's full of dub terms & themes. I'll definitely give the article props for describing DB in relatively close terms, & also in the first caption, it's called a manga I guess. Still, I think they like a very different DB than most of those/us on this forum.

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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by Kerunou » Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:25 am

huzaifa_ahmed wrote:
Kerunou wrote:Great read. There's a similar article out there that you can probably find pretty easily, regarding the connection between Street Fighter and Hip-Hop. Comics/video games/anime are all fairly prevalent in hip-hop, now more so than ever probably. I won't link it here, but to shamelessly plug my own projects, I made a DBZ-inspired electronic metal EP last year. It wasn't a very serious thing but I had a lot of fun making it and sampling bits and pieces of DBZ. The samples I used were all ocean dub, I think. Combining two things I was passionate about was really cool. I think the themes/characters/ideas in DBZ lend themselves well to all sorts of media in general, but certainly to music.

That dub teaser with Danny brown playing in the background is rad as hell. I never noticed that when I initially watched the teaser. Fits nicely too.
One thing I think needs more mentioning: I think that, while it's true the dub is inaccurate, largely miscast, & not a good representation of the show, a ton of folks who don't like anime in general, were brought to DB by the Americanized dub, not necessarily "well you could do anything to DB & make it successful" but because it's heavily localized (also: not very quality at all). I think fans of a niche medium (rightfully so) are proud of the successes of their fandom in the mainstream, & accurately (well, generally speaking) Kai-onwards dubs proves that DB does reasonably well...but still, many of these folks are fans for very different reasons than most of the folks here. The article is generally full of things that would be treated with disgust, eye-rolling, haughty dismissal, or even anger, if a user here said them (& this community generally tries to be nice & point folks in the right direction, but still).

Don't get me wrong, this is cool acknowledgement of DB, even if it's often heavily entrenched in something that we (speaking in broad terms here) wildly rebuke in general terms, I just find it be worthy of caution not to be like "Hey, look, DB is cool!" when it's full of dub terms & themes. I'll definitely give the article props for describing DB in relatively close terms, & also in the first caption, it's called a manga I guess. Still, I think they like a very different DB than most of those/us on this forum.

Thanks for the reply. It's interesting that you quoted me, given I don't really see what you're trying to say in contrast to what I said. I mean, I understand fully where your train of thought is going. I can't say I agree with it really but I understand what you're trying to get across. I'm just trying to understand how anything you're saying has anything to do with what I was getting at, or why you decided to quote me and then say what you did. It's not a big deal and I don't really mind one way or the other, as you're free to do/think whatever, just wish I knew what you meant as opposed to anything that I said.

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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by huzaifa_ahmed » Tue Jan 17, 2017 4:08 pm

Kerunou wrote:Thanks for the reply. It's interesting that you quoted me, given I don't really see what you're trying to say in contrast to what I said. I mean, I understand fully where your train of thought is going. I can't say I agree with it really but I understand what you're trying to get across. I'm just trying to understand how anything you're saying has anything to do with what I was getting at, or why you decided to quote me and then say what you did. It's not a big deal and I don't really mind one way or the other, as you're free to do/think whatever, just wish I knew what you meant as opposed to anything that I said.
I guess I just felt an artist might have a more informed response, is all. Anyhow, I use Americanized dubs that I grew up on, as references for some shows, like YGO. It really shouldnt bother me at all, I think that anybody discussing/incorporating their childhood into their art is honest & candid. It's great honestly. I just sort of felt this point needed to be made, overall.

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Re: "Infographic: How 'Dragon Ball' Influenced a Generation of Hip-Hop Artists" (Genius.com)

Post by Kerunou » Tue Jan 17, 2017 4:35 pm

huzaifa_ahmed wrote:
Kerunou wrote:Thanks for the reply. It's interesting that you quoted me, given I don't really see what you're trying to say in contrast to what I said. I mean, I understand fully where your train of thought is going. I can't say I agree with it really but I understand what you're trying to get across. I'm just trying to understand how anything you're saying has anything to do with what I was getting at, or why you decided to quote me and then say what you did. It's not a big deal and I don't really mind one way or the other, as you're free to do/think whatever, just wish I knew what you meant as opposed to anything that I said.
I guess I just felt an artist might have a more informed response, is all. Anyhow, I use Americanized dubs that I grew up on, as references for some shows, like YGO. It really shouldnt bother me at all, I think that anybody discussing/incorporating their childhood into their art is honest & candid. It's great honestly. I just sort of felt this point needed to be made, overall.
Thanks for clarifying. I appreciate that.

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