Originally posted by Fingers
Marty, so I'm not the only person who likes old skool hip hop/electro!!! I got the "Electro Breakdance" compilation recently and when I put it on I nearly wet myself, especially when I heard Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" for the first time in what must be over a decade (and the version on the album is nearly 6 mins long - brilliant!!!).Okay, most old skool rappers didn't have much to say but the music was new and exciting and then PE, De La Soul and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy came along and took rap to another level. I stopped listening to the rap shows on Radio 1 when people started jumping on the gangsta rap bandwagon started by N.W.A. (the only track of theirs I like is "Express Yourself") because it was puerile and dull compared to the rap acts I liked. Rap producers have been scraping the bottom of the sample barrel for a few years now (Salt 'n' Pepa sampling of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" was bad but MOP's Foreigner sample on "Cold As Ice" was even worse) and too many rappers have simply churned out cliches.Attention-seeking money-obsessed bandwagon-chasers like So Solid Crew make it really difficult for talented people who want to do innovative things to get a chance to make it big because the music industry and the music media is more interested in quick profits and the latest trends than in long-term investment and new talent. This doesn't just happen in rap: it happens in dance music, the "indie" scene and especially in pop. If preferring music made to make something new or interesting over music made to make money makes me an anally retentive snob I'm happy to be one.
EXCELLENT POINTS FINGERS! and so well observed too! Like you, I share your enthusiasm for hip hop that actually means something other than the often-clichéd misogynist/homophobic/"street-tough"/violence and gun-obsessed bullshit that too many undeserving acts get the plaudits for. To much of all that crap chestbeating dick-waggling machismo does fuck all for me, less appeal in any way whatsoever. Grandmaster Flash was obviously one of the great forefathers, and for that alone we must salute him. His rhymes always had meaning and purpose, and the anger he directed at the ghettos always felt more forthright than all those pathetic wannabe gangstas that proliferated in his wake. With the exception of perhaps Cypress Hill and Dr Dre, I fail to get excited about much of the more current wave of "gangsta" Hip Hop doing the rounds to this day (any other names you feel I may not have heard of - as I'm no expert on Hip Hop save for having a passing interest in a very small number of staple acts whose output I have followed on and off over the years).
True, some hip hop uses samples in such groundbreakingly creative ways it pays to give those involved a mention, but too often this kind of originality is swamped by what you all too correctly pointed out is this "lowest-common-denominator" pilfering of the cheesiest riffs from the cheesiest 80's hits (remember Puff Daddy's Police steal?? Who could forget it??).
I mean, for fuck's sake! Hip Hop when it's very good is some of the most brain-bustingly original and downright stimulating music you'll ever fooking well hear!!!! Some of it makes me go !!!!! 
!!!!!..... but sadly that's all too infrequent these days. Too bad a lot of it is just this stereotypical "bad-attitood" shite that passes muster for talent...... Seems now you can't do hip hop in a meaningful way without being labelled an old hippy or retro-obsessive.
My best teenage memories included recollections of some of the best of old-skool hip hop breaks applied to ordinary soul /disco tracks: think Shannon's "Let The Music Play" (in fact that whole album of hers is a fooking old skool electro classic - filled with early Arthur-Baker style electro/hip hop beats a plenty!!) and you will get a pretty good idea of what used to drive ME wild on the dancefloor when I was just 17/18 years old!!!
And then, we all know what happened at the same time didn't we? New Order went to New York, hung round a bit, lost their heads at Paradise Garage, and came back with "Confusion" in their heads! Yowsa!!! 
I'm knocking on 37 now and to be honest, the kind of music that SSC peddle is not really aimed at my age group is it? Me? - I'll stick with The Order for the time being , even if they do annoy the fook out of me sometimes...