Do you enjoy Mike's "cool and cocky" rapping, or his emotional, not so "hard" approach more? For me, it's the emotional rapping. One of my favorite songs like this is Kenji. It's a great example of Mike not trying to be super cool when he raps, and that's when I enjoy his rapping the most. The one song I do enjoy his "hard" approach on is All For Nothing. He's just really dialed in, not being all "cryptic badass" and whatnot. When he's not focused on being cool, I feel like he really has some skill with his words, and I would enjoy seeing more of that from him in the future. I just feel his "hard" rapping is usually very lyrically weak. [video=youtube_share;tHgxb5kQYGg]http://youtu.be/tHgxb5kQYGg[/video]
His flow is great on his 'hard' rapping or whatever you want to call it, but more often than not his lyrics are usually weak. Like the second verse in Keys To The Kingdom, it just makes me cringe.
I think he's best on stuff like Dedicated and High Voltage. Or even a lot of the demos before they get Linkin Parkified
I would agree. Mike's strongest rap verses really came in the pre-Hybrid Theory era. Listening to the oldest demos of "Forgotten," and "Esaul," and then really just looking at Hybrid Theory EP, his verses are a lot more illustrative, complex, and demonstrative of his skills. Unfortunately, on Hybrid Theory and consequently on Meteora, the verses felt dumbed down and simplified. Granted, Mike is crafty - he can utilize a good flow with simple verses as well as he can with more complex ones. However, you don't really see Mike return to form in any capacity until Minutes to Midnight. It's interesting because the verses on LIVING THINGS were very indicative of this "cockiness" you're referring to, but they seemed appropriate and worked well on that album. Even the simpler verses, such as what you see on "LIES GREED MISERY," were actually pretty entertaining to me. "UNTIL IT BREAKS" is pretty good to, and I like how the style and sound of his verses in that song shift as the song progresses and changes tempo. It didn't seem fitting, however, on The Hunting Party. You could tell the tone changed on the album, and I think from the very beginning you get this impression that the album is going to be very typical hard rock - no rapping, just singing and screaming. For me, that's why his rap verses seem so out of place. Let alone that I think the content of the raps don't line up with the content in the choruses and bridge verses, rapping in general just seems really out of place on the album. It's not that his flow is bad or that all of the verses are bad, they're just incredibly out of place and as such don't sound so good on the record. I really would have been interested to see Mike take a backseat on this record when it came to the raps and let his singing along with Chester's carry them. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and the raps unfortunately, as much as I like Mike, really hurt the album.
All For Nothing is always the song I think of when people bring up his more cocky, energetic, heavier raps. I LOVE All For Nothing, and as far as style goes, true that Mike's lyrical genius seems to fade with his more aggressive rap, but it plays in with the theme just fine. By now, I'd say it is done completely on purpose, while of course he can't use that same wording on slower paced tracks because they are more "meaningful"
I feel his 2nd verse on All for Nothing is one of his best in a long time, since Fort Minor, in terms of his flow. But I enjoy his storytelling style more and miss him using big assed words.
Neither - I prefer his technical and wordy type of rapping. High Voltage, Dedicated, Frgt/10, It's Goin' Down, Bleed It Out. Sometimes a bit of the more poetic type rapping, as well: With You, Forgotten, Blackbirds. I hate his stupid cocky rapping because it blows so damn bad. I think he's better off staying way away from it. Seriously. UIB? Fucking horrible.
It depends on the flow and the wordplay. There are good and bad raps on both sides of the coin. I like "Until It Breaks" and "Victimized" a lot; I'm much less impressed by the verses on "Recharged" and "The Hunting Party".
I voted for the lower choice although I do enjoy stuff like "When They Come for Me" and "Until It Breaks".
I hated "Until It Breaks" at first, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it. Don't hit me please. But I seriously love both of his rapping styles. I really liked him in Crawling, In The End, Faint, Bleed It Out, Hands Held High, When They Come For Me, Lost In The Echo, Burn It Down, Lies Greed Misery, Keys To The Kingdom... Well there's no LP's song that I dislike.
Aside from a few like WTCFM and UIB where Mike's "hard" style actually works, the rest feels forced to me. That style more often than not just feels fake, I don't relate to anything he's saying and it's hard to take him seriously, I'm specifically talking about his lyrics in THP. His "emotional" style feels far more genuine, he actually sounds believable. I don't mind one or two songs on an album where he's just letting it go and being aggressive, but when it's an entire album like it, it starts to lose it's flare. In a song like WTCFM, he has a legit reason to be pissed off and you can feel it, in a song like "Wastelands", it lacks any meaning and it doesn't really have a purpose. I get they wanted a tough as nails album, but you can have a "visceral" album without the tough guy attitude. I hate to say it but, the best parts on "The Hunting Party" are when Mike keeps his mouth shut and Chester does the vocals. I was under the impression "Until It Breaks" was a well liked song around here.
The first time I heard the second verse of UIB I thought it was the best rap on earth, now I hardly listen to that song. I currently love the second verse of AFN, and the bridge of LITE remains one of my favorite moments in LP history. I think I enjoy the aggressive stuff more, things like "By Myself" are nice but the "helpless" lyrics usually sound better coming from Chester, like in Breaking The Habit. It's hard to tell what raps are best for me, considering they're all paired with a huge variety of choruses and sounds. Would the in the end rap be as great as it is without the piano hook and all the vocal effects? Would Until It Breaks sound cooler on top of an instrumental from THP? etc...