I'd have to agree, they certainly taint albums, especially since a lot of these artists come from very similar backgrounds, so the jokes are the same old stuff every single time; it doesn't help that they are often not the smartest/wittiest characters on the planet, either. Only rarely are they genuinely funny ("Where Are My Panties" from Andre 3000's 'The Love Below' album, springs to mind).
It has gotten out of hand, De la Soul(specifacly Prince Paul) had no idea what they started on 3fth&r would turn into the most prevalent album filler (besides crap songs) on most hip-hop albums. May favoitte skits though got to be Big Pun packin a mac in the back of the ac and any of the Prince Paul skits with Dave Chappelle on Politics of the business.
Thank God for MP3s...skits, intros and outros are just a delete button away. You are absolutely right, they need to stop. And if groups need to throw inside jokes on the CD, at least throw a beat behind it (for example, I actually like Blackalicious' "Half Way Home" thing at the end of Paragraph President and before It's Going Down.)
The ones on the Viktor Vaughn cd are pretty good. Especially the one with Louis Logic. It's hilarious.
Agreed completely. Back in the old days when cars came with tape players, I would record CDs on tapes without the interludes. There are exceptions to the rule of course. Wu Tang's "I f---ing, I f---ing" interlude, Nas's "Wild Style" intro on illmatic and Raekwon's "Killer" samples were all pretty neat, and Outkast's interludes and intros generally do a good job of setting the mood, particularly.
They suck on rock and metal albums too though they dont seem to be as prevelant as hip hop. A band like Tool only puts like 8 real songs on a album the rest of the tracks are these stupid interludes, intros, outros or whatever you call them. They suck they ruin the flow of an album. The ones Pearl Jam put on are pretty dumb too but thankfully they dont have a lot of them.
Go back to old Erik B And Rakim or LL Cool J albums and you don't hear any at all...nothing is lacking.