This best way to demonstrate the difference between hard core rap and horror rap groups would be to compare different lyrical samplings of each side by side. However, its smarter to start with the difference in backgrounds and mentalities of hard core rap groups like Dayton Family and horror rap groups like Dark Lotus.
Dayton Family is a hard core rap group from Flint, Michigan, who named their group after one of the most crime-ridden streets in their crime-ridden city, Dayton street. That should say enough about the attitude of these hard core rappers. Its not often that an environment such as the one Dayton Family originates from breeds anything other than gritty, honest, street-heavy rap. You wont hear anything lighthearted in Dayton Familys rhymes, and when they talk tough, theyre not kidding around.
If there was ever any doubt about Dayton Familys cred, said doubt vanished once founding members Bootleg (Ira Dorsey) and Backstabba (Matt Hinkle) were each incarcerated separately during the turning point in the bands short career. These two imprisonments undoubtedly hindered the quality and quantity Dayton Family was able to produce as a hard core rap group throughout its career.
Now Dark Lotus, on the other hand, is different in many respects. For one, Dark Lotus is a horror rap super group, so each one of Dark Lotuss members was an established horror rap artist in his own right before joining up with Dark Lotus. That said, the themes present in Dark Lotuss horror rap music really is not far off each of its individual members own horror rap music.
For those unfamiliar, horror rap themes usually include but are not limited to death, suicide, murder, violence, Satanism, and other terrifying themes. Unlike Dayton Family, you will not see Dark Lotus rapping about the hood, drug dealing on street corners, or about cops in a derogatory fashion (at least not often).
Dark Lotuss horror rap, in contrary, is much more personal, introspective, and spiritual. Often times you can find Dark Lotuss horror rap artists bemoaning the fact that they are still alive and wishing to die, thoughts that often travel into the supernatural with talk of souls traveling to different destinations.
One common link between Dayton Familys hard core rap music and Dark Lotuss horror rap music is their origin. Members in both groups come from impoverished, street-centric adolescences, and thus have much of the same fodder for their rhymes. Though they may approach these topics from two different angles in horror rap and hard core rap, when you boil it down, Dark Lotus and Dayton Family are the way they are for very similar reasons!
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The Dayton Family, one of hard core raps most notorious Midwestern groups, and Dark Lotus, arguably the largest horror rap super group of its kind in the world (definitely in the Midwest), may write different styles of music, but they come from similar backgrounds. To learn more about Dark Lotus and their music, please visit http://hatchetgear.com/bands/darklotus.html.