Music is as much a part of my life as is Cannabis. Rap, however, has been out of my vocabulary (more or less) for a long time. One of my best friends (who is also the most incredible drummer I've ever met...and I've met a lot of them) is REALLY into hip-hop, so I am still exposed to it, to some degree. The problem in my eyes is not that rap in and of itself is bad, it's just that it's gotten such a large share of the commercial music business these days that everywhere you go there is a new rapper who sounds exactly like the old one...that, and all of the gangster mentality that goes along with it. I really didn't mind that when it was NWA and shit, or Tupac or whatever, because most of the time it was informed and real, not just commercial nonsense. I've got nothing wrong with someone talking about life on the streets if that's truly where they come from. I just don't buy it out of the mouths of multimillionaires. That being said, I know many of these guys are self made and do indeed come from what they talk about, but if you're past it...you're past it...don't just perpetuate an image because it sells records. If you have comments to make about those hardships, that is one thing...but the way I see it, it's much less of an informed criticism and more of a spouting off of cliches to sell records. Here I am ragging on mostly the really mainstream stuff, stuff like 50 Cent (or half dollar, as my friends call him
), Flowridah, Lil Wayne...that type of stuff.
That being said, I have always REALLY appreciated and had a soft spot for the underground in rap. There are literally thousands of talented, intelligent emcees out there making lots of dope, dope music. The problem in my eyes is that they are so overshadowed by the large money making machine that is the "flavor of the week" style rap...crunk and the like. You guys already pointed out a lot of the fallacies about that, Survivalism in particular. Dude that list you posted is like exactly my issues with rap. Mainstream rap seems to have its bread and butter in:
- degrading women
- lauding gunplay and violence
- shameless materialism...I don't watch TV on my out of my own volition, but when I do happen to catch the odd rap video now a days, I can't tell whether it's a music video or just a really long commercial...
- profanity and vulgarity for what seems to be only "shock value"
So...all that being said...there are some artists who I think are doing great work. Stones Throw is a really cool label with some stellar artists, and as I said there are lots and lots of underground artists who are doing more intelligent work than you'd ever hope to find on MTV... I can't list off names because I don't listen to them actively (I simply perfer different types of music these days...funk, soul, jazz, r&b, electronic, all sorts of stuff really), but if anyone is really digging for some new artists to sink their teeth into, I'm sure my friend would be happy to list off some of his faves for me. Some of them are really quite good. Some older artists that are pretty well known but that I've always appreciated would be the Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, MF Doom, and Tupac. Say what you want about Tupac and his vulgarity or whatever, but I still think he is among the best. I put his lyrics in a class of their own, and I always felt that, although some (most) of his subject matter is grisly and off-putting, he was writing from a VERY real place, and only wrote with the hopes of changing things and shedding awareness. I honestly have been out of the rap game since 96 (when he died), but I still love to listen in when I hear his oh so familiar voice...
one day soon man....mark is a really chill guy
. I guess, "if it's good, it doesn't matter what it is...it's just good"--Miles Davis.
word up man.... Brooklyn ZOO right there^ that was a good odb album for sure 