Kace wrote:I think the problem lies more in the dull mediocre and uninspiring times we live in and not so much the ethnical background of record executives.
The race of record label bosses hasn't changed that much over the last decades has it?
Very very true. But c'mon y'all. Something's rotten in Denmark, and by Denmark, I don't mean Denmark.
It's not even a conspiracy. It's just beyond fucked up now. Rap is really fucking out of control, and hip hop is really kind of dead. Dudes aren't rhyming anymore, dudes aren't being original, women are mostly rhyming like Nicki Minaj or that Peaches-type valley girl rap style, and mad fools are sleeping on rappers like Psalm One. Sleeping on Jean Grae is like officially an element of hip hop now.
Examples abound. We're past the tipping point. All of it leads up to some shit that really gotta check itself. Before it wrecks itself.
I ain't saying "kill whitey" or "lynch the execs" or none of that. But really. Look around.
How many times have you been inspired by something meaningful in hip hop lately?
I was alive when "Fight The Power" came out. That shit changed lives FOR REAL.
Does hip hop do that for anyone anymore?
Rhyme 4 Rhyme wrote:Mindbender Futurama wrote:Rhyme 4 Rhyme wrote:Philaflava wrote:Clearly he is referring to the Macklemores and Mac Millers of the world because other than those dudes, I would say most hip-hop played today is still coming from the Waynes, Drakes, Rick Rosses of the world. Sounds like some frustrating battles going on but because Face is a legend he'll get a pass from most.
I'm white and Scarface is one of my favorite rappers of all time, but I agree with this. Seems to be as though the only people complaining are the ones struggling. Thought his last album Emeritus was wack but prior to that, I thought Made was one of the best albums of '07.
Great news about the Geto Boys reunion though, but I heard the same thing back in '08.
No offense, but:
Whitey, please. Just because you tell the truth doesn't mean you only do so because you are "struggling". Do we assume everything is peachy keen and perfect because Jay-Z and Lil Wayne and Kanye and T.I. aren't making deadprez level revolutionary rap anthems and fighting the powers that be on every level they can? FUCK NAW. We know that most of these guys would NOT risk their money for any political principles. So as women's rights are being attacked during the election, drone planes are killing civilians overseas, Black unemployment is WORSE in the Obama Administration than it was during Bush, and Chicago is a fucking black-on-black crime warzone in the midst of countless massacres, from The Dark Knight theater to Sandy Hook to Christopher Dorner to Boston's bombing and whatever else you want to add... it's not like the world isn't FUCKED UP enough to say something real.
But anyone who is doing so in their rap music is NOT being promoted by anyone with power. If I'm wrong, show me. Oprah Winfrey ain't gonna have Lupe Fiasco or Boots Riley or Talib Kweli on her show, she's gonna get Jay-Z and 50 Cent. And what white guys are saying anything revolutionary with their raps? El-P does from time to time, but not as much as he used to, unfortunately. He couldn't be one of the the only white male voices of rap revolt on every album because then he would play himself out or remain preaching to the converted. 'Cancer 4 Cure' was understandable that it wasn't the anti-American epic we thought it might be, but the first verse of "$4 Vic" gives us what we want. And Ill Bill does so from time to time, and he's underground as fuck with little chance of going to Yelawolf-land.
Scarface isn't struggling. Scarface is telling the fucking truth because he knows few other MCs do that anymore. He wasn't ever the type of guy to get racial and political, but he knows that right now, it needs to be said and done, by anyone.
You have to not know, or not care to know, about how hip hop used to be in 1988 if you don't think that it is being whitewashed right now. There is NO internet or mainstream media visibility given to any pro-conscious, pro-black, pro-cultural, pro-intelligent hip hop right now. Virtually NONE. If there is, please enlighten us, we all need to know.
Either way... hip hop is officially crawling into rock and roll's grave now, thanks to ignorant white folks. Deal with it.
Seems like you look at hip hop a lot differently than me. In my opinion, what's being marketed to the masses is done so not because of a racist agenda, but because that's what sells. The guys you mentioned, Jay-Z, Drake, Ross, Wayne, those people sell and attract the general public. Ill Bill, Killer Mike, and Immortal Technique don't.
As far as how hip hop was in '88, I can say honestly I don't know first hand. I was born in '88. Everything I know about how hip hop was back then is just from revisiting albums and reading about it. Maybe that's why our opinons about this differ. To each his own though.
good point.
I do see it from a different perspective. I don't even think of my identity as only African, but the world treats me like "a black man", so I have to deal with it. I listen to rappers that are GOOD, I don't care what 'race' they are. I've been this way since 1989 when I heard 3rd Bass for months before their album came out, and I loved them, and was actually shocked to see they were white guys when I first saw the 'Cactus Album' cover. I kept enjoying them. One of my first rhyme homies in life is a tall, six foot, pale white hockey player that could outrhyme most anybody I ever heard, and still could. I was not first introduced to Everlast when 'House of Pain' put out "Jump Around". I was one of the people who said "what the fuck did that smooth-cut dude who put out that dope song 'The Rhythm'? do to himself? He's all drunken Irish now? I didn't mind him in a suit, those lyrics were dope." I'm not a racist when it comes to music.
But when it comes to the music INDUSTRY, I'm not an idiot, and I'm not blind. I see what they did there.
I was born in 1977. I was alive when "The Message" first came out, and I heard it on the radio long before I saw the video. I experienced the Pro-Black Era of hip hop. African Medallions and X hats and the establishment of Karl Kani and Cross Colours and 2 Black Guys and Bad Boy Records and Death Row and Wu-Tang Records and Rap-a-Lot Records and Suave House and Skyywalker Records and Ruthless Records and all the black owned businesses that laid the foundation for what is happening in "hip hop" today. And these days, things are different.
The success you can possibly have saying certain things is virtually none, it seems like. There is such a crazy separation of styles, to the point where the so-called "conscious" MCs aren't even organized anywhere in any spectrum of hip hop. Not even the Okayplayers are on the same level, and they could possibly be seen as the last major group of "conscious" rap power players. When's the last time you heard them all combine their powers to make a song? Remember that joint 'Hip Hop For Respect'? Those were the days, eh? But have cops stopped killing youth? Not so much.
Mos Def. Talib Kweli. Pharoahe Monch. Black Thought. Common. Jay Electronica. Little Brother. Blackalicious. Q-Tip. Where are our heroes? Where is the media love for these people? Can you tell me any of these artists dropped any deep music that was promoted by the masses? And are these people wack? Far from it. And Scarface isn't wack either, nor is he struggling. What's going on?
Philaflava wrote:Mindbender was doing so good too.
I'd love you to explain what this means, brother
If I "am bad now", tell me how. I don't think I have written a single word that is untrue.
the ONLY thing I would
is
thanks to ignorant white folks
and just say "ignorant folks... behaviour that creates hype, music, movies, and a lifestyle that generates profits that benefit eurocentric capitalist corporations like Interscope and Universal and Warner Brothers more than anyone else, through their exploitation of white/black/latin/aboriginal/asian/poor people across the world that is so very extremely influenced by hip hop culture."
there's a LOT of fucking African-American ignorance going down these days, and white executives aren't DOING it, but some of them are exploiting it. Is Trinidad James and Chief Keef the NEXT BEST THINGS in hip hop?
I remember when
Nas was "next". I was around BEFORE 'Live at the BBQ' and 'Aint Hard to Tell'.
And you want me to give a fuck about THESE new dudes like they are spitting ANYTHING REAL?
GTFOH