Jimster

• Article: the message; why should hip-hop have to teach us anything?

  Jimster

  October 2021
  As long as the beat and the chords are nice, I'll be down for it, most likely.
  
  Unless it's Kanye, natch.

  

• what r u listen'n 2

  Jimster

  October 2021

  billbradley said:

  The Hiroshi Suzuki - Cat LP was just re-released on 180G vinyl with half speed mastering. Only a few OG copies have turned up for sale over the past few years and have gone for $800. The previous reissue had been selling for $100 for a while now also. 
  
  

  Such a chill track.  Whenever I see this I always think of the Tarika Blue set:

  
  

  

• Article: the message; why should hip-hop have to teach us anything?

  Jimster

  October 2021
  (Dons old white man hat)
  
  Not sure if the article is distinguishing between hip-hop and rap like I do.  I guess it's the music of an entire people, and therefore, as diverse as such.  Some folks use the platform to preach, some just want to dance.  It has no obligation to be one or the other.  People get tired of being preached at.  But they also get tired of being under the heel of a jackboot.  What labels do you want to give these sentiments? 
  
  I personally see hip-hop and rap as two different things - now.  They used to be the same, but now to me hip-hop is old-skool and has more of that og culture to it, and rap can be anything that isn't that.  But I think both genres can be both conscious and vapid, and like the label "Rock and Roll", the "Rap" label has morphed into something way different than what the original label was applied to.
  
  So... Wayyyy back... Wasn't rap around before hip-hop?  I mean, Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron were rap, before there was any hip-hop.  Literally, in the sense of rapping as talking.  That was rap when it was conscious and of the times.  Which were times of profound political upheaval in the U.S.  There was no hip-hop before rap.  Then this was integrated with the grimy inner-city struggles of the 70s and evolved into the defacto music of the hip-hop scene.  So now it was referred to as rap and hip-hop interchangeably. That was for me the only time when it was the same thing.
  
  I think in The Golden Age there was a deliberate artistic distinction starting to be made between hip-hop and rap.  Hip-hop wanted to stay more musical, serious and conscious whereas rap was about making money.  Once the money was dangled, Puffy and Death Row lifestyles and such - that was when rap went pop and never came back.  A lot of rap came from people with a background in hustling but no background in hip-hop.  And so now hip-hop was a subset of rap.
  
  And I don't think hip-hop will ever be as mainstream as rap, because there is so much money in rap.  Pop people want to do business with rap.  Jazz people want to do business with rap.  Rap can be the pimping of butterflies or simply pop-with-face-tattoos.  Both can't be called hip-hop though, right?
  
  Kanye lost all credibility when he donned the red cap.  The end, for my money.  It's not like he was negotiating a better place for brown people. He seems to have forgotten what life is like for anyone not as rich as him and #45.  Regardless of whether you are preachy or party, you can't sit down with the devil and join his fucking club.  NEVER THAT, SON - Whether you are hip-hop or rap, let it teach you that one thing. 
  
  (Hah!  I guess I need to keep the hat on all the time).

  

• Afrika Bambaataa, Ice Cream - Paul Winley

  Jimster

  September 2021
  re: Artist v. Art : 
  
  I got into a (for me) heated exchange with the one PAYCHECK regarding the time he had a similar quandry.  A large and varied haul he had recently landed happened to contain some Skrewdriv*r rekkids.  For those not familiar, that band (I don't want to give them any google space) are right-wing neo-naszties and it did not sit well with Paycheck's background to either own these (natch) or sell them on to fans of that political bent.  What was a mug to do?
  
  I asked what the rule is for MJ rekkids, if we are going down the artist/art path, but that nuance was lost on him - I was accused of equating the work of MJ to that band.  He was deeply unhappy about this - Which was not my point at all.  Of course, MJ's work still endures.  He's not profiting from it, and for me, there is more to like about MJ's work than just MJ - there is the Quincy Jones production, there is the Rod Temperton chords, there is the rock solid pairing of Louis Johnson and John Robinson and probably most for me, the memories of that stuff being new, and everywhere, and the times spent with people enjoying it.
  
  That band's stuff is deliberately hateful, and personally I would have just literally destroyed shit like that.  For me, that is the difference.
  
  So for Bam, yeah, those tunes get a pass.  I think that work still stands in the context of the artform.
  
  
  

  

• Recent Finds

  Jimster

  September 2021
  Ironic you sniped it on Full Scope Records.