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Hip-Hop Survival
Yeah so what indicators do you see that are going to trump hip hop?I definately think that some hiphop is so light weight that artists and fans have to dress it all up. Makes it less creative music and more creative sells tactics. 
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The culture will survive but the music may not continue to be reigning voice of youth culture.
Nothing stays on top.
We've kicked this can around before on the Strut.
In my mind it is hard to make conclusions and draw lines, so to speak. A dope fan could just as easily be on his/her way to becoming a piler in the genre or the straw that breaks the camel's back. Also, being on top may not have any correlation with record sales, air-time, or fan base (ofcourse they almost always are though). Am I completely off base here? Top notch music, IMO, is not made for clubs or anything other than to be positive. Like a perpetual machine working for the advantage of as many as possible.
haha....i'd like to read a few of those other discussions
i shouldn't post these things, huh?
First of all, we must internalize the flatulation of the matter by transmitting the effervesance of the Indonesian proximity, in order to further segregate the crux of my venerial infection.
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Allow me to expose my colon once again. The ramification inflicted on the incisn placed within the fallopian cavities, serves to be wholistic. Taken from the Latin word jalapeno.
hehe..interesting and amusing!!!
That may be true, but that applied to hip-hop in the early 80's, mid-80's, late 80's, the entire 90's, and now. Every phase of hip-hop music has had its share of cheesy ass crap.
That can apply to all popular forms of music of the last 55 years, the idea that once someone taps into a formula, there will be 40 copycats to follow. That's the recording industry, and these days the people behind the labels don't want to take risks and let shit float, they're going to want banger after banger. Or hell, it doesn't even have to be good, as long as it sells and has a following, as long as it makes someone money.
The risk takers, the people who still make music with integrity... you know, I remember being told this when I brought up similar issues, but as much as we know, acknowledge, and perhaps create music on an independent label, why do we care so much about what the mainstream has to offer? We celebrate Stones Throw (and I'm a fan too), but we really want that Rich Harrison and Pharrell money. We support DJ Premier until the end, but we don't want to wait 15 years for an Aguilera-type project. I wrote a dance track that I'd like to offer to Nicole Scherzinger, I contacted her manager and everything, you think I'm getting a reply? Nah, but I know very well that producing a track would be access to work, and having a bit of publishing would work for the life of the song. That's making real moves in the real world, or at least having a plan. It's easy to complain, yet not difficult to actually do something in the process, to participate in creating something that will be heard.
Bob Lefsetz asked why music means less these days? In other words, when did music become less of a priority for people? Sly Stone said at Woodstock that music "is not a fashion in the first place, it is a feeling", and it might do you some good. But we have people these days who think they are smarter than that, that you need more than sound, you need a face, you need a body, you need an image. But then you think: hasn't it always been that way? Would The Who have been successsful if Pete Townshend was the main focus? Hell no.
Look past the faces, the masks, the imagery, the superhype, and you still have the music. I know we can't go back to a time when all you had to work on was the photos in the gatefold and the liner sleeve, but that was enough to make you want to see them live. Now, you have to expect the exact choreography at the live show, hear the exact pre-recorded voice or people will think it's a farce. I went with my sister to see Madonna at the Kingdome 18 years ago, a few months before I went to see Pink Floyd. Yet I had a better time seeing Buzzov??en at the Hoedown Center play to a crowd of three, or witness Christ On A Crutch's last show.
It is a "show", it is adding to the performance. I remember seeing Medeski Martin & Wood, and looking at John Medeski as he jumped on his Hammond and surfed his organ.
Or seeing Lava/Hay and watching the guy, on his Hammond, do a solo with his head. Or seeing Ravi Shankar five years ago and during the last part of the raga, on a very cold October, he played the melody to "It's Springtime". Or seeing Source Of Labor bust out into disco.
We are all grown men and women. The lightweight stuff, leave it alone. It's fun to mock the crap, but let the flies gather.
Buddhist temples, termite ridden homes, and Mason Storm.
I disagree. Positive is an abstract idea. Put In Your Mouth is top notch music that bangs in the club as well as the picnic.
I don't get it. Suspect of what? Inform.
Jeezus.
Let me guess: your introduction to rap was Talib Kweli.
Can't 'Top Notch Music' bang in the club AND be Positive?
No kufi or incense required.
I am thinking of changing my DJ name to DJ Perpetual Machine Working for the Advantage of as Many as Possible[/b]
You can now create your "Tales Of Topographic Turntables" opera when you open up for Mocean Worker.