I would like to see the raw numbers on the prevalence of cocaine in urban America over the last 30 years, and how much money the average dealer actually makes.
Well, in regards to the latter, there's no real empirical data that's been collected en masse that can show this. It's not like dealers file 1070s.
There are some qualitative studies - mostly done through ethnography - that have explored that topic - the most well-known was done by U. of Chicago researcher Sudhir Venkatesh who finally published his results (based on early '90s research) in a new book that came out recently:
What he found, if I recall, is that while the top of street gangs can make around 100,000/year (this is in early '90s dollars remember), the average street level dealer only pulled in less than $3,000 a month. Better than minimum wage to be sure, but not exactly high-roller numbers.
As for the use of cocaine, there's no shortage of longitudinal studies that all show that cocaine use, per capita, has been on the decline since the mid 1990s. However, overall abuse hasn't dropped as precipitiously, mostly b/c the drop in coke prices meant that hard core addicts simply abused more. In other words, less people are using coke/crack but those who are hooked are using more of it so that the overall % of crack abuse has not fallen as sharply as the overall number of users.
Accompanying this decline has also been an overall decline in violent felonies - much of that correlates with the fall in drug abuse but I hestitate to say that the data has been shown to have a causal link though it's reasonable to think the two are related.
Related to Odub's post its important to remember that just because numbers have fallen doesn't mean the culture still isn't there; in most chicago neighborhoods, for example, the murder rate (largely drug-related) is way down; in three chicago districts, however, its skyrocketed.
That same research also suggested strong similiarities between the economy of the crack trade and fast foot franchises - with most of the profits all funneling upwards while the people on the front (whether on the corner or behind the register) pull in the least amount.
The main diff is that working at McDonalds won't get you shot or arrested which means that street dealers assume maximum risk for minimal reward. It's also worth noting that the only other people in the drug economy who face that same unequal balance are the peasants who grow coca. Basically, the two ends of the drug economy are the ones with the most workers, making the least pay, taking on the most risk.
I think its important to be extremely wary, in a genre that has so many unsung and unheard artists on every street corner, of people making those Big Statements about how influential artist A was on the skreets of artists B-Z, especially when rap has become SO broad geographically, when people don't all look to NY any more. (or all look to 'those dudes who made grinding' or whatever)
True. I have peeps would could care less about T.I.
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
That same research also suggested strong similiarities between the economy of the crack trade and fast foot franchises - with most of the profits all funneling upwards while the people on the front (whether on the corner or behind the register) pull in the least amount.
The main diff is that working at McDonalds won't get you shot or arrested which means that street dealers assume maximum risk for minimal reward. It's also worth noting that the only other people in the drug economy who face that same unequal balance are the peasants who grow coca. Basically, the two ends of the drug economy are the ones with the most workers, making the least pay, taking on the most risk.
Well, that, and the fact that in the crack game there is the illusion of advancement. I don't think anyone flipping burgers at McDonalds believes that they will eventually work their way up to the executive suite, but one thing that keeps people on the corner is the belief that they will one day get off it.
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Between dodging bullets in Manhatten last November and entering prison on a sexual-abuse charge, rapper Tupac Shakur found time to release his third album, "Me Against the World." As in "2Pacalypse Now" and "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z....," Shakur takes the angst of young urban black males and sets it to a funky "old school" beat. It's a forceful reminder of the problems - drugs, gangs - Black America faces in the '90s, set to the comforting, mellow sounds of the much more hopeful '70s. The 23-year-old is one of the few rappers who gets "props" (respect) from both sides of the feuding worlds of East Coast and West Coast rap. So he boldly blends the LA P-funk reinvented by Dr. Dre with the uptown "in your face" beats most recently laid down by New York chart toppers Craig Mack and Biggie Smalls. Shakur's brave probing of his own demons, including thoughts of suicide, in "If I Die 2nite" and "F--k the World," is reminiscent of the glory days of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five's 1982 pioneering hit "The Message." "World" is a refreshing jolt after Snoop Doggy Dogg's mindless rap on drinking "Gin and Juice" and Mack's indecipherable "Flavor In Your Ear." Shakur's fans who miss the upbeat tempo that made his "Keep Your Head Up" a hit should keep in mind that it's hard to fake the funk when it's not all good. Shakur's new work may not be his best, but it does showcase his most endearing quality - a strong, clear no-nonsense voice that never fails to be heard. -Allison Samuels, Time Magazine,
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Even if it were, it still doesn't exclude my point: the PERCEPTION has changed and even if that were the product of a lot of Johnny-Come-Latelys (which I don't think is 100% sufficient to explain things), that still means something has changed.
Just so we're clear here: are you arguing that crack rap is more, less or just as popular now as it was, in say, 1996?
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Between dodging bullets in Manhatten last November and entering prison on a sexual-abuse charge, rapper Tupac Shakur found time to release his third album, "Me Against the World." As in "2Pacalypse Now" and "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z....," Shakur takes the angst of young urban black males and sets it to a funky "old school" beat. It's a forceful reminder of the problems - drugs, gangs - Black America faces in the '90s, set to the comforting, mellow sounds of the much more hopeful '70s. The 23-year-old is one of the few rappers who gets "props" (respect) from both sides of the feuding worlds of East Coast and West Coast rap. So he boldly blends the LA P-funk reinvented by Dr. Dre with the uptown "in your face" beats most recently laid down by New York chart toppers Craig Mack and Biggie Smalls. Shakur's brave probing of his own demons, including thoughts of suicide, in "If I Die 2nite" and "F--k the World," is reminiscent of the glory days of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five's 1982 pioneering hit "The Message." "World" is a refreshing jolt after Snoop Doggy Dogg's mindless rap on drinking "Gin and Juice" and Mack's indecipherable "Flavor In Your Ear." Shakur's fans who miss the upbeat tempo that made his "Keep Your Head Up" a hit should keep in mind that it's hard to fake the funk when it's not all good. Shakur's new work may not be his best, but it does showcase his most endearing quality - a strong, clear no-nonsense voice that never fails to be heard. -Allison Samuels, Time Magazine,
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Even if it were, it still doesn't exclude my point: the PERCEPTION has changed and even if that were the product of a lot of Johnny-Come-Latelys (which I don't think is 100% sufficient to explain things), that still means something has changed.
Just so we're clear here: are you arguing that crack rap is more, less or just as popular now as it was, in say, 1996?
Popular or Just more Highlighted by critics? I would say it Just As. I just wanna see a handful of albums/singles that brought about this focus.
Oliver, are you arguing that bloggers have somehow influenced rappers?
Are you kidding? Not at all.
Here's my argument in this thread (which is not something I dwell on very long in the actual essay but people seem to be going after this point):
Crack rap = more popular now than it has been in the past.
People are arguing, "no it isn't. It's always been popular. What's changed is merely that disconnected folks like you finally noticed."
To which my reply is: "even accepting that as true, that still supports my argument that crack rap is more popular now since there are more people picking up on it even if "more people" = writers and bloggers.
None of this is suggesting that rappers are following the lead of writers. In fact, according to the main counter-argument in this thread, crack rap has not, in fact, gotten any more popular at all.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
It's just so tiring seeing so many people who clearly don't listen to rap music defining by way of articles and internet posts just what rap music is to the at-large audience.
Lord Willin and The Fix as a combined watershed moment in crack rap???
In other words...[clueless little dude]The Neptunes on the boards is the only reason why I could listen to such street rappers as The Clipse. And now that he's got East Coast production and even a Jay-Z guest spot, only now will I take a Scarface album seriously. [/clueless little dude]
C'mon now...those selections clearly point to a change in the minds of people who had been previously so absolutely stringent in their definition of what constitutes listenable hip-hop that they might as well have been racists to boot way more than they indicate any sort of shift in the subject or prominence of crack rap itself.
But now that said dudes are no longer blanketly ignoring what in many cases are amazing albums by artists that had previously existed out of their range, then it constitutes a shift on part of the rappers???
This is all some serious bullshit, and by the way that it seems that every magazine out right now has just commissioned a story on crack rap...the bullshit will go down as yet another false bit of the "official" history of rap.
This is one of those topics, Oliver, that I think you should have just left alone.
talk of snow this winter won't necessarily be about the weather.
Disconnected!
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
People are arguing, "no it isn't. It's always been popular. What's changed is merely that disconnected folks like you finally noticed."
To which my reply is: "even accepting that as true, that still supports my argument that crack rap is more popular now since there are more people picking up on it even if "more people" = writers and bloggers.
So adding 2 dozen bloggeur dorks onto a pre-existing/revolving audience of millions constitutes "more popular"?
That same research also suggested strong similiarities between the economy of the crack trade and fast foot franchises - with most of the profits all funneling upwards while the people on the front (whether on the corner or behind the register) pull in the least amount.
The main diff is that working at McDonalds won't get you shot or arrested which means that street dealers assume maximum risk for minimal reward. It's also worth noting that the only other people in the drug economy who face that same unequal balance are the peasants who grow coca. Basically, the two ends of the drug economy are the ones with the most workers, making the least pay, taking on the most risk.
this case study was outlined again in the book freakonomics.
Chapter 3: Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms? [/b]
Why experts routinely make up statistics; the invention of chronic halitosis . . . How to ask a good question . . . Sudhir Venkatesh's long, strange trip into the crack den . . . Life is a tournament . . . Why prostitutes earn more than architects . . . What a drug dealer, a high-school quarterback, and an editorial assistant have in common . . . How the invention of crack cocaine mirrored the invention of nylon stockings . . . Was crack the worst thing to hit black Americans since Jim Crow?
In other words, a crack gang works pretty much like the standard capitalist enterprise: you have to be near the top of the pyramid to make a big wage. Notwithstanding the leadership's rhetoric about the family nature of the business, the gang's wages are about as skewed as wages in corporate America. A foot soldier had plenty in common with a McDonald's burger flipper or a Wal-Mart shelf stocker. In fact, most of J. T.'s foot soldiers also held minimum-wage jobs in the legitimate sector to supplement their skimpy illicit earnings. The leader of another crack gang once told Venkatesh that he could easily afford to pay his foot soldiers more, but it wouldn't be prudent. "You got all these niggers below you who want your job, you dig?" he said. "So, you know, you try to take care of them, but you know, you also have to show them you the boss. You always have to get yours first, or else you really ain't no leader. If you start taking losses, they see you as weak and shit."
Along with the bad pay, the foot soldiers faced terrible job conditions. For starters, they had to stand on a street corner all day and do business with crackheads. (The gang members were strongly advised against using the product themselves, advice that was enforced by beatings if necessary.) Foot soldiers also risked arrest and, more worri- some, violence. Using the gang's financial documents and the rest of Venkatesh's research, it is possible to construct an adverse-events index of J. T.'s gang during the four years in question. The results are astonishingly bleak. If you were a member of J. T.'s gang for all four years, here is the typical fate you would have faced during that period:
Number of times arrested 5.9 Number of nonfatal wounds or injuries 2.4 (not including injuries meted out by the gang itself for rules violations) Chance of being killed 1 in 4 A 1-in-4 chance of being killed! Compare these odds to being a timber cutter, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls the most dangerous job in the United States. Over four years' time, a timber cutter would stand only a 1-in-200 chance of being killed. Or compare the crack dealer's odds to those of a death row inmate in Texas, which executes more prisoners than any other state. In 2003, Texas put to death twenty-four inmates-or just 5 percent of the nearly 500 inmates on its death row during that time. Which means that you stand a greater chance of dying while dealing crack in a Chicago housing project than you do while sitting on death row in Texas. So if crack dealing is the most dangerous job in America, and if the salary is only $3.30 an hour, why on earth would anyone take such a job?
People are arguing, "no it isn't. It's always been popular. What's changed is merely that disconnected folks like you finally noticed."
To which my reply is: "even accepting that as true, that still supports my argument that crack rap is more popular now since there are more people picking up on it even if "more people" = writers and bloggers.
So adding 2 dozen bloggeur dorks onto a pre-existing/revolving audience of millions constitutes "more popular"?
I don't mean in terms of audience, I mean in terms of forces that are increasing the visibility of crack rap in the popular imagination/media/whatever.
I don't mean in terms of audience, I mean in terms of forces that are increasing the visibility of crack rap in the popular imagination/media/whatever.
so you should be looking the motives of carpetbagguer journalists moreso than any artistic trend.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
People are arguing, "no it isn't. It's always been popular. What's changed is merely that disconnected folks like you finally noticed."
To which my reply is: "even accepting that as true, that still supports my argument that crack rap is more popular now since there are more people picking up on it even if "more people" = writers and bloggers.
So adding 2 dozen bloggeur dorks onto a pre-existing/revolving audience of millions constitutes "more popular"?
I don't mean in terms of audience, I mean in terms of forces that are increasing the visibility of crack rap in the popular imagination/media/whatever.
Again and again and again, I don't think it's any more visible. Some have just finally decided to wipe the blinders from their eyes.
But even if I go along with your argument, why are you joining the herd in validating such a reality?
As a rap writer that I wouldn't even remotely consider any sort of expert on crack rap, why are you putting yourself out there like that?
You're going to outline its history and define its most recent watershed moment???
Why was it so important for you to chime in on this "current hot topic"?
Granted, you may know more than 5 out of 10 other dudes currently writing about the topic in national pubs, but still...
This is yet another instance of journalistic carpetbaggeurry, if you ask me.
And for the record, I don't consider myself any sort of expert on crack rap either. But I do know for instance, that The Fix is faaar from Scarface's best, let alone most crack-related album.
i gotta agree with you o-dub. Crack rap has always somewhat been around or relevant since "the message", "jane stop this crazy thing" (though back then it was more of a social psa instead of glorifying it) and the early 90s. Lately it seems to be dominating the streets and airwaves. I think a lot of it has to do with the big mixtape boom of the last few years that gave a lot more street/hustlin dudes an opportunity to get on and create a bigger market for "crack rap". Never before you saw dudes like Young Jeezy and Papoose (for ex.)getting multi-million dollar deals for debut albums. Crack rap of the 90s i think was more underground and was not getting exposure like these groups. Im thinking its just a trend though due to peoples fascination with vices and evils (drugs and violence) and also the whole "keeping it real" mindstate that a lot of hip hop consumers need to see. I think by selling crack and getting shot 9 times or putting vials in your girls snatch and shooting police, gives these dudes a sort of authenticity in the crack raps fans heart. Its also been hip to be the bad guy or villian and a lot of people root for these characters in movies and real life. I hope it fades out though, cause i really cant hear much more about cocaine. The well has been tapped dry for originality of that shit.
One of the more fascinating outcomes of crack rap's bubbling rise is in its impact on how artists position themselves through a new paradigm of authenticity.
Rappers used to rap about rapping. Parochial as it sounds, for at least 15 years, this was good enough to turn lyricists such as Rakim and KRS-One into legends. However, in a slow and steady shift that began with pioneering gangsta rappers like Schoolly D and Eazy-E and then found its apotheosis in Biggie and Jay-Z, being a good rapper was no longer enough to be a good rapper.
This meme right here is the 'key' (no pun intended) to the matter.
I used to get so sick of MCs who would spend their whole record talking about label/hip-hop related issues ad-infinitum. I'm not an MC, so I can't really empathise with someone who was dropped/shelved/etc by their label. Who is your intended audience when you make a track, and in a related question does the listener have to believe that the MC is directly representing for him/her?
I can't listen to TI because of his 22's or 24's (or whatever the hell it was) track that blew up, and brought his love of rims to the front. I am mad embarrased to be a part of a culture that thinks rims are worthy track material. But is it McLuhan-esque to wonder if one needs to be into rims culture to vibe to a rims song?
Coke rap is the same thing. Does one need to have first-hand experience in the blow game to get off on these new trap stars?
I was in 7-11 and there was some rap magazine with Jeezy on the cover and it said "You say he can't rap. The snowman says shut your trap." (or something like that. I actually laughed out loud. I almost feel bad for the dude... He gets a magazine cover and it says "YOU SAY HE CAN'T RAP." hahahahahha.
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Between dodging bullets in Manhatten last November and entering prison on a sexual-abuse charge, rapper Tupac Shakur found time to release his third album, "Me Against the World." As in "2Pacalypse Now" and "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z....," Shakur takes the angst of young urban black males and sets it to a funky "old school" beat. It's a forceful reminder of the problems - drugs, gangs - Black America faces in the '90s, set to the comforting, mellow sounds of the much more hopeful '70s. The 23-year-old is one of the few rappers who gets "props" (respect) from both sides of the feuding worlds of East Coast and West Coast rap. So he boldly blends the LA P-funk reinvented by Dr. Dre with the uptown "in your face" beats most recently laid down by New York chart toppers Craig Mack and Biggie Smalls. Shakur's brave probing of his own demons, including thoughts of suicide, in "If I Die 2nite" and "F--k the World," is reminiscent of the glory days of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five's 1982 pioneering hit "The Message." "World" is a refreshing jolt after Snoop Doggy Dogg's mindless rap on drinking "Gin and Juice" and Mack's indecipherable "Flavor In Your Ear." Shakur's fans who miss the upbeat tempo that made his "Keep Your Head Up" a hit should keep in mind that it's hard to fake the funk when it's not all good. Shakur's new work may not be his best, but it does showcase his most endearing quality - a strong, clear no-nonsense voice that never fails to be heard. -Allison Samuels, Time Magazine,
It's just so tiring seeing so many people who clearly don't listen to rap music defining by way of articles and internet posts just what rap music is to the at-large audience.
Lord Willin and The Fix as a combined watershed moment in crack rap???
In other words...[clueless little dude]The Neptunes on the boards is the only reason why I could listen to such street rappers as The Clipse. And now that he's got East Coast production and even a Jay-Z guest spot, only now will I take a Scarface album seriously. [/clueless little dude]
C'mon now...those selections clearly point to a change in the minds of people who had been previously so absolutely stringent in their definition of what constitutes listenable hip-hop that they might as well have been racists to boot way more than they indicate any sort of shift in the subject or prominence of crack rap itself.
But now that said dudes are no longer blanketly ignoring what in many cases are amazing albums by artists that had previously existed out of their range, then it constitutes a shift on part of the rappers???
This is all some serious bullshit, and by the way that it seems that every magazine out right now has just commissioned a story on crack rap...the bullshit will go down as yet another false bit of the "official" history of rap.
This is one of those topics, Oliver, that I think you should have just left alone.
HarveyCanal"a distraction from my main thesis." 13,234 Posts
To put it from a different angle, even if you were to accept that crack rap has pretty much been "same as it ever's been" I would therefore have to conclude that people would accept the idea that the main difference has been that some critical mass of people (namely writers, bloggers, etc.) finally noticed...in which case, this still supports one of the basic tenets of my argument: something has changed with the genre, perhaps not internally but at least externally.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Between dodging bullets in Manhatten last November and entering prison on a sexual-abuse charge, rapper Tupac Shakur found time to release his third album, "Me Against the World." As in "2Pacalypse Now" and "Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z....," Shakur takes the angst of young urban black males and sets it to a funky "old school" beat. It's a forceful reminder of the problems - drugs, gangs - Black America faces in the '90s, set to the comforting, mellow sounds of the much more hopeful '70s. The 23-year-old is one of the few rappers who gets "props" (respect) from both sides of the feuding worlds of East Coast and West Coast rap. So he boldly blends the LA P-funk reinvented by Dr. Dre with the uptown "in your face" beats most recently laid down by New York chart toppers Craig Mack and Biggie Smalls. Shakur's brave probing of his own demons, including thoughts of suicide, in "If I Die 2nite" and "F--k the World," is reminiscent of the glory days of Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five's 1982 pioneering hit "The Message." "World" is a refreshing jolt after Snoop Doggy Dogg's mindless rap on drinking "Gin and Juice" and Mack's indecipherable "Flavor In Your Ear." Shakur's fans who miss the upbeat tempo that made his "Keep Your Head Up" a hit should keep in mind that it's hard to fake the funk when it's not all good. Shakur's new work may not be his best, but it does showcase his most endearing quality - a strong, clear no-nonsense voice that never fails to be heard. -Allison Samuels, Time Magazine,
Where's The Crack?
nowhere, i just thought it was a
funny "funky fresh" review
This review should be carved in stone somewhere.
Deej, can you locate the review that Time Magazine ran of Illmatic?
Harvey I dont get why you get all personal about shit like this. Odub should and can write about whatever he wants. Yr making good points but they're hidden behind this absurd xenophobic/possesive YOU DONT GET TO TALK ABOUT THAT bullshit
Comments
Well, in regards to the latter, there's no real empirical data that's been collected en masse that can show this. It's not like dealers file 1070s.
There are some qualitative studies - mostly done through ethnography - that have explored that topic - the most well-known was done by U. of Chicago researcher Sudhir Venkatesh who finally published his results (based on early '90s research) in a new book that came out recently:
"Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor"
What he found, if I recall, is that while the top of street gangs can make around 100,000/year (this is in early '90s dollars remember), the average street level dealer only pulled in less than $3,000 a month. Better than minimum wage to be sure, but not exactly high-roller numbers.
As for the use of cocaine, there's no shortage of longitudinal studies that all show that cocaine use, per capita, has been on the decline since the mid 1990s. However, overall abuse hasn't dropped as precipitiously, mostly b/c the drop in coke prices meant that hard core addicts simply abused more. In other words, less people are using coke/crack but those who are hooked are using more of it so that the overall % of crack abuse has not fallen as sharply as the overall number of users.
Accompanying this decline has also been an overall decline in violent felonies - much of that correlates with the fall in drug abuse but I hestitate to say that the data has been shown to have a causal link though it's reasonable to think the two are related.
That same research also suggested strong similiarities between the economy of the crack trade and fast foot franchises - with most of the profits all funneling upwards while the people on the front (whether on the corner or behind the register) pull in the least amount.
The main diff is that working at McDonalds won't get you shot or arrested which means that street dealers assume maximum risk for minimal reward. It's also worth noting that the only other people in the drug economy who face that same unequal balance are the peasants who grow coca. Basically, the two ends of the drug economy are the ones with the most workers, making the least pay, taking on the most risk.
Pride is a beeyatch.
True. I have peeps would could care less about T.I.
That external change might just be Late Pass criticism.
Well, that, and the fact that in the crack game there is the illusion of advancement. I don't think anyone flipping burgers at McDonalds believes that they will eventually work their way up to the executive suite, but one thing that keeps people on the corner is the belief that they will one day get off it.
Even if it were, it still doesn't exclude my point: the PERCEPTION has changed and even if that were the product of a lot of Johnny-Come-Latelys (which I don't think is 100% sufficient to explain things), that still means something has changed.
Just so we're clear here: are you arguing that crack rap is more, less or just as popular now as it was, in say, 1996?
Where's The Crack?
Popular or Just more Highlighted by critics? I would say it Just As. I just wanna see a handful of albums/singles that brought about this focus.
Are you kidding? Not at all.
Here's my argument in this thread (which is not something I dwell on very long in the actual essay but people seem to be going after this point):
Crack rap = more popular now than it has been in the past.
People are arguing, "no it isn't. It's always been popular. What's changed is merely that disconnected folks like you finally noticed."
To which my reply is: "even accepting that as true, that still supports my argument that crack rap is more popular now since there are more people picking up on it even if "more people" = writers and bloggers.
None of this is suggesting that rappers are following the lead of writers. In fact, according to the main counter-argument in this thread, crack rap has not, in fact, gotten any more popular at all.
Of course they did--just as they can claim credit for the 78K that the Clipse sold the first week.
Lord Willin and The Fix as a combined watershed moment in crack rap???
In other words...[clueless little dude]The Neptunes on the boards is the only reason why I could listen to such street rappers as The Clipse. And now that he's got East Coast production and even a Jay-Z guest spot, only now will I take a Scarface album seriously. [/clueless little dude]
C'mon now...those selections clearly point to a change in the minds of people who had been previously so absolutely stringent in their definition of what constitutes listenable hip-hop that they might as well have been racists to boot way more than they indicate any sort of shift in the subject or prominence of crack rap itself.
But now that said dudes are no longer blanketly ignoring what in many cases are amazing albums by artists that had previously existed out of their range, then it constitutes a shift on part of the rappers???
This is all some serious bullshit, and by the way that it seems that every magazine out right now has just commissioned a story on crack rap...the bullshit will go down as yet another false bit of the "official" history of rap.
This is one of those topics, Oliver, that I think you should have just left alone.
Disconnected!
So adding 2 dozen bloggeur dorks onto a pre-existing/revolving audience of millions constitutes "more popular"?
this case study was outlined again in the book freakonomics.
http://www.freakonomics.com/ch3.php
I don't mean in terms of audience, I mean in terms of forces that are increasing the visibility of crack rap in the popular imagination/media/whatever.
so you should be looking the motives of carpetbagguer journalists moreso than any artistic trend.
Again and again and again, I don't think it's any more visible. Some have just finally decided to wipe the blinders from their eyes.
But even if I go along with your argument, why are you joining the herd in validating such a reality?
As a rap writer that I wouldn't even remotely consider any sort of expert on crack rap, why are you putting yourself out there like that?
You're going to outline its history and define its most recent watershed moment???
Why was it so important for you to chime in on this "current hot topic"?
Granted, you may know more than 5 out of 10 other dudes currently writing about the topic in national pubs, but still...
This is yet another instance of journalistic carpetbaggeurry, if you ask me.
And for the record, I don't consider myself any sort of expert on crack rap either. But I do know for instance, that The Fix is faaar from Scarface's best, let alone most crack-related album.
This meme right here is the 'key' (no pun intended) to the matter.
I used to get so sick of MCs who would spend their whole record talking about label/hip-hop related issues ad-infinitum. I'm not an MC, so I can't really empathise with someone who was dropped/shelved/etc by their label. Who is your intended audience when you make a track, and in a related question does the listener have to believe that the MC is directly representing for him/her?
I can't listen to TI because of his 22's or 24's (or whatever the hell it was)
track that blew up, and brought his love of rims to the front. I am mad embarrased to be a part of a culture that thinks rims are worthy track material. But is it McLuhan-esque to wonder if one needs to be into rims culture to vibe to a rims song?
Coke rap is the same thing. Does one need to have first-hand experience in the blow game to get off on these new trap stars?
just wondering...
Pass it along...
This review should be carved in stone somewhere.
Deej, can you locate the review that Time Magazine ran of Illmatic?
edite: :5pager:!!!