Time magazine: Hip-hop's Down Beat
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653639,00.htmlFriday, Aug. 17, 2007Hip-hop's Down Beat[/b]Time magazineBy Ta-Nehisi CoatesWhen the political activist Al Sharpton pivoted from his war against bigmouth radio man Don Imus to a war on bad-mouth gangsta rap, the instinct among older music fans was to roll their eyes and yawn. Ten years ago, another activist, C. Delores Tucker, launched a very similar campaign to clean up rap music. She focused on Time Warner (parent of TIME), whose subsidiary Interscope was home to hard-core rappers Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. In 1995 Tucker succeeded in forcing Time Warner to dump Interscope.Her victory was Pyrrhic. Interscope flourished, launching artists like 50 Cent and Eminem and distributing the posthumous recordings of Shakur. And the genre exploded across the planet, with rappers emerging everywhere from Capetown to the banlieues of Paris. In the U.S. alone, sales reached $1.8 billion.The lesson was Capitalism 101: rap music's market strength gave its artists permission to say what they pleased. And the rappers themselves exhibited an entrepreneurial bent unlike that of musicians before them. They understood the need to market and the benefits of line extensions. Theirs was capitalism with a beat.Today that same market is telling rappers to please shut up. While music-industry sales have plummeted, no genre has fallen harder than rap. According to the music trade publication Billboard, rap sales have dropped 44% since 2000 and declined from 13% of all music sales to 10%. Artists who were once the tent poles at rap labels are posting disappointing numbers. Jay-Z's return album, Kingdom Come, for instance, sold a gaudy 680,000 units in its first week, according to Billboard. But by the second week, its sales had declined some 80%. This year rap sales are down 33% so far.Longtime rap fans are doing the math and coming to the same conclusions as the music's voluminous critics. In February, the filmmaker Byron Hurt released Beyond Beats and Rhymes, a documentary notable not just for its hard critique but for the fact that most of the people doing the criticizing were not dowdy church ladies but members of the hip-hop generation who deplore rap's recent fixation on the sensational.Both rappers and music execs are clamoring for solutions. Russell Simmons recently made a tepid call for rappers to self-censor the words nigger and bitch from their albums. But most insiders believe that a debate about profanity and misogyny obscures a much deeper problem: an artistic vacuum at major labels. "The music community has to get more creative," says Steve Rifkin, CEO of SRC Records. "We have to start betting on the new and the up-and-coming for us to grow as an industry. Right now, I don't think anyone is taking chances. It's a big-business culture."It's the ultimate irony. Since the 1980s, when Run-DMC attracted sponsorship from Adidas, the rap community has aspired to be big business. By the '90s, those aspirations had become a reality. In a 1999 cover story, TIME reported that with 81 million CDs sold, rap was officially America's top-selling music genre. The boom produced enterprises like Roc-A-Fella, which straddled fashion, music and film and in 2001 was worth $300 million. It produced moguls like No Limit's Master P and Bad Boy's Puff Daddy, each of whom in 2001 made an appearance on FORTUNE's list of the richest 40 under 40. Along the way, the music influenced everything from advertising to fashion to sports.The growth spurt was fueled by sensationalism. Tupac Shakur shot at police, was convicted of sexual abuse and ultimately was murdered in Las Vegas. But Shakur both alive and dead has also sold more than 20 million records. Death Row Records, which released much of Shakur's material, was run by ex-con Suge Knight and dogged by rumors of money laundering. But between 1992 and 1998, the label churned out 11 multiplatinum albums. Gangsta rappers reveled in their outlaw mystique, crafting ultra-violent tales of drive-bys and stick-ups designed to shock and enthrall their primary audience--white suburban teenagers. "Hip-hop seemed dangerous; it seemed angry," says Richard Nickels, who manages the hip-hop band the Roots. "Kurt Cobain killed himself, and rock seemed weak. But then you had these black guys who came out and had guns. It was exciting to white kids."Hip-hop now faces a generation that takes gangsta rap as just another mundane marker in the cultural scenery. "It's collapsing because they can no longer fool the white kids," says Nickels. "There's only so much redundancy anyone can take."Artists who never jumped on the gangsta bandwagon point the finger at the boardroom. They accuse major labels of strip-mining the music, playing up its sensationalist aspects for easy sales. "In rock you have metal, alternative, emo, soft rock, pop-rock, you have all these different strains," says Q-Tip, front man for the defunct A Tribe Called Quest. "And there are different strains of hip-hop, but record companies aren't set up to sell these different strains. They aren't set up to do anything more of a mature sort of hip-hop."Of course, gangsta rap isn't a record-company invention. Indeed, hip-hop's two most celebrated icons, Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., embraced the sort of lyrical content that today has opened hip-hop to criticism. And the music companies, under assault from file-sharing and other alternative distribution channels, are hardly in a position to do R&D. "When I first signed to Tommy Boy, [the A&R person] would take us to different shows and to art museums," says Q-Tip. "There was real mentorship. Today that's largely absent, and we see the results in the music and in the aesthetic." That result is a stale product, defined by cable channels like BET, now owned by Viacom, which seems to consist primarily of gun worship and underdressed women.During the past decade, record labels have outsourced the business of kingmaking to other artists. Established stars Dr. Dre and Eminem brought 50 Cent to Interscope. Jay-Z founded his own label, cut a distribution deal and began developing his own roster. But most established artists do little development. That leaves the possibility that hip-hop is following the same path that soul and R&B traveled when they descended into disco, which died quickly.No longer able to peddle sensation, rap's moguls are switching tactics. Simmons, while still something of a hip-hop ambassador, is hawking a new self-help book. Master P, whose estimated worth was once $661 million, watched his label, No Limit, sink into bankruptcy. He recently announced the formation of Take a Stand Records, a label catering to "clean" hip-hop music. "Personally, I have profited millions of dollars through explicit rap lyrics," Master P stated on his website. "I can honestly say that I was once part of the problem, and now it's time to be part of the solution."Chris Lighty, CEO of Violator Entertainment, whose clients include 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes, is looking at ways that record companies can work with artists in one area where rappers have been innovative: endorsement and branding. Whether it's 50 Cent owning a stake in Vitamin Water or Jay-Z doing a commercial for HP, most of these deals have been brokered by the artists' own camp. But Lighty sees in hip-hop a chance for record labels to generate more sponsorship and endorsements. "Record companies are going to have to make even better records and participate in brand extension. It's the only way they can survive," says Lighty. "We need to change the format, and this is the only way. 50 Cent is a brand. Jay-Z is a brand."But the current hubbub over indecency poses a direct challenge to that brand strength, as the artist Akon recently discovered. While performing in Trinidad, Akon was videotaped dancing suggestivel
y with a fan who was later revealed to be only 14. The video attracted the ire of conservatives like Bill O'Reilly. In the wake of the controversy, Akon's tour sponsor, Verizon, removed all ringtones featuring his work and retracted its sponsorship. The message was clear: Hip-hop needs a new and improved product.
y with a fan who was later revealed to be only 14. The video attracted the ire of conservatives like Bill O'Reilly. In the wake of the controversy, Akon's tour sponsor, Verizon, removed all ringtones featuring his work and retracted its sponsorship. The message was clear: Hip-hop needs a new and improved product.
Comments
I don't think anybody's rock and roll legacy ever suffered because they killed themselves... and I seem to remember white kids embracing NWA some half a decade before Kurt Cobain's death.
These articles keep getting lamer.
most people wouldn't even dream of listening to an album all the way through. everything related to media and the news is at your fingertips. music sales will never be close to what the once were...ever. get used to it.
we know books aren't playing a role. 1 in 4 American adults did not read a single book last year!
Br>However, if we're talking about sales figures, then wouldn't itunes (no need to buy the whole album) figure into this? Maybe it's a demographic shift. I certainly agree though that music sales will never again be what they were. Our entire culture (in the United States at least) has reached an information rubicon.
Typically, when I listen to a rap album in full, I'm hearing balance. Take a Gerald G's Mr. 512 mix cd for example. Yes, he talks about selling drugs and casual sex like it's nobody's business. But he also has a song about his daughter and another about his devotion to Jesus, in addition to an over sentiment that he's just doing anything he can to carve a more sensible life out for both himself and his family.
Now, if Mr. Contrary Pundit picked that album up, he would surely latch on to the negatives and completely ignore the positives in an effort to confirm his preconceived notions that Gerald G as a black urban rapper is a bad influence on kids.
The same sort of thing would surely happen with a Mr. Contrary Pundit analysis of albums by Trae, Z-Ro, Ryno, San Quinn...basically all of the artists that I listen to that on one hand...yes, are known as hard dudes...but on another contain so much more than just hardness to their personalities.
And lets see, why in the world would black American males possibly have their guards up at all times?
It's like any of these dipshits "pointing their plastic fingers" are saying...forget that you could get pulled over for nothing, thrown into jail, and/or murdered at any given time by police who 9 times out of 10 would get away with their foul play. Forget that you've likely received a substandard education, and/or you're likely to have grown up without a responsible father figure, and that job discrimination still runs as rampant as ever. Just put on a happy face and absolve our bullshit liberal guilt for us. It's been what...40 years now since universal equality was definitively achieved with the passing of the Civil Rights Act. Therefore it's time to just get over it like nothing ever happened.
It sickens me beyond belief to think that these assholes are apparently thinking that they can fire these holier-than-thou shots without seemingly considering any aspect of humanity in their targets.
And as far as the sex stuff...how is Pop Lock and Drop It any worse than a Paris Hilton sex tape or stories of Brittany Spears getting down in a hot tub with one of her dancers that I can't seem to avoid hearing about no matter how much I try?
And that brings me to another point. As I said, rap albums are generally balanced. Yet what Viacom decides to play on the radio from those albums is clearly not. Now, who runs Viacom? Is it Brotha Lynch Hung and DJ Paul? Or is it Mr. Contrary Pundit's cousin?
This all-too-disgusting road seems to be leading towards blanketed censorship/boycotts of "hip-hop". And guess what...that's nothing more than a pre-determined objective of those steering this ship.
Edit: And no, I didn't bother to read the linked article...so if I'm a little off topic, then apply my words to 400 other articles out there.
positive influence on kids? please elaborate.
I can't argue with one damn word of that.
Key words: kids.
And I say that because these rappers are speaking to kids who went through the same bullshit that they had to come up in. Ryno for instance basically grew up in a crackhouse. He had no choice but to think of such an environment as normal.
So for kids like that to have role models...who first and foremost reached ages of like 24-25 without getting killed and/or becomeing so addicted that they're now worthless is a valuable service to society at large. The rappers are able to reach the kids in a language they can understand and many of rappers make it a point to steer kids in the right direction. When Pimp C was going off in that radio interview a few weeks back, that was one of the things he was saying. You can't just glorify the drug trade. You've got to counter that by showing the down side to it. And if you look at someone like Z-Ro as a mere thug dumbass who deserves to rot in prison forever, you are missing so much that he brings to the table as far as helping kids deal with racism and discrimination on a deeply emotional level.
And the implications of trying to deny these rappers their platforms to express themselves, to me implies that even moreso than before, the kids that they are effecting are being left for dead. It's like these contrary pundit assholes are completely dismissing the idea that anyone at all should be lending a hand to children born knee-deep into bad situations...for only good kids who follow all of society's rules deserve any guidance.
And you can throw the Bill Cosby's and Oprah's at these kids all day long with their standards of how to live. They will do not one bit a good until they can actually stoop down a bit and actually get their hands dirty.
Seriously, anyone who thinks that modern day gangsta rap (in most cases) doesn't have an underlying positive message to provide...simply isn't listening.
My Ozone Awards Article and a Little Explanation
I knew I was gonna catch some flak for this, but I didn???t think it would come before the article actually hits the stands. I guess the Houston Press sends out webclips before the articles are actually published because last night I got an email from Julia Beverly, founder and publisher of Ozone Magazine, that said ???You could have warned me first, shit.???
I had a feeling it had something to do with the article I wrote in the Houston Press about the Ozone Awards/TJ???s DJ???s Weekend. Fact is, I did warn Julia. While I was writing the piece I told her that I am going to blast on the industry a bit and talk about all the waste I saw from all these labels that look like carbon copies of one another.
And that???s what I did. Anybody who knows me, knows that I am a bit of a hater when it comes to the music business. I???ve been in it, on my own terms, for quite some time and have observed so much shit from the inside and out. It???s my opinion that in 2007, if the labels and the artists and the producers and the DJ???s are all gonna walk around asking ???Why are record sales down???? all day, and basically blaming the internet (who certainly must shoulder a good part of the blame, yes), then somebody needs to give these fuckin??? goof balls an answer.
Yeah I said it, the industry is full of fuckin??? goof balls.
If you read my piece you???ll see that I certainly was not dissing Julia, TJ, Ozone or the conference/Awards show itself. In fact I took time to take a couple of the people who straight trampled on it to task. The shit was a magnanimous undertaking, and a few people tried to force it to denigrate into chaos. That???s bullshit because I know what it???s like to work on something for a year and have some drunk ass come in and fuck it all up.
There???s not a lot of ???Real Talk??? going on in the industry right now. You got wanna be politicians and so called ???leaders??? blasting rap music for its content. A couple weeks back a group of folks protested outside a record store on the north side of Houston. Man, first of all, why you gonna protest a record store? The record store is a victim in this too. They used to be the backbone of this industry, now they are struggling to stay alive. They may sell a few titles that these protestors find offensive, sure, but these protestors need to ask themselves why the market is so hot for this material. It???s because the radio and Viacom and the major magazines are only presenting a limited scope of what this hip-hop shit really is.
So why didn???t they protest the radio stations? Why???d they go after one store, in one hood, when they could have gone after the root of the problem? And shit, forget about protesting, why weren???t they out there holding signs promoting the new Common album, or Kanye???s upcoming record, or some underground Christian rap that nobody knows about, or The 144 Elite? Why can???t they go out and try to promote something positive and uplifting, rather than screaming about records they deem offensive, but probably haven???t even listened to?
What records were they protesting anyway?
This shit is getting real one-sided and the industry is fucking off an entire culture. Meanwhile, the folks who are out there still holding the ideals of hip-hop really true, and pushing the limits, are being shut out. Real talk. This music business has always been about money, but in this day and age it seems to be solely about money.
Fuck the poetry. Fuck the art. Fuck the realities. Fuck your cousins who are dying in Iraq. Fuck $3 gasoline. Fuck murders in our schools. Fuck killer cops. Fuck the environment. Fuck our water supply. Fuck the future of our children. All that shit be damned, cuz there???s a party tonight. Sponsored by Universal Records and Crunk-Hyphy-Rockstar Juice mixed with Hennessey. (That being said, I???m all about corporations sponsoring parties and actually putting their money back into the music).
Hey, I like to party, I love to party, this site is chock full of photos from parties I have thrown and attended. I also like money, I love it in fact. I want a lot of it in fact. I???m with it, but straight up, I don???t have my hands out begging like so many of these pseudo industry muckrakers. I can make my own, and you can as well. I mean straight up, if you know like I know, you know who is winning right now. It???s not the MC, or the Producer who???s out there changing the game, bringing new sounds to the table, or ???keeping it real.??? It???s the dudes who are affiliated with the dudes who have the most money.
These ???artists??? and ???labels??? are spending more money on their posters and fake radio spins in imaginary markets than they are on production. They???re copying what they think they are supposed to be doing, and they are selling out the game at all new levels. The major labels are pissing on this music and the independents that want to join their ranks are following like scared little puppies in a rainstorm. It???s goofy, it???s goofy as fuck.
And yes I know that I am old, I???m 35 years old. I never wanted to be the dude to say ???Hip-hop ain???t what it used to be.??? But real talk, it???s not. Don???t get me wrong, I remember people talking back in 1994 about how hip-hop ain???t what it used to be. I know, I know the deal. But fact is, in 2007 this shit is getting run into the ground.
Bavu Blakes asked me a question yesterday. He said, ???What???s gonna happen to a lot of these rappers when grills aren???t cool anymore? When substance once again triumphs over image? What will they do? What will they rap about???? And I just laughed. The cream always rises to the top. They can fight the real all they want, but the cream will once again rise to the top.
They want to talk down on the south. The media says Houston is finished. New York rappers are sick of our swaggar and have things to say about it. But they haven???t heard Z-Ro, they haven???t heard Trae, they haven???t heard K-Rino, definitely haven???t heard Money Waters, they forgot about Young Bleed, they haven???t heard Gerald G., they don???t know about the female movement in Houston, and they don???t care. They just want to talk down, and fuck it, it???s time to throw it back in everybody???s face.
I love this art, if I gotta be the only one to talk real about it, then so be it. WHAT YOU THINK I???M NOT GONNA SAY IT? I???MA SAY IT! (Word to Bizzy Bone).
So anyway, I ran a bit long and turned in too many words, so it got a little bit edited, so below here???s the actual article that I turned in in it???s entirety.
AND HERES THE LINK TO THE ARTICLE ON HOUSTON PRESS.COM:
http://www.houstonpress.com/2007-08-23/music/real-recognize-real
And below please find the article I turned in unedited, real talk. I love Julia Beverly and Ozone Magazine. I see TJ as being a power player in this down south industry who has helped to bring the music to all new heights. My piece is not about them, it???s about a very confused industry and why it has to change.
(P.S. There was a lot of press at the Ozone Awards. How come the reports have been so limited? How come some people only saw to fit to report about the scuffle in the hotel lobby after it was all said and done, and the cop who tackled a girl? Where???s all the real talk? The game is all fucked up.)
-------------------------------
The 2nd Annual Ozone Awards
Hip-Hop Isn???t Dead ??? It Just Sold Out
By Matt Sonzala
The unrelenting cacophony was a bit hard to bear at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Pulling up to the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Miami, after an early morning flight from Houston, my eyes were still bleary, my head still foggy from the previous nights drinks, and I wasn???t really ready for the onslaught of what the hip-hop community calls ???promotions.???
In a business as saturated as the rap game, and as unstable as the current music biz in general, a fledgling artist has to give it all that he or she has got in order to be noticed. Unfortunately, from the scene I saw at the Ozone Awards/TJ???s DJ???s Music Conference, ???giving it all you???ve got??? has less to do with making quality music than it does with marketing whatever it is you think the dwindling record buying public might want.
In fact, that was the overwhelming topic on the panels and in the hallways of the music conference portion of the weekend???s events: How Can We Sell Records (Again)?
I???m going to go out on a limb here and say it???s not the way most labels were going about it at this particular event. As I exited I-95 South and turned onto SE 2nd Avenue ??? a cool part of downtown Miami, rife with Cuban and Brazillian restaurants and old school mom and pop shops where you can get everything from the latest Nikes to kitchen supplies ??? my rental car screeched to a halt behind a seemingly endless line of traffic trying to make its way into the parking lot of the Hyatt.
The police had cordoned off the entrance and were slowly letting cars in one by one, as other officers politely asked the drivers of multi-colored, wrapped promotional vans, Hummers and even one vehicle that looked like a full sized billboard on wheels to please clear the way for the other patrons. While these vehicles jockeyed for position in front of the hotel entrance, the line of traffic extended back to the freeway. No matter, from the moment you exited the freeway to the point where you entered your hotel room, you were barraged with posters, stickers and flyers stuck to every column, phone pole and tree, some labels even hired planes to drag their banners behind. By the end of the weekend, all of these items were strewn across the area as if a hurricane had hit. Cacophony, indeed.
Inside the Hyatt, thousands of aspiring rappers, DJ???s, producers and label execs milled around pushing flyers and CDR???s on all who passed. One young Latino kid even had the foresight to bring a boom box to the event, which he carried with him everywhere, playing only one song, obviously entitled ???Real Recognize Real??? as those were the only lyrics to the entire song. On the first day, everywhere I???d go I???d hear the chant ???REAL RECOGNIZE REAL, REAL RECOGNIZE REAL.??? It certainly got stuck in my head, but like many chant-centric tunes being passed off as hip-hop these days on commercial radio and on MTV and BET, I already fucking hate it.
There???s a handful of people in the music industry still trying to support a genre that many have written off recently as being ???dead.??? Julia Beverly, founder and publisher of Ozone Magazine ??? a publication centered on down south rap music - is one of them. Hip-hop certainly hasn???t died, it still exists on practically every street corner in the world, though it could be argued that what was being celebrated on this particular weekend had less to do with hip-hop music and culture and more to do with marketing.
And perhaps that???s the new genre ??? Marketing Music. Lets just call it what it is. Hip-hop still lives in the streets, but in the corporate boardrooms and in the wrapped vans of those who wish to one day enter the corporate boardrooms, it???s merely a vehicle to promote tangible items, not art. In fact, one statement that I heard in passing from an unidentified man outside the Media panel was ???These guys don???t give a damn about the music anymore, or making great albums, they just want to sell ring tones.??? I???ll expand and add clothes, cars, liquor, and sex to that list.
The conference itself was the typical music conference. Overzealous artists mingled with record label underlings in an attempt to learn the music biz from the ???pros.??? By day they sat in panels and milled around the lobby of the Hyatt, by night they hit the clubs, where the big labels took control and once again, marketed their marketing music to the more than willing masses. By the time Monday had come along, I had tired of the lip-service and the advertising and was ready for the main event, the actual awards show.
The 5,000 seat James L. Knight Center, conveniently connected to the Hyatt, was about to explode ??? in a good way. Many of the genres big names ??? Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Dipset and Fat Joe all walked the red carpet to press the flesh with the throngs of media and sponsors who lined the way. Houston artists Trae and Devin the Dude also made their way into the fray ??? The Dude being tailed by the legendary Blowfly, a man who has been lauded as the ???Original Rapper??? for his hit ???Rapp Dirty??? released in the 1960s.
Blowfly has called Miami his home for the better part of his life (he???s in his 70???s but won???t reveal his true age ??? he???d rather tell you to suck a monkeys dick in hell when asked) but no one in the throngs of hip-hop media seemed to know who this elderly man in his super hero costume was. And the ???host??? of the red carpet, Benji Brown of WEDR Radio in Miami, continually berated him on the microphone as if the man accompanying the Dude merely snuck onto the carpet in costume as a joke. When really Devin the Dude wanted to give some props to someone he recognizes as an originator.
Inside, the scene was a bit chaotic, as all awards shows are, but you can???t take anything away from the fact that a little, independent magazine from Florida was able to assemble some of music???s biggest stars in one room, at one time, without paying each of them their weight in gold.
The show started out on a strong note, an ensemble of heavy hitters including Trick Daddy, Fat Joe, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Plies and T-Pain performed a medley of hits to get the party started. Things were off to a good start, but as the night progressed the show denigrated into a bit of a disorganized frenzy, possibly initiated by the first disruption of the night, an impromptu speech by underground Atlanta rapper D.G. Yola. Yola, unknown to most outside his region, rushed the stage, grabbed a mic and requested a chance to perform, because it was his birthday. Never mind that the organizers spent over a year constructing this show and that the end results are to be broadcast on MTV Jams, the ignorant rapper just had to get his shine. Similar instances occurred from the likes of Fabo from D4L, Young City and Serius Jones, none of whom were scheduled to appear but somehow managed to get microphones.
The Texas artists in the house were a bit more reserved, none rushed the stage, none even made it to the stage except Tum Tum from Dallas, who won the ???Patiently Waiting Texas??? award, and Slim Thug who was an early presenter. Outside of that, the night was dominated by obvious wins, Florida and Georgia pretty much took everything, and no artists from Texas performed. This didn???t seem to bother the likes of Trae, Devin the Dude, Grit Boys or Sparkdawg, they just all seemed to want it to end. In fact, Devin the Dude was already back in his hotel room when they announced that he had won the ???Most Slept On Artist??? Award, the final trophy of the evening. Oh the irony.
The highlight of the night came from a group of artists from California???s Bay Area. Representing the ???Hyphy??? movement, an energetic new form of West Coast hip-hop, the artists Mistah Fab, Beeda Weeda, Keak the Sneak and some young unknown artists came out and actually rapped, unlike many of the artists from the south east who seemed content to lip sync their hooks in medley form.
Lil Wayne closed the show - and actually rapped as well - four hours past it???s beginning. He ran through his current hits and talked to the crowd that had by then dwindled to less than 3/4ths its original size and ended his set by throwing his microphone to the floor after annou ncing that he had changed his name to ???hip-hop.???
Indeed Lil Wayne just may have that right. In an industry where many artists and labels put more energy into making their posters and wrapping their vans than they do making meaningful music that will last longer than a commercial break, he???s a breath of fresh air. A young buck, who???s seen it all and isn???t afraid to speak on it. As for many of the other artists on the bill that night, they need to take Pimp C???s advice and ???Get they fangaz out they booty holes.??? (Google it, he wasn???t lying).
How can hip-hop sell records again? Possibly by taking a cue from their predecessors and actually rapping, rather than lip synching, representing an aspect of the streets outside of cocaine selling and club hopping, and putting the money many spend on marketing back into making great music.
But really, I don???t know, and didn???t find out on this particular weekend either.
X X X
The end. You don't have to like it. But it's true.
lyrics are much less of an issue than images/lifestyle. my issue is that the artists are projecting a lifestyle that is either a fantasy world filled with champagne and mtv cribs houses, or the equivalent lifestyle, but with the backdrop of poverty and low income housing. so if we are talking about how this music is influencing kids who are living in poverty...the rap lifestyle fantasy world would be fine if kids accepted it as fantasy. if they don't, then these KIDS are going to have a hard time achieving that lifestyle (which itself serves as a model for them to try and emulate) without doing something criminal...or inventing the next Facebook.com.
You might need to get out more...because the rappers that I'm talking about 1. did come from very little, 2. have actually sold a ton of drugs, 3. have done their share of time in prison, and 4. somehow manage to keep their cars decked out, their Swishers stuffed with 'dro, their clothes bought from high-end sources, etc. Point being, it's not just a fantasy.
I mean, I appreciate that you'd like to extract drugs from that equation, but you might like to talk to zoning officials and the CIA who import all of the cocaine into those neighborhoods before you fault kids for falling prey to such bait.
I think it's been extremely rare for any rapper of any era to make it out of the hood to riches and fame without having some sort of foot in the drug trade. Be that a background financeer who pays for studio time or the actual rapper himself, it's still the flash of new money that excites people who have none way more than modest clothing and a backpack full of difficult principles ever could.
Yes, there is a certain harsh reality that has to be accepted to fully understand how this crap works. Is it ideal? Hell no, it's surely not. I'm sure all of us, including the rappers in question, would agree on that. But what are we going to do aside from trying to ignore away the reality that far too many kids are born into the drug trade as their most accessible/logical way to come up?
Plus, wouldn't the world of professional sports be an even worse case of kids buying into a "fantasy" that in the end so few of them have any chance of achieving?
I challenge you to create a post that does not mention these dudes.
are you getting paid to post here?
you are missing my point. forget about the message/lyrics for a second. the images are showing a lifestyle that is nearly impossible to achieve for these kids. your response proves my argument. yes, there are the chosen few who have gotten rich (and not driving a benz but living with grandmom rich) selling drugs in the hood and live to rap about it. but that sh*t is about as realistic as becoming a pro ballplayer.
the lyrics and message mean sh*t, instead of selling drugs, these guys could be rapping about playing basketball with the moon (wait, lil wayne arleady is), it wouuldnt matter. kids envy the lifestyle and want a piece of it. unfortunately, the only realistic way of achieving this unrealistic lifestyle is through drugs/crime. making it to the pros takes years of hard work...but you don't need much practice to be a criminal.
Man all music genres sales are in the crapper!!!
Yeah last week was pretty good for alot of hip hip artist. UGK number 1, Plies, common & T.I all were on the charts but take a good look at the charts. Albums debut high by the next week most have a 50% drop. And that's all the new music released.
So your beef is what exactly? That the allure of material goods and a wealthy lifestyle is pushing impoverished kids towards crime?
And this is somehow exclusively the fault of rap music?
Its like people are looking at all the problems in society and just pointing at rap music. rediculous.
dude, you are putting words in my mouth. if anyone said rap music was "solely" responsible for _____...it wasn't me.
i responded to HC's comment that drug-dealing raps can have a positive (don't do as i do) influence on kids. my opinion is that lyrics are almost irrelevant. if rap music is influencing kids, its because it visually depicts a lifestyle they are emulating. please show me some gangster rap videos that exclusively show poverty, crime, hardship, etc.. these guys could be saying "stay in school" but when the imagery is cash and cars, any positive message is gonna get lost.
i also think what makes this a bigger issue in 2007, then say 1997 or 1987, is first, the overwhelming presence of hip hop in all forms of media, and secondly, the instant-access that kids can get to all forms of media via the internet.
I haven't even said yet that I don't think it's much of a good look on your part to assume that kids are not fully listening to lyrics enough to distinguish core supportive messages from surface destructive images.
For instance, ask Bill O'Reilly to take a gander at Z-Ro and he'll surely label him a drug dealer based on his "image" alone. But listen to Z-Ro's lyrics and you'd be hard pressed to find anything that identifies him as an actual drug dealer. A drug taker, yes. But a drug dealer, no.
Anyway, I'm afraid that you may be falling into the same sort of "image"-driven trap with your perspective, or rather lack of perspective here.
Plus, couldn't a kid who stays on the straight and narrow be just as enamored by a future of "cash and cars" as a kid who engages in a life of crime?
It's almost like you're saying...you people are poor, so never depict anything but yourself as being poor.
since when have i said that this was about comprehension? my point is that lyrics, in 2007, are insignificant in terms of "influence" when you consider how prevalent hip-hop imagery is in today's omnipresent media.
hardly. i'm saying that all we see is extremes that present an unrealistic lifestyle. and when you beat a kid over the head with these images/sounds over and over, i don't think its too far fetched to label this as "influential".