KANYE- Most important rapper since Pac? Or EVER?
Phill_Most
4,594 Posts
Only time will tell how big this whole Kanye-rips-Bush-live-on-national-tv thing will get, and how important it will be in the long run. But with this big move by the Louis Vuitton Don right after his stance against homophobia and along with some of the messages in his songs like "Jesus Walks", "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" etc., is Kanye the most important rap dude since 'Pac? Or maybe even the most important EVER? I mean, dude is at the height of his popularity and ready to risk it all to call out Bush and the government over what's going on in NOLA. Maybe this will not end up being on a level with Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising black fists at the Olympics back in the 60's, but DAMN... dude went there with it. How many black entertainers or athletes are willing to take a stand like that in this day and age? To me, as a black man living in America under the Bush regime, what Kanye did is some important shit."GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE."Kanye haters can say whatever they want to say about the boy... it's all just a publicity stunt to help sell his album, he's arrogant, he's contradictory, he can't rap, he's soft, his music is wack, yaddayaddayadda. After last night Kanye is my muthafuckin' MAN. This is bigger than Hip Hop. Real talk.
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What's even cooler is he expressed a sentiment earlier in the program that directly echoed something we were discussing on here about how when you see a black family they're looting but when you see a white family they're finding food.
I got NOTHING but respect for dude.
this is what was most impressive...dude could have bit his tongue and played the 'good rapper' role but he sacrificed a lot by speaking his mind and i can't appreciate his actions enough..Kanye has my support from this day on...
Maybe his album doesn't suck THAT much now...
Seriously, tho, that was a good look.
http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/84132
They're 10/15 years older than him, which telethon did they attend ?
You know why it wasn't Mos or Kweli standing next to Austin Powers; this ROC-style entrepreneurattitude served him well in the end. Some of his prior moves might be questionable, but he's quickly turning into a cultural terrorist that will stir up the masses. Which other entertainer would have done it ?
Kanye is the new Messiah.
Call me when he rhymes this stuff.
Regardless of how I feel about his music or his persona i have to say i'm proud of the dude.
I think it's important to realize that very few in the rap community have ever had a forum to make a statement like this. To even have a rapper of moderate credibility on a program like this would have been unheard of fifteen years ago, probably even five (and i'm sure the the powers that be will see to it that it won't happen for another 15 after this). But could you imagine pac, cube or even chuck being given a platform like this as early in their career as kayne is? Maybe Puff or Hammer or, i dunno wyclef. But nobody with even a single blemmish on their record would end up on there. And I can appreciate how Kanye is so subversive with his. He's being put in the same tier as those dudes - as far as public perception goes, he's not a gangsta rapper. He's articulate, positive, loves god. But to have time raving about an album that explicity links the government to the crack trade is more gangsta than anything 50 cent put out. And I hate to admit it, because I hate his record and I refuse to believe that his persona is anything but a publicity stunt. But at the same time the fact that he's been so successful with it is a good look.
For all the fist pumping militancy hip hop has exuded (off and on) since it's inception, i don't think it really matters what the actual sentiment is on record. To outsiders (not middle class white college backpack liberals who buy mos def/kanye cds. for the sake of this discussion they/we should be considered of the culture, i'm talking the 40+s, the yupees, the johnny rednecks who make up the rest of the american population) the content is irrelevant at this point and has been for years. It's anticipated to be violent, misogynistic or incendiary. they complain about it all the time, but wouldn't even notice if every rapper on the planet put down the guns and drugs, they don't even stop to think what a rappers saying. it's like the way the parents talk on the peanuts cartoons. instead of "wah wah wah" it's "rap rap rap rap rap rap rappity rap".
For Kanye to say "George Bush Doesn't Like Black People" on record is to either preach to the converted or to preach to the indifferent. They either already know, or are buying it because they heard gold digger in the club and just want to sing along to the chorus. but to do it on a huge public platform is not only to voice an issue to an otherwise sheltered audience but to give rap as a whole a voice. As sloppy as Kanye's rant was it was infinitely more refined than "Wu Tang Is For The Children" or whatever childish attention grabbing garbage rappers have used these platforms for in the past. Are people who disagree with him going to keep on hating? of course. But a lot of people (especially older people who in the past would've dismissed a rapper) are going to stop and listen to the next rap record they hear on the radio after seeing that.
And it could be a good time for that, as I think we may see a dramatic change in awareness (for lack of a better word) in the rap landscape in the coming months, considering that the south basically dictates what's hot right now and how close knit the community of artists is down there. I'm not saying Jeezy's gonna trade in the snowman shirts for dashikis, but it's inevitable that many artists are going to get (more) overtly political when such a huge chunk of their locale has been decimated and their people are dying.
mainly because they all made great music (at least at one point)
serious. In his heyday, they NEVER would have given a dude like Chuck D OR Cube a national platform. They trusted Kanye to be the House Negro and he said his peice KNOWING that there would be backlash. You can hear the fear in his voice, and he did it anyway. Whether you think what he said was valid or not, that took serious character to see it through. I am jumping on the bandwagon too...he gets lifetime goodwill from me for saying his piece with everything to lose.
Well, personally I feel like those dudes are indeed greater than Kanye, just because I like their music better if for no other reason. But as far as importance goes, I dunno... I think Kanye is a lot more mainstream than any of those dudes were at the height of their popularity. And the whole world is different than it was back then when it comes to rap... rap equates to pop music now more than ever before. As many hits as PE, BDP and Cube had back in their heyday, I don't how many of them you would really call "pop". Kanye is a bonafied POP star without question. So for him to come out and take such a defiantly "militant" stance on national television... I dunno, I think it could have more of an impact than any controversial statement or record that those other legendary rap figures ever made. It's debatable at least IMO. I'm pretty sure that this is something that's gonna be talked about for years and even decades to come.
which is so baffling to me because anybody who's ever given his records more than a cursory listen could tell that house negro is not his intent. "well he's wearing polo shirt, he must be an acceptable black dude"
Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?
Serious. I am riding for my dog on this.
Larry King asked Jesse Jackson if he thinks what Kanye said is true: does George Bush really not care about Black People?"....Jesse paused and said
"Well, he doesn't show it."
i'm just playing devils advocate here, but hating the president is also "pop" these days.
Rappers on national platforms......................HMMMMMMMM?
Kanye is the fucking man for this, who cares if it is publicity? As a celebrity ANYTHING you do is publicity. Of course it's argued that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Either way, good on Kanye for saying some shit that's on A LOT of people's chests, that endears him to me more and definitely to those folks who have been waiting for someone to stand up and say that shit.
To Paul Nice's points, sometimes there's no longer room for politeness and care-to-not-alienate and shit like that. At some point, it is going to be those of us who hate this motherfucker (bush) with a passion and those who support him. If people are turned off by what Kanye had to say, enough to NOT donate, then that is on them, those who can't put their allegiance to this crooked, evil motherfucker behind the actual need of the victims. People have wasted the last five years picking their words and swallowing their tongues for political purpose and it's gotten us nowhere but fucked.
I'm kind of just ranting but I'm so sick of our elected officials and celebrities/powerful private individuals and their pussy, spineless, political "hey don't want to fuck up my access" attitude towards shit. When are people going to start putting some sac on the line?
Glad that Kanye did it. Got my "Late Registration" shipment so it's finta be 'Ye all day in the shop (that is, after Tamba Trio help me with my hangover and before the A's/Yankees at 3:30...
"Which one of these robots said that!!!"
biiig risks. i think some folks were a little "deflated" at the great mainstream press kanye was getting. damn, your favorite group just went pop or sold out, etc.
Kanye = the new safe negro for your daughter to put posters up on the wall of and for mother and daughter to go see in concert together and shit. dont waste no time, cart him out on NBC with some other acceptable stars and acceptable negros and give them scripted messages to rattle off.
this aint that telethon. this just isnt "we're all in this together 9/11" situation. this disaster shined a light on deep south grinding poverty, government mismanagement and negligence of a largely black city's interests and everpresent racial double standards. too ask kanye to go up there and read a milqtoast script is demeaning. "Well, it would be great for you to go on stage and raise money for this cause (cause your black) but we'll tell you what to say"
FUCK THAT!!!!...kanye didnt seem rehearsed, just raw angry emotion (and a little fear?) which is exactly what was needed. muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuchh props
now lets see some other people step the fuck up and stop toeing the line just cause the moneys good
I have to agree with this. what he did say was impactful, took a hell of a lot of balls, and you can see that he was moved.
but
what was his agenda prior to this event? having hissy fits on radio stations? dressing up as an angel and ish? i'm not taking away any props from this guy at all, but all of a sudden to declare him as a messiah while other rappers and performers have had a well researched agenda and broadcasted it in their music, CONSISTENTLY, i feel is belittling them.
however, i will give kanye the benefit of the doubt that he has been enlightened and can leave his bullsheit whiny personality theatrics behind.
i think it is heart warming of him to use his platform right now to a cause of questioning sheit that's needed to be questioned for a long time, and who better to do it than people kids look up to? its totally right that there's no way chuck d, krs one, cube could ever have a platform like this. its almost as if the perfect circumstances have assembled with kanye being in time magazine. for the tremendously phucking ignorant out there, now they have to deal with the stigma of "man what he said was stupid...oh...but wait...he was on Time Magazine, he got 5 stars on Rolling Stone...what's going on here?"
that philosophy that says "you have to work within the system" totally applies here. to construct a massive platform and know you can go through life comfortable and risk commercial suicide (i wonder how clear channel will react to this) deserves props.
if you read what i just typed and feel i contradicted myself, you're right, mixed forces at work. but there is no denying in my mind that this is a step in the right direction, and for that mr west should be commended.
i read that fark link w/ the comments and encountered some of the most racist sheit ever (which convinces me this world is never gonna be right, as random comments on the net is more honest than anything you will hear from someone) but some of the intriguing comments i found were along the lines "he's a loser, oh my god, he's just playing the race card....but his music is really good". tension.
public enemy was easily ignored, their productions were never on mainstream radio. kanye is obviously a different case, you got soccer moms singing to his shet. and with the addition of that maroon 5 guest star (on a very good song i might add), he targets a much larger demographics.
As nice as that sounds, there's no need to make that bubble a bit bigger for him. BUT before you jump on me for saying that, he is someone in the public eye with a hell of a lot of attention for his music alone, for someone whom many view as different in the context of hip-hop. For someone to gain a cover on Time Magazine, and then to use that attention to make his opinion known, that takes a lot.
100 % percent. That's guts. I'm still not feeling his music that much, though. Never judged him on his image or antics. Not saying he doesn't have skills or that one day he won't make a great lp, but until he drops a "Bridge Is Over", a "Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos" or a "Fuck The Police", he'll just be another guy with a great press team who's songs I sometimes download.
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Carlton Banks?
Carlton Banks?