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Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
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I'm an AA male who is very frustrated with what hip hop is becoming. Back in the early stages rappers actually put meaning in their songs. I love the old tupac, ll cool j, run-dmc. Nowadays, it is all about the rims, girls, money, clothes, and ice. mix all that in with a lot of cursing and you got a platinum record. Sad ain't it? A few artists give me hope that rap can be resurrected like common, kanye west, and chamillionare. but for every one of these artists there are 4 or 5 of t-pain, 50 cent, jibbs, artists whose songs mean nothing in real life. Anyone else agree?
I'm an AA male who is very frustrated with what hip hop is becoming. Back in the early stages rappers actually put meaning in their songs. I love the old tupac, ll cool j, run-dmc. Nowadays, it is all about the rims, girls, money, clothes, and ice. mix all that in with a lot of cursing and you got a platinum record. Sad ain't it? A few artists give me hope that rap can be resurrected like common, kanye west, and chamillionare. but for every one of these artists there are 4 or 5 of t-pain, 50 cent, jibbs, artists whose songs mean nothing in real life. Anyone else agree?
I totally agree! The messages that are sent to the kids in America are nothing more than self glossing, material things, glamourizing of gangs and drugs etc. The media and record execs. are just as much to blame though. They know how destructive this trash is, but they continue to push it on us, despite a majority of people against it. The African American communities need to stand up and say enough is enough! Bill Cosby, Don Cheadle, Condolesa Rice, Denzel Washington etc. are the public figures we should hold as role models, NOT 50 cent akon and the other scum that put out these messages!
I'm an AA male who is very frustrated with what hip hop is becoming. Back in the early stages rappers actually put meaning in their songs. I love the old tupac, ll cool j, run-dmc. Nowadays, it is all about the rims, girls, money, clothes, and ice. mix all that in with a lot of cursing and you got a platinum record. Sad ain't it? A few artists give me hope that rap can be resurrected like common, kanye west, and chamillionare. but for every one of these artists there are 4 or 5 of t-pain, 50 cent, jibbs, artists whose songs mean nothing in real life. Anyone else agree?
Yes, I so much agree with you.
Back then, at least I was able to understand a song...
Now, forget it.....
I like rap music. I don't think it has died. Certainly not in the sense of plummeting record sales as rap is still amongst the top selling genres of music. I don't think rap will ever die. They've been predicting its downfall since it first came into the mainstream in the early 80s. I do agree however that there doesn't seem to be as much innovation or diversity in hip hop today.
I personally feel there is room for everyone in the music industry. I'm a fan of diversity. Different styles of music, different arrangements, different lyrics and topics covered, are what makes music interesting in my book. Full-figured soul divas, pre-pubescent pop tarts, self-righteous indie rockers, metalheads, college town jam bands, all fill a niche. I feel that there is just as much room and a needed place for rap in all of it's forms and styles.
With all of that said however, I feel like unfortunately, hip hop is leaning too much towards that materialistic and violent angle nowadays. I don't think there's as much of a balance as there should be. The lyrical content and musical arrangement of so many rap songs is the same. I don't feel that alternative messages and styles are getting as much play as they should.
The thing with rap music is that for many rappers, the lyrics are autobiographical. They may be full of violence, sex, drug references and crude languages, but what they depict is the reality that they and so many others in this country grow up with and that so many people want to ignore and are uncomfortable hearing about. Rap reflects an underbelly of urban American society that has long been shoved under the carpet, and offers an artistic outlet for those who grow up there. It's a narrative of the street. I guess in my opinion, I feel too many people (politicians mostly) get caught up in the shocking lyrics and attempt to "fix" such problems through pickets and censorship laws, when they SHOULD be attempting to fix the social problems spoken about in the songs. Rappers rap about what they know, whether it be the pimps, drug dealers, prostitutes and alcoholism from their youth, or the fancy cars and women that accompanies success; much as country artists write about their lives growing up in rural America with pickup trucks, American flags, muddin', and cheating hearts.
That's why I think it's important that rap exists, because it gives a voice to people who otherwise aren't heard from that often. I just wish that it we were hearing more diversity in hip hop, which I suppose can be blamed on radio programmers more than anything.
Recently watched VH1s documentary about the evolution of hip hop/rap, and it was an eyeopener. I never gave it much thought, but they showed how it started as a "party/fun" sort of thing like Sugar Hill Gang and Parliament, but then "The Message" came out and it took a bit of a turn and what I believe to be actually thought-provoking. What it is now is so far removed from what it was, that it no longer has a "message". It really is mostly garbage these days. And what the producers and profiteers did to people like NWA and Tone Loc is just shameful.
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