I know what you're saying, that's why I don't waste too much words with fools... I would rather show the music that I am listening to so they can see what I am talking about. I tell these wannabe HipHop listeners all the time that it's about the music, not the money someone else has. For the real listeners of all good things in HipHop, dub CD's out of dope shit to people so they can see where you are coming from...
Still though' when someone calls Cam'ron or Jay-Z the greatest rappers ever, like when you're at work, never hesitate to say to them YOU'RE FUCKING GAY!!! Hell, punch em' in the chest, arm, or kick em' in the ass like I do, you're doing the right thing anyways.
REMEMBER, HIPHOP DEMANDS RESPECT AND YOU ARE HIPHOP.
Wow. Jose totally missed the point, huh?
No bitch, you did.
YOU'RE FUCKING GAY!!!
jose, for real, take the advice. i used to listen to the bullshit you probably listen to. then i realized that 99 times out of a hundred id rather listen to project pat than ugly duckling or whatever you packs rock this week. step your game up.
serg you really hit the nail on the head, probably one of your best posts yet. now imma follow it with a barely rational diatribe.
"Fuck I remember anytime I met anyone that listened to rap I thought holy fuck they got to be cool. "
Yep. Now I almost feel like it's the other way around. I much as I hate to admit it, if i'm at a party or something the last thing i want to talk about is rap with someone who thinks the roots come alive is the epitome of great hip hop or how pharoahe monch is the best rapper of all time not because they once spent six hours consecutively rewinding his "bring it on" verse but because they read it on some message board or because their boy told them so. nobody has unique tastes out of these kids. it's just what's been canonized. and the people writing the canon are equally uninformed backpackers.
You also touch on something that bothered me for a long as time and creates this type of behavior, the instantanious nature of music lately. like you said, with technology, dudes don't ever have to sit around and wait to dub a song off the radio or watch bet until the video you want to see comes on. And what this does is create a little insular world where people only ever hear music that other people in their little rap community are already up on. it sterilizes tastes and as a result a lot of these kids aren't exposed to other styles of rap and as a result they automatically write it off as something they wouldn't like. wheras, if they even took the time to hear an e-40 or trick daddy or something they'd probably be like "oh that's actually kinda tight".
(and yes, i know that serg and i directly contribute to this immediate music wave, but at least we're posting dope shit)
And it's so disposable. These fuckers don't know what it's like to bring home a cd or tape because it looks like some rap shit that might be dope, or because they only know the single (does backpack rap even have/need singles anymore? anybody remember when all the backpack rap had was basically singles?) or know these cats are down with so and so. and if it wasn't exactly what you were looking for, whether it was above the law or the fuckin bushwackas, you pretty much dealt with it because you just shot your weekly music cash load on it. so it's either appreciate it for what it is or you just wasted $15 and can trade it in for $3 credit. now it's just like beep boop boop soulseek, i got my new favorite artists backcatalog, his name is sage francis and he's so much better than all those hardcore black rappers with gats and bitches.
btw, knowing jose, i don't think ugly duckling is the underground he's fucking with. but yeah dude, cam's actually pretty dope. maybe not quite as dope as mr. kane, but that's a high standard.
Yeah, for sure. That shit all makes sense and it's true. You can't really ignore that aspect of hip-hop, and if you don't like it...there's some other kid out there blasting that shit in his Pontiac.
noz, yeah man I definetly agree that the ability to access this music so easily is a problem. It's one of the reasons why I try to throw up a varity of shit on somanyshrimp. Sure I like my southern joints and my eastbay g's but I'll throw up some sixtoo with that shit. I love hiphop and I want to put kids up on shit I like regardless of whether or not people think it's the "right" hiphop.
It does suck that kids seem to have lost the ability to just pick shit up without knowing shit about it. Everyone wants to download music before they buy it so they never have to grow on an album or hear something out of their comfort zone. I bought a gang of shit based on the name, cover or just vaguely knowing who they were down with. If it sucked you learned to deal with it. There were only a handful of times I ever made the store give me a full refund. That bone thugs album was one of them, that shit fucking blows.
I feel you though on hating to talk about rap. I'll get kids hitting me up all excited about some crap thinking I'm happy that they finally discovered some medicore bullshit. I can't stand diehard wutang kids. Fuck I was one in 1994 but dude seriously, let go of that fantasy, wutang as a collective is fucking done with. I can't even fuck with talking to halfass roots fans who can't get their headwraps past so called positive raps. Anticon fans are the same way too but with "art". Fuck I like the music but dealing with the opinions of some of these fans is just excruciating.
as for jose, man I think you missed what I was trying to say in this shit.peep it again or something
I'm 27 and I was just trying to say I agreed with Serg. I have done all those things that he was talking about. I remember when the word rap used to be spelled "rapp", skipping school to watch Rap City at 1:00, and saving my school lunch money (starving myself) to buy music. I began to call rap music HipHop when I began know my shit. HipHop used to be like an insider word that only the headz knew about. Now, it's everywhere and we can't escape it. I honestly should have stopped typing after my first paragraph. I would be lying though if I told you that I have never socked anybody because they were getting on my nerves (on purpose) about this shit. I'm just very serious when it comes to keeping up with the rap statistics, you know what I'm saying? I've been listening and studying my whole life too... I'm usually a peaceful dude, like all of you I'm sure. It's just that when there's a discussion anywhere about rap, I would rather not be silent.
George Clinton (w/Funkadelic) said it for me in the song, "Let's Take it to the Stage". He says, "Funk used to be a bad word!". In the song, he takes shots at James Brown, Sly, Kool and the Gang, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and others for diluting the funk and not taking it higher.
Our generation's funk was HipHop, and HipHop used to be a bad word.
word man, I feel what you're saying and I know what it's like to get pissed as shit at kids trying to speak on it. I use to try and start shit with fools for trying to front like they were really down. It's just that whole fuck jayz and cam shit came off to be on that whole seperatist shit I was trying to preach against.
point is I'm just sick of clueless people trying to limit this music to their own definitions of it. Shit seems like everyone wants to be a "true" hiphopper or someshit these days and I hate it. It's even more annoying when it's coming from kids who obviously don't know their shit and want to redefine it into some bullshit that only makes sense to them. They want to just sweep the history of this music under the rug so that it can be all nice and neat; fitting into some bullshit little box that they made up.
But isn't that what Hip Hop is? Entertainment? A lucrative form of artistry. Who cares how many subcategories people divide it into, it's still hip hop. And that's what matters.
" I can't stand motherfuckers who think that because you chose to align yourself with certain aspects of street culture that you can be disregarded like a piece of trash."
If you think being a "gangsta" is ok...you need to rethink.
Think****
Kid wants to get initiated and shoots strays through your mommas forehead
Dude gets locked in the bing for 75% of his life over "turf" he'll never own
anyhow.
Babies born without fathers
Babies born hooked on coke
The list goes on...that shit ain't cool and your sorry ass has been programmed to glamorize and idolize
instead of despise
_______________________________
Your little hiphop rant sounds like something a 11 year old would write.
Pop in the 'Pac and ride off a cliff
you suuuuuucckkkkkkkaaaaaaaaa!
Tree Trunk
what!
y que?
Hey swift when the fuck did I say people should idolize gangbangers??? I never said it was ok. I don't think it's fucking cool to shoot people. Dumbfuck, I said I wasn't trying to glorify the shit in the beginning of this post. No on is saying being a thug is the cool thing to do. I just think that even if you align yourself with that shit that you still deserve a chance at your dreams just like everyone else. I'd rather see someone making music than getting caught up in a cycle of violence and prison. And if that means that "true" hiphoppers don't feel comfortable at shows because of thugs well then I don't give a fuck because I'd rather see someone pursuing a rap career than shooting someone over a set.
I don't like people seeing someone as a worthless human just because they sport a doorag. Does this mean that if a gangbanger has dreams then it's ok to shoot people? fuck no, what it means is that rather than despise someone for what you think they are all about you should treat them just like any other person. These kids are already fucked in this society and bullshit attitudes like this only reinforce their perciption that it's them against the world. Why try to change when people think you're incapable of anything else? Oh and what is also fucked about treating these kids as such is that it turns into looking down on people just because they look the part, regardless of whether or not they actually are a gangster and that shit is wrong.
As far as music goes I think everyone deserves to have their story told, whether it's positive or negative. No one else is going to portray that individual's struggle and I think it's wrong to just write it off as garbage because you don't like what you think they represent. It's music and I don't think the existence of those that it represents should be disregarded simply because you don't approve of it. There are lessons that can be learned from this music.
but hey what do I know, I'm 11 years old
When I am asked what my favorite hip hop album ever is, I can only answer by saying two albums. Digable's Blowout Comb and Biggie's Ready to Die. They could not be any more different but I like what I like y'know.
It blows me away when I hear people totally dismiss gangsta rap but counting down days till the Sopranos return on HBO. I guess part of it is how you spell "gangsta/gangster".
I think race is an element in this conversation. It seems like 99% of the people into the "underground" are white. I remember going to the Quannum tour last year or so. I saw ten black people there. Five of them were on stage.
It seems like they want to reinvent hip hop in their image. This shit is just like Rock and Roll all over again.
So....wait just a fucking minute. Jesus rap isn't part of the tree?
hell no
First time I read an article on here, and gotta say I agree for the most part. Now, I wont speak too much on hiphop because I'm probably more like one of the kids most of the dislike than I realize. I got into hiphop last year, probably. Listening to DJ Signify's Sleep No More in my friend's focus just sort of lit the fuse. Anyhow, now that you all wont pay attention to anything I have to say.
What is happening in rap is the same thing that HAS been happening to it and every other genre of music. Artists on the edge do something people like, so other people latch onto the style and head off in, as Slug said, another branch of the tree.
My favorite example is punk music. It had it's five pillars that basically meant "If you listen to one, you don't listen to another or both groups of heads wont respect you."
To truely appreciate music, you have to give it all a shot. If you listen to it, and it isn't your thing. It doesn't suck, and you can't just write it off like it never existed.
Club Rap is part of the culture, now. I don't much care for it. Does that mean I'm just some tourist?
And as for the comments on hiphop becoming white made by DJ Jazz One, I have no idea where I fall on the subject. hiphop is become a lot more "White" and I think it is partly good. Music going new directions, saying different things, opening the world to different people. The things I see wrong with this change, is the newcomers will shut out the roots. In some cases, I can understand. I can listen to a song about a the struggle of a black guy growing up and get into it, feel it, but I'm sure I don't fully understand it. Some people can't cross that racial barrier, which is another problem altogether.
I guess the important thing is not to forget this is a culture. And that's to all of us. Just because you listen to certain things before other things, and just because some people don't know about sprayin' their name or diggin' through a milk crate to find a good sample doesn't mean you're not still brothers. Don't make this some kind of war, like East Coast West Coast rap. Don't shut them out just because they are passin' by.
This turned out a lot longer than I expected it to, but I can't post on Non-Prophet.com so I might as well take it out here.
that signify album is dope
I don't want to discourage kids from getting into hiphop. I guess what I want is for kids to check themselves before they try to act like they have the authority to define this culture.
why do white boys always speak on what is real and fake hip hop, yes you serg, you may be mexican or whatever but your a white one, just shut up and enjoy.
THANKS ANONYMOUS!
Commenting by HaloScan
