Hip Hop: What is The Message?

[travolta]

thanks meme for those posts i dont know a lot about music, unfortunately, but i'm in the process of bob dylan's memoir, and yes, even mr. bob dylan was a
insensitive womanizer. meme, you are correct, violence, misogyny, and behavior of this kind is not 'black vs white' thing.

 

[*Happiness*]

I think Hip Hop and gangster (or gangsta, however you say it) are two totally different genres to me. Gangsta rap should honestly IMO be banned...its' just ridiculous (although the beats are nice....its empty and void of content....I mean really, how much can a rapper say b**ch and the other derogatory words and phrases they use?? It's just ridiculous....and what makes it worst is that these kids idolize and romanticize with this crap! Now HipHop to me...is uplifting, enlightening, and there is a positive message! Seriously....true hip hop is poetry with beats...serioulsy. I am tired of this gangsta rap music....Now I must admit...I did love my tupac and biggie and other rappers...but the message has seriously changed.

Then rappers try to say..."this is what's going on in our streets and in our world" but really, I think that negativity and drama sells cds/records. We are a society who loves drama....what jail record someone has...how many pounds of drugs they sold over the years....how many baby mothers they have....how short a womans skirt is in the club....the latest alcoholic beverage they are raising up in their glasses at the club....what gun so and so used to shot so and so....it's all drama....NOTHING comes of it.....its crap.....

can the real hip hop artists please stand up? Please stand up!

 

[black_pearl]

i totally agree with u *Happiness*, u just wrote the words that were in my head. Hip Hop is to me an art, its a culture and reading all the messages on this board im glad to see that people dont generalize and put everyone in the same bag. There is a difference between 50 cent and tupac.

 

[sugarpea]

meme, i agree with you that the misconduct we typically associate with hip-hop artists is in fact part of a larger culture of disrespect. i, however, wouldnt blame "western civilization"...it seems that many civilizations and cultures, though certainly not all, condone misogyny and violence

 

[Deleted member 1957]

the message is loud and clear if you dont like it steer away from the music. another strange thing is the double standards, there are plenty of rock and pop musicians who sing music with worse lyrics and i also wonder why the face of gangsta rap has to be snoop or 50 and not eminem>>>
about hanging out with them, i dont see nuthn wrong any 21 year old could hang out with rap stars unless of course you expect her to hang out @ some opera hall in st.petersburg

 

[Deleted member 1957]

i think gangsta rap has really had its day thats why it mainly ends up on mix tapes in alleys. the b*tch thing could be reduced and also the swearing and stuff but still i wouldnt want to listen to 'dilute' rap
i prefer something like nas, the roots, jay z even 50 many of his new songs arent soso bad

 

[bluejeans]

I think Hip Hop and gangster (or gangsta, however you say it) are two totally different genres to me. Gangsta rap should honestly IMO be banned...

okay, so that's as far as i read. you may not agree with what they say. i don't. but you'd seriousley want to take away their right to express themselves? badbadbad.

 

[DrewGeneric]

Gangster rap really gets a bad name. Unfortunately, gangster rap died alongside grunge when Tupac died (and arguably when Mobb Deep released their album Infamous). What you have now are rappers born out of high-powered CEO board meetings. They are branded like a cows and given effectively gimmicky marketing ploys...all in the name of selling records. But unfortunately, the people these CEO's are selling to are unsuspecting white suburban teens who gobble up what corporate America sells them as "innercity life".....rap music has effectively taken the place of punk rock as the music of rebellious white teens who seek to upset their parents...

so, is popular rap music a bad influence? I don't think so. I think it's just phase that teens go through....but in pop-rap's defense...some of the music is just for the sake of a good time and dancing...lyrics are of no consequence.

 

[Lady Panties]

I have just finished reading this whole thread [as well as the others on hip hop]. Fantastic read!

I don't have much of an imput into the conversation/topic, if anything the essence of this post is slightly off topic and am sorry if anyone clicked in here wanting something cerebral and stimulating....

I too like evexa slowly bowed my footprints down a completely different path of genus for the exact same reasons. I found that at the time [after breaking up with my boyfriend and with that my local scene] I somewhat struggled to find new tunes which pushed over the walls of limitation, nothing itched my brain like it use to. Everything was just old!

I can truly [.....shamefully] say that I am now so slow on the uptake of the culture, my knowledge and ability to natter on the topic has vanished!!!

Off the top of my head... I use to listen to lots of 'underground' artists of the time like murs, terrafirma, immortal technique, jean grae, mf doom before he was, atmosphere ummmm necro, mr complex those are the only ones I can remember!

So here I am asking, can someone please recommend me some new [or old] hip hop?!?

I am in Australia, so albums would be great because I will have to ship them in.


Thank you all for your time, and once again sorry for being off topic.

 

[travolta]

lady panties, the midwest has a great hip hop scene. rhymesayers is a label you should look into -- atmosphere is on it, as well as mf doom. i'd recommend checking out brother ali.
http://www.rhymesayers.com/artists.php

also, you should check out my friend's group kill the vultures. one of the guys, crescent moon, toured with atmosphere and is featured on a few of his tracks.
they used to be called odd jobs, but reformed to create a new group.

http://www.jibdoor.com/


finally, you should check out heiruspecs, another mn group.

http://www.heiruspecs.com/

 

[Lady Panties]

Yes, I remember Brother Ali.... he was like 4 or 5 years ago hahaha.


Thank you heaps for the links and your time travolta truly appreciated!

 

[fourboltmain]

I think rap died a long time ago. I think it died with Eazy E, and I think he was the last real thug. Look at everyone else from back then, Ice T, Ice Cube and Snoop are now trying to be actors and they travel around with bodyguards in nice cars. I can understand the spoils of making it big, but where's the credibilty in a music style that came from being disadvantaged and pissed off? When your money takes you away from your material, where do you go? You go bling. And that ostracises (sp?) you from yourself and your roots. I think the bling thing contributed to the influx of rap in middle class suburbia, where your credibilty is no longer based on how much time you've done, big rather on how big the rims on your Escalade are.

I don't know what to think about hip hop these days. It seems like everyone is a DJ or something. I like the style, but only a certain level of it. I like it when the samples aren't samples I've heard a thousand times before and the instruments are real and not digital. Sampling good jazz is a big plus to me, as is keeping everything on key and in time, which is something a lot of people forget about. But I think it is evolving, it's on the right path, it just needs a kick in the ***. And what you hear on the radio is not where hip hop is these days, it's just what sells for some reason.

My $0.02.

 

[czilla]

::grins:: welcome to TFS, Lady Panties! -- Serendipity, VH1 has been playing Brown Sugar, a no good but oh god it feels good movie about the music. It's laced with Common - I used to love H.E.R, the roots' - Act Too (love of my life), Erykah Badu f. Common - Love of my Life (An ode to Hip Hop)... and a dash of Bobby 'Blue' Bland to really reel me in.

So Mos Def's cinematic career is a checkered one... So VH1 only plays bad movies... Is it mere coincidence that they're airing a movie about the death of hip hop while this thread gets bumped? I think not, clearly this is a topic close to our hearts.

I'm not really sure the assimilation of the thug really dooms hip hops as a whole. It might be a killing blow for gangsta rap, but there are always going to be young upstarts preaching their generation's experience. The turnover rate is high, maybe bc it's just difficult to be the person who starts off talking about his childhood and the streets... and still have smthing to say as an adult.

I'm not too worried about what sells mostly because I'm still pretty excited about what's being made. And i take heart that Common and the rest of my favorites are sweating the problem with us. Words to the wise