Rap has gone Republican

[Agent provocateur]

http://www.playahata.com/pages/papi/rapisrepublican.htm

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Yeah, the rappers like Jay Z, Nelly, 50 cent ect. are all about promoting their capitalist lifestyles and their bling to the people who don't know any better (regarding music).

[refuse_resist]

It's sad to see whats happend to rap music.

That's why I mainly stick with old school. Not only does it sound better, but it wasn't as materialistic as it is now and people actually rapped about something and didn't just talk about how much money they were making.

[socialistfuture]

go to the 'rap hip hop' post to illeviete that problem - but yeah it is true shit hip hop mainly gets the airplay

[celtopunk]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29 2004, 09:55 AM
go to the 'rap hip hop' post to illeviete that problem - but yeah it is true shit hip hop mainly gets the airplay
If you listen to commercial radio, then just about all the music that is played is crap or overplayed music from a bygone era. Checkout local college and community stations, maybe even get involved yourself.

[Eastside Revolt]

This is what I've been saying since before I ever really got into hip-hop.

[bunk]

'rap is something you do, hip hop is something you live'

[Hampton]

That article is highly flawed and has a lot of mistakes. There is a difference between Hip Hop and Rap. Rap is just an element of what Hip Hop is, the other three elements are djing, break dancing, and graffiti art.

But to address the article:


Hip-Hop" is all about "Gimme mine... look at me... I'm rich... your broke... F you... look at all my fine women.... look at my car... I have the American Dream!"

SOME commercialized rap is about that, but he misses that hip hop is not just rap, it is many things. In omitting that he uses this broad stroke to paint hip hop into the small pigeonhole of what some of rap is, it's foolish.


They need the system, they love the system, they ARE the system!

To say that Nelly or Chingy or someone else IS the system is way off. Most of these people are just the puppets to the record labels and those who want them to fit into this mold of what now has become what rap is. They are not the system, they don't even write their own lyrics half of the time, it is generic lyrics with semi similar beats. They are ingrained in the system but they are NOT the system.


Remember how they banned all those songs on the radio after 9-11? Rage Against the Machine was banned, a few songs buy U2 as well as a hundred or so other songs.... but NO Rap songs were banned. Did you know that? Do you know why? It's because America understands that even though rap may look dangerous on the surface... there is absolutely no threat in the lyrics or content of seeing a brother "blinging" with a big booty chick shaking her butt in a video.

This is wrong too. Look at the list of those songs "banned" from Clear Channel radio stations. Songs 5 and 6 are from the Beastie Boys, a RAP trio. Repeat, A RAP TRIO. But that is not really the issue. They did not ban so called dangerous songs from the radio, they were songs that were sensitive around the issue of 9/11. So it makes sense that a Jay Z song would not be banned because his songs are not political and do not have songs titles that would suggest something associated with 9/11. AC/DC's "Safe in New York City" suggests something with what happened that day, so does Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone" and New York New York, however "Hard Knock Life" has nothing to do with anything and that is the reason why it was not "banned".

And the author seems to forget that at one time songs about asses and videos of asses were controversial. I hope he does not forget Baby Got Back or 2 Live Crew's album being banned from being sold because of the lyrical content being labeled obscene.

He is also wrong in the sense that if you turn on Bill O'Reilly he is constantly raging against rap and telling how it corrupts the minds of the white youth


Who's harder than M.O.P. or Bumpy Knuckles? That's some real hip-hop-ish! If you don't appreciate the raw, gritty, ghetto music... you ain't hip-hop!

Then


At the same time... if ALL you listen to is hardcore, street, thugged out rap music... you are probably just another radio listener who has fallen into the trap laid by the system to get you to think that that's the only type of rap worth listening to. That's wack! It's cool to rock to some thugged out music.... but if that's all you listen to... you ain't hip-hop!

This dude's definition of who can listen to rap and what you have to listen to in order to call yourself a fan of the genre is slim and pure horseshit. What this guy calls the system does not care what you listen to as long as you buy, buy, buy.

If you are over critical of what you to have to do in order to call yourself a fan of rap or to even embrace the culture of hip hop then you are not hip hop.

One more thing, just because few rappers sing about getting rich does not mean that they are Republican, that makes no sense at all. If they were Republican they would rap about anti abortion and supporting foreign wars and a smaller government.

Non of them do that. Being a capitalist does not make you a Republican, I'm sure many of them are liberal assholes too.

[Eastside Revolt]

HAMPTON,

"SOME commercialized rap is about that, but he misses that hip hop is not just rap, it is many things. In omitting that he uses this broad stroke to paint hip hop into the small pigeonhole of what some of rap is, it's foolish."

Obviously, however “rap” is a large drawing factor to hip hop; seeing as grafitti is illegal and often doesn’t stick around, or isn’t allowed to stick around when it’s has any meaning. I’ll agree the author is very sloppy in the use of his terminology. But to ignore that even underground hip hop isn’t negatively affected by the slave mentality is tad naïve. I hear KRS1 talk about street entrepreneurship, and then Eminem’s punk ass is coming out with his clothing line built off slave labor, how is that gonna help hip hop?
I don’t see many of the successful rappers buying tuntable companies. No one buys vinyl, and because of it DJ’s are forced to rely on mainstream MC’s to get their mixtapes sold. How does that not negatively affect hip hop?

"To say that Nelly or Chingy or someone else IS the system is way off. Most of these people are just the puppets to the record labels and those who want them to fit into this mold of what now has become what rap is. They are not the system, they don't even write their own lyrics half of the time, it is generic lyrics with semi similar beats. They are ingrained in the system but they are NOT the system."

They play an important role in the system. So what if the author was being a little provocative. The way the system attacks the counter-culture through the media, is similar to the way it attacked miniorities before the civil rights movement:

“By crushing black leaders, while inflating the images of Uncle Toms and celebrities from the apolitical world of sport and play, the mass media were able to channel and control the aspirations and goals of the black masses. The effect was to take the “problem” out of a political context and place it on the misty level of “goodwill”, “charitable and harmonious race relations”, and “good sportsmanlike conduct”.” – Eldridge Cleaver

The “problem” is more economic as of now rather the fear of riots in the streets. So they place it on the misty level of “get rich”, “be my hoe”, and “your dreams can come true, G! fuck those playa hata’s”.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

You know what I don't like?

The shitty-ass pop media always pointing it's finger at hip-hop and condemning it for the sexual innuendo, misogyny, and greed that's expressed by some dumb-ass pop rappers. Most of the groups that are worshiped by these guys are also very guilty of objectifying women and lusting after money. But I don't see anybody calling Led Zeppelin republican. Or Eric Clapton, who actually is a crazed right-winger, even for British standards.

And that's coming from a huge Clapton and Zepp fan.

Good post, hammie. I completely agree. And I never knew all that stuff about hip-hop.

[Hampton]

But to ignore that even underground hip hop isn't negatively affected by the slave mentality is tad naïve. I hear KRS1 talk about street entrepreneurship, and then Eminem's punk ass is coming out with his clothing line built off slave labor, how is that gonna help hip hop?

Well I never said the underground was not affected and I do not think that I am ignoring it But that is not to say that half of the underground does not rap about the same stuff that Jay Z or Nelly does. You?re only underground until you sign a major deal then it is hard to keep the same lyrical content as before.

I don't see many of the successful rappers buying tuntable companies. No one buys vinyl, and because of it DJ?s are forced to rely on mainstream MC's to get their mixtapes sold. How does that not negatively affect hip hop?

It is not negative because people still buy vinyl. Hip Hop djs, not some wedding jockey with a case full of Chicago Cds, will always buy vinyl. With the popularity of hip hop people will get into it more and more, it is the most basic element of hip hop, you can't scratch a CD and put it in the back of a rapper and expect people to like it.

And if they owned turntable companies I doubt they would be made domestically, no underground rapper could afford it and the mainstream rappers, those dirty, dirty capitalists, obviously do not care where they would be made.

They play an important role in the system. So what if the author was being a little provocative. The way the system attacks the counter-culture through the media, is similar to the way it attacked miniorities before the civil rights movement:

The author was being a little more than provocative, he was lying. The rappers are part of the system, not the system like he said. They are pawns and fools who are in it for the money selling an image without giving anything back like the forefathers of the genre did.

But I don't seem them attacking the counter-culture of rap. I don't see anyone coming down on Immortal Technique or Saigon. The large majority of rap has become mainstream and people are hitching their wagons to it and trying to sell the same recycled shit over and over again, saddly the market is big enough for them to do it, but I do not think that it is in the same fashion of the civil rights movement.
I would wager that the majority of rap cds today are bought in a mall, overpriced, and forgotten about in a month or so. The rapper is given his chicken feed to stay happy while other line their pockets with the shroud of Turin.

The "problem" is more economic as of now rather the fear of riots in the streets.

I disagree with that. The government always has the watchful on to see that nothing gets to uppity in the community, it has always been that way, They would never assume that it is a passive community that is being dumbed down with music since the majority of the rap music is not bought by those in the ghetto.

And I would never assume that those who listen to the songs about selling drugs are not doing it themselves and that they do not live those hardships everyday. Since they target the music to pacify a people while those people are living hand are living hand to mouth. And the policing bodies do have Hip Hop Task Forces.

[Hate Is Art]

"All these hip-hop and rap stars must always be really cold, cos they are always wearing two hats and shaking about all the time, the only strange thing is the women must be really warm, cos in all the videos they end up in their bikini's! Weird!"

Dylan Moran - Ledgend.

[DJ B-Lank]

No one buys vinyl, and because of it DJ?s are forced to rely on mainstream MC's to get their mixtapes sold.

I dont know who said this, I just saw Hampton replying to it, but whoever it is you are very mixed up. There are big named DJ's all over the place and they deffenetly do not rely on mainstream to sell there shit.

DJ Shadow's a huge producers first solo album was based on all record before 1984.

The invisbl sqratch pikilz revolutionized DJing in the past 10 years without mainstream.

So Whoever said this needs to stick to talking about things he knows.

P.S. amen hamilton

P.P.S. They actually do have CD (and DVD) turntables now.

[Vaudeville_Villain]

To the cat that said noone buys vinyl anymore, any input you have into this topic is now irrelevant because you have just shown that you nothing about hip hop.

Although I respect Melo-D and the Beat Junkies as artists this article is a load of horeshit. I seriously doubt it will have any effect on true hiphop heads and will only seek to perpetuate the ignorance of those who know nothing about the genre.

There is a thriving underground which formed in retaliation to the commercialisation of the gangster rap genre. Labels like Def Jux, Day by Day, BabyGrande & Psycho + Logical are all putting out raw shit. I can think of numerous artists that have criticised Bush in recen years. Even Ghostface Killah a member of the very mainstream Wu Tang Clan have come out and criticised the war on Iraq.

The only chumps who you could say have turned Republican are those like Ja Rule who were never about hip hop anyway. Rappers like this are pure product, they hold no artistic integrity, rep none of the elements and only think about pimping their meagre skills to angsty teens.

Hiphop is not dying as those who are not in the know would love to proclaim. In fact some of the best shit in ages has come out this year.

[Eastside Revolt]

Originally posted by [email protected] 2 2004, 05:07 AM
To the cat that said noone buys vinyl anymore, any input you have into this topic is now irrelevant because you have just shown that you nothing about hip hop.

Although I respect Melo-D and the Beat Junkies as artists this article is a load of horeshit. I seriously doubt it will have any effect on true hiphop heads and will only seek to perpetuate the ignorance of those who know nothing about the genre.

There is a thriving underground which formed in retaliation to the commercialisation of the gangster rap genre. Labels like Def Jux, Day by Day, BabyGrande & Psycho + Logical are all putting out raw shit. I can think of numerous artists that have criticised Bush in recen years. Even Ghostface Killah a member of the very mainstream Wu Tang Clan have come out and criticised the war on Iraq.

The only chumps who you could say have turned Republican are those like Ja Rule who were never about hip hop anyway. Rappers like this are pure product, they hold no artistic integrity, rep none of the elements and only think about pimping their meagre skills to angsty teens.

Hiphop is not dying as those who are not in the know would love to proclaim. In fact some of the best shit in ages has come out this year.
Well here’s some more irrelevant input for ya. The author was sloppy in calling out all “hip hop”, and sloppy in calling it “republican”.

One thing that I was trying to point out, in a lazy round about way, that the article didn’t point out. Maybe because it should be obvious. Is that the medium is the message. The economy, being the power behind the medium, controls the message. So what if a couple people like you and me, happen to listen to a couple progressive underground MC’s! I don’t see “hip hop” as a counter culture, doing anything to gain power of the medium.

There was a thriving underground punk scene back in the day, look what happened to that. People either went mainstream, or became irrelevant because they were sticking to the stereotype of what the Sex Pistol made punk to look like.

Look maybe the rest of the world doesn’t matter to some xenophobic American “hip hop heads”, but if you don’t gain control of the medium, you will become irrelevant to the rest of the world. Hell I don’t even look to the US for hip-hop anymore myself.

Biggy used to preach about hip hop, and now Diddy is a goddamn NAZI. Yes, yes, I know, irrelevant right? Well whether you’d like to admit it or not, Diddy has power. Diddy has been there, with hip hop for years. Yet he still finds it in himself to have respect for ruling class citizens.

[Nas]

don't hate the players (the rappers) hate the game (the business) :)