KANYE WEST’s position as the Billboard top ranked selling artist for last week isn’t a victory for narcissism, or for teaching AYN RAND’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ inside all public schools. Honestly, it was really only a victory for General Electric, since they own Universal, and Universal owns Island Records and Interscope, which own Def Jam/Rocafella and Aftermath/Shady respectively. So then again, maybe you should pull out your RAND pocket readers.
On a smaller, succinct level, the ascension of ‘YE TUDDA to the top of pop music’s pantheon might simply be the end of Hip-Hop as we know it and believe it to exist. Oh Word had a great drop and subsequent thread about the only album this year that EVERYONE has had an opinion of.
Polos, Tuition, and Jesus (Why I Believe I Can Fly)
The ‘Graduation’ album is by no means on the level of an ‘Only Built For Cuban Links’ or an ‘Illmatic’, but at this juncture in the history of the artistic movement called Hip-Hop it has become the time to celebrate it’s death with a party. A party filled with the good life, flashing lights and drunk and hot girls. I wonder if big brother BARRY BONDS will show up? He just loves glory. You can’t tell that fool nothing.
What I’m saying is that Hip-Hop no longer speaks for the poor and disenfranchised. Oh yeah, there’s dead prez, Mos Def and GAME Rebellion, but who gives a fuck about them? It wasn’t just corporate greed that killed Hip-Hop, but aspiration. Who the fuck wants to come back to the ghetto once you’ve left that place? Unless, of course, you know of a sweet limestone facade browstone townhouse in Fort Greene that someone’s little ‘ol grandma might be selling. Because I’m looking to buy right now. Fuck having street cred, I need a lot of FICO cred right now. When my kids are gamboling up and down the steps of my brownstone their iPods or whatever device the future holds for us will be filled with music from artists whose name I can’t pronounce and whose lyrics sound like chipmunks or walruses or whatever. Hopefully, when I listen to this next genre I will be able to recall some of the samples they use with the music that was the soundtrack to my life. In this way I will be able give my kids music from A Tribe Called Quest the same way that my parents gave me music from John Coltrane.
For the Hip-Hop generation, our time has passed. We had a good run and we created some great art, but it’s time for us to pass the baton. I wonder if you know what that means?
‘YE TUDDA – I Wonder
video link courtesy DAY 2 DAY
Don’t knock the walrus sound until you try it. Three toed sloth will also be the screwed and chopped of the future.
This was both the greatest event and the saddest event in Hip Hop history. Two TI’s went head to head with no violence in sight, just respect(at lest pretend respect), no name calling and hope fully no hurt feelings……
at the same time Ye’s soundtrack was the death nell of Hip hop as we know it. This is worse than the Roxanne era, worse than the Jherri curl gangsta era, and beleivable worse than the East vs West/ BIG vs Tupac Era. We have finally layed the ground work for White America t oswoop in and take our genre away from us just as we gave away, rock, R&B and even our soul….
Don’t get me wrong, Ye has incredible talent at doing what he does, but his style of Hip Hop has fully jumped the broom on crossover/pop (poop) music. It’s no longer gonna commercialized thuggism(which is good) and being replaced with commercialism period. Hip Hop will no longer be the story of the hood and how the poor try to get rich, and whole lot of Mall rat/Skateboard drops. and sadly, for what it’s worth, with all of Ye’s crying about ‘give a black man a chance’, he’s the one who has to take the on mantle of bringing in this new era.
And don’t even fool yourselves into thinking this is backpack music, it’s not. Will never be. Ye and ATCQ will never share the same space, nor will Heiro, Mos Def , Dead Prez or any other ‘backpack’ rapper. Ye’s music (GOOD Music) is about commercial succes and little more, it’s supoposed to be the music of the middle class, but its really the music of middle america. And you really can’t blame Ye, he made music from the heart and these are the people that embraced it. Rest in peace…
On one hand I want to be glad for dude. Capitalism kills every art so in a sense mastering that form is a skill. But, the artist and Hip-Hop fan in me still can’t take it.
I’m gonna sample myself from another drop regarding some how Hip-Hop was 9/11’ed on 9/11…
Hip-Hop is dead/dying because we’ve made ourselves (as the collective hip-hop populace) way to open to the masses for the sake of financial gain. We’ve disclosed ALL of our dirty laundry for the sake of head nods and Soundscan charts. We’ve sacrificed a part of our inner us for mere crumbs. We let the world look in to our world initially as a cry for help to make those aware of the shit we’re dealing with. That cry has been replaced with barks, unghs, OKAYS, izzles, and wobble wobbles…
Once again we have been assuaged into complacency and we have sacrificed our souls and our identities to do so. Sadly enough that harsh reality that spawned such a great movement hasn’t gone anywhere, but all these MC Peters out there crying wolf about it have diluted, neutralized, and immobililized any care, concern, or help by over-romaticizing and simplifying the true blight that exists. Instead of old slave films where the happy darkies overcame life on the plantation with jubilant singing and dancing, we’re still stuck in the same entertainment trap but this time the plantation is “The Hood” and cats are more than happy being fucked up…
“We let the world look in to our world initially as a cry for help to make those aware of the shit we’re dealing with. That cry has been replaced with barks, unghs, OKAYS, izzles, and wobble wobbles…”
With all due respect to Dallas (for the post) and all the previous commenters, I think y’all are taking this shit way too seriously, and quite frankly, are on some bullshit…
@ 40: You say “we let the world look into our world initially as a cry for help to make those aware of the shit we’re dealing with”, but that phrase only applies to a small amount of the music I grew up with. I’m almost 33, and accordingly, grew up listening to hip-hop from the early 80’s to the present. I don’t think LL was crying for help when he made “Radio”, or EPMD when they made “I’m Housin'”, or Run-DMC when they made “Peter Piper”.
I could go on ad infinitum, but the point I’m trying to make is that just because we’re getting older we can’t revise history and try to make it seem like hip-hop used to be more righteous than it is now. The way I see it, hip-hop has always been primarily about us as blacks and the underclass living out the American dream, i.e., CAPITALISM. So I fail to see the difference between what Kanye is doing and what the majority of hip-hop’s forefathers did in the past.
Yes there were some groups that depicted and spoke on the struggle, but they were few and far between and how many of them were ever mainstream artists?
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see all this doom and gloom that Kanye has supposedly wreaked on hip-hop. Is hip-hop fucked up? No doubt. But I’m just not seeing the correlation between that and Kanye West/Graduation.
Someone enlighten me…
Twerk….I see your point, but from my point of view..(and Imma bout to turn 41, so I been doin this longer), we have finally went full on pop music. and that’s not to say we haven’t had pop music before, but look at the content differences. Yeah RADIO was not a cry for help, PETER PIPER wasn’t either. But the music was still about us, our life, our style, our way of living. Now its about malls and skateboards, and dikes!?![||]. None of this represents me in the least. I know times have changed, and thats what this post is basically about. Times have Changed, and Hip Hop is no longer just about us.
It’s not that Hip Hop has not been down this route before, but it seems like the content is no longer geared toward us. Not to get into race or anything, but the reality is that Hip Hop now talks to middle America directly, where before it needed a translater. DP already scienced us on the Summer concerts where we were the minority for the most part. And again, Ye is not responsible for fucking up Hip Hop. Hip Hop killed itself by lacking balance. I like beer, beer is good. But if all I consumed for each meal was beer, I would die, muich quicker than if I balnced my meals. This is what happened to Hip Hop.
Like it or not, Ye is ushering in a new age, just like NWA ushered in the Gangsta era, and ATCQ were one of the founders of the backpack movement.
I should also restate my position and say HIP HOP is not dead, its just going through some things right now, but it will prolly never be the same.
^Twerk… We’re the same age.
I agree with you dude, there is no corrolation between this proverbial “death” and Kanye’s album.
I don’t think Kanye or Curtis is responsible for the “death of hip-hop”. I however feel that way if one needed an explanation to why I think “Hip-Hop is dead”. The point that I was making is that the “inside” factor of this music that was part of its allure has died. What used to be a music that spoke to “us”, and was for us and by us (wack clothing line not intended to be implied) is no more. So for all the cats out there who think they’re “keeping it real” or “hood” real aren’t anymore. Plus “thinking music” has never been mainstream in any genre because most people don’t like to think, but I also don’t want my music on some constant Debbie Downer shit either. However I make that “cry for help” parallel because it seemed when brothers we’re talking about how fucked up the ‘hood was some how the TI’s thought we were championing this fucked up shit. You can’t deny that between ’89-’92 there was a level of consiousness in the music that could rock in the clubs and along side the thugged out shit that was somehow engulfed by the less artistic, simplistic shit that became the dominant topic thread through out the music.
As the quest to out do each other mounted it became more and more “necessary” to “cite your realness”. Through this it went from the Tarantino-esque imagery of NWA to the documentary attention to detail, to this mockumentary records of “life in the struggle”. Your average rapper’s tale has the same pentameter of a porn stars life story. Something happened young, got involved in something illicit, made the leap to entertainement. Its droll, and its the first time I’ve ever seen Negroe in this country become milquetoast. Its not about the blame game of who’s fault it is, its more along the lines of “lets just be real about it”. The reality is that rap/hip-hop has had (still has?) a great run as America’s pop music, and by far the most profitable form of musical entertainment EVAR.
No doubt. ‘Preciate the perspective. I definitely understand what you’re saying and agree.
I guess it remains to be seen whether these changes are bad or good. Most of the comments on here thus far seem to presuppose that the changes will be negative.
Shit, I was 13 when NWA dropped Straight Outta Compton and never would’ve imagined the changes (good and bad) that album alone would have on the balance of hip-hop. I remember I would come home from school and bump NWA, then listen to Kid-N-Play (and do the little kick dance), and then try to memorize all the lyrics to “Paper Thin”…not knowing then that all of that diversity was on it’s way out.
As far as hip-hop not being geared toward us, that’s the way it has to be if we want hip-hop to be more than a niche music, a subculture, or a fad. Look at what happened to punk rock. Them mufuckas kept it so real til that shit just disappeared. We can’t have it both ways. Either we want hip-hop to be big and stay around over 50 years like rock music, or we want it to go back to the boroughs/clubs/streets of NY and be available only to a select few.
But, if hip-hop is just as good as any other art form in America (and I would argue that it is better than most) shouldn’t our artists receive the same accolades, money, fame, recognition, etc. as artists in other genres?
Ultimately, the main problem is, as you mentioned, balance, but I think all genres of music are experiencing this lack of balance, not just hip-hop. It’s way more types of rock in existence than what they play on MTV or commercial radio, more types of country, and jazz too (btw, what the fuck is “smooth” jazz?)…
Twerk..you are absultely right, the whole music industry sucks, (renting ringtones? WTF!!!) , but I don’t care much the whole industry, just my preferred genre.
and for some reason I think we over emphasize the unbalanced meals in Hop Hop, just cause we seem to always try to catch up with the rest of the world.
Twerk,
The veil has finally been lifted and Hip-Hop music is exposed for what it is. Consumerism without ownership. Intimacy with no love. Style minus substance. KanYe is the apex of Hip-Hop artistry, he’s that good at constructing songs that are founded on classic soul music, and then he has developed his ability to iterate universal messages of consumption in his lyrics. What does it say when Hip-Hop’s last great hope has sold out before he was even soled out, or souled out?
LionXL,
White folks coming to Hip-Hop has been in effect since the first day rap was played on the radio. White coming to Hip-Hop wasn’t the problem with the artistic movement, actually white has done a yeoman’s job of preserving the elder statesmen while many other fans have dismissed them as ‘old heads’. The problem is that popular American music is devoid of soul. Hip-Hop is noe pop music. It’s fast food for your ears and it prah’lee even makes us want to consume fast food when we hear it. This was Hip-Hop’s death knell.
40,
You ain’t neva lie, so don’t backtrack either.
The death of hip-hop is represented in all forms of art that become subject to capitalism by those who don’t understand it. Jean Michel Basquiat is a perfect example of this. In order to sell things must be quantified and labeled – by people who don’t understand it. The more this happens, the more those who seek to profit adjust and restructure what they do (or risk not making money). In the same sense that the world our parents knew has ended…Hip Hop as we knew it is dead. The problem with Hip-Hop and why it’s death is so pronounced is because it was rejected for so long that when artists started getting rich off of it it was quickly condensed and absorbed. That’s why there aren’t genres of Hip-Hop when you go into a store (save perhaps for a mom and pop and then only a few of them). The biggest issue here is that this music comes from a culture that’s such a small minority at odds with mainstream society that people can only accept certain things from it and they still don’t really understand that. It’s like when someone gets locked up…the current main consumers of Hip-Hop think, “He must have done something.” The former (us) will have more doubt about if anything was done. Our whole outlook is different and in presenting it to a nation at large they could only ever pick through to find something to take away and they’ll never interpret it as we did. When they consume you don’t have to have a criminal record to be a thug…in fact one arrest can cement your reputation. How many of us have been locked up? Enough to know that an arrest doesn’t make you a thug. Neither does getting shot. We liked Tupac before he got shot, that’s why we cared. Curtis got shot and THEN he was famous, it wasn’t us who did that. In truth it is dead…to us. Others see it taking off, but we know that it is no longer what it was. That’s something they won’t really understand. Lot’s of forms of art are changed or killed by business, it’s just the essence of what Hip-Hop is as an art can’t really be marketed. Our styles can. That’s all that’s being sold now. Style and image.
*Duly Noted Dean Dallas…
DP..your right, I shouldn’t have used the word race…I was trying to express my beleif that middle america will now hold reigns to lead Hip Hop into the next era, unfortunately that means that it will refelect a whole different culture that what it was built upon. Middle America not necessarily meaning white, but meaning not urban, not ghetto, not hood.
I mean, how reflective is it for a rapper to rap about how fly they are or how much gear they have, when all that is simply a product of dad’s credit cards? Like it or not when Jeezy does his dope boy rap, it fills a void in the minds of the urban youth, not because they should aspire to being a dope boy but because it fosters a belief that ‘I can have what others have although everything they tell me says I’m not supposed to’.
Amadeo…that’s the problem with hindsight, everything becomes clear when you look at past in comparison to the present, everything becomes clearer. When these younger heads near our ages they will begin to see things the way we see them now and will probably be taking shots thier younger contempararies as well.
BTW…it’s official, I have become my father. so ‘WATCH OUT NOW!’
it’s gonna be a tough December!
add to the previous list
Blu & Exhile – Below The Heavens
Median – Median’s Relief
Panacea – The Scenic Route
LionXL,
It’s a blessing when we become our parents. I’m trying not to become my crazy alcoholic klepto uncle.
He, was a problem.
I can’t believe that you all are taking this shit seriously. You all are actually having an intelligent conversation about which Acoustic Sharecropper produced the most artistically meaningful crops this year.
I hope to become my uncle that hits Vegas, regularly changes up cars and only gets drunk enough to be funny at family gatherings.
D..I have no problem being my father, I just don’t wanna be that old dude in the club wearing the old FUBU rugbies ( and I don’t mean throwback, I mean old!) , hanging out and doing the cababge patch.
PS..my father never did anything similar to that, but when I went down for my boys wedding, they had the whole family at the club(Barn), including grandma and grandpa. ( who btw wasn’t much older than pops!)
(member when Melle Mel used to chicken hawk the LQ?)
oh…blame the FUBU refernce on 40….
Great post. Thank god you didn’t make a 50 bashing post like some other bloggers.
^LOL… I got broad shoulders Lion its OK…
I recently had a similar conversation/debate. I truly wonder what will become of the youth who came up under the Hip Pop era. There is always going to be the gap in generations and I may be becoming my parents but I don’t understand how we can elevate when Morals and pride are being trumped by the get rich or die trying or I will not lose ever campaign.
I am from the last era of the one on one fist fights. You beat somebody’s ass or got your ass whopped and lived to fight another day. This is the WWF/E era cheating is cool, snitching is acceptable, criminal behavior is applauded, Homosexuality is the norm Steroids and plastic surgery niiice.
I know i’m all over the place I’m hyper multi tasking right now I just wonder what will become of my kids generation.
Eloheem…The ‘I will not Lose’ campaign is a good thing (if they keep it clean), if they play it right, and keep it clean, it should foster a strong work ethic and the knowledge that hard work and persaverance(sp?) will pay off in the long run. Rather than the ‘I don’t want it now, I want it right now!’ ethos of this new generation(which unfortunately started with ours…)
http://www.nba.com/blog/gilbert_arenas.html
^^ Gil is doing something innovative and going on in with the shoe game
Hip Hop can’t die unless I cant find a different daily vid to put up..when that happens Im goin country bitches
*pulls out Kenny Chesney poster*
*puts it on layaway*
JIC
Seems like there’s a lot of sad faces on here. Hip-Hop will never die, because its always been about more than the music. Its a culture and a lifestyle that lives in the people that love it. Its still a worldwide phenomenon, despite all of the negative press it continues to receive. Now, I can completely understand the somber tone that seems to be common in these comments, but I also realize that the great era of greatness that we all consider “the good ol’ days” ended a long time ago. You can either accept the fact that “get money” nature of this genre has contributed to the loss of artistic integrity and deal with it, or just listen to old records. It is what it is, its a behemoth, a monstrous force, but it will always thrive and continue to be something special away from the lights, and even beneath the surface. When its still about a dope, beat and some sick bars.
*takes off reading glasses*
*gets up from leather chair*
*rolls an L*
*rolls an L*
DP gets lifted off that contact onetime
*points at ceiling*
LOOK!
*steals L from dallas & hussie*
*runs out of building smoking that good*
*pumps fist*
YES!
*gets munchies*
*runs to the Papaya Dog drop next door*
I hate to beat a dead horse but I think you are kinda doing a disservice to you readers by giving them the wrong info. Even though it’s become part of your platform GE doesn’t own Universal Music Group. They purchased the tv and movie production arm of Universal. Vevendi (frenchies) is still the parent company of Universal Music Group.
http://www.ge.com/company/businesses/index.html
http://www.vivendi.com/corp/en/governance/dir_morris.php
I don’t mean to rain on your parade but with great power comes great responsibility and these kids should know where they are getting their media from. Considering this and your xxl drop are the only sources for credible hip-hop discussion.
*calls food inspection board*
*gets papaya dog shut down for not meeting code*
*rolls another L*
*shoots to jimmy’s*
*sees da band*
*steals cheesecake*
Dude…Kanye West is a middle class negro from college-educate parents who got some money. He wrote an album in that voice. Plenty of Black people across America relate to that voice. This shit is the soundtrack to the lives of a shitload of buppies with their first six figure jobs out of grad school. That’s not middle America. It’s MIDDLE CLASS BLACK AMERICA. There is a huge difference.
Everything Black doesn’t have to be centered around ghetto-dwelling misery. Don’t Black people get tired of always talking about the bad? I sure as hell do. As long as the plight of the greater Black population is not forgotten, this sort of bourgie, nouveau riche entertainment is a-OK with me. And, frankly, Kanye still knows what’s up.
September one-nine zero-seven the day mama dug up my grave told me rap just went gay. Does this mean tight(er) clothes and purple ascots?
Feezy,
Thanks and no thanks for your info. General Electric is so mountainous that they prah’lee own DP Dot Com for all I know. Vivendi SA is the parent company of UMG and General Electric holds God knows how many shares of Vivendi SA.
There is a corporate shell game being played in order to get around FCC regulations for media conglomerates. You should understand that much. You don’t think G.E. acquired Universal for its ENTIRE media catalog?
There are plenty of places on the internets for credible discussions on Hip-Hop. I’m glad that you eff with DP Dot Com and XXL’s blogs, but don’t forget about my niggas at OhWord either. As a matter of fact the majority of sites listed on my blogroll offer credible and insightful opinions on a wide range of topics.
Co-sign Jen!
Tre-sign Jen!
As a long time reader and supporter of DP, I always welcome folks that bring the info and spread it. That being said, Once I left the hood, there was no lookin back. Fiddy and his nine rounds went out on a proverbial limb but he already had back up plan a and b…
I can’t get hung up over who got assed out first. They both got paid, but not at my expense.
Ayn is still my girl.
Good post, except I can never condone encouraging anyone, ever, to read Ayn Rand. I’d prefer people take philosophical advice from DMX before that miserable bitch.
So are you saying there are no black americans in middle america? Please enlighten me on this huge difference…Middle America is Middle America, whether it is black, white or whatever. MY point…which was lost somewhere…is the times have changed, Hip Hop is no longer just the voice of, if I may, THE HOOD. It has gone past that, and now speaks to middle america(midle class of all colors). It has changed, for better or for worse. While this in itself is not a problem, I just feel that is moving away from what I loved about Hip Hop, and as this becomes more acceptable, we will lose more and more control over it’s direction.
I wont even touch the noveau boogie BS you mentioned…..
I’m saying he is speaking as a product of middle class Black people to middle class Black people, and there is nothing wrong with that. You need to be glad that he is using a genuine voice instead of cooning it up rapping about the crack he’s “dealt” (yet, never seen). Just because white people can relate to some of the issues he discusses more than they can relate to gunshots outside their windows and crackheads doesn’t mean his message caters to them. You are marginalizing Black people and Hip Hop. Who are you to say which parts of Black America deserve a place in Hip Hop and which don’t? Who the fuck is the “we” who is losing control over its direction because of a KANYE WEST ALBUM? Are you sure you haven’t mistaken him for the big time corporate label whores, like 50 Cent? Last I checked, Kanye West loves Hip Hop (and music, in general) just like you do!
And, by the way, there is a HUGE difference between middle class Black America and middle class America. If you don’t know that, you’ve never been a middle class Black American. I won’t fault you for that. But, middle class Black people have been a voiceless minority group amidst the greater minority of Black America for too long. As the mighty Mos Def once said, “Hip hop is going where we going.” And if there is an ounce of truth to that statement, you should be clicking your heels about the genre’s increasingly prominent expression of middle class themes. At least some of us are out the fucking hood.
It’s a celebration, bitches.
And, before you even take it there, I am not saying that there is not a substantial place in Hip Hop for the voice of the struggling–the majority of Black people in this country ARE STRUGGLING. You know that. I know that. Kanye West knows that. I’m just saying that living in the hood is NOTHING to celebrate 24/7, so you can move the fuck along with this Johnny Cash WhyIWearTheBlack foolishness.
Lastly, to cite a technicality: Hip Hop hasn’t been the exclusive voice of the hood since the 70’s. Cry a river, build a bridge and get over it.
….Jen…thanks for breakin’ things down on the real…now that’s some actual perspective on the damn thing that seems to be sorely lacking elsewhere…
Even in agreeing with some of what Jen says, the problem is Kanye is still just one person and while he’s big now, who knows for tomorrow. The problem is most of Hip Hop isn’t “speaking” to anyone. Most of it is just a shopping list for “Middle America”. That’s the death. You can’t discount black people in any place because the black experience is the experience of black people. The problem is 99.7% of what you don’t have to dig for is a mash up of Scarface and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. I didn’t mind when it was Carlito’s Way with some Style Channel thrown in. I didn’t mind when it was Juice and Sneaker Fiends. Now it’s just not even real and too many people believe it.
First off, technically I am middle class black america, I was born into a middle class family, pay taxes, have never received any public assistance, have held a job since I was sixteen, and have only been out of work once (3-4 months) due to a corporate merger (I say technically, because I still live in the ‘hood, and by your definition that means I am not middle class). I don’t tack MIDDLE CLASS on the end of my name like it was a title or something. I don’t value myself based on my degree or the house I live in. I can live anywhere I choose, It doesn’t define who I am. I define myself by my voice and the things I do in life. BTW, define for me what you beleive middle class is? Does it mean to have a college degree make X amount of dollars and own a Y sized house? Take my sister, she has three degrees, has traveled the world and doesn’t fit the mold for middle class. She chooses not to live that way, she chooses to live the life of the artist that she is. Does that mean she’s not a success or some thing less than others? Have you been to Japan? South Africa? Egypt? written any documentaries on Columbian drug lords? Have credits on PBS Productions? Middle class only means you are above the povertry line and not yet considered wealthy. That defines a large segment of the population. and the only real difference between black middle class and middle class is the BS that society attaches to it. That’s similar to saying there are doctor’s and then there black doctor’s. Those type of conatations are what divides society and makles it impossible for people reguarded as being equal. There may be social/ecomomic differenceS but that’s becuase we allow them to exist.
Second, why do think hoods become the hood? They sprout up naturally like grass? NO, they happen becuase as soon as some one gets a degree they think they HAVE to move on to another community. Why not stay and try to build your community to its potential? I don’t have a problem moving because that’s what you choose to do, but don’t make it seem like moving to suburbia(or where ever you to live) is some right of passage that makes you more progressive than the ones that can’t(or don’t choose to!).
Third, you like to take words and screw with thier context. I never said Kanye’s music didn’t have a place in Hip Hop. I was talking on the change in Hip Hop that is taking place, and Yes, Kanye is (or seems) at the fore front of that change. Does he a place in hip hop, of course. Will the TI’s capitalize on this and make it dis-prportionate to the other flavors of hip hop? of course they will, and that was my point from the get go. There is no balance. They will try to mold each new artist that comes along into a quasi-Kanye, the air waves will become polluted with the shit and people will start to hate it. and Agian, Like it or not, Kanye is at the fore front of this new movement. Just as the Wu ushered in the joint venture movement and NWA ushered in the gangsta movement. Now everyone has a label, has signed a joint ventures and labels/Production houses have become a dime a dozen. So much so, that new artists get signed to these labels and rot on the shelves while these so-called label owners do nothing for them.(Jae hood anyone? Jay Mills? Serious Jones?). An My only problem with any of this IS THE BALANCE. If there were less label owners, there be better artists or at least more capital to promote the good artists.
Do I like Ye’s music? Marginally. I like some, but not all. DO I like Jeezy? NO. Dope boy du-jour? NO. English-compromised southern rapper who invents new useless dance? NO. I tend to like the more balanced lyrical MC’s that don’t succomb to writing about one thing.
LionXL and Jen,
Thank you for your passion. Truth is that you two agree more than you disagree but I need to come back to this thread to straighten out my message.
I like Kanghey’s music a lot, but I don’t like record executives zeal for power and money and now that Kanghey has a style that transcends rap music completely into the realm of popular music it signals the end of Hip-Hop as I have come to know it.
The middle class is a misnomer. There is the working class, the executive class and people like me, the debtor class. The very rich and the very poor nearly live similar lifestyles in that they are supported by the former three groups.
How does a popular music album portend all of these classist premonitions? It just does. Call it my negro intuition.
…i’m vibing off the rap music discourse…but please, how is hip hop dead? (which IMHO Nas never even meant LITERALLY…) 9 out of 10 titles on the current billboard R&B/HIPHOP albums are rap albums…of course nothing stays the same in the game, even still, the circle remains unbroken…but, in all honesty, who the hell would have ever figured there would have been hip-hop historians, hummmm? so, whether you decide to groan, bemoan or drop the attritude and get your jam on…let me take your order like a COFFEE SHOP…it’s starblock’s up in here baby..!
It’s a good thing you called him Kanghey or I totally would have thought you were a gay homosexual in love with him. Thanks for making that clear.
So, I’d just like to point out to XL that his entire post is full of [largely erroneous] assumptions about who I am, what I’ve done, where I live and how I define things, including myself. Pretty illogical.
I’d also like to let him know that I probably know more about class distinctions than ~99% of America because of my educational background, but appreciate his attempt to simplify those distinctions to whoever out there reading is unfamiliar with them. I am a little confused as to why he is trying to argue with me about artists I’ve not even alluded to marginally. But, whatever. We all need a soapbox sometimes.
By the way, yes sir. There is a difference between doctors and Black doctors. If you don’t know that by now, then I’d like to know when Lala Land got a ghetto and whether the sky is still rose-colored on that block.
I’ll send you a postcard next time I’m in Asia, Africa or the Middle East, am glad you are proud of your sister and her achievements, and hope to one day attain her level of expertise in the field of media.
That said, no hard feelings. Have fun living in the hood! Hopefully, your family’s safe there.