The media may have something to do with that, but why not focus of what is real. Back in the day, N.W.A rapped about how it is hard to be black in America and the real shit going on in their lives. Now days all I feel I am hearing is fake bull shit. Instead of embracing the stereotypes to make a little money, why not talk about the reality of things and use that voice to create a movement? That is the only way things will change for the better.
It is as if some of todays rappers portray that the gang life is the only way to get ahead anymore. It is thought of as lucky if some of these gang members live to thirty. I'm sorry, but how the hell is that getting ahead? What good is money when you are dead?
I am only saying, the greatest and most powerful black speakers of all times never said do whatever it takes to make money, he said something along the lines of holding hands and keep walking.
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I think that this is a reflection of the music industry as a whole today. With the ease of recording and making your music available to anyone on the internet, there is just too much of it out there to filter out the good stuff from the crap. Thus everybodies standards are lower and you get these talentless myspace/facebook whores ruining it for everybody. There are still good artists in the world who have a real message and know how to right meaningful music, as there always have been, but because the industry is flooded with crap, it is harder to find.
ReplyDeleteYeah i agree with this and this is why old school rap was alot bigger than it is now. Now alot of rappers are just rapping about what they think their audience wants to hear to make money. Most of the stuff rappers rap about these days are stuff they don't do and probably don't agree with, its just something to say to make their money. There are still good artist who actually say something intellectual which can help. Thats why there is some rap to hear and some rap music to listen to.
ReplyDeleteYeah i think that the old school rappers were just rappin about what they knew. They grew up in hard situations and they basically rapped about what they saw every single day growing up. But i think now a days, alot of them are just saying whatever they need to say to get their single out and make alot of money.
ReplyDeleteyou gotta think about what the people in the rap industries main goal is which is to make money. if that means making some shit up in your raps because you know its gonna sell than why wouldn't you choose that option. however you can't just generalize rappers as gang members and drug dealers even if that is what you are hearing because there is so much more rap out there that people don't listen to or even know about. if people think rap portrays such a bad image why was lil wayne nominated for 8 grammys? he recieved the most grammy nominations this year.
ReplyDeleteRappers rap that shit because its cool, and Kids eat that shit up because its cool. I don't know where it begins and where it ends. It's a cycle of self perpetuating garbage. Which is funny because I listen to a lot of the garbage I'm talking about. I don't know on this one. I understand wanting to make some money to get off the streets, but they are creating a main stream image of black people as robbers, murderers, and drug addicts. Really a tricky situation. I don't know if it's just a black image anymore though. There are a mix of races in the rapping game these days, and it's hard to pin point where the precieved stereotypes falls. If it's on just black people, or just people from the "streets" or what it is. It's hard to say, and I don't know. For me I don't really take anything I hear seriously unless it's got some sort of message, so I can't figure out which group this burden falls on, now the groups aren't seperate, they definately mix with each other, so it still falls heavily on black people if people view it as people from the streets, because a lot of people think all black people are from the streets. Either way it hurts the mainstream image of black people. All I can say is don't take it seriously, I just like it because I think it's good rhyming and I love bass. Back in the day there were some rappers with a real message, and today there are still quite a few, but with all the mainstream crap coming in it's hard to find the good stuff. So don't take any of that phony bullshit seriously. That's all I really got on this one.
ReplyDeleteI think the main problem with the entire entertainment industry is that much of the audience are dipshit, moron, ignorant americans and the standards of what is good has been lowered to the point that those of us with the ability to think must suffer because of it. The best movies and music aren't found in mainstream media and it doesn't matter what color your skin is or what type of music you sing. The white kids make nauseating music about crap that no one really cares about too.
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