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Post by pelicanguy on Mar 20, 2007 14:16:18 GMT -5
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sweetpie
B.E. Staff Sergeant
Posts: 2,081
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Post by sweetpie on Mar 20, 2007 23:30:56 GMT -5
The page is not available... I don't have a 360 account. Do I have to sign in and all stuff?
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Post by pelicanguy on Mar 21, 2007 0:59:34 GMT -5
Yeah...forgot to tell you that. Here's the text:
Hip Hop via the caucasian woman...
So after only a few hours of sleep and a crazy night last night, I've been listening to some music while cleaning. Music clears my head like only sex and chocolate can.
Hip hop isn't dead. I've been wrong. Hip hop is very much alive, if not even more so, because now there is a line drawn between the people "fucking it up" and the people struggling to maintain it. I'm sure this is a recycled defense, I wouldn't know...my ears closed whenever I heard this shit start because at that point I've already decided hip hop was gasping desperately for air, so there was no real reason to hear the argument of someone who insists that "learning to embrace the direction it's going is the true definition of a hip hop head...being a fan until the end." (fuck you) Everything in the world needs an opposite in order to exist and continue existing. Every emotion, every action, every atom. Matter has antimatter. Love has hate. Happiness, sadness. You get my point. If Superman didn't have Lex, he would just be a pudgy middle aged white guy wearing red spandex, slouched over an empty cup in an unlit kitchen. Mainstream rap is the anti hip hop, and now there is a pressure for hip hop artists to step up to their podium and prove to us they care.
Personally, I think that the genre should completely split into two separate entities, instead of pulling at each other while running in opposite directions. Look, both parties deserve some level of respect. There is no way that Rap (I use this to define anti hip hop because I don't have a better word. I consider hip hop artists MCs anyway) got this far and infiltrated this hard without a complete understanding of what it takes to get into our ears. The difference between an artist and a person with talent is, the artist turns over every factor in the business and crystallizes what they learn into their marrows. The artist has a love affair with what they do, no matter how aggravating and disheartening it may be. They take it upon themselves to reach out to you. Now, rappers are artists. Not lyrically, hell no, they are not to be revered for the things they say (ever). But they know how to keep a flow....flowing. They know the magic of repetition. They know that high pitched sounds last longer in musical memory than the low. They know how to make you dance. They are artists that deserve respect for attacking the industry the way they did, with the knowledge they have. Fine.
Hip hop is...I wouldn't say it's a struggle to uphold what the founding fathers laid down,no. Hip hop is understanding. Hip hop is the asshole that shoots the blinds open high while you are laying on your mattress with a hangover. Hip Hop is the lover that smiles while you are squinting in the harsh sunlight, handing you a cup of coffee and kiss on the forehead so that you can begin your recuperation. Hip Hop is the passion AND the poetry. There are kings in each musical court (Biggie shall remain an untouchable legacy in the Rap court, respect given where respect is due. Happy Belated death day) and there are jesters in each musical court. There's no reason why they should HAVE to fight in the same arena. While Rap is the product of a harmony between the producer, the writer, and the spokesperson. Hip Hop is the baby of a single soul. In the end, the person behind the mic is the person who selects the beat, the words, and the message. Rap represents the family around it (mainstream), promoting a support system where humans have to rely on each other (no matter if the cause is "gettin some head" or "gettin some green) to survive. Hip Hop pretty much does the opposite...embrace individuality, while giving you the armor you need to do you.
The entire time I've been exposed to hip hop...and since the moment of it's creation, I'm sure...hip hop has been "a black thing." It is probably the only musical genre I know of that defines itself not by technique, but by color. There is a foundation of struggle that is common to a certain race, of course. But not anymore. The new faces of *cough* hip hop are NOT speaking of hardships and tough life, they are boasting. Even what's his dick was boasting about getting shot 9 times, he wasn't linking it to a deeper issue within the veins of society. No, he was using it as a way to prove he fits the standards of a rapper we've come to expect, if not glorify. He was a "gangsta."
But, he only gave back what you as a society told him YOU wanted.
*Side note* To further evidence my bias on this topic, there is not a person in the hip hop world who would doubt the "gansta" of Black Thought (quiet in the shadows with nary a bullet would nor selective insult) or Rakim (who modeled his flow after the very non-gangster stylings of jazz). There is no glorifying necessary. Because, muhfukkas, that's hip hop.
*sticks tongue out*
*End side note*
When other races step into the game, they have to try twice as hard. There is rarely an acceptance without a fight if you are white, asian, whatever. But give someone with no talent a mic and he already has a free ticket to the stage. (Jim Jones) Other musical scenarios are separated into genres that are based on TECHNIQUE. Electronic music has techno and trance...subtle differences that ignorant non-listeners won't pick up on. If you mistakenly call a trance track techno, you will get bitten. So why can't we do that with rap?
Hip hop is struggling right now because the majority of you still see Rap and Hip Hop as the same thing. You are still tying the two ever-drifting genres together because both represent black america. Can't they represent separately? Shit, if you see the fucking tumor, cut it out! If hip hop detaches itself from rap and emerges as its own genre, people will no longer assume that Common does the same thing Camron will do.
THEY make it about race because WE make it about race. Think about what music stands for, and base it on that instead. We can't blur the lines of bigotry if we're the ones guarding it.
Hip hop. We already have set artist leading the way. We already got a few jesters who slipped in and touched the audience (Lupe. Sorry. I don't like the guy, but I have to admit that he is good at what he does). And it doesn't have to be a category intended solely for MCs...I consider Musiq Soulchild and Erykah Badu hip hop artists. We can leave what's her face with the too much makeup and the generic sound behind to be the representing voice of R&B.
But what do I know...I'm just a white girl!
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Post by dolphinfan on Mar 21, 2007 15:09:10 GMT -5
I think she made great points. For her genarations view of music.
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