DonDaddyD
::Gesturing ala Nas::
Is Nas right?
It happened once before, when BIGGIE and Tupac died, Hip Hop was mostly left to the entertainer that is Sean P. Diddy/Puff Daddy Combs (or whatever he is calling himself these days). Not that I dislike the guy, but he was all about waving a Rolex watch infront of the Camera and pouring Women down TV screens. - To him that was "Gangsta". Lyrical content and the ability to acually rap well was mostly not as it would seem a priority to Puffy and his Bad Boy label.
I felt lost at that time, for me Hip Hop is a deeply emotional genre born out of frustration and anger, much like the blues. With the only truly successful artists (not performers like Nas) being able to convey their message in such a way a person a continent away can relate.
For a while it seemed like Rap music was back on track, talent was once again prevailing over production and marketing ability.
Then over elaborate glamour came back to the scene and faux rappers who can't form a verse but yet because they are somehow able to pack a video with untold honnies and wear large fake jewellery and even faker goblets, pimpsticks and drive an exclsive car that isn't their's, there are those that accept them and their image over what should be judged, lyrical content and talent.
Materealism is always going to be part of black culture as much as music is. But from my first hand perspective it was always regulated, simply because a person had the biggest diamond around their neck, didn't make them uber beautiful or good at anything, what it meant was that they had a big diamond around their neck and they were acknowledged for that and that alone. Many people outside the influence of black culture failed to understand the lines drawn in the sand, and that misunderstanding would appear to seep into black musuc culture because it seems that accepted is every guy who can portray a negative image, slap on spinners on his car and tell us with poor structure and flow something about nothing.
But this could merely be the evolution of Rap/Hip-hop music, like the deeply emotional Blues into the arty farty and overelaborate Jazz (not that I dislike Jazz but compared to its predecessor it is arty farty) or Ska into Reggae. And if so if this is what Hip-Hop should become, a bunch of actors pretending to bad gangsta men who somehow get women to stand next to them in video's though none of that or what they say is actually real, then should we just accept it and stop complaining. Should I learn to love Pop-Hop?
I'm left perplexed because Hip-Hop has evolved it has transcended its boudaries, but from the moment The Message was realeasd in the 80's, it was meant to do something, say something and change everything and I'm not sure it has. So is Hip-Hop dead and did it die for nothing?
It happened once before, when BIGGIE and Tupac died, Hip Hop was mostly left to the entertainer that is Sean P. Diddy/Puff Daddy Combs (or whatever he is calling himself these days). Not that I dislike the guy, but he was all about waving a Rolex watch infront of the Camera and pouring Women down TV screens. - To him that was "Gangsta". Lyrical content and the ability to acually rap well was mostly not as it would seem a priority to Puffy and his Bad Boy label.
I felt lost at that time, for me Hip Hop is a deeply emotional genre born out of frustration and anger, much like the blues. With the only truly successful artists (not performers like Nas) being able to convey their message in such a way a person a continent away can relate.
For a while it seemed like Rap music was back on track, talent was once again prevailing over production and marketing ability.
Then over elaborate glamour came back to the scene and faux rappers who can't form a verse but yet because they are somehow able to pack a video with untold honnies and wear large fake jewellery and even faker goblets, pimpsticks and drive an exclsive car that isn't their's, there are those that accept them and their image over what should be judged, lyrical content and talent.
Materealism is always going to be part of black culture as much as music is. But from my first hand perspective it was always regulated, simply because a person had the biggest diamond around their neck, didn't make them uber beautiful or good at anything, what it meant was that they had a big diamond around their neck and they were acknowledged for that and that alone. Many people outside the influence of black culture failed to understand the lines drawn in the sand, and that misunderstanding would appear to seep into black musuc culture because it seems that accepted is every guy who can portray a negative image, slap on spinners on his car and tell us with poor structure and flow something about nothing.
But this could merely be the evolution of Rap/Hip-hop music, like the deeply emotional Blues into the arty farty and overelaborate Jazz (not that I dislike Jazz but compared to its predecessor it is arty farty) or Ska into Reggae. And if so if this is what Hip-Hop should become, a bunch of actors pretending to bad gangsta men who somehow get women to stand next to them in video's though none of that or what they say is actually real, then should we just accept it and stop complaining. Should I learn to love Pop-Hop?
I'm left perplexed because Hip-Hop has evolved it has transcended its boudaries, but from the moment The Message was realeasd in the 80's, it was meant to do something, say something and change everything and I'm not sure it has. So is Hip-Hop dead and did it die for nothing?
