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Posh boy rhymez

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I was talking with someone yesterday how ridiculous it would be for someone like me, with a posh British voice, to do hip hop. They were suggesting that wasn't necessarily the case, but I remain unconvinced. So. Write me a rap, y'all.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 December 2003 10:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Austin powers to thread

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

In retrospect I kind of wish I hadn't started this thread.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 December 2003 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

why?

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:06 (twenty-one years ago)

your voice is posh mark?

― ken c, Monday, 1 December 2003 11:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Louis Theroux to thread?

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually Matt used Louis' gangsta rap to great effect in a mix once.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Young Baz in the place to be uh oh
shit's real on the streets of Putney uh oh

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry, but wouldn't half of the Pet Shop Boys' records qualify as this already?

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Victoria Aitken to thread!

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I was thinking about this the other day.

It seems to me that hip-hop is all about representin'. And the English middle classe youth emphaticly do not have a music that represents them. They're great at co-opting music for themselves, but they never have a music that really speaks to them. The middle classes, as we all know, aer plauged with insecurities that other don't occur in other social strata, but nobody seems to be addressing these issues. It happens reasonably well in nu-indie, but that all seems to be post-Smiths, whilst the fucked-up head that the middle class 16-30 yr old carries about deserves something a little more meaty - eg. hip hop.

However, I think you may be right, it'll probably sound shit. But if someone made some that DIDN'T sound shit, it would be something a bit a special.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

It seems to me that hip-hop is all about representin'. And the English middle classe youth emphaticly do not have a music that represents them

Radiohead.

they're whiny, spoilt, middle class twits

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:34 (twenty-one years ago)

but they put on a phenomenal show

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:35 (twenty-one years ago)

So all middle class people are whiny and spoilt, Chris?

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:37 (twenty-one years ago)

oh sheesh, for gods' sake, no, but they fit a nice stereotype.

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:42 (twenty-one years ago)

i always thought they looked a bit under-nourished for middle classers

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Nurse used to take their food away if they were naughty

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Radiohead are not quite what I had in mind. Even OK Computer is too busy bringing down society's ills to actually talk about what their state, their class, what their brains are comprised of. Their too busy whining to be explaining.

The ammo is there for someone sufficiently talanted to talk about the middle classes in the early 21st century in such a way as to be mind-blowingly good. They'll sell millions of records, have a billion downloads, and people'll love them. The thought-makers (being middle-class themselves) will have to adapt to talking about something directed at them, rather than talking about a working-class form.

The future is coming, people!

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:46 (twenty-one years ago)

If all of middle class English youth was wiped out in a freak accident, you cd reconstruct them from the songs of radiohead, should you so desire.

― Nu-Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but it's the middle class guilt thing "something must be done!" type thing innit? see also No Logo.

(excellent, manage to get my two top pet hates in one thread!)

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:47 (twenty-one years ago)

http://i.timeinc.net/time/time100/bookstore/frames/IMAGES/LENIN.gif

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:50 (twenty-one years ago)

No, but it's the middle class guilt thing "something must be done!" type thing innit? see also No Logo

I'm feeling ye hate here (fer No Logo glibness) but the desire to do the right thing is better than the desire to do the wrong surely? Or is the pursuit of justice simply a symptom of guilt?

― Nu-Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

This is what I mean! There is no section of people more hated upon in Britain today than the middle classes. Middle class is the new working class - its the middle class that work the longest hours. Its the middle classes that have to carry around the baggage of 200 yrs worth of being singled out as the enemy. I'm sure its been noted, but no-one has made a song about it, from a normal, middle-class kids perspective.

Something must be done!

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ANYWAY - sorry for provoking yet another middle class conversation.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/000225848X.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 1 December 2003 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

This is what I mean! There is no section of people more hated upon in Britain today than the middle classes

apart from gypsies, immigrants, etc...

― ken c, Monday, 1 December 2003 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Kench = very very right

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Ken is tres OTM. For fuck's sake it's the middle class what does the exploiting. Of itself much of the time, but hey.

― Nu-Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, m'lud, I plead guilty on charges of hyperbole.

But you know what I mean. Maybe I meant that the middle-classes are hated on more in relation to how acceptable that hating is reagred by society. Most of us in here would be a bit uncomfortable making negative generalisations about gypsies or immigrants, yet the middle-classes are fair game.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Johnney, there are a couple of threads on this very subject if you're interested (and happy to find them using the search facility as I don't know where they are).

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh no, I'm not THAT interested - I was just saying that this is WHY middle-class hip-hop would be U&K, if it could avoid sounding shit, which, in fairness, is a pretty big if.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

And if it didn't avoid sounding shit, imagine the queue of keepin'-it-realsters claiming that it plagiarised/bastardised the culture of X...

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Yo! Straight outta Chiswick!

― Anna (Anna), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The Streets is as close to 'middle class hip hop' as you're likely to get, for now

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretty much stevem, yeh. In this context, the streets seems working-class on the outside, middle-class on the inside. BUt even then, its hardly the "posh boy rhymez" of the OP.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

anyway i thought the voice of the middle class were Busted.

― ken c, Monday, 1 December 2003 12:29 (twenty-one years ago)

not that they are hip hop

― ken c, Monday, 1 December 2003 12:30 (twenty-one years ago)

it always seemed that:

guitars = middle class

turntables = working class

are the latter really cheaper than the other?

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

more expensive if anything I'd have thought

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:37 (twenty-one years ago)

so what's wrong with no logo? I've been reading this and it seems fine to me.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never read it, it's just the constant spouting of it I suffered from various people when it was all the rage, every bleeding heart artist name checking it in interviews etc etc - so now I hate it.

see also Michael Moore.

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:40 (twenty-one years ago)

All the laydeez wanna bang ya
When yo' hangin' wit' Lasagne
From the leafy streets of Chelsea
To our island in the South Seas
You see us come toward ya
like the motherfuckin' Borgias
in our Barbour coats and Bentleys
we are the landed gentry.


― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:41 (twenty-one years ago)

/fires pair of purdys in recognition of whizzer rhyme

Word to your Nanny

― chris (chris), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Turntables are as middle-class as it gets!!!!!

― Nu-Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

not until recently

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 December 2003 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Possibly the cost thing could be explained by turntables being shared or communal, and guitars being the middle class boy's prize possession?

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 1 December 2003 13:09 (twenty-one years ago)

turntables only got expensive once there became a whole genre to pitch them to. Also you're forgetting the human beatbox.

I knew Mark started this thread.

Jerry's got good flow above. I don't know enough about the English middle-class to contribute but you can use some of the basic elements of rap as a starting point. Work on rhymes about:

-Where you grew up - It's okay if it wasn't a hard 'hood. Tough it up. I think Dr. Dre actually came from a middle-class 'hood.

-How much you are worth - If you are upper middle-class than surely you've got many beginning rappers beat. Don't forget hyperbole.

-Your rival - Don't have one? Find one. Even if they don't know who you are. In fact, that's the best way to go. Pick a Goliath to start dissing in order to force an answer record that squashes you like a bug. Instant publicity

-Your baby's momma - Don't have one? Get one. Come on, doesn't the middle class have alimony and stuff?

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Monday, 1 December 2003 13:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Yo, check yo, mc bonkers bazza
I got more skillz than gazza
Never call my lady shazza

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 1 December 2003 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)


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