Okay, really... seriously... why is hip-hop still taken as seriously as it is these days?

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I mean, really... much of it -- the most commercially viable areas of it, anyway -- ceased to be "social commentary" a long time ago (and even in THAT department, there's a great difference between yelling "FIRE, FIRE" while your neighborhood burns to a crisp, and actually doing something to try to put the fire out)...

Anyway, a white guy's not going to get hailed as a socially relevant poet-genius for tapping people on the shoulder and telling 'em that, in some neighborhoods, drugs are sold and people get shot... so why should it happen for some black kid with a house in the Hamptons, with enough gold on his fingers to buy yer whole fuckin' family?? I mean, REALLY???? The days of "The Message" are, in hip-hop years, as ancient as the Civil War...

Can anyone honestly shed some light on this for me??

― absolute f'n skittles, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

haha "the days of 'The Message'" because after all that's what ALL hip-hop was like back then!

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, a white guy's not going to get hailed as a socially relevant poet-genius for tapping people on the shoulder and telling 'em that, in some neighborhoods, drugs are sold and people get shot.

http://www.hellomagazine.com/2002/11/07/eminem/imgs/eminem-dop1b.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

That picture was taken from Hello magazine's official webpage, btw.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

sub-trifean at best

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Sub-Trifean? Sub-GEIRIAN at best.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Must be the money.

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Are we still talking about Hello magazine here?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

oh.. is THAT why I feel this way?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Minstersly's the new hip-hop. Hip-hop's the new jazz.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

doesn't the enjoyment of hip hop by critics/musos stem more from the production and musical aspects, in which case hip hop can still excite. i stopped paying attention to hip hop lyrics about ten years ago really - 90% of what is talked about means fuck all to me but hey, dope beats etc.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I knew I'd get a few responses like Ned's and Jess'... so, tell me, gentlemen, what is it about hip-hop that captivates YOU??

― absolute f'n skittles, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Dom --

I seriously doubt that's what Eminem is all about. More like rave parties, trailer parks, and pills on the first album... then, his mother, the nuisance of fame, and teen-pop thereafter...

― absolute f'n skittles, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

People complain cuz they look-for-but-don't-find social commentary in 50 Cent & Ja Rule & Missy Elliot's lyrics, meanwhile they diss and dismiss Common and Michael Franti and Gift of Gab for not "keeping it real". Ha!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

hey, if it bangs it bangs.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"People complain cuz they look-for-but-don't-find social commentary in 50 Cent & Ja Rule & Missy Elliot's lyrics, meanwhile they diss and dismiss Common and Michael Franti and Gift of Gab for not "keeping it real". Ha!" --

no, these artists get laughed at in some quarters for doing what they do... just like how Public Enemy became woefully unfashionable once the "G-Funk" era was in full swing...

― absolute f'n skittles, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

it also didn't hurt that their records got worse.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Jess, put the peanuts down and back away from the cage....

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:51 (twenty-two years ago)

aw.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

so is it really all about beats, then??? Lyrical content doesn't (or shouldn't) get in the way of how good the music sounds?? What about the ribbing someone like David Allan Coe takes for his stuff? Should I crank up "Alabama N----r" from one of his "underground" LPs and simply get up and boogie, regardless of the words???

― absolute f'n skittles, Wednesday, 28 May 2003 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

If a song has something you like, listen to it. If it doesn't, don't.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 16:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I just want to note that Eminem looks really fucking poser in those glasses. I miss Shady.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm just waiting for the inevitable and doubtless deeply boring "Forgot About Em" single.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 28 May 2003 16:12 (twenty-two years ago)

and what exactly is the lyrical content outside of hiphop that we're contrasting with?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 29 May 2003 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Christian metal.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, 29 May 2003 02:41 (twenty-two years ago)

TS: Outkast vs. Stryper

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Thursday, 29 May 2003 02:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I have no idea why people take hip-hop seriously. Or any other kind of music seriously, for that matter.

― hstencil, Thursday, 29 May 2003 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

they're being overacademic per usual

― James Blount (James Blount), Thursday, 29 May 2003 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Thank god for Anthony Miccio then.

― hstencil, Thursday, 29 May 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Someone's taking it seriously? Gee. I need to exit my avant-garde cave and come mingle with the common folk, I guess.

― maria b (maria b), Thursday, 29 May 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

oh you buncha fun-fascists there's nothing wrong with taking things seriously for heaven's sake

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 29 May 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

dam straight

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 29 May 2003 22:32 (twenty-two years ago)

GREAT thread.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 29 May 2003 22:33 (twenty-two years ago)

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