How Hip Hop Failed Black America

y'all arguing about something different than what he wrote

his issue is the consumerism and "i'm a winner and you're not" mentality in rap

what else do you want jay to rap about though . . . hasn't been in the streets in close to 20 years . . . he still supposed to rap about being broke? then you would say he's fronting and faking
 
Meek Meals said:
 
y'all arguing about something different than what he wrote​
 ​
his issue is the consumerism and "i'm a winner and you're not" mentality in rap​
 ​
what else do you want jay to rap about though . . . hasn't been in the streets in close to 20 years . . . he still supposed to rap about being broke? then you would say he's fronting and faking​
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Yeah people tend to read the title only and feed off the comments. 



I mean he could rap about something...well you know...important. Is he gonna rap about all the Basquiat he's gonna buy for the remainder of his career?
 
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I think the point Quest was making regarding Jay-Z...is who exactly is he talking to? Who's the target audience?

Y'all always talking about being "relatable". Who the hell can relate to Magna Carta?

There was once upon a time where the collective focus of the music came FROM the people...where as now... Fantasy lifestyles are being fed to the people.
 
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VICTOR PAGE said:
I think the point Quest was making regarding Jay-Z...is who exactly is he talking to? Who's the target audience?

Y'all always talking about being "relatable". Who the hell can relate to Magna Carta?

There was once upon a time where the collective focus of the music came FROM the people...where as now... Fantasy lifestyles are being fed to the people.
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Yeah more along the line that Meek Meals said on the page back. The I'm a winner and you're not mentality.

People usually use escapism or whatever as a reason to listening though. I can't front and act like I've never listened to the music he's critiquing, however, I've grown out of it. I just can't listen to the same ol dope pushing, woke up in a Bugatti type of **** anymore.
 
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tay1 said:
People usually use escapism or whatever as a reason to listening though. I can't front and act like I've never listened to the music he's critiquing, however, I've grown out of it. I just can't listen to the same ol dope pushing, woke up in a Bugatti type of **** anymore.
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We all listen to it if we like the way it sounds...and a lot of us will continue to. However...like yourself...after a while you pay attention or care about **** you may have ignored once.

I find Hip-Hop's obsession with high fashion hilarious right now. Rap got ****** out here looking real funny for the sake of trying to keep up with the Joneses. Black folks out here spending money they don't have making a bunch of Italian fashion designers (that don't make their clothes for us) rich.

****** out here spending half of their monthly earnings on designer belts and then wear little *** t-shirts and sag their pants to show it off.

We need new gatekeepers. The current ones failed this generation of hip-hop.
 
VICTOR PAGE said:
I think the point Quest was making regarding Jay-Z...is who exactly is he talking to? Who's the target audience?

Y'all always talking about being "relatable". Who the hell can relate to Magna Carta?

There was once upon a time where the collective focus of the music came FROM the people...where as now... Fantasy lifestyles are being fed to the people.
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Holy Grail- Jay raps about the pain of fame, but catches himself and realizes this ain't nothing compared to his early days in BK

Picasso-  This is the progression of HIPHOP.  This is beyond fly talk. This is talking about actual art.  This is important to hear.  I want a Picasso.  One of the most popular artists of all time and you contemplating on acquiring a real one, the money it would cost the thought of having that history in your home. What do you think he had on his wall when he was a kid? Maybe Spiderman?

Tom Ford- Really talking about he's tired of the "Molly" rap and how that DOMINATED airwaves in an indirect way

FMW- Just a ride out song

Oceans- Dude reversed the Christopher Columbus story. Now Jay is Christopher Columbus docking on his Yacht, following up with the hook. He sayin 100's of years ago we came on boats now he is owns the "slave boat" Yacht most expensive boat and he sailing in the same waters slaves died in and were tossed of board. So he can feel their spirit when he's out there.
mean.gif
too deep

F.u.t.w-He givin hope. After government cheese we eatin steak.  Steak is what like 13.00 dollars in the store?  Most families never get to eat it or eat it once a month. After the projects now we own(on) (double entendre ) estates.  He sayin he coming from the worst possible place to live to the most sought after.

Heavan- needs no commentary. 

Shall I go on?

He's actually spitting real bars and showing progress and hope and motivating.
 
I just want to know. Since Tupac was almost every rappers favorite rapper. Why does this younger generation act like they learned absolutely nothing listening to Tupac.

It's like they totally missed the point. They only got how "real" he was, but not the entirety of the man or his beliefs.

Tupac was supposed to raise their level of consciousness like Chuck D or early Ice Cube. I always wondered if it was because his contradictions drowned that out or is it a testament to the generation as a whole.
 
I mean that's how I look at PAC. It's just a little weird to see the same man wrote Keep Ya Head Up write stuff like Hit Em Up. I mean I like that song. He went hard on it but yeah. And I honestly don't believe most people around my age really even listened to PAC. They know who he is but never really checked out all his work.
 
Magic1978 said:
I just want to know. Since Tupac was almost every rappers favorite rapper. Why does this younger generation act like they learned absolutely nothing listening to Tupac.

It's like they totally missed the point. They only got how "real" he was, but not the entirety of the man or his beliefs.

Tupac was supposed to raise their level of consciousness like Chuck D or early Ice Cube. I always wondered if it was because his contradictions drowned that out or is it a testament to the generation as a whole.
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I always figured it's the difference between simply hearing music and actually listening to it.
 
Yes rappers rap about balling.

But to breakthough and get to that point you have to rap about some kind of struggle.

Jayz didn't blow up until hard knock life. Jayz rapped about his struggles just as much as he's rapped about his achievements but I guess people have tunnel vision.
 
Joe Quimby said:
Yes rappers rap about balling.

But to breakthough and get to that point you have to rap about some kind of struggle.

Jayz didn't blow up until hard knock life. Jayz rapped about his struggles just as much as he's rapped about his achievements but I guess people have tunnel vision.
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I was hoping this thread wouldn't turn into a Jay Z thread so I'll make this my last comment on him...But nobody in here or Quest is saying Jay-Z SHOULD talk about his struggles. He's saying that collectively Hip-Hop has moved away from talking about OUR struggles as a people and dived way too far into the realm of idolizing materialistic ********. He made the example with talking about how we went from talking about Adidas shoes to Bugatti's.

Fronting has always been in hip-hop but the balance has long faded and the things being glamorized are ******* ridiculous when you sit back and think about it.

****** are out here rapping about multimillion dollar cars and $10,000 shoes. According to the news...we're trillions of dollars in debt, jobs are scarce, and times are hard. Meanwhile, the collective voice of our music right now is completely centered around killing each other and spending money on **** that depreciates in value.

That's why the labels need to completely fall and the people who pull the strings need to die off already. Once that happens...the balance can get back to its golden era days. There's people out there with gems in their music still...but they aren't on front street. The stars of the game right now are the ones promoting the most ********.

Nas said it best back in 06:

"When I say 'hip-hop is dead', basically America is dead. There is no political voice. Music is dead ... Our way of thinking is dead, our commerce is dead. Everything in this society has been done. It's like a slingshot, where you throw the mutha***** back and it starts losing speed and is about to fall down. That's where we are as a country ... what I mean by 'hip-hop is dead' is we're at a vulnerable state. If we don't change, we gonna disappear like Rome. I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop ... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say"
 
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Real talk, though.

People hating on Jay Z and Kanye blow my mind when you think about how deep they went on Yeezus Magna Carter and WTT.

During the Zane interview that set off Kanye's infamous rant tour, Ye was straight up breaking down the 5% teachings.

But NOBODY knew. And he was straight up explaining it in clear english.



The fact that nobody caught that let me know that there's no point in arguing with anyone concerning either of these guys.

Cats who know whassup, know whassup.

Jay and Kanye have spent the last 3 years basically telling the people what's going on in America, what the media is doing to us, what we need to stop worrying about, and they were met with straight up hate from everyone and dismissal.

I could never understand the willful ignorance, but I guess it's not meant for me to understand the "whys" of the willfully ignorant.
 
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knowledgebones72 said:
Jay and Kanye have spent the last 3 years basically telling the people what's going on in America, what the media is doing to us, what we need to stop worrying about
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And then does business with the same people doing it to us

*talks about yakub in the booth*
*exits booth and makes deal with yakub*
 
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Balance is definitely one of the biggest problems when it comes to music, especially on the mainstream side. As recent as 2005 there was still a balance of fun and real issues. Then gradually it switched to like 90/10 and everybody is just aimlessly rapping about nothing in particular over beats that match up, so much interchangeable stuff right now.
 
VICTOR PAGE said:
knowledgebones72 said:
Jay and Kanye have spent the last 3 years basically telling the people what's going on in America, what the media is doing to us, what we need to stop worrying about
Click to expand...

And then does business with the same people doing it to us

*talks about yacub in the booth*
*exits booth and makes deal with yacub*
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And that's a bad thing?

You about to write an essay about how we should be working with our own INSTEAD OF "the colored man" as they say?

As opposed to working with the "colored man" AND our own?

Because it has to be an either or thing?
 
Only working with "our own" is definitely not what I said...or implied. The ones with the most power in the industry have clearly shown that they dont have ANYONE's best interest in mind. If you don't think its a bad thing to work with them...whatever. Keep telling yourself that.

If you can't see the contradiction in the example I gave...I don't know what else to say dad. Keep cheerleading for your heroes tho.
 
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You know who are my heroes?

Rae and Ghost and Meth and Rza, the same dudes who OFTEN rapped about how they had to work with "Devils" to get what they needed.

You know who else said the same thing alot? De La Soul.

Rawkus Records was founded and run by James Murdoch. This guy knew and hung out and financially backed Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch, Big L, etc.

You know who James Murdoch's dad is? RUPERT MURDOCH. Owner of Fox News. Owner of the New York Post and generally known as a horrible evil old White man who any youtube conspiracy theorist would put at the top of the Illuminati food chain.

You have to work with EVERYBODY. How you gonna move through the music industry expecting to be successful without working with people of questionable moral fiber?

The whole "talks about yakub, makes a deal with yakub" thing (which shows you don't know what you're talking about because Yakub isn't even who you're thinking about when you say that name) is not just about Jay and Kanye. But they get hated on it the most because they don't try to pretend like they're still kicking it with the 85.

.
 
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It did break down racial barriers. How many white people did you see at a black artist concert prior to "walk this way"? Very few. That's because it spoke to the youth which was always more open minded that the one generation before. Ur right about white people always loving black culture but not to this extent.My mother told me stories about how in 86 when "walk this way" came out it was the first time she seen white and black people interacting with each other and having a good time on campus. And this was at a major University. Run DMC said the same thing on that documentary on vh1,"tanning of america".
 
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