A Rapper's Perspective

628
10
Joined
Mar 3, 2011
....rap is dead, at least to me...

A Rapper's Perspective

Wanna know when it died? No, not when Nas proclaimed it (He was way "too big for his britches" with that call). But he was on to something. And to think, when that *@+% dropped I was one of the main people calling him an attention *!%!$. Now look at me.. I'm in full agreement but I despise the attention that comes with having an opinion on NT. Go figure..

 Hip-hop is dead. What we've been seeing and hearing since circa 2004ish is just rap's reanimated corpse. It's a lot like the T-virus... There's no passion, no emotion, no REAL flavor to the mainstream any more. There's just impulse and hunger.

The impulse to make money is what fuels Zombie Rap.  And so cats hop on stage and look as ridiculous as possible in hopes that this week's BRAND NEW nonsensical gyrations will spark enough youtube hits to sell a million ringtones.

There's a thought: Youtube and ringtones.

Rap died when it became centered around technology that didn't even exist when rap was first thought of. Makes sense. Rap reached so hard for the sky that once it took off, it lost its roots. And who benefits from "sky high rap" music? Execs, suits and ties, every one but the Black Youth...

Excuse my lack of Dougie... but as I recall, Eric B. and Dougie actually made music while dancing. Eh.. now I sound old. But the truth is simple. The rappers that made me want to rap when I was 12 and tapping pens on my desk in English class are no longer at the top of the "cool list" to rap consumers. Ain't that about a %%#@%. So now you got 20 year olds rapping like 14 year olds... to 12 year olds. Must be nice..

I'm not a fan of rap music. I just make it. It's becoming a job now... and consumers blame the artists? Nah.. rap died when consumers stopped demanding quality. We're hustlers, us self-employed types. We didn't make the game..we just play it..

I'm tired of playing THIS game... and yet, I won't stop. At the end of the day, as long as ONE person still feels the way I feel, I'm not alone in this world. I miss rap music so much. I miss reading through this forum and caring, I mean REALLY caring about the music. But it's just a business today... maybe that's all it ever really was... but I used to dream. I used to feel something in rap music; something tangible and living. Rap used to have a soul and a pulse. Now you can't even get a real hardcopy of the music on disk. AND the quality is all smashed together thanks to the advent of MP3s. Worse than the quality itself - knowing that I'm rating to a group of people that could *NOT* give a *@+% less about what I'm talking about.....

30t6p3b.gif
tired.gif


*Plays Aquemini in earbuds*


*jumps off  building*
 
....rap is dead, at least to me...

A Rapper's Perspective

Wanna know when it died? No, not when Nas proclaimed it (He was way "too big for his britches" with that call). But he was on to something. And to think, when that *@+% dropped I was one of the main people calling him an attention *!%!$. Now look at me.. I'm in full agreement but I despise the attention that comes with having an opinion on NT. Go figure..

 Hip-hop is dead. What we've been seeing and hearing since circa 2004ish is just rap's reanimated corpse. It's a lot like the T-virus... There's no passion, no emotion, no REAL flavor to the mainstream any more. There's just impulse and hunger.

The impulse to make money is what fuels Zombie Rap.  And so cats hop on stage and look as ridiculous as possible in hopes that this week's BRAND NEW nonsensical gyrations will spark enough youtube hits to sell a million ringtones.

There's a thought: Youtube and ringtones.

Rap died when it became centered around technology that didn't even exist when rap was first thought of. Makes sense. Rap reached so hard for the sky that once it took off, it lost its roots. And who benefits from "sky high rap" music? Execs, suits and ties, every one but the Black Youth...

Excuse my lack of Dougie... but as I recall, Eric B. and Dougie actually made music while dancing. Eh.. now I sound old. But the truth is simple. The rappers that made me want to rap when I was 12 and tapping pens on my desk in English class are no longer at the top of the "cool list" to rap consumers. Ain't that about a %%#@%. So now you got 20 year olds rapping like 14 year olds... to 12 year olds. Must be nice..

I'm not a fan of rap music. I just make it. It's becoming a job now... and consumers blame the artists? Nah.. rap died when consumers stopped demanding quality. We're hustlers, us self-employed types. We didn't make the game..we just play it..

I'm tired of playing THIS game... and yet, I won't stop. At the end of the day, as long as ONE person still feels the way I feel, I'm not alone in this world. I miss rap music so much. I miss reading through this forum and caring, I mean REALLY caring about the music. But it's just a business today... maybe that's all it ever really was... but I used to dream. I used to feel something in rap music; something tangible and living. Rap used to have a soul and a pulse. Now you can't even get a real hardcopy of the music on disk. AND the quality is all smashed together thanks to the advent of MP3s. Worse than the quality itself - knowing that I'm rating to a group of people that could *NOT* give a *@+% less about what I'm talking about.....

30t6p3b.gif
tired.gif


*Plays Aquemini in earbuds*


*jumps off  building*
 
Originally Posted by TeamJordan79

50 and diddy.  

Read the OP... no rapper or record label did it.. Consumers did it.


Why has Disney ended it's 'princess" line of movies??
Spoiler [+]
Market research suggests litte girls are more concerned with being HOT than being princesses...

Why is Ronald McDonald being phased out?
Spoiler [+]
Mickey Dees sells more coffee than Happy meals.


That's the nature of the game. We hustle. Ya'll buy. We sell what ya'll buy. Ya'll buy ringtones...not ALBUMS...not music..
30t6p3b.gif


I hate it.
 
Originally Posted by TeamJordan79

50 and diddy.  

Read the OP... no rapper or record label did it.. Consumers did it.


Why has Disney ended it's 'princess" line of movies??
Spoiler [+]
Market research suggests litte girls are more concerned with being HOT than being princesses...

Why is Ronald McDonald being phased out?
Spoiler [+]
Mickey Dees sells more coffee than Happy meals.


That's the nature of the game. We hustle. Ya'll buy. We sell what ya'll buy. Ya'll buy ringtones...not ALBUMS...not music..
30t6p3b.gif


I hate it.
 
Originally Posted by omgitswes

"How can hip-hop be dead, when Wu Tang is forever?"

Wu-Tang =/= Hip-Hop today. I'll say that much.
I kinda agree with OP. I mean, good music is still coming out, but not a lick of it successful. It's like that 4th generation of rapper never came or they all busted/sold out.

I don't think youtube or ringtones killed hip-hop. I think guys, especially older heads, killed hip-hop. I'm 22, but I always feel the same story happens: guys who grow up on Pac and Biggie get older, and instead of refining their tastes, they fall behind on music and open up to bull *+!! rap and stop caring. Or they stop fall behind and stop supporting hip-hop. They don't go to shows, they don't buy music and they don't do much more than same...'mmhmm them kids don't know.'

The other problem is women. B*****s killed hip-hop. There used to be music for women. There used to be R&B and neo-soul and women groups like Destiny's Child. They didn't go away because women suddenly stopped being able to make music. They went away because Napster and Kazaa killed hip-hop. I remember middle school when quickly everyone's all real CD collection, turned to half bootleg/half real to mostly bootleg.

You could feel when it stopped being rappers throwing in a song for the ladies to make sure they got more ([']) and turned into rappers singing their own hooks (I blame 50). I can't blame them though. Ladies are dependable. If they like your music, you can sell forever. If dudes like your music...good luck, you better hope corny karaoke white people like your music too. No offense. That's why I have no problem with Nicki Minaj. I hope there are new Lauryn Hill's and Brandy's and Missy Elliot's and whatever, because maybe just maybe that'll mean there are less crooners like Taio Cruz or Jeremih.

So this is where we're at after a full generation of rap turning into club music for ladies. Hip-Hop is dead, because it's demographic was undependable. All that other stuff hurt too, and I think a good amount of why rap came to be, sort of limited where it could go from there. I think Nelly put in work killing rap in the early 00's, but Wayne really gutted it for all it was worth in '07.

I think the number one thing rappers need to understand is, a mixtape is NEVER good music. Ever. It's good FREE music, which is the biggest problem rap has. Mixtapes used to be demo music, rare early unfinished work. I'm tired of, well his mixtapes were fire, but his album was garbage/never happened so I ain't gonna put him on. If those crooners put out two tracks, they can push singles/ringtones/albums easy. But for us, we need about 2 or 3 cover to cover on point mixtapes, before we'll even think about looking for em.

I think it's just too easy making money, not worrying about our group is all.

I just looked through my iTunes for any rap (Kanye and CuDi don't count) albums (not mixtapes) I liked from last year. Maybe 2...3. Too many people working on music for that to be it.
 
Originally Posted by omgitswes

"How can hip-hop be dead, when Wu Tang is forever?"

Wu-Tang =/= Hip-Hop today. I'll say that much.
I kinda agree with OP. I mean, good music is still coming out, but not a lick of it successful. It's like that 4th generation of rapper never came or they all busted/sold out.

I don't think youtube or ringtones killed hip-hop. I think guys, especially older heads, killed hip-hop. I'm 22, but I always feel the same story happens: guys who grow up on Pac and Biggie get older, and instead of refining their tastes, they fall behind on music and open up to bull *+!! rap and stop caring. Or they stop fall behind and stop supporting hip-hop. They don't go to shows, they don't buy music and they don't do much more than same...'mmhmm them kids don't know.'

The other problem is women. B*****s killed hip-hop. There used to be music for women. There used to be R&B and neo-soul and women groups like Destiny's Child. They didn't go away because women suddenly stopped being able to make music. They went away because Napster and Kazaa killed hip-hop. I remember middle school when quickly everyone's all real CD collection, turned to half bootleg/half real to mostly bootleg.

You could feel when it stopped being rappers throwing in a song for the ladies to make sure they got more ([']) and turned into rappers singing their own hooks (I blame 50). I can't blame them though. Ladies are dependable. If they like your music, you can sell forever. If dudes like your music...good luck, you better hope corny karaoke white people like your music too. No offense. That's why I have no problem with Nicki Minaj. I hope there are new Lauryn Hill's and Brandy's and Missy Elliot's and whatever, because maybe just maybe that'll mean there are less crooners like Taio Cruz or Jeremih.

So this is where we're at after a full generation of rap turning into club music for ladies. Hip-Hop is dead, because it's demographic was undependable. All that other stuff hurt too, and I think a good amount of why rap came to be, sort of limited where it could go from there. I think Nelly put in work killing rap in the early 00's, but Wayne really gutted it for all it was worth in '07.

I think the number one thing rappers need to understand is, a mixtape is NEVER good music. Ever. It's good FREE music, which is the biggest problem rap has. Mixtapes used to be demo music, rare early unfinished work. I'm tired of, well his mixtapes were fire, but his album was garbage/never happened so I ain't gonna put him on. If those crooners put out two tracks, they can push singles/ringtones/albums easy. But for us, we need about 2 or 3 cover to cover on point mixtapes, before we'll even think about looking for em.

I think it's just too easy making money, not worrying about our group is all.

I just looked through my iTunes for any rap (Kanye and CuDi don't count) albums (not mixtapes) I liked from last year. Maybe 2...3. Too many people working on music for that to be it.
 
Honestly,

I stopped caring about rap since top of the year. I dunno what did it for me...it was a combination of things.

Raekwon's album is probably the only album I'm intent on buying thus far.
 
Honestly,

I stopped caring about rap since top of the year. I dunno what did it for me...it was a combination of things.

Raekwon's album is probably the only album I'm intent on buying thus far.
 
you guys take hip hop too serious.. not saying it was a fad but it used to be in style and now its not. Hip hop out grew itself. now i listen to different kinds of music.

dont get hung up on a genre that revolves around what's new and hot. there's still ppl wearing timbs and tall tee's and i suppose they want hip hop to go back to how it was when they were younger. but it's not gonna happen. anybody saying hip hop is dead means that it's dead for them. Hip hop lives in to me in al music now, it's incorperated in everything from Ke$ha to Vampire Weekend, from Nas to Lil B. There's no more bars confining it, so that pure hip hop sound is gone. but Kurtis Blow really wasn't all that good and beat's have gotten alot more musical i.e Ross's album with the live instrumentation.
 
you guys take hip hop too serious.. not saying it was a fad but it used to be in style and now its not. Hip hop out grew itself. now i listen to different kinds of music.

dont get hung up on a genre that revolves around what's new and hot. there's still ppl wearing timbs and tall tee's and i suppose they want hip hop to go back to how it was when they were younger. but it's not gonna happen. anybody saying hip hop is dead means that it's dead for them. Hip hop lives in to me in al music now, it's incorperated in everything from Ke$ha to Vampire Weekend, from Nas to Lil B. There's no more bars confining it, so that pure hip hop sound is gone. but Kurtis Blow really wasn't all that good and beat's have gotten alot more musical i.e Ross's album with the live instrumentation.
 
Its our fault though. We let the suits get more control over our CULTURE than WE have. Not just the music but the ENTIRE CULTURE no longer belongs to us.
 
Its our fault though. We let the suits get more control over our CULTURE than WE have. Not just the music but the ENTIRE CULTURE no longer belongs to us.
 
Originally Posted by ThatDudeChris

you guys take hip hop too serious.
You guys? As in you musicians??  Hence the underlined : From a Rapper's Perspective.. How serious do you take YOUR job? What about your  hobbies and passions? What if they were one and the same? I could see if it said "From the perspective of a guy who sorta listens to rap after school and on weekends"... but it doesn't. My life has been wrapped up in music since I was 12 with a saxophone and a spark, so excuse me. Maybe it's because I see just how accessible rap music is SUPPOSED to be for the average person. It's NOT complicated. Anybody with a metranome (or just plain rhythm) can write a rap verse and express their inner most thoughts. I love that. I love how basic rap really is having studied how complicated music CAN be... (I still can't read bass clef after 10 years
laugh.gif
30t6p3b.gif
. I'm amazed that pianist do so while simultaneously reading treble clef AND playing it all!
eek.gif
) I can play the sax...which is easy to me But that's atypical for cats like me and it sets me a part from my peers. But even though I'm a jazzhole amongst a dozen other sphincters, we can all relate to rap and hip-hop and how universal it is to us. So the fact that rap alienated ME...of all people.... is just sad man
30t6p3b.gif
 
Back
Top Bottom