How Can We Make Rap/Hip-Hop Music Better???

[crazed one]

I am so tired of hip hop conversations/threads. What is it that draws so many people, including me, to them?

I think I'm drawn by the opinions of other people from countries where hip hop did not originate. It's interesting to hear.

[Stupid American Pig]

I also find it funny how the hip hoppers quit adding to this thread at around page 1. This thread has no cred.

[Lunch Money]

[xoxos]

the problem with rap/hiphop is very similar to what happened with 'country' music in the USA: what used to be interesting has become a pale shadow of itself. in other words it's not 'real' anymore. Most of the clowns doing hiphop are about as 'street' as Shania Twain is 'country'. most hiphoppers and rappers are actually middle class kids who hang out on the street by choice, not because the have to. they don't live on the street, they hang out then go home to their nice safe middle class homes. even a legit group like Public Enemy met in college! Many country musicians are failed rock'n'rollers who found it much easier to succeed in country since the bar is so much lower. Same with many hiphoppers: they couldn't cut it singing and playing instruments.
There are some very talented people out there doing HH, but few get on the radio 'cos they're not commercial enuff-as many people here have pointed out. but saying f*ck 50 times(or even once) in a song takes no talent at all...
for reference: i'm a former speed freak who has slept in alleys, stolen from stores, people, and trucks, been arrested, etc...so maybe i have a little perspective, maybe not. ain't it great being reformed? peace

sounds dead-on to me. imo addiction can serve to nicely objectify (or not quite as nicely to simply escape) the impositions of 'civilisation,' burglary of life in the first degree :p

[stale bread]

that post above mine is hiphop

mc xoxos

-bread

[Jaidy]

Making Hiphop/Rap better is ann oxymoron.


If its better, then it becomes jazz or rock, or RnB, or soul.

[xoxos]

i took some friends up to the white mountain apache res to see a sunrise ceremony, one evening this guy ("crazy town drunkard guy") comes up to us starting with "hey, you guys are white niggers.." not so much because we were (~white teen suburban-arizona-style druggists with acid music t shirts) (you know, i go to one school in tucson, everyone's white! how that happen.. more 'black indians' on res than mexican kids in the school) but because he saw a potential within us to instill empathy.. offered as hopefully 'insight' into this american phenomenon and human struggle, oc i'm only me

when you see "the" other way, and the difference, then you see it :p

change!

hey! you guys are white niggers!

[electro]

There is a conspiracy to promote dumbed down, negative hiphop and to censor and prevent more intelligent, creative hiphop from seeing the light of day. Genuinely creative and diverse hip hop is labeled as "underground hip hop", and most people are not familiar with it. Some of it is very good music.

It would seem at times that mainstream Hip hop and the prison industry are working in tandem. If I contracted with state prisons, or had a financial stake in the ownership of private prisons, I probably would be for the promotion of mainstream hip hop to increase my revenues. It has a negative hypnotizing effect on impressionable youth, just like those toy commercials that get your kids nagging you to give up your hard earned money for the seasons latest hot product. It virtually hypnotizes them into a criminal state of mind.


Doesn't it seem a bit strange that just about every other mainstream rapper fits the following profile:

1.Was shot or locked up and is fresh out of prison(virtual cannonization)
2.Used to deal drugs but switched to rap to elevate the hustle.
3.Spews Unintelligent ignorant ego raps about dealing drugs and reaping material rewards to be the biggest purchaser of frivolus goods in the hood.

Decisions about what hip hop will be come from the top down, not the other way around. We should bear that in mind when we are critiquing the music and the people who make it. The people at the top call the shots. They are deliberatly selecting ex-cons and marketing them and their concepts to be the "official face" of the music, leaving hip hop totally unbalanced. All other types of hip hop have been frozen out by design.

[TVD]

an 18 year old girl, who is studying classical guitar here in istanbul is truly obsessed with this genre of music, which i am not very keen on, and not very fond of, truly speaking.

she came to me, so i can comment on her singing abilites and such. and she believes that if she sings or "makes" this music, she will have some "huge" success here in turkey. which is exactly a fantasy.

can anyone give me a direction on how to work with this girl and turn her talent into something "functional". every comment you make will make her believe that we have people "thinking" all over the world.

this girl is all "white" and 18 years old. she is turkish and a loyal fan of hip-hop, rnb.

please let me know.

oh and by the way, depending on my very recent experience, this genre is all over the world. but the message itself forces some 18 year old kid, who has a decent life to talk about all this "gangsta" stuff. so i believe this genre belongs to some kind of sub-culture which is very hard to reproduce in places except the idea itself was formed. and we know the name of the country. right?

and this girl hardly speaks or writes english...

The young lady needs to keep it real by just being herself. And please let her know that I think that a woman with serious skills on a musical instrument is sexy & very profitable.

If she want to do hip-hop music, I hope she will tell the truth about herself in her lyrics & not make the mistakes that Vanilla Ice made by lying about a "gangsta" lifestyle that she never experience a day in her life.

[TVD]

I haven't read the thread but in answer to the question posed in the thread title - killing Jah Rule would be a good start.

(It's only funny in its context!!!)

[TVD]

I haven't read the thread but in answer to the question posed in the thread title - killing Jah Rule would be a good start.

What about killing Lil' Jon instead? I mean, he did invent Crunk you know.

[xoxos]

i don't keep up with bigtime stuff but someone used 'crunked to te sun' in a bit they did at my house ~4 years ago.

[Stupid American Pig]

I haven't read the thread but in answer to the question posed in the thread title - killing Jah Rule would be a good start.

What about killing Lil' Jon instead? I mean, he did invent Crunk you know.

I dont mind lil jon so much- as dave chappelle did a great job of trivializing his talent...

[TVD]

I haven't read the thread but in answer to the question posed in the thread title - killing Jah Rule would be a good start.

What about killing Lil' Jon instead? I mean, he did invent Crunk you know.

I dont mind lil jon so much- as dave chappelle did a great job of trivializing his talent...

Which one you like to most:

Lil'Jon or Rick James Bitch?

[TVD]

There is a conspiracy to promote dumbed down, negative hiphop and to censor and prevent more intelligent, creative hiphop from seeing the light of day. Genuinely creative and diverse hip hop is labeled as "underground hip hop", and most people are not familiar with it. Some of it is very good music.

It would seem at times that mainstream Hip hop and the prison industry are working in tandem. If I contracted with state prisons, or had a financial stake in the ownership of private prisons, I probably would be for the promotion of mainstream hip hop to increase my revenues. It has a negative hypnotizing effect on impressionable youth, just like those toy commercials that get your kids nagging you to give up your hard earned money for the seasons latest hot product. It virtually hypnotizes them into a criminal state of mind.


Doesn't it seem a bit strange that just about every other mainstream rapper fits the following profile:

1.Was shot or locked up and is fresh out of prison(virtual cannonization)
2.Used to deal drugs but switched to rap to elevate the hustle.
3.Spews Unintelligent ignorant ego raps about dealing drugs and reaping material rewards to be the biggest purchaser of frivolus goods in the hood.

Decisions about what hip hop will be come from the top down, not the other way around. We should bear that in mind when we are critiquing the music and the people who make it. The people at the top call the shots. They are deliberatly selecting ex-cons and marketing them and their concepts to be the "official face" of the music, leaving hip hop totally unbalanced. All other types of hip hop have been frozen out by design.

Case in point: Suge Knight paying the 2 million dollar bond to release 2pac from prison in exchange for 2pac to have 2 albums release on Death Row Records.

Good point (I think)!