I find 'gangster' rap atrocious. The wierdest thing is that the rappers whom put on this music dont care about what they are singing about they just want to sing this way so they can make money of the gullible public.
isn't it interesting how talent and a simple ukulele can put all of that rap pretension to shame? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A2Jt4WOxN8
You are correct, it's the absolute worst kind of entertainment and an insult to any human's intelligence. I also leave any establishment that plays rap.
Music is really in the ear of the beholder. I am classically trained but can appreciate the talent involved in Rap and agree with much of what Hydro has written. It is a shame that the art form has been overshadowed by the commercialized thug aspect. This is rap and regardless of whether you like it or not it or choose to listen to it it is clearly meritorious artistic expression. To dismiss it as trash (regardless of political preference) is not to see beyond our own taste. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9FApvqS-3k There is currently a movement at the leading edge of the classical world to deconstruct music to sound. Some of the most highly trained classical musicians from the best conservatories eat this stuff up even though it sounds alien to anything that I my ear recognizes as music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9JdqcJ_baM This is normal though, art reaches out and expands what is conceptually possible, tests the frontiers, and society takes what it likes from these experiments through time and usually reverts to some sort of mean (I suppose due to the neurology behind how the brain processes sound and what Humans are programmed to like from birth, some kind of beat from the sound of the mothers heart, some kind of melody from the sound of the mothers voice) . To dismiss it as trash is to fail to recognize that one mans trash is another man's sublime art which is different than saying that you like it or that it is good or bad. So to each his own , I just wish people would have enough respect for each other to not force their choices on others. I don't want to hear gangster rap or Death metal or Pavarotti while stuck in traffic trying to listen to my own musical selection on the car stereo that I paid silly money for due to its precise acoustic replication. What really pisses me off though is when I take my child to a store and they are playing stuff where B N and MF are being dropped every other word. I went to a Radio Shack once and asked politely to please turn it off or change the station while I was in the store with my child. The woman at the counter more or less ignored me and made it clear that she couldn't have cared less about my . That MF B was fired the next day LOL. Yeah Isreal was a special person and we are poorer without him, just as we are poorer for the death of TuPac (context informs and in many cases is essential for appreciation, this is as true for Opera as it is for Rap and the accessibility of any artistic genre) amd Samuel Barber and all the other people who have devoted their life to their art from which humanity benefits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcloTmvTeA Four interesting versions of Barbers Adagio for Strings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNtr5tXIMx8&mode=related&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMtmomHeXvA&mode=related&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsyTOW4cYvA&mode=related&search= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NYHD-XD44s&mode=related&search=
The above quote is the most shocking statement I've ever heard from a musician. Here's why: - Rap 'artists' DON'T play any musical instruments. - Rap 'artists' DON'T write songs or understand the first thing about music theory. - Rap 'artists' DON'T sing, they talk occasional rhymes to computer generated and/ or already written music. There isn't one iota of talent in said style of entertainment... seriously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_music FWIW those who would condem Rap to the trash heap due to the absence of talent should stop trying to make money trading and put together a Rap album and make a mint. Look forward to watching your rich arse perform at the Grammys
I grew up in NYC listening to red alert and mr magic on weekends. At that time, rap was exciting, positive and fun - a bit unpolished and silly at times, but still a great listen. Then this whole east coast/west coast thing got out of hand and old school lost out to new school. Gangsta rap was the new 'thing' and the older rappers like Run-DMC, Grandmaster flash, were out. The sound was new, and the anger was there. Initially, it was a constructive anger (Chuck D of public enemy) but then it morphed into something new and - ugly. I remember the day that WBLS announced that it wasn't going to play the gangster rap any more because it wasn't positive, and switched format to a R&B station (could you believe something like that happening today?) You can tie the ascendency of hip-hop directly to Napster. All of a sudden, music was 'free'. With the demise of paying clientele for most music of good quality (& any back catalogues), the music industry had no idea how to market (and make money). So, who's your market? Anyone who lacks tech sophistication or access to technology and a high speed internet connection so that they can't download and burn your music. #1. Anyone who doesn't own a computer or have access to a high speed connection - i.e. the poor #2. Anyone who isn't old enough to understand how to download music and burn it (remember - this once upon a time wasn't that easy) - kids under 15 or the under-educated #3. Anyone who is stupid enough to want to purchase the 'value added' stuff that comes along with the album (album art, poster, whatever) because they still have that 'new is better mentality' - again most kids under 18. #4. Anyone who doesn't care - the lazy (note: any 'racial' demographic you read into the above is your own damn prejudice. Get over it.) So, there's you target audience. Folks that are too stupid, too inexperienced, or too lazy to find other means of acquiring their music. Mostly dumb kids. Hence you have your choice on the radio of either aggressive rock, targeting disaffected young males or hip-hop, targeting other the other demographic of disaffected young males. Or classic rock, targeting the boomers. Not much of a choice, if you ask me. I still like old school, though. I enjoy filling up my back catalogue of 600 cd's buying the used cd's on amazon for about $5 a pop. Thanks record companies for not turning out any music that's worth listening to in ages. Just picked up 3rd Bass's cactus album and Downtown Science. Great stuff.