Music
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Roxanne Shante and UTFO, Ll and Kool Moe Dee, Mc Shan and BDP, Nas and Jay Z, i, Biggie and Tupac etc etc t's part of the theatre of hip hop. I bought my first hip hop record in 1983 and have loved it ever since.
He never would, because he's too much of an elder statesman and hip hop ambassador, but I would love to hear Ra the rugged man tear eminem a new arsehole.
There is so much good hip hop, Billy Woods, Elzhi, Odisee, Sa Roc, Apathy, Clear Soul Forces…It the the as always though...shit sells. DMC from RUN DMC did an amazing blog recently asking what the fuck is up with MAINSTREAM hip hop. It needs a 17 year old chuck d or Krs One. I know people rave about Kendrick Lamar but there is better out there. The youth need to hear positivity, not the glorification of material bullshit and fucking mumble rap.
word. I love hip hop from the 80's and the early 90's. Back then it was more about relaying a message, be it a positive message or the overtly political. I also dig the indie stuff that came out in the 00's from labels like Def Jux, Stones Throw, etc. Lots of good stuff from Japan and England too
Don't agree with that. Mid/Late 80's to early 90's was the birth of Gangster Rap which definitely wasn't relaying a positive message to the kids.
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Of course today's mumble rap sucks…I don't think anybody is here disagreeing with that it's kind of stating the obvious.
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Roxanne Shante and UTFO, Ll and Kool Moe Dee, Mc Shan and BDP, Nas and Jay Z, i, Biggie and Tupac etc etc t's part of the theatre of hip hop. I bought my first hip hop record in 1983 and have loved it ever since.
He never would, because he's too much of an elder statesman and hip hop ambassador, but I would love to hear Ra the rugged man tear eminem a new arsehole.
There is so much good hip hop, Billy Woods, Elzhi, Odisee, Sa Roc, Apathy, Clear Soul Forces…It the the as always though...shit sells. DMC from RUN DMC did an amazing blog recently asking what the fuck is up with MAINSTREAM hip hop. It needs a 17 year old chuck d or Krs One. I know people rave about Kendrick Lamar but there is better out there. The youth need to hear positivity, not the glorification of material bullshit and fucking mumble rap.
word. I love hip hop from the 80's and the early 90's. Back then it was more about relaying a message, be it a positive message or the overtly political. I also dig the indie stuff that came out in the 00's from labels like Def Jux, Stones Throw, etc. Lots of good stuff from Japan and England too
Don't agree with that. Mid/Late 80's to early 90's was the birth of Gangster Rap which definitely wasn't relaying a positive message to the kids.
I think of PE as being the godfathers of political rap but others like Sir Mix-A-Lot, BDP/KRS-1, etc., had political overtones in some of their songs. Heck, to an extent I even consider gangster rap somewhat political because it shined a light on police brutality and racial profiling. It might not have been positive but it definitely had a message that's still relevent today. But, there was plenty of good hip hop that came out during that era that didn't rely on cliches to sell records.
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PE was definitely political but yeah….don't think that as a whole rap was sending positive messages to the kids and wasn't utilizing certain cliches to an extent.
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PE was definitely political but yeah….don't think that as a whole rap was sending positive messages to the kids and wasn't utilizing certain cliches to an extent.
Who named 'gangster rap'? Was it the disenfranchised you black and Hispanic people that made hip hop with themes about their social experiences? NO it was large record labels like interscope and Atlantic, and the mainstream media press.
I remember it. NWA wasn't called 'gangsta rap' in 1987 when their first record was released (NWA and the Posse - that had Easy E's dopeman on it).
The music then didn't glorify a lifestyle, if shone a light on its pitfalls. It highlighted youth deaths and police brutality, political and social unjustness. For me as a youth it was the first music to really do that since punk 10 years before.
Trouble is, some artists then become susceptible to the market forces. They get ghost writers in because they don't have creative talent themselves (the DOC famously wrote much of NWAs lyrics).
When Ice T, Kool G Rap, NWA, BDP, public enemy were all writing metaphorical lyrics about violence, there were also popular artists such as Divine Styler (on Ice T's label rhyme syndicate), De la soul, tribe called quest, Chubb Rock, all making afrocentric hip hop.
Many cite Schooly D as being the first gangster rapper with songs like PSK (Parkside killers, a gang from his Philly neighbourhood). I have always thought it is easier for a predominantly white owned mass media to put negative connotations on the lived black experience…don't call it gangster, call it socioeconomic experience.
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@Seul thanks for the heads up mate
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Who named 'gangster rap'? Was it the disenfranchised you black and Hispanic people that made hip hop with themes about their social experiences? NO it was large record labels like interscope and Atlantic, and the mainstream media press.
I remember it. NWA wasn't called 'gangsta rap' in 1987 when their first record was released (NWA and the Posse - that had Easy E's dopeman on it).
The music then didn't glorify a lifestyle, if shone a light on its pitfalls. It highlighted youth deaths and police brutality, political and social unjustness. For me as a youth it was the first music to really do that since punk 10 years before.
Trouble is, some artists then become susceptible to the market forces. They get ghost writers in because they don't have creative talent themselves (the DOC famously wrote much of NWAs lyrics).
When Ice T, Kool G Rap, NWA, BDP, public enemy were all writing metaphorical lyrics about violence, there were also popular artists such as Divine Styler (on Ice T's label rhyme syndicate), De la soul, tribe called quest, Chubb Rock, all making afrocentric hip hop.
Many cite Schooly D as being the first gangster rapper with songs like PSK (Parkside killers, a gang from his Philly neighbourhood). I have always thought it is easier for a predominantly white owned mass media to put negative connotations on the lived black experience…don't call it gangster, call it socioeconomic experience.
That's been my take on music genres. I didn't really like the term 'grunge' being bandied about back in the 90's as it felt like a cheap way for labels to capitalize on the success of bands like Nirvana, AiC, Soundgarden, etc. Likewise, I didn't like the term 'gangster rap' being attributed to those groups that rapped about topics that were part of their experiences. I think this is part of the reason why the indie scene took off in the early 00's. A lot of these artists weren't under the thumb of major labels and had more creative freedom to make what they wanted to make.
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^^^Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
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PE was definitely political but yeah….don't think that as a whole rap was sending positive messages to the kids and wasn't utilizing certain cliches to an extent.
Who named 'gangster rap'? Was it the disenfranchised you black and Hispanic people that made hip hop with themes about their social experiences? NO it was large record labels like interscope and Atlantic, and the mainstream media press.
I remember it. NWA wasn't called 'gangsta rap' in 1987 when their first record was released (NWA and the Posse - that had Easy E's dopeman on it).
The music then didn't glorify a lifestyle, if shone a light on its pitfalls. It highlighted youth deaths and police brutality, political and social unjustness. For me as a youth it was the first music to really do that since punk 10 years before.
Trouble is, some artists then become susceptible to the market forces. They get ghost writers in because they don't have creative talent themselves (the DOC famously wrote much of NWAs lyrics).
When Ice T, Kool G Rap, NWA, BDP, public enemy were all writing metaphorical lyrics about violence, there were also popular artists such as Divine Styler (on Ice T's label rhyme syndicate), De la soul, tribe called quest, Chubb Rock, all making afrocentric hip hop.
Many cite Schooly D as being the first gangster rapper with songs like PSK (Parkside killers, a gang from his Philly neighbourhood). I have always thought it is easier for a predominantly white owned mass media to put negative connotations on the lived black experience…don't call it gangster, call it socioeconomic experience.
Relax dude. It's just a term used so that everyone can immediately identify what music and artists I'm referring to. With all due respect it's a little amusing that you're preaching and trying to drop knowledge about all of this when I'm guessing that at the time it was happening that all you knew about it was what you saw on TV and heard in music. There is definitely a gangster element to it and you'd be blind not to see that…sure they also rap about their socioeconomic experience but certain elements were absolutely glorified.
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Yeah that was out of nowhere. I mean I guess all or most celebrity deaths are but if I had to make a list of celebrities who I predict would OD he wouldn't be in the top 10.
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I'm not afroamerican or Latino, not from Queensbridge projects or Watts. I have carried knives, sold drugs, had guns aimed at me, had friends go to prison. The catalysts to these aren't exclusive to black 80s Compton. Asher D and daddy Freddy, overlord X, Hijack, London posse…toxteth and Tottenham riot's. It's universal, not local.
Music can join or decide. If the industry is left to draw that line then we continue to head in this direction. If the artists regain control, hope!
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@manufc10 I get it. Lots of us have strong opinions here. I love that.
