i listen to some, not all rap is bad.

There was a gay rapper called Caushus (Anyone heard of him) and its true the records sell in the millions, but mostly to 10-19 years olds and people of low intelligence levels, criminal minds and a hate for all things establishment. Theres proof now too, that rap discs are made on a poorer quality disc that wears out quicker as most companies know unless the rapper is someone like Kanye or Jay Z their stars fade after two years (Anyone remember Chingy or Lil Romeo or Ying Yang twins).
Its been a racist record company stunt for years, race records were made with cheaper materials as it was felt the novelty value of syncopated music would wear off after a few years, whereas classical music endures.
I mean now, look at how worn out most 60s and 70s soul music is, Motown were notorious for the cheap quality of their record vinyl.

johnart said:

What he said.

Ace said:

I brought some of those anti-Semitic comments up in a thread about PE over in P&R and soundly got told right the fuck off, and had it carefully explained to me Griff's words were taken out of context, it's anti-Zionist and not anti-Jewish, yadda yadda fucking yadda.

There is the openly gay rapper Caushun, but has anyone heard his stuff? It's pretty crap. Kudos to the guy for having the balls to come out while being involved in such a mysoginistic, homophobic part of the music industry, but he's not really doing any favours for the "'mos can rap, too" crowd.

Anyone see the Boondocks episode that touches on this? I believe the quote was something along the lines of, "Will rap ever be ready for a gay rapper? I don't know. Someone will have to come out first."

I think it'll take someone really high profile who has some level of respect within the industry to either come out in support of queer people, or as queer themselves.

Most rappers are DL.

thats why they hate the gays.

meow85 said:

I've heard only one of Caushun's songs. It was fair, but I've heard nothing else about him in years.

Tom said:

Off-topic.

Lammastide said:

What I've heard of his work was pretty unimpressive IMO.

Why do people single out rap? Sexism is just as prominent in rock.

purplesweat said:

It's prominenet alright, but most of the general public can at least name a few rock acts that aren't sexist or homophobic, or that are even pro-women/pro-gay. While there must be some artists in rap that don't fit the image, that's just not the case with that genre.

meow85 said:

Someone named about three on the last page, and I named Kanye West...

salaciousV said:

Who? I asked someone on the other page about that. Which ones?

purplesweat said:

That's true. And as much as an obnoxious tool as I think Kanye is, he does get my respect for speaking out against homophobia and sexism.

But in terms of the general public, I'd be willing to put money on more people than not NOT being able to name a gay-friendly, woman-friendly rapper.

meow85 said:

That's probably why no one else has heard of him.

Vendetta1 said:

Sizzla says far worse things than Beenie Man.

meow85 said:

I think that has more to do with the demographics involved than with the respective make-ups of the genres.

When working in a newsroom, I once had to explain to a middle-aged, white editor that his reporter's generalization of rap music as misogynistic in her story was akin to lumping Guns N'Roses with Herman's Hermits.

He got what I was saying and looked at me in disbelief. What grabs the most headlines and moves the most copies tends to be fairly objectionable, in my opinion. But there are some wonderfully positive rappers who provoke thought and promote respect for women who never get any press.

I'm not a big rap fan, but I've enjoyed works by the Ambassador, 2Godio, Jus Boogie and Ason.

I think society as a whole tends to be misogynistic and homophobic. Singling out rap music is hypocritical at best.
[Edited 2/28/09 19:09pm]

ThreadBare said:

I think a big part of the problem is the invisibility of positive rappers. You'll never hear those guys on MTV or see them featured on reality programming.

meow85 said:

I think that was "The Story of Ganstalicious".

meow85 said:

I assert their "invisibility" is part of a larger tendency in western culture to ignore certain segments of punditry, arts and entertainment that engage in intelligent discourse and social analysis but that also miss certain aesthetic standards...

But, as tends to happen, the worst of minority populations are often unfairly used for generalizations.

JasmineFire said:

I'm really bad at keeping track of episode titles.

It was definitely one with Gangstalicious. Not the first one where he gets shot...again, but the one where he's designing a flame-tastic fashion line and gives Riley all sorts of free samples.

ThreadBare said:

this is very true.

ThreadBare said:

Agreed on both points. Intelligent thought doesn't get encouraged much outside of academic circles, it seems. God knows popular media isn't big on it. Even sources like Discovery Channel tends to lean toward dumbing down it's material and showing a lot of shit blowing up.

I also think there's a push to enforce negative stereotypes of minorities. It's hard to keep socvial divisions in place if the world sees black men, or asian women, or muslims, or whoever else as forces of good.

meow85 said:

That's plausible. I've been wondering for the past month why the Chris Brown-Rihanna story got as large as it did. Was it newsworthy? Absolutely. But, it was up there with bailout legislation coverage and has yet to take on reasonable coverage. Not long ago, Brown was being heralded as being a triple-threat entertainer. Lately, he's been Public Enemy No. 1.

I'll hasten to add that I think domestic violence is a horrible thing and am in no way dismissing that element from the coverage. The dynamic of the coverage overall has still been interesting, however.
[Edited 2/28/09 19:29pm]

ThreadBare said:

I think a part of why the Chris Brown and Rihanna stroy blew up as much as it did was because the physical altercation was so public.

meow85 said:

Uh...no.


Right...right...

Hypocrisy and stupidity at its finest.

most rappers portray a character whilst rapping in the studio

its all a gimmick 4 tha cazshfloe(why iz deez hoez trippin?)

I wonder if enough people have even heard rap/hip-hop beyond their radio dial to know whether 'Rappers Hate On Gays'.

it happens, as it does within any artistic community. i just dont watch, read, or listen to those that hate on women or gays



give me missy elliott any day...
[Edited 3/1/09 9:03am]