With all the second-rate computerized tracks and the dime-a-dozen "rap artists" that are clogging the airways nowadays, who do you think will be the death of hip-hop?

What "artist" killed hip-hop for you?


I personally think that Vanilla Ice opened the floodgate to generic hip-hop "artists". He made the record exec's see that with the right clothes and attitude, anybody could make millions.

4HisGlory said:

In my opinion, Hammer did the same thing. I believe that true hip hop will always be around, and those who want it will just have to look for it. As far as good hip hop not being part of the mainstream, I see many artists who are collectively responsible for that downturn. Plus, let's also put some of the blame on the people who go out and buy that stuff. If the image-oriented rap didn't sell, it wouldn't be around.

OdysseyMiles said:

True, true. I have to add that those who buy this new shit are young and have no idea what real hip-hop is supposed to sound like. THEY buy it for the image, I bought it for the music.

Hot 97 likes to refer to P. Diddy as "Shiny Suit Man." Guess they think he's watered-down the genre.

sosgemini said:

She was on Arrested Development so I gotta give the girl props. She can't rap for sh*t though.

4HisGlory said:

We could also argue that the kind of music that gets played is a reflection of the times we live in and the mindset of the people requesting it.
I've noticed that their isn't a whole lot of hip hop being played that talks about what's going on in the world. The "rap music" that get's played is talking about drinkin', chillin' in the club, having sex, counting stacks of money and braggin' about cars. Now my belief is this: The escapism (that's what I like to call it, assuming that people are not really that ignorant) that we see in hip hop today is a reflection of the artists and the people buying the music. They would rather ignore what's going on and talk about having a good time and material things then try to tackle a few of the issues out there. Issues that used to get tackled on a regulat basis by Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, X Clan, Queen Latifah, 2-Pac, etc.
I can't count the amount of times I've heard people talking about going out and kickin' it as hard as they can on a Friday night. That's what they look forward too, so that's what the songs talk about.

4HisGlory said:

The guilty:

Puff Daddy
Master P
Jay Zzzzzz
50 Cent
Tupac's killer
Notorious BIG's killer
Lil Kim's plastic surgeon
[This message was edited Mon Aug 16 11:43:06 2004 by Shapeshifter]

whoever it is, i just hope they hurry up and kill it already.

Shapeshifter said:

Why don't you compile a Ten Most Wanted Hip-Hop Killers List for me.

Shapeshifter said:

All those u named above are responsible

except for Jay Z, he had class about his shit, although it came 2 late...it was like he HAD it 2gether, then got all poppy...then went back 2 being real when Blueprint came out.

I think Lil Kim isnt responsible 4 anything either, she only has 3 albums, her first lbum was DOPE and just about classic...she tried all new sounds with the second album, and the third was so so.


but u can add

CASH MONEy bitches 2 the list..oh and NELLY

paisleypark4 said:

Jay Z is also guilty because he contracted the services of The Neptunes on waaaaay too many damn songs!!

Add Eminem, the new and sold out Dr. Dre, Lil John, Petey Pablo, Juvenile, Kanye West (his message is cool, his music is whack!).

kanye West is still good on my list...he is really not sold out.

Eminem got lame though i admit..he is just boring , but i still wouldnt put him on there, he was against the fame. But now i think he loves it. Especially going to 8Mile myself and seeing what was there...

Prince.....anyone remember 'Jughead'?

Hip-hop hasn't really died. There are many artists out there with no airplay and no videos that still generate creative product. De La Soul, Talib Kweli, JayLib, MF Doom and Common come to mind. Not to mention OutKast. A Tribe Called Quest is reuniting.

I think the murderers of Tupac and Biggie derailed hip-hop. They have since had hundreds of would-be imitators whose lyrics and videos remind me of a modern day minstrel show. Hip-hop's image is that of a mindless, soulless, illiterate, materialistic mess. It's been co-opted by radio, R&B, cinema and the media vanguard. KRS-ONE and Chuck D must be beside themselves.

The tide is starting to turn slowly, but we've come full circle again. Hip-hop went from fad to art form to fad, a vehicle to sell records, sports gear and other product. Hopefully, the image will become passe and the music will thrive on the underground scene.

Come on now people, don't get me all worked up and excited for nothing. I didn't realize hip hop was in trouble. I truly hope it is. I have been waiting for that shit to die for damn near 15 years now.

Surely, the picture of Liza Minelli is a joke. I saw someone else's response to the picture so now I don't know. I have been saying for years now that I wish someone like Liza Minelli, Barbara Streisand, or Bette Midler would make a hip hop record so hip hop will no longer be considered a "cool" form of music. Remember when Ethel Merman did a disco record?

I don't care who is responsible for the death of hip hop just as long as someone kills it. The death of hip hop would be better than the greatest orgasm I have ever experienced. If it doesn't die, at least let it go underground and out of the mainstream so we can get back to the funk.....it has been WAY too long.

I don't know who'll be the death of it...but this song is pretty bad and should make you wanna run for cover. Franchize-"White Tee"... a song about white T-shirts.

Yea in my white tee [x12]

[Hook x2]
I slang in my white tee
I bang in my white tee
All in the club spitting game in my white tee
I bling in my white tee sver things in my white tee
Fuck a throwback i look clean in my white tee

[Verse 1]

Step on the scene with some green and some hard white work
Real clean fresh jeans and a all white shirt
We all get money and we all smoke twerk
Hit the dirt one squirt will leave all yall murk
Cause im fresh in my white tee they glance at my white tee and i
Got the hat that match my pants and my white tee
Whoever that you might see
I know they got a white tee
Uncle brother sister mother dad or ur wifey
Hanes or fruit of the loom be the
Name of my white tee
I gotta change man its a stain on my white tee
Lames in a white tee i bring the pain in my white tee
Hispanic cracka nigga ever yangs wearin white tee
Hit the club deep and we all got a white tee
A throw back no that hell naw it dont excite me
You dont need no throwback cause you will be sat on your white
Tee you can get a circle or a v neck on ur white tee

[Hook x2]

[Verse 2]

I hit the mall in my white tee
Ooh I think they like me or they like the diamonds cause they shine so brightly
Yeah u know i how i be under my tee it the wifey
.... or tighly
For them niggas who think im soft nigga come and try me
They going to find your body
White tees in the club and while we drinking on bacardi
Fuck throwbacks white tees in party
Now dont get me started gotta try bacardi
Drama we avoid it
Everyone one wear white tees cause they can afford it
Girls wear white tees boys wear white tees
Niggas in the trap now i bet they got a white tee
I wear a white tee, you wear a white tee
The next day catch me with a brand new white tee
Oh they buy clean white shoes fresh jeans
But on that boy shirt what it say not a thingg

[Hook x2]

I gotta couple throwbacks it just I choose not to wear them
White tee extravganza nigga like a foot locker sale
Niggas think i done fail but my paper stacking a lot
Or you can throw back this but
Partner check my nine
And im a ghetto gangsta white tee laws gone hate ya
Street gangs with a little fame them hoes gonna chase ya
Can't exscape from this white shit it done covered the map
Like crack been her in the 80s and it took over the trap
Come to the hood you can find me trapping in my white tee
Standing with a full grill niggas might try me know how i be still in my white tee
Rock jeans tiger green yeah girls like me
Haters try to bite me
Some try to dislike me
Became a rich nigga and the feds try to indicte me

Yea in my white tee [x12]

vainandy said:

Hip hop is like a T2. So sit tight. It's gonna be a while.

Another Hammer and Vanilla diss.....zzzzz.....come on stop blaming them! I did not like Vanilla (but do Mc hammer) BUT y with all this serious hiphop shit.....hiphop was not serious 2 begin with.....


Fine if u like serious hiphop BUT a good hiphop song does not have 2 be serious.....

A good song is a good song, no matter what the message is! "Where is the love" may of talked about issues but u know that song was shit.....


Heck, I think the sound is worse then the words at the mo'.....2 me, the production comes first.....

Need 2 change that first.....rnb is better now then it was around 96/97.....all that mellow shit drove me crazy with boredom!

That Neptunes/Timbaland sound is shit 2 me now.....bring back New jack swing I say!

vainandy said:

vainandy, we share a desire to see "hip-hop" fade from the mainstream. but for different reasons. i want to see hip-hop return to a truly alternative form of music. you just want to see it die. everybody's entitled to their own tastes, but you take hatred to a new level!

you're gonna give yourself an ulcer because hip-hop is not going away for a while. you waited 15 years. some people waited a decade longer than that. it's not going away.

i'd change my siggie to "may you live to see the return of funk." but that's just me. speaking of which, has "funk" ever been truly mainstream?

OdysseyMiles said:

Hey Odyssey, I got a track we just completed that I'd like U 2 hear about hip-hop music. Hope you got the MP3 thing figured out. Holla by way of ORGNOTE friend.

vainandy said:

I like conscience hip-hop. However, I do have to strongly agree with you because of the redundancy of the hip-hop clones! The message has "got" to change. I was a great fan of hip-hop back in the days of Kwame', 3xdope, run dmc, Digable Planets right on up to the conscience rappers of today like Mos, Common, Black thought etc. However, it is so mainstream that radio will not play true "musicians" or "bands" anymore. It definately time for a Nu Era of music!

[/quote]

I have no problem with hip hop staying alive if it would go back like it was in the old days with songs like "Planet Rock", "Pack Jam", "Egypt, Egypt", or "Siberian Nights" to name a few. It was good back in the day and was for the dance floor. A lot of the songs back then were not sampled either. Everything today is midtempo.....just slow enough so they can "talk" over it. Everyone's interested in the words, I could care less. The first thing that catches my ear in a song is the music, the beat, and the groove.

Midtempo is too slow for the dance floor and too fast for the bedroom. It serves no purpose. As far as the artists making such great statements and telling such great stories with the lyrics.....if I want a story, I will read a book or watch a movie.

As for funk being in the mainstream, it dominated R&B radio in the early 1980s.

vainandy said:[quote][quote]namepeace said

A lot of the songs back then were not sampled either. Everything today is midtempo.....just slow enough so they can "talk" over it. Everyone's interested in the words, I could care less. The first thing that catches my ear in a song is the music, the beat, and the groove.

Midtempo is too slow for the dance floor and too fast for the bedroom. It serves no purpose. As far as the artists making such great statements and telling such great stories with the lyrics.....if I want a story, I will read a book or watch a movie.

-----

Almost all hip-hop was either a sample (Planet Rock) or a live band redoing a song (Rapper's Delight). If royalties were paid on samples from rap songs in the 80's James Brown would be the richest black man in the world.

While it's true that alot of the rap songs of today have become slower and the BPMs hover around 90-100 BPM, I think the music being made today is great. The main problem is that once a producer or production team like The Neptunes, Kanye or Sizz Beats makes a few hits, EVERYBODY wants them on their track, and every rapper winds up sounding the same.

It's true, "Planet Rock" was a rip off of Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" but it is not the same exact music as Kraftwerk's version used for the background of the rap. I'm not a musician, nor do I claim to be, but some sort of instruments, electronic or not, had to been played to recreate that sound. I remember the most popular version on the radio and clubs back then was the instrumental version. It was good enough to hold it's own without the rap. The rap version is good too though.

I don't remember any samples in The Jonzun Crew's music. Most everything of theirs I can remember was made from scratch with no song before to serve as it's foundation.

Pretty Tony, Freestyle, and Egyptian Lover are some others I really like. Freestyle and Pretty Tony did their songs from scratch. Egyptian Lover sampled some times but did most of his from scratch. Some times when he would sample, he would used just a snipplet in certain certain sections of the song...it didn't serve as the foundation of the song.

Divine Sounds "What People Do For Money" was done from scratch. Grandmaster Flash sampled some of their songs but they also could hold their own from scratch also. "The Message", "Scorpio", "New York, New York", and "Survival" were not samples.

"Nasty Rock" by Garrett's Crew was done from scratch. The P Crew turned around and remade it and made it even funkier.

Hip hop was a very funky and creative form of music in the early 1980s. Some of my favorites songs from that era were hip hop.

As far as James Brown should have gotten rich off of it.....that would have been the late 1980s. That's when the sampling really started taking over and the tempo started slowing down a lot of the records. When the 1990s came along, gansta rap took over, the tempo slowed all the way down, and the focus was more on the lyrics more than the music. In the early 1980s you could turn the 12 Inch over and play the instrumental and no one would complain.

To answer your question: the rich, White, corporate megalomaniacs that bought out the genre.























.....Oh, wait, I'm sorry. It already has killed Hip-Hop.

So true!

vainandy said:

Midtempo music is great to drive and cruise with. If you have a car, hip hop sounds so good when you're cruising the streets. I love driving around with some Tori Fixx, Grand Puba, Lost Boyz, Queen Latifah or Ludacris bumping. But, a lot of the acts you're talking about (Egyptian Lover, etc.) fall in the "Electro" category more so than "hip hop." They're both urban though. But, I feel you though, I don't really "get my dance on" to hip hop, I chill and vibe to it. I don't hard out dance to it like a house song or some uptempo R&B track, but you can groove.

Hip-hop is a means of advertising name-brand labels to today's youth.

Nelly-- Air Force One's
Ginuwine-- In Those Jeans
Cash Money Millionaires-- (Every damn song they sing)
Jay-Z-- Give it To Me
Lil Kim-- (Everything she sings)
many, many more...

Today's youth has much more buying power than they did when we were growing up. When we were young our tapes were home made fresh from the ghetto blaster! Nowadays kids have money to buy cd's, stereos, clothes, shoes, cars...

The men in suits know this and they recruit dumb ass aspiring rappers to fit into their money-making scheme of advertising to the public.

4HisGlory said:

That's what I'm Sayin'! There's a lesson to be learned! For those in need go to
WWW.zulunation.com