Okay... so, here it is...

I had the great misfortune of having to see some fucking rap videos last night... here were some common elements that I noticed in ALL the rap videos:

1. VERY shitty "music"
2. EVERYONE was wearing basketball clothes for some fucking reason
3. MANY expensive cars
4. LOTS of jewelry
5. FUCKING yachts???
6. CLASSLESS women dancing around like idiots
7. TONS of stupid hand gestures and gesticulations
8. NO white men, but some scantily clad white women
9. Gold or Silver teeth
10. NO TALENT

EDIT: I hate pretty much all videos, so it is NOT a racist thing... I didn't see any "white" videos last night, so I don't know what happens in them.

I hate the actions, not the person.

...
[This message was edited Sun Oct 6 10:18:49 PDT 2002 by IceNine]

You know that you will soon accused to be racist...( I'm not a rap expert but Arrested Dev & Tribe Called Quest were differents, same thing for De La Soul )

Lso, lots of fast bouncing up & down up & down up & down up & down up & down,

and lots of angry, angry, mean looking men

jnoel said:

This applies to today's rappers...

A Tribe Called Quest was very cool... De La Soul was cool...
Arrested Development was very cool...

These guys were very different from the crap that they put out now where the main concern of rappers is materialism.

Give me the OLD rap anyday over today's style over substance crap.

The days when rap was cool are far behind us...

Hell, I even liked Ice Cube, Eazy-E, NWA, Grandmaster Flash, The Fat Boys, etc. Those guys were very different than today's stuff.

In short, racism has nothing to do with my hatred for rap "music," rather it is my hatred for their materialism and unrealistic lifestyles shown in videos.

AND

I hate all videos and never watch videos... it just so happens that rap was on last night when my friend turned the video channel on.

I think that the rock videos of the eighties were fucking stupid as well... nothing but ignorance and rampant misogynism everywhere.

Give me videos like Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy" anyday... artistry without ignorance.

In short, black artists have been responsible for a lot of great music and they have been at the forefront of the development of jazz, rock, blues, etc., but RAP is NOT music.

One of the reasons, I think & it's the same thing for the new rock bands, it's due to the cynism of the people working at the head of the record compagnies, they don't give a fuck about Art, they know that, unfortunately, cliché & stupidity sell

... who knows? I guess everybody has their own taste in "music"...

What about Ice T? He rocks!


.
[This message was edited Sun Oct 6 9:03:30 PDT 2002 by AzureStar]

A lot of it has to do with esteem.Alot of these rappers grew up with nothing and were told they would be nothing.So when they get the chance they want to show the world that anything is possible and can be accomplished by them.Also there are alot of sponsors who want their products used and shown in those video's.So the corporations are also behind alot of rap videos.As fas as music it is just a form that you are not comfortable with.I not as fond of the newer stuff.But i think my age may have something to do with my thinking.Not cause i'm wiser,i just see things differently
than the youth of today.They have a different lifestyle and code than i did when i grew up.Each generations music seems to piss off the generation before.Classical got pissed off of jazz which got pissed off of rock which is pissed off of rap.I wonder what will piss off the rap generation.The rebirth of classical??

jnoel said:

Funny you should mention that... I just posted something about that exact thing!

4LOVE said:

You know what?

You are right! You make some fucking great points and I agree with you.

I guess that I am getting old.

OCEANA said:

you could write it on every music related thread hehe

Wrong forum!!!

SkletonKee said:

Damn!!!

You got me... and that hurts... *sniff*

:LOL:

"Classical got pissed off of jazz which got pissed off of rock which is pissed off of rap.I wonder what will piss off the rap generation.The rebirth of classical??" I don't think that it's only that, even if Im a 30years old+, those young rapper, or technohead, act as if they were rebels & in reality most of them are puppets in the hand of their labels/ mtv & are prisonners of their "images" etc...

jnoel said:

Rap was mostly an underground alternative to "popular music".The corporations caught on to the next big thing joined in and the result is what you have today.

4LOVE said:

Yep... so right.

"Tin eared, graph paper brained accountants instead of music fans call all the shots at giant record companies now. The lowest common denominator rules." - MTV Get Off the Air (Dead Kennedys)

I have to agree to a certain extent.
For me the apex of rap was reached
with Public Enemy's heyday.
It takes a nation of millions &
Fear Of A Black Planet totally
wipe the floor with everything else.

We Live in America Very Much Based in Greed.very much Based in Material Gain.when Rappers only get picked on for this I do feel it's very Racist&a cheap shot IMHO.where are the Crys when White Artists do this very same thing? or the Corperate Moguls&Business Stock Holders that Promote this Image? and anyway HollyWood has always been the Land of Make Believe does it Scare some people to See Black Acts Blinging when back in the 30's through Now Glamour has always been in Fashion?? Hell ain't nothing wrong with Shinning but not everything you see is real.alot of it is on Loan but that cuts both ways.

4LOVE said:

I've been struggling with this idea myself as I did listen to pop when I was young and yet I cannot stand the crap that's coming out today. And for all my age-bias, I cannot help but think there is something objectively different about today's music--it really is crappier, less imaginative, than what went before.

As for rap...the Beastie Boys are only ones left doing anything interesting. Rap, like the other forms, is polluted by bands that are just a clone of a clone of a clone of what was once a real style.

About the materialism--the cars and chicks and gold and guns are just playing into a certain class of boy-teenager's fantasy I think. Much like the Backstreet boys seem to resonante with my little girl, much like sesame street resonates with a 4-year-old...we old folks just have to tune it out.

mistermaxxx said:

Oh, trust me... I hate just about all white artists too... I don't see enough videos to know what "white" videos look like, but I can assure you that I hate them if they act materialistic and stupid.

I prefer videos to be artistic... and I did comment on how much I hated white rock videos in the eighties. That shit was totally fucking lame...

You want to know what really fucking sucked? When eighties rockers would pose in front of expensive cars and have scantily-clad women laying all over them.

I really don't like that shit.

Once again, all this stuff if merely my opinion.

What I find interesting about the images of rap videos, with all the cars, and jewelery and the over all image of "look I've made it and look at all the cool things I got to buy," is that kids look at that and actually think that rappers lead that type of lifestyle...MOST DON'T...

I live in LA and have friends in bands with videos on MTV and all that and people actually think that my friends are rich rock stars...but they're not...the corporate monster pushes the image because it sells the records...while most of my friends are still struggling...

Plus, I wonder what the net worth of most these rap stars is at this point...it seems that if they've made any money, they pretty much have spend it all...

Reminds of MCHammer and his pathetic end...I actually saw him flying coach on a Southwest Airline flight from San Francisco to LA...and what about TLC and their whole bankruptcy...

TheResistor said:

well, doesnt Ja Rule own his own record company enterprise? if you ask me, today's rap artist have learned from the mc hammers and are learning how to keep what they earn..look at P-Diddy...today's top Hip-Hop Artist (if you can even call them that) are churning out an album a year (with the exception of Eminem)...and the albums *sell* big time...sadly though, its as if the money is far more important then the artisty...

TheResistor said:

Yeah, you have to recoup money for the record company, agents, managers, etc., BEFORE you find out what you make. And sometimes it takes a bit before you're actually rolling in dough (if at all). It doesn't usually happen after your first album (unless it's REAL HUGE in sales), and might not happen with the second one either. People like LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Ice Tea, etc., they get into movies not only because they're hams, but because it's a more solid pay day than wondering how your next album will sell. There's a set amount that you sign for, and the movie studio doesn't recoup anything from you because they don't give you an advance. And if the movie bombs, you still have your pay check. But the more established actors and actressess usually get a percentage of the gross if the movie doesn't turn out like Howard The Duck.

teller said:

Oh stop



True

And Now For The Good Rap/HipHop:

Common
Mos Def
The Roots
Wu Tang Clan
Guru
Black Eyed Peas

BorisFishpaw said:

The only other hip hop I can think of that I like within the last few years is...a bit of Outkast (don't own any of their albums) and Blackalicious. Hip hop had the potential to grow to a larger extent overall (artistically) than it has unfortunately. I like the new PE album, but I haven't yet formed an opinion on whether it's that great or not. Most popular music is a lot of mass produced, undistinguished, boredom. Gotta find the good stuff elsewhere.

Thats what happens when rap becomes homogenized and turned into a product. The music and the videos has no life or inspiration any more. They have the several key elements you listed above, and just rearrange them over and over into another album to make money.

Tom said:

Yep... that's about the size of it.

I guess that I am just disgusted with all mainstream music... because I fucking hate the state of rock music too... and pop music...

http://www.thadweb.com/ru...index.html
The 1st Rap Album to go Gold
The 1st Rap Video on MTV
The 1st Rap Artists on American Bandstand
The 1st Rap Album to go Platinum
The 1st Rap Artists on Saturday Night Live
The 1st Rap Artists on the cover of Rolling Stone
The 1st Rap Artists nominated for a Grammy
The 1st Rap Album to go Multi-Platinum

RUNDMC
Yup true most rap videos today directed to have expensive cars,women danceing around and etc. The lyrics also pretty much the same. I don't really watch any rap videos anymore because, majority of videos on MTV done the same. It would be cool the directors to make the videos more interesting to watch add some special effects and stop being so materialistic.
[This message was edited Sun Oct 6 19:12:05 PDT 2002 by kondwanii]

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