Agree with what u say..but the "we eat this up"...There's a thing called the bombardment theory or force feed theory.If all you are fed is one thing over and over again..eventually you will eat it sometimes it works in music sometimes it don't.Radio plays the same 10 song every hour and you know the rest of the story.But why this kind of music?It's easier and cheaper to make.Most of these guy used their drug money and went to discmakers and made a finished product.Majors just distribute and promote.Master P set the blueprint.The lyrical content is based on the only thing they know,the label is concerned about as little cost as possible and generate revenue not lyrical content.If a label forced fed you a soul artist as strong as some rap acts I believe you would eat that up too

Riverpoet31 said:

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When are you going to come out of the fantasy world that you live in? No white artist is walking around performing an on-going minstrel show. White artist put out crappy music because they want to some black artist are told the only why they can make it is to coon. You have black artist like Lupe Fiasco telling the public they have been told to dumb down their lyrics. I doubt anyone is telling white artist to this sort of thing.

SavonOsco said:

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"If a label forced fed you a soul artist as strong as some rap acts I believe you would eat that up too"


Co-sign

popgodazipa said:

SavonOsco said:

You ain't sayin' nothin' but the god honest truth!

I don't allow myself to be fed that garbage so I doubt I'd be force feed to listen to something I don't like and if I do listen, I know it ain't good enough to even download, why bother?

The main consumers of shit hop is white kids who buy it and listen to it from the safety of their nice suburban houses far away from the images these idiots put out there for them. They see that whole thug lifestyle as "interesting" because they aren't around it themselves.

And the main people making money off shit hop are old white record label geysers who want to dish out as little money possible to make a product. They love those thug images too because they are racist and that's how they want black people to be.....ignorant, uneducated thugs that "keep it real" in the ghetto. Sounds more like "staying in their place" to me and that's exactly what the record execs want.
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[Edited 7/23/09 14:29pm]

vainandy said:

Some HAVE fallen into it, some of us rather listen to Maxwell, Erykah, etc., but mostly it's the kids that still listen to that garbage.

Yeah, because they've raised a new generation since childbirth to have dull enough and cheap enough taste to like it because that's all they've been raised on.

But you know those same execs think all white folks like is "emo-pop, power rock and Disney".

The music industry don't know the real taste buds of ANYBODY black or white. They only care about green and also dissension. Also they don't know shit about music.

Nor do they care anything about music.

vainandy said:

That too.

Great topic, I will just add that in my view, the black artists who contribute to this ongoing minstrel show are not only focused soley on their own personal gain, they have internalized an inferiority complex as black people, such that they don't believe blacks are any better than these negative words and images. They have bought into the stereotypes that have prevailed in this country since the beginning- that blacks are inferior, lack intelligence, are violent etc. etc. We have a lot of work to do to get folks to believe, deep down in their marrow, that we are better than this, in order to stop perpetuating it.

mcw00 said:

Thank you.

"Who has taught you to hate yourself from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head."

My father always said black people never liked or least feard Malcolm X not because of his blunt talk on white racism/white supremacy but he scared use shitless when he spoke of his own and our people's deep level of "self-hatred". This is a subject many Black people blame others, deny, lie, make excuses, and/or pretend doesn't exist. You wannna scare many black people into silence or have them threaten to kick your ass, try having a conversation about this topic.

TD3 said:

Thats true. We need more people like that to tell black people about themselves. That's why when I tell them, black people start to get angry and fan away from me because they dont want to hear the truth...especially the older ones...when I hear black people talk trash about people like Tyler Perry who is actually DOING GOOD for the African American community, it HURTS me that someone who basically put rebirth in alot of African American acting careers can be hated on by our own people. Brainwashed cowards.

When it comes to this 'issue' i think its always so easy to blame the record companies on this.
I mean, they are first of all a commercial corporations, trying to make profits.

Look at the 'artists' themselves in the first place. I think a lot of them just want to be popular / make lots of money as quick as possible. And when they want to achieve it with releasing shit, that is their choice.
And to be honest, many of these hit-scoring artists simply lack the qualities to make a long career out of it. After 3 - 4 years its over, and they go in obscurity or turn up in yet another stupid reality-show, just to get some income.

But the key-issue is they choose for it themselves.

As a beginning artist you can ALSO choose to start with a smaller record company, that gives you more artistic freedom, that gives you some space and time to develop yourself.

Britney Spears?
New Kids on the Block?
Katy Perry?
Hollywood Undead?

Why should Lupe Fiasco (never heard of the bloke) blame the company for dumbing down his lyrics?
Its HIS decision to stay with that company, he doesnt have too. And if he signed a contract under such 'conditions' (give us 'dumb' music) maybe he shouldnt have signed it all. Free choice, ever heard of it?

As i said, this isnt in the first place about racism by record companies. Its about artists who want to get 'big' very fast, and therefore are willing to 'dumb themselves' down.

There are enough black artists who dont follow that path, and decide to built up their career slowly and on their own terms.
[Edited 7/24/09 12:08pm]

Riverpoet31 said:

Yeah Brit's "If You Seek Amy" is really really VOID of anything that makes sense....it was a song just to say something dirty....at least Justify My love has some pretty poetry while being dirty in the same time. They just don't care anymore.

paisleypark4 said:

If you have not done so yet, check out the film, "Beyond beats and rhymes". Deals with this exact topic

http://www.youtube.com/wa...8YpcN7oKIM

Riverpoet31 said:

The fact that your never heard of "the bloke" makes what u just typed bordeline assinine,but I'll just chalk it up to plain ignorance and let it slide.To put you up to speed,"The Bloke" REFUSED to dumb down his lyrics,so therefore he didnt sign a contract under those conditions.The label he is on let him be him and he's one of the few rappers out there who put out thoughtful and positive music.What he did was expose other labels by what he went thru before he got signed.Hopefully by exposing that mindset some execs have,things would change in what is now today's shit rap scene.

SPYZFAN1 said:

That Lil Wayne Rock album is supposed to come out this year, The record label is holding it back. So if Lil Wayne, the current top selling rapper can't even put out a Rock record, than who knows what the problem is?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

He couldn't even make good rap music so what makes him think he can be a rocker?
[Edited 7/24/09 19:31pm]

It's being held back because it sucks and with the death of autotune that's all he used on the whole thing.They might have to put another effect on his vocals before they try to put that crap out.

phunkdaddy said:

Thank you

Riverpoet31 said:

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Dude you need to do some reserch before you type. Lupe had trouble obtaining a recording contract and was told if he just dumbed his lyrics down he could get a recording contract. He held out until he could do things the right way . What he did do was write about the problem and talk about in interviews which makes him smarter than most artist.

In additon, I can assure you those artist you mentioned came to record companies untalented and stupid. Lupe is not a gangster rapper he did not start out like that but was told to change in order to make it. No one is telling white artist to dumb down their music.

The fact that he was asked to change image and music to fit a sterotype is racist.
[Edited 7/28/09 10:15am]

Eh, I think that for the most part people get the music that they deserve. I don't necessarily think that it is accurate to blame the evil corporations. Yes, they are in it to make as much money as possible but you can bet your sweet bippy that if "the masses" wanted "intelligent" music that is exactly what the major labels would be pushing. I think that the general public deserves at least half of the blame for the type of music that is currently popular.

Riverpoet31 said:

People like you, the pretenders, always say this because you'd like to think so.

Riverpoet31 said:

When it comes to this 'issue' i think its always so easy to blame the record companies on this.
I mean, they are first of all a commercial corporations, trying to make profits.

Look at the 'artists' themselves in the first place. I think a lot of them just want to be popular / make lots of money as quick as possible. And when they want to achieve it with releasing shit, that is their choice.
And to be honest, many of these hit-scoring artists simply lack the qualities to make a long career out of it. After 3 - 4 years its over, and they go in obscurity or turn up in yet another stupid reality-show, just to get some income.

But the key-issue is they choose for it themselves.

As a beginning artist you can ALSO choose to start with a smaller record company, that gives you more artistic freedom, that gives you some space and time to develop yourself.

Its easy to blame the labels because they hold the keys to the media outlets and they perpetuate the nonsense.
People want to eat off of their art. There's nothing wrong with that. The industry has been re-designed so that only a VERY small, select few will make a "long career" of it in the mainstream. They are there to provide the deception that keeps the lies going. Lots of talented artists make money by performing but its a lot easier to do it once you've had some national success. The gatekeepers are far worse than they've ever been because of shows like "American IDLE" - now everyone thinks they can be a star or at the very least, get a spinoff reality show for being an attention whore. Blacks, Latinos and Asians have it far worse because they have to conform to a stereotype to become successful enough to have the startup income to launch a career.
[Edited 7/29/09 1:25am]

I agree that the black music being promoted is hip hop and sexy soul thats near rap, all of it degrades women, glamourises drugs, gangstas, ghetto dogs like pitbulls (BANNED in New Zealand) and talks about shit like guns and shooting niggas and other shit. The fact they call themselves niggas is degrading enough, and yet people never know about talented artists. Take Macy Gray, initially popular with her Fantasia like voice and her tales of taking drugs (Soon as she cleaned her act up and refused to guest any rappers, here career died, obviously not provocative enough, forget the fact she could really sing and wrote all her own songs.
People buying records by Young Jeezy, T Pain, Akon, 50cent/Eminem type shit and Lil Wayne is the equivalent of black people going to a Ministrel or coon show in 1909 to watch a Stepin Fetchit type character steal chickins out of ol mastas henhouse. Becuase thats what this shit hop is, modern day minstelry, how long before we get a rapper called Jim Crow. Plus all these people are famous for getting shot or ending up in prison, all the rappers are from the bottom 25% of black society and become nouveaux riche off promoting their degenerate lifestyles, if I was African American I would be up in arms over this shit.
Some one mentioned they get the shower cap wearing doo rag brotha on the news, its the same in New Zealand, its always a down home dumb ass Maori or a really fresh Islander over a well educated and dressed one, eg "Yeah I saw dose fullas break into dat house and it wuz hard out cuz" and people watch this shit and think all Maoris think like that. This rap shit is what they are doing to African Americans. Here we have this shit hop with our own people, the biggest song of this year was a gangsta rap group who rapped about a racially motivated killing where a 15 year old Maori was tagging some white guys house for the umpteenth time and the white guy got real angry and killed him. Superflous to say which side the rappers took, and the white guy got the book thrown at him, where the kid was exonerated, yet his parents beat the shit out of him and couldn't care less.

Note to self...never visit NZ...lol..but seriously you just made me think of something.When "Fight the Power" came out with that video,some powerful people got scared.PE,along with other social concious rappers were actually starting movement.They were no longer just acts making money for them.It's no coincidence that after concious rap,gangster rap followed.