vainandy said:

I respect that. But I don't see how Hip Hop pushed out their own good lyricists to replace them with Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane. I remember when Nas used to get spins. Now it's a foreign concept to even throw him into rotation. I never heard Ice Cube on the radio, but I own all of his albums. I find myself turned off my "urban" radio because the people who own the stations (much like people who own major labels) could give a damn about what OUR music sounds like. They don't survive off of listners, they survive off of advertisers. So the more money they are given, the less they care about what they broadcast. Hell, I live I the DC Metropolitan area AND THEY DON'T PLAY LOCAL ARTISTS. Clearly they don't deem these artists profitable. These are the "listeners". They don't play what people want to hear. And anyone who is wishing for those days might want to abandon that dream.

Artists such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Nas are never on radio. Hell, even artists like Killer Mike don't get on the radio. He's black, he's southern, but he's also a college graduate. Doesn't seem to profitable again. I doubt Gladys is familiar with anyone I named, and a host of others. She ws clearly speaking out of turn. The other problem, is that no one has forced good music underground. If someone thinks there is no market for something, they discontinue it, or make it that much harder to find. I'm personally annoyed when I hear Gucci Mane after Maxwell. All Black music doesn't need to share the same stage. That's why I wish they would separate the charts. Prince shouldn't be on a chart that also includes Soulja Boy. People don't have basic comprehension skills. They read these charts and equate high positions with quality. They should never take that car past the corner of popularity.

Commercial rap music hasn't always been garbage. Artists of yesterday that had major label deals would be the indie artists of today. The underground that covers completely different subject matter is viewed as "unimportant" to a corporation. Is there a strong market for this type of music, or are we wasting valuable resources? That's their decision. Adult Contemporary radio exists separately from the nonsense that they believe people my age enjoy. In fact, much like they don't sneak soft rock onto stations for today's popular music stations. There are stations assigned to their appropriate intended audiences. The problem with "urban" music is that they think Black people will listen to it all, simply because we're Black. WTF is that? They even only limit GOSPEL to early Sunday mornings on "urban" radio so this is not a Hip Hop thing. It's bigger than that. The same way there was a Black Music chart, is what allows the general lumping of music made by Black people being thrown in a big ass pot with anything applicable.

I know I've built a conspiracy theory out of radio spins, but there is something called payola. I feel that it's systematic, and it's nothing that a terrible rapper could come up with. They hardly see outside of their limited perspective clearly displayed in their music. While a quality lyricist/poet/MC has seen the scandal for what it is and decided to try other methods of promotion. I don't think it is the goal of any rapper to erase the legacy of R&B and Soul music. I just think they mined hills a little too vigorously and came up with shitty product. Everything that glitters isn't gold. Hence the difficulty selling more than 500,000 copies.

Peace, Hip Hop & Purple Rain

Goddess Cru... The Rebellious Agenda

My main concern is a good bassline (real bass), some strong sounding drums, and whatever other elements that go into making a song funky, danceable, and fun. Lyrics are usually the very last thing I notice in a song but I do know exactly what you are saying. The stations nowadays are only concerned with making huge dollars and have no concern whatsoever if the music is entertaining. They are only going to play music that is widely well known and aren't going to take chances on lesser known songs. It didn't always used to be like that though. R&B radio used to play album tracks such as "Lady Cab Driver" or "Automatic" which were never released as singles. Not just with Prince, but with everyone. Radio these days only plays the hits. Back in those days, radio didn't play hits, they made hits.



We had several local funk bands back in the early 1980s and the local R&B stations used to promote the hell out of them. They would even go so far as to say...."This is a local act so y'all all need to go out, buy this, and support your own". Blues is real big down here and has a huge following since most of the acts live right here in Mississippi. There is one station that is the main station that plays these acts. However, it is a public station that runs on donations mainly and a lot of it's audience switched to that station when rap took over R&B radio. I don't know if the current R&B stations support the local rap acts though because I took all those stations off my dial. But I doubt it though because they have become nothing but money hungry vultures who care nothing about entertainment.



EXACTLY! I have complained about this since 1985 when they started playing Shitney Houston on R&B radio. Actually, it kind of started when Michael Jackson had huge success with "Thriller" by mixing pop with R&B. I'm not a big fan of crossover R&B pop but I can tolerate it. But Shitney took it even further and not only tried for pop success but adult contemporary success also. She should never have been played on R&B radio. She should have been played on adult contemporary radio because it influences others to follow her lead and pretty soon, there's NO funk being made. There's a double standard here. Heavy metal stations would never play Barbara Streisand so why the hell should R&B stations (or funk stations which was actually what they were at the time) play someone like Shitney Houston? You also don't see country, folk, gospel, or any other type of white music all on the same station unless it's a pop station which is a combination of everything. But when it comes to black music, they throw everything into the same station and then it turns into artists not competing to be the best at the particular genre they are in, but artists competing and watering things down as much as possible to compete with the black artists that crossover.



I listened to rap as far back as 1979. In the early 1980s, when rap was only played on black radio and white people weren't into it whatsoever, it sounded totally different than the rap of the 1990s and today. The tempo was faster, a lot of it had real instruments and a band. The drums and drum machines pounded much harder. The music actually had a bassline. It was fun, danceable, party music. It was actually funk with spoken lyrics instead of sung lyrics. The transformation didn't occur until white kids got into it in the late 1980s. All that midtempo "beat with some talking" type rap existed, but very little of it got airplay on black stations in the early 1980s until the young white boys got into and it made it's way onto pop radio sometimes first before even making it's way to black radio. All funk was just totally removed from rap by then.

Truth can be a biatch.....