Hip Hop/Rap Music: Because We Know We Can Do Better!

I’M HATIN’.

I had to start the first official blog post off with this topic because the whole concept of the blog started from a conversation about today’s rap music and hip hop culture. Now, let me start out by saying, I LOVE RAP and the HIP HOP culture... or the idea of it. I love good lyrics, flow, great beats and the creativity this craft has to offer. I HATE when people make bullsh*t, crappy and nonsensical lyrics and call it art… or even entertaining for that matter.

Rap and the Hip Hop culture began as a form of poetry and spoken word, written about the African American experience; “miseducation”, unemployment and incarceration as a prevalent living condition (as you can see, not much has changed here). But, while it told stories of these bad things, it also told of upholding the Black Community, beating the struggle and how to party. The partying is important because when times are tough, as many of us can attest to, we need a distraction, i.e. partying, to ease the pressures of REAL life and to keep it from collapsing and engulfing us.

Now, I know that everyone has a different idea about the roots of Rap and Hip Hop and to keep it completely fair, I’ve referenced Wikipedia at the bottom of the post, so that you get an idea of where I am pulling from.

With that great historical background, I have to ask…Is that what we hear now? For the most part, I’d have to say NO. Now, before I rip the entire industry, I have to big up Common, Talib Kweli, The Roots, Mos Def, Lupe, Jay-Z, Kanye and a few others that, I feel, truly have a message/agenda they want to promote. I mean, even in their party songs there is a take away. But this newfound “ringtone rap” and “autotune atrocity” is destroying the young urban community. Seriously.

“Superman that Ho”? “Whoop That Trick?” and pretty much anything Nikki Minaj says… WTF?

I’M HATIN’ on the music that is put out and the actual Rappers, themselves. Attention: 50 Cent and Gunit, Eminem, Snoop, Soulja Boy and any rapper with the name “Lil” in front of his name, GIVE ME SOME SUBSTANCE PLEASE.

I’ve often joked (semi-seriously) about making my own album. AN ENTIRE DISS ALBUM called “I’m HATIN’” that completely annihilates and belittles everybody in the game that makes this genre of music overwhelmingly intolerable. What do you think? Should I do it? Am I a rapper?, No. But with the music that exists today, I won’t have to try hard to match the talent… or lack there of.

So Haters, look out for my unofficial mixtape. Coming soon to a barbershop, hair salon and Chinese food store near you.




From www.Wikipedia.org
“Hip hop music is a musical genre typically consisting of a rhythmic vocal style called rap which is accompanied with backing beats. Hip hop music is part of hip hop culture, which began in the Bronx, in New York City in the 1970s, primarily among African Americans, with some Jamaican immigrant influence. The term rap music is often used synonymously with hip hop music however,"hip hop more properly denotes the practices of an entire subculture".
Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a beat. Beats are traditionally generated from portions of other songs by a DJ, or sampled from portions of other songs by a producer, though synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands are also used, especially in newer music. Rappers may perform poetry which they have written ahead of time, or improvise rhymes on the spot with or without a beat. Though rap is usually an integral component of hip hop music, DJs sometimes perform and record alone, and many instrumental acts are also defined as hip hop”