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Yes. Homicide rates and crime is going down all across the nation and in urban areas since the 1990s, so it's only natural that rap and hip-hop is reflecting a less aggressive, less violent style and instead concentrating on money, romance, and "the good life" as opposed to killing people and slapping hoes down.
Sure, however the society isn't the point where we all drive Lambos and wear thousands of dollars of bling, yet that is all I hear from Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and the like.
Alot of rap now is like kidz bop. Rap is definitely parent friendly, which in the end makes it kid friendly.lol. Where do most kids get the money to download from? Their parents. And since alot of kids dont have money of their own they'll ask mommy or daddy to buy it and if the parents dont approve of the music then the artist looses money. Even if the cd has a parental advisory sticker that dont mean the parents will will not approve. (artists like drake, kid cudi, kanye, and solja boy come to mind) So basically I think that the majors are trying to compromise by making kids happy but at the same time having approval from parents, esp the upper middle class parents since they have the money. Working class and lower class, and to some extent middle class parents are way too busy paying for more important stuff so music is not even a priority
Another reason is that if you aint marketable then sorry you wont make it big, in other words alot of artists force themselves to sell out. Look at what happened to most of the big rappers now.(i can give alot of examples) . This kinda goes back to the first paragraph
i cant say i absolutely hate rap now, but some variety would be nice. Also alot of rapper in the 90's never lived their lyrics. Even if they did some of it was embellished. It was just an image that was popular at the time so they had to live up to it.
-mas23-
It seems to me that the stuff coming out of the mainstream rappers these days just caters to upper middle class suburban kids who have glorified visions of the "ghetto."
Whats largely popular in rap has traveled far from the days of NWA who rapped about "true" gangster life in the city of Compton.
These days, its hard to find a song on the radio that isn't about dancing in the clubs or sexual relations with the opposite gender, something that is much less esoteric than Grand Master Flash's "The Message."
Whats your take on the whole thing?
I agree... Rap nowadays is all about trying to sell the product to middle class white kids, which is definitely the target audiance... For example: I walk around my University campus and all I hear is rap music blasting from cars and dorm rooms. Stuff like: "gonna go to da club, find a ho and do her and leave dat ho, find another ho" is pretty much every middle class, white, douchebag college student's battle cry. So, thus the hip hoppers and rappers write "songs" for that sort of audiance. The weird thing is, women like it just a much, if not more so than the guys do.
Mainstream rap just plain sucks...it glorifies EVERYTHING that we have been told is WRONG. Hip Hop started out by some artists who wanted to make some music with energy (Mike Shinoda of Fort Minor/Linkin Park for example, not as a starter, but a representative) and from that spawned the crap that is now lil wayne, snoopdog, etc...Hip Hop is something I can respect and enjoy but rap....not so much. In fact, not at all. At least not mainstream....ick. I went through a rap phase two years ago for about a month and now I can't believe I used to listen to that crud.
btw this is coming from a major metal/industrial/nü-metal fan.
Yes. Homicide rates and crime is going down all across the nation and in urban areas since the 1990s, so it's only natural that rap and hip-hop is reflecting a less aggressive, less violent style and instead concentrating on money, romance, and "the good life" as opposed to killing people and slapping hoes down.
A good deal of the rap "street" type stuff I remember from the early 1990s wasn't about committing violence. A fair amount was about frustration with political leaders, racism, drug addiction, broken homes, and urban alienation. A few women even rapped about sexism. The lighter stuff, like Fresh Prince, was largely about women and friends and parties. However I don't think it was necessarily about being rich while doing any of those things.
I don't think we've reached the point where there is no racism, addicts, alienated people, or screwed up families. I didn't necessarily like rap, even then, but it's ability to speak about angry and alienated people could at times be provocative or intriguing. (Potential downside being the concern that echoing that anger may exacerbate or expand it) Or even to speak to being a poor teen who goes to different kinds of parties and meets different kinds of gals than a suburban boy does. At it's best it was perhaps like "the Blues" for urban blacks. I think some of it still might be, but perhaps not quite so much.
All that said rap has always, or almost always, had a strong element about selling to middle-class white kids. I didn't learn about rap from the one or two black kids I knew then, I grew up in a small town in the Plains, I learned about it from my computer-nerd older brother. Even the angry "I hate white people" type rappers probably knew they had a large white audience who felt bad about elements in American history or wanted to shock their parents. Also a good deal of rap even then was about sex and partying.
Sort of see what xaviero82 was saying; the 80s and especially the early 90s were raw periods here in america, and the music reflected it. Not so much now. But even so, as Thomas R. pointed out, there was lighter stuff as well. Agree that there was commercialized rap but even in the past it was so much more balanced. I mean c'mon, where are the public enemies and brand nubians or kool moe dees in today's mainstream music? If there are educate me, but that's the difference. I think a lot of people are upset about the state of hip hop because it is disconnected from the real world. Imo people just want variety, and be able to connect/feel in someway. Or at the very least, appreciate good music.
Alot of rap now is like kidz bop. Rap is definitely parent friendly, which in the end makes it kid friendly.lol. Where do most kids get the money to download from? Their parents. And since alot of kids dont have money of their own they'll ask mommy or daddy to buy it and if the parents dont approve of the music then the artist looses money. Even if the cd has a parental advisory sticker that dont mean the parents will will not approve. (artists like drake, kid cudi, kanye, and solja boy come to mind) So basically I think that the majors are trying to compromise by making kids happy but at the same time having approval from parents, esp the upper middle class parents since they have the money. Working class and lower class, and to some extent middle class parents are way too busy paying for more important stuff so music is not even a priority
How do u put Drake in the same catagory as Kanye and Solja boy?? Drake can spit.
I like kanye, drake, and kid cudi. lil wayne is decent too. But they arent gangster rap thats why i mentioned them in the same sentence.
btw, that first song was fiya!!!!!
easy-e is gangster rap
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