Commercial cRap

murraykil

WTF!? I was in a café today and it had sHip Pop tv. I have paid little attention to this genre in years as it has nothing but dudes rapping about their cash. Who is buying this cRap and giving them the money!?

With all this protesting going on about the 1%, big business, big banks and money ruling the world, what hope is there when the western worlds most popular music genre is entirely based on bragging about having loads of cash, cars and hoes!

And it's a genre disease which is spreading . . .

Iraqi youth embrace rap and tattoos, a legacy of U.S. soldiers

FFS, pull up your pants! :rolleyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw

Logical Fallacy

murraykil wrote: »

the western worlds most popular music genre is entirely based on bragging about having loads of cash, cars and hoes!

It's not.

Conscious/Political Hip-hop can have some amazing lyrical content.

Rjd2

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

It's not.

Conscious/Political Hip-hop can have some amazing lyrical content.

Like this?:P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO22Z0T3qPE

murraykil

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

It's not.

Conscious/Political Hip-hop can have some amazing lyrical content.

It is.

Commercial Hip-hop can have some amazing financial content.

charlemont

Commercialising ****en sell out
nigga this is hip hop not fashion so get the hell out...

Rjd2

Oh and rap is great if you get past lazy stereotypes, their is other rap out their that is not in the charts.

Jesus Wept

Weird Al is Commercia too, and ****.

Logical Fallacy

murraykil wrote: »

It is.

Commercial Hip-hop can have some amazing financial content.

So why not make a post about commercial hip-hop and why talk about all hip-hop?

murraykil

Rjd2 wrote: »

Oh and rap is great if you get past lazy stereotypes.

It's the stereotypes that are rollin' in the cash!

murraykil

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

So why not make a post about commercial hip-hop and why talk about all hip-hop?

Thread title.

Logical Fallacy

murraykil wrote: »

Thread title.

Post content was more my focus I must confess.

murraykil

The-Rigger wrote: »

Weird Al is Commercia too, and ****.

Funny and inventive I think!

Logical Fallacy

murraykil wrote: »

Funny and inventive I think!

Amish Paradise ftw.

murraykil

Logical Fallacy wrote: »

Post content was more my focus I must confess.

For sure I meaning the commercial cRap / sHi[t] Pop. I saw a few videos while in the café today, nice chix, but ffs, cash, cars, blah, blah, blah. The likes of Drake and the ugly looking kid with braces, little sean or something, think they were in all the videos! One thing I will say about them though, they spread the wealth around, once one guy gets a contract, all his buddies get one too.

strobe

Some rap/hiphop is unbelievably good. Like with rock, indie and metal. Obviously 'commercial' rap is shit. It's marketed to 13 year olds and for some inexplicable reason most 13 year olds have god awful tastes in everything. Something to do with the fact they care more about being seen to like what is popular rather than liking things for their inherent merit.

kwestfan08

I think it goes back to the whole Sturgeon's Law thing of 90% of everything is shíte.

Kanye West is probably one of the most commercial rappers out there but he released what was thought by a lot of critics to be the best album of 2010 in "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy".

My point is there is also some quality commercial rap, you just have to look to find it.

Rjd2

strobe wrote: »

Some rap/hiphop is unbelievably good. Like with rock, indie and metal. Obviously 'commercial' rap is shit. It's marketed to 13 year olds and for some inexplicable reason most 13 year olds have god awful tastes in everything. Something to do with the fact they care more about being seen to like what is popular rather than liking things for their inherent merit.

Not all of it, Kanye, Jay z and EMINEM have had their moments of brilliance over the years.

coolx

If it's advertised, you probably don't need it.

strobe

Rjd2 wrote: »

Not all of it, Kanye, Jay z and EMINEM have had their moments of brilliance over the years.

I don't not do disagree man.

REPTILEDAN88

Have you ever heard of Jurrasic 5, Dilated Peoples, Mobb Deep, Public Enemy, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Scroobius Pip.

coolx

Everybody has this thing except you the ad states. Yes we direct all of our advertising towards you alone.

murraykil

Rjd2 wrote: »

Not all of it, Kanye, Jay z and EMINEM have had their moments of brilliance over the years.

I'd agree with that, but it seems few and far between these days. Over about 30 mins today, every video was about cash cars and of course the obligatory hoes! Also, it seemed that a guy called Drake and little something, ugly kid with braces, featured in every video. It's standard practice, one guy makes it and features in the new guys video. It's a vicious circle! :pac:

ascanbe

Still listen to and enjoy a lot of rap/hip-hop music; same as i still listen to a lot of other 'genres' of music i grew up listening to.
Hate even breaking music down to 'genre'; still find all kinds of music i really like though i don't search for it as much as i did when i was a bit younger.
Anyway, to run with the 'genre' theme, always found the 'rap is crap' insult, employed by some, amusing; the impoverishment of imagination/infantile word-play inherent to that 'insult' only serves to point out one of the reasons why this particular 'genre' of music, marked as it has been, unlike pretty much any other current assigned 'genre' of music, by genuine interest and innovation in word-smithery, has endured and prospered over the last 30 or so years.

Johnny D. Mudd

The thing is, the political and cultural hip-hop is mainly underground. Those are the hip-hop artists who have embraced the true spirit of hip-hop as it was created, the ideas of rebelling against political corruption and racial bigotry. What you hear today is the stagnant remnants, pre-washed, crafted and sold to a mainstream audience not ready for the raw emotional anger that swelled in the voices of the revolutionaries of the genre. What you have now is a mass-marketed plastic production designed to appeal to the capitalist demographic which relishes money and product.

For the true spirit of hip-hop, try looking for the oldies which weren't well received given their brutally honest stories from the mean streets. They are the ones you should look to if you really love the genre. But that's not to say that the spirit which ignited the genre is extinguished. There are still underground rappers who adhere to the old style of rap, tackling difficult subjects that many mainstream artists would be afraid to touch. You just have to search for them.

Corvo

Agree that "commercial" rap/R'n'b/Hip-hop is a load of tosh, mainly aimed at the 13-15yr olds who I often see walking round the town actually playing it loudly on their phone. Seriously, phone is hand and music blaring from it. No wonder society is fooked.

But years ago, rap did have some real quality and great lyrics which were usually racially, politically or even emotionally driven. Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G and Naughty by Nature were all great artists back in the day (though obviously they had some "commercial" stuff too, no rapper could release an album without a "commercial" side) and some of their work was quality.

In fairness, even the mainstream stuff from the artists I mentioned above usually contained some real quality, even if it wasnt to your taste and was thought out a lot more. Not this "Window Shoppppah" muck from the likes of that creatine filled 50cent.

A lot of it is underground now, and its like finding a needle in a hay-stack.

Saying that, music in general has died a death.

pickarooney

Someone link me to a good Kanye West song. I've tried threes o far but they're just not doing anything for me.

--Kaiser--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjkkBtXgIc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1GjgEaLnYw

Eric Cartman

Rap is the greatest story of capitalism , broke people who grew up with nothin now have millions, like any genre it has some crap and some great, like 2pac, biggie, em and dre . Your one of thos who bought in to the white middle class condition , thinkin rap is just for blacks and the poverty stricken , its come a long way since the 90s rap is here to stay so dont fight it.

[/rap mode]

Rjd2

pickarooney wrote: »

Someone link me to a good Kanye West song. I've tried threes o far but they're just not doing anything for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sHpHQTuZC4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7_jYl8A73g

John Doe1

[YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liV_BBdq96s /YOUTUBE]

Da Shins Kelly

Sex sells and ideas of glamour and wealth are always appealing to people. This is why most commercial rap that is successful tends to be about these topics. If you want to make money, just make a club banger with a catchy hook and a filthy beat. Anything that gets people dancing and singing along to lyrics about sex and wealth is guaranteed to sell. Is this a problem with artists or a problem with the people who buy it? And I don't mind a fun song. There are loads of hip hop songs that could be considered 'shallow' that I like, simply because they're good fun and you can stick them on at a party and it gets everyone up. Dr. Dre has made his fair share of great party music, as has Snoop and LL Cool J. Fun music can be done well in a really cool way with the right people. Often the music is not meant to be anything other than fun, and it doesn't have to be the most serious thing in the world to be good.

Aside from that, there is loads of brilliant hip hop out there, and I'd even say that there is more good stuff out there than bad stuff, it's just that the bad stuff is shoved in our faces every day, the same with pop music. You don't even have to look very far to find good stuff - look up hip hop artists from the 90s and you'll find a wealth of great hip hop groups and artists.

Of the commercial artists - Eminem is an extremely gifted lyricist and has had moments of genius in the past. Snoop is a legend. Jay-Z's legacy is secure given the quality of his albums in the past. Kanye, despite being a sh*t, is capable of making a great song. He is talented. Lauryn Hill was hugely successful when her Miseducation album came out, and that was a seriously old school sound. She was talking about stuff that had nothing to do with wealth or status - she was just talking about real life. That album was not only critically acclaimed, but sold very well. It's a shame she's become somewhat reclusive since.

It's like every genre though, the very best tend to be less commercially successful. How much of any commercial music, be it hip hop or not, could you actually say is very good music?

pickarooney

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

videos

I can't tell if you're serious

--Kaiser--

pickarooney wrote: »

I can't tell if you're serious

No need to be a little bitch about it, you asked someone to post a good Kanye West song, and I did. Now if you don't like Kanye West then no amount of songs I can post will change your mind

pickarooney

I guess I plain don't like Kanye West then. There's not really any rapping.

Bobby Baccala

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

No need to be a little bitch about it, you asked someone to post a good Kanye West song, and I did. Now if you don't like Kanye West then no amount of songs I can post will change your mind

Sorry to dig up such an old thread but no, no you didnt show him good Kanye songs, in fact you showed him 2 of kanyes worst songs. What a brilliant ambassador for hip hop you are :pac: