randomthought

So I was at dinner today for my girlfriends friends bday, and I had a small conversation with some people about Hip Hop. We didn’t go in depth about it, but I had a lot on my mind so I figured I’d just vent it out on here. I consider Hip Hop more of a culture rather than a genre of music. Like to me when I think about Hip Hop I think about graffiti art, bboying, turntablism, and crazy emcee’s battling out in a freestyle session. I remember talking to this one girl a few years back, and I was playing this one group called The People Under The Stairs, and she was like what is this. Oh it’s this Hip Hop crew from San Francisco. And she was telling me that this isn’t Hip Hop, so she turned the radio to a station that plays what todays society considers hip hop. I guess it’s all about perception, and when she told me that my Hip Hop is whack because it’s too poetic and too many words I was left speechless.

The fact that she would rather listen to something that was talking about smoking weed, fucking bitches and hoes, and “super man that hoe” type non-sense I did not know what to say. I guess people like the instant gratification and don’t want to listen to the hidden meanings in the lyrical content of the underground hip hop emcees. And to see what is considered todays Hip Hop culture, I will not conform and even consider it. They talk about having all this money and blowing it on their cars and all this non-sense, and it’s this false image that they give to their audiences.  The truth of the matter is, is that they’re not any different from me and you. Sure they have the Bentleys in their music videos, but most of those “artists” don’t make that much money. There are so many factors that a lot of people don’t realize. With all the pirated music that is circulating throughout the internet, the actual cd sales and money made on tours goes straight back to the record companies. Most of those one hit wonders that you see driving ferraris on those videos don’t even live that kind of lifestyle. They are in debt, because they have to pay back the record company who has to pay for the luxury car rentals, the rentals for all the equipment that was used for the tour, they have to pay for every little small detail that everybody doesn’t really think about, and that leaves the actual artist making maybe only 10% of the actual profit. I don’t know if that’s the correct numbers, but it’s pretty close.

So this is why I don’t consider todays “hip hop” music a part of the Hip Hop culture.  They promote a false identity and they promote that life is all about getting rich and fucking the hottest bitch and hoe. Not all of the mainstream hip hop artists are like that, but if I were to ask my little cousins what are their favorite hip hop artists… they would just name  a bunch of garbage that I would never let my kids even listen to.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS