Bella Dea wrote:Gargamel wrote:Bella Dea wrote:Rap does promote a culture.
It's not a black culture or a white culture or an Indian culture. It is a culture of drugs, sex, sexism and violence, one that doesn't have a color.
Who are the rappers you've listened to that give you this impression?
There are some rappers who do have "quality" (if you like rap) music. But then you have the others who rap about the stuff I listed above.
Here's a prime Mainstream example.
Eminem - Purple Pills
Quote:Cool, calm, just like my mom
With a couple of valium inside her palm
It's Mr. Mischief with a trick up his sleeve
To roll up on you like Christopher Reeves
I can't describe the vibe I get
When I drive by 6 people
And 5 I hit
Ah ****
I started a mosh pit
Squashed a bitch
And stomped the foster kids
These shrooms make me hallucinate
Then I sweat till I start losing weight
Till I see dumb **** start happenin'
Dumber than Vanilla Ice tryin to rap again
So bounce, bounce, c'mon bounce(shooting)
I said c'mon bounce
Everybody in the house with a half an ounce
Not weed I meant coke dumb ass sit down
We don't bullshit, better ask around
D12 throws the bombest bash in town
Bizarre, your mom is passing out
Get her ass on the couch 'fore she crashes out
That's an important distinction that thus far has been ignored. I can't think of
any mainstream entertaintment that isn't total ****. The hip-hop underground is a vast territory full of the only musicians left who have a political message. Socially relevant folk and punk music is dead. So it's left to people like Mr. Lif, who raps about the lies that led us into the Iraq war, the lies that lead us to the McDonald's drive-thru. He's even got a song called "Long Distance." About a long distance relationship. Not about ******* bitches. See also Mos Def, Common, Lyrics Born, MF Doom, Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, etc.
It riles me a bit when AN ENTIRE MUSICAL GENRE is classified as sexist and violent. Especially when even the violent and sexist rap involves far more creativity than ubiquitous violent and sexist television. Not to mention these rappers are writing about what they know, whereas television distorts reality (the context of the violence; the race, gender, and age of perpetrators and victims) to a far greater extent.
I get particularly irritable when, in my four plus years browsing threads on this site, I've repeatedly seen rap dissed by people who CLEARLY DO NOT LISTEN TO RAP. What you've heard on the radio is not an adequate sample. The most talented rappers hate what's played on the air even more than you do. How many truly great musicians of any genre are played on the radio?
I side with comedian Bill Hicks on this issue. I'll be more concerned if my children are listening to the next decade's version of Maroon 5 than any politically incorrect hip-hop artist who at least has a
modicum of creativity. Like Ghostface Killah. He's violent, but at least he's real. As Hicks says, "Play from your heart!"
Hemingway, of course, will be banned from my future household. It depcits women unfairly and the blood and violence of the bullfights are overwhelming.
