Jan 11, 2024
insertcoolnamehereI remember @simulacrum post about this s***, and I’ve thought about it. But ima be real this is (respectfully) kinda bullshit.
ye said it so we kinda clowned him for but programming is a real thing.
Every popular “conscious” rapper you prolly are thinking of would not have had a fraction of the success they had if they had came out in a different era or a few years too late.
Doo Wop is a respectability politics song full and full. Feminists talk about it all the time. It doesnt matter though cause we all have been programmed through decades of it being a status quo so it’s one of the greatest hits ever.
The Light is a classic. Common’s entire flow and “swagger” woulda been seen as soft in this era tho.
Public Enemy got hits. Them, Arrested Development, Poor Righteous Teachers, and Dead Prez woulda been seen as too preachy in this era.
I don’t know if that success is the same if we’re in this era where everybody is apt to shoot down anything and anyone + the attention span to listen to a song is as short as possible. ( example: Some of our favorite r&b songs that everyone calls classics were 5+ minutes with bridges and guitar solos. What current R&b songs even have a bridge?)
I vividly remember Blackalicious’ “Make You Feel That Way” music video premiering on 106 and Park. That kind of singular spotlight does not exist anymore.
We talk about visuals and fashion and standing out but we keep saying why isnt Smino a superstar?
His music videos imo do a great job in what you’re talking about.
And yall cant say “subject matter” when the GOAT rapper who rapped about nothing and also had distinctive style and fashion (busta rhymes) was able to achieve mainstream success.
I think the difference is, conscious rappers of today are prone to a different set of standards that are then goalpost moved as soon as that set of standards is met (cause a ghais guevara is pretty aggressive. Hell this nigga on tiktok that be rapping about politics over rage beats is aggressive). It’s due to the programming and the zeitgeist that has made it uncool to try because (as vince staples once said), “niggas dont read anymore.”
And niggas wonder why Andre would rather play a flute.
I was just tryna refer to bringing back the more immediate, "call to action" type conscious rap we were getting with Public Enemy, Paris, Mos Def, etc, because during the 2000s it felt like a lot of conscious rap got "defanged" and became too concerned with being polite and "intelligent" rather than viscerally grabbing the listener in a way that songs like "Fight the Power", "Fuck the Police", "Mathematics" (which is more or less the perfect conscious rap song), "Sound of da Police", "Panther Power", etc, could do.
I think a lot of young men, young people, black or otherwise, are pissed off and need to have a way to express their discontent with the standing order of things without reducing themselves and their messages to reactionary violence for the sake of catharsis. This doesn't apply to people who are living in the middle of gang violence, d*** dealing, etc, but more for people on the outside of that world who don't know where to turn creatively. When men can't express themselves in "masculine" ways, and expressing oneself in a "feminine" way is still stigmatized, this is where the hypermasculinity of trap music becomes the go-to outlet for this rage.
Again, this isn't in reference to people who are actually living what they rap, but for people who maybe grew up "around" hard living or were creatively inspired by it that don't know where to turn to express themselves outside of the context of creating their own "gangsta" personas for themselves
Jan 11, 2024VeggiePeople will get upset and in their feelings over this, saying that you’re wrong and “I guess gta and mob movies are ruining the youth too”
But you can’t cry about how cudi or Kanye saved your life with their music and then deny the influence of drill rap.
Culture is downstream from art. And it’s okay to admit music we enjoy has a negative impact on more vulnerable parts of the population
This is why influence/impact is kinda overrated when we start talking about an artists work, because it can be 2 way street. With a lot of our fav artists, they can be both a positive and a negative influence over a generation.
With Cudi, because I'm been a huge fan of before and still am now. I would say that Cudi's music "helps" me through certain things in my life, but I maybe wouldn't go on to say he "saved my life", because that'll make him out to be more important than a parental figure.
Maybe when I was younger, I was thinking different, but I grew out of that.
On the other side, there's a huge amount who felt like Cudi made rap or (to be extremely political) made men soft in his music.
Which is why I feel like Influence is kinda controversial within itself when discussing artists.
- CKL TML 🌺Jan 11, 2024
BRAVEDo you remember which works in particular gave you that feeling at the time?
The docu of him in Netherlands with lean in a vitamin water bottle mostly, music wise I dont really remember
Jan 11, 2024Ktt isn't mature enough to have this conversation because it's mostly made up of kids who are defending this music.
Jan 16, 2024·1 replyThis is insane
- Jan 16, 2024https://twitter.com/Dessyswrldd/status/1747174093978284524Oblivion X
This is insane
"HBO Kaleb"
That means he's a big HBO fan? Personally I think Showtime offers better movies and content.