SLYOOPER TIMBO

1y

And ironically enough I was watching the Slim Jesus video yesterday @op when he was talking about how he was clowned for saying he likes rapping about it but not being about but Lil Tecca didn’t get that same pushback when he did the same thing.

etuev

1y

It absolutely does do that. Even Vince's advice is backhanded and not super clear. Implying being a secure man is somehow b***h tier. We need to stop putting toxic machoism front and center in environments where young black men are growing and learning.

People both inside and outside the community need to stop stigmatizing and forcing young black males into a certain box, and then chastising them regardless. So what if you like learning? Good on you bro. You like sports also? Cool. People end up being opposite sides of the coin where you either macho af and gangsta or nerd who watches anime. How about we stop stereotyping the young men in our community and let them grow organically and healthily.

Skinn Foley

1y

A big thing that changed too was that "street life" was portrayed as brutal and undesirable by much of gangsta rap until The Chronic era, and became outright glamorized on 2001, which is ironic because Dre was never actually in the streets like that. Bro was dressed in sequins making dance music until he realized Lonzo wasn't going to make him a millionaire.

Skinn Foley

1y

Which is wild too because if you really pay more attention to Keef and YB's larger catalog, a lot of their music is trying to talk about how painful "street life" can be, not trying to make it seem cool or fun. YB is particularly good at that

Skinn Foley

1y

I think the void that's slowly being filled is that aggressive, intimidating, raw conscious rap petered out of style in the mainstream beginning in the early 90s (if not the late 80s), so the only viable and largely known, modern ability for artists to be taken seriously as being "hard" in some capacity comes from the avenue of certain kinds of trap, drill, and "gangsta rap" in general.

Public Enemy for example could make unbelievably hard music that portrayed Chuck D in a tough and even intimidating light but did so without having to cater to vulgar masculine stereotypes and creating a facade for how his life was to seem "hood". Ironically enough, a lot of old PE records had a lot of respect in the "hood" that many modern wannabe trap artists/gangsta rappers lack despite trying to come across as either being "from the streets" or "in touch with the streets", Drake being one of many examples of this gap between public image and actual resonance in the communities and environments Drake tries to invoke to prove his "street cred".

At some point in the 2000s, "conscious rap" became associated with smooth, polite, and inoffensive music that had a "message", which largely extracted the most fundamental aspect about acts like Public Enemy, Paris, the political sides of Ice Cube, Dead Prez, KRS-One, etc, so gripping, in that the fury against injustice of some kind was missing from the music. It was seen as almost vulgar or "ignorant" to make aggressive rap music at all, especially by a lot of backpacker movements in the 2000s that thought such a sound was poorly representing "real hip hop", the vision for "real hip hop" in their eyes being an extremely narrow, polished, and one-sided perspective of the 90s jazz rap movement. Thus, the ability to make cathartic, "hard" music that could be taken seriously got squeezed out of the industry in a lot of ways, and made "real hip hop" perceived as this overly polite and in some cases whitewashed, tame style of music, that is largely alien to the grassroots of the abrasive, confrontational sound of hip hop in all its forms, whereas trap is obviously much more belligerent, cathartic, and raw sonically, at least outside of the times that it is co-opted into pop music of some kind.

There's a slow fomenting of "exciting" and "raw" conscious rap bubbling up in the underground but we still have a ways to go before we start getting s*** like "Fight the Power", "Sound of Da Police", "It's Bigger Than Hip Hop", "m.A.A.d City", etc, up to the forefront of the culture. Kendrick is basically the only big rapper who comes with that adrenaline pumping style of conscious rap in the mainstream and even in the underground itself, it's a rarity but has grown since the start of the 2020s. People need to see that anger and rage at something, be it systemic injustice or everyday life in poverty/crime can be expressed effectively and confrontationally outside of the context of trying to be "street", because a lot of modern street music doesn't even do a good job at illuminating the larger reality that "street life" is born out of to begin with. I blame Dre for that development frankly.

Skinn Foley

1y

Which is wild too because if you really pay more attention to Keef and YB's larger catalog, a lot of their music is trying to talk about how painful "street life" can be, not trying to make it seem cool or fun. YB is particularly good at that

X7JQ9L2MF4A8Z

1y

that’s actually kinda crazy

X7JQ9L2MF4A8Z

1y

and not the ones you made up about Kendrick in the other thread?

Wiggler

1y

I think you raise an interesting point. I’d argue that the glamorization of street life in a lot of the top artists lyrics come with a tinge of irony that’s usually intentional though? Or at least I try to read it that way.

YB for example. Even when he’s making it sound fun his music is pretty much always tragically angry/sad. I don’t think that’s by accident

Skinn Foley

1y

I don't think a lot of people realize how corrosive the Dre/Em/50 era was to hip hop

Ironically enough, 50 is the only guy in that 3 who I still think is cool because he had way more authenticity than the other two guys and knew when to reign it in and balance his music with stuff that wasn't meant to make women feel uncomfortable and could be played socially, and goofed around most of the time as a public figure. Dre and Em really did a hatchet job on rap

Tubig

1y

When they saw this s*** in 88 they knew it was almost over

etuev

1y

Can't realize something if it's all you ever known

SLYOOPER TIMBO

1y

You really don't understand, do you?
Hey, man, don't you realize in order for us to make this thing work, man, we've got to get rid of the pimps, and the pushers and the prostitutes?
And then start all over again clean

Nigga, is you crazy?!?!

insertcoolnamehere

1y

And i was in my backpacker bag HEAVY during that time. Blackalicious, cannibal ox, Hieroglyphics, Dead Prez, and Little Brother WHEW

Skinn Foley

1y

Yep, this is why I have sympathy for Drake even if his Mob Ties era is silly

Dude really did try his best and got f***ing crucified at every turn

SINGH

1y

Kanye went from being a Christian pastor to GD chief to full blown nazi in a 6 month span lmao

etuev

1y

Agree

yungcartier

1y

The current era of street rap is the culmination of the agenda Gangsta Rap + Drill pushed

No rapper rn wants to risk being look at as corny which is why rappers like Summrs & SoFaygo are rapping about street s*** when they’re not about that life at all

etuev

1y

Crazy how the people who reset it in the late 2000s led it back to need to be reset again