Goat poster fr

Of course people have the right to like things! What point would there be in investing into media without a personal appeal and taste?

To articulate my point with the newer Star Wars films: they gas up this Finn character HARD in their marketing. They paint this idea that he’s going to be a character with his own arc and development and faces his own challenges while fighting alongside his friends.

And what does he do in the movie? Honestly not much. You watch these videos of the actors being interviewed on their roles for these films and they are appalled at the final product. A popular franchise like Star Wars wasn’t made to be this super intergalactic block buster: it was made with the intent to develop and to be an engaging story that someone put time and effort into just crafting the idea in their head. Because they wanted to make it. Make. Create. Artists aren’t people who create for money. They may create things that people like and can sell them, but who wants to buy something from someone that doesn’t actually care about their product? Do you buy all your clothes off of Wish or do you go out of your way to build your wardrobe with clothing that appeals to you?

What does a painter do? Paint. What does a baker do? Bake. Do these two bake and paint because they just want money? Nooooo. That doesn’t mean they can’t make their own businesses and create a living off of these hobbies and interests, but the moment you decide ‘I want to paint so I can make money,’ you’re not a painter. You’re an entrepreneur or an employee of a painting company. Is that BAD? No. But in reference to an artist like Drake, there came a point where Drake crosses the line of genuine hiphop lover and culture innovator to a music artist who is stuck in a position where he has to obliged to his labels wants and ultimately stripping him of making music he really wants. Does that mean that’s 100% the case? No. Of course Drake has a say and is talented crafting hit singles. Is his music output equally as consistent and good prior to Views? No. It’s mediocre for the sake of mediocrity. As in ‘well we want this to sell really well so we’re gonna need to substitute artistic integrity with trends and accessibility.’ You can make a good product with this idea, but ultimately what comes first in any media that man creates is ‘do I like this and would I listen/watch/wear this because it appeals to me?’ Look at Country Grammar by Nelly. Diamond certified. Completely changed the soundscape of popular hiphop music and crossed radio boundaries by making southern hiphop more catchy and exciting. It took Nelly ten years to get to that point as a music ARTIST. Graduation follows a similar notion. So does Take Care and NWTS.

This notion of ‘let’s make it for the new generation’ doesn’t come from a heart of wanting to capture the beauty or magic that went into an original product as it as more ‘this is really popular so let’s milk it for what it’s worth.’ Look at cartoons. You see this exact same trend alongside popular movie franchises. Teen Titans, Powerpuff Girls, Scooby-doo (which has had tremendous remakes in the past! But the recent iterations look like family guy esq animation) all of these icons that were remade for the intent of appealing to a new generation. Except all of these original icons were made with the purpose of what THE ARTIST likes. Just because it has trends or panders to a demographic doesn’t make it bad, it’s how it’s done. Go back to Finn. Why gas up this African American character and put him in all this promotional material only to just have him tagalong and say one liners like literally every other popular movie franchise. It’s all made with the intent of marketing. Even the actor who played Finn doesn’t rally enjoy his own character and felt lead on to what he would be doing in the series.

So go back to X and the topic of substance of aesthetic. X’s aesthetic is REALLY high, but the substance lacks any form vulnerable integrity outside of what’s expected from him. What makes the music artists I mentioned in my previous post significant has nothing to do with when they came out, but rather the affect they had on the culture at large that forced it to morph into something people want to actually consume. The new sound is moody and whimsical? Brash and loud? Braggadocio and grandeur? Ignorant and individualistic? These companies have to adapt, but now they’re the ones putting together products that are designed to get the most people period to buy their product without risking any sort of artistic merit. X just put out music as he made them because that’s what got his wave rolling. Proceeding that we had all of these bloated popular hip hop albums that were made purely for streaming numbers. Remember when Drake was EVERYWHERE on Spotify? That’s what I’m getting at.

People may like these things now, but eventually they’re gonna catch on that they’ve been fed the same formula and the same ideas from the same products that lost their luster years ago because that’s how history and culture works and what’s in the past should stay in the past to reflect the time it was created in. When people look back are they gonna be thinking how awesome the 6th Jurassic Park film was? No they’re gonna look back and go ‘remember when they brought blank back?’

Let people create for the sake of creating. Why let people be Chief Keef at 15 when they could be Chief Keef at 19+ when he was making his own beats, art, rap styles, production styles, clothing, label and overall products that he himself listens to, wears, and enjoys? Who wants to be a film maker because they want to make it big in the industry? Or a rapper? I dare you to try. See where it gets you. If you’re lucky you’ll end up like SmokePurrp. Nobody cares about someone who doesn’t care about what they do. They’re more interested in people who are passionate in their crafts and that’s why we celebrate a TPAB, or a Star Wars Episode 5, or a Yeezus or a (the) Lighthouse, or One Piece or a Jessie Ware or to put it simply: something we all agree on ‘yes! This is undoubtedly a captivating work and astounds and amazes at its sheer quality and endeavors.’

Bottom line. There is a fine difference between an individual as an audience member consuming and liking something vs. a product that at surface value was meant to be sold. A good product has an effect on the consumer that makes them appreciate and consider themselves a supporter of said product. A mediocre product serves to fulfill a want that is quickly discarded. Unless you’re a die hard Simpsons fan, you’re not gonna watch the 35th season. A new generation will soon actively seek more ambitious and captivating media because they’ll be sick of what’s constantly pushed onto them.

Cool is pretty subjective anyway

Disagree with X dude wasn't any different than all these try hard rockstar/punk wannabe.

when’s the last time Linkin Park was relevant? like a decade before X dropped that album? they had that one remix album i think that was forgotten about within a day a few years back but that’s it

“he was riding his own wave heavy”

yes that’s what you do when you create a wave

Xxx owed his career to Uzi and sgp

It obviously wasn't forgotten about "in a day" otherwise you or I wouldn't be bringing it up now. I don't think relevancy had anything to do with the discussion which is the idea of X being an innovator considering what he was doing wasn't new. If you want another example Lil Wayne was making rock hop with emo elements on IANAHB. That's without getting into the underground acts that were in the scene before X like Hollywood Undead.

To answer your main question Linkin Park may not have got much radio play in the past decade but they certainly remained relevant in the rock scene look at their tour and album sales. When you're a legacy act like them you don't pump out albums constantly and chase billboard hits. They're relevant in the same way Solange or Frank Ocean is for R&B expect they're Metal.

Not always true tbh

A lot of classic rap eras were more about aesthetics than about substance

she gave him head in the back of the car cuz he needed it 🗣️

only reason i brought it up is bc i was like “did Linkin Park drop anything? i think they did a remix album, or maybe that was Fall Out Boys” & i don’t actually remember if Linkin Park really did drop that, so yea, it was forgotten about

but to continue the conversation, just bc elements of his music had been done before doesn’t mean he didn’t innovate by putting them together. 808s&HB is considered innovative even though it was just T-Pain mixed with Kid Cudi. T-Pain is considered innovative for his use of autotune, but autotune had been used since decades before by Cher.

nobody relevant was making rap/rock music like X when X was. IANAHB was def not “rock hop with emo elements”, you’re thinking of Rebirth, which was widely panned by fans and critics alike (although i enjoyed most of it) & may have even convinced the entire music industry that mixing rap with rock was a terrible idea. Cudi tried that typa idea with SB2H, which was also panned, and he stayed away from that style ever since. but with X, he was the first person to actually make it work. it was years after Cudi tried, which was years after Wayne tried, and people loved his rap/rock music. plus, he incorporated a different subgenre of rock than Wayne & Cudi did on their albums. X was very innovative. (shitty person for the abuse, but great music)

The only 1 was XXX as a innovator

If anything he was the BIGGEST example of Aesthetic over Substance lol.

I didn’t articulate that one very well and it got people riled up. this ones on me, but my substance & aesthetic point still stands

carti and uzi hate

Uzi literally said X was his biggest competition after he died

Y’all try so hard to discredit X and just look goofy 😭

Nah he still made half baked mediocre music. Cactusjacksentya’s post is basically what I’m getting at

xxxtentacion was the closest thing we had to one of the "guys" (popularity, skill, accolades) of the new gen. it's a damn shame he was killed before he got the chance to really improve. everyone that's came after has had one or more of those qualities but never all of them

it was so obvious he was gonna be the next big thing nowadays I don't even know what hip-hop will look like in 6 months let alone 5 years

Copying future and thug isn’t innovative

I just think he used the wrong word with "innovate"

But yes, XXX was hugely influential and probably the best artist of all the new class

Juice was the only one after him and he died too.

And X literally influenced Juice so idek why people say he wasn’t influential lmao