fight the power (sometimes)

(With the exception of its inception up until the mid 80s. Because that was when it wasn’t cosigned or accepted by the outside capitalistic world “yet”)

Been seeing all the audible disappointment about rappers kowtowing for Trump this week (which surprises me, cause they always f***ed with him lol. It was just popular to hate him in 2016 after o-halfy) and idk, I’m not surprised.

Hip hop overall never really has felt like this revolutionary platform people talk about. Even when ppl was “taking a stand on wax” on things, it always had this aura of hopping on the bandwagon. (With the inception of the overly political rappers that never was selling major numbers anyways. They never inviting niggas like the Coup or Dead Prez or Immortal Technique to “the proverbial table.” PE was chosen to be their industry’s token political rap boys. You can see by how much white people have whitewashed “Fight The Power” when in theory cracka you is the power to be fought against lmao)

Take the late 80s to the early 90s: black power was honestly seen as the trend. Hence why you see a lot of rappers with medallions and spitting about black themes but today they the biggest coons ever. (Looking at you Lord Jamar)

I got this rule called “WWICD?” (What would Ice Cube Do) that perfectly encompasses the different trends rap went through in the 90s. We (rightfully) killing Snoop Dogg for s*** Ice Cube was doing that only Common called out.

Dude went from “I’m just telling my story in the hood” to Nation of Islam black consciousness with a hint of turmeric and anti-semitism to “wassup my hoes and b****es lets party” in a 3 year timespan. (Idk if humans have this big of a personality switch in 3 years)

That nigga Cube was definitely throwing a dart at the “what is popping this year” table and deciding what he would rap about based on that.

And in a vacuum, he kinda corny for that. Cause it gives off a sense of you being wish washy and nobody really knows what you REALLY think. But in the grand scheme of things…a lot of rappers did that.

And this is why people are not gonna kill rick ross, nelly, and snoop anywhere close to how they did chrisette michelle (and to a lesser extent ye) because both them niggas didnt get the memo that they had to wait 8+ years before giving trump that cosign. Hell Big Sean just liked a donald trump quote on instagram. All these niggas capitalists frfr.

Shoutout to @iamiguel for calling out how much of a sham black capitalism is.

This mythical black dollar niggas love to talk about has never trickled down to the people despite the fact we have had constant black millionaires and billionaires.

Tl;dr: The mysterious spook who sat by the door was fiction for a reason.

@AmoryBlain @inspoeater @Mitchell @illegalnecessity

walking in

Yikes

literally gon tag you lmao

Besides performing the songs chuck d seem like he retired the pro black s***, don’t see him on the same time he used to be on I think the government muted that man a long time ago

dam

i mean that meeting that happened in the 90s is the reason why right?

I feel like mad people may have felt that way in the present and changed as they got older but i think thats a bigger topic of discussion about how conservative african americans truly are, especially once they get to a certain age. though there is a huge difference between that and the examples you are explaining

some niggas are undercover coons definitely used those movements to platform themselves and get pushed further or support (i feel like theres a couple of niggas like that right now in the underground, will not name) but there was a time where hip hop was a vessel for change and revolution, it just didnt last long.

we all know who own all of this s***, and we all know they can buy anyone. because at the end of the day, when s*** hit the fan and you got a family to take care of, a payday that guarantees generational wealth and security is far more enticing than revolution.

they got us tbh

people are walking contradictions. at the end of the day if you said the truth, if you exposed something to people that was real, you acted as a revolutionary in that moment. the music is forever even if people change.

Bobby Seale went on to sell BBQ cookbooks, sometimes not everything that glitters can stay gold.

the revolutionary aspects of hip hop were co-opted extremely early on

Great thread

yea they basically gutted the car put a whole new engine in it and kept the body the same

same thing that just happened to tik tok lmfao

Went to the bronx museum of the arts and they had a graffiti/bboy exhibit.

Soon as I saw Madonna in one of the pics that’s when it hit me s*** was #soover at a very early time.

Redundant to say, but both

Capitalism seeps into everything, hip hop becoming the most revolutionary genre in recent times only opened up for profit and simplification.

Now hip-hop would be considered a mood, not really a genre or a a piece of art that needs to be held to a standard. we have people pushing for that, but the genre is so fragmented that there are no more real ‘hip-hop leaders’ or fathers that can dictate what it is or should be.

Republicans are now calling snoop, Nelly, Soulja boy ‘rap icons’ which would not happen if artists/legends become opportunists. Because we live in the age where hip hop is more cosplay than it is authenticity

Just my 2 cents on this, cool thread !

For the most part music needs to get 'white' support to be successful but then you have to wonder, could a true hip hop revolutionary ever blow up?

If a 'white' person likes a 'slave movie' then it wasn't truthful enough type beat

I'm a big fan of 'that somewhat conscious nigga' but if we keep it a bean
He industry af with a lot of these brand partnerships he been doing
I doubt he'd ever go all the way and stick his fist up to the point 'white' people would genuinely be offended

Success in music via traditional pathways required these folks to sell out their values on some level, even a loosely pro Palestine rapper gon perform a concert sponsored by some company making food for the IDF or something

The story of niggas in the Western world has been tied to struggle so obviously there will be some conscious type rappers but hip hop was initially about having fun, Melle Mel was addicted to coke when he made White Lines

The larger uncomfortable discussion is that as a whole black people aren’t as monolithic on this type of stuff as one would think

The existence of characters like this or dude from Drinking Juice In Hood shows that niggas been rolling they eyes at this even at the peak of that s*** being “cool” in rap culture

I could go deeper but a lot of demographics on here and this kind of an in house discussion lol

This is why the mainstream direction of rap is important. Even if we all just going with the trend/zeitgeist, that can result in something like 2004-2007 Kanye West (according to him he did all that soul brother backpacker s*** to simply have a lane in rap, but if that wasn’t trendy when he was growing up and subsequently a scene when he was coming up with deadprez mos talib then he just woulda been another corny knockoff Fabolous-Mase type rapper with better beats). We lost all that energy in the mainstream once the zeitgeist went to Keef and YB. Even if its all just based on trend that still important because it keeps certain ethos alive for the next generation. Niggas of tomorrow may legitimately be worse off because we don’t have Tribe Kanye Pac Outkast type dudes in the mainstream even if they was just following trends trying to get in where they fit in with a rap lane. We just got a bunch of niggas pretending to do d****/pretending to all be the same character lol

Collectively black people wanted to carry on the spirit of what our ancestors and then Malcolm and Martin did but its so many factors since 1970. tbh #them #people did they big one in the 70’s-90’s with the destruction of the black family structure, Reaganomics and then how they subverted rap culture which was the last hope.

tl;dr niggas just was probably mostly going with the trend but thats okay and we should bring that back if we can get 40 year old millionaires and other grown men as a whole to paint they nails and diet cross dress bc “it da trend” (#NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWitDat) then bringing back black liberation ethos to rap in a “cool” way shouldnt be that tall of an order lol

Dope thread. Everyone so far has made good points but I definitely have a lot to say about this topic when I have the chance

the mythical black dollar niggas love to talk about has never trickled down

I randomly decided to look at the career earnings of the top NBA players in 2010, and of the top 20, only 3 weren’t black.

The rest, collectively, salaries added up to like ~ $4billion IN 2010

The true revolutionary soul of hiphop died in 1991

I cant think of any aspect of modern mainstream black culture that could be considered revolutionary tbh

Maybe if u consider ppl like fd signifier to be mainstream or revolutionary

Im ngl today is my relax day and this topic is way too loaded for me to unpack rn

Ill be back tho

De La Soul Is Dead 1991

I mean the premise of what Drake said about Kendrick is this

And while I love Kendrick and think he’d be a relevant force in rap without the pitchfork white critic love

These past few years since 2012-2016 and s*** like the Washington politician kufi pic lol , the climate is more ripe than ever for a revolutionary rapper to take over again bc of the factors Drake brings up/implies with Kendrick even if Drake himself didnt really say it the right way with the slave line

Its just that they gotta also have a true following organically with niggas/black people in their city it cant be white hipsters primarily gassing you and it “work” and no one really been able to pull off doing both of those except kendrick. Thats why lil baby bigger picture seemed like an exciting moment lol

@BRAVE had a great post on this one time about street energy vs revolutionary energy in rap and how we pivoted waaaay into street energy when at one time it was both lol

Its a interesting topic but i dont think its news to anyone here that hip hop hasnt been revolutionary since the 80s. Maybe u could say someone like tupac was revolutionary but it was rarely the norm