Questlove - How Hip Hop Failed America

[Lamar Doom]

Questlove Essay (http://www.vulture.com/2014/04/questlove-on-how-hip-hop-failed-black-america.html)

[quote]There are three famous quotes that haunt me and guide me though my days. The first is from John Bradford, the 16th-century English reformer. In prison for inciting a mob, Bradford saw a parade of prisoners on their way to being executed and said,

[Lamar Doom]

the rest

[quote]
I want to start with a statement: Hip-hop has taken over black music. At some level, this is a complex argument, with many outer rings, but it has a simple, indisputable core. Look at the music charts, or think of as many pop artists as you can, and see how many of the black ones aren’t part of hip-hop. There aren’t many hip-hop performers at the top of the charts lately: You have perennial winners like Jay Z, Kanye West, and Drake, along with newcomers like Kendrick Lamar, and that’s about it. Among women, it’s a little bit more complicated, but only a little bit. The two biggest stars, Beyonc

[Lamar Doom]

ewww


Thinking?!? Oh god no. Yank up some Gucci Mane quotes so we can all sit back and sip cough syrup in peace

[Patrick Chewing]

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/b6/b6411266d4eb9f0c7fb7a0f6003d41317a22fba25e1e193a09 eefbeac4daf477.jpg

[Akrazotile]

IMO, it appears he's trying to say what tons of people already know and say; That mainstream hip hop has become a cartoonish and worthless parody of itself, centered entirely on a mindless minstrel of consumerism - except he seems to want to say it obliquely, probably because he's still in the industry and does not want to be branded as bitter, a "hater", etc.

But why has it become that way?

The dawn of internet file sharing was the beginning of the end for quality mainstream music. It reminds me of the very end of Apocalypto - the entire movie revolves around native american characters, on a land that has only ever known native inhabitants. At the very end of the movie, after the protagonist evades his tribal enemies and the film appears to be ending happily - he notices curious, masted watercraft on the horizon emerging from the fog. And then film ends. Of course, the character could have had no idea what those ships would mean, but the audience knows exactly what that means. An era is about to end.

Napster was that ship emerging from the fog. We didn't know it then. But it was about to have the same effect on quality mainstream music as European settlers had on Natives.

Prior to Napster, physical albums were an enormous industry in and of themselves. Sure, the actual musicians often had to rely on concert performances rather than royalties to make big coin, but the industry executives relied on album sales. And as such, they had a vested interest in putting good music on the store shelves, because it's presumed that people aren't going to buy music that isn't any good.

Fast forward to today, and every young hypocrite has an excuse for why it's ok for him to steal (err, "download") albums illegally. Right or wrong, the reality is that en entire demographic of music consumers (young males) has been basically wiped out from the consumer pool. The same demographic who drove the success of Elvis and Little Richard, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Guns n Roses, NWA, Pearl Jam, and so forth. Suddenly, they do not buy albums. So what's the result?

The result is a shift in the targeting and marketing of mainstream music. Now how does the industry make money? Well, let's create a character who raps but might also get ratings on a reality show. What if this performer wears a funky new clothing style, can we capitalize off of that? What if he mentions Patron, can we get a sponsorship from them? The industry has resorted to shock, smut, exploitation and brand placement. That's not to say the waters have never tested positive for these elements before - but now the concentration has risen to poisonous levels.

The music industry doesn't sell music anymore, it sells image. Sadly, there are still tons of people out there willing to pony up, in order to live the fantasy of belonging to a culture that seems cool, but was artificially created like the stage behind a curtain. Incidentally, Scarface and 8ball have a song about exactly that, which samples the song Facades from the musical Jekyll and Hyde. (goood song)


I mean, when a disney tween idol rips off her clothes and starts twerking on a white guy singing R&B while dressed like Beetle Juice.... Anyone even trying to imagine that scenario 20 years ago would have told you the shark could never be jumped like that. But here we are. And what's amazing is, how many millions of people were tuned in and watching that live??? I personally never watch any of that shit, so I didn't see it until it hit the internet and every news channel in the world the next day, but just think of how many people actually tuned in and made themselves mentally available for that kind of bizarre and pathetic freak show? It's scary, but we have a LOT of these people in America. In fact...... they make up the majority.




Americans are small-picture people. Sure, if you MAKE them spend money on an album, they'll be discerning enough to hopefully buy a good one. But if you give them the chance to just grab shit for free, even knowing it's going to lead to crummier and crummier shit... they're going to do it. Incidentally, this is literally THE EXACT PROBLEM WITH SOCIALISM. People would rather have free feces than have to work and pay for quality product. But you can't explain 'big picture' things to most people, because they either can't or don't want to understand. They reject it, and happily plop back down in front of the TV to scold Donald Sterling as all the cues tell them they should, and to watch Kim and Kanye so they have something to talk about at the water cooler tomorrow, and to hear Jon Stewart tell them whatever makes them feel smart for believing and so forth. That's just where we at. The end.

[CelticBaller]

http://i.imgur.com/UyiHInE.jpg

[Akrazotile]

http://i.imgur.com/UyiHInE.jpg

I understand the point of this pic as far as a rebuttal to people who say lyrics aren't as socially conscious as they used to be, but for me... that's not my personal beef with music today. Maybe that's what Questlove and others think is missing, but for me it's more raw musical artistry and charisma. For instance I've never heard that Kanye song that excerpt is from, so I took a listen and honestly, Kanye's flow is just straight up boring. He has no presence on the microphone. That's a big part of what makes music appealing. How good would Led Zeppelin sound if Pat Boone was singing the lyrics instead of Plant? How good would a Chris Rock routine sound with Ben Stein reciting it?

Raekwon of course killed it with the flow on that song, but he's an example of one of the old originals. The new hip hop mainstream, they all sound like they're just copying or imitating what the dudes in the 90s did but in a cheap and ineffective knock-off way. I don't care who's lyrics are more socially conscious, the idea that Kanye makes better music than 2pac is joke, and a bad one at that. He doesn't.

Rappers in the 90s all had their own interesting personalities to go along with music talent. Ghostface, Busta, Pun, Canibus, Scarface, Redman, DMX, RZA, JayZ, 8ball, Snoop, Big L, Raekwon, 2pac, Mobb Deep, and on and on.


****ing Drake is considered a rapper today. That pretty much ends the debate. Rap is gay now.

[TheMarkMadsen]

http://i.imgur.com/UyiHInE.jpg


That's got to be the dumbest thing I've seen

You're using the chorus for 2pacs song

That'd be like puting lyrics from "NY state of
Mind" by nas next to the chorus of amazing by kanye :facepalm

[CelticBaller]

That's got to be the dumbest thing I've seen

You're using the chorus for 2pacs song

That'd be like puting lyrics from "NY state of
Mind" by nas next to the chorus of amazing by kanye :facepalm
a song, not a rap

put a chorus of something like power? :confusedshrug:

[DonD13]

Thinking?!? Oh god no. Yank up some Gucci Mane quotes so we can all sit back and sip cough syrup in peace

free gucci

[Akrazotile]

:confusedshrug: bump

[Jailblazers7]

I think it's the emcee that's failed not necessarily hip hop. It the era of the producer now. I think it's moved away from a cultural movement with socially relevant lyrics toward an purely emotional expression through diverse sounds. The artist is the beat maker now instead of the lyricist. Some rappers still have interesting things to say but they are now either very rare or members of a sub genre.

[TMacYaoRockets]

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/b6/b6411266d4eb9f0c7fb7a0f6003d41317a22fba25e1e193a09 eefbeac4daf477.jpg
You're the only hip hop head from NYC that doesn't like to read.

[gigantes]

very nice little essay.

and agreed-- hip hop makes little sense anymore, other than just commercially exploiting niches and fulfilling the inner beast. the real messages and art are dead IMO.

most people in their early 20's probably don't even realise how shitty and counterproductive the whole thing has become. of course they still like the beats and the phrasings and all that, but they would have no idea how very much was lost in only a couple decades' time.

not that they tend to give a shit about any of that. :D