The year is 2017, and along with evrything else in the world music is rapdily evolving. Hip-Hop/Rap music is the most obvious example of this. Rap seems like its becoming more and more intelligible. I'ts commonly known as 'mumble rap'. Urban Dictionary defines mumble rap as, "A style of rap that originated in the South and spread to other places like Chicago and the New York/New Jersey area. The style usually consists of "mumbling" rap lyrics and sacrificing pronunciation clarity. The mumble style likely is influenced from the following elements: the Southern drawl & pronunciation, the drinking of the drug "lean" which can slur speech patterns, and the wearing of gold teeth which affects pronunciation."
Although this style of rapping is becoming extremely popular, it's still not gaining a whole lot of respect from the Hip-Hop community. Hip-Hop radio stations have a part in this too. Lil Yachty was highly criticized for his appearence on Hot 97 FM radio where they often play a beat and ask their guests to freestyle. Freestyling is when rappers rap along to a beat and makeup the lyrics as they go and is a very cherished pratice in Hip-Hop/Rap's history. Lil Yachty Struggled behind the mic and didn't really know what to say. Twitter blew up making fun of him and questioning his status as a rapper. He has also been criticized for saying he doesn't like one of the most respected names in Hip-Hop history, The Notorious B.I.G.'s music. Because of this mumble rappers are called disrespectful and criticized for not recognizing the roots of Hip-Hop. Lil Yachty later was feautured on the song 'Neon Lights' by Taylor Bennett and before his verse said, "(I'm tired of people) talkin' 'bout 'this is the way you got to do it', and you go to respect this type of person, and you got to listen to that type of person. I'm doing it the way I wanna do it."
But even more of this generation of rappers aren't freestyling, and i don't think they need to. No matter how much heat rappers like Lil Yachty take for being different, they are still selling music and charting on Billboard. Old school Hip-Hop fans might not like their methods and that includes me a lot of the time, but they have that artistic freedom and they should be able to make music the way they want. Rapper Ugly God talks about Lil Yachty's hate, saying, "They’ll talk so much stuff about his music, and then he’ll drop more music. And they’ll talk (smack) about that. What doesn’t make sense to me, if you feel like he’s trash, why (would you) listen to something else he dropped? If you hate it, you wouldn’t even pay any mind or even pay attention to him.”
The first time an old school rapper criticized the new wave of the genre, was Ice-T in 2008. Ice-T let his feelings towards Soulja Boy's hit 'Crank That (Soulja Boy)' by saying, "That (guy) single handedly killed Hip-Hop." Soulja Boy was only seventeen at the time.
Is this new movement of Hip-Hop/Rap justified by the sound simply changing? Or is it disrespectful for these new rappers to say old music is wack and they're music is better? I think you could even argue that it's changing so much that it should be considered it's own genre and not Hip-Hop.
Sources
http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.42631/title.ugly-god-on-mumble-rap-its-a-disrespectful-word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7O9gnurSB8
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mumble%20Rap
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7625631/rise-of-mumble-rap-lyricism-2016
Bennett, Taylor. "Neon Lights." By Taylor Bennett. Restoration of an American Idol. Tay Bennett Entertainment, 2017. LP.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Monday, March 6, 2017
Race in Hip-Hop
In the book I'm reading, 'Mexican Whiteboy' the protagonist Danny struggles to fit in with the Hispanic kids in his neighborhood. He is constantly judged for how he looks and not his abilities on the baseball mound. He proves he is more capable than meets the eye and some kids don't like it. Why does it matter how he looks? This reminded me of race in hip hop and the struggle white artists go through. It is widely believed that most rappers are of the African American race, which is ironic because statistics show 80% of the Hip Hop/Rap audience to be white. Hip Hop was born on the streets of South Bronx with DJ Kool Herc mixing samples of other records. The youth of South Bronx responsible for the movement were primarily "English speaking blacks" with roots from Jamaica and Barbados. Hip Hop/Rap is a beloved part of the African American culture, and today it's one of the most popular genres of music. Not long ago, it was hard for white rappers to earn respect. Eminem was definitely one of the first to do so.
"I don't care if he's purple, as long as he can rap," said Dr. Dre in defense of Eminem being white. Why should it matter what the artist looks like if they're making good music that should be all the difference? I don't think it's fair to look at a white rapper as a foreigner, or as someone who doesn't belong. What is the difference between a black and white rapper? On Hot 97 FM radio, host Ebro had Macklemore on the show to discuss a little about this topic.
Ebro asked Macklemore, "Do you believe you were embraced by white radio because you are white, and you rap?"
Macklemore replies with a short, "yes,"
Macklemore then goes on to talk about the questions he's asked about the difference between him and an African American rapper.
"Why am I safe? Why can I cuss on a record, have a parental advisory sticker on the cover of my album, yet parents are still like, you're the only rap I let my kids listen to. Why can I wear a hoodie and not be labeled a thug? Why can I sag my pants and not be a gang banger? Why am I on Ellen's couch? Why am I on Good Morning America? If I were black, what would my drug addiction look like? It would be twisted into something else versus 'Get back on your feet!' "
Today, we are seeing a lot more white rappers making noise in the hip hop/rap scene. To name a few, Macklemore, Lil Dickey, Mac Miller, and MGK have all been successful artists. But is it really hard to earn respect as a white rapper today? The Fader had rappers Vince Staples, African American, and Mac Miller, white, to discuss the place of a white rapper today.
"White people definitely root for white people," Vince Staples said.
" That’s a huge reason why it’s become so big right now. People are like, “Yeah! A white guy rapping! I wanna support that because not a lot of white guys rap!” I remember hearing Eminem for the first time in my kitchen: I had a really little TV that was as big as my head, and “The Real Slim Shady” was on MTV. I definitely had a moment of being a young white kid rapping every lyric in the mirror," Mac Miller responded.
"Maybe the problem is that black people don’t support each other and don’t (respect) each other as much as they should." Vince Staples said.
This was interesting to me because Vince Staples made a good point. Since the white rapper seems to be outnumbered in the hip hop scene, he often gets respect from the white community because they can identify with each other. I think Vince Staples is suggesting an African American rapper isn't so hard to come by in the Hip Hop/Rap industry, so it's harder to earn respect. So this raises the question of if white rappers really struggle for the respect from the genre as they were used to.
Sources:
http://harvardpolitics.com/books-arts/politics-race-rap/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrMU9wm8hn4
http://www.thefader.com/2015/10/06/white-rappers-mac-miller-vince-staples-interview
"I don't care if he's purple, as long as he can rap," said Dr. Dre in defense of Eminem being white. Why should it matter what the artist looks like if they're making good music that should be all the difference? I don't think it's fair to look at a white rapper as a foreigner, or as someone who doesn't belong. What is the difference between a black and white rapper? On Hot 97 FM radio, host Ebro had Macklemore on the show to discuss a little about this topic.
Ebro asked Macklemore, "Do you believe you were embraced by white radio because you are white, and you rap?"
Macklemore replies with a short, "yes,"
Macklemore then goes on to talk about the questions he's asked about the difference between him and an African American rapper.
"Why am I safe? Why can I cuss on a record, have a parental advisory sticker on the cover of my album, yet parents are still like, you're the only rap I let my kids listen to. Why can I wear a hoodie and not be labeled a thug? Why can I sag my pants and not be a gang banger? Why am I on Ellen's couch? Why am I on Good Morning America? If I were black, what would my drug addiction look like? It would be twisted into something else versus 'Get back on your feet!' "
Today, we are seeing a lot more white rappers making noise in the hip hop/rap scene. To name a few, Macklemore, Lil Dickey, Mac Miller, and MGK have all been successful artists. But is it really hard to earn respect as a white rapper today? The Fader had rappers Vince Staples, African American, and Mac Miller, white, to discuss the place of a white rapper today.
"White people definitely root for white people," Vince Staples said.
" That’s a huge reason why it’s become so big right now. People are like, “Yeah! A white guy rapping! I wanna support that because not a lot of white guys rap!” I remember hearing Eminem for the first time in my kitchen: I had a really little TV that was as big as my head, and “The Real Slim Shady” was on MTV. I definitely had a moment of being a young white kid rapping every lyric in the mirror," Mac Miller responded.
"Maybe the problem is that black people don’t support each other and don’t (respect) each other as much as they should." Vince Staples said.
This was interesting to me because Vince Staples made a good point. Since the white rapper seems to be outnumbered in the hip hop scene, he often gets respect from the white community because they can identify with each other. I think Vince Staples is suggesting an African American rapper isn't so hard to come by in the Hip Hop/Rap industry, so it's harder to earn respect. So this raises the question of if white rappers really struggle for the respect from the genre as they were used to.
Sources:
http://harvardpolitics.com/books-arts/politics-race-rap/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrMU9wm8hn4
http://www.thefader.com/2015/10/06/white-rappers-mac-miller-vince-staples-interview
Monday, February 27, 2017
The GhostWriting Controversy in Hip-Hop
I'ts crazy how artists can come up with the catchiest lyrics or the most mind boggling wordplay to the point where when you hear it, you just sit there and think to yourself "How did they come up with that?" Well, there is a chance they didn't. It's called ghostwriting, being payed to write a song, book, paper, or other text that is credited to someone else. Ghostwriting is highly criticized in the Hip-Hop/Rap world. A lot of popular singers. such as Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and even Michael Jackson, have actually written very little or even none of the lyrics in some of their songs. So the question is, why is it criticized in Hip-Hop? MC Guru shared his thought on the topic saying, “It’s mostly the voice. Vocal tone and flow are all part of the thrill that a great hip-hop song delivers. For some reason, rap carries an extra burden. The unspoken promise that what the artist said really happened to them is what separates the genre from any other."
Dr. Dre has used ghostwriters for classic songs such as 'Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang', and 'Still D.R.E.'. I think that it's widely believed that a lot of rap songs talk about street life, hardships, and stories that the artist has been through. The use of a ghost writer completely discredits that and tells everyone that the lyrics aren't real. And once a ghostwriter's aid is proven then it's the 'boy who cried wolf' effect and now the listeners can't be sure that the artist really wrote what they say they do. For some artist's this is a bad image for them and they decline any accusations. It's often taken to offense when an artist is pointed at for using a ghostwriter, leading to twitter fights and diss tracks. A very well known and recent example of this is the fight between artists Meek Mill and Drake. Meek Mill went to twitter to say "Stop comparing drake to me too.... He don't write his own raps! That's why he ain't tweet my album because we found out!", Claiming Drake didn't write his verse on Meek Mill's song 'R.I.C.O.'
This lead to chaos on social media and pop culture news in general. Drake responded with two songs aimed at the Philadelphia rapper and picked up a lot praise. Meek Mill did come back with a response of his own, but Drake seemed to win the internet as Meek Mill quickly became face of many memes and jokes on social media. Not all, however, have declined accusations; but instead admitted to it shamelessly. Highly successful artist P. Diddy said, “I guess I’m blessed with the opportunity, like a singer, that can work with other songwriters. In rap it hasn’t necessarily been cool, but I think that's my own allegiance to the song. If somebody could help me make the song better, I don’t really care what other people think. I know I co-wrote more than half of my album, which is the most I’ve ever written in my life.”
He even goes on song to say "Don't worry if I write rhymes, I write checks,"
P. Diddy makes a good point, saying he doesn't care how, as long as the product is good. Maybe artist's should see P. Diddy's side and just strive to make the best content possible no matter what anyone says. After all, if the song is good enough people will listen to it no matter how much said artist wrote of it. At the end of the day they're getting paid. Maybe the artist doesn't care about a reputation for lyricism and song writing and just wants to produce great sounding music. As long as they properly pay the co-writers is there really a problem after all?
Sources
http://www.complex.com/music/2012/08/the-nas-controversy-and-why-rappers-are-afraid-of-ghostwriters
https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/09/22/phantom-rappers-inside-the-business-of-ghostwriting/
http://www.factmag.com/2014/01/20/ghostwritten-hip-hop-tracks-ghostwriters-behind-them/
This lead to chaos on social media and pop culture news in general. Drake responded with two songs aimed at the Philadelphia rapper and picked up a lot praise. Meek Mill did come back with a response of his own, but Drake seemed to win the internet as Meek Mill quickly became face of many memes and jokes on social media. Not all, however, have declined accusations; but instead admitted to it shamelessly. Highly successful artist P. Diddy said, “I guess I’m blessed with the opportunity, like a singer, that can work with other songwriters. In rap it hasn’t necessarily been cool, but I think that's my own allegiance to the song. If somebody could help me make the song better, I don’t really care what other people think. I know I co-wrote more than half of my album, which is the most I’ve ever written in my life.”
He even goes on song to say "Don't worry if I write rhymes, I write checks,"
P. Diddy makes a good point, saying he doesn't care how, as long as the product is good. Maybe artist's should see P. Diddy's side and just strive to make the best content possible no matter what anyone says. After all, if the song is good enough people will listen to it no matter how much said artist wrote of it. At the end of the day they're getting paid. Maybe the artist doesn't care about a reputation for lyricism and song writing and just wants to produce great sounding music. As long as they properly pay the co-writers is there really a problem after all?
Sources
http://www.complex.com/music/2012/08/the-nas-controversy-and-why-rappers-are-afraid-of-ghostwriters
https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/09/22/phantom-rappers-inside-the-business-of-ghostwriting/
http://www.factmag.com/2014/01/20/ghostwritten-hip-hop-tracks-ghostwriters-behind-them/
Friday, February 17, 2017
Hip-Hop and Politics
Music artists, just like your average american, have political views too. Rappers especially seem to get the most notice while making political statements. This may be because Hip-Hop artists have gained a reputation for being bold, and sometimes controversial, in social and economic issues. With the incredibly tense 2016 presidential election, the past year has been no exception.
The Compton MC known as YG took a very bold route himself, releasing the song "FDT". The entire song criticizes Donald Trump, as well as calling the then presidential candidate expletives and other insults. This may have been the biggest political movement in the Hip-Hop industry, but others did not fail to go unmentioned. A wave of rap artists took to twitter to share their beliefs with "#MakeAmericaGreatAgain" and "#ImWithHer". They also flooded social media timelines with pictures of the, visiting Barack Obama on his last day in office. After Donald Trump won presidency, Macklemore released the song, "Wednesday Morning" sharing his displease with the results. The Seattle rapper described the elections wit lyrics such as, "Bad taste in my mouth" and "Will my girl be afraid of the land of the brave?" Most recently, at the 59th annual Grammy Awards, the group A Tribe Called Quest did a highly political performance. One of the songs they performed was "We The People", one of the better known songs on their most recent album. The song is highly political and one of the members, known as Q-Tip, sings the chorus explaining he believes that the country is racist, homophobic, and show no support for the poor. Sharing certain beliefs can be very risky because maybe some of their fans disagree with them and stop listening to their music. Politics is definitely an easy way to divide and can hurt a fan base. This has always been a questionable thing to do but we are starting to see more and more of it. Some people would say artists should keep out of politics, that way everyone stays happy and can enjoy their music. Others think it's important for artists to use their voices to share their beliefs and to influence listeners. The way i see it, artists should talk about what they want to talk about. That's the beauty of art, the ability to share your reality to other people. Artists shouldn't be disrespected for being human and having thoughts and and wanting to share their ideas on how we can better the world. A lot of my favorite artists have completely different views than me but instead of bashing them and never listening to them again i applaud them for their bravery and ability use their voice. They could hurt their fan base drastically but they'd rather stay true to themselves and the art they create. No one can tell you what see or what you should believe. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean you should look down on the for it. Should rappers get involved with politics, or should they stay in their own lane?
The Compton MC known as YG took a very bold route himself, releasing the song "FDT". The entire song criticizes Donald Trump, as well as calling the then presidential candidate expletives and other insults. This may have been the biggest political movement in the Hip-Hop industry, but others did not fail to go unmentioned. A wave of rap artists took to twitter to share their beliefs with "#MakeAmericaGreatAgain" and "#ImWithHer". They also flooded social media timelines with pictures of the, visiting Barack Obama on his last day in office. After Donald Trump won presidency, Macklemore released the song, "Wednesday Morning" sharing his displease with the results. The Seattle rapper described the elections wit lyrics such as, "Bad taste in my mouth" and "Will my girl be afraid of the land of the brave?" Most recently, at the 59th annual Grammy Awards, the group A Tribe Called Quest did a highly political performance. One of the songs they performed was "We The People", one of the better known songs on their most recent album. The song is highly political and one of the members, known as Q-Tip, sings the chorus explaining he believes that the country is racist, homophobic, and show no support for the poor. Sharing certain beliefs can be very risky because maybe some of their fans disagree with them and stop listening to their music. Politics is definitely an easy way to divide and can hurt a fan base. This has always been a questionable thing to do but we are starting to see more and more of it. Some people would say artists should keep out of politics, that way everyone stays happy and can enjoy their music. Others think it's important for artists to use their voices to share their beliefs and to influence listeners. The way i see it, artists should talk about what they want to talk about. That's the beauty of art, the ability to share your reality to other people. Artists shouldn't be disrespected for being human and having thoughts and and wanting to share their ideas on how we can better the world. A lot of my favorite artists have completely different views than me but instead of bashing them and never listening to them again i applaud them for their bravery and ability use their voice. They could hurt their fan base drastically but they'd rather stay true to themselves and the art they create. No one can tell you what see or what you should believe. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean you should look down on the for it. Should rappers get involved with politics, or should they stay in their own lane?
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