Lil Wayne: A Critique

I'm going to come up straight and say it: I've never been a huge Lil' Wayne fan. I thought he was a little bitch in the Hot Boyz. I still think he's a bit of a bitch now on his own. But, my personal feelings aside, I'm going to explain solely on formal terms why I don't like Lil' Wayne as a rapper. Apparently, MTV disagrees with me because they think that he is the hottest rapper right now. I have a blog, so I'm going to list why I don't think that Lil' Wayne is the hottest mc right now.

The primary reason is that Lil' Wayne is a punchline rapper. Frankly, the fact that he is a boastful, self-involved rapper is nothing new. As long as rap has existed, rap has been about trying to prove how awesome you are in comparison to the other person. This feat is normally achieved through the verbal dexterity displayed over an entire course of sixteen bars, the usual length of a rap verse. Lil' Wayne does not drop hot verses; he drops hot lines. Lines are good for battle rappers. But, battle rappers are not always good rappers. They are, usually, marginal rappers over the course of a fully developed verse at best. Eyedea is a good example of this phenomenon. Dude's exceptionally talented, but his recorded work is weak.

I know that Wayne likes to talk about how he doesn't write rhymes in the booth. Let's compare his rhymes to a dude who never wrote in the booth: Jay-Z. Just to ensure fairness here, I'm going to take verses from recommended tracks according to All Music Guide on both artists' best albums, which are The Blueprint and Tha Carter II.

From Jay-Z first, this is a verse from "The Takeover," the infamous takedown track from The Blueprint:

I don't care if you Mobb Deep, I hold triggers to crews
You little FUCK, I've got money stacks bigger than you
When I was pushin weight, back in eighty-eight
you was a ballerina I got your pictures I seen ya
Then you dropped "Shook Ones," switch your demeanor
Well - we don't believe you, you need more people
Roc-A-Fella, students of the game, we passed the classes
Nobody can read you dudes like we do
Don't let 'em gas you like Jigga is ass and won't clap you
Trust me on this one - I'll detach you
Mind from spirit, body from soul
They'll have to hold a mass, put your body in a hole
No, you're not on my level get your brakes tweaked
I sold what ya whole album sold in my first week
You guys don't want it with Hov'
Ask Nas, he don't want it with Hov', nooooo!

From Lil' Wayne's "The Best Rapper Alive" from Tha Carter II:

Bring the crowd and I'm loud _In Living Colour_
It is Weezy fuckin' baby got these rappers in my stomach
Yumi, I'm takin' it I ain't asking them for nothing
If you sell a million records we can battle for ya' money
I rather count a hundred thousand dollars on a sunday
Watch a football game and bet it all on one play
Still stuntin' baby yes I'm still flossin
Latest car on the market wit the top peeled off it
Big wheels make it look a lil bulky
You look a lil salty have ya' self a chill coffee
Chill out the girls is still out
Even though I am a boss and got papers to fill out
I'm busy I got paper to reel in
God I hope they steppin' at the end of my rod
And I hope I'm fishing in the right pond
And I hope you catchin' on to every line
Who am I?

Now, let's look at the thematic differences between the two verses. While both verses are driven by the braggadocio that drives so many rappers, there are clear differences between the two. For someone who is hated on by so many Wayne fans, Jay-Z's verse is clear proof of why he is considered the better of the two mc's. Look at the structure of those two verses against each other. And, then attempt to answer the following question: what is the point of the verse? Jay-Z's point is clear: you step to him, you will get slayed because you are not as hard as I am and you don't flow as hard as I do. Jay-Z just declared that if you step to him, he will end your career. Now, think about that in comparison to Wayne's rhyme.

Now, Lil' Wayne is not talking on this level. He does talking about eating mc's, but Wayne doesn't progress past that. Wayne talks about battling mc's, but he doesn't talk about beating mc's. After possibly declaring any cred he would have towards beating an mc that steps to him, Wayne proceeds to waste this momentum by talking about how much money he stacks. His verse is formless and unfocused. How am I supposed to respect him as the best rapper alive when pretty much every good rapper save BIG and Pun are still alive? The best rappers alive eat mc's like Wayne on a 15-minute lunch break. It doesn't even take a lot of time to slay a rapper who makes such low quality, punchline-driven verses.

So, clearly, he is not better than Jay-Z. Let's see if he is better than a real OG in Rakim. Now, this might not be considered a fair fight because Rakim writes his rhymes. I mean, he's a real rapper and also, arguably, GOAT in the rap game. From "My Melody" on Paid In Full:

So what if I'm a microphone fiend addicted soon as I sing
One of these for MC's so they don't have to scream
I couldn't wait to take the mic, flow into it to test
Then let my melody play, and then the record suggest
That I'm droppin bombs, but I stay peace and calm
Any MC that disagree with me just wave your arm
And I'll break, when I'm through breakin I'll leave you broke
Drop the mic when I'm finished and watch it smoke
So stand back, you wanna rap? All of that can wait
I won't push, I won't beat around the bush
I wanna break upon those who are not supposed to
You might try but you can't get close to
Because I'm number one, competition is none
I'm measured with the heat that's made by sun
Whether playin ball or bobbin in the hall
I just writin my name in graffiti on the wall
You shouldn't have told me you said you control me
So now a contest is what you owe me
Pull out your money, pull out your cut
Pull up a chair, and I'ma tear shit up
My name is Rakim Allah, and R & A stands for "Ra"
Switch it around, but still comes out "R"
So easily will I e-m-c-e-e
My repetition of words is "check out my melody"
Some bass and treble is moist, scratchin and cuttin a voice
And when it's mine that's when the rhyme is always choice
I wouldn't have came to ?set? my name ?around the? same weak shit
Puttin blurs and slurs and words that don't fit
In a rhyme, why waste time on the microphone
I take this more serious than just a poem
Rockin party to party, backyard to yard
Now tear it up, y'all, and bless the mic for the gods

Once again, Rakim's point is perfectly clear: he is the best mc of all time. If you step to him on the mic, you will get slayed. You talk trash about Rakim, Rakim will take you to the stage and settle this. But, the settling will end up in your destruction as an mc. To retort from Wayne, I'm submitting a part of a freestyle that was done on Da Drought 3, Wayne's well-received mixtape:

And I go out my way just to get my dro and my doe
Cause, I love it more than I do my hoes yes I doess
I got gasoline comin out my pours
Imma torch
I got glasses like that white boy Scott Storch
And a porshe
I got license for tha scortch
Snipers at your porch
Rifles by the forts
And we shoot up courts
The judge juss a bitch
The jury suck dick
Im a eastside blood
And I dont smoke that crip
I smoke that kutch
First name Bubba
First names Young
Last name Stunna
Carter in the office
Take notes when I'm talkin
Smooth as a cruz boat floats when I'm walkin
I boast cause I'm ballin
I boast to be ballin
When I'm on the phone wit bitches man the money keep callin
You ain't satisfied till ya son'll be callin
Tellin you where to leave the money in the mornin
Ok you wanna zombie mover instead
Thats when you walk in ya house and everybody dead
I can take a shit where I stand
Where I stand...and watch you pussies piss in ya pants
You ain't a man your a hoe
I can kill him with the flow

Firstly, what the hell is he talking about? Yea, there are some punchlines there. But, there's no substance, no definition of one's superiority within the rhyme. The tempo is pretty good. I'll give Wayne that. But, that content is lacking. A couple punchlines does not a good rapper make. A rapper must make a point through their rhyme whether that point is talking about the streets or talking about how awesome you are. Additionally, I have no real image of Wayne as a rapper from what I've posted so far. All I know is that he likes to boast and he has a lot of money that he likes to throw around in his spare time. I mean, when he's not fucking girls. If you don't understand what I mean by Wayne not having an image to substantiate his raps, I point you to T.I. and one of his verses in that burner "What You Know":

See me in your city sittin pretty know I'm shinin dog
Ridin with a couple Latin broads and a china doll
And you know how we ball
Riding in shiny cars
Walk in designer malls
Buy everything he saw
You know about me dog
Don't talk about me dog
And if you doubt me dog
You better out me dog
I'm throwed off slightly bro
Don't wanna fight me bro
I'm fast as lightening bro
You better use your Nike's bro
Know you don't like me cause
Your bitch most likely does
She see me on them dubs
In front of every club
I be on dro I'm buzzed
Gave every hoe a hug
Niggaz don't show me mugs
Cause you don't know me cuz

T.I. is clearly a quick-triggered, young man who's got cash and will not back down from a challenge. Can you say that about Wayne from his rhymes as so far displayed? Bragging has a point, but that point must be substantiated by the creation of an image, of a persona. T.I. has done this. As is well known, T.I. previously rapped about being the Rubberband Man. While T.I. might be a little more lethargic in his flow, his flow is more fundamentally and thematically sound than Wayne's rhyme.

Working off thematics, Wayne suffers as a rapper because he, on top of not being able to personify himself and give a clear image of himself as a rapper, cannot tell a story in a rhyme. One of the best stories ever spit on rhyme that wasn't "Children's Story" by Slick Rick is "Cold World" from GZA's influential album Liquid Swords. Check the form:

It was the night before New Year's, and all through the fuckin projects
Not a handgun was silent, not even a Tec
Outside as I'm stuck, by enemies who put fear
and blasted on the spot before the pigs were dere
You know hoods robbers snipers new in sight, fuck blue and white
They escape before them flash the fuckin lights
Gunshots, shatter first floor window panes
Shells hit the ground and blood stained the dice game
Whether broke callisthetic, any style you set it
Beat niggaz toothless, physically cut up like gooses
But with iron on the sides thugs took no excuses
Therefore, your fifty-two handblocks was useless
Links was snatched off necks, scars on throats
Jackets took, after bullet rips through coats
Against those who felt the cold from the steel made em fold
and squeal, once the metal hit the temple of his grill
Destruction worker, who was caught for his bomber
No time to swing the hammer that was hangin from his Farmer's
And it's bugged how some niggaz catch slugs
and pockets dug from everything except check stubs
and it does, sound ill like wars in Brownsville
Or fatal robberies in Red Hook where feds look
For fugitives to shoot cops, niggaz layin on roof tops
for his CREAM he stashed in a shoebox
But he was hot, and the strip was filled with young killers
you don't suspect, so cops creep like caterpillars
And born thieves stay hooded with extra bullets
those who try to flee they hit the vertebrae, increase the murder rate
Similar to hit men who pull out Tecs and then
drop those who crack like tacos from Mexican
Rapid, like recipients cashin checks again
Back to the motherfuckin spot on Lexington

Wayne has yet to drop a verse on this level. When he does drop a rhyme on this level, he can then consider himself to be a good rapper, even one of the best rappers of all time. But, seeing as he can't rap his way out of a paper bag right now and hasn't slayed a rapper (Gillie the Kid) who has stepped to him, Wayne should not be given the credit of being a comparable rapper to anyone out right now. Even T.I., who I think is a middle-of -the-road rapper, slays Wayne on the regular. On the real, I'm not against giving Wayne his due, but he has to make me earn his respect. I'm the consumer of the rap.

Other consumers will argue against me and say that Wayne should be respected because he doesn't bite other people's rhymes. To this point, I say so what? EVERYONE IN RAP BITES! Every rapper in the game bites lines. Even in the most classic of rhymes "Rapper's Delight", Hank of the Sugarhill Gang ripped whole verses from Grandmaster Caz. So, all of the haters talking about biting need to chill out with that. In fact, maybe Wayne needs to bite more since the fundamental components of his rap flow are so weak.

He doesn't establish his persona on tracks, he can't tell a story, he can't present complete ideas. And, how is he supposed to be the best rapper alive? By my own figuring, he isn't even the best rapper in the South. Disagree if you want, but lyrics are lyrics. You can't look at the evidence presented and begin to tell me that Wayne is the best rapper alive. You can like him, I don't have a problem with that. To each his own. But, don't sit around calling him the best of all-time or even the best alive when most of the dopest mc's in the game are still alive and exponentially hotter than him.

Epilogue: yes, I'm a rap nerd. I spent hours on this. Additionally, all lyrics taken from Original Hip-Hop Lyrics Archive (www.ohhla.com).

The True Home of Hip-Hop

Today, big news comes out of New York for the hip-hop world. The rec room where Kool Herc started moving records and bodies in 1520 Sedgwick in the Boogie Down Bronx is now going to be recognized as a historic landmark. In addition, the pioneer himself is arguing that the mixed-income building stay in the same state, especially given the multiculturalism of hip-hop as a form.

If you are in NYC or the Bronx, help Herc out with this. This is a good cause for sure.

Does 50 Cent Have A Point?

As is well documented on this blog, I am not a 50 Cent fan at all. I think that he is part of the reason that hip-hop is getting a bad rap from its detractors and fans. But, today, I came across an interview that 50 did with XXL where he makes an interesting point about "conscious" rappers. From the article:

What percentage of MCs in hip-hop do you think are actually intelligent?
You have different kinds of people. You have people that are extremely book smart that lack common sense so they don’t know what’s going to affect their audience. They have more information than me based on reading. For instance, Nas is a really smart guy. He reads books constantly. We were around him on the Nastradamus tour. He was almost weirder than me ’cause we would go to breakfast and he’d be there reading a book. Conceptually, I think that’s what made him drift away from what his initial audience enjoys from him and why he’s not hot right now.

Because he reads too much?
Yes. He’s feeding you too much information in the music and they don’t actually want it. He’s like a teacher. I was in love with KRS-One when he came with “Criminal Minded” and “The Bridge Is Over.” That was theme music to what was going on at that time. And when he started teaching, he lost them. ’Cause it was like, “What is he talkin’ about?”

The point that 50 makes here is fairly obvious: you try to educate, you only alienate fans. The proof is in the pudding on this one. KRS-One lost a lot of the street when he started talking intelligently. Nas talks about Kush and ancient African empires, but cats don't feel him. Neither of these top ten rappers have major record sales anymore, as they wish to go platinum while 50's routinely going multi-platinum pushing Diamond (10 million plus sales).

Even though 50's right on this point, does it really make it a good thing that kids aren't up on rappers who actually try to put a little bit of knowledge in their rhymes? Personally, I'm going to hedge this question. I like intelligent rappers. I like rappers who have a sense of self-awareness as well as cultural awareness and can reference something other than the street. BUT, and there's a huge but here, I don't like rappers who preach over beats. KRS-One started preaching over beats. This is what alienated a lot of his old-school, BDP audience. This wasn't a problem for me because KRS-One, even while preachy, can slay about 97% of the rappers out now. On the other hand, I don't think that Nas is a rapper who preaches over beats. Nas does make intensely academic references such as the one to Kush, but this is not his fault. Nas is literate, as 50's willing to admit. But, as the interview would later go on to say, 50 thinks that this education is a literal fault within their music:

But they’re still getting information from you.
Right, but in different ways and in pieces. Anything [that] changes too fast is no good—[the audience] isn’t sure what’s going on. It’s like you watching an actor portray a character in a film that you really enjoy. Then afterwards, he sits on the couch on a talk show and this guy is so artistic that you’re not sure if you [really] fuckin’ like him.

Why, ’cause they’re acting?
Yeah. They’re doing something that’s totally… That may not even be a small portion of their actual character. And then when you see them after the fact, they give you something that’s so artsy.

50 seems to imply that actors who aren't their role are in some strange way false, fakes. As a film person, I think this is bullshit. Actors' job is to pull you into the role. An artist, which an actor is, can make you believe that they are that person. This is their job. Nas does this very well as he is one of the few rappers who can actually pull a listener into an alternate world where he is the narrator to a street saga. Nas spins street tales. That's what he should do as a rapper. Nas doesn't boast about how amazing he is. He raps about what he sees and what he knows and is a storyteller of the streets. This is what any good rapper should do. And Nas does it with great flair and style.

This factual point brings up another question to be answered: if people are so averse to conscious rap coming from legends like Nas, what will become of the hip-hop game? There is only so long that you can listen to rappers talk about how much money they make and how many dudes they've killed, especially when you, like myself, are doing neither. I'm not saying that every rapper needs to become dead prez or something like that, but I do think that a diversity of topics is a positive for the rap game. Unfortunately, heads try to act like this derivation from the money, guns, hoes, and blow rap formula is the worst thing on the face of the planet. Rapping isn't always about selling records, as 50 would want you to believe. Don't get it twisted: making money is nice, but also having a lyrical supremacy over all comers is important too. If you ask any rap fan, rapping is about loving the form and wanting to see it and its participants thrive. Nas and KRS-One want this. Chamillionaire wants this. Little Brother wants this. Many on the underground and many in the mainstream want this too. I would think that, for his long term success, 5o Cent would want this too. Unfortunately, this interview shows that he doesn't.

For The Brain Dead

READ A MOTHAFUCKIN' BOOK

Country Music

I was surfing through my email and I came across this girl's page where she professed that she was only into country music and some rock music. But, no hip-hop, that's unacceptable.

As someone who likes both forms*, I wondered how this dichotomy grew. The music, at its core, isn't much different. Both forms talk about the desperation of the American experience. The country artists talk about it from a rural perspective while hip-hop talks about it from an urban perspective. Both have general touchstones for sound: country with its twang and slide guitars, rap with booming beats and snare hits. Both sets of artists dress in the appropriate manner for their lifestyle. Country wears cowboy hats and boots. Hip-hop wears jeans and sneakers. Even if you look at it now, both forms have lost their edge. Country is pretty much whitewashed, sounding like easy adult contemporary listening with a slide guitar. I feel like the only thing it has going for it is that most of the current personalities are ridiculously attractive. This is both men and women. Hip-hop is also baseless like hip-hop, caught up in pure materialism. It gets by because of white kids's want to be Black and the fact that it is the sound of commercial teen radio now. Also, both sides claim that the other isn't real music. Both forms now sell tons of shitty records, so I don't really understand this on this level.

The only thing that I can figure is that it is a cultural division. Country music is assumed to be the wasteland for beer-drinking, lazy rednecks who watch NASCAR and fly the Confederate flag in a vain attempt to celebrate something which, at its core, is fundamentally flawed: Southern Pride (note: My family's heritage is all below the Mason-Dixon line. All of it.). Hip-hop is assumed to be a wasteland for beer-drinking, lazy negroes who watch BET and live in the ghetto while milking the government for money. As I read this to myself, these aren't really all that different. There needs to be a convention between country music and hip-hop. Not in a rap-metal sort of way, but in a we need to iron out this stupid beef sort of way.

Hip-hop is music. Country is music. Both suck now, but both have had halcyon days in previous decades. And there are people in both doing successful things currently. How? I'm not a scientist; I can't answer questions that ridiculous. Maybe someone can elucidate why country music fans hate hip-hop so much and vice versa. And don't give me the "it's not music" argument. I've listened to a lot of country. Most of it is three chords. It's not hard to make country music. I would argue that it's harder to make hip-hop, as you have to learn how to use a sampler and a drum machine. So, any input would be greatly appreciated.

*As I would later note, modern country music sucks. It sounds like generic pop/rock, and that's boring. I like the old school country about fistfights and drinking Colorado Kool-aid. Just like with current hip-hop, not all of it is bad. Some of it is actually tolerable, but most of it isn't. Now, don't get excited, you most likely won't catch me blasting country in the whip because it doesn't relate to me. I'm into the old school stuff because I can relate to that stuff and like the rawness of it. The new stuff is too shiny. And if there is one thing I don't particularly like, it's shiny things.

Wouldn't It Be Easier Not To Glamorize It?

Clifford "T.I." Harris visited a school in West Philadelphia and told the kids to stay in school. Additionally, he told them not to emulate what they saw in rap videos. This frankly confuses me. So, T.I. goes to a school and, essentially, tells them that he's not a role model because he is a rapper who glamorizes his time on the streets and engages in socially detrimental conduct, exactly what he is telling the kids not to do.

I applaud T.I. for attempting to be a positive role model for kids. I know a lot of other rappers wouldn't have done what he did. But, with that said, shouldn't he just stop trying to claim street cred and become an actual positive role model with his music? He can keep all of his subject material, but he can drop a verse like GZA's "Cold War," which was a street narrative instead of an attempt to place oneself back in the trap, as he likes to call it. He can't visit every school in America, so doesn't this seem like the more reasonable alternative. We all know what happens on the streets now. Why not make it actually sound bad instead of like a good thing? But, who am I to comment on this? I'm just some dude who saw all this shit go down.

Rap Sounds Dumb

T-Pain, you're hurting me here.

White Kids and Gang Signs

I have talked a lot about hip-hop on this blog over the last month or so, as it has been a pretty hot button issue in American culture. Today, I came across an article from The Boston Globe via Feministing about the relationship between white kids, the "ghetto", and rap culture.

The crux of the argument revolves around a premise that many have been arguing for a long time, which is that the music has become a representation, fairly or unfairly, for all Black people. Because so many of the consumers of hip-hop have no experience with the ideas presented in most hip-hop, these white suburbanites have fetishized and exoticized ideas of living in the ghetto. Unfortunately, such fetishizing has led to negative images for all Black people regardless of our actual connection to hip-hop culture and rap music. This idea is a fairly similar one that happened back in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries called minstrelsy when white people dressed up as if they were black, covering their faces in burnt cork and shucking and jiving like "authentic negroes" did in those times.

Many thought we had passed this point in our society, where Black people were no longer being exoticized and used to amuse and entertain the white people in the country. Black music has produced many heroes for its own culture such as James Brown and George Clinton, but that has passed again with the rise of artists like 50 Cent and Lil' Jon who fill the minds of these impressionable American youth with images of Black people standing on the corner, drinking 40s, and slanging crack. This is bad enough within itself. But, as the article notes, this is made worse by the presence of "ghetto parties" based of these white kids' understanding of what it means to be ghetto as taught to them by outlets such as Flavor of Love (I already know) and the rappers that are being promoted by the white record executives who decided to hold up the principles of nihilism and excess capitalism. Although, to rap's defense, no rapper I know talks about dressing up in blackface, which the kids do at these offensive parties.

The parties are shocking, but this is the most shocking part of the entire article:

When [Professor] Price brought up the subject of ghetto parties in his Northeastern classroom, he says his white students reacted by saying, "So what? " They considered ghetto parties no more harmful than toga parties, says Price.

I think that this is fitting of why so many people of color have problems with white adoption of hip-hop culture. No one in hip-hop is saying that white kids can't be a part of it, but, if you are going to be a part of it, you have to understand it. Hip-hop has been political since Kool Herc started moving a record back and forth under a stylus. Rapping, breaking, graf writing, and scratching were the initial tools to make disenfranchised voices heard because they were so frequently silenced and are still silenced now. The fact that these kids don't understand that we have had to go through century upon century of having my fellow men and women stereotyped as lazy, lascivious, poor, morally bankrupt, violent, and content with being the literal footrest for the White population leaves me with seething anger throughout my body. It genuinely offends me that they cannot understand this most simple of concepts of the Black experience. It makes me wonder if anything that our schools have been trying to teach us about the struggles of Martin Luther King have stuck with these kids in any meaningful way.

If you are a white kid who is ignorant, negligent, stupid enough to think that it is a good idea to show up to a party in gold chains, wearing clothing four sizes too big, and in fucking blackface, I don't want you listening to my music. I don't want you to listen to the music that represents my people's struggle out of the hood. I don't want you even being connected to the culture because this display shows that you don't have a basic understanding of who hip-hop represents and what it means when it says that it is a global culture. Hell, I might punch you out, and I never raised a hand against others.

Recent Jamz

So, yes, if you didn't read before, I've been out of the country (that's rural country, not the USA) for the past week or so. While I've been gone, I've been listening to hot jams. Since I drove to Ohio, I spent the first leg listening to a lot of loud jams because I was kind of asleep during the first part. On the second leg back, I listened to a ton of hip-hop. I refound my love for Gang Starr and Outkast. After two subpar albums, you forget how good Outkast actually are as rappers as proven on ATLiens AND Aquemini. The only down side of it was that one song where they scream "Mamacita! Papadonna!" That song pissed me off. Kanye, at least to me, proved that he's been fly for years although The College Dropout is a little preachy for me. Kids that blew me out of the water were Kidz in the Hall. Their album School is My Hustle, while preachy at points as well, is a high-quality, Rawkus-released, fully voiced and realized hip-hop album. I wish that more rap albums sounded like this album. The MC was witty, the beats were hard yet complex, and the topics were interesting. That's what's up too.

This is Why Hip-Hop Is Dead

With these two videos, T.I. and 50 Cent have further dug the grave for hip-hop. Firstly, they are completely inarticulate. Secondly, T.I. does have a good point in saying that some people do want rappers to teach their children. I don't, but this doesn't let the rappers off the hook so fast. Just because you aren't raising my kids doesn't mean that you don't hold a responsibility to not glamorize a lifestyle that leaves so many of our young Black men dead or in jail. T.I. justifies the brutality of his rapping by saying that was his life and he rose up from it. But, in flaunting that lifestyle and glamorizing drug dealing and excessive vanity, T.I. is just adding to the ire of the conservative others who are actually trying to shut down rap.

50 Cent also does a terrible job of trying to defend hip-hop as well. He tries to reference the war and the other forms of violent imagery in America. The last time I checked, people have been complaining about violence in films for a very, very long time. I can't think of a time when someone wasn't complaining about the violent nature of a film. Also, 50 Cent needs a fact checker or someone who can feed him correct information about the DC Madam scandal. He called the ESCORTS embroiled in this scandal hos when they didn't need to be; they are escorts. It just shows you that 50 Cent has no idea of what he's talking about nor has Curtis thought about how he sees himself as an artist and how others see him as an artist. Also, his defense of the violent, misogynistic, homophobic content of rap is made analogous to painting the American flag without red paint. This, flat out, does not make sense. Rap has existed without all of the violence and misogyny. Some of the classic albums in the game have existed without this. Has everyone forgotten Paid in Full? Strictly Business? The Low End Theory? The Cactus Album? Paul's Boutique? Long Live the Kane? Do I need to keep on?

50 Cent tries to call hip-hop a mirror on society. What part of rapping about putting huge rims on your car, completely tricking it out are part of most people in the hood's experience? Is that a part of Black people's harsh experience in America? Additionally, why is 50 Cent talking about reality in the hood? He lives in a huge house in Connecticut. Curtis is not hood anymore, but he still talks about shooting people and bullshit. Cormega, a dope MC, came from the same background as T.I. and 50, but has some positivity in his raps. So, with raps devoid of positive images and continuing on talking about the same bullshit that White America wants rap to talk about, what does this make him other than a minstrel?

50 Cent also talks about rap not being successful if it isn't racy. This is true. Public Enemy released very racy albums, but those albums were driven by the politics of a downtrodden Black public. The whole Native Tongues clique dropped albums based in a radical political framework. Additionally, when dudes like NWA were dropping their work, they were that life. They were radical at their time because they were not the party rappers that dominated the late 1980's. They were offensive, but, since that time, they matured, recognized their errors of their ways primarily through the death of Easy-E to AIDS. 50 Cent is unwilling to do this. T.I. is also unwilling to do it, even though he has five kids.

In the end, I'm not surprised that either of these men said what they did because it is what I would expect them to say. And that is the most depressing part of it all. T.I. and 50 Cent are two of the largest selling artists in America right now. They get their music heard by millions of people around America. But, neither of them are willing to be responsible and say, yea, this is how I used to live my life but I have moved past that, I got my life clean, and I'm not about a lot of junk anymore. I should rap about how my life has become better and how I got out, focusing on my craft instead of trying to keep a street edge. If dudes in the street feel you, they feel you. But this requires an ability to assess one's own image in society and be responsible for it. Neither T.I. nor 50 Cent is really willing to do these things. They are only concerned with how much money they make and these comments have made that viewpoint crystal clear. Frankly, I'm disinterested if you want to rap about violence because it does happen in society. But, talking about violence like it is cool or what is done to solve problems is ridiculous and is leading to the demise of hip-hop as a form. And just to prove my point, this is the second verse from "Ryder Music" off of 50's The Massacre:

Last year I woke up with good luck, damn it feels good
On the low, I done fucked like half of Hollywood
Had yo' favorite actress, from yo' favorite shows
In my favorite position, you know how it goes
And my Bentley bumpin Prince shit, this is "When Doves Cry"
This is what it sounds like when hollow-tip slugs fly
Homey this is somethin you can ride and smoke to
Stay on point, cause niggaz will ride and smoke you
Jealousy's for women but some niggaz is bitch made
They make you wanna run across they head with a switchblade
They point the finger at me, sayin I'm bugged
My flow's crack, you listen?  Your fuckin brain's on drugs
Look ice drippin on my neck, hands grippin on a tec
Fool trippin threw a set, you can get yo' ass wet
Cards messin up my deck, screws loose show respect
You try to come at me kid yo' ass better come correct

Now, do you understand what I mean in saying that 50 is a minstrel. This bullshit is what White America wants Black artists to say. It keeps them superior, and it keeps our people subjugated.

Talib Says It Right

I've seen Talib Kweli multiple times live. Each time, he's failed to disappoint. I think that he is a smart, talented dude who has been struggling since he dropped Reflection Eternal with Hi-Tek or living in the constant shadow of BlackStar, his infamous album with Mos Def. Regardless of my personal opinions towards his music, I would want him to be my voice of Black America, more so than Al Sharpton and Oprah, because he dissected the problem with rap in one paragraph. From SOHH:

"If you look at the CD sales of rappers who are talking about that stuff, it's on the decline. It's been on the decline for years. And it's not because it's misogynistic, and it's not because they calling them h*es, it's because a lot of it ain't good," he continued. "The art of the music has suffered where everyone wanted to get in the game and just hustle. There's nothing wrong with hustling and getting your money, but when no one focuses on the art, when the art means nothing then people are gonna stop buying."

I absolutely agree. No one is into the gangsta rap because the shit sucks. Listen to your radio, and you will understand what he's talking about. I'm glad that someone who is fairly well known actually pointed it out for once.