The views and opinions expressed in the following feature editorial are those expressly of the writer of this piece and do not necessarily reflect those of HipHopDX.
When I woke up this morning my phone said it was 2010.
Two-thousand and ten. The future. We. Are. In. The. Future. I remember when just saying “2010” sounded futuristic. For all the ‘90s babies reading this wondering what I’m talking about: fuck your life.
In 2010, Magic ain’t got AIDS no more. Compton’s most wanted gets paid for being “Very funny™”. Michael Jackson is DEAD. The Roots are on Jimmy Kimmel. The 2nd Black president talks about Black people less than the 1st one did. We have rappers called Wacka Flocka Flame and Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, and Jay-not-for-nothing-never-happen-Z is married and beefing with MC Hammer. African Queens have blond hair and sworn cop killers play police detectives on television. In 2010, Hip Hop is a Bieber-flavored, carbohydrate-filled energy drink that the old school doesn’t seem to want to taste.
When I heard that Nicki Minaj was beefing with Lil’ Kim, I was saddened. Not because I’m a Lil’ Kim fan mind you… I’m not. I was about to write about how crucial it is that the system (i.e. America) conditions Black folks to mistrust, envy, and despise themselves so much so that they can’t understand other Black folks who are not their own age. I was going to break down the dynamics of institutional racism and the deleterious effects of white supremacy on Black folks’ generational understandings of themselves. I was gonna end it all with a positive answer to the madness and pathology.
Then I heard Lil’ Kim’s diss track. (“Black Friday” 
)
Now, I don’t wanna do that anymore. Kim’s lyrical onslaught made me realize something that should have been obvious from the start. Old school rappers beefing with new school rappers has nothing to do with race. No-thing. You know why? Because (to my knowledge) nothing either of them has said about each other has the slightest thing to do with Black people, being Black, black cards, or even Fergie (you’ll get it later). Now that I think about it, I’m not sure Lil’ Kim has ever said anything about being Black. And I know Nicki Minaj hasn’t. This is not some debate about some topic of substance or relevance. This isn’t about prisons or health-care or education or crack or AIDS or police brutality or food poisoning or poverty or Mumia. Those things are racial.
This is about mind control. The music industry has control of our minds. The music industry’s propaganda machine (a/k/a Hip Hop journalism) has for years told us of a golden era in Hip Hop: A mythical time when Rap was pure and wholesome and not all commercial like it is these days. We love tales about yesteryear as if the air was cleaner or something back then. Okay so, actually the air was cleaner back then but that is besides the point.
I say fuck that. I was born in 1979. I don’t remember any “golden era” in Hip Hop. I remember when MC Hammer was HOT. I remember being salty because the ‘my’ in My Adidas didn’t exist. If it was golden, it was because of the gold chains and medallions, not because it was anything to hold on to culturally. My favorite song in 10th grade was Slick Rick’s “Treat Her Like A Prostitute.” How’s that for golden?
Nowadays, the system (i.e. America) has mind-fucked us so hard for so long that there’s nothing else to do. There’s literally nowhere else to go. Let’s forget about the fact that one of Lil’ Kim’s wayward progeny has started smoking the sort of crack that makes you bite the hand that feeds you. The fact that we accepted/embraced/celebrated Lil Kim in the first place is problematic. Have you ever seen Lil’ Kim?
We are at the point now where we’re so dazed that a clown like Nicki Minaj actually makes Lil’ Kim more relevant. Well, what if the whole narrative of a golden-age turned sour was a load of shit? What if the industry and its minions (i.e. Hip Hop journalists) are just fueling so-called beefs between who is hot this afternoon and who was hot this morning because they want us to perceive there to be a difference between the two “artists”that are for the most part THE SAME. As it turns out, this works particularly well in hip hop for two reasons: artist cloning, and radio program formats.
Artist Cloning
In a 2007 essay titled Hip Hop Directions Nashid Fareed-Ma’at discusses how the practice of sampling music in Hip Hop ultimately had the effect of limiting and reducing it to replicas of the American Pop music genres that preceded it (e.g. R&B, Soul, Disco and Funk acts, Reggae). This is why, Ma-at argues, most Rap songs stick to pre-designed structural templates, such as: verse – chorus -verse – chorus – bridge – chorus – end1.
“The musical language of Pop music, and correspondingly commercial R&B, Soul, Disco, and Funk is very limited. Thus, many songs sound like other (previous) songs (in composition, content, style) creating a dynamic of repetitiveness in the music. A strong factor in this is that record companies like to use formulas of past hits on present songs: it made money before, it will probably do so again.” –p.4
Thus, exploration and artistic creativity are necessarily the enemies of the music industrial complex. In fact, Ma-at argues (and I tend to agree) that Hip Hop’s preoccupation with rhyming itself is evidence of a narrowed focus and industry-imposed restricted creativity. Rappers are, of course, musical poets. And of course, poetry doesn’t have to rhyme. But, here in the States we can barely imagine a Rap song not rhyming; whereas music in other parts of the world is not nearly as limited. Psychologically this is important, because this extreme, American-produced focus on rhyme-schemes (to the detriment of other dimensions of the music) reduces the diversity of the sounds and facilitates the “dynamic of repetitiveness” currently witnessed in the music industry.
So if American songs are reduced to the lowest common denominator and then patterned after earlier “successful” versions, why wouldn’t artists themselves be replicated? Artist cloning is simply the next step in a logical progression. I don’t even have to call any names to make this point. Virtually every commercially successful rapper in the last 15 years has had an obvious predecessor. Of course, when old school confronts new over industry territory, the old school is quick to point this out (Kim says that she birthed Nicki Minaj 486 times on that track). Rather than see the invisible hand of oppression, we blame each other. We should see how corporate profit motives engineered the inevitable clash between two individuals forced to fit into the same pre-fabricated mold; instead we see a battle, biting, dick-riding, or some other clever euphemism for coonery.
Radio Programming
“But ” you say… “I can choose which music I want to listen to and which music I don’t.” Well, unfortunately this is only partially true. Not only is the corporation literally behind the music (you think you know but you have no idea), they are also largely in control of what music we actually hear. On this point, Ma-at is precise, recounting how as a kid growing-up in the Bronx, (the celebrated birthplace of Hip Hop), he was introduced to it through (you guessed it) the radio.
Artist cloning would never work if not for the structure of radio. After ensuring that any product they “release” is sufficiently similar to a previously successful product, the music industry then resells us on this product via spectacularly redundant radio programming formats.
Consider this: according to media and mass communications expert Dr. Jared Ball, what many people do not know is that on any given week only two corporations (Universal Music Group and Sony Music) own at least 80%, and usually upwards of 95%, of all the songs making the radio’s Top 20. These companies either own or pay radio stations to ensure that their songs, and only their songs, are played…and played often. Ball estimates that this corporate muscle is responsible for 20-40,000 spins per song, per month. In other words, a UMG or Sony Music song is playing on the radio “every minute of every hour of every single solitary day.”2 * Through a well-known psychological process called the mere exposure effect (https://hiphopdx.com/editorials/id.811/title.get-your-mind-right-lyrics-on-the-brain) the heavy rotation of an extremely small sample of artists actually makes the listener like those songs/artists more.
Super-companies ensure that “new” is an illusion; they literally harp and depend on the proverbial same old song. The typical Rap album produced today has dozens of “guest” appearances, and a record with only one artist on it is virtually obsolete. Songs on the radio sound a lot like all of the other songs on the radio. This explains why even the most dedicated listener wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly who was on the radio just a couple of years ago. They don’t remember. And who can blame them? After a while, it all starts to blend together.
And that’s the point. The only way that Onika Maraj and Kimberly Jones can fight each other is if Nicki Minaj and Lil’ Kim are different. They are not. They are not different on purpose. The reason we can not see that is because we are asleep, perfectly happy to have our dreams dreamt for us.
John Lennon once said that a dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. Get Your Mind Right: it is time for us to wake up.
1Ma-at, N.F. (2007) Hip Hop Directions.
2Ball, J.A. (2010) Hip-Hop and the “Anti-Blackness Antagonism”. www.blackagendareport.com
Brian Carey Sims, Ph. D is a North Carolina-based author, journalist, lecturer and assistant professor at North Carolina A&T University. He is also executive director of the Hip Hop Journalists Association (HHJA). He has contributed to The Journal of Pan African Studies, Journal of Black Psychology and HipHopDX.com. Visit his website here.
I didnt understand SHIT! but anyway TEAM MINAJ!!!
Laughing like shit hahaha
Your part of the problem, get your ignant ass out of here, don’t comment next time.
if its on the radio, its not on my iPod
^^^^^ thats the point
Solid article!
the point is, even if the golden era was a myth, the music back then was still so much better than it is now.
how did we let hip hop become so commercial? back then the shit on the radio was the good shit like Big L’s “Ebonics”. now we have repeats all day of “airplanes” by b.o.b.
UHm This was a waste of my time..me readings this gave me nothing
i still got out of it with what i started with which was that i love nicki minaj…nd lil kim is a hatin as old bitter bitch .period..uhm this beef as people call it is not beef because niether one of them are tupac nor biggie.. so its not tht big of a deal…..nd to the author of this bull shit this shit ddnt make no kinda of since like wt the fuck..u jumpn from all types of places………..nd i dnt get a damn thng of wt u were tlkn about….beef is big n tupac not nicki minaj . lil kim period…… lil kim is not big n doesnt hav his skills …n nicki is not big or tupac period ..I SPEAK THE TRUTH.
all u showed there is that you know nothing of hip hop at all. so ur saying that beef only exists between pac and biggie and no one else? wtf dumbass.
secondly, u clearly know nothing of old school hip hop. which is what he is talking about, saying its become commercial and beyond our control, which uve proved by saying ur on nicki’s side.
get smart dumbass
Jade…..kill urself
wow Jade, that was one of the most ignorant, retarded things i’ve ever read
typical nicki fan.
Oh Sims, you always try so hard…
“Old school rappers beefing with new school rappers has nothing to do with race. No-thing. You know why?”
No it doesn’t have anything to do with race, not do many of things you somehow connect with race. Your thoughts revolve around race so much because you have delusional conspiracies about evil rich white people secretly enslaving the minds of poor minorities. But so do most liberals so its all good fam.
I disagree with you. Corporate has a heavy hand in fucking Hip Hop culture up, from radio payola to FORCING artists to make similar songs to what’s being heard on the radio.
So ExSavior, how are you disagreeing? That dude was talking about race, you’re talking about corporations, two different things, the only color they’re looking at is GREEN.
I disagreed with the very last part of his comment on the control the rich and evil really have.
Good article. Yeah, Corporate completely fucked up the pureness Hip Hop started with. It’s beyond annoying to know that radio was one of the best sources to hear new music to something I can’t even stand to turn on for more than 10 mins because 1) every track sounds strikingly similar, or 2) all the payola is coming from one label to promote all THEIR talent and nobody else.
I can go on for a while on the many ways toady’s Hip Hop is much harder to appreciate compared to the 90s, but all we can do is show progress and simply do better than the next man/woman.
This article really sticks out to me when it speaks about the sampling part. Some of the artist cloning shit maybe b.s or real but I think the importance of creativity and pushing the culture is important. I my self, as a producer, I will be using less-sample based records.
http://www.shawnbiggs.tumblr.com
what a pathetic article.
this guy criticizes hiphop journalist for being instigators and he post articles on the biggest instigator hiphop site on the internet.
of course this has nothing to do with being black. Lil kim has been trying to become a white woman for the last 10 years of her life
wtfudge
i understand… but was thiz necessary…
its true its just political bs…
music now goes beyond just hiphop .. no golden age… yet… now its just ur use of creativeness … How musical are u
Big Companies didnt kill hip hop..yall the fans did..
What are this writers credentials? Despite making sensationalistic points he still bored me…….
feel like you gotta make a longer article about this if you’re going to convince us of your point buddy. sure the corporations control the radio, this isn’t new. but who controls the underground? sure kim and nicki have/had the same people/corporations backing them, but does this really make them the same artist? idk i feel like you didnt really argue your case well here.
This was a bit scattered, to be honest. If you’re going to lure people in with your own propaganda, I’d have thought it’d be an entire write-up, or series based on said topic.
This pretty much reads as someone seemingly on the neutrality fence, which is fine, but only half of the article is even about that.
If you’d care to elaborate as to what you were going for further, feel free to email me @ AriiPrice@gmail.com. Love to know what your aim was.
That’s the point. There was no aim. This guy retreated back to using yellow journalism lures in an effort to sublimate anything he had to offer in a slurry of tired ageless rhetoric. …After reading this, I feel dumber than I started. This guy probably thinks “hip hop heads” are juvenille enough to eat this up as some avant garde Hip Hop Indoctrination manual. But we are not. We know better. We question authority. We are cynical of everything that we are faced with in life. This guy needs more people. And alot more sources to tie together his Theoretical Drivel.
Man…I’m always disappointed with the writers on hiphopdx.com (and some other major hip hop sites). Please get a competent editor. PLEASE!!!!
Where the hell do you get off wasting our time filling your ‘essay’ with lines like “You think you know but you have no idea”, “Nowadays, the system (i.e. America) has mind-fucked us so hard for so long that there’s nothing else to do”, and this telling gem: “I don’t even have to call any names to make this point” (Ahahaha!, oh, lucky you then, that makes your job easier!)
Look, if you can’t be bothered substantiating your point, then go polemic and let em know how you feel. But you haven’t much of either beyond these tired-ass references to ‘The Corporation’ and the less tired research that you found to go along with that. I enjoyed that stuff, sure (although you should be mindful of the fact that much of your readership would be way more highly aware of payola, heavy rotation etc. than the average man) – always good to see the oft-repeated cry about music industry manipulation get backed up by some real sample work.
But… Your equation seemed to follow: Evil Music Industry + Golden Era Not Real = Lil’ Kim & Nicki Minaj Carbon Copies.
Huh?!?
Sorry? What? How? In what ways? Is this another thing you are exempting yourself from having to explain? Damn, you must be the luckiest academic in the world – you get to make points without doing anything to back them up, what a dayjob!
They are clearly both very driven women who are fully entitled to claim majority credit for inventing and pushing the style and aesthetics and role we now know them for. I’d like to see you stand in front of either one of these women and tell them to their face that they are no different from the other, without naming anything specific. Their flow is different. Their beat selection, different. Their lyrics, different. The era in which they put out music along with all the influences that come with that, very different.
I suppose you could say that they both look similar. Uh. Being women and all. They are both women – maybe they plagiarised each other’s gender, maybe? Funny that, though, that you thought this was a great point to apply to this particular beef. I’m wondering if any of this pigeonholing stuff was darting around your head as you wrote the article (I’m left to wonder, see, when points aren’t fully made).
I’d like to point out that there are clearer and more compelling battle lines drawn out between Lil Kim and Nicki Minaj than there has been for ANY beef I’ve seen in years. That’s the very reason why it drew SO much attention in the midst of this camp, stupid, embarrassing, wannabe-fashionista, two-faced rich boy’s mess that is mainstream hip hop in 2010.
People were drawn to it because there seemed to be at least some of the real emotion there that they certainly aren’t getting from the well-groomed men in suits and aviators glaring into a camera that are most of hip hop’s current stars. That’s why it hung around in the collective consciousness like it did. Credit where credit’s due.
Don’t offset their abilities by quoting research on the limitations of genre-splicing hip hop, either. I assume you’ve read all about the other side of the coin – the vitalism that sampling, genre splicing and so on have given to hip hop?
You’re snatching without looking from completely disparate elements of hip hop just to try and prop up this point you’re trying to make about the big evil corporate monster, how lemming-like all the fans are, and how artists are carbon copies of each other. Go and get a truck of evidence for the last two, and then maybe people will listen.
Thank you, you said everything i wanted to say. Niki’s music sounds nothing like Kim’s. Niki Said in one interview that she wanted to be like lady gaga. Whats more pop than that?
Kim is straight hood gutter music which has its place and which in its own right is dope but to say kim and niki are the same is a damn shame. They are not. I dont think i’ve ever heard kim sing yet niki sings on every track.
I Fucking agree about the structural templates. I swear rappers don’t take this game seriously anymore. Shit all sounds the same. This is why I listen to Japanese and Korean hip hop/rap cuz they actually care about furthering the genre. Instead of using the same tired beats and flows. Everybody on this fucking site dick rides artist that can only offer some decent rhymes (J.Cole) but nothing else.
The whole sampling thing was interesting but the bit about rap without rhyming being big in other countries is straight wack bro!!!
Isnt that what R.A.P stands for any way??? Rhythm and poetry? Wheres would the rhythm be w/o the damn rhyming?
The literal mechanics of rhyming combined with an artists ability to manipulate words along with subject matter is what makes great hiphop.
I agree about what was said when it comes to the diff types of propaganda used in the media and the manipulation of the mainstream, but what about the music thats been released this year and the last. 09/10 have been stellar for hiphop at least for me anyways. SOunds like you dont really like hiphop too much anymore bro. Who the fuck wrote this article??? kid cudi???
who is this flamer and why does he think we care about his fucking filibuster speech about how hiphop isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago.. fuck this guy and every word he ever typed.. did he graduate devry with a degree in hip hop critique.. this guy hasn’t written/produced or even sampled one song but he can write a complaint about BS
I agree with the article. People are stupid. There little brain can type in there opinion and big words, but it can not connect the dots the article is trying too say.
beautifully said
isn’t obama the first black president lol,,,that story that lincoln was black is bullshit
I believe he was referring to former president William Jefferson Clinton who is most noted for his welfare reform, economic growth and overall support and involvement with minorities, particularly black Americans and thus he is sometimes referred to as the first “black president” as a term of endearment.
where were you living for the past 15-20 years?
alot of blacks considered clinton the first black president because of how well he related to them/us and also because of some of his personal “behaviour/indulgances”
Or maybe he meant Nelson Mandela… genius
Hi i believe in equal rights and freedom of speech but i think u have no right to call african american people the n word there are name for white to.!And besides blacks have done alot for blacks and white…i am not saying whites have done nuthing cuz my grandmother is white and my grandfather is black but u need to re-word u comment…..and descrimination is over.! have a nice new years.!
this shit made me confused. has the author always hated hip hop? or is he saying its always been the same? was he saying run dmc sucked and lil kim? some how rap is racist? lincoln first black prez? he had his own slaves. this article was all over the place. also i never listen to the radio. i got an ipod and cd’s.
This isn’t really knowledge that’s fallin’ from the sky – this is some obvious shit.
None at all..smh..
this is what the illuminatti. they got a hand EVERYTHING. Hiphop is just a smart part of it
WAKE UP Y’ALL SHEEPS
That made absolutely no sense.
lol
This article reminds me of that scene from The Matrix, where the choice was to either take the red pill or the blue pill… one being much harder to swallow than the other. It’s sad to see from the responses here that signals the severely brainwashed and dazed individuals who’ve apparently found so much comfort in their ignorance that it has become their reality.
Listening to music plays on a persons intellect the same way reading a book does: You become familiar with the author, their words, their style, and their message. Good or bad, whatever and however you choose to comprehend from it will find itself etched in you consiousness.
So basically, if all you’re listenin to is stupid ass, simple sounding, fake ass exaggerated ego acting clown muthafuckas, then guess what you’re going to end up thinking and acting like???
And it’s all formulated and pushed by white corporations, and shareholders, who dont know, dont understand, and dont give a shit about me, you, hip-hop as a culture, genre, or whatever the fuck you wanna classify it as. All they care about is feeding you mindless bullshit by recycling a very stereotypical formula over and over and getting your money from it.
That dude right. Muthafuckas truly need to crawl yo dumb numb brainwashed ass outta tha fuckin matrix and WAKE THE FUCK UP BITCH!
hahaha it’s nice to think you’re smarter than most, right?
There’s always going to be stupid people, but the truly stupid laud their position over those they deem ‘uneducated sheep’ instead of trying to help.
This whole article/editorial was a bunch of rhetoric. Sure, it sounds nice if it fits your already-set ‘open-minded’ viewpoint but ‘Professor’ Brian Sims manages to say very little, and struggles to pull together a cohesive point. I recommend he takes remedial classes in essay writing.
“The reason we can not see that is because we are asleep, perfectly happy to have our dreams dreamt for us.” Fuck your condescending bullshit, I’d hazard a bet many people more qualified to speak on hip-hop would laugh at this unnecessarily negative article.
You say “Fuck the ’90s children” without realising you are one. You went from ~11 to ~19 years of age during that decade. If I wanted a worthwhile opinion on hip-hop culture (NOT just the music) I would listen to somebody born in the late ’60s/early ’70s. I say that because I’m sure the ‘big Brian Sims going through puberty’ really knew how to objectively evaluate a cultural movement while experiencing it.
Fuck you and fuck your shit.
DX whats with all this about wit u sayin black music all the time now? its annoyin… ‘state of black music in 2010’ ‘big year for british black music’ black, black, black music blah blah blah. wat u tryna prove, musics for everyone didnt u know?
k
Obnoxious to bring race into this, since derivative pop and rock music are all just playing off the past and what’s popular. I don’t see Katy Perry and Ke$ha transcending what P!nk and Britney Spears did a decade ago.
White, black, brown, yellow…popular music always goes for the lowest common denominator. Same thing goes for movies.
And who is Kanye a clone of? Maybe I’m missing the point…
kanye’s a backpacker, a crossover backpacker at that so…. pick a backpacker
Hip Hop Is Dead.
Great article. Unfortunately, many here are uneducated and too ignorant to analyze this article without getting emotional and juvenile. Many of the comments here are written by those who have been ‘dumbed down’, evidenced by their failure to provide a logical response. To those remaining intelligent fans out there, kudos to you…
Brilliant article. Well written n imformative
FUCK NICK MINAJ
fuck you
My friend and I have been talking about this recently and we agree that their are two types of hip hop; mainstream(ie radio) and underground(mixtapes, YouTube, ect.). You have your drake, and nicki minajs on the radio but you also have people like j. Cole, wiz Khalifa, and Mac miller blowing up nationwide on the Internet. The Internet is a door to get exposed and people have began to run with it. Those that want to find new, good music know their resources to find it all. Those brain washed by the media, their will always be a percentage of them that will stay “loyal” to mainstream sellouts.
Soulja Boy was founded on the internet also. So i dont think its the solution. POP music will always be on the radio. Hip Hop is a voice and opinion and like everything that unique and opinionated, it will always be only found in the underground. Meaning hard to find but it makes it that much sweeter you do
Why does everyone think J. Cole and Wiz are such gorund-breaking artists? Maybe I’m missing something here? I feel like I’ve “heard it all before”.
I second many thoughts in this article! I listen and respect Lil Kim for the time in with the other dogs of Hip Hop, and her game of word play can be done well at times, but yes, you are correct, Lil Kim is a elder of Nicki Minaj and artist are on the repeat…and I AGREE WACKA FLACKA SUCKS!
The only thing about this well-written article that i disagree with is his dismissal of the idea of a “golden era” of hip-hop. when KRS, Kane and Rakim reigned supreme the music had more social value. Groups like PE, X-Clan, and NWA shouldn’t be forgotten. These are just a few of the artist that are more deserving of imitation than artists Lil Kim (who I don’t have a problem with).
That John Lennon quote was deep as fuck!!
Punk bitch, I don’t know what ethnicity you are, although I can probably guess, but I’m positive you’re not Native American. So why don’t you and the rest of your mongrel race pack YOUR shit, and take your asses back to where the fuck you came from. Next time have the courage enough to say it to a black man or woman’s face you closet racist ass faggot.
Well written 5 stars
To all you Hip hop fans and music lovers underground rapper, rising icon The Gift is blowing up in the streets with his new Sex Music song make sure you check The Gift out with his Maryland flavor D.M.V’S OWN
The Gift- Sex Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bizW8Pakug
This is the same Nicki who thanks GOD for her success. in one of her songs on pink friday she says “I’ll throw holy water on a vampire” and turns around the next minute embracing images of Necrophilia aka sexual attraction to corpses or seeking self-esteem by expressing power over a homicide victim in Kanyes “monster”, and it goes far beyond that. Talk about desensitization tO bring in the new year!
Worst piece of shit i’ve read in a long time.
This is why I can’t listen to radio much up north here in NY. It’s terrible. You would think Young Money & Sony bought out the stations here. It’s real sad. There isn’t much creativity. No one is looking to break the mold as much as break a record.
Young Money owns your fucking soul.
Wow! SO at first I was like, this article is absolute shit when he was like fuck your life to 90s kids and then began talking about opression and the man etc.
But then I pushed on and the analysis towards the end was surprisingly good. I’ve always thought that some of the things we hold dear in Hip Hop, e.g. “Keeping it Real” are very detrimental to the development of the art form because they stifle creativity.
lolumad bitch?
Yeah lot of rap songs sound the same down to the core, but you can’t say popular rappers like lil wayne and eminem are exactly the same for example, that’s just retarded.
Eminem is a white Tupac clone XD btw!
You’re officially retarded. Have you ever listened to an Eminem record before? Do you really understand how much goes into one of his rhymes? Pac had a simpler style, less technical and wordy….relied on emotion and his unique brand of charisma….Very different artists, my man.
calling the emphasis on rhyme in rap music a “limitation” is like criticizing a sport for having rules. the need to rhyme isn’t a limitation, its a challege for the artist to find new ways to excel withing the boundaries.
back on subject, he made SOME good points throughout the article, but never seems to state a real problem. ok, we need to “wake up”. But what would the music industry look like when we are awakened? You list all these problems, but when its time for the solution, you just make some ambiguous statement.
As far as the “golden era” is concerned, I think you confuse your ideal subject matter with what it means to be quality hiphop. Regardless of whether you believe “treat her like a prostitute” was culturally important, you cannot deny the fact that Slick Rick and his peers took stock in their lyricsm, rhyme schemes, story telling abilities, something that isn’t common today. those things should be held on to culturally.
This was the most level-headed response to the article I’ve read so far. No bullshit history lesson on what some guy in Iowa thinks happened to hip-hop in the 90’s….just an honest critique of the professor’s attempt to enlighten us.
this bitch can’t rap for shit…she is fuckin GARBAGE!!! so fuckin overrated…kids are so pathetic now a days when it comes to music selection.
I’m going to have to disagree with the professor on this one. This is actually one of the few articles of yours I’ve managed to sit though. That’s not a compliment- your writing style is horrible. Since I’ve got one year up on you (’78), let me break things down for you:
First, there was a golden era in Hip Hop. I would hardly call the songs I remember as a teen (Steady Mobbin (Ice Cube), Shut Em Down (PE), Soul on Ice (Ras Kass), Runnin (Pharcyde), Smif and Wesson, 2Pac (2pacalypse now [ Pacs best album]), Black Moon, and the Roots Album “Do You Want More” as part of a great mind fuck. Here’s what happened:
Rap became a commodity.
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s economics.
There was a series of events that commercialized rap as we know it today. Yes, I remember when Mc Hammer was hot, but it was with suburban kids. I remember rap starting to get real formulaic when The Chronic came out. It was an amazing album that got alot of video and radio play. Suddenly everyone on the West Coast went for the G Funk sound, including Ice Cube.
At that time NY had lost the crown and it wasn’t until Puffy came out with B.I.G. that it took it back. With that said, at that same moment, NY’s “real” hip hop scene disappeared. I remember every time KRS-One dropped a single it was #1 on rap city. Soon that started getting replaced by Bad Boy and anyone one copying that sound by sampling 80’s beats or hooks, including Nas on “Street Dreams” which is just the Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams” in rap form.
The whole West Coast/East Coast rap rivalry was about who was getting more radio play. Pac getting shot and blaming biggie didn’t help, but before Biggie, Pac was never in Versace and leather vests looking like a fruit (sorry I liked Pac’s 1st three albums, most of his Death Row shit is repetitive).
After Pac and Big got murked, Jay-Z took the crown for NY while the West fell off and never really recovered, by dropping hot song after hot song and breaking records while doing it. Jay was already respected on the East Coast, but alot of his club bangers got him love in the South (Big Pimpin’). From that moment on, every record that came out on the radio was some faux Blue Print shit trying to bite Kanye & Just Blazes style.
I can go on and on from the Souths rise to dominance and NY rappers copying them to 50 Cent, Kanye, etc. It’s has nothing to do with America Mind Fucking anybody. It’s about a bunch of hungry niggas from the street trying to blow up so they copy whats hot so they hopefully can live the life they see on the videos they try to copy. If it’s not that, it’s last years rapper who was hot that just follows whatever is hot or trendy to stay relevant. If a rapper can make a radio friendly single and then get sponsorship deals that will allow them to live comfortably, do you really think they care about artistic integrity?
Of course these conglomerates have a lot to do with what we hear on the radio, but it’s because the American public likes everything without thinking. We want our 7 minute abs, microwaveable foods, iPods, and shitty music (like Niki Manaj and Little Kim) to fill them up with.
Pac’s greatest album was & Day Theory. I bought 2pacalypse Now and STrictly 4 My Niggaz on cassette….Hard albums but not quite the masterpiece that his last one was….He set a theme and stuck with it.
I’m a little sick of conspiracy stories. it’s as simple as catering to the lowest common denominator. maybe instead of trying to over-analyze every problem inherent in rap music we should just focus on making good music. what’s wrong with us that we spend all this time on nicki vs. kim. is it really that entertaining? is it so significant that it defines rap music on a macro level? i think not. stop distracting us!
sooo what part was a conspiracy theory??
“The Roots are on Jimmy Kimmel.” well they are actually the in house band for Jimmy Fallon, I know they are both white and its apparent you dont watch the show much.
hahaha.. niiccee..
Your information is half correct. your points are there, they are just presented poorly. I think that you were trying to just piss people off. Okay, c’mon we get it, the man is holding us down. they want us to assimilate to the system… yeah, yeah..
say my nigga Craig Lewis said he knows someone on the inside who told him Sony throw Devil partys everytime an album is released.lol Str8 up Now i ignore shit when it come from a fooly wang teacher but Craig Is very sound in his teaching he shows and proves everytime.
Lil kim is just jealous of nicki minaj’s beautiful big booty. hahaha
WTF, someone remove this racist filth.
…article was crap btw.
yes, well sort of!
it isn’t about race at the end of the day those at the bottom/middle/plenty of the high of the socio-economic latter are ALL viewed as consumers and not because it is profitable (for the american dollar isnt backed by gold; its just debt paper) but because it keeps the system of the masses distracted and caught up in the unattainable.
That is the main reason music corporate goons sign artists as well as simply concoct artists that are sure to maintain status quo and sell you a lifestyle that not even they have. What is being sold is not your puppet rapper but the “okays” of a publicist that works for the interests of the corporate conglomerate he/she works for. basically your favorite rapper is someone else’s BITCH!!
And the fact that there is an oligarchy on all things media is just the start ,for it spills over into other economic interests. for example the owner of NBC is also in the business of making weapons ,so it isnt a surprise that the news coverage is pro-war(from the jump off now its a lil against for ratings) because war is profitable for weaponry business. The music label that NBC(Universal) owns is sure to then produce music that distracts from the realities of the current occupation. Corporate owned rappers wont touch the war subject in depth.
There is a reason why Immortal Technique says NO on signing to corporate assholes because they will pigeon hold him into rapping what they say is good and if not just shelf him. More rappers need to sign on the whole “Nationalizing the Industry” and regain their self autonomy.
As far as “the golden rap years” are concerned….yeah all of it was industry owned however, I like to believe hip hop is the music of the people especially those who are most affected by oppressive capitalistic heirachy.
Initially it came out of the slums. Reagan had the whole slums Fucked over so hip hop then was an outlet of such detrimental effects. But as the craft progressed it became more ill and the rappers of the 90’s mastered the skill of lyricism and presented the symptoms of said oppression which was dope as fuck and that was the “golden years” sure there were a lot of dumbs fucks sprinkled in there but the progression of hip hop was on point. Now they try to replicate the 90’s and its just homo. Crack years are over shut the fuck up already.
Its time to make connections between the hip hop people and the rest of the world and not digress back into Happy rap because it is CORNEY.. Lupe fiasco immortal tech diabolical lowkey even prolyphic are some that are going the right direction. Hop off the industry dick people and get it together…big ups to whoever read my rant and to the chauvinistic bastards you just got schooled by a women a young one at that….peace!!
marry me
fuck lil kim, nikki all day stop hating hoe
smh en lmao at dis shit, this article’s actually a lot more bullshit than it appears to be, haha, but i’ll leave it at that, if you feel me you feel me 😛
fuck this old nigga
This article has two valid points with a ton of well written bullshit.
The motivation and emergence of hip-hop may be the man’s fault, but feuding female artist IS NOT.
From a female MC standpoint, there are relatively very few female MC’s for Nicki Minaj to look up to. And what did little Lil Kim do that made her different? She mixed Biggie driven lyrics with a petite voice to SELL SEX…OH THAT’S ORIGINAL. Foxy Brown too. What did she do besides label bang, and talk about her pussy.
Hip Hop is a male dominated art. Most of the women in it use their sexuality to sell albums. The last one to do it with diginity was L. Boogie and she lost her fuckin mind.
even if race was involved in some way it doesnt necessarily mean the industry started it. we do not support each other. u lost me when u called nickiand kim the same. ill agree tht in the beginning nicki copied her but as she’s received more exposure she has changed. her album was not about fukn n1ggas or even relationships for tht matter. it aint no gangsta tracks on it. imo she’s very different.even the barbie thing. yes kim did it in a video but sh eneva rocked the crazy outfits or sung or any of tht. nicki’s already created her own lane. she used kims style to get on and how u gone hate her for tht? with time u grow. maybe she wasnt thinkin this far ahead nd this out the box at tht time.. or maybe she was… either way they need to squash the shyt, do a track, and then leave it be…..
all of this doesnt matter cause in the end nicki is a dirty hoodrat bitch who got shoved into our throats by the media and music industry. GG. btw shes a wannabe watered down lil kim who aint got her own style
dirty hoodrat bitch? thats the basis of your argument? seriously? this statement falls somewhere between stupidity and ignorance. no one forced her down my throat. i heard about her before she did anything commercial, searched her on youtube, heard her miztapes and liked it. i NEVER listen to the radio. we all have the choice to listen to w/e we choose. if u dont like it dont listen. i decide what i like. i dont consider whether its commercial or not, theres only one thing that i consider. do i like it? if so i listen to more from that artist..simple.and im not young. i remember kim. no disrespect but her legacy was not and is not what many are trying to portray it as. all she talked about was fukn, she wasnt spreading no positivity. i got hardcore..
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the roots are on jimmy kimmel???????????
he means Jimmy fallon
Another article riddled with mistakes. The Roots are on Jimmy Fallon, not Jimmy Kimmel. When you’re talking about Compton’s Most Wanted, you better be talking about MC Eiht and MC Chill, not Ice Cube. If CMW had a show on TBS, that would be something else.
I was born in 89 and I remember when Hammer was hot. So what? The writing is good, the “artist cloning” theory was well researched. But I gotta say, I don’t think this dude knows hip-hop as well as he professes to know hip-hop to be bringing out such BOLD opinions.
A common theme with this dude is out with the old, in with the new. He wrote a whole article shitting on Nas for trying to release The Lost Tapes 2 on Def Jam. All kinds of negativity towards great hip-hop vets. Why? I think he’s advocating positions favorable to current artists to get a rep from who’s hot today to make a name for himself.
I think this is just some academic dude with a psychology degree trying to make a niche out of hip-hop to get famous. End a hip-hop article with a quote from John Lennon? Come on man, there were so many good hip-hop quotes that you could of concluded this article with.
Hip-hop has always been competitive. Since The Real Roxanne, women in the industry have never been known to get a long. Kim or Nicki…I don’t see either of them talking about Free Mumia. But at the same time, nobody is going to get shot over this. It’s fun music, sit back and enjoy the cat fight.
What is a racist snowburger like you doing on a hip-hop site anyway? No Klan rallies today?
Doesn’t sound like much of a professor to me. Perhaps he is saying things like “has mind-fucked us so hard” to dumb down his commentary to match his audience. However, since when does a professor dumb down his essays or lectures. Anyone could have written this article. Sentences such has “I say fuck that”, make me wonder what kind of education you really receive at North Carolina A&T.
knew this article was bullshit at the moment he considerd rhymin as a limitation…
So many lessons tellers today whom know what’s good for our ears or what’s not…you know, today we have the possibility to listen the music we want to listen, to support whoever we want to support and that from every place in this world. So if all these YM haters bought their favorite artists albums instead of downloadin’ it, if they spent more time on helpin to promote them instead of postin stupid articles like these maybe YM wouldn’t be that big…just sayin’
I couldn’t believe it when he said rhyming was a limitation either. I almost stopped reading right there. How can the single most challenging part of an art (getting those words to flow), the utter reason it is an art, be a limitation. Bullshit. I don’t care who this guy learned from or what institution he attended (if any as he clearly can’t edit) but they clearly didn’t teach him much.
Who the fuck would want to listen to the song if it doesn’t rhyme? You’ve lost one of the true distinguishing factors of rap at that point. I rap and listen to rap because I respect the control us rappers have over language. To be able to command words to convey our ideas and to still keep them rhyming is THE fucking challenge. I would’ve written shitty fucking pop songs if I didn’t need to fucking rhyme.
UMMM..I Was born 81′(so fuckin what)..the only thing age gives us is a different point of view..i grew up in the culture and the one thing this writer hit on the head is “there is no GOLDEN ERA”..IT IS A DREAM..BACK THEN THOSE SAME RAPPERS WE PRAISE WERE “HATED” AS WELL..BIG GOT AS MUCH HATE FROM HIS COUNTERPARTS WHO WERE NOT MAKIN MONEY EITHER..THE ROOTS MADE A WHOLE VIDEO(WHAT THEY DO..ANYONE)..WU-TANG THREW SHOTS REPEATEDLY..KRS-ONE AND HIS WHOLE CREW BATTLED THE NIGZ FROM THE BRIDGE..THE LIST GOES ON..FEMALE RAPPERS ON TOP..never really got along..this is not new..its recycled..with “better” marketing…the one thing missing from the audience that was ‘BIRTHED’ IN THE 90’S is a connection with other types of music..such as soul..so they tend to not have a grasp on different sounds and where shit came from..we were exposed to “mega superstars with no color lines-M.JACKSON.PRINCE ETC..AS WELL AS DEEP 70’S SOUL FROM OUR PARENTS..I HEAR LIL NIGZ TODAY TALKING ABOUT “WHO WANTS TO LISTEN TO A 7 MINUTE SONG” WHEN REFERRING TO KANYE SHIT..NOT EVEN KNOWIN HOW STUPID OF A STATEMENT THAT IS..SOME OF THE BEST MUSIC EVER HAD 2 PARTS TO IT..AN INSTRUMENTAL IN THE MIDDLE..AND WAS 7-10 MINUTES LONG..IT AINT YOUNG MONEY OR ANY OTHER DUDE WHO’S RAPPIN FAULT..YOU HEAR CATS TODAY SAYIN SHIT LIKE “HE CANT RAP..HE OLD..FUCOUTTAHERE..ALL OF YOUR FAVORITE RAPPERS ARE 28-35..WITH A FEW EXCEPTIONS BEIN OLDER THAN THAT..ITS NO CONCEPT OF AGE..THE REASON RAPPERS FROM THE 90’S SEEM TO HAVE A FOOTHOLD ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE GAME IS THEY CAME IN THE ERA WHEN IT CHANGED LYRICALLY FOR THE BETTER..80’S RAPPERS NEVER HAD A CHANCE..THE 90’S BOXED THEM OUT COMPLETELY BECAUSE THE SHIFT IN STYLE..THE 2000’S ARE BUILT OFF THE 90’S SONG STRUCTURES,TOPICS,SWAG,AND SUBJECT MATTER…AND ALSO OF COURSE KIM WOULD COME AT NICKI..the game is designed for that..especially if the next artist comes in and jacks your entire image..minus the classic music..and tells a “new” generation she is an “ORIGINAL”..when KIM TOOK YRS TO PERFECT THAT IMAGE..SHE GREW INTO THE “BARBIE”..NOT OUT THE GATE..the same reason all of these “new” cats come at JAY-Z IN FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO MAKE A NAME FOR THEMSELVES..NO RESPECT..GO AT SOMEBODY IN YOUR OWN WEIGHT CLASS..ONE OF THE GREAT RULES OF HIPHOP
You’re missing the point Dutch. While I will admit this article is laden with a lot of cliche catchy metaphors, innuendo, and (perhaps, intentional?) mistakes. He makes a statement underneath all that b.s. Take it for what it is. The game is fixed. We are just too caught out to see it. It would be one thing for him to say Minaj hates Kim or Kim hates Minaj… old school vs. new school. yadda yadda. He’s not knocking the generational gap. He’s just saying he’s not surprised. He pointed out the fact that they aren’t rhyming about substance. Something that matters aside from ego and expressing his disinterest. And to “immature” its not about him saying rhyme as a limitation. Its fact, Where verse, lyrics and spoken word used to be the arms of choice for the real emcee. Corporations have made a formula that the vets and hip-pop artists have stuck to now. Listen to the lyrics of “Syllables” you’ll get the point.
Honestly its as much “our” fault as listeners as it is the rappers that corny shit, and ‘beef’ like this gets any play anyday. Creativity doesn’t sell anymore. Its about sticking to the formula with a catchy hook, beefing over twitter (don’t even get me started on that bullshit), or creating your own controversy and airing it publicly to extent your 15 minutes.
He says it ain’t Hip Hop, we’re conforming (as a people) to what big business wants us to see/hear/do. I guess thats the point he was tryin’ to make. Take it for what it is. Opinion. You don’t have to like it. But thats the beauty of having your own thoughts, you can listen and take away whats valid or you can ignore it completely, isn’t it?
*extend. Caught that just as I was hitting post. W/e.
Rap is still out there but damn I miss Hip-Hop.
this article is stupid whats the point here that beefing is stupid or is the writer stupid i was born in 77 fucc all the new rappers i fucc wit the old school i wish they would attack all these new lame fuccs
WHAT THE FUCK IS BLACK MUSIC? IT AINT ABOUT LYRICS FUCK NICKI CUZ SHE FAKE EVEN THO HER MONEY AINT… MUSIC IS CONTROLLED BY SOME RICH ASSHOLE WHO DONT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT OUR CULTURE…
Brian Sims – Professor of Butthurt.
Just because people don’t understand what you’re saying doesn’t make you profound.
I think his issue is that hiphop is now part of the rest of music industry, meaning it’s subject to the same superficiality, endorsement, blahblahblah corporate bullshit as the rest of the music industry.
Why this is a shock to him, I do not know.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE UR MUSIC!!!!
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Brian simms your a fuggin faggot and just so you know Roots are on Jimmy Fallon not Jimmy kimmel
Nigga The “Golden Era” was real! Listen to that shit and listen to today’s shit – Are you fucking kidding me?!
BTW, all i want to do with these two bitches is let them eat my beef until I skeet on they faces! Kim gets her face spanked with my dick and Nikki gets jaw breakers!
Cum(pun intended) to think of it, that shit made me horny
The genres this guy claims hip hop is too “modeled” after (R&B, Disco, Funk) also follow verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-end. This is singwriting, period. If hip hop “sticks” to these predesigned templates, so does every other genre. Rhyming follows the same principle. In every genre, for the good portion of the time, the shit RHYMES. When words rhyme, you feel as though they connect, complementing melody, harmony, whatever the fuck, im not a music theorist. This guy really thinks hip hop is the only genre that fucking RHYMES. I think he’s just a part of what alot of these intellectual blacks condescendingly think. They think the problems of the world are very race related when they aren’t. E.g. hip hop is commercialized and manufactured, therefore America hates blacks. All popular music follows this same formula, so what’s all this fuss?
yeah that would be jimmy fallon ya dumb faggot
This is life, the end of an era. Stop crying about music, if you know so much about it, than go back, dig up your old records, listen to the good shit. fuck it go even farther bring out the even better shit ahmad jamal, herbie hancock whatever you want. The fact is your not gonna get the old thing back, this is what it has come to. gorillas and garbage.
mane fucc dis wikipedia ass nigga flockaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa boaw boaw boaw #ignant shit lmao