1 Rhyme Fest: Blue Collar
2 Fort Minor: The Rising Tied
3 Talib Kweli: The Beautiful Struggle
4 Common: Finding Forever
5 Gnarles Barkley: The Odd Couple
6 Hi Tek: High TeKnology 2
7 Lloyd Banks: The Hunger for More
8 The Knux: Remember me in 3Days
9 Flobots: Fight With Tools
10 88 Keys- Death of Adam
In an age where Hip Hop is being redefined as a culture and hip-hop heads do battle with mainstream; the music still speaks for the people. Transcending race, gender, sexual orientation and of course economic privilege, Rap “hip hop” may have reached a time of acceptance in mainstream. When artist play major roles in public acceptance of public figures, I ask, what clout and power does hip hop posses.
Historically, music has always played a role in social and political actions. From musicians thrashing presidents in their lyrics to outright denouncing politicians, music as a form is a beautiful forum to exercise our first amendment rights. With the exercise of that right, I look at African Americans and the contributions they have made to every genre of music. Establishing rock and roll, jazz, blues, and arguably country, Blacks voices theoretically have been heard through out time. But today we live in an age of media dominance and filtered messages where artist are rewarded for brainless creativity over motivational messages. And with hip-hop as one of today’s most popular and financially successful genres; does HIP HOP ARTIST have the ability to overcome the barriers of muffled messages and the dogma of mainstream?
First lets adequately identify and define Hip-Hop. Hip Hop: a culture encompassing; clothing that represents, but is not limited to, an urban community, food that is commonly sold/found/eaten within urban areas, a vernacular that transcends the basic English language with encrypted metaphors and similes that many can identify with; and music that tells the stories and struggles of the people that make it and those they make it for. Hip Hop is commonly confused with its red headed stepbrother Rap. The distinctive difference is one being a culture, the other being a music genre.
Hip-hop is facing the same struggles that the African American man made culture has been facing for decades. Mainstream rejection and monetary exploitation. I ask the question; why must an artist conform to industry standards to succeed? Y are the top selling Rap “Hip Hop” artist producing products with no substance and the artist truly representing the people and their voices kept grounded and their wings clipped by the industry? I know all this is subjective and my opinion, but next time you listen to lil wayne, ask yourself “Do I really do that many drugs? Does this really represent me?” I’m not downplaying fun party music. It should be embraced. We all need down time. I’m simply asking, what about the other side. Don shit in my bowl and call it cereal! Don’t write some bull shit rap and call it hip-hop. And when it comes back to my original question, “What clout and power does hip hop posses?” The answer is none. It only possesses the hopes and dreams of a people under sung and under heard.
This is kind of touches on what I was discussed on Facebook yesterday. Why people prefer to listen to more aggressive artists over artists that are expressing themselves and making a difference. I think that cats are afraid to be different and express themselves because they may get rejected by the mainstream audience. They see all these other artists getting the most attention and wonder how they are going to be accepted. That's why you have so many artists sounding the same and that there's more B.S. than just great music with substance. Back in the day, you can listen to a song and be like "that's my jam" but now you listen a song you be like "what happened, I'm not feelin' this song" It's a shame that certain artists don't get a chance or get recognized. That's why when you go to the club or listen the radio, all they play is straight garbage.
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