Official Rap/Hip Hop Thread IV

[StephNYKurry]

Everyone uses music for different things. Some use it as a vehicle of knowledge(I do not) that's what books are for and I get common knowledge from elders in the community.

I use music as an escape. Dumb it down all you want. I don't care. Between work and real life I have enough of processing and critical thinking. Let me turn the hell up, let the stress go and every now and then have a damn drink.

Now sometimes I would like a tad bit more...I don't turn on rap when I do.

In most respects. This is fine.

What you take from something is often times determined by what you wish to gain from it.

The problem comes when an impoverished people, who come from generations of zero education, build their own culture, then use that culture to inform the community which populates said culture, and it is then manipulated to the point that communication is a lost part of the art form.

Whether you like it or not. The MESSAGE is apart of hip hop and always has been. That's a foundation of the culture.

That foundation is being crapped on.

And it's incendiary to people like me when people like you imply that "nothing is the matter" or "y'all take yourselves too seriously."

I would say you and others like you don't take it serious enough. It doesn't really impact you like that, so it's not that serious. If you listen to Future for 24 hours a day, you probably won't drink lean...unfortunately, there is a kid who IS listening to Future 24 hours/day AND IS drinking lean.

Don't get me fooled either. I bump future and Uzi to the MAX, but I have the benefit of knowing the choices. Many of the hip hop kids today aren't provided that choice.

THATS A PROBLEM

[j4remi]

Rappers have not been held to the same standards. That's false. Rappers used to be hype men.

Those emcees didn't write, off the top rapping has always been given lighter standards and equal respect. The first writers were dudes like Grandmaster Caz and his lyrics are nice bar to start with when you want to see where rap started and look for the progressions from there.

[j4remi]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8dFRhKe2ko[/youtube]

Don't sleep on the global impact of the culture though folks...American rap has gone way more materialistic, but peep this Vietnamese girl repping and spitting something thought provoking.

[Greenie]

This issue here is not about Liking or Not Liking peoples music. The issue here is that everyone who does the Art, WONT get a fair shake in the game. Thats the whole point of this convo and what people been saying. There is enough room for everyone to shine, but only a certain type is getting the shine. No other Music genre filters out so much repectable talent more than hip hop. Imagine if other forms only pushed ONE aspect of the music to mainstream attention. Why does a person who put a high amount of time and value into the pure art form ,have to be punished in terms of respect and success. You got cats who wake up, throw some basic bull together and get to be and receive all the accolades. A large portion of the rappers who are the popular ones, don't even give a **** about hip hop, they just know it was a vehicle to get money. They wanted Fame and Attention, thats why they became rappers....this is not an art form to them. Its a money Maker. Any rapper who takes Hip Hop serious as an art form, it usually reflects in their ability to rap, I don't care where they from.

That's life and life isn't fair. If you want to get your message out to the masses then put it out. You simply can't get mad if it's not received. Do you know how many people have put time and money and effort into school and will never benefit from it? How many Lawyers do you know not practicing? How many brokers do you know that can't get work. That's life.
Being upset does nothing.

I know you were responding to what you quoted, but overall I think you're missing the point.

There was a time when Tribe rocked on hip hop stations just as much as Big Daddy Kane. Whether it was flashy "ghettofab" rap or it was about public enemy or LL talkin bout love...IT WAS ALL HIP HOP!!!!

Let's deal from a belief that you yourself understand the differences between what you feel and what you think/do with those feelings.

What about the humans who can't delineate between the two? What about humans who are at the formative stages of their development and unable to separate Kendrick Lamar and Uzi? I can separate the two and understand them both for what they are, which allows me to enjoy both in different ways.

How does a parent protect against a kid being exposed to things they don't want the child exposed to, when the kid has access to the Internet all day?

And don't get it twisted, this isn't me railing on types like Uzi. The most recent song I posted here is along those lines. The issue is that conscious rap has become a "sub culture" of Hip Hop and that's a PROBLEM.

It's that we've allowed Hip Hop to be divided when Hip Hop is SUPPOSED o encompass all of these things.

Religiously pumping Drake, and Young Thug, and Future, and 2 chainz into the public consciousness without having the balance of Cole, Kendrick, and Chance does a disservice to the culture.

There are people like you who say "I like what I like" who only know what goes on 105.1 or Hot 97. They haven't even been exposed to Kendrick or Cole or Bas or KRIT. That's a problem.

I get it. I'm exposed to it all.

This is something like R&B. It's hardly played in the radio...I think. I don't listen to the radio like that. I stopped in college.

[StephNYKurry]

That's life and life isn't fair. If you want to get your message out to the masses then put it out. You simply can't get mad if it's not received. Do you know how many people have put time and money and effort into school and will never benefit from it? How many Lawyers do you know not practicing? How many brokers do you know that can't get work. That's life.
Being upset does nothing.

I know you were responding to what you quoted, but overall I think you're missing the point.

There was a time when Tribe rocked on hip hop stations just as much as Big Daddy Kane. Whether it was flashy "ghettofab" rap or it was about public enemy or LL talkin bout love...IT WAS ALL HIP HOP!!!!

Let's deal from a belief that you yourself understand the differences between what you feel and what you think/do with those feelings.

What about the humans who can't delineate between the two? What about humans who are at the formative stages of their development and unable to separate Kendrick Lamar and Uzi? I can separate the two and understand them both for what they are, which allows me to enjoy both in different ways.

How does a parent protect against a kid being exposed to things they don't want the child exposed to, when the kid has access to the Internet all day?

And don't get it twisted, this isn't me railing on types like Uzi. The most recent song I posted here is along those lines. The issue is that conscious rap has become a "sub culture" of Hip Hop and that's a PROBLEM.

It's that we've allowed Hip Hop to be divided when Hip Hop is SUPPOSED o encompass all of these things.

Religiously pumping Drake, and Young Thug, and Future, and 2 chainz into the public consciousness without having the balance of Cole, Kendrick, and Chance does a disservice to the culture.

There are people like you who say "I like what I like" who only know what goes on 105.1 or Hot 97. They haven't even been exposed to Kendrick or Cole or Bas or KRIT. That's a problem.

I get it. I'm exposed to it all.

This is something like R&B. It's hardly played in the radio...I think. I don't listen to the radio like that. I stopped in college.

R&B/Soul music died because the message of love morphed into the feeling of sex.

Now you got more teenagers pregnant out of wedlock in black communities than ever before.

Do you see the impact of MESSAGE?

[Greenie]

Everyone uses music for different things. Some use it as a vehicle of knowledge(I do not) that's what books are for and I get common knowledge from elders in the community.

I use music as an escape. Dumb it down all you want. I don't care. Between work and real life I have enough of processing and critical thinking. Let me turn the hell up, let the stress go and every now and then have a damn drink.

Now sometimes I would like a tad bit more...I don't turn on rap when I do.

In most respects. This is fine.

What you take from something is often times determined by what you wish to gain from it.

The problem comes when an impoverished people, who come from generations of zero education, build their own culture, then use that culture to inform the community which populates said culture, and it is then manipulated to the point that communication is a lost part of the art form.

Whether you like it or not. The MESSAGE is apart of hip hop and always has been. That's a foundation of the culture.

That foundation is being crapped on.

And it's incendiary to people like me when people like you imply that "nothing is the matter" or "y'all take yourselves too seriously."

I would say you and others like you don't take it serious enough. It doesn't really impact you like that, so it's not that serious. If you listen to Future for 24 hours a day, you probably won't drink lean...unfortunately, there is a kid who IS listening to Future 24 hours/day AND IS drinking lean.

Don't get me fooled either. I bump future and Uzi to the MAX, but I have the benefit of knowing the choices. Many of the hip hop kids today aren't provided that choice.

THATS A PROBLEM

You came up impoverished? Because I could have sworn you came up a middle class kid like me. This is a convo we had before.

[Greenie]

I know you were responding to what you quoted, but overall I think you're missing the point.

There was a time when Tribe rocked on hip hop stations just as much as Big Daddy Kane. Whether it was flashy "ghettofab" rap or it was about public enemy or LL talkin bout love...IT WAS ALL HIP HOP!!!!

Let's deal from a belief that you yourself understand the differences between what you feel and what you think/do with those feelings.

What about the humans who can't delineate between the two? What about humans who are at the formative stages of their development and unable to separate Kendrick Lamar and Uzi? I can separate the two and understand them both for what they are, which allows me to enjoy both in different ways.

How does a parent protect against a kid being exposed to things they don't want the child exposed to, when the kid has access to the Internet all day?

And don't get it twisted, this isn't me railing on types like Uzi. The most recent song I posted here is along those lines. The issue is that conscious rap has become a "sub culture" of Hip Hop and that's a PROBLEM.

It's that we've allowed Hip Hop to be divided when Hip Hop is SUPPOSED o encompass all of these things.

Religiously pumping Drake, and Young Thug, and Future, and 2 chainz into the public consciousness without having the balance of Cole, Kendrick, and Chance does a disservice to the culture.

There are people like you who say "I like what I like" who only know what goes on 105.1 or Hot 97. They haven't even been exposed to Kendrick or Cole or Bas or KRIT. That's a problem.

I get it. I'm exposed to it all.

This is something like R&B. It's hardly played in the radio...I think. I don't listen to the radio like that. I stopped in college.

R&B/Soul music died because the message of love morphed into the feeling of sex.

Now you got more teenagers pregnant out of wedlock in black communities than ever before.

Do you see the impact of MESSAGE?

I don't agree. That's on the parents to raise their kids. I wasn't allowed to listen to certain stuff coming up. Maybe parents should go back to doing that.

[StephNYKurry]

Everyone uses music for different things. Some use it as a vehicle of knowledge(I do not) that's what books are for and I get common knowledge from elders in the community.

I use music as an escape. Dumb it down all you want. I don't care. Between work and real life I have enough of processing and critical thinking. Let me turn the hell up, let the stress go and every now and then have a damn drink.

Now sometimes I would like a tad bit more...I don't turn on rap when I do.

In most respects. This is fine.

What you take from something is often times determined by what you wish to gain from it.

The problem comes when an impoverished people, who come from generations of zero education, build their own culture, then use that culture to inform the community which populates said culture, and it is then manipulated to the point that communication is a lost part of the art form.

Whether you like it or not. The MESSAGE is apart of hip hop and always has been. That's a foundation of the culture.

That foundation is being crapped on.

And it's incendiary to people like me when people like you imply that "nothing is the matter" or "y'all take yourselves too seriously."

I would say you and others like you don't take it serious enough. It doesn't really impact you like that, so it's not that serious. If you listen to Future for 24 hours a day, you probably won't drink lean...unfortunately, there is a kid who IS listening to Future 24 hours/day AND IS drinking lean.

Don't get me fooled either. I bump future and Uzi to the MAX, but I have the benefit of knowing the choices. Many of the hip hop kids today aren't provided that choice.

THATS A PROBLEM

You came up impoverished? Because I could have sworn you came up a middle class kid like me. This is a convo we had before.

Please explain to me where I said I was impoverished...

The Hip Hop culture was birthed by impoverished people. Nowhere in what I wrote did I say I birthed hip hop.

[JBreezeNY]

Hip-Hop is really interesting, do we listen to it to be educated or do we listen to it for enjoyment & entertainment.

It's even more interesting because Hip-Hop really comes from the streets, well at least it used to be, so do you scoff your nose at simple lyrics with a banging beat from a rapper that's street or do you welcome it?

Do you scoff your nose at the new age of rap because they're not hood or lyrical or do you say well that's just the new generation I can't knock them?

Me personally I've always liked a mix which is why Jay-Z is the GOAT to me, at the same time Nas, Pac & Big are right below because I appreciate lyricism & entertaining storytelling.

Key word entertaining.

[Greenie]

In most respects. This is fine.

What you take from something is often times determined by what you wish to gain from it.

The problem comes when an impoverished people, who come from generations of zero education, build their own culture, then use that culture to inform the community which populates said culture, and it is then manipulated to the point that communication is a lost part of the art form.

Whether you like it or not. The MESSAGE is apart of hip hop and always has been. That's a foundation of the culture.

That foundation is being crapped on.

And it's incendiary to people like me when people like you imply that "nothing is the matter" or "y'all take yourselves too seriously."

I would say you and others like you don't take it serious enough. It doesn't really impact you like that, so it's not that serious. If you listen to Future for 24 hours a day, you probably won't drink lean...unfortunately, there is a kid who IS listening to Future 24 hours/day AND IS drinking lean.

Don't get me fooled either. I bump future and Uzi to the MAX, but I have the benefit of knowing the choices. Many of the hip hop kids today aren't provided that choice.

THATS A PROBLEM

You came up impoverished? Because I could have sworn you came up a middle class kid like me. This is a convo we had before.

Please explain to me where I said I was impoverished...

The Hip Hop culture was birthed by impoverished people. Nowhere in what I wrote did I say I birthed hip hop.

I didn't say you did. It just comes off as if this is VERY personal to you in your first few paragraphs.

I'm simply trying to figure out your background sir. I'm trying to understand you bae...

[StephNYKurry]

You came up impoverished? Because I could have sworn you came up a middle class kid like me. This is a convo we had before.

Please explain to me where I said I was impoverished...

The Hip Hop culture was birthed by impoverished people. Nowhere in what I wrote did I say I birthed hip hop.

I didn't say you did. It just comes off as if this is VERY personal to you in your first few paragraphs.

I'm simply trying to figure out your background sir. I'm trying to understand you bae...

Deeply personal.

I'm not middle class. I'm low middle class. A step from being impoverished basically and my friends viewed my existence as that of a "rich kid" because stuff sucked all around us.

My friends didn't have the advantage of active parents, so they were raised by their environment and the hip hop culture itself. Seen childhood friends lifestyle completely change based on where we were from and "hip hop" as it was taught to them.

I see the impact of "Hip Hop" culture everyday in Newark. For other reasons, I can't tell you where I work, but I'm smack in the middle of the products of "Hip Hop culture"

I wholeheartedly reject the notion that Hip Hop isn't important as hell when it comes to the black community.

You said Parents need to play a larger role.

How?

Black Men get jailed at astronomical rates.

Teenager Black Girls have babies at astronomical rates.

Been this way forever. Systemic oppression built a disdain for African Americans.

What do the blacks do? They build a culture to give themselves a sense of community. A way of life. It eventually becomes a way of shepherding the youth into adulthood being that we don't have the same advantage of two parent homes and a crazy median income.

THAT culture has been bastardized in the name of finance and it irks me that not only do you not find anything wrong with that, you want people to honestly give credence to your opinions on Hip Hop and uhhh...nah

If you understand the culture, you understand the importance that it carries, ESPECIALLY in African American communities.

If you don't understand the culture, how can you honestly expect someone who does understand it and experienced the basis of the culture to be warm and cheery when you basically say "it ain't that serious."

You don't walk in a church and say Jesus ain't that serious.

[IllmaticHandler]

From a person who actually ran in the streets...



The most of these posters are white, and the one sister lives in surburbia, and get to listen to street hip hop from an outsiders perspective. The majority of you dont live in the communities that these stories are being spoken about. You dont live around the chaos...so its why so many people find it "entertaining".


Greenie is a Banker making nice money, but she loves the tales of Broke Inner City Black Kids who are rapping about destruction in many cases....


How many posters are living in a community in here seeing black men die at a rapid rate....these are the stories that are being told that people find entertaining when they listen to street ****. Most of what people find as entertainment, are REAL ISSUES. Drug use Etc/Crime in the black community is a real issue.


I have noticed in life, that poverty and struggle is always entertaining to those who do not have to deal with it. Its never entertaining to those that go through it. Its why those who live in it, will do anything to get out of it if they can.


As Much as I love Hip Hop and live it, I know for a fact, that what its currently being programmed into the masses, its fueling alot of the violence in the Hood. I been to prision, I did plenty of dirt, and while Hip Hop is not why I went into the streets, I will DEF say that street music fueled me not giving a **** EVEN MORE when I was a shorty. Listening to street music, but dont even live a street life, is DIFFERENT than Listening to street music, and LIVING A STREET LIFE. I love rugged ****, but I love not being destructive in my community even more, now that I know better. I did not want to be part of the problem no more.

I at least had much more choice, cause there was a balance. So even thoe I swayed into the streets, I got learn about so much History and the greatness of black people from rappers who spit something other than street ****. See the Rappers that had a conscious message, was on the SAME station as the one who had a Street Message.

Today that choice does not exist on the mainstream outlets for those in they teens.


THIS IS WHAT THIS CONVO IS ABOUT.

[Greenie]

Please explain to me where I said I was impoverished...

The Hip Hop culture was birthed by impoverished people. Nowhere in what I wrote did I say I birthed hip hop.

I didn't say you did. It just comes off as if this is VERY personal to you in your first few paragraphs.

I'm simply trying to figure out your background sir. I'm trying to understand you bae...

Deeply personal.

I'm not middle class. I'm low middle class. A step from being impoverished basically and my friends viewed my existence as that of a "rich kid" because stuff sucked all around us.

My friends didn't have the advantage of active parents, so they were raised by their environment and the hip hop culture itself. Seen childhood friends lifestyle completely change based on where we were from and "hip hop" as it was taught to them.

I see the impact of "Hip Hop" culture everyday in Newark. For other reasons, I can't tell you where I work, but I'm smack in the middle of the products of "Hip Hop culture"

I wholeheartedly reject the notion that Hip Hop isn't important as hell when it comes to the black community.

You said Parents need to play a larger role.

How?

Black Men get jailed at astronomical rates.

Teenager Black Girls have babies at astronomical rates.

Been this way forever. Systemic oppression built a disdain for African Americans.

What do the blacks do? They build a culture to give themselves a sense of community. A way of life. It eventually becomes a way of shepherding the youth into adulthood being that we don't have the same advantage of two parent homes and a crazy median income.

THAT culture has been bastardized in the name of finance and it irks me that not only do you not find anything wrong with that, you want people to honestly give credence to your opinions on Hip Hop and uhhh...nah

If you understand the culture, you understand the importance that it carries, ESPECIALLY in African American communities.

If you don't understand the culture, how can you honestly expect someone who does understand it and experienced the basis of the culture to be warm and cheery when you basically say "it ain't that serious."

You don't walk in a church and say Jesus ain't that serious.

Music is a business. If you don't want it to be then this ain't for you. If it wasn't why the hell do you care who gets shine? Who gets to eat? Who gets radio play? Money. Power. Respect.

Sense of community goes out the window when Emimem is embraced in said culture when he came in disrespecting black women. Sense of community left when disrespecting women became a go to thing with all rappers...even the lyrically conscious ones. The black community has been broken and it's not from hip-hop today. I think the black community became broken when they took all of our actual leaders away in the 60's. Hip-hop simply reflects it. But the content of hiphop does not determine what happens in the community. It's the other way around.

Hip-hop is not religion and never will be. Comparing the two is an insult. Entire nations go to war because of religion.

Also, if you want someone to understand your perspective of hiphop then you don't downplay their perspective. Rap is music and music is an art form with many different layers and meanings. I may see (or digest) the art differently from you but that doesn't make either side of the coin better. It would be like me telling you you shouldn't have any say in a conversation about R&B. I mean I literally grew up in that. However, my opinion does not trump yours. I would never think it would or be so emotional about a difference of opinion on something so broad.

[StephNYKurry]

I didn't say you did. It just comes off as if this is VERY personal to you in your first few paragraphs.

I'm simply trying to figure out your background sir. I'm trying to understand you bae...

Deeply personal.

I'm not middle class. I'm low middle class. A step from being impoverished basically and my friends viewed my existence as that of a "rich kid" because stuff sucked all around us.

My friends didn't have the advantage of active parents, so they were raised by their environment and the hip hop culture itself. Seen childhood friends lifestyle completely change based on where we were from and "hip hop" as it was taught to them.

I see the impact of "Hip Hop" culture everyday in Newark. For other reasons, I can't tell you where I work, but I'm smack in the middle of the products of "Hip Hop culture"

I wholeheartedly reject the notion that Hip Hop isn't important as hell when it comes to the black community.

You said Parents need to play a larger role.

How?

Black Men get jailed at astronomical rates.

Teenager Black Girls have babies at astronomical rates.

Been this way forever. Systemic oppression built a disdain for African Americans.

What do the blacks do? They build a culture to give themselves a sense of community. A way of life. It eventually becomes a way of shepherding the youth into adulthood being that we don't have the same advantage of two parent homes and a crazy median income.

THAT culture has been bastardized in the name of finance and it irks me that not only do you not find anything wrong with that, you want people to honestly give credence to your opinions on Hip Hop and uhhh...nah

If you understand the culture, you understand the importance that it carries, ESPECIALLY in African American communities.

If you don't understand the culture, how can you honestly expect someone who does understand it and experienced the basis of the culture to be warm and cheery when you basically say "it ain't that serious."

You don't walk in a church and say Jesus ain't that serious.

Music is a business. If you don't want it to be then this ain't for you. If it wasn't why the hell do you care who gets shine? Who gets to eat? Who gets radio play? Money. Power. Respect.

Sense of community goes out the window when Emimem is embraced in said culture when he came in disrespecting black women. Sense of community left when disrespecting women became a go to thing with all rappers...even the lyrically conscious ones. The black community has been broken and it's not from hip-hop today. I think the black community became broken when they took all of our actual leaders away in the 60's. Hip-hop simply reflects it. But the content of hiphop does not determine what happens in the community. It's the other way around.

Hip-hop is not religion and never will be. Comparing the two is an insult. Entire nations go to war because of religion.

Also, if you want someone to understand your perspective of hiphop then you don't downplay their perspective. Rap is music and music is an art form with many different layers and meanings. I may see (or digest) the art differently from you but that doesn't make either side of the coin better. It would be like me telling you you shouldn't have any say in a conversation about R&B. I mean I literally grew up in that. However, my opinion does not trump yours. I would never think it would or be so emotional about a difference of opinion on something so broad.

Your ignorance is made painfully obvious in this post on like 16 different levels that I don't have the energy to discuss anymore...

For instance, I say "you don't walk into a church and say Jesus ain't that serious" but you start talking about religion when church ain't a religion.

I'll just continue to ignore your opinions on the subject cuz a lot of that in there is straight foolishness lmao

[Greenie]

From a person who actually ran in the streets...



The most of these posters are white, and the one sister lives in surburbia, and get to listen to street hip hop from an outsiders perspective. The majority of you dont live in the communities that these stories are being spoken about. You dont live around the chaos...so its why so many people find it "entertaining".


Greenie is a Banker making nice money, but she loves the tales of Broke Inner City Black Kids who are rapping about destruction in many cases....


How many posters are living in a community in here seeing black men die at a rapid rate....these are the stories that are being told that people find entertaining when they listen to street ****. Most of what people find as entertainment, are REAL ISSUES. Drug use Etc/Crime in the black community is a real issue.


I have noticed in life, that poverty and struggle is always entertaining to those who do not have to deal with it. Its never entertaining to those that go through it. Its why those who live in it, will do anything to get out of it if they can.


As Much as I love Hip Hop and live it, I know for a fact, that what its currently being programmed into the masses, its fueling alot of the violence in the Hood. I been to prision, I did plenty of dirt, and while Hip Hop is not why I went into the streets, I will DEF say that street music fueled me not giving a **** EVEN MORE when I was a shorty. Listening to street music, but dont even live a street life, is DIFFERENT than Listening to street music, and LIVING A STREET LIFE. I love rugged ****, but I love not being destructive in my community even more, now that I know better. I did not want to be part of the problem no more.

I at least had much more choice, cause there was a balance. So even thoe I swayed into the streets, I got learn about so much History and the greatness of black people from rappers who spit something other than street ****. See the Rappers that had a conscious message, was on the SAME station as the one who had a Street Message.

Today that choice does not exist on the mainstream outlets for those in they teens.


THIS IS WHAT THIS CONVO IS ABOUT.

See first off you don't know my full background.

Yeah, I'm in corporate banking and make 6 figures a year in my damn twenties. I busted my ass for it.

I have family in jail. I have family addicted to drugs including uncles.

My grandparents came from the south and started in Queens projects. They busted their asses sometimes both carrying more than one job to buy a house in LI. Till this day I have family still in Queens living in fuqery. Why? Ask them.

I understand both sides if the coin sir. I've seen it with my own damn eyes and experienced some myself.

It still doesn't make hip hop anymore or less important.

[Greenie]

Deeply personal.

I'm not middle class. I'm low middle class. A step from being impoverished basically and my friends viewed my existence as that of a "rich kid" because stuff sucked all around us.

My friends didn't have the advantage of active parents, so they were raised by their environment and the hip hop culture itself. Seen childhood friends lifestyle completely change based on where we were from and "hip hop" as it was taught to them.

I see the impact of "Hip Hop" culture everyday in Newark. For other reasons, I can't tell you where I work, but I'm smack in the middle of the products of "Hip Hop culture"

I wholeheartedly reject the notion that Hip Hop isn't important as hell when it comes to the black community.

You said Parents need to play a larger role.

How?

Black Men get jailed at astronomical rates.

Teenager Black Girls have babies at astronomical rates.

Been this way forever. Systemic oppression built a disdain for African Americans.

What do the blacks do? They build a culture to give themselves a sense of community. A way of life. It eventually becomes a way of shepherding the youth into adulthood being that we don't have the same advantage of two parent homes and a crazy median income.

THAT culture has been bastardized in the name of finance and it irks me that not only do you not find anything wrong with that, you want people to honestly give credence to your opinions on Hip Hop and uhhh...nah

If you understand the culture, you understand the importance that it carries, ESPECIALLY in African American communities.

If you don't understand the culture, how can you honestly expect someone who does understand it and experienced the basis of the culture to be warm and cheery when you basically say "it ain't that serious."

You don't walk in a church and say Jesus ain't that serious.

Music is a business. If you don't want it to be then this ain't for you. If it wasn't why the hell do you care who gets shine? Who gets to eat? Who gets radio play? Money. Power. Respect.

Sense of community goes out the window when Emimem is embraced in said culture when he came in disrespecting black women. Sense of community left when disrespecting women became a go to thing with all rappers...even the lyrically conscious ones. The black community has been broken and it's not from hip-hop today. I think the black community became broken when they took all of our actual leaders away in the 60's. Hip-hop simply reflects it. But the content of hiphop does not determine what happens in the community. It's the other way around.

Hip-hop is not religion and never will be. Comparing the two is an insult. Entire nations go to war because of religion.

Also, if you want someone to understand your perspective of hiphop then you don't downplay their perspective. Rap is music and music is an art form with many different layers and meanings. I may see (or digest) the art differently from you but that doesn't make either side of the coin better. It would be like me telling you you shouldn't have any say in a conversation about R&B. I mean I literally grew up in that. However, my opinion does not trump yours. I would never think it would or be so emotional about a difference of opinion on something so broad.

Your ignorance is made painfully obvious in this post on like 16 different levels that I don't have the energy to discuss anymore...

For instance, I say "you don't walk into a church and say Jesus ain't that serious" but you start talking about religion when church ain't a religion.

I'll just continue to ignore your opinions on the subject cuz a lot of that in there is straight foolishness lmao

Do you hear yourself? What do people go to church for? What is Jesus a figure for? You brought that up. Not me.

[StephNYKurry]

Music is a business. If you don't want it to be then this ain't for you. If it wasn't why the hell do you care who gets shine? Who gets to eat? Who gets radio play? Money. Power. Respect.

Sense of community goes out the window when Emimem is embraced in said culture when he came in disrespecting black women. Sense of community left when disrespecting women became a go to thing with all rappers...even the lyrically conscious ones. The black community has been broken and it's not from hip-hop today. I think the black community became broken when they took all of our actual leaders away in the 60's. Hip-hop simply reflects it. But the content of hiphop does not determine what happens in the community. It's the other way around.

Hip-hop is not religion and never will be. Comparing the two is an insult. Entire nations go to war because of religion.

Also, if you want someone to understand your perspective of hiphop then you don't downplay their perspective. Rap is music and music is an art form with many different layers and meanings. I may see (or digest) the art differently from you but that doesn't make either side of the coin better. It would be like me telling you you shouldn't have any say in a conversation about R&B. I mean I literally grew up in that. However, my opinion does not trump yours. I would never think it would or be so emotional about a difference of opinion on something so broad.

Your ignorance is made painfully obvious in this post on like 16 different levels that I don't have the energy to discuss anymore...

For instance, I say "you don't walk into a church and say Jesus ain't that serious" but you start talking about religion when church ain't a religion.

I'll just continue to ignore your opinions on the subject cuz a lot of that in there is straight foolishness lmao

Do you hear yourself? What do people go to church for? What is Jesus a figure for? You brought that up. Not me.

Church community is based on shared religious beliefs. It does not constitute religion. Jesus is APART OF CHURCH CULTURE. Church Culture (like hip hop) is built on shared beliefs. If you read the bible (doubt you've done that either) you'd know that being religious doesn't require a church membership. I know this because I spent the first 20 years of my life in a church where my pops was a deacon.

Religion/Church is also a discussion you can't really engage in with me because you're not equipped.

All this time and I'm just now figuring out...I'm just smarter than you lmao

Maybe I'm not that smart if it's taken me this long =(

[IllmaticHandler]

From a person who actually ran in the streets...



The most of these posters are white, and the one sister lives in surburbia, and get to listen to street hip hop from an outsiders perspective. The majority of you dont live in the communities that these stories are being spoken about. You dont live around the chaos...so its why so many people find it "entertaining".


Greenie is a Banker making nice money, but she loves the tales of Broke Inner City Black Kids who are rapping about destruction in many cases....


How many posters are living in a community in here seeing black men die at a rapid rate....these are the stories that are being told that people find entertaining when they listen to street ****. Most of what people find as entertainment, are REAL ISSUES. Drug use Etc/Crime in the black community is a real issue.


I have noticed in life, that poverty and struggle is always entertaining to those who do not have to deal with it. Its never entertaining to those that go through it. Its why those who live in it, will do anything to get out of it if they can.


As Much as I love Hip Hop and live it, I know for a fact, that what its currently being programmed into the masses, its fueling alot of the violence in the Hood. I been to prision, I did plenty of dirt, and while Hip Hop is not why I went into the streets, I will DEF say that street music fueled me not giving a **** EVEN MORE when I was a shorty. Listening to street music, but dont even live a street life, is DIFFERENT than Listening to street music, and LIVING A STREET LIFE. I love rugged ****, but I love not being destructive in my community even more, now that I know better. I did not want to be part of the problem no more.

I at least had much more choice, cause there was a balance. So even thoe I swayed into the streets, I got learn about so much History and the greatness of black people from rappers who spit something other than street ****. See the Rappers that had a conscious message, was on the SAME station as the one who had a Street Message.

Today that choice does not exist on the mainstream outlets for those in they teens.


THIS IS WHAT THIS CONVO IS ABOUT.

See first off you don't know my full background.

Yeah, I'm in corporate banking and make 6 figures a year in my damn twenties. I busted my ass for it.

I have family in jail. I have family addicted to drugs including uncles.

My grandparents came from the south and started in Queens projects. They busted their asses sometimes both carrying more than one job to buy a house in LI. Till this day I have family still in Queens living in fuqery. Why? Ask them.

I understand both sides if the coin sir. I've seen it with my own damn eyes and experienced some myself.

It still doesn't make hip hop anymore or less important.

If you TRULY understand Greenie, then why are you arguing the fact so much. Based on what you told me, then you of all people should KNOW why BALANCE is needed. This whole convo has always been about Balance Greenie. You have tried to make this convo about liking or not liking, but my stance has been clear, I would not care about weak rappers shinning, as long as I get to see dudes who respect the art get the accolades and finnaces as well. I seriously hate seeing people who put in mad work to reach a certain skill, only to be told "get out of here".


You said you busted your ass for your salary right?


What about the MC that busted his ass to aspire to be on the level of some of the best to ever do it...only to be told to go sit in this box, and take these crumbs. "The masses may like your music, but we won't afford you that chance to see if that can happen."


You got your reward for busting your ass....these type of MC's Don't get the reward for busting they ass or staying true to the craft.

[Greenie]

Your ignorance is made painfully obvious in this post on like 16 different levels that I don't have the energy to discuss anymore...

For instance, I say "you don't walk into a church and say Jesus ain't that serious" but you start talking about religion when church ain't a religion.

I'll just continue to ignore your opinions on the subject cuz a lot of that in there is straight foolishness lmao

Do you hear yourself? What do people go to church for? What is Jesus a figure for? You brought that up. Not me.

Church community is based on shared religious beliefs. It does not constitute religion. Jesus is APART OF CHURCH CULTURE. Church Culture (like hip hop) is built on shared beliefs. If you read the bible (doubt you've done that either) you'd know that being religious doesn't require a church membership. I know this because I spent the first 20 years of my life in a church where my pops was a deacon.

Religion/Church is also a discussion you can't really engage in with me because you're not equipped.

All this time and I'm just now figuring out...I'm just smarter than you lmao

Maybe I'm not that smart if it's taken me this long =(

You have a hard time comprehending.
You don't know what I'm equipped for. My daddy was a Deacon my mother a Deaconess and an great uncle a Minister.

Stop trying to reach with me and take what I say at face value. Don't add anything or take anything away.

[Manhattan Project]

Where is the DJ spinning breaks and cutting up stabs? The beat boxing? Where is the graffiti art? Where is the b boying, break dancing? Where is the knowledge?

The only element still being practiced is rapping. That morphed off of emceeing. That element is dying now. It's now mouth sounds of harmony over a beat.

Hip Hop is dead. It's been dead. It's been dead so long that most don't even know the elements that made up the culture, so they say it's alive. And mistakenly refer to it as a music genre.

The Temple of Hip Hop days are over, that hip hop been long dead like you said.
Where are the 5 Percenters in rap? Hell back in the day almost all the NY rappers were repping it. Is that even a thing anymore?
To be a great DJ these days you really can make an entire career off of Fruity Loops. DJ Mustard has been making the same damn beat over and over and is still getting played on the regular.
- Where are the posse cuts? We barely get any of them anymore and if we do most of them are wack.
- Where are the head bangers? Where is that Primo beat that can shake an entire sidewalk?

At the end of the day you got to smile because at least you knew what IT was like.