Wanna know when it died? No, not when Nas proclaimed it (He was way "too big for his britches" with that call). But he was on to something. And to think, when that *@+% dropped I was one of the main people calling him an attention *!%!$. Now look at me.. I'm in full agreement but I despise the attention that comes with having an opinion on NT. Go figure..
Hip-hop is dead. What we've been seeing and hearing since circa 2004ish is just rap's reanimated corpse. It's a lot like the T-virus... There's no passion, no emotion, no REAL flavor to the mainstream any more. There's just impulse and hunger.
The impulse to make money is what fuels Zombie Rap. And so cats hop on stage and look as ridiculous as possible in hopes that this week's BRAND NEW nonsensical gyrations will spark enough youtube hits to sell a million ringtones.
There's a thought: Youtube and ringtones.
Rap died when it became centered around technology that didn't even exist when rap was first thought of. Makes sense. Rap reached so hard for the sky that once it took off, it lost its roots. And who benefits from "sky high rap" music? Execs, suits and ties, every one but the Black Youth...
Excuse my lack of Dougie... but as I recall, Eric B. and Dougie actually made music while dancing. Eh.. now I sound old. But the truth is simple. The rappers that made me want to rap when I was 12 and tapping pens on my desk in English class are no longer at the top of the "cool list" to rap consumers. Ain't that about a %%#@%. So now you got 20 year olds rapping like 14 year olds... to 12 year olds. Must be nice..
I'm not a fan of rap music. I just make it. It's becoming a job now... and consumers blame the artists? Nah.. rap died when consumers stopped demanding quality. We're hustlers, us self-employed types. We didn't make the game..we just play it..
I'm tired of playing THIS game... and yet, I won't stop. At the end of the day, as long as ONE person still feels the way I feel, I'm not alone in this world. I miss rap music so much. I miss reading through this forum and caring, I mean REALLY caring about the music. But it's just a business today... maybe that's all it ever really was... but I used to dream. I used to feel something in rap music; something tangible and living. Rap used to have a soul and a pulse. Now you can't even get a real hard copy of the music on disk. AND the quality is all smashed together thanks to the advent of MP3s. Worse than the quality itself - knowing that I'm rating to a group of people that could *NOT* give a *@+% less about what I'm talking about.....
*Plays Aquemini in earbuds*
*jumps off building*
