“What was i thinking?”
How many people have said that lately? For me, this time it’s relating to my urban lifestyle and its gradual conversion into a rootsy techno-hippyesque lifestyle!
Well its finally happened. I grew up. My jeans dont sag to my ankles anymore, my hoodies and t shirts are tight and have a snug fit to them and i turned down the opportunity to have my name shaved into the back of my head.
I’ve been listening to some old songs on my comptuer lately, stuff from high school, stuff friends have given me and probably some albums that I have just for the sake of having them, because you aint hiphop if you dont have them right?
So, here for you is a list of artists who are on their way to the trash bin!
Das Efex,
Beastie Boys,
Common,
Dr. Dre The Chronic
Eminem
Funk Doobiest
A tribe called quest
Gang Starr,
House of Pain
EPMD
Jedi Mind Tricks
Knaan
Nas
Necro
Organized Rhyme
Outkast
Slick Rick
Snoop Dogg
and Wu-Tang Clan.
So after giving them a good listen, the words, the beats, the tone, i have come to the following conclusions:
1. “What was i thinking?”… How many people back then looked at me and said simply “Jay, rap sucks” and i turned my head the other way and kept on walking through my ignorance.
2. The beats are very narrow minded, loops, one track mind, very linear.
3. Some of these artists think they need to keep selling themselves, even after i bought the album. How many times do they say “WU TANG!” for no reason? How many times do you hear these people constantly talk about how great they are, and terrible everyone else is? I mean, its good stuff for a 30 second tv spot, but for over an hour of listening?
4. There seems to be a certain ‘way of life’ that they all promote through strong capitalist values. We’re told to be competitive, get a spouse, get kids, get money! and get buy some nice stuff! The whole “Keepin up with the Jones’” is an overly used technique. Even the hardcore druggie artists are still promoting western capitalism in their own way.
5. The level of intelligence is low, can 50 cent even read? they seem to ‘dumb down’ their songs for a dumb population, perhaps to reach the masses? Call me crayzee but shouldn’t they try to make the masses better themselves by maybe breaking open a dictionary to learn the new word their favorite artist said in a song? Music in the old days used to inspire me to learn and to improve. The music i hear today does the opposite. Time to purge the vaults!
Peace \ /
iNTUiT
