I have been fighting a one-man war against rap for as long as I can remember. It has robbed the music industry of any soul that still remained to it, and made millionaires out of marginally talented and utterly untalented people. Created as a back door for those people to break into the music industry, rap, or hiphop, if you insist, is one the greatest and most brilliant marketing scams in recorded history. Much like those ridiculous white wigs of the late 1600's to mid-1700's, rap was a fashion trend that got wildly out of control. Partially due to White Guilt, partially to, again, a brilliant marketing strategy, hiphop has become a huge, unsightly stain on music in general. I do not apologize for that statement, nor for the following. Most of it is subjective, but coming from someone who has written and performed music for nearly 30 years, let's just say I know a little sumpin sumpin about it and move on, shall we?
Don't get me wrong: rap isn't music, and it most certainly isn't art. I'm not saying there is no talent involved in making rap albums, just none where the rappers are concerned, although they get all the credit for others' hard work.
Rap was, again, developed as a back door for the marginally talented and untalented to break into the music business. It has had brilliant marketing, and brilliant PR teams marketing it. That's how a brand grows. But that's all it is - a brand. A brand isn't art. A brand is a creation by people skilled in marketing and public relations to "brand" a person, product, or idea into the community or - in many cases - the national consciousness. Those are the only people with talent in that business, and they are TRULY talented to have sold that garbage to the societal consciousness in general.
Few rappers, if any, play an instrument. Few rappers can sing. Kanye West certainly can't. Notice how he "lets" the crowd sing the parts he cannot. Yeah, son, stick to talking into a microphone. That's your thing, and according to all the sheeple, you do it well. Leave the singing to REAL MUSICIANS, yeah? Even with that morose embarrassment, it surely isn't enough to dampen Kanye's insatiable insecurity....uh...ego. Remind you of anyone?
And I wouldn't call what he and his compatriots do onstage dancing, either. That implies some degree of choreography and skill. Throwing your hands in the air like you just don't care, and bending slightly at the knees ain't it either. That's white boy dancing, and we all know that shit don't count. Acting "hard" and gangsta isn't dancing, nor is it music, nor is it art. I suppose there are some who can, and do, dance. Still doesn't constitute music though, does it? Music implies instruments. creativity.
Apparently, to all the sheeple that subscribe to it, hiphop is entertaining. You should understand that it's insulting to those of us who have put in the hours and years, honing our crafts, practicing daily, often for hours at a time, when rappers - Kanye especially - call themselves "artists." There is nothing artistic about what they do. There is no beauty in it, no finesse, no class - none that *they* create at least. I watched a 7-year-old create a hiphop tune with a keyboard and a microphone in just minutes. Made up the lyrics and everything. Maybe he already had them, but who cares? And throwing out a bunch of slang about money, bitches, money, hoes, money, fast cars, and all other manner of shallow, artless bullshit can hardly constitute poetry....
Rap reminds me of when Dubya told us there were WMDs in Iraq, then once we got in there and found out there weren't any there, he was just like, "Well, since we're already here, fuck it. Let's blow up some dark-skinned peoples." And the government sold it to us. They sold it so well that they stayed over there for eight years. Longest war in U.S. history.
Rap is like war - total bullshit marketed to the weak-minded to be grand, but the sheeple are too blind and too ignorant of the facts to see the ugliness for what it truly is.
Go ahead and contradict me, if you dare.
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