Problems with Mainstream Rap Culture

[ziggybabie]

OK, looooong post. I'll no doubt piss someone off, but I like to rant on occasion, so here it goes. Here's my rant on my problems with commercial rap and some of it's fanbase.

I don't hate all rap, but the tudes from many of it's fanbase can be pretty fucking MORONIC at times. AND I do have issue with the influence it is having with many youth. Yes, I realize that not all rap is the bling-hoes-bitches MTV garbage, and that even many underground hip-hoppers hate the direction of the mainstream rap culture, but that bling commercial crap is most all you see, everywhere, and there's not really enough conscious or intelligent stuff or variety being promoted to balance it out.

My problems with rap:

1. Promotes negative stereotypes and images for black community. I like some of the music, but just not the stupid easily impressionable types who let it influence them, in bad ways. It's music, not a lifestyle....or shouldn't be, anyway. Pushing NOTHING BUT materialism and mindless trendwhoring consumerism over intellect, values, consciousness or community involvement. This might could be somewhat countered if the conscious underground hip-hop movement made it above ground and onto television and radio and whatnot, but as of now, with a few exceptions, the mainline "rap" culture is too imbalanced.

Also, that "fuck whitey" Dead Prez brand of "consciousness" is not a good thing either. I have white family who were robbed by racist thugs, and believe me, my fam did NOTHING to provoke anything. Militant racism isn't "revolutionary", just plain divisive. The day I'd defend Dead Prez, is the same day I'd support racist country singer Johnny Rebel. Both of which, claim they "aren't really racist", but both OVERUSE racial slurs and have affiliations with hate groups (Ku Klux Klan and New Black Panther Party).

2. Racism is racism. Hating someone innocent for being white just makes you just as bad. In other words, you have no cred to say shit about "racists" or "racism", if you're actually contributing to the problem and creating more of what you complain about, instead of trying to overcome your own prejudices.


3. Sexism. The attitude that women are less than men, somehow. I don't mind words like bitch and hoe, and think that selling sex isn't that big of a deal, as the women in the vids often enjoyed doing them, but too many "thugs" take that "pimp" shit and arrogant disrespect to women too seriously. (Idiots)

4. Religion pushed as more of a fashion trend than actual faith. Guys rapping ten songs about killing, drugs, and whatever, then having the nerve to throw a shoutout to Jesus. It seems to be more popular to wear gold crosses than actually read the damn Bible. (worshipping "bling" and status in the guise of "Jesus"). At least more rock artists aren't afraid to attack the negative aspects of organized religion, whereas n rap, it's popular not to even question these things. Like they're afraid saying ANYTHING critical of their religion is a bad thing or "unChristian" or some junk. Plus, this casual faith is the kind that oft leads to religious intolerance and hypocrisy. Being pagan or atheists, will ESPECIALLY get you shat on by many commercial rapfans. Wasn't blind faith in "righteous" religious leaders used against black people at certain points in history? Maybe I'm mistaken. So willing not to question this mentality, now, though. *gag*

Then, you have a lot of the "conscious" black Muslim rappers who actually do take faith seriously, but oft say things like "the white race should be exterminated" and hold separatist or nationalist views......much better *sarcasm*

5. Double standards in regards to gay guys The attitude that "fags" and "ugly dykes" are wrong, but the same people running their mouths constantly about that shit don't say anything about "hot" lesbians or bi women. You should at least be educated on something before running off at the mouth so much about it. Saying it's "wrong", only when it doesn't turn you on, makes you look like a grade-A idiot and/or hypocrite and unqualified to talk shit about the topic. And most "fags" aren't that queer eye shit, and you wouldn't even know by looking at them, as many are as masculine as the straight guy next to them. Alexander the Great was a "fag" general who almost conquered the then-known world. I somehow seriously doubt dude talked with a lisp and liked to braid hair.

I recognize "dikes" are often shat on, too, in rap circles. I don't even care if you are against homo/bisexuality. Be against it. Fine. Just be for or against all of it, in any form, and try to have an informed....researched...intelligent opinion, one way or the other, or just shut your retarded mouth....Too many of rap's fanbase are influenced in this area by numbskulls who are FAR too ill-informed and ignorant to be influencing anyone. There is absolutely no difference between male and female bi/homosexuality. In other words: Wanna make an issue out of homosexuality? Then, at the very least, pick a side 100%.

6. Hatred of Rock Fans I honestly think a lot of the anti-rock tude that came from rap is part of what originally lead many rock fans to start hating rap. Anything (dress, style, ideas, religion and philosophy, etc) too extreme or outside the "the man's" "acceptable" bounds of social "norms" (MANY rock artists) is frowned upon, while the mainline rap culture has become capitalist/conformist as all hell. ie: What new friggin $500 sneakers are popular or what else is "in", now? You're not cool unless you have this or drive that. If a guy has long hair or a few tattoss, he is to be mocked for being different. Never mind that they claim to worship a guy that has long hair and a beard.

The anti-rock tude among many rapfans came from racism and "fuck that crazy whiteboy shit". Which is why I find it really funny when some white rapfans mimick this anti-rock tude that started as racism against people with their skin color.

7. The Hardcore Posturing among suburban whiteboy posers is a fucking joke. A large majority of the rapfans that try to act so hard and ignorant, nowadays, mostly just listen to commercial or trendy top 40 rap artists that see on MTV or hear in "the clubs", while picking on heavy metal and hard rock artists and fans. What's funny about this is that a lot of the metal and rock they like to "hate on" is a thousand times "harder" than the Chamillionaire or Lil Jeezy stuff they listen to, and many of the metal fanbase would kill many of the poser whiteboy types in a fight (which is why many don't fight one-on-one, and get their friends involved like pussies). I'm no badass, don't care to try and look like an ass to make myself feel better, and don't really care for unprovoked violence. I'm a generally peaceful guy.

Regardless of what these idiots think of rock music, even many underground and independent rappers also make the commercial top 40 shit look "pussy", by comparison. (Heard of Natas or Brotha Lynch Hung?) If they're so "badass", I say give these Abercrombie |& Fitch "thugs" 3 options: a: drop them off in an actual real ghetto with that shit, b: let them act that way around some Hells Angels, or c: Ship them off to Bosnia, or D: <Insert your own option>.
Maybe we'll see how tough these pussies REALLY are, then.





I know MANY country music fans can also be fairly racist, sexist, homophobic and religiously intolerant. And you find the same things in rock, and especially in some of the more "hardcore" heavy metal circles, but overall, it just seems that the mainline youth alternative culture is still much farther in terms of progressive thinking on the average/whole. I may have worded some things wrong, but that's what I have to say. I recognize that more of the underground artists actually have messages and something to say, but I'm speaking of the mainline rap culture. The underground isn't the main influence on youth today. It's that BET garbage. Comments?

[saturnmoon]

wow you cold not said better. wow right to the point. I second this one. what happend with the good music.

[bigirl_inwv]

You're right. You probably pissed some people off. But you have a good point. Now, Im getting ready to piss of even more people than what you did.

I grew up in a town where being white was being the minority. The predominant race was Black, followed by Hispanics. I was taught very early on that the N word was a million times worse than the F bomb. I still believe it to this day. I've never used the word, and I will never use the word.

Now, everyone makes a big deal when someone outside of the black race uses the N word. (Michael Richards for example) That word still has power because people LET IT have power. You want people to stop saying it? Stop making it a big deal.

OR

Educate the black race on the word. What it really means and why its so wrong. Have them stop using it to refer to each other. Teach them that its just as wrong for them to say it as it is for someone who isnt black to say it.

Just my :2cents:

*Im not racist at all. And I hope no one took it as that. Feel free to hate mail me if you wish.

[JohnnyV]

I guess because I am non-white and non-black, the debate about rap symbolizes to me the worst part of America's views on race. It always seems to me that people debate race by talking about the way that whites and blacks get along. But Latinos and Asians are the fastest growing minorities in the United States, while the Arab and South Asian nations are among the most populous foreign countries affecting our foreign policy. So when we talk endless about race in terms of black/white, we are in effect glossing over the majority of the world (if I'm not mistaken, roughly 75%) that is neither white nor black.

Many of the greatest African American thinkers in history -- among them Martin Delany, WEB DuBois, Richard Wright, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Langston Hughes -- rightfully came to the conclusion, at one point or another in their lives, that the plight of African Americans could only be fully understood and solved by thinking internationally. DuBois said the 20th century would be defined by "the color line" but he went on to say that African Americans would have to look to the experience of colonized people in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, among other places, in order to place their experience in context.

Rap music is, if nothing else, extremely self-absorbed. Rather than understanding blackness as one side of a global struggle for power (a struggle for which African Americans by virtue of being American are sometimes on the "oppressor" side), most black rappers entrench themselves in the narrow issues facing them in this or that particular ghetto of the United States. The result is to isolate black people by making them interpret everything in the world according to their self-referential worldview; with such a detached worldview, the more blacks complain about white racism the more they fail to see the potential connections between themselves and other groups struggling with the same global balance of power, including Asians, Latin Americans, and Arabs.

In 2006 there were many alarming calls from African Americans against Latino immigration, and their nativist racism was just as scary as anything coming from a white person. Barack Obama, in his struggle to prove that he's electable as president, even voted for the wall between the US and Mexico. I can't help but think that such divisiveness between groups with similar interests is partly the result of a culture of self-obsession and outright petulance, fueled by the mainstream of rap.

But not all rap is the selfish, pointlessly angry rap of the mainstream ("mainstream" meaning, in most cases, that the artist is bankrolled by white agents and appeals largely to white suburban listeners). In the early days, there was Public Enemy and other rappers who did think more holistically. There are many spoken word artists in the black community now. We just don't hear much from them because whites prefer to see black artists who are self-destructive and uncritical of American foreign policy, and whites by and large control who can or cannot have a public platform.

J

[12voltman59]

I'm no fan of most of what constitutes rap or hip-hop music--

For me, my dislike of it is more generational I do believe--many if not most of the forms of music I like is made by blacks--I was listening to a radio program today on the history of New Orleans music. They had interviewed a number of older black New Orleans musicians and several made negative comments about rap.

Natalie Cole--daughter of Nat King Cole also is on record for not liking it.

I had originally liked some of the rap that came out back in the '80s--but all of that "gangsta/bling-bling rap" that is so popular now that glorifies the material over all else, with half-naked "ho's" shakin't their thangs and such ----just in my mind is not good music--it glorifies violence and ill treatment of women----

[MrFahrenheit]

Right on! I agree with pretty much all of it. Espacially the part concerning talking about killing and hoes while wearing a big golden cross around your neck. Gotta love that. :rolleyes:

[ScifiBiJen]

But not all rap is the selfish, pointlessly angry rap of the mainstream ("mainstream" meaning, in most cases, that the artist is bankrolled by white agents and appeals largely to white suburban listeners). (...) We just don't hear much from them because whites prefer to see black artists who are self-destructive and uncritical of American foreign policy, and whites by and large control who can or cannot have a public platform.


Deserved to be repeated.
Let's not generalize too much here.

[swag85]

BUMP!
i would have to agree with this thread! excellent view ziggybabie!

[ziggybabie]

But not all rap is the selfish, pointlessly angry rap of the mainstream ("mainstream" meaning, in most cases, that the artist is bankrolled by white agents and appeals largely to white suburban listeners). In the early days, there was Public Enemy and other rappers who did think more holistically. There are many spoken word artists in the black community now. We just don't hear much from them because whites prefer to see black artists who are self-destructive and uncritical of American foreign policy, and whites by and large control who can or cannot have a public platform.

J

Personally, I think more white kids would buy into more black artists that were kind of a mix between the violent aggressive stuff and conscious stuff. They would come off as less "preachy". It's why rapper, Common could have a message and SOME people would get it, but if 2Pac had said the exact same thing, more would listen. As long as the gangsta stuff is not for real (and they need to make that clear as all hell), and it's mixed with messages, and them not actually telling kids to do that shit, I think artists that mix BOTH aspects are kinda a good thing.

Same reason why some kids listen to Pantera, but don't care as much for Pink Floyd. Many youth tend to be aggressive. Plus, I think white kids are big enough trendwhores, now, that they'd buy into whatever was shoved down their throats, by MTV, anyway. If that was more conscious acts, they'd naturally levitate towards that. I agree about whites controlling who has public platform, as they own more radio stations, television, and most of the media (even BET was bought out by Viacom). Glad some people here agreed, with the comments, though.

[JohnnyV]

I must confess complete ignorance about current rap artists. How embarrassing! And I used to work at MTV Networks for four years in the 1990s. I fell off the planet at around the time when Queen Latifah and Busta Rhymes were still important. :(

For me, still, "Fear of a Black Planet" was the height of rap, c. 1988. Everything after that kind of blurs into a collage of overpriced and oversized gold accessories, sluts in shiny clothing, and blather. God, I feel old.

J

[skiflydive]

This is sure to piss some people off but --- did you ever notice that the word rap is the biggest part of the word crap?

[riddel]

I also hate mainesream rap groups . . their the same songs about the same nothing. It has no real view upon the world like rap in the past. . its trash and the radios dead!!!