[Blog] Are Rappers Dumb, Dull, And Lazy, Or Is It Just Me? Part 3
by on September 22nd, 2009
This one isn't totally pertaining to artist, some of these gripes are actually pertaining to fans of the genre, some of you will agree with what I say, and some of you will not, but that's with everything that I do on this site. With that being said, let us begin.
Why does it seem like Hip Hop is the only genre where artist either do not want to grow musically, or they are not allowed to grow (I'm speaking about mainstream artist)? Why is it that the subject matter from artist like Fabolous' first album is very much similar to the subject matter from his most recent one? The same goes with people like Lloyd Banks, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, and many other rappers not named, still rap about the same exact things.
Outside of Banks and Wayne who are still in their 20's the other artists that I listed are well into their 30's, and they have had on some level or another a succesful enough career, where there is no possible way that they could possibly be doing the things that their talking about. Literally every single 50 Cent album that I have ever purchases probably had a subject matter that consisted of at least 30% violence. How many people are these rappers really killing, how much drugs are they really selling, how many women are they really sleeping with?
Maybe I'm being old fashion and a little corny, but is there something wrong with only being with one woman, and her not being your bitch, or your wifey, but actually your wife? Is it bad to not want to talk about killing people, and selling drugs when your young and dumb these kind of activities may be fun and interesting to you, but does there not come a time when you have to move on and discuss something new?
Some of the greatest artists in the world, have taken chances with new things; they have reinvented themselves and set trends. They take chances with new sounds and different concepts. In Hip Hop most artist will not do that, and if they do, their fans abandon them, because they are to close minded to appreciate different types of music.
As fans, are you lovers of music or of scripted ignorance and mindless bragging on 3- 5 minute tracks? Why are there over 50 songs about rims? Why do we have a song about making it out of the hood, but in the video the artist is in the strip club sliding 20's down a strippers backside, how does that even go together? When I'm not writing on the site, I like to read the articles and blogs, and then see what some of your comments on them are about. I've come to the conclusion that we have a site which holds a large amount of homophobic and insecure men.
Songs being judged by a rappers apparence, fans attacking other fans by calling them gay. What if we did have some gay fans on Defsounds, thats their lifestyle not yours, so what gives you the right to Judge?
I've written several reviews for this site, and I have seen some people respond to my reviews by stating that I'm to old to understand real Hip Hop, I usually laugh these comments off, because nine out of ten times those people probably did not read the review, and did not pay attention to the facts I used to support my statements. So really all their doing is lashing out, because I didnt give an artist that they liked a review that they felt the artist deserved. But recently I really am begining to think I'm getting to old for Hip Hop. I dont know if its my college education, or my ability to see beyond my community, but a lot of the product that's coming from so called Hip Hop culture is just really ignorant, and immature. But maybe I'm just to old and out of touch, or maybe I just sold out.
Hip Hop is a musical genre, the beauty about music is that it has no boundries, music can go just about anywhere it wants and people who use the art can do just about anything they can possibly think of with it. Hip Hop is beautiful because its supposed to be about self expression, but somewhere along the line we all forgot about self expression and began looking for images and trends. How can Hip Hop be as limitless as its supposed to be if the artist wont grow and the fans keep holding on to outdated thoughts?
This isnt a Hip Hop is dead blog, it's just me taking a moment to state the facts. Hip Hop is over 30 years old, isnt it about time it began to act its age?



























and as for banks, i listen to banks alot, and he doesnt just talk about shooting people and everything..he talks about the struggles of growing up with nothing and on other songs he talks about things he can do now that he has money such as drive expensive cars and fuck models..but he touches up on everything IMO
BUT i understand what ur saying, alot of rappers use the same exact lyrics, same substance every time
as for rappers actually doing what they say..most rappers say they WILL shoot u, not saying they did shoot all these people
and they say they hustle..maybe they did, i really think Jeezy hustled before his rap career, and i think Stack Bundles hustled before he was killed (RIP) because alot of the things they say u would have to be a hustla to know what they are talking about
but anyway, good blog, it is a subject that needs to be touched on
probably not many to the first two.. but as far as sleeping with women, im sure a ton… hasnt wayne gotten like 4 different women pregnant? good blog, i agree with most of the things you said. some people just dont want to grow up though, 16-28ish are really the glory years, its pretty much down hill from there, and nobody wants to let go.
and now its time to throw in some of my nas stan-ism but dude changes it up on every CD. He acts his age and its refreshing
Umm yea u can say dat for fabolous, ross, and fat joe but i dont think 50 still raps about the things from “Get rich or die tryin” or wayne raps about da same things from “The Block Is Hot” dats was 2 different points of both there careers…
Why do you rap about, or in the case of this article STILL rap about street life?
BIG’s response although it’s not a direct quote went something like this: “What am I supposed to rap about? The green grass and the Sunshine…”
Rappers are a lot like politicians….They are elected by us the people to be a representation of us. Through us buying the albums and supporting the artist we choose to elect the rapper to represent us, just like when someone goes to vote on who would be the state representative or president…
SO seeing as to how these rappers are a representation of us, THE STREETS, they must address the topics that affect US…THE STREETS…
Music was created to be an outlet, and is almost like a reflection of whats going on in the world at that moment…..
If in 50’s southside neighborhood is crime and drug infested, then thats what he must represent because he is a representation of that particular neighborhood…That’s what he knows…
Although he is fuckin crazy paid, and COULD rap about how he made 10 mill on wall-street or some shit like that, he would be doing and INJUSTICE to his followers by not addressing the ISSUES that his people are facing……….
and at the end of the day, people listen to artists that they can relate to…If I can’t relate to you, and you can’t inspire me? Then why am i listening? People can’t relate to private jets, and hollywood lifestyles and shit like that…People relate to THE STRUGGLE..So thats what they rap to us………….
and as for banks, i listen to banks alot, and he doesnt just talk about shooting people and everything..he talks about the struggles of growing up with nothing and on other songs he talks about things he can do now that he has money such as drive expensive cars and fuck models..but he touches up on everything IMO
BUT i understand what ur saying, alot of rappers use the same exact lyrics, same substance every time
as for rappers actually doing what they say..most rappers say they WILL shoot u, not saying they did shoot all these people
and they say they hustle..maybe they did, i really think Jeezy hustled before his rap career, and i think Stack Bundles hustled before he was killed (RIP) because alot of the things they say u would have to be a hustla to know what they are talking about
but anyway, good blog, it is a subject that needs to be touched on
So yea rappers do need to change their subject matter to coincided with their age, but more importantly, rappers just need to KEEP IT REAL. As much as I hate Kanye’s actions outside of music, he is a real ass rapper!
Great way to end the blog by the way.
need some feed back,will be updating regular, once i get a new laptop..thanks hip hop world!one..
1. Politics
2. These rappers are clear examples of fake niggas (U aint gotta lie to kick it)
3. Big record labels that are out of touch tell artist what they should release
4. Mainstream rappers are pretty much sellouts (they will do anything to sell records)
5. There is no intellect in 90 percent of the hip hop music nowadays
6. Hip hop fans are dumb and close minded
7. Too many followers
These fans hang on to every word that these rappers say. 9 times out of 10 the rapper dont know what the hell he talkin about or its a fairytale story
the reason i love this article because hopefully after reading this people can understand the direction of Jay-z and his lyrics. like at the age of 39 or 40, can you really be talking about the same subject matter you were talking about when you were 20? To be really real — should you still be bragging up selling keys when your’re making legit money in the corporate world? not to knock on niggaz like Clipse and Jeezy, who at this moment are the leaders of the dope rap and make it sound very interesting and such, but do you really think Jeezy as he would say
“I said that d boy bullshit yeah I’m still on it
I gotta half a brick left do anybody want it
They going for the 10 you can get ’em for the 8
Just holla at you boy when you tryna get straight”
now jeezy aint a b.a.n, he is now a business man, he wants to make money, he wants to expand his horizons, do you honestly think if you meet him at a club and say “yo fam, let me get that shit for 8 fam, forreal” come on, seriously? nigga aint still selling and if he is then he isn’t as intelligent as a Jay-Z. Now I don’t think its that hard to not rap about killing niggaz, and selling drugs, look at Talib and Common and Mos Def, who never did rap about that, and look at Jay-Z, who DID rap about that, but is now on how grown man shit. Now be forreal, alot of you hated Kingdome Come because to most of you jiggaman “fell off” no Jiggaman did not fall off he GOT OLDER, and realized that he can no longer rap about shit that he can no longer relate too. nowadays its “cool” to spit about killing niggaz and selling drugs, but when people like him and biggie did it, it wasn’t it was all they knew. what the fuck did you want him to do? start making tracks like “im your baby” and be the next ll cool j?
now im not knocking on big, cause he is in my top three, and im not hating on 2pac cause he is in my top three also, but to me jiggaman and nas are the pac and biggie of their times. nas and pac could give you knowledge and spit about struggle, can give you tracks like “brenda’s got a baby” and “one mic”, but jigga and biggie couldn’t do that. if biggie and pac were alive right now, biggie would have the same problem that jigga man is having which is trying to have his past fan base grow up as he has, and maintaining a street cred. if you think otherwise than you a b.a.n, cause biggie and jay-z were close, PLUS Diddy is a businessman, and Diddy doesn’t fuck around. if Pac was still alive, he’ll be able to make records like nas is today because frankly pac and nas’s subject matter can go on for centuries..
i know i went of topic, but im being real… hip hop is dead in the public, but alive with its true followers. but if you do want to listen to a real hip hop album listen to the new raekwon album only built for cuban linx 2, the dude hasnt changed, maninly because he doesnt have too because he isn’t mainstream, which is a whole different topic.
You can’t really say 50 isn’t political, he constantly talks about how money controls everything and on Terminate On Sight there’s even a track called “Money Make the World Go Round” which doesn’t feature 50, just Yayo Banks and Malvado, but its not that hard to realize from his other tracks that he also believes this, while Nas Chris Brown and Game made a song saying “we make the world go round”…..
I agree alot of rappers keep talking about the same things, groups like Mobb Deep (old school one at least there not like how they used to be since they joined G-Unit) and M.O.P. aren’t sprouting up anymore, those two groups were really at the end of spectrums, M.O.P. talked about the violence aand pain in warfare while being the most hardcore rappers out there, and Mobb Deep became the deepest duo ever, with Quiet Storm being a good example. Young Buck, was alot like the mainstream rappers when he got on G-Unit, rarely touching deep topics and just had a unique way of rapping and speaking. When he got kicked he rapidly transformed, to where he acts like a old school rapper looking down on the current rap industry, his lyrics got alot more meaningful and they were in the eyes of someone who is still learning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4L4CPfQY8
^^
Kind of an ironic statement if you think about it. I mean what gives you the right to judge the people you are talking about? Because their lifestyle isn’t yours? Because they don’t think the same as you? What gives anyone the right to judge anyone? It’s human nature to judge someone and sure there are going to be many ignorant people out there but it’s really just their opinion. Just call’em ignorant, explain to them how their ignorant if you want, and leave it at that. If people wanna be ignorant just let’em be, who are you to judge or take that away from them?
Also aren’t you kind of judging these rappers lifestyles? I agree most of these rappers most likely aren’t living what they’re rapping but what rapper is? That includes Lloyd Banks and Lil Wayne. A lot of them may have done what they said in the past, I can’t say for sure. But what a rapper raps about, even if it is drug dealing/gangsta stuff or even banging a lot of women etc, there is someone out there living that. So to that person who is really living it, it is really real. That also includes rappers like Immortal Technique. Those rappers you mentioned rap about the same things because that formula worked for them and made them a lot of money. Now when someone sees ‘Lil’ Wayne’ or ‘50 Cent’ in a song name they’re most likely going to listen to it. If something isn’t broken why fix it? Or maybe it’s people, well these rappers, are just greedy? But I mean who doesn’t know what these rappers rap about isn’t always true? If it was a lotta these rappers would be locked up right now.
“Too Many Rappers Not Enough Mc’s”
welll if your ears yearn for quality music with lyrics and content check me out @gotpluck.com or myspace.com/ppluck do it for the love cause my brain got me 6 figures
Chi-Town Stand up!