Sales of Rap Albums Take Stunning Nosedive

Foxnews.com ^ | March 1, 2007 | Foxnews.com

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

NEW YORK — Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

[Terabitten]

How many rap records do you need? They all sound the same.

Kinda like 40s crooner records. Or '50s rock and roll. Or '60s psychedelic music. Or '70s disco. Or '80s hair metal. Or....

[HEY4QDEMS]

Ever hear of the Sugarhill Gang.

Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike, and the Master G.

[Allegra]

How many rap records do you need? They all sound the same.

Like my dad says, it sounds like the jump-rope rhymes my friends and I used to chant when I was a little girl.

[Borges]

In the 1962 The Music Man production was a classic rap example. The train sequence "Rock Island" follows to the sounds and rythm of a train. This is still one of my favs today.

It actually goes back to the original 1957 Broadway production.

[Cicero]

It would be wonder if this is true, but I'm not sure I believe it.

Whenever someone in my vicinity turns on rap or hip hop, I can feel my stomach clench and the ulcers starting to form. As Marshall McLuhan said, "the medium is the message," and the medium of rap music is loud, dissonant, and does violence to one's senses and natural responses to harmony or the reverse.

I have always thought of rap music as an evil conspiracy between the music moguls, the poverty pimps, and the DNC: a sure-fire way to keep young blacks on the plantation in a state of crime, poverty, despair, and inclination to vote Democrat. It disrupts black families and marriages, among other things.

Can music do that much? Certainly. The ancients talked about various modes of music. Music to stir the soul and lead men to war; music to lead people to pleasure and decadent enjoyments; music to madden the listener.

Rap music is designed to corrupt its fans.

[Terabitten]

the answer for people who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and who were to lazy to put in the practice required to master a musical instrument.

Hmm... they said that in the '50s about rock and roll, too.

[Borges]

At its best samplers transform the music they use in a good way. Sort of like composers doing variations on someone else's theme.

[Schwaeky]

Don't forget Cypress Hill--

[Terabitten]

Some languages are better than others for rap.

I had a friend who was into Korean rap. It was... well, different, to say the least.

[Terabitten]

The standouts will be remembered . . . Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest . . . but like the British Invasion, the vast majority will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Rap is not unlike Disco, it just enjoyed a longer shelf life.

And you gotta admit, "Gangsta Paradise" is a hell of a song, I don't care who did it. I'm not a Snoop Dog fan by any means, but that's a hell of a song.

[dfwgator]

And you gotta admit, "Gangsta Paradise" is a hell of a song, I don't care who did it. I'm not a Snoop Dog fan by any means, but that's a hell of a song.

That was Coolio.

[Terabitten]

Correction, Coolio, not Snoop Dog.

[RobRoy]

There is a Blondie rap song Rapture:


Toe to toe
Dancing very slow
Barely breathing
Almost comatose
Wall to wall
People hypnotised
And they're stepping lightly
Hang each night in Rapture

Back to back
Sacrailiac
Spineless movement
And a wild attack

Face to face
Sadly solitude
And it's finger popping
Twenty-four hour shopping in Rapture

Fab Five Freddie told me everybody's high
DJ's spinnin' are savin' my mind
Flash is fast, Flash is cool
Francois sez fas, Flashe' no do
And you don't stop, sure shot
Go out to the parking lot
And you get in your car and you drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and lands on the ground
And out comes a man from Mars
And you try to run but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you're in the man from Mars
You go out at night, eatin' cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercurys and Subarus
And you don't stop, you keep on eatin' cars
Then, when there's no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars where the people meet
Face to face, dance cheek to cheek
One to one, man to man
Dance toe to toe
Don't move too slow, 'cause the man from Mars
Is through with cars, he's eatin' bars
Yeah, wall to wall, door to door, hall to hall
He's gonna eat 'em all
Rapture, be pure
Take a tour, through the sewer
Don't strain your brain, paint a train
You'll be singin' in the rain
I said don't stop, do punk rock

Well now you see what you wanna be
Just have your party on TV
'Cause the man from Mars won't eat up bars when the TV's on
And now he's gone back up to space
Where he won't have a hassle with the human race
And you hip-hop, and you don't stop
Just blast off, sure shot
'Cause the man from Mars stopped eatin' cars and eatin' bars
And now he only eats guitars, get up!

[Borges]

It depended pretty heavily on the Stevie Wonder sample.

[RobRoy]

>>Looks like da homies have finally gotten into downloading mp3s<<

That is exactly what I thought when I read the headline!

[bkepley]

You can olny go so far with a vocabulary of 30 words and referrring to every woman as a ho.

Particularly when every other word is "niggah".

[Terabitten]

It depended pretty heavily on the Stevie Wonder sample.

That it did. But then again, Led Zeppelin borrowed pretty heavily from some older guys, too.

[RobRoy]

>>Rapture by Blondie...1980?<<

I just realized you beat me to it.

[Borges]

Their songs were just uncredited covers!