Posted on 01/03/2008 8:58:33 AM PST by Milhous
As a way of profiling three artists who made three solid hip-hop albums this year--Turf Talk, Prodigy, and Project Pat--the New York Times' Kelefa Sanneh has written another entry in the "hip-hop: possibly dead, definitely changing" trend piece parade. The reasons, in case you've been otherwise occupied: sales are in the crapper, hip-hop sales are really in the crapper, one-hit ringtones rule, albums by former backpack outliers are (shockingly, right?) selling better than albums by the one-hit ringtoners, and the genre's mainstream is taking the reality of the new model harder than most thanks to its longstanding "if you're not getting money, you ain't sh_t" philosophy. The difference being, Sanneh argues, that the rappers themselves are (sometimes) finally realizing the need to scale back their ambitions and "keep grinding" on the indie circuit. But what if hip-hop's multitudes can't be contained by the indie circuit alone? What if the genre needs the money men to foster creativity? What the underground needs the promise of the giant gold tank to keep that grind rolling?
Under-the-radar releases, weird tour schedules, modest sales figures: none of this is new. The success of Southern hip-hop in the last decade was built on a foundation of independent and independent-minded rappers, many of whom worked with the scrappy regional distributor Southwest Wholesale, which is now closed, like many of the little shops it used to serve. In an earlier era these regional scenes were farm teams for the industry, grooming the top players and then sending them up to the big leagues. But what if there are no big leagues anymore? What if there's no major label willing or able to help Turf Talk get his platinum plaque? Would his next album sound as brash? Will his musical descendants be as motivated? The mainstream hip-hop industry relies on a thriving underground, but isn't the reverse also true?Eventually, a (new?) group of executives will find a business model that doesn't depend on shiny plastic discs, or digital tracks bundled together to approximate them. But for now the major league is starting to look a lot like the minor one. And in ways good and bad and utterly unpredictable, rappers may have to reconsider their place in the universe, and their audience. Some will redouble their commitment to nonsense, like Project Pat. Some will wallow in their misery, like Prodigy. Some will merely revel in their own loudmouthiness, like Turf Talk, hoping someone will pay attention. But if sales keep falling, more and more rappers will have to face the fact that they aren't addressing a crowd, just a sliver of one.
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There is some validity to that argument ;)
That makes too much sense.
Metal underwent a substantive degredation of its own in the late 19080’s, as the more melodic, guitar heavy style of bands like Dio, Queensryche, and Iron Maiden was brushed aside by a wave of what became known as “death metal” (or “deth” if you’re an anti-spelling reb). The soaring vocals were replaced with gutteral grunting, on-the-torture-rack shouting, and untintelligible maniacal ravings, set against an undercurrent of unrelenting dual-bass-drum quads.
The same effect can be achieved by shouting over the din of an idling top-fuel dragster.
Additionally, the lyrics (to use the term loosely) darkened substantially, involving more recurrent themes of bodily violence, murder, rape, bloody gore, suicide, necrophilia, damnation, intertwined with overtly Satanic cultic references, all proffered in an attitude of raging frustration. Though some of that can be found in 70’s and ‘80’s metal, the metal scene after the mid-80’s became completely obsessed with it, and has never looked back.
A stark comparison would set Black Sabbath’s “Heaven and Hell” alongside, say, Exodous’ “Bonded by Blood”.
I can’t delve more deeply into it than that, ‘cuz I didn’t follow the metal scene down that dark and bloody road. When they kicked harmony to the curb, I stayed with her.
I will be satisfied if it is relegatied to jazz or disco status. Right now it is still way too popular.
Rap destroyed what was left of ‘soul’ music.
That said, can ya hook a brotha up?!
As a fan of hip hop, I don't think it's too popular - too popular would mean that it would be difficult for me to get tickets to shows I wanted to attend.
And I can get in.
Actually, soul music was already dead when hip hop took over. It had been replaced by disco - every soul artist of note had either gone disco or fell off the charts.
The "neo-soul" music renaissance that has revitalized soul music - with artists like D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Angie Stone, Gnarls Barkley - has begun as an outgrowth of hip hop and these artists are generally produced by hip hop beatmakers.
These singers favor funky, pre-disco grooves of the kind used by singers like Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye in the early 70s - precisely the same kind of grooves most favored by East Coast hardcore hip hop producers.
That’s my point, since people are still holding concerts, it is way too popular. Mostly it’s not the music I can’t stand; it’s the disgusting behavior of many of the performers, and the whole disgusting treatment of women. I could go on and on.
Wideawake - fan of hip hop?????
I believe that it is autistically viable.
Is there a translation available for this article? It appears to be written in an alternate form of English.
Two words:
Cannibal Corpse.. rock on!
I like gangster rap too btw. The louder the better. I guess I am still a young man. ;-)
I grew up in Harlem, Bushwick and Glendale NYC in the 80s.
I had a front row seat in Old School.
I’ve always preffered Ragtime to Jazz. The latter de-emphasized the role of the composer almost to the bottom of the rung. Even the arranger is more important than the composer in Jazz. The most important figure in the history of Jazz, Louis Armstrong, has a pitiful record as a composer. Scott Joplin on the other hand...
You actually need both hands to play Joplin. LOL. Or Barrelhouse Welch. ;) Or the high sheriff from hell, Lord have mercy.
Great composers redfine the Art and listeners can choose to go along or not. It’s been a century since Schoenberg’s atonal stuff and it still doesn’t really have a mass audience.
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