I pull up to a stoplight in LA, and the surly wannabe gangster next to me is pumping out bass that rattles his car. I have a choice, roll up my window and turn up my own tunes ( jazz, rock, whatever) or turn mine down and listen to the American Street.
I eavesdrop frequently, it's not hard at the popular volume, and , boy, I've heard an earfull.
As sick as you think it is, triple that. No, I'm not shocked, I'm saddened. I've been in alleyway vomit sessions and overdose scenes of my own, but the millions of fresh faced suburban American kids devouring this stuff have NOT seen anything tougher than taking out the trash, and they think they IDENTIFY with this underclass defeatism.
Anyone inside the record business will confirm it: middle class whites make up the bulk of the rap/hiphop audience. Read it and weep. It's cool to be angry and hopeless, the subtle subtext is there in the TV ads for all the major retailers.
I liked the article, well written, but where HAS the writer been for ten years?
I have heard that hip-hop and rap culture is the most popular subcultural element in our society today.The music industry is making a ton of money off of suburban white kids who lap it up. As a guitar player,I always wondered how this stuff could become so popular.Very little real musicianship.But I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.Kids are always looking for the most annoying,subversive thing to latch on to-People said the same kinds of things about Elvis in the 50's. When I realised rap was getting popular,that's when I realised I was getting old,or society was going to the dogs,one or the other.