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The commercialization of rap. Please read and comment*
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The commercialization of rap. Please read and comment*Posted:
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Joined: May 11, 201014Year Member
Posts: 242
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Status: Offline
Joined: May 11, 201014Year Member
Posts: 242
Reputation Power: 8
The Commercialization of Rap
The hip-hop/rap industry is experiencing a low point the likes of which I havent seen in my conscious music lifetime. For years, this genre has been growing and evolving in ways new to everyone, hence its popularity. However, like rock-and-roll experienced thirty years ago, one genre can only grow so much before people seem torun out of ideas. I hope to never see the day where beats all sound similar, where rappers are record label status symbols instead of artists, where the lyrics are unoriginal and repetitive. Unfortunately, I believe that day is coming much sooner than anticipated.
Consider Rihanna. She was a fresh face about five years ago, a beautiful island girl from Barbados, innocent and nave to the American way. She sang of love, heartache, hurt, joy, and a plethora of emotional undercurrents from which to draw. Now, consider her last few radio hits - Whats My Name, Rude Boy, Only Girl in the World, and S&M. What is the topic of every single one of these? Sex. SEX SEX SEX. It is such a pathetic, see-through attempt by her record label, Island Def Jam, to restore Rihannas status as a sex symbol. She, of course, lost this status after the beat-down incident with Chris Brown revealed she carries the herpes virus. Of course, the majority of middle America is neither in-tune nor pensive enough to discover or consider this obvious attempt, and instead purchase her songs and bump to them in their gas guzzling SUVs. Holler?
Now, how about Waka Flocka Flame? I personally think he is quite talented and has a future ahead of him. The problem I have is his new radio hit Grove Street Party. No lyrical innovations. Repetitive beat. Lame chorus. Come on, Flocka. Dont give in.
There are probably fifty examples of artists who appear to have sold out. I wont waste space listing them all and all of their crimes against music. My personal least favorite, Nicki Minaj, is the prime example of someone who had strong, powerful tracks on her mix tapes and then adopted a whole new shallow, fake persona in an effort to sell records.
The problem with the new class of rappers is the lack of cleverness. The entire industry started out as clever, and it was the hallmark of the genre. Slowly but surely, labels discovered that sex, drugs, and partying sells records - hello, new idea. It was novel for the first two years, and is now tired. Unfortunately, middle America is who buys the majority of music. Thats why its called mainstream. To sell records, artists have to appeal to the tastes of a sector of society who is of average intelligence and therefore average taste. They dont have the brainpower nor the attention span to pick up on or appreciate the nuances and allusions of true, clever rap.
To sell more records, artists are encouraged to be repetitive, unoriginal, and to often sing or rap even if thats not where their talent lies. Rappers like Nicki Minaj sing on their tracks even though they are not good enough to be a professional singer. They are trying so hard to appeal so broadly that they lose the essence of what the industry used to be.
Rant over.
Kinda long, sorry! This was written by one of my friends and itt earned her a job at Rolling Stone (Let me know what you think)
-Peach
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