What happened to socially/politically concious rappers

"conscious" rap's chart peak is probably Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", which went to no. 20 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart and no. 1 on the US Hot Rap Singles chart. And that was it.

yeah that's pretty much it.

xp I didn't want to mention ILX punchbag Macklemore but yeah it's worth noting that the biggest new MC of the past couple of years self-consciously styles himself as a conscious rapper. And hip hop didn't just ignore gay rights in its conscious golden age - it was often aggressively homophobic, cf Brand Nubian, Ice Cube.

that's what i mean by squinting xp

xp although I was trolling, there's also the guy he famously beat out for the grammy

Kendrick's been mentioned a few times. And he's moving in a much more conscious (hate that word but it's useful shorthand) direction. i should be catnip for RT.

leave it to ILX posters to start talking about "Macklemore" and feminism and gay rights and transgenders. This is hilarious. Why do I even post here with you saps. I'm losing swag by the second with you lames.

I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars /
They criticize me for it yet they all yell holla /
If skills sold truth be told I’d probably be lyrically Talib Kweli /
Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense /
But I sold five mill, and I haven't rhymed like Common since.”

why do you even post here

So "conscious" & "political" = "kill whitey" & "shun girls"?

Rap music is dumbd down
Black people are opressed
Rap is dead

Keep living in your magical world of transgender popist equality where everything is brilliant and Taylor Swift, Minaj, Charli XXC is something you spend time listening to

leave it to ILX posters to start talking about ... feminism and gay rights and transgenders.

yeah nothing political about women or gay people amirite

http://rodon95.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/changesmall2.jpg

"shun girls"

this is a pretty um generous characterization of the rampant misogyny in Slick Rick, NWA etc.

Lord Jamar, is that you?

Not trying to be generous. Comic understatement in a post-#CharlieHebdo world.

fair dos

The likes of Common, Mos Def, Talib, Roots and Dad Prez

lmao this is actually a very apt typo considering the v significant intersection b/w ppl who like this stuff above all other rap music + dad-rock fans

Raccoon Tanuki is the drummer for Dad Prez

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/pop_playground/really-real-authenticity-and-hip-hop.htm

These rappers today, I tell ya. They bang out beats on their keyboards in 15 minutes, or they just get a hot producer to do it for them (please ignore my Neptunes-produced single that bombed). Then they just rap about girls and robbing folks – no positivity! They don’t care about hip hop’s history or culture (of which I am a vital part). They don’t even care about their whole album (which should be their art) – they just hope they have two or three jams that will get some play in the club.

that was from 2003 don't you have anything that was written in the last decade by someone under 40 to support your argument

#StopTanuki2015

i believe in us

outic don't you have anything better to be doing than this?

lol

tanuki study your lessons god u lack overstanding

#buildanddestroy
#clarence13x

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/80/44/72/8044726486437db85e963daa0520b2ed.jpg

I like these threads because people get to post raccoon pictures and gifs

https://animalnewsthepodcast.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/rascal_1899_10604157.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go3C4BL-lfs

though contra that drawing I think Raccoon Tanuki fulfils an important role in the ilx ecosystem

leave it to ILX posters to start talking about "Macklemore" and feminism and gay rights and transgenders. This is hilarious. Why do I even post here with you saps. I'm losing swag by the second with you lames.

great post

'raccoon rapping' is a v worthwhile youtube search

Great new dn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4tLrnlMxpM

We should use this thread to post DOPE current explicitly political rappers imo

I like mick Jenkins

Also raccoon t should check out the jacka whose new tape is packed with pro black agit prop

Underachievers don't rlly have a coherent message but they def incorporate lots of the imagery and iconography as a kind of hook

That Dizzy Wright track is really good.
Also, good to hear Nikkiya again, really like her voice, that SpeakHerLove album was fun...........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLEAT_kd4ns

This should do

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lIqNjC1RKU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bZ08RNUyM

Never did figure out the unambiguously explicit, content-based political rap embed game:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lIqNjC1RKU

whoops, that was just the same link.

http://youtu.be/6lIqNjC1RKU

if he won't acknowledge that Vince Staples song as 'political' then idk we should probably start a new thread to post good songs into instead of losing them in this nonsense

Some of this concious stuff doesn't age that well, even at the time I used to wince at the KRS One tracks where he tries to chat like a ragga mc from the Yard. In recent times old lags like Juicy J and Gangsta Boo have released far better albums than anything from that era imo. At least in this era twats like Brand Nubians are recognised for what they are - completely fucking worthless hateful arseholes.

omg donk raccoon

are we all pretending Tanuki didn't drop the sock last week

outta Boston:

http://youtu.be/U_0hhrETT_8

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/LPd1CWChXUs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

blach i forgot how to embed the yootoobs

http://youtu.be/LPd1CWChXUs

http://youtu.be/zJolqxXqMzc

http://youtu.be/7s-pnyCVmyk