What happened to socially/politically concious rappers

"Corporate rule$$ keep the people dumb..."

It seems like you answered your own question at the end. The 80s artists had the luxury of not having millions of dollars at stake. They had the freedom to say what was on their minds. It can still be done, but you have to be cleaver, or extremely gifted, like De La Soul, or 2Pac. The ma$$es never liked to be preached to. Appealing to the lowest common denominator will always mean less knowledge , and more ass.

I never understood why people have a problem with this. Business is business. Business will never be socially responsible.

De La were from the 80s

the capital of De La Were is HOVA

lay-nebbish!

hahaha that's awesome

"Everything is just weed and trainers and bitch on my dick idk"

britishers can be hard to take when they talk about rap...

no offense to the rest of you dizzzeee rascalz out there...

hey hey hey
are we SURE he's british?
we don't really have raccoons here.

yeah, nobody says trainers here. he might as well have said "everything is just flash jumpers and biscuit tins from fortnum and mason idk"

i actually heard a classmate use the "punk is just kill your mother music" cliche in about 1979. wonder if it goes back to 1976/77. probably. i don't remember the first time i heard the "rap is just guns/money/bitches" thing though. a long time ago. i still hear it all the time. people hate rap so much.

and country

Not sure that there's great multitudes of people out there with a visceral hatred of country music

there definitely are

there's a reason P4K refuses to ever review a Country album

isn't "i like everything but rap and country" the ultimate cliché for ppl who fancy themselves open-minded listeners to say?

If we're talking about hatred of country music comparatively with rap across all demographics, it doesn't stack up.

don't agree

rap is bigger so its haters will probably be more vocal whereas country haters can still get away with pretending it doesn't exist, but the (very similar) disdain is assuredly there if you even start to scratch the surface

lol come to Oregon sometime and we'll take a tour of some bars so you can see just how much country is played (tons) versus rap (zero)

isn't "i like everything but rap and country" the ultimate cliché for ppl who fancy themselves open-minded listeners to say?

This is, or at least was, true from my experience. I think it's a class thing - rap and country historically being the music of the poor.

there are like 3 or 4 different radio stations that play country where i am. in western massachusetts. you can't hear rap at all.

that's another reason why many people hate Country so much--its unescapable-ness in rural areas

consistently people tell me how much they hate rap when they come in my store. i could play death metal in my store all day and some people might raise eyebrows but if i played rap all day people would leave. which is a good tactical device when i get those pesky baby boomers in my store.

my stepdad always says he has never 'gotten' rap music, the point of it, the appeal, etc. he is kind of a racist tho so.

rap is bigger so its haters will probably be more vocal whereas country haters can still get away with pretending it doesn't exist, but the (very similar) disdain is assuredly there if you even start to scratch the surface

― lex pretend, Monday, January 12, 2015 3:15 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You don't need to scratch anything to get a sense of how rap is detested. Large swathes of people think it is responsible for crime, poverty and moral degradation. Its reception is heavily informed by a legacy of racial hatred and contempt and is believed by many to be completely artless and require no talent. Nothing similar could be said about country music even in its heyday decades ago.

That Country is not hated for the same reasons or by the same people doesn't mean that it isn't widely hated

Country is pretty hated and hugely popular

to a lot of people, especially in large coastal cities, Country represents the South, ignorance, racism, flyover state blandness, corniness, etc.

hmmm, maybe it's a toss-up. i do hear country hate too, but the rap hate seems more...hateful. like the idea of it is so terrible. like the geezer who said he felt like he was being aurally raped when i had rap on in the store one day. that visceral thing again...

rap is bigger

waht lol

not in America

there are places other than america

i mean i hear rap-hate from non-white people too. it's divisive no matter how you slice it.

did you guys watch the premiere of Empire? is there a thread on ile? high hopes...

rap hate seems to be an age thing too

perhaps relevant

xxp i really enjoyed empire! it seems poised to be pretty ridiculous and melodramatic but it's very effective as such & I liked most of the music in the pilot

it's a cliche with every kind of listener but i hear again and again from people that rap was great 5/10/15/20 years ago and sucks now. basically it was great when that person was paying attention - high school or college - and then completely sucked forever more as soon as they stopped paying attention. i hear that with rap way more than any other genre.

LEX, you should check out Empire if you get a chance. you might dig it.

i started a thread. but probably nobody will care because everyone hates rap.

Empire - The Rap to Riches Answer to Nashville on Fox

i still haven't got round to nashville yet!

oh man nashville is the best.

i love the music on nashville. i really do.

so far empire hasn't hit a home run with the music, but it's okay so far. kinda time warp-y in a weird way. the musical identity hasn't been established like it is on nashville.

i like everything on tv but Empire and Nashville

i checked everything but the rocker panels

more like Empile and Trashville

isn't "i like everything but rap and country" the ultimate cliché for ppl who fancy themselves open-minded listeners to say?

― lex pretend, Monday, January 12, 2015 10:05 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

People who say this define all music by the 6 different radio station types they can think of.

there's a racial component in ppl's dislike of rap though that is a lot different than country

but i don't mean to impose on ILX pop country fans' well earned persecution complex

and there's a class component in ppl's dislike of country. intersectionality!