What happened to socially/politically concious rappers

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!

In the Midwest country is pretty default for upper middle/middle class suburban ppl like my sister/bro in law, to say that like Kenny Chesney or McGraw or Underwoods audience is perceived at lower class is wrong

it's way more of an 80s springsteen audience now or a jimmy buffet audience

or just white middle class people pop audience

In the Midwest country is pretty default for upper middle/middle class suburban ppl like my sister/bro in law, to say that like Kenny Chesney or McGraw or Underwoods audience is perceived at lower class is wrong

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 12, 2015 12:08 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ehh i think that an upper-middle class country fan perceives a bit of 'i'm one of the regular ppl' solidarity in country

yeah of course but at the core that's republicanism too, wealthy ppl acting like they are trv middle class because they aren't fancy pants ppl

but like garth just played 11 nights in minneapolis and it was all people renting limos with groups of people to go and shit, going to nice restaurant before

or just white middle class people pop audience

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 12, 2015 1:10 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbf i do kind of think there is a generational thing going on. i grew up in a white midwestern upper class suburb, all the white kids i knew growing up were HUGE into hip hop. they loved classic gangsta rap and were really into the late 90s early 00s pop rap like diddy and ja rule. they are all republicans now, like their parents, and they are lawyers and bankers and shit but they still love rap and hate country.

yeah this is what i'm saying, dont confuse the fans for the artists

i don't know much about charts and sales but for a brief time (late 90s early 00s) rap WAS pop music right? sold way more than other stuff? you guys know more about charts than i do though, but it did seem like all the most popular music when i was in high school - both among the people i grew up with and in a larger cultural sense on MTV and radio - was rap and rap & r&b crossover hits. so for a TON of all kind of people rap was basically the pop music they grew up on. it wasn't public enemy or wu-tang but it was rap

In the UK the race component in anti-rap prejudice >>>>>>> class component in anti-country prejudice

xxxxp i bet they ate fuckin tortellini stuffed with the finest cheeses in their breakfast bowls at brunch the next day, too

what are you xping?

both the fans and the artists scan way more mainstream and way more middle class than they used to

marcos - i don't think it's generational, there are always ppl who liked rap and like country or vice versa, but it's just more mainstream now than it was (country)

also it's ludicrous to say that the racial component in rap criticism and the class component in country criticism are even remotely comparable

american can only work out its racial tensions through talking about sports or rap basically

xxxxp i bet they ate fuckin tortellini stuffed with the finest cheeses in their breakfast bowls at brunch the next day, too

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, January 12, 2015 12:24 PM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there are mcmansions filled with ppl that make way more than you and i ever will who eat at chain restaurants and shit all the time

sh@kedown of course. right number of xs and everything.

xp

xxxxp i bet they ate fuckin tortellini stuffed with the finest cheeses in their breakfast bowls at brunch the next day, too

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, January 12, 2015 12:24 PM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there are mcmansions filled with ppl that make way more than you and i ever will who eat at chain restaurants and shit all the time

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 12, 2015 1:25 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. a fancy restaurant is a fuckin steakhouse dude

i'd eat a gang of ruth chris right now tbh if someone else was buying

uh you guys are missing the garth brooks breakfast bowl joke in SG's post yo

charl1e w3is, while signed to a multimillion dollar football coaching contract at ND, would eat mcdonald's with his son at the dinner table while the rest of the family ate a more traditional home cooked meal.

he would also order that his Jimmy John's subs have both breads buttered

http://www.redbookmag.com/food-recipes/recipes/a6012/trisha-yearwood-recipes/

Jimmy John is an incredible name btw

tbf i do kind of think there is a generational thing going on. i grew up in a white midwestern upper class suburb, all the white kids i knew growing up were HUGE into hip hop. they loved classic gangsta rap and were really into the late 90s early 00s pop rap like diddy and ja rule. they are all republicans now, like their parents, and they are lawyers and bankers and shit but they still love rap and hate country.

― marcos, Monday, January 12, 2015 1:19 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

marcos - i don't think it's generational, there are always ppl who liked rap and like country or vice versa, but it's just more mainstream now than it was (country)

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 12, 2015 1:25 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea that's totally true. and when all those dudes i know get married, the "first dance" songs are all modern country-pop ballads lol

there are mcmansions filled with ppl

this is a horrifying mental image

when all those dudes i know get married, the "first dance" songs are all modern country-pop ballads lol

― marcos, Monday, January 12, 2015 1:32 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and then everybody gets down to snoop & dre "the next episode" lol

i danced to garth's 'The River' at my wedding and cried a little

mostly because it's not on spotify, though

lol

i'd love to read more about country's profile in europe, in the english speaking world and out. i know it's big in ireland. and australia.

there are mcmansions filled with ppl that make way more than you and i ever will who eat at chain restaurants and shit all the time

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, January 12, 2015 1:25 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's true the chain restaurants do make you shit more than normal

good thing they have 4.5 bathrooms in that mcmansion

the .5 is whatever room you were in when the other 4 were occupied.

classic realtor scam

the misrepresentation of shitting options in property listings is the untold horror story of the housing market collapse

i know OLD country music has always been pretty popular in Germany, but i don't know about new country pop stuff. they've always been big fans of rockabilly/hillbilly/square dance/50's american stuff there. but that's probably older people too. i doubt young german people give a shit about any of that.

tbf i do kind of think there is a generational thing going on. i grew up in a white midwestern upper class suburb, all the white kids i knew growing up were HUGE into hip hop. they loved classic gangsta rap and were really into the late 90s early 00s pop rap like diddy and ja rule. they are all republicans now, like their parents, and they are lawyers and bankers and shit but they still love rap and hate country.

This is so sad, and if you live and work anywhere outside of some sheltered hipster ghetto, you've probably been exposed to it.

Which is why we should remember when we make our little playlists or our blog posts or whatever, that music these days is something we take to work, the boundaries between work and home life or private life are not as clear as they were when we were kids.

I make a point of working and living in diverse and socially conscious environments, as such, I have to think about what music I am going to take to the office, or what I will play around my neighbors.

It is really important to me that I not send the message that I don't care about someone's community and culture and history. Which is why I'm careful about what hip-hop and r & b I invest my dollars and time into.I'm not going to listen to any old thing "because it's rap."

http://i0.wp.com/www.runwalkrepeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Hill-Street-Blues-Lets-Be-Careful.jpg