Re: (TV) 2 cents on Rap

[jpg <jpg@sirius.com>]

Good points/. Check out KRS1.

"Philip P. Obbard" wrote:

> Mike took the words out of my mouth. I think my problem with 'enlightened'
> music fans (as I would egotistically classify we Television fans) saying they
> "hate" or "dislike" or "turn off the radio and mope for ten minutes about the
> state of music these days" (sorry Emilie) with regards to *any* type of music
> is that it sounds like the exact same things my parents' generation said about
> "rock 'n' roll" - it's "simple", "juvenile", "violent", "druggy", "repetitive",
> "skill-less", "all the same", "stupid", etc. I'm not saying there isn't plenty
> of terrible rap, r'n'b, hip-hop, etc. - but there was plenty of terrible punk,
> new wave, pop, progressive rock, *and* plenty of good disco, too (Chic, for
> one). It also reminds me of diehard Beatle fans, who are always saying things
> like "there is no good music on the radio these days", which might be true for
> certain stations of areas of the world, but implies that good music isn't being
> made anymore, which just isn't true.
>
> Folks between 50 and 5 understand rock 'n' roll and most of its variations
> because they are all around us - TV, movies, radio, etc. - and have been our
> entire life. Rap is a bit different - like jazz in the 1920s, it still is
> interpreted as being primarily the product of a single demographic group (true
> or not) and has only emerged in the last twenty years. Only in the last ten
> years has it become ubiquitous in the same way "rock 'n' roll" is - in the
> movies, TV, etc. I didn't grow up with it, and most of us on the list didn't.
> It's foreign in many ways... like r'n'r was to our parents in the 1950s and
> 60s. Hence the instinctive distaste many of us have for it - it doesn't fit
> into our subconsciously defined ideas of what music *should* sound like, and so
> we reject it out of hand. It takes a lot to break that barrier - I've only
> begun starting to over the last year.
>
> As an aside... I don't know a lot of rap, but I did buy IT TAKES A NATION OF
> MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK a few months ago, and was amazed at how tame that
> album seems more than a decade later. Yes, popular rap is filled with violence
> and misogyny - but interestingly, the PE album is remarkably 'clean'. As I
> recall, it was much more controversial for it's pro-Farrakhan statements and
> anti-semitic undertones. But as for swearing, violence, misogyny, it was
> nothing compared to what was coming (NWA, Body Count, etc.).
>
> And it's not quite rap, but I think Tricky's MAXINQUAYE is one of the best
> albums of the 1990s.
>
> I've rambled enough! Sorry!
>
> --Philip
>
> --- MICHAEL CARLUCCI <subterraneannyc@mindspring.com> wrote:
> >     Maybe because most of those who don't really listen to rap or
> > contemporary R&B, hip-hop and the like hate "Rap" and seem to lump
> > all the catagories together. There are big differences in all genre's.
> > It's like saying that Smokey Robinson and James Brown both played soul
> > music or that Funkadelic and The Temptations were R&B. I've always felt
> > that H A T E is a very strong word. How can you hate something or someone
> > that
> > you do not understand? I may not like what Lou Reed does these days but I
> > certainly do not hate him. I have no reason to. I'll give him credit for
> > staying alive, getting great guitar sounds, and even still being active.
> > Now all he has to do is remember how to sing again like he use to when
> > he was in the Velvets. He seems to have for gotten that. Ever since Walk On
> > The
> > Wild Side he's been talking his way thru his LP's. I'm getting off track
> > here.
> > I just wish that before people would dismiss Rap that they'd at least know
> > it first. Like with classical music. I can't comment either way on classical
> > or Jazz really for that matter because I really don't know either genre well
> > enough. Neither one interests me enough, but I would never say that they're
> > not
> > any good or that it's garbage. Have all the neigh-sayers really listened to
> > rap music or have they just heard the raps and turned it off saying, Oh I
> > hate
> > rap music. I'm really curious about this. To lump Lauryn Hill in with Public
> >
> > Enemy is ludicrous, they're at different ends of the spectrum. Give me
> > Lauryn
> > any day over Whitney Houston and her "Aye ye aye ye yah" screechings any
> > day.
> > At least Lauryn's keeping it at the street level which is what I've always
> > preferred in my musical taste. That's how TV, Voidoids, and Patti made an
> > impression on me. Street level rock with a thinkman's approach. Not an easy
> > thing to do without complicating matters. Sorry for all this babbling. H A T
> > E
> > words often do this to me. Thanks for the forum. M T C
> > ----------
> > >From: "Emilie Hsu" <EHSU@debevoise.com>
> > >To: <tv@obbard.com>
> > >Subject: RE: (TV) rap
> > >Date: Sun, Jan 9, 2000, 4:04 PM
> > >
> >
> > >How about stuff like French rap, like MC Solaar, I hate rap in general (and
> > >by the way, can't stand Lauryn Hill), but MC Solaar used to craft nice
> > >French rap...
> > >
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