i just don't see any revolutionary potential in todays rap.
yes, for me the lyrics are not helpful. same with drill. but this is how this stuff always works.
lyrics are the ego and the ego is always the very last person to know what's going on.
Re: this and what Simon said about lyrics - reading an introduction to 'The Iliad', the author talks about how one theory of the text is it was either prompting of improvisation or a recording of material that was originally improvised. And Homer's famous epithets ("swift-footed Achilles", the "wine-dark sea", etc.) are considered to be mnemonic aids to the improviser.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epithets_in_Homer
it's a factionous time rn in rap
Interesting to consider certain recurring phrases and images in rap (e.g. "Rollie on my wrist")
blissblog might want to mention '1983 a merman i should be'
TBF Barti's speaking as the Zeppelin enthusiast in this metaphor. He's out here like "No I'm not going to listen to The Who, they don't have the range". Or more accurately, he's already heard Rakim, why go back and acknowledge Spoonie Gee?
The problem I have is with Third's establishing that this should be transcendentary or polemic in a way that speaks to what rap did before in a social way when in reality they're working inside a society we have pretenses to thinking we belong to. Thug's extravagance is working against dressing down in Atlanta, Migos are sniping at biters in self-absorption. Their worlds are more myopic than the greater world.
There's a phrase in rap that's always going on, 'campaigning' and in Atlanta that's especially true because you're literally building your audience bit by bit in a big city but also a city with it's own dialog with a massive country. Block to block Mixtape handing, local club shows, negotiating from DJ to DJ, and then having a presence in Atlanta which feels big but is also not big at all because who knows you in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc? Rappers are appointed successes more than anything and all their activity nearly always is in reaction to whom they position themselves in reaction to.
You don't acquire that knowledge until you immerse. Otherwise the stuff about Thug I rambled about in the Atlanta thread is left out and you're left with the "Young Thug is eccentric... weird... he's like BOWIE!!!" inanities that most press felt necessary to fall into for the sake of convenience.