I'm not calling people idiots or saying they're idiots for liking Trae (whom I will admit even without hearing any of his material, I can pretty much imagine I'll think he's either wack or someone I wouldn't listen to more than once if I could help it), but what I am saying from my perspective that as a lover of hip hop it IS very discouraging that cats like Trae, Rick Ross and Bun B (who I actually respect talentwise, but I wouldn't purchase one of his albums because that's just not my thing) are almost universally more highly regarded than artists that (in the opinion of most "hip hop" and not just "rap" fans) are for lack of a better word...BETTER than they are.
If you think that it's closemindness for me to automatically assume that a Common, M.O.P., Tragedy Khadafi, Cormega, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Kane West, OutKast, The Roots, Madlib, Raekwon, Saigon, Papoose, Jean Grae, Immortal Technique, MF Doom, Clipse, Masta Killa or Ghostface Killah LP would be better than Trae, UGK, K Rino, Rick Ross, Paul Wall, etc...well, then I am guilty on all charges. I don't think these rappers automatically suck...however, if I had the choice to listen to ONE SONG and all I had to go on were the artists names and they were Cam'ron and K Rino...I'm picking K Rino EVERY TIME.
I don't have an East Coast rap bias...I have an AESTHETIC BIAS...completely different. I LOVE Grime, I love the rawness, the energy, how it isn't/wasn't entrenched in rules and song structure and set BPM's. A grime emcee could more than make up for subpar bars lyrically with energy and delivery...just like underground hip hop...I have had people tell me that Grime is closer related to Crunk, Hyphy, etc. than hip hop is so why would a "hip hop purist" like myself love Grime? BECAUSE IT IS PURE! Unadulterated by corporations co opting it and throwing money at it and stretching the culture and diluting it until it's a shadow of it's former glory...in today's rap industry there can be NO new Public Enemy's, X Clan's, A Tribe Called Quest's, Poor Rigteous Teachers' or Brand Nubians...the balance is GONE in the mainstream now. If you're over 30, regardless of if you still can bring it...you're FINISHED. Fail to sell Gold two albums in a row? Sign to Koch!
I don't care WHERE someone is from...I don't like Crunk, Snap, Hyphy, or Screw music. If you're from Houston and you make HIP HOP, if you're dope, you're dope! E 40 is a hell of an artist...but I don't own any of his albums. I prefer the Hieroglyphics Crew from the Bay. One.
this really doesn't make any sense. at least the people who are standing against your "aesthetic bias" have some knowledge of the artists whose superiority you are espousing.
i've *listened to method man album*, i know about and love ghostface and the rest of the wu, i own records by all the people you "automatically assume" are better than the music i'm really feeling, and in many cases love them.
however, you're saying that a record by trae (and probably by extension, the likes of lil keke, z-ro - who are great talents and incredibly important to the development and continuation of southern rap) can't possibly be even in the same ballpark of validity as this strange little rigid canon you've built for yourself *without even listening to it*. this is several steps beyond being flat-out dumb, it's flagrant ignorance and a real disappointment, considering that you're obviously someone who has quite a bit of knowledge.
the weird and completely arbitrary divide you've built up between what you view as "hip-hop" and "rap" is pretty destructive and silly, too. hip-hop is not just one thing, is not strictly the four pillars, and its interpretation differs from state to state, country to country. that's the beauty of hip-hop. when there's freedom to move and reimagine what hip-hop is, great things can happen. when there isn't, things like UK hip-hop happen!
the reason british hip-hop is so bad is because, for the most part, it rigidly toes the traditionalist line you seem to advocate and does very little to innovate and really assert its own identity (i know plenty of artists use british accents, but when these are welded to weakass, primo-rehash beats, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT REAL HIP-HOP IS, what's the point? you're not making the music your own, so why bother pretending that you are).
look at this and then tell me, where would the interest be in a nation as massive and diverse as the USA, where hip-hop is the dominant cultural force, adhering to ONE TRUE WAY and not allowing different people to bring their own lives, experiences and cultures to the table? hip-hop would be homogenous, stuck in the past, governed by one overarching aethetic and utterly irrelevant to millions of people – and you'd never have had outkast, either (whose new album is NOT very good, btw, unfortunately).
as it stands, for all the criticisms you can level against crunk, snap, hyphy, screw etc (many of them valid - i too would like more real lyrical content and more positive messages in hip-hop, trust me), at least they exist.
all these different styles are precisely what makes hip-hop (if you choose to listen to hip-hop across the board and don't just limit yourself to one regional scene/aesthetic position) remain a diverse and exciting world decades after it began. they *enrich* the music, allowing it to develop sonically and, perhaps most importantly, giving people in the areas they come from something that's their own, something to throw their hands up to and be proud of. they are absolutely what hip-hop is all about, not sacreligious abberations of the "right", orthodox take on the genre.
saying people like E-40 are great artists, but that you wouldn't buy or listen to their music is all well and good and absolutely your right. no one is presuming to tell you what you should buy and what you should listen to, but if it's your position ignore a certain style of music, then maybe it's best to make that decision quietly and not try to denigrate the choices of people who have a somewhat broader view of what this music is and can be.
props for bigging up k-rino tho. he's a great artist, frequently overlooked and a lovely dude, too.
seven hundred and twenty three.
