Another Rapper Dead… We need to talk about the Culture

[RickyDiBiase]

We don't need to talk about anything, and to only have this talk when it effects rappers and entertainers and not the average joe is part of the problem.

 

[CrimsonTider]

He’s right. Every time a rappers dies we have all this dialogue and finger pointing. But what about the countless number of black men that die to violence every year? I know the coli loves to scapegoat the music since that’s a easy way out. But it’s much deeper than that

Not much law abiding citizens can do

Rockin jewels and stuntin on folks is not spread by Hip-Hop. Gotcha.

I assume that rappers being the only musicians killed on a very regular basibs has also nothing to do with Hip-Hop.

Rocking jewelry doesn’t have anything to do with rap and rocking jewelry isn’t stunting on anyone

 

[EA]

I agree with DMC but as I’ve said before, it’s easy to point the finger at violent/gangster rap but as long as we as consumers/participants of the culture aren’t doing what we can to shine a light on the positive (or at least non-destructive) acts, then we’re just being negligent and hypocritical.

We’ve known for 30 years now that white people are the ones in these executive seats determining what’s trendy so we can’t expect labels to be the ones to bare the responsibility because they only care about what sells the most which’s currently drugs, decadence and violence.

We do have to acknowledge that art also reflects society. Cost of living and crime is up all over the western world due to the economy and the pandemic. Until we as people are in a better space, we will always have this underlying tension so we have a responsibility to reject it otherwise it will spill into the ”culture” like it currently has.

 

[Black Mamba]

If PNB was in Medellin by himself with those jewels on, would he still be alive?

If he was strollin through Mexico City at night by himself with that shyt on his wrist, would he have gotten got?

This.
This ain’t a hip hop issue
This is a nikka going out flashy with no security while others have nots are going to want to have it.
You won’t see white rich actors like Leo go to roscoes like that without a bunch of body guards shyt you won’t see Justin Bieber go there like that.

Also look at 69 bytch ass he was extra careful in all his shyt every time and you bet he had security with him when he was doing all his fake blood tough guy shyt. Even though people claimed he was really outchea.

 

[Born2BKing]

Another issue is black men gotta figure for respect, a big sign of respect is marriage not baby momma's. Until the culture changes it's a wrap.

That "baby mama" culture is a fukking enigma. A BM is like a rite of passage for hood nikkas.

 

[$cam-U-Well_Jack$on]

If PNB was in Medellin by himself with those jewels on, would he still be alive?

If he was strollin through Mexico City at night by himself with that shyt on his wrist, would he have gotten got?

You're not gonna get a truthful answer outta these dudes.

They'll tell you not to be flossin' & flexin' in developing countries for da same reasons dawg got stretched out but won't apply da same logic in this instance or others especially if it's someone that they claim to like. When it happens to others, they'll swear they brought it on themselves. Hypocrites.

 

[Born2BKing]

He’s mostly characterized as a solid dude and helped a lot of rappers come up and on their come up.

Lil B got jumped by Highbridge because he dissed A boogie and at that time PnB Rock was close with the whole Highbridge the label.

Every time a street nikka die, who glorified violence and was about that life, we get the Lil Jamal was such a nice kid, who helped so many people.


Yeah yeah aite nikka.

 

[TEH]

Let's be honest, it isn't like Obama, Neil Degrasse Tyson or George Clinton got murked

No matter how many turkey giveaways/tax writeoffs you do a year, if you're moving like that, all while contributing to this soulless music we got now...you're not a real loss

This and let’s not act like he didn’t instigate a lot of the hostility against him.

 

[The Realist Perspective]

I hate the fact that people act like they give a shyt. I’ve never heard of this guy. I’ve never seen this guy. I’ve never heard his music. It’s a random young man dying in the world. I seriously cannot bring myself to care. I am curious why others do.

Black people are not a monolith so we also have to act as such. It’s unfortunate but the fact that he was black and semi famous, it doesn’t fukkin matter. His death impacts you in zero ways.

 

[semicko82]

Call me a cynic, but it's the same cycle when these rappers get killed.
It's outrage for a few days, and back to the fukkery like nothing happened.

 

[Bar Razor]

I've listened to hip hop since I was a child, it became my defining genre even though I listen and love a lot of genres of music. This is because it was a music that blew up with my generation. I've studied its history, performed it, written rhymes as an emcee, etc. I'm old enough to remember when "crime rhyme" was just starting to take over the genre - when NYC sold out and emulated the West Coast because that's what the record labels wanted. When Jeru and a couple of others were the lone voices yelling in the wilderness trying to reverse the trend to no avail. Though I continued to like the music with the rise of these acts - because a lot of them had talent at what makes good hip hop - flow, lyrics, cadence, uniqueness, I never felt a true PRIDE in the music like I did before. It felt like a darkness fell over it, and its one that's never left. Once criminality became a central tenet in the music, I feel it started a downward spiral to where being "a real street n" started to overshadow everything else to a LOT of consumers. Where you had to be some form of a thug act to get signed to a lot of record labels. It was detrimental not only to the growth of the genre, but to the minds of countless people. Fast forward all these years later and it's a wasteland. The legacy of the music is that it went from being this completely new genre that took over the world with its innovation and originality and evolved into a stagnant soulless corporate co-opted product largely identified by pointless nihilism.

My post from another thread. I'll just add that no one is saying that hip hop has everything to do with the violence, but there has been a steady increase in rappers dying since the music has become so associated with criminality. People now don't even blink about listening to a steady stream of "kill a n" music. They're not even reflective of it, they don't get tired of it. It's as pop culture as McDonald's at this point. Globally.

 

[itsyoung!!]

This is part Spotify/Youtube problem.

If I make a youtube saying fukk @BmoreGorilla im going to kill you (I would never, because hes probably the best poster on this site, just using as example) then it would get flagged as hate or something and get taken down.

But if I put a melody behind it, its considered art?

The world moves fast, it always has, but with social media and streaming, it moves even faster. PAc hit em up was such a shock to the culture because it was rare someone would directly call out another person name like that.

Now every other song is GDK this or fukk this gang or this opp and they directly naming them or even standing on peoples actual grave sites laughing at their death



like how is this not flagged as hate speech ? Because it has a melody ?

This is instagram, youtube and spotify responsibility because these are the songs that go the most viral in individual neighborhoods. They remove 100% of songs of dissing people directly crime would drop almost immediately. Imagine being a brother or friend of someone and seeing someone moon walking on your brothers grave talking about rest in piss its a copy cat society, you cut the head off the snake, and people will stop thinking its cool to diss "opps" and crime will drop significantly over the next 5 years.

Also a lot of these killings are from teenagers, I dont know why we act like teenagers dont have "teenager emotion/rage" it was common to understand teenagers are still growing up when I was younger, now people act like a 14-15 year old supposed to "know better" man what but teenagers in my day (im 35) also werent being made fun of in front of millions of people for the public to view that someone you got in a fight with in 11th grade fukked your bytch and put it on a song

edit: to expand on this, if Instagram permanently deleted accounts that made threats on it as well , would help with the above

 

[richaveli83]

Hey breh there’s stories of freed slaves going back to their old plantations to stunt. But I guess that’s on hip hop too

Yes, rappers are imitating olds slaves, not the imperatives of modern rap.

Women twerk because they pay hommage to the ancestors...

 

[BK The Great]

Nobody wants to support the motivational and positive hip hop they rather support the killing and robbing shyt. PNB had songs about running down in opps but also had R&B songs along with other stuff. Maybe this can be the time where something can change for the art form.

 

[Cadillac]

there are flaws in Hip hop culture and music now

but PNB's case wasnt so much the culture but rather more other reasons one being of having flashy items around wolves,

If PNB was in Medellin by himself with those jewels on, would he still be alive?

If he was strollin through Mexico City at night by himself with that shyt on his wrist, would he have gotten got?

yep, he would have got treated the same way.

And the fact that rappers are the only musicians killed on a regular basis must be just bad luck.

It has to do with Hip-Hop.

the LA robbings have not just hit rappers its hit everyone in LA

have you forgotten that Clarence Avant's wife died cause of this