Is "What They Do" the most pretentious Hip Hop song of all time?

[spliz]

But how were they wrong, when the same argument still exists? Perpetrating an image that is the same that everyone else does, based on achieving the quick bag and not loving the culture. Must we not forget the MTV Cribs ish, when rappers were showing houses they clearly didn't live in ..all with the same ish in them

What did they participate in that they were hating on? Black Thought & Malik, more specifically.

The divide was always gonna be there because they money ended up controlling the culture.

Them nikkas was involved in just as much fukkery behind the scenes as they complained about from mainstream rappers if not more. And yes. Damn near becoming Jay-Z’s band is a complete contradiction to the shyt they were preaching. Jay was like the ultimate mainstream rapper. And that’s not a knock on Jay. That’s a knock on THEM bytch ass nikkas for acting like they were better than cats like Jay at first. Cats like Questlove mad at Nas for years cause he didn’t know who his bum lookin ass was and thought he was a delivery man. THAT nikka specifically was the most pretentious part of that group. Black Thought is that nikka tho.

 

[spliz]

point stands

read the thread

U an absolute dikkrider. People pointing out they was on Jay tip ain’t even a knock on Jay. It’s more a knock on them but u don’t see that cause u such a dikkrider.

 

[spliz]

We are nearly 28 years removed from "What They Do" and theat song wasn't predicting the future. It was criticizing Hip Hop then. Whatever matket share Hip Hop is losing now or whether you can bump "No Flex Zone" is absolutely irrelevant to the discussion because when The Roots dropped this song, Hip Hop was on its way to being the biggest thing in Popular music.

Regardless of how great of a song "What They Do" is, it was still dissing what was popular at the time. Everybody asking "were they wrong" were huge fans of the music that "What They Do" was dissing and its laughable to leap frog and gloss over that to use that song to dismiss music that came decades later.

Basically. That song is literally what this bytch ass site has become. Bunch of hating pretentious muthafukkas. And it’s funny cause I fukk wit the song heavy. But a spade is a spade.

 

[Braman]

Backhanded ass compliment. Thread title bothers me. Songs that mocked/challenged/predicted the watering down and dumbing down of hip hop should be applauded, not ridiculed. Bc clearly they were right

To say otherwise is like when people call out smuts and bytches be like ‘you’re slut shaming’. Yea, sluts are supposed to be shamed

And add The Listening to the list of songs that went against the current and were ahead of their time

 

[Hannibal Fox]

What makes it a contradiction wasn't the supposed fraudelence, but that Jay-Z was one of the biggest culprits of commodifying the genre and selling out. Everything that ?uestlove complains passionately about, Jay was one the flag bearers; Jay just happened to be really fukking talented too.

I remember when Black Thought said Jay-Z was commercial as a motherfukker

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

Some of you dudes clearly weren't living hip-hop in '96 to say The Roots were in any shape, form, or fashion wrong about that song and video. '96 is when the hip-hop divide was at its apex. Not only The Roots and De La, but KRS, Bush Babees, Wu-Tang, Chuck D, Jeru, ...a whole slate of artists were voicing legitimate concerns and raising debate around where hip-hop was heading. It was entire collection of people, it wasn't one or two cats raising a stink for the fukk of it.


Also, Illadelph Halflife was the best album of '96, so they could pretty much say whatever the fukk they wanted to about the state of the culture and the music because they earned that right considering the competition of heavyweight albums that dropped that year.

But yeah, they were just pretentious "haters". Not like the direction of the music went off a cliff in '97 or anything with the shiny suit era, followed by the iced-out thug era, followed by a bunch of forgetable eras culminating in whatever the fukk it is now they're calling hip-hop culture and music.

 

[ShaDynasty]

I mean its either level up to where New Doors are opened up for You or just continue languishing in the Streets of South Philly in the name of being 'underrated'

Yeah they made the right decision and they deserved a bigger audience. 'What They Do' is a great song, its just hard to take at face value with what came after. Most rappers have viewed "its all contractual and about money making" as a credo rather than an insult in the years since.

Also one of the greatest beats of all time for sure. Very calming and evocative of being outdoors in summer twilight with friends, wine flowing and just feeling good with no worries in your mind.

 

[RAX 010]

What?

 

[RAX 010]

Illadelphalife
Was a very dope ass album...
We was blessed all us older brehs that were kids and teens at that time because we were given music gifts in many genres of hip hop man...

 

[New Jeruzalem Journalist]

Yup. Classic throw rocks and hide hands hypocrite shyt. And to the “were they wrong?” nikkas in this thread. YES. At the time. They were. And later. They participated in the shyt they were hating on. And now. It’s a fukking divide that shouldn’t and wouldn’t be there if muthafukkas wasn’t moving like that in the first place.

You were saying?








Carry on gentlemen...

 

[$cam-U-Well_Jack$on]

Classic track.

 

[ML29]

That wasn’t Redmans house?

He’s an exception to the rule. MTV even offered to rent him a fake home for filming the episode. He turned it down because he figured just using his real apartment would make for a more memorable and entertaining episode. He was right.

 

[Tribal Outkast]

A million songs about killing nikkas you ain't kill (not that actually doing it would be better), selling drugs you ain't sell, banging gangs that would assualt and rob you if you ever came around, fukking chicks you ain't fukk, and repping brands of people that look at you like a monkey and this is the most pretentious song?

Yeah, give me pretentious rap over guys blatantly lying to themselves knowing they’re only doing it for a check

Lot of rappers started out on one thing and ended up doing another. It is what it is.

 

[JustCKing]

And a lot of people gloss over the fact that "What They Do" took shots at nearly every popular act. This wasn't just a song aimed at the commercialized acts at the time. Look at how they also parodied the grimier, more street themed videos at the time as well. A lot of artists were playing follow the leader and the leader was whatever and whoever was hot at the time.

By 1997, even with Bad Boy dominating with shiny suits and the whole jiggy sound, 1997 was still a year where artists were kind of going back to having fun while being original. You had Busta Rhymes really break out with his sophomore album to become one of the more popular acts in the game. He was being original, but also having fun. Missy Elliott debuted that year.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

What in your opinion did he do to “sell out”? Wouldn’t you agree he has been a major player in calling out the music industry and helping artists get better compensation?

He made crossover records, straight up said he dumbed down to double his dollars and pushed the "I'm not a rapper, I'm a hustler" mentality. Treating music as a transaction