@Insensitive as far as metal bands which are largely consumed by a white audience. They have a culture of not taking the music literally. They see it as entertainment. A large portion of our people(not sure if you black) don't. So yes what a rapper(the biggest genre in our community) talks about will & does have a large influence. In reference to Nas a big reason he is aging gracefully is due to his whole persona/music not centering around the kill /party scene as he gets older. Rappers who do will never last like other genre artists do
So what you're saying is Black people need to be infantilized because they're idiots right ?
Let's cut the bullshyt being "Real" or "True to your art" is not some new concept that was introduced
by Hip-Hop neither is it unique to Hip-Hop, it does in fact exist in ROCK music.
And frankly attributing the problems in the black community to Hip-Hop trivializes them and completely ignores
much more obvious explanations for them.
Also It's really, REALLY, ironic that you're citing Nas of all rappers as having "Grown up" music.
He is quite literally one of the worst examples of a rapper who has "Responsible content".
He's been a street drug dealer, murderous foreign drug kingpin, self proclaimed "thug", and many other things in his
music that according to your stance would be considered "Vile", especially if you're coming from the view that
"Black people" take music literally and would commit crimes or other jail time worthy acts in an attempt to
be more "Cool" or "Hip-Hop".
Isnt that what they already do? What does it mean to be manufactured anyway? In my opinion if you use ghost writers or you let other people explicitly dictate what your creative direction should be then youre manufactured to a certain extent.
Well it depends, the collaborative process might mean a rapper needs to get help, I'm all for a rapper
who doesn't have the musical knowledge or skill of a Terrace Martin or Dj Quik sitting back and letting them take the executive producer role.
If you combine someone who can write their ass off with someone who can control the albums sonic direction, you can wind up with a great
product or even a classic.
I do however feel when writing an album the rapper should be doing the lion's share of conceptualizing and obviously writing.
If someone else is coming up with all of the material then they aren't really making their own album but someone else's and usually
that decision is made purely to move a product.
And being "manufactured" means you're essentially slapped together in a lab like Rhianna or Iggy azalea.
If you've got writing pool's, wardrobe designers etc. and no identity of your own, you're "manufactured".
From what I see, no, it isn't already what they do. If they could throw a bunch of "Hip Hop Justin beiber's" at
the wall until one sticks and make a shyt ton of money off of him.
They probably wouldn't even bother with looking for talent. Young Thug, Migos etc.
are perfect examples of majors trying to "Target the youth" but they aren't moving
any units when they finally drop an album from these artists. Hip-Hop is a tricky
beast and it changes pretty often, what's hot yesterday (Trinidad James, 2Chainz etc.)
could be "uncool" tomorrow.
If thats right, the whole shyt is manufactured. You go in a meeting, they hit you with past successes, sales projection and how the market reacts to certain themes and all that and try to make it look like rapping about something else and selling out is reasonable and logical.
That's exactly what they do or did at least.
Why do you think damn near everybody became a "Thug" or "Gangster" over night in "Urban (black)" mainstream
music ?
If you want a perfect example of how calculated these images are look at Tyrese, Ginuwine, Joe etc. and their 90's/Early 2000's
imagery. They had wife beaters, baggy jeans, timbs, braids etc. once that got played out at the end of last decade, their marketing
teams decided they needed an "update" and it was out with the aforementioned "Hip Hop" attire and then in comes the tailored suits
and clean cuts.
Lupe fiasco is a good example of this, he was taking to long with his third album, the label likely projected it would bomb
and they had been pushing their own songs on him. These songs were what someone within the company wrote (the beat,
the hook, the general idea etc.) and were decided that writers past performance with other artist (like B.o.B. and his Bruno mars
records...). If they see a formula works, they WILL exploit it, and frankly in Lupe's case IT DID work out. The label provided
single did better on the charts than just about anything he wrote himself on Lasers interestingly enough.
And ultimately if an artist is in the music business regardless of their musical content THEY SHOULD be worried about ALL OF THOSE
things.
Why ?
Because they're looking to reach people who will like and get their music, if you have no idea who you're writing for or trying to reach
you're pretty much destined to fail IMO.
The Internet could have changed the dynamics of the system and while it is still free and uncensored look at all the bullshyt surrounding pipa, sopa, etc. And how hollywood/music companies/telecoms want to lock that shyt down and keep all the profits to themselves.
The DID change that, I mean the current Hip-Hop landscape is a direct result of their being more OPTIONS for people.
If the majors could have it their way there would probably be 10 or so well known rappers at any given time
that sell a lot and return a gang of money on investment.
Instead you've got people on majors that rap about luxury but are competing with indie artists in album sales either that
or they're actually being outsold.
Examples be Kreashawn, Young Thug, Migos etc.
I mean Hip-Hop in 2015 isn't nearly as bad as Hip-Hop in 2005/2006, Talib Kweli or Little Brother would
be laughed out of the B.E.T. buildings if they wanted their videos broadcasted to millions on 106 and park (LB in fact WAS !).
In 2015 acts in their vain have had massive success and have had their albums/mixtapes/music videos etc. watched by hundreds
of thousands if not millions of eyeballs, eyeballs they wouldn't have access to if the internet did not exist.
