How is this still alive?
Quite frankly, all this bad-talking of hip-hop music (note: not rap) is really ineffective. Anyone that's in touch with the true hip-hop culture knows that their music is a medium for artistic expression.
But seeing people continue to just be completely and utterly confused about what hip-hop is bothers me. The ignorance is just staggering.
There are a handful of artists here with the true B-boy spirit in them that are truly in touch with the hip-hop culture. It's history is riddled with the struggle of the lay man, his triumphs, and his downfalls. Hip-hop today strives to epitomize the spirit of b-boys busting out the cardboard at a block party; the spirit of a swamprat philosopher with no home, crafting the right words to describe his plight; the spirit of the unknown kid rhyming in a cipher in a New York subway.
Hip-hop does not give a @#%! about your culture, creed, skin color, social status, age, or anything else for that matter. There are artists that spend months, sometimes years, carefully crafting breakbeats, melodies, and poetry with the right texture and emotion imbued in them to express their struggle in the real world, their successes, their highs and their lows. This is what hip-hop cares about -- artistic expression.
I, as well as many other artists here, are proud to be those people that wish to express themselves. I've been in seclusion lately trying to write fresh material, something new to people's ears that they haven't heard before in the genre, something that is connected to my muse, my soul. Not unlike other genres (metal, punk, trance to name a few) this is what hip-hop is about., this is what all musicians must do.
But to see people brush off hip-hop as "FL presets with clicks and whistles garbage music" is just sad. It's sad to see that you're so ignorant and have such a warped view of reality that you can't connect with what truly is a spiritual genre. To think artists such as Soulja Boy are representations of what hip-hop is just adds to your ignorance and fills me with sadness. To think your perspective of hip-hop is so narrowed does the same.
Just because you choose not to want to relate to the message behind the music, does not make it any less of a genre.
The messages within hip-hop music are purposefully chosen with the intent to connect with every person that has experienced something in their life. Happy businessmen, the clinically depressed, the homeless and the richest of the rich can all understand the simple message that is encapsulated in the music. Some just simply refuse to do so.
And hey, maybe that's our fault as artists. Maybe we are born with some kind of complex, forcing us to believe our own genre is the only one that exists, the only "right" one. Maybe we aren't doing a good job in connecting with the fans that we already have as well as new ones, or even strengthening the bonds that already exist.
Try putting yourself in our shoes. Chances are the common hip-hop artist doesn't really "get" death metal or punk rock or psytrance, because they don't really understand the message behind it. Sure, it's music, often times incredibly composed music, but there is no true connection to us. We are in this genre because it's what we have connected with.
Unfortunately, there will never be peace in the world of music, let alone the whole frickin' world.
So please, I implore you. Continue to question the genre of hip-hop with such futility. The true hip-hop artists will continue to put out incredible works, do what they were born to do. The negativity this world is filled with will continue to fail at phasing what truly is a beautiful genre.
