<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (RC @ Dec 27 2009, 04:25 PM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gingergenius @ Dec 24 2009, 11:50 PM)
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Underpriveleged kids in New York were doing fine with Boogie Down Productions et al when mainstream hip-hop still came with a message, rather than another fine lot who ruined the noughties, 50 Cent and his ilk, came along with their unimaginitive tripe.[/b]
But that clearly shows me, how you've never even ventured anywhere near the Bronx, Brooklyn, Jamaican Queens or other such under privelaged areas.
I'm not talking about the credentials of mainstream hip hop in the naughties - I'm referring to how
it's promoting a more positive message. The beats are catchier, and glamorising the music in such a global aspect rather than keeping with hip hop and rap as being a gang related issue is something i think is a great thing.
I've talked to so many teachers who have seen a remarkable increase in students in their schools. It's not like watching Michelle Pfeiffer teaching in a school as much anymore. More kids are graduating and doing better with their lives, making something of themselves rather than joining gangs etc.
NYC and it's running government are all boasting that it's down to them that crime levels have dropped and education has progressed, and so it may have, but the music has changed in that time as well.
I have no idea what is behind all this positivity, but your (and the guardian's) issues with this music is just unfortunate, when people like Will.I.Am openly encourage the positivity of telling kids they can achieve anything, rather than forgetting the black working class and concentrating on the middle america.
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I don't want to get into a debate about the state of wellbeing of NY kids, because as you say, I've never been to america.
However I will say that you seem to attribute a lot of this to 'will.i.am' type music. I hardly think that Pussycat Dolls, Fergie, FloRida and Usher are sending out any kind of message at all, good or bad. This kind of music is teenage girl music. It's the same as Boyzone, Westlife, Britney.... in other words, it's pop. And pop does very well in the charts. And the charts are a measure of commercial success.
Which brings me back to your deprived New York kids. They don't spend the money that powers the US charts. Neither do they go to the concerts or buy the merchandise. This is done by (largely white),
middle class people.
So I fail to see how will.i.am, Timbaland, Kanye West and co are to be credited with benefitting poor black kids when their work is aimed at and consumed by the middle classes. Especially when people have been making conscious hiphop, with an
actual message, for 30 years, and this has had little effect.
Also, go and re-evaluate the part of your post I bolded. I'll cite the 3 most popular rappers to emerge in the naughties - The Game, 50 Cent, and Lil' Wayne. Look up their lyrical content. I rest my case.
