¤ milky moon ¤ • View topic

by **Weirdelves** on 08 Mar 2012, 07:02

That's such a common defence for people who don't take the time to understand Hip Hop as a genre. I'm gay, and not exactly a big fan of violence, but I love rap music. The 'homophobia' and 'violence' in the genre is 99% an element of cultural tradition rather than genuine hatred. Rappers create alter-ego's for themselves who are cocky and nasty and arrogant, but it's all part of the game. Beneath is is often a skilled musician with an amazing poet-like grasp of language and wordplay. So many people judge it without really listening or contextualising.

by **sadie** on 08 Mar 2012, 07:19

I'm still repulsed by it and don't think an excuse can be given. If that's what hip-hop is as a culture, I'm not going to try to 'understand' it. I also know that they behave in a hateful manner outside of their music (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/au ... odd-future). It's absolutely sickening.

This is a good piece that I can relate to: http://www.teganandsara.com/a-call-for-change/

by **polliwog** on 08 Mar 2012, 08:54

rhetorical question - Do you think that if I gave my opinion, it make any difference at all?

by **Weirdelves** on 08 Mar 2012, 09:18

by **sadie** on 08 Mar 2012, 09:19

by **Jordan~** on 08 Mar 2012, 17:18

by **Andrew** on 08 Mar 2012, 21:35

well I agree with most of what you said jordan, and in relation to your main point I'll say that most of what reading that article did for me was make me dislike Busta Rhymes a little more (when I always though he was an excellent rapper) and dislike Lil' Wayne a little less (when I always thought he was a talentless hack).

also you should write psychology textbooks for a living

anyway I'm obviously a delicate flower because I mostly find I can't really listen to songs about beating faggots and bitches for pleasure, i'd find it pretty masochistic and soul-crushing. I mean, the lyrical content is usually one of the last things I really come to think about pertaining to a song's structure, but if it is, on its surface, deeply offensive to me, I think it's the most jarring thing ever and I can't enjoy the rest of the song at all. maybe I need to get over myself

ETA: on topic, I'm listening to Roy Harper. We should all share last.fms or something btw.

by **Weirdelves** on 08 Mar 2012, 22:20

Lil Wayne is sick! Not all of his stuff, but with most rappers just to have a few great albums cements you as a classic. They all fall off sooner or later

by **polliwog** on 09 Mar 2012, 01:35

An observation, Alex. Your post read like an excerpt from The Communist Manifesto. The Manifesto was written in language which the working class probably wouldn't be able to comprehend, even if they were able to read. The same might be said of your post above. I doubt that everyone here reads at your level, and by posting something that might be at home in "psychology textbooks" (well said, Andrew), you risk alienating some of your potential readers. Nevertheless, I tend to agree with your conclusion. :wink:

by **Jordan~** on 09 Mar 2012, 06:48

Well, self-education has long been one of the cornerstones of communist thought. As Trotsky said, "Social construction and psycho-physical self-education will become two aspects of one and the same process. All the arts – literature, drama, painting, music and architecture will lend this process beautiful form. More correctly, the shell in which the cultural construction and self-education of Communist man will be enclosed, will develop all the vital elements of contemporary art to the highest point. Man will become immeasurably stronger, wiser and subtler; his body will become more harmonized, his movements more rhythmic, his voice more musical. The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic. The average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. And above this ridge new peaks will rise."

by **polliwog** on 09 Mar 2012, 08:36

So, what went wrong?

by **Jordan~** on 09 Mar 2012, 09:26

We're working on it.

by **stunning-sky** on 09 Mar 2012, 09:45

by **Weirdelves** on 09 Mar 2012, 10:36

Yeah I guess I didn't exactly mean that homophobia and violence was an element of cultural tradition, more that it could be contextualised within the construct of the Hip Hop ideas of masculinity, which doesn't excuse it but also doesn't take away its artistic merit.