Kanye West IS the Man

Black Panther · Senior Member

Kanye West IS the Man

abre les ojos · Guru

No big deal. It just goes to show how the present administration has usurped the corporate media. To the extent that an anti-Bush tirade like that is actually seen as revolutionary.

I mean if you listen to Malcolm X for instance. Imagine someone today being so critical about the system as he was. And that was in the 60s.

Well racism has changed. It is now coded and institutionalised. But it still in the very fabric of the US. Black people; particularly rappers choose to be seen with skimpy women in bikinis and champagne and Nike product placements than even challenge the system; which is exactly what rap was invented to do. Sad. I mean Nelly? What the hell is that moron doing?

Well, not that I've even heard Kanye West's music but I reckon he's good at what he does. But I think that is a one off and we'll be seeing less of that.

America is in crisis.

skillzmanifest · Senior Member

You don't need to buy "late registration" to hear Kanye talk about the race relation situation in the mid west and the rest of America. He's been addressing the issue for a while, even in his previous album, college drop out,with that famous single, Jesus walks. The messed up part was when he walked away during an interveiw when he was asked about his CBS scene. But what was really funny, were the reactions on people's faces after he said out of now where, "Bush does not like black people!".

His beats and production are definately the new look for hiphop right now and he's done good in excerising his 1st ammendment right to freedom of speech. Though, the issues discussed in latest Albumn are real and a big concern, I dont think it gives him the right to misrepresent the people that put him on air.

Anyways, atleast we have someone representing the "looters".

I too believe that America has institutionalised racism. But would that have explained the late response from the government? Whether Bush does or doesn't like blacks, the feds should have been out there from day 1. Now That place can't even compare to Ndirande.

As for those residing in the UK, I understand your hate for Bush. I too would be angry if I had a prime minister who runs and sits on Bush's laps upon his command, like a pet. And Abre, I thought I already school'd you about the true essence of Hiphop. And Nelly is pop- lost his hiphop street credibility after last year's album.

-- Edited by skillzmanifest at 08:08, 2005-09-10

abre les ojos · Guru

Yeah but I still think hip-hop sucks. It's not an age thing since we all in the same age band, it's a matter of taste and artistic license.

Here in England we don't hate Bush because our prime minister is his lap dog (we didn't mind Clinton) we hate Bush because he is an evil, incompetent, right-wing, christian-fundamentalist bastard. American foreign policy is what we hate. Cowboy gung-hoism.

game · Guru

Abre

americas foreign policy has been crap all along,from JFK to the current,although clinton was a true politictian he had the crappiest foreign policy that shattered the hope for the american dream.

there is also a blend of rappers who truly stick to the revolution part of black liberation such as DEAD PREZ,NAS,and Talib kweli.so when you say hip hop sucks you are insulting those who truefully get inspired by these preachers.unless if you stll live in the molebund customs of jazz and the extinct rock.

abre les ojos · Guru

The difference between jazz and rap is that jazz is art. It doesn't rely on personality or promotion. It is total expression. Do you have any idea how skillful, how hard, how ingenius it is to do music strictly by improvisation? Without jazz there wouldn't be rap or any other american music save country and western.

As for rock. That's another story. You see game, the positive rappers don't have any credence. Because the record companies are owned and run by white men in suits who feel it appropriate to perpetuate every black stereotype possible for white kids to go by. The principle buyers of rap are white kids; and they don't want to hear anti-white lyrics, so the rappers that say them don't get major record deals. The white kids are happy to play ghetto tourism without actually having to go to the Bronx of Compton.

Until about 20 years ago black american representatives were, articultate, intelligent, brave and very angry. I mean can you imagine after Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Men who could talk and were even more articulate than white folk - Now, we have bling, bling knuckle-headed rappers representing black people. It strikes me as going backwards rather than progress. Save for people like Chuck D. Most rappers I know can't articulate anything other than "you know what I'm saying".

Even though it might be popular it really isn't musically challenging to write rap lyrics under a repetitive, electronic rhythm with a sample of some 70s soul track. It is the ultimate post-modern music form. Easy to produce, cheap, referential and of course full of homages to better and more challenging sounds. And of course the most useful of all, it sells. kids buy it. The ultimate, packaged sound masqerading as profound angst. The truth is it really is very, very shallow, self-aggrandizing nonesense.

I see a lot of black kids now walking with a swagger, pants hanging from their ankles trying to act tough and moronic, bunking school dreaming of being a drug dealer or worse... A rapper. I'm sure their fore-fathers that fought for their freedom would be very proud...