Comments on: Taking Off Your Cool: “Black, Maybe”

By: Zakaria

Zakaria — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:28:45 +0000

There is so much more then the mainstream artists u been talkin about. Ludacris is called a sellout..i dunno,i’ve never seen him as a true artist, and callin him a sell out would be correct if he would’ve been a true artist beforehand..

U have a lot of artist being innovative,you just won’t catch it on tv. blaim the artist with dollar signs in their eyes and blaim the record comapny’s,MTV and a lot of rich kids buyin their cd cause its all they know and see on tv.

Where is the Yo MTV raps? Nowadays u got sweet sixteen having ignoarant-but famous artist perform at their party cause its cool..

I myself think that a lot of creativity comes out of lack of means/rescources,lack of money,pain and sorrow. A lot of great artist have been trough a lot and expressed themselves in a creative way. U are right that so much rappers nowadays copy the style of what has been done over and over,they lack the creativity, and why is that,cause record companies dont want creativity,they want bullet wounds and cousins and relatives shot,they want a story that sells..

My advice,broaden your horizon and look for hiphop on the internet or start diggin in crates,u ll find a lot of oldschool shit uve never heard before that is timeless,and new stuff uve never heard before,cause its not played on the radio or tv.

one love

By: Light skindedness

Light skindedness — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:37:59 +0000

BLACKNESSSS!!!!!!!!. You’re to mad. You’re far from the whitest black guy you know. You still know me. Way to much free time on your hands to type that much. Just busting your chops man. Really good article. Maybe we can get a blogged started about the lack of information on how to avoid this recession.

Signed

*Only cool light skinned dude you know*

By: Chew

Chew — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 02:47:57 +0000

Great article explaining even why I do some of my raps. I mean like, I can’t even relate to the trapstar / drugdealers / killer life, because it’s just never embedded or ever known in my head. Music as I remember wasn’t supposed to be about drugs, money and guns (unless it’s relevant to society today), but it was supposed to be a expression of ideas, and a way to relate to society. I think it’s just that music like Nas’s, K’naan’s, etc. aren’t as accessbile and easy to “bop your head” too as people like OJ (ugh, his verse on Jadas album ruined the song for me) and Gucci Mane. I mean, what happened to some nice ideas like the skies, colors, loving a women in a non sexual way, walks in the park. Those ideas are endless, and they could easily be acessiable. Just now, I got an idea for a song from Blu (btw, nice rapper), and it doesnt’ involve the cliched usuals. People are just so used to rhyming about women, hoes, drugs, guns, that they use the same rhymes. I mean, if you want to do that, inject some real vocabulary in it (like, not keeping it 100, steezy, glock, yeah that stuff)

People just don’t appreciate what the real hip – hop really can be if we have rappers find their way through the storm.

By: SBA

SBA — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:52:49 +0000

such a great article man. i totally agree

By: SBK

SBK — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:10:09 +0000

Great article KAJ! This is the type of reading that I enjoy with somebody speaking their mind and actually making some sense with that they’re saying. I had been contemplating about writing an article similar in content for some time for my “That’s Some Bull%^*!” column, but I never got around to doing it. You make some very valiant points in this article from: How too many negative topics (drugs, sex, violence, etc.) are glorified in today’s industry, How speaking about positive and real issues gets scrutinized, How listeners are discriminated from listening to alternative and more creative Hip Hop artists, etc.

I think that nowadays too many people/listeners don’t think for themselves in terms of their music selection and are only followers in listening to what’s popular at the moment according to shows like TRL and 106th & Park. It’s really a shame that the listeners’ taste in music has declined so much over the years since the early days and Golden Age of Hip Hop. Artists need to just do music for the passion and love of it if it is what they truly love and stop thinking about the money and record deals (many of them aren’t even seeing a lot of money from record labels/deals anyway). Hip Hop music has just really become too focused on fashion and trends, which is seen in artists like Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Kid Cudi, The Cool Kids, etc. I’m really getting tired of this new fad of these “outer space/alien/martian rappers” and “80’s/90’s fashion rappers”. Fuck all that and just be yourself… Be Different! Too many of these artists sound the same over the same sounding beats/production.

By: Zodiac

Zodiac — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:22:34 +0000

wow nice article you know I don’t think there is many true hip hop artists anyone all it is is people that will put on a certain persona just to sell records claming they are hard and straigt thug when really most I bet worked a 9to5 before they blew up and hmmm its funny how a simple topic about money cars girls can sell records. now thin here we got true artist like nas and lupe that are true hip hop but are they dropping a million sales in a week no they be lucky to do so why is that its because people only wanna hear shit that they can bounce and bumb to shit you don’t need substance to sell records anymore
true artists are a dying breed if only you could bring it back. if it was not for run dmc beastie boys public enemy nwa you would not have what we call rap today I dunno just a thought of mine ill add more if needed later