When did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children?

-Bill Hicks

Sufficed to say: this is the present state of most music right now. Banality is copious and so many people find it worth coping with. But where is the love of life is bullshit is accepted? The more I find out about the opinions of people who keep up with modern rap and enjoy a lot of it, the more I see they’ve basically given up on it being any better. The 2pacs, the Wu-Tangs, the Deep Puddle Dynamics, they’re nowhere to be found. What you have instead are individuals keeping rhythm with hip hop as an art form and structure wherein rules are to be followed to produce honorable art. Rappers rhyme, make up some silly metaphors, display some nonchalance and arrogance, and call that shit a day. People soak it up because thats what hip hop is externally. But the passion is lost. ANd it is even lost in the fans. People are, as far as I can see, just fucking apologizing for wack shit. They’ll say not every rapper has to be the greatest. Well who the fuck is even great anymore??? jesus christ. I do feel jaded, but I’m jaded by an incredibly redundant society recycling garbage; by a elementally secluded artform whose inhabitants refuse to help the genre grow; by a society producing whatever profits most. Yet I am the fool for not finding enduring sources of joy here. No fucking way that makes sense.

I posit the killer of hip hop to be...

(some of) white america.

far as i can tell, the history of hip hop went something like this: negros find new way to express discontent, hip hop gains notoriety, people who don’t concur with or want to hear the primary message of negros (LOLOL LIVIN THE HOOD KINDA SUCKS BRO) favor less depressing messages - messages white america/non-broke motherfuckers can relate to. those people get rich and become the notable frontmen and women of the genre, record labels only sign those losers, those losers get rich because white america/non-broke motherfuckers are a larger portion of america’s population than negros. Selling this much means they have the more power in the industry (yay capitalism) and can influence (if not dictate) the way people view them. This power to influence has led to establishing both gritty and rich images of rappers that aren’t either. Then after about a decade of this: all you get are motherfuckers obsessed with the art as a form, motherfuckers only trying to be lyrical and dope without a message - people who can’t express what those pioneering negros expressed because these new motherfuckers haven’t lived that life.

and what it ultimately produces is a narcissistic culture obsessed with possessions because somewhere along the line the dreams of the poor, to be rich, became the commonality uniting anyone and everyone who weren’t the people selling the music. and who were those people?!!? anyone?!!? ANYONE?!!? AHHH THATS RIGHT, WHITE PEOPLE!

It bears worth also mentioning that this is what happened with punk/hardcore. motherfuckers hopped on board and used a set of aesthetics and styles to express ideas that were completely disassociated with the original principles of punk/hardcore.

Thou Shalt Always Kill - Dan Le Sac

Simple song, but if there ever was a song that encompasses the majority of ideals people should be disillusioned with, it is this one.

Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain.
Thou shalt not think that any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a peadophile… Some people are just nice.
Thou shalt not read NME.
Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they’ve become popular.
Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
Thou shalt not judge a book by it’s cover.
Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.
Thou shalt not buy Coca-Cola products.
Thou shalt not buy Nestle products.
Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend’s best friend, take drugs and cheat on him.
Thou shalt not fall in love so easily.
Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls’ pants.
Use it to get into their heads.
Thou shalt not watch Hollyokes.
Thou shalt not attend an open mic and leave before it’s done just because you’ve finished your shitty little poem or song you self-righteous prick.
Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out just ’cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you’re never gonna fucking talk to.
Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.
The Beatles… Were just a band.
Led Zepplin… Just a band.
The Beach Boys… Just a band.
The Sex Pistols… Just a band.
The Clash… Just a band.
Crass… Just a band.
Minor Threat… Just a band.
The Cure… Just a band.
The Smiths… Just a band.
Nirvana… Just a band.
The Pixies… Just a band.
Oasis… Just a band.
Radiohead… Just a band.
Bloc Party… Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys… Just a band.
The Next Big Thing.. JUST A BAND.

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-english speaking countries as to those that occur in english speaking countries.
Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be.
Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music,
thou shalt not make repetitive generic music,
thou shalt not make repetitive generic music,
thou shalt not make repetitive generic music.

Thou shalt not pimp my ride.
Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster.
Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness.
Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit.
When I say “Hey” thou shalt not say “Ho”.
When I say “Hip” thou shalt not say “Hop”.
When I say, he say, she say, we say, make some noise… kill me.
Thou shalt not quote me happy.
Thou shalt not shake it like a polaroid picture.
Thou shalt not wish you girlfriend was a freak like me.
Thou shalt spell the word “Pheonix” P-H-E-O-N-I-X not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Bradley at the club last night by saying “Is it”.

Thou shalt think for yourselves.

And thou shalt always… Thou shalt always kill!

Music's gotten impersonal

"Music's gotten impersonal, hip hop persona's gotten vain,
so mcs i ain't feeling you if i don't know your real name.
hip hop ain't dead, the industry isn't wack, indy hip hop is a demo fair.
keep your sights set, what you wanna move rats, minds, or posteriors"
- Sole

I couldn't have said it better myself. Music isn't just about entertainment or satiating one's urge to have a fucking hobby. Unfortunately, its became nothing else but that in the state of what is now mainstream hip hop. Some rappers attempt to make fans think introspectively, but most just try to get their posteriors moving to a beat. Its fucked up to say the least.

"A million bleeding hearts composing prose in blood to live and die a thousand times."

Artists no longer live through their music. They no longer even need to make music if for nothing else than to get a check and get the approval of their peers. Hip hop is hardly even an art anymore. The message is lost in a cesspool of wordplay meant to get heads nodding and compliments thrown into the ego of the speaker.

"Your private parts are being touched. And forcibly at that.
Its ok, feel violated, anything but entertained."- Doseone

I'll now state the obvious: most artists don't give a fuck about their fans. They couldn't care less about the populace of devoted entertainees unless they were supporting them. This is why artists suddenly disappear when their one hit wonder can't carry their weak ass momentum. They no longer believe making music is worth it if a million people won't buy their album weekly. They're just taking advantage of people's desire to have fun. Our innate plight for an ever pleasureful life.

"You're making music to drop a penny into and immediately end the contact" - Alias

Whenever I think of people saying that music is just entertainment, I can only compare music to art as in drawing and so on. The most revered artists were typically crazy and created cathartic efforts expressing their very soul; expressing their being in a tangible form. 2pac did just that. Sole does that. Wu-Tang did that, specifically Ghostface. And countless others that have either dropped out of the raptastic rat race or gone the underground, lesser known, respect driven route.

My biggest problem is that these are the most talented and only truly worthy people who should go platinum and be the ones on MTV and BET and VH1 getting respect. Solely because they wouldn't go spend all their working on a fucking car or chain. They'd actually add something to this intrinsically pessimistic and cruel world we live in. They wouldn't donate to a charity once in a while or when they get bored. And they wouldn't give to releif funds just because its in the news. They'd give just as their art gives. But instead, we have nothing but rappers like Souljah Boy and fucking Young JEezy and Wayne to appraise our rap standards according to. Which leads me to my final point about music in general: if you haven't listened to music thats made you question the way you think about life and/or music, then you taking not utilizing the medium. Its like reading children's books your whole life that reiterate optimism and carelessness in order to maintain a smile and be productive for the sake of being productive instead of growing the fuck up and reading some Nietzche and Freud to extrapolate your ideas about living and what human beings are. A kid will say a human is what they do, an intellectual will say a human is what motives they're composed of.

"Whats content is OURS to define" - Doseone.

I recently went to a Modest Mouse concert and felt like I must have been the only one who truly loved the band for their art. I mean, they perform for a crowd of people who will sing along to misanthropic lyrics like its a pop song. This being my lead in to another point: people hardly feel music itself is something that should help them develop. People will listen to an artist bemoan their life and sing that shit with a smile on their face everytime like its a joyous piece of satiety for them to bite off of. Its bullshit. I think one of musuc's ultimate goals should be to provide new thoughts or at least the representation of potentially beneficial thoughts to people who otherwise may not experience them. I hope this can someday happen, but I know it won't because that would require far too much thought and self-examination for the average person. Fucked up, its far beyond.

Gangstarr Moment of Truth

Actions have reactions, don`t be quick to judge
You may not know the harships people don`t speak of
It`s best to step back, and observe with couth
For we all must meet our moment of truth


This song is a great example of why lyrical skill isn't
 necessarily needed to make a song that speaks volumes about
 dimensions of living most rappers simply ignore. On this song
Guru placed many aphorisms into a song meant to enlighten people
. This is what hip hop should be about. What all music should be
about in some capacity. Its simply another medium to reach people
who otherwise probably wont hear those kind of truths spoken.

Doseone, too, is a badass.

i come to you with one heart broken in two,
lashed hands, and many flaw, a man.
in return i ask only an ego that's unbiased listen,
to what i speak of, offers freedom from mind,
freedom from a focused impulse, free.
and not at all the spangled, yankee-doodle,
union, musket, and compass sense of liberty
which our forefathers in holy-wood have fed and sold us for scores.
i’m eluding, and rightfully so, to salvage clear-headedness
of composed fated state of human being no grand inquisitor myself.
i pour forth a pensive, frown upon and frustrated, humble, however furious.
this reason for being here, this well you’ve found is phenomenal alone.
in the immortal words of oliver wendell holmes,
"a mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to its original dimension."
simplistically, topsoil is no seashell full of bitter ocean body, but it can be.
changing for and from, triumph to mystery, every somehow has a place,
where you dare not set foot and can’t see a thing.
so weave those silver threads into soul-leveled bonds,
and be unbounded no longer,
manipulative, let it go. go, let the wandering take it all in.
generate, make you yours, my masters, my pupils, my equals,
drop, decorate, i implore you, just think.