Thursday, July 26, 2007

You Can't Tell Me Nothin...

What's up hip hop heads and the general public? I know you've been waitin a whole week to get another gem from the vault; good things are worth waiting for. Now I go to hip hop sites such as xxlmag.com, and allhiphop.com and the likes, and generally read the blogs that are posted on there as well. One thing that strikes me as interesting is the amount of hate the hip hop culture has to deal with. When I read these blogs on sites like xxlmag.com, they sometimes have insight, but it's the readers' comments that attract me more than the post itself. The posts are usually cliche' or fragmented opinions from the author that tend to highlight his/her arrogance/ignorance. These posts are nothing more than celebrity gossip complete with all the backwash that none of us want to digest, but somehow manage to consume it anyway.

Bol, a blogger for xxlmag.com has taken his title and position, and uses it for his own flurry of nonsense and customized vocabulary; not to mention the random barrage of attacks that are expelled daily upon the different cultures that culminate into hip hop. I personally read blogs on hip hop sites to see what others opinions are on certain topics, stay current, and to learn more through openly expressive views. Sadly and entertainingly, I find much more hate and comedy than I do insight and knowledge.

This all came in the wake of the Kanye and 50 battle...who will sell more records. As you all know, they both will release their third solo album on 9-11, and the hype that's surrounding the release date is "who's gonna sell more records?" Kanye, who has a political and vocal standpoint on current, relevant issues, represents the lesser of two evils. Everyone knows 50's M.O. - get money (drink VitaminWater). In the corporate world, this means dollar signs on the release date, but for the hip hop world this is a competition unlike any in recent times.

As this release date approaches, Kanye and 50 stans alike take their stance, not by encouraging others to support their favorite artist, but by downgrading the other artist. This form of hate in the hip hop community is a like a plague. What if 50 bought Kanye's album to help promote his music, and vice versa? Do you think their stans would follow suit? I do. But due to the competition that is involved, this will never happen. Kanye is the real people's champ based on his creativity, originality, and his passion, while 50 is the champ we love to hate. Kanye actually welcomes this competition and says for him it's not about the record sales, it' s about the fact that people are actually excited about music again. Amen to that.

With the bubblegum rap that is available now, these two releases should prove to be very good albums. Kanye is the proven artist, and both of his albums to me are classics. 50, on the other hand, is the most popular artist in hip hop today. With the decline of record sales and the incline in ringtones, artists like these two should set the bar for a "great album"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good blog, great point....