Hey guys!
Very interesting debate/feud/argument.
All I have to say is nowadays, the music industry ( Rock/Pop/Hip Hop/ Rap, etc), they are not making music, they're making money. So anything that's gonna make a smash hit on MTV or on radio, they will do it.
There's no such thing as art anymore in the music industry, just a few who still keep it real. It use to be about art, passion, inspiration, etc. Punk music was about revolution, against the system. Rock was about rebel, Rap was about a way African american expressed themselves about racism, police brutality, poverty, etc.
Punk is now Pop Punk (Blink-182), Rock is about ....euh..i don't even know (Nickelback) and Rap, well, money, bitches, power, feud, violent, basically nothing you could learn from or meaningful (of course, there's always some exception, The Roots, West, etc)
R.A.P. is Rythmes And Poetry, not alot of new school is Rythmes And Poetry, those new school tend to forget where all Rap and Hip Hop phenom came from. They're blind by the bling bling that could make so they do whatever it takes to have it, and who could blames them.
I think those new school could still keep it real, make one very commercial album, with all the hits on MTV.Then, the next one, keep it more real, keep it to the roots. But i'm just talking to say nothing, it won't happen.
I just think is sad that $$$ have to do with everything. African Americans forgot about where they came from and their roots. Centuries ago, black prisonners were force to wear baggy pants with no belt, so they can't run and escape from the white folks. And now, what do we see in the street and the hip hop fasion?
African Americans was and still is the main focus whenever there's a crime, look in the news, the media, the show COPS. And guys like 50 Cents and the Game is promoting this image? Listen to their lyrics, look the way they dressed, the way they project their image, it doesn't help at all. It's a very bad gimmick.
Spike Lee said it; African-American should get educated and pull themselves togheter and stop listen to Gansta Rap.
I say listen to A Tribe Called Quest, Run DMC and Public Enemy; that's what RAP was all about, not money, not fashion, not about the image.