HAS RAP MUSIC HIT A WALL? cnn.com article

[Joseph V]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Maybe it was the umpteenth coke-dealing anthem or soft-porn music video. Perhaps it was the preening antics that some call reminiscent of Stepin Fetchit.

The turning point is hard to pinpoint. But after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now." (Watch how hip-hop can revel in stereotypes -- or highlight injustice Video)

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop is Dead." It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year.

A recent study by the Black Youth Project showed a majority of youth think rap has too many violent images. In a poll of black Americans by The Associated Press and AOL-Black Voices last year, 50 percent of respondents said hip-hop was a negative force in American society.

Nicole Duncan-Smith grew up on rap, worked in the rap industry for years and is married to a hip-hop producer. She still listens to rap, but says it no longer speaks to or for her. She wrote the children's book "I Am Hip-Hop" partly to create something positive about rap for young children, including her 4-year-old daughter.

"I'm not removed from it, but I can't really tell the difference between Young Jeezy and Yung Joc. It's the same dumb stuff to me," says Duncan-Smith, 33. "I can't listen to that nonsense ... I can't listen to another black man talk about you don't come to the 'hood anymore and ghetto revivals ... I'm from the 'hood. How can you tell me you want to revive it? How about you want to change it? Rejuvenate it?"

Hip-hop also seems to be increasingly blamed for a variety of social ills. Studies have attempted to link it to everything from teen drug use to increased sexual activity among young girls.

Even the mayhem that broke out in Las Vegas during last week's NBA All-Star Game was blamed on hip-hoppers. "(NBA Commissioner) David Stern seriously needs to consider moving the event out of the country for the next couple of years in hopes that young, hip-hop hoodlums would find another event to terrorize," columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, wrote on AOL.

While rap has been in essence pop music for years, and most rap consumers are white, some worry that the black community is suffering from hip-hop -- from the way America perceives blacks to the attitudes and images being adopted by black youth.
'Look at the music that gets us popular'

But the rapper David Banner derides the growing criticism as blacks joining America's attack on young black men who are only reflecting the crushing problems within their communities. Besides, he says, that's the kind of music America wants to hear.

"Look at the music that gets us popular -- 'Like a Pimp,' " says Banner, naming his hit.

"What makes it so difficult is to know that we need to be doing other things. But the truth is at least us talking about what we're talking about, we can bring certain things to the light," he says. "They want (black artists) to shuck and jive, but they don't want us to tell the real story because they're connected to it."

Criticism of hip-hop is certainly nothing new -- it's as much a part of the culture as the beats and rhymes. Among the early accusations were that rap wasn't true music, its lyrics were too raw, its street message too polarizing. But they rarely came from the youthful audience itself, which was enraptured with genre that defined them as none other could.

"As people within the hip-hop generation get older, I think the criticism is increasing," says author Bakari Kitwana, who is currently part of a lecture tour titled "Does Hip-Hop Hate Women?"

"There was a more of a tendency when we were younger to be more defensive of it," he adds.

During her '90s crusade against rap's habit of degrading women, the late black activist C. Dolores Tucker certainly had few allies within the hip-hop community, or even among young black women. Backed by folks like conservative Republican William Bennett, Tucker was vilified within rap circles.

In retrospect, "many of us weren't listening," says Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting, a professor at Vanderbilt University and author of the new book "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip-Hop's Hold On Young Black Women."

"She was onto something, but most of us said, 'They're not calling me a bitch, they're not talking about me, they're talking about THOSE women.' But then it became clear that, you know what? Those women can be any women."

One rap fan, Bryan Hunt, made the searing documentary "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes," which debuted on PBS this month. Hunt addresses the biggest criticisms of rap, from its treatment of women to the glorification of the gangsta lifestyle that has become the default posture for many of today's most popular rappers.

"I love hip-hop," Hunt, 36, says in the documentary. "I sometimes feel bad for criticizing hip-hop, but I want to get us men to take a look at ourselves."

Even dances that may seem innocuous are not above the fray. Last summer, as the "Chicken Noodle Soup" song and accompanying dance became a sensation, Baltimore Sun pop critic Rashod D. Ollison mused that the dance -- demonstrated in the video by young people stomping wildly from side to side -- was part of the growing minstrelization of rap music.

"The music, dances and images in the video are clearly reminiscent of the era when pop culture reduced blacks to caricatures: lazy 'coons,' grinning 'pickaninnies,' sexually super-charged 'bucks,' " he wrote.

And then there's the criminal aspect that has long been a part of rap. In the '70s, groups may have rapped about drug dealing and street violence, but rap stars weren't the embodiment of criminals themselves. Today, the most popular and successful rappers boast about who has murdered more foes and rhyme about dealing drugs as breezily as other artists sing about love.

Creekmur says music labels have overfed the public on gangsta rap, obscuring artists who represent more positive and varied aspects of black life, like Talib Kweli, Common and Lupe Fiasco.

"It boils down to a complete lack of balance, and whenever there's a complete lack of balance people are going to reject it, whether it's positive or negative," Creekmur says.

Yet Banner says there's a reason why acts like KRS-One and Public Enemy don't sell anymore. He recalled that even his own fans rebuffed positive songs he made -- like "Cadillac on 22s," about staying away from street life -- in favor of songs like "Like a Pimp."

"The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner," he says. "I wish America would just be honest. America is sick. ... America loves violence and sex."


http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Musi....ap/index.html

[Keith P]

Originally Posted by Joseph V

"The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner," he says. "I wish America would just be honest. America is sick. ... America loves violence and sex."

Quoted for emphasis.

[willy_jack]

Blame MTV, and the radio.

Hip Hop has a ton of positive, much more talented people in it than the few shitty negative ones that make millions.

You just do not hear them.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by willy_jack

Blame MTV, and the radio.

Hip Hop has a ton of positive, much more talented people in it than the few shitty negative ones that make millions.

You just do not hear them.

Didn't Dr Dre release a "positive" rap album that flopped? I thought I saw an interview with him on the point and he said in essence, "Hey, I make records for a living - I need to make what sells or I'm out of a job"

[zerojunkie]

yeah, it's a little tiring hearing the same old shit from EVERY artist in a genre. Talib Kwali's not bad, but I feel like the white devil listening to his shit. I caught that documentary they're talking about in the article, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes. It was so good, I even thought about making a post on here about it because it raised some pretty interesting questions like why the black community is letting violent rap sort of define who it is. But then there's the flip side to that most violent rapper's patronage comes from white shitheads from suburbia. Anyone else happen to catch it on PBS too?

[Nyteshade]

Exactly why I quit listening to rap. I have been bumping this lately though:

Here we go


Life is a blast when you know what you're doin
Best to know what you're doin 'fore your life get ruined
Life is a thrill when your skill is developed
If you ain't got a skill or trade, then shut the hell up


My rhymes is like droppin your head on cement
Crackin it open hopin to make a dent; I'm hell-bent on
resurrection, per-fection
Lesson #1: rekindle the essence
Rap ain't about bustin caps and fuckin bitches
It's about fluency with rhymin ingenuity
All of this is new to me, see I peep rhymes
with scrutiny, under a microscope I walk a tightrope
A thin line between insanity and sanity
mixed with a little vanity, boostin the morality
with Hiero hospitality, soon to strike it rich
like calories, salaries, ahh sounds like a plan
And, I will expand hip-hop as well
Might even kick a little impromptu, to stomp you
weaklings, speaking things foreign to the human ear
that, you will fear now, whether you like it or not
Blood clots on your little life on the situation
and on the stipulations... the shit you wastin
time on you pawns, it was planned like that
But we can fight back, like David Horowitz
and say we want no more of this
and put it in a cyrogenic status
Replace it with the latest in technology
Hip-Hop policies that demolish ya follies
Olly olly oxen free, get off of me
You can't see this, your defeatist attitude'll
get you nowhere fast, I tend to my task cause



Don't even start on the next man, let's scan
your situation, you still have no patience
Flip on niggaz, rob niggaz, even family
All the way up to your moms -- you can't stand to be
in the house, but when you kicked out you beggin
to come back in then the same old skit happens
You say you rappin but you don't know the essence
Just hoe slap and bustin caps is your message
Plus every time I put some scrill down, you steal it
If that's your way of teachin me a lesson I don't feel it
Your raps reflect your life and that's a shame
cause the way you're soundin, you must think that it's a game
I can see if you came from the ghetto, but you came
from the Meadow -- you really need to let that go
You got no respect for hip-hop, and you tryin to rhyme
Biding your time and I find it a crime
I even tried to bury the hatchet man
Cause we all African, you wanna be a rapper
start practicin, you can't even flow right
Spend most of your time fuckin hoes, getting in fights
Hangin out, with no mission in life
And you're missing your life, and you'll be missing out on life
I won't sweat you for that G you stole
cause if you're still alive, I'll be there to see you fold
Told ya!


You could be a rapper an actor a gun clapper
A comedian providing laughter as a bachelor
A pastor of a chapter, a doctor, a lawyer
A fireman, a hired hand, whether boy or girl
it's your world your future you control it
Whatever you do, early on, is how you mold it
I record it, sold it, told it to you
Mr. Del wouldn't tell you nothin that ain't true, because


Think you're able to label the Hiero sound?
You still haven't found a comparable variable
You think you're able to label the Hiero sound?
You still haven't found a comparable variable
All you marks... YEAH!

This the freshest shit and you know it

[TheRedSkunk]

Rap died about the time that "spinners" became every other word.


"....then you go buy themm..."

no exscuses. push things forward.

[Coconutfetus]

pease lets not make this a "post your fav. hip hop/rap lyrics here" thread.

[PETA]

I am a nightmare walkin psychopath talkin.... ok maybe not

[transplant]

Originally Posted by willy_jack

Blame MTV, and the radio.

Hip Hop has a ton of positive, much more talented people in it than the few shitty negative ones that make millions.

You just do not hear them.

Most people want to see ass, titties, and Benjamins floating around on their flat screen. I am a bit tired of hearing the same recycled hooks, catch phrases, and beats.

Oh, and I have been feeling that the market has been saturated for a few years now. It's kind of what happened to the Seattle sound in the 90's; people get tired of it.

[Oscuro]

I've been saying this for 2 years now.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Nick Miranda

I've been saying this for 2 years now.

well you're a goddamn visionary then aren't you...

[Coconutfetus]

Originally Posted by xian

I am a nightmare walkin psychopath talkin.... ok maybe not

hey pacman, you got a problem homes?

[PETA]

lol

[david austin]

thought the article was spot on