i'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop

[metaphorge]

Disclaimer, I have not heard the song, but I don't think I need to... the title alone makes me want to hit things, both textually and conceptually.

The number three single on the Billboard chart this week?

T-Pain featuring Yung Joc-"Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin')"

The spelling alone makes my teeth hurt.

In any case, I now have to quote MC Lars:

This popular subgenre is brought to you by materialism.
We'd like to thank Bentley, Aliz© champagne, and Sean
Jean clothing. We'd like to thank the record industry for
Marketing hip-hop stereotypes to 12 year olds and a pop
Culture that unquestioningly consumes vapid,
Superficial entertainment.

Phrase about my gun, rhyme about my loot
Phrase about these haters I sometimes have to shoot
Rhyme about my clothes,
props to my hometown (Carmel Valley!)
Lyrics that say nothing - cause that's how we get down
Phrase about my clique, don't step to me punk
Gratuitous rhyme about keeping it crunk
Big ups to our genre, we do it our own way
It's just too bad our songs don't have anything to say!

[CHORUS]
Generic crunk rap! (What) Generic crunk rap! (Yeah)
Generic crunk rap! (What) We don't mess around
Generic crunk rap! (Yeah) Generic crunk rap! (What)
Generic crunk rap! (Yeah) You like our dirty sound

Buy cars (Get crunk) Take shots (Get crunk)
Have sex (Get crunk) Spend money (Get crunk)
Buy cars (Get crunk) Take shots (Get crunk)
Have sex (Get crunk) Spend money (Get crunk)

Phrase about my car, rhyme about my crew (Volvo!)
Rap about how much more crunk I am than you
Rhyme about my rims, rhyme about my bling
Chorus where I scream cause I don't know how to sing
Rhyme supporting guns, and also drinking 40's
Misogynist rhyme about banging lots of shorties
Rhyme about my dough, and then some made up lyrics
Get off the gas you swinga, check the deuce, yo sabiirit

[CHORUS]
Generic crunk rap! (What) Generic crunk rap! (Yeah)
Generic crunk rap! (What) We don't mess around
Generic crunk rap! (Yeah) Generic crunk rap! (What)
Generic crunk rap! (Yeah) You like our dirty sound
Buy clothes (Get crunk) Hennesy (Get crunk)
Escalades (Get crunk) Spend money (Get crunk)
Buy cars (Get crunk) Take shots (Get crunk)
Have sex (Get crunk) Spend money (Get crunk)

Grandmaster Flash, I'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop
KRS, I'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop
Run-DMC, I'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop
But who can argue with the charts
When we're sitting at the top?
Rakim, I'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop
Chuck D, I'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop
De La Soul, I'm sorry but we're killing hip-hop
And we're making so much money
That we ain't about to stop!

Coca Cola! (Get crunk) Nike! (Get crunk)
McDonalds! (Get crunk) Disney! (Get crunk)
Fox Network! (Get crunk) Armani! (Get crunk)
Gap Clothing! (Get crunk) Mercedes! (Get crunk)
DKNY! (Get crunk) Courvoisier! (Get crunk)
Prada! (Get crunk) Wal-Mart! (Get crunk)
Chucky Cheese! (Get crunk) Ralph Lauren! (Get crunk)
G-Unit sneakers! (Get crunk) Louis Vuitton! (Get crunk)
I'm just playing Lil Jon. You know I love you.

I'm now going to listen to some Deltron 3030 to make the pain go away.
Edit: Against my better judgement I looked up the lyrics to "Buy You a Drank (Shawty Snappin')". It is, perhaps, the ultimate Generic Crunk Rap.

Further edit: In the interest of quasi-journalistic integrity, I listened to the song. Actually, I listened to about half the song... I just could not make it all the way through....

Comments

[prettydark.livejournal.com]

Cute with Chris recites T-Pain's "Buy you a DRANNNNNK" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTK0kFXJjd0)

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

That was awesome.

[ineffabelle]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9189839791509071337

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

That was even more awesome.

[witchchild]

oh that was so awesome.

[caffeina.livejournal.com]

YAAEAAAHH!

reading is crunkdamental.

[glazomaniac.livejournal.com]

just because crunk is popular doesn't mean it's killing other forms of hiphop. one form of music can coexist alongside another quite easily. that's like saying that just because fantasy movies are popular right now, we're killing science fiction.

if you're going to attack crunk, you're wasting your time. as a style of music, there's nothing wrong with it.

the issues complained about that i can see here are that a) crunk is more popular than more high brow forms of hip hop, b) crunk espouses views that mc lars & others do not agree with, c) has no views whatsoever & is just a dance tune, d) is motivated by greed.

A) complain to the marketers, not the artists.
B) this is a valid complaint, directed at the artists. instead of mocking them, open a real dialogue via an avenue the artist in question will accept & see if you can make a difference. by dissing them, yer basically just being a dick. however, not all crunk does this, & crunk isn't the only form of music with these problems. it's a symptom, not a cause.
C) there is absolutely nothing wrong with a song with no message. dance, motherfucker, dance.
D) in order to eradicate greed, you would have to fundamentally alter society. i'm all for it. let's do it. attacking a style of music, though, or a musical artist (regardless of his motivations) is really not the way to do it. another symptom, not a cause.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

this is a valid complaint, directed at the artists. instead of mocking them, open a real dialogue via an avenue the artist in question will accept & see if you can make a difference.

I was under the impression this was what Lars (as well as the artist ineffabelle were doing by creating songs that follow the musical stylistic convention of "crunk" but with complex lyrics that made their point?

You have to address the audience as well.

complain to the marketers, not the artists...

attacking a style of music, though, or a musical artist (regardless of his motivations) is really not the way to do it. another symptom, not a cause.

I don't think this argument holds much water. It's kind of like the old refrain, "don't hate the playa, hate the game," which is, of course, pure bullshit. If there were no players, there would be no game to hate.

Besides, it isn't like I mounted an ad hominem attack on T-Pain.

if you're going to attack crunk, you're wasting your time. as a style of music, there's nothing wrong with it....

there is absolutely nothing wrong with a song with no message. dance, motherfucker, dance.

There is, however, something wrong (in my obviously subjective opinion) with a song that advocates getting women drunk to lower their sexual resistence and not "remember what we did". That's usually defined as, you know, "rape". Crass commercialism and horrid spelling are not particularly fly either.

I also think there's something deeply amiss about your inference that dance music should be simplistic and unimaginative.

So yeah, I feel there is something "wrong" with songs that are both musically uninventive and have highly misogynistic lyrics.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

BTW this:

I was under the impression this was what Lars (as well as the artist inefabelle were doing by creating songs that follow the musical stylistic convention of "crunk" but with complex lyrics that made their point?

should have read

I was under the impression this was what Lars (as well as the artist inefabelle linked above) were doing by creating songs that follow the musical stylistic convention of "crunk" but with complex lyrics that made their point?

I wish one could edit comments.

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

C) there is absolutely nothing wrong with a song with no message.

'cept... there is, or rather, this isn't music with "no message". The message is crass consumerism. Buying into a bullshit consumer system, a "lifestyle"... I'm fine with "dance, motherfucker, dance" for some shit, but there's a difference between that and what's going on here.

And, as some the "Read a Book" link showed, it's not about the style (well, it's pretty insipid, repeating shit over and over, but I can imagine that style has it's roots in slave field-labor songs, tip o' the hat to Cornell West), but rather the content.

And who's saying that he's saying only Crunk has this problem.

You are correct that it's one part of a larger picture, but I'm guessing metaphorge understands that, and it seems to me that he does attack other issues as well as just this one.

But the big issue is that it's a combination of factors. Why is this music so big? Who's pushing it? I mean, yes people are obviously listening, and maybe it's a form of escapism for lots of people (stupid, IMO, but hey, lets grant them the benefit of the doubt)... But there's plenty of other ways to escape without listening to the unredeemable message of "buy shit".

Well, fuck, son, looks like the Man is telling you to look up to him. Why do you think kids in the Ghetto see signs of intellect as something to be looked down upon? Because the culture at large is pushing it, and the bullshit consumerism they're being pushed from above only feeds that.

Sure, don't "attack the messenger", you say, but how the fuck are these kids gonna hear anything different? There's enormous social capital being spent on turning kids into capitalist zombies (and that's not just kids in the Ghetto), but the overall thing is, this is definitely a part of that, and we have every right, and indeed, I'd argue, duty to fight against it.

This form of "rap" is pretty much the same thing as "news" today... Celebrity worship (a la Paris Hilton) and then you say "well, gotta give the people what they want" bullshit line.

[symbioid.livejournal.com]

Don't forget Dead Prez (Let's Get Free... Revolutionary But Gangsta scares me a bit, because I feel like they're selling out a little... I've only heard "Hell Yeah" off of it, then again, they may be trying to do a little viral infection, i.e. hit that sound/image of the gangsta for a vector, but use the lyrics to push something deeper, which is probably a good way to go).

I've heard of Paris, but haven't heard much of his stuff. And of course, Mr. Lif...

Not as completely political, but Aesop Rock "Labor Days" hits some of those themes as well...

[arethinn]

"Some of it probably goes back to just decades ago (and to an extant still today) when so many black people couldn't get better jobs or better educations and as a result were fiscally-deprived to say the least and as a result we're seeing a celebration of commercialism and materialism as a sign of success."

Class struggle with a side of "division of class along racial lines"?

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

I've been a PE fan for a LONG tim, but I'll check out your other suggestions.

In return: Deltron 3030 (and any of Del the Funkee Homosapien's projects) and Haiku d'etat.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

I've been a PE fan for a LONG time, but I'll check out your other suggestions.

In return: Deltron 3030 (and any of Del the Funkee Homosapien's projects) and Haiku d'etat.

[fizzyg23.livejournal.com]

That sort of assumes we can take the Billboard songs as truth of 'what's good', which we really can't. There's still good stuff in the world of rap/hip hop, but you have to wade through the bad. I'm sure in the 50s there was a lot of crappy music too, it just didn't last through the years.

On a somewhat related topic, have you heard about those companies that have analyzed different parts of music throughout the past few decades to figure out what sells a song? They then serve as consultants for record companies to help increase marketability. There's several of them, but someone from one was on NPR the other day. Part of me thinks it's a really bad idea, but another part wonders if there's just something flowing underneath a lot of different styles of music that appeals to humans in general. Although they won't release the data behind what they've found, they claim that the same things that are predicting hits today are similar to what was predicting the hits back in Beethoven's time. As someone familiar with statistics and all, I'm so freakin curious. :p

Here's one of them:
http://www.hitsongscience.com/faq.php

[ineffabelle]

also on a serious tip:
http://www.alterati.com/altertube/view_video.php?viewkey=aca1ae2d001862420452&page=&viewtype=&category=

[caffeina.livejournal.com]

Most serious of all is the fact that the rec center (or gym or church) where that talk was held is totally negligent with regard to replacing the batteries in their smoke detectors!

Excellent post

[thatdamnninja.livejournal.com]

I will have to now buy you a drank.

[avatar-x.livejournal.com]

You know, I've heard crunk songs that were just party songs, which is okay. But yeah, "buy you a drank" is effing terrible.

Maybe Nas is right?

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

This is why I stopped listening to most rap years ago. Give me Public Enemy, KRS-ONE, Eric B. and Rakim, Run-DMC, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, LL Cool J, Kool Moe Dee....hell, anybody but this crap.

About the only modern rap artist I can deal with is Ludacris, and that's because he refuses to take himself seriously.

cheers,
Phil

[dslartoo.livejournal.com]

Okay, I forgot I also like Mos Def as far as modern rap goes.

cheers,
Phil

[iblis-kukl.livejournal.com]

Is there anything we can do to kill it faster?

eliazar [o]

[serizawa3000.livejournal.com]

Remember when "crunk" was a made-up swear word used on Late Night with Conan O'Brien?

[caffeina.livejournal.com]

ok first of all, I really just wanted to show you this:

But I fear must add: Isn't that Buy You a Draaank song just crappy R&B?
And I thought Shorties were like, children. Not womens. WTFz?

Also, 'crunk' be damned, it's all about getting HYPHY, you miscreant!.

[samael7.livejournal.com]

The assault started nearly 20 years ago. At least, it seemed that way to me. Right around the time that MTV stopped actually showcasing music videos as an enterprise and embarked on selling, well, itself. A Brand. I think Kriss Kross was the point at which I realized that a line had been crossed (apologies to anyone who likes them; kudos to anyone that actually *remembers* them), but there were signs of cracks in the dam before that.

Most genres of music that achieved any popularity in the last fifty or sixty years have charred glyphs on their rumps at one point or another. It's rarely terminal, though.

P.S. For kicks I looked up Kriss Kross in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Kross). Brace yourselves: new album in 2007. But read the description on them, and tell me that wasn't an early indication of mass market selling of rap/hip-hop.

"Kelly and Smith were discovered in 1991 at Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, by Jermaine Dupri. Dupri thought the duo 'looked like a rap group,' so he started working with them immediately."

Note their place of meeting, the emphasis on appearance, and the lack of any actual talent witnessed or proven. Pass the cellophane wrap!