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Originally Posted by alansmithee
Yeah, that's it. It has nothing to do with suburban white kids wanting to pretend they're "hard" or nothing. It's obviously those poor inner-city blacks who so like hearing how they're constantly getting shot at, not white kids living vicariously through others' sufferings while getting a chance to rebel against mommy and daddy. Why, look at Detroit for instance, which was the home of the notoriously poor and black gangsta rapper Eminem and that group of poor, black gansta rapping clowns ICP ( I doubt you could name another rapper from Detroit not affiliated with Eminem or ICP). Obviously the home for "true" hip-hop is in Great Britain, away from those horrible poor blacks and their gangsta rap, right?  |
Xzibit is a rapper from Detroit who has nothing to do with Eminem or the ICP. So is Kid Rock, although he crosses genres and may not be considered rap by some. Also Obie Trice, who while a friend of Eminem is not a part of D-12 and of course D-12 themselves. The 313 is sometimes referred to, which is the area code that covers some of South Detroit (and also, ironically, Grosse Pointe) as well as the 8 Mile Road, made famous in Eminem's movie (which again, ironically, ends in one of the highest class neighbourhoods in the city).
If I made factual errors, fine. I did type that up at 3 in the morning, I made the rather prominent mistake of typing Ice T instead of Ice Cube and I'm far from the biggest and best source on the subject out there. But you're assuming two things here. One is that I don't really know what I'm talking about. Music of all sorts is a primary interest of mine and rap and hip hop is quite prominent, so it behooves me to know a bit about them. You've also strongly twisted what I said. What I wrote was primarily about mainstream hip hop and public perception and how it differs from the so-called 'underground' hip hop. It has nothing to do with white vs. black except insofar as hip hop is widely considered a 'black' style of music. I'm sure we all remember Snow and Vanilla Ice, both of whom took flak for being 'white rappers', regardless of there other merits or (prominent) lack thereof.
Also, the more experimental hip hop is more prominent in the UK, or so I understand it. Perhaps some of our brit members could chime in on this, but in between I highly recommend listening to The Streets, particularly their album A Grand Don't Come For Free.
Pigglet - thanks for catching that. I was thinking Ice Cube, but Ice T is what came out. However, I intentionally left out Yella and Ren, focussing on the three who are more well known post-NWA. Yella and Ren (and Arabian Prince if you want to include him, although I think he was only on Straight Outta Compton) fell out of the spotlight after NWA broke up and bluntly put, I have no idea what either of them are up to at this point.
And if you haven't listened to Kanye West yet, definitely do yourself the favour. He's quite the refreshing change from 'thugz' like fifty cent.
And finally, on topic : I always considered the word gay as an insult to be a sign of immaturity. I know in public school and high school I encountered it a lot more than I do now and even today when I heard it said those who use it are people who might be described as immature. It's an issue of ignorance more than anything else. That doesn't make it right, but just seems to be the root of the problem.