Quote:
Originally Posted by Willravel
I like rap that speaks about social issues, poverty, crime, police, etc. Rap can be an incredible vehicle for communicating harsh realities.
The stuff about fancy cars, acquiring needless amounts of money or disrespecting women? Rubbish. The world would be a better place without it.
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Ridiculous as it may seem, a lot of that stuff about fancy cars and such can be exactly as cognizant and resonant an expression of the very same pressures and harsh realities you enjoy in so-called conscious or elevated rap.
There's too much of a tendency toward a literal reading of the stories put forward in rap songs but if you can appreciate that much of what's tossed around in those sorts of songs - the women, drugs, cars and stuff - are but mere symbols dressing aspirations of freedom all but impossible to realize under those same harsh realities then the seeming vapidity gives way to something a bit more interesting if not valid.
Just as Joni Mitchell isn't an actual radio, many of these seemingly worthless songs can offer quite a bit to those willing to put in the effort. They have their place and when they work they can do so brilliantly. (The world a better place without it? I highly doubt you'd say the same about the least skilled, most blatantly offensive painting you can imagine.)