The views expressed inside this editorial aren’t necessarily the views of AllHipHop.com or its employees.
Hip-Hop Confusion: And This is For? Panama Jackson
Everybody’s confused. And do you know why everybody’s confused? They’re confused because nobody knows what they want anymore.
Nobody.
I used to blame record companies for the lack of quality albums that were released. Then I would blame the artists for selling out for commercial success. I would complain that I missed that “real” hip-hop. You know, the post-golden era hip-hop of Pete Rock and CL Smooth actually making good music, or early Black Moon, or basically anything pre-Puffy’s first album Bad Boy. But I can’t blame artists or record companies at all.
I blame us. The consumer. The fan. The critics. The hip-hop heads. Basically, anybody who picks up an album nowadays. And do you know why? Because we have NO idea what we want anymore. We complain about any and everything. If we get a real street album, then we complain that it doesn’t have any radio singles to make us dance in the club. If we get a straight club record, we complain that the album forgot about the streets. If its mostly dance tracks, we complain that the album is only for the ladies.
We want growth, but we want more of the same. We want the streets, but we want to dance. We want that “real” (I actually don’t know what that means anymore) hip-hop, but we want some of that new age Neptunes, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz music. And you know who gets lost in all of this? The artists get lost. They don’t know who to make albums for anymore. I say just make records for the ladies since they are the only ones really shelling out the dough for the latest big name releases, anyway.
In the past three months, we’ve received without a doubt the most explicit examples of this phenomenon known as the confused consumer, courtesy of everybody’s favorite movement, Black Star. We have the Mighty Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Both of these cats are emcees worth listening too. In fact, EVERYBODY checks for Mos Def. Men, women, hustler, dealer, etc. Mos is everyman’s rapper. He can light up the streets or make you think. That’s a rare quality. Mos dropped Black On Both Sides in 1999 to critical acclaim and people ate it up. So what does Mos Def do?? He waits five years to drop The New Danger, an album of growth (good/bad?) and experimentation. He made an album for himself. And you know what? People were confused as hell. Some critics loved it, some hated it. There was no middle ground at all. You either listen to it a lot or not at all.
Campuses across America were wondering what he was thinking with this release. They wanted more of the Black on Both Sides Mos Def. They got different but didn’t want different. So then what happens?? Mos Def sells almost 100,000 copies in his first week. So let me get this right. Nobody is sure how to feel about it, but they go out and cop it anyway. So on everybody’s shelf sits a record that they aren’t sure how they feel about.
Then we have Talib Kweli. I must say, Talib’s plight has been a hard one. Coming from out of Mos Def’s shadow is no easy task. But I’m willing to say that he made it out. So Talib makes his first solo album Quality and folks were not feeling it. They liked “Get By” and MAYBE one or two more tracks, but they wanted some of that Reflection Eternal magic, some of “The Blast” type cuts. Quality seemed to be more of a personal type album and people weren’t feeling it. So what does Talib do???
He makes The Beautiful Struggle, an album that is clearly directed at radio and what’s hot right now. He makes an album for the fans and critics blast it. He remakes “Get By” into “I Try”, which offended me personally, (talk about taking fans for granted), throws Mary J. Blige on the track and gets some airplay. And fans STILL blast him. He gets the hot producers of right now (Kanye, Just Blaze, Neptunes), and the album gets no sales. Fans want the old Kweli sound, the Reflection Eternal sound. They want the Kweli that made an album where he said what he felt was important not what the streets want.
Completely…confused.
It happens all over music nowadays. The only rapper that has consistently given the fans exactly what they want and that the streets can accept is Jay-Z. In 1996, he told us he was still spending money from ’88. I believed him. And in 2004, he’s still got Big Chips. See, he’s the same ole Jay, different day. He just manages to come with the fire every time he releases an album, though I myself try to pretend that neither of the Best of Both Worlds, or Dynasty albums exist. My life is just better that way.
Our confusion has caused the likes of LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, hell, basically most rappers to give us albums that are, well, crap. You can’t tell me Nas hasn’t listened everybody. I wish he would quit listening actually. Throwing songs geared towards radio play like “You Owe Me” amongst songs like “Thief’s Theme” and “Made You Look” just doesn’t fit. But Nas makes those songs anyway, because he’s trying to make the streets and fans happy, in turn pissing the streets off and confusing long time fans to no end.
The complaining just doesn’t stop at the quality either. We get 3 hot tracks, and we want 10. However, if we get an album like Illmatic with 9 tracks of straight HEAT, we complain that its too short. We’d rather have 19 tracks to choose from with 4 good songs than 12 tracks and 11 bangers. Completely…confused. And the music is suffering because of it. Our inability to know what we want to hear is causing us to receive music that is sub-par at best and horrible at worst. And it’s all because the rappers don’t know who to make music for anymore. And the albums will sell confusing both the artists and the fans, which will get us more mediocre albums with music that nobody wanted in the first place but that fans will pay for anyway.
Completely…confused.
Trying to make an album for everybody leaves everybody confused, the rappers, critics, and fans, alike. The problem is, how do you decide who to make it for?
Confusion, that is the new danger, and we are all suffering because of it.
Panama Jackson is a freelance writer in Washington, DC, and can be reached at panamadjackson@yahoo.com.
The views expressed inside this editorial aren’t necessarily the views of AllHipHop.com or its employees.
I definitely agree with that article. It's so tough for an artist today to please their fans, especially in the hip hop community. That's why I respect nas so much and jay-z as well because they seem to know, the fine line (excluding nastradamus and Jay-z's Vol:3 S.Carter) between the streets and the clubs but at the same time can make a club track that'll make you wonder whether you should get up and dance, or sit there and think (Can't knock the hustle, hard knock life, or got urself a gun, I can). But there is definitely a thin line and I think that u have to love hip hop music deeply to accept that .
Like I said before, I'm into good music so if the beat is bangin and the lyrics make some kind of sense, i'll listen, although I do prefer to dance at times and other times reflect on what the artist is saying. Another thing you have to factor in is the mainstream appeal of hip hop and the fact that while most artists would like to make music that is to their liking, their is a whole new audience that hip hop is getting attention from. White people don't want a whole album about gun busting and chilling on the block while their chilling in the suburbs. Plus when u factor in the record labels and how much they spend on one album, how much control do the artists really have?
lol, fabflow iz a obvious racist newho, i thynk the problem wit hiphop iz people been carin mo about the beatz than the lyrics, az long az datz tha case i think quality hiphop will b on tha decline
One thing u gotta know fab, is that money is everything to those cats, and ultimately it's a business these days unlike 15 years ago when it was for the love of the craft. And the more records the rapper sells the more money that they make, and it just so happens that to make that money, rappers want to reach as many people as possible to make that happen, even if it means compromising the quality or sound of their music.
hold on adiamond...... lemme find a post i made in ahh
Young Foch No Insignia
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Southside Jamaica, Queens Age: 20 Posts: 74 i disagree with 50 best in hip hop but
the internet is FULL of haters every cd that drops internet haters line up
let me break it down pay****in attention
most rappers are from the hood they use rap to make money to live well not to please some poor wannabee critic in front of the computer as long as 1% of the nation buys that cd, they could give 2 ****s about what everybody else thinks when a nigga from southside queens gets a deal......he aint makin music to please Ray Ray in philly he makin it to cake up money first as long as they sellin, makin money, and gettin *****es, they could give two****s about critics so hop off people sure they would love to have more people feelin them cuz that means more money but if u got a formula that works and u cakin, why change to make yall idiots happy niggas livin much much better than u are 50 spends more on security than u make in a year stop hatin
i cant stand rappers like chingy and nelly cuz they****in the game up BUT i respect they hustle if u can do your thing....whether u suck or not.....legally.....and be rich......wouldnt u do it?????? i'd rather be the worse rapper in the world and go to Bentley, tell them put the new GT on my tab, then to be the greatest unknown lyricist tryin to get a loan for a KIA money makes the world go round......as long as the money comin in, why change what u doin
and stop hatin cuz most of yall cant do no better dont say.....well i aint a rapper its not like sports where u need physical skills.....u dont have to be able to sing....just words mayne....all it is.....words over beats so go get ya ass signed and make a diamond album until then.....STOP HATING!!!!!!
i agree wit every1 yall sed.....n anota thing is that music aint pure no more...for the pass few months i hav not really lisened to the radio or nuttin....i been lissenin to pac and biggie n ol nas n jigga....music used to talk 2 u....especially tupac..he juss talks to u mayne lik he kno wat u goin through n he talkin u through it through his music....that wat music used to b lik...but now its all "NUCK IF U BUCK BOI!!" n all this ****....mayne where is music gonna b in 10 years
yeah but what she sayin is that the fans are the ones to blame
niggas dont know what they want we dont buy albums cuz of how good they are we buy because of the artist
eminem could go platinum w/o a single so could nelly and usher
i say.......F*ck a fan look how they turned on Ja and now they startin to come back and some are turnin on 50........
you can say**** a fan all you want.......but the artists need the fans, if nobody like you, they aint gonna cop no album.....niggas only picked up the ja rule cause they had hope that he was returnin home on the streets and it aint happen. This is why i download albums and i dont buy ****. Cuz rappers are ungrateful, im not talkin, mos def, krs, talib kweli--- thats hip hop, there's a big difference, im sorry but i aint spendin 10-20 bucks on a album when the niggas aint appreciatin it.............they look at it as the fans need the rappers.........niccas, all i need iz kazaa
I'M REPPIN EVERY NICCA IN DEES STREETS TO SCREAM AT ME!!!!!!
you can say**** a fan all you want.......but the artists need the fans, if nobody like you, they aint gonna cop no album.....niggas only picked up the ja rule cause they had hope that he was returnin home on the streets and it aint happen. This is why i download albums and i dont buy ****. Cuz rappers are ungrateful, im not talkin, mos def, krs, talib kweli--- thats hip hop, there's a big difference, im sorry but i aint spendin 10-20 bucks on a album when the niggas aint appreciatin it.............they look at it as the fans need the rappers.........niccas, all i need iz kazaa
the artist needs 0.5% of the nation.....less actually to go platinum yes the artist is nothing w/o the fan but the fan is the reason the artist makes bullsh*t music cuz thats what the fans are buyin these days fans are ungrateful you can pour your heart and soul on an album and it wont be good enough if it dont go a club banger
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