Moment of Truth

"The Moment of Truth" by Gang Starr- one of the best hip-hop songs in the history of the genre. 

Ladies and gentlemen, long before the T.I.'s and Solja' boys of today's "rap," there were many real artists that created works of art, such as Guru and Dj Primo's duo of Gang Starr.  While much of the "gangsta" rap from the 90's talks about gang-banging and pimping, Guru decided to truly explain what it means to be from the streets, and put an end to the popular method of fronting to gain musical popularity.  

You see, with the success of gangster rap in the 90's (and even now) people who weren't necessarily gangsters decided to rap about their hardships in the ghetto-even though they never happened.  No, you don't have to be from a ghetto to have mad rhymes, but if you're going to rap about how you just saw your homie get shot by some bloods, that sure as hell better have happened.  Posing, no matter what the posing is of, shows insecurity and lack of courage.  

With Primo's couth beats and Guru's metaphor-riddled lyrics, Gang Starr didn't hesitate to show the world that just because a person's from the ghetto that they don't have any perspective on life.  With such lines as "Sometime you gotta dig deep, when problems come near/don't ear things get severe for everybody everywhere" he's speaking out to the people, letting them know that, yes, things might be bad for you, but you can't dwell on it and feel sorry for yourself because it happens to everybody.  "I'm ready to lose my mind but instead I use my mind/I put down the knife, and take the bullets out my nine" shows that (along with being a sick ass rhyme) sometimes you have to sit back and think.  Getting impulsive and using the "nines" and "knives" won't necessarily help you.  

As much as I hate to be honest with myself and realize the fact that artists and groups like Gang Starr won't be rising to the top of the charts at this point in time, there still might be hope for today's youth.  Why trash like T-Pain and the "New Kanye" (I miss the old one) is topping out the iTunes top ten, I have no idea.  

So I ask you reader, please, listen to "Moment of Truth," and see if it doesn't change your views on what rap should be and how much meaning can be placed into a song. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH3hrtp1T84

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Autotune:  The end of music.

Yes, 99% of pop artists probably use Anteres' Autotune, but for almost all of those artists, it is used to simply fine tune their vocals and make sure everything is flawless-ergo you can't tell they're using it.

But, listen to T-Pain or Kayne West and you're going to be asking if a robot did their vocals for them.  Autotune, when overused, creates a certain robotic effect that has turned from a gimmick into a full blown style... albeit a crappy one.  

With the success of "R&B" star T-Pain, almost all artists who consider themselves to be hip-hop have begun to use autotune in one way or another.  Listen to T.I.  What will you find?  Autotune.  Listen to Lil Wayne.  Again, you'll hear autotune.  Listen to Kayne West's entire new album... Every single song uses a blatant autotune effect.  It hurts to listen to!

Speaking of which, Kayne, you don't need to conform and sell out to popular music trends.  Remember back in the "College Dropout" era?  That's when you kept it real.  Throwing out worthless moneymakers like "Love Lockdown?"  In your words Mr. West, "I ask 'cause I'm not sure, does anyone make real shit anymore?"

Autotune was fine when it was just one or two mainstream artist using it-hell I even liked some of T-Pain's stuff back in 2005- but now it is getting ridiculous.  Very, very, very ridiculous.  

So please, hip-hoppers everywhere, actually listen to your music before you release it so you realize it sounds just like that song released by the guy who just featured in one of your other songs.  It's time for something new...

Akon didn't really apologize

The R&B artist Akon, well known for his hit song titled "Hypnotized" recently got in trouble with the law for molesting a 14 year old girl, and for literally throwing a boy off the stage at one of his concerts. There has been a lot of controversy revolving around Akon, and his sales numbers were affected.

Believing that he could make everything better, he released a single named "Sorry, Blame it on me," which surprisingly is very popular. Personally, I don't think the song is any better than average, but that's not what's important in the song, right? In the song Akon supposedly apologizes for recklessly performing those acts. In reality however, all Akon really does is say, "Yeah, alright, I may have done those things but it's everyone else's fault but mine. And quite frankly, it Akons fault, and only his. One of the lines in the song is "why doesn't anyone want to take that blame, Verizon backed out disgracing my name, I'm just a singer trying to entertain, because I love my fans and I'll take that blame.

Alright, there are a few things wrong with this. One, Akon claims that Verizon, the mobile cellular service, shouldn't have ended the partnership with him. Is this not a justified reason to break a contract with someone? He'd make Verizon look bad! He also makes himself look innocent by declaring that he's "just a singer trying to entertain," and that there's no possible reason he should ever get in trouble for something like this, even though it was Akon himself that performed the deed. Not to mention the fact that in the end of this verse he essentially says even though it's clearly not my fault and everyone is stupid for not realizing it, I'll take that blame, even though it will crush my over inflated ego.

So, it seems to me Akon is a pretty arrogant fool, that let's his pride get in the way of more important things. Pretty sad, huh? Considering he's making more money with this fake apology song than other people do for saving lives...

What's happened?

As I was checking out the itunes music store yesterday, I noticed something that's either sad, or justifiable. It seems that most of the music that's most popular is by some artist that is not very musically talented. Honestly. "Crank That" by Solja Boy is not real music. It's some lame rap that wannabe gangster teenagers play because they want to feel cool like Solja Boy.


Another I saw was a song by Chris Brown, titled "Kiss Kiss," which features T-pain (who, by the way, is in three of the top ten songs). If it's number one on itunes, the online music store with the most prestige ever to date, then it has to have something to it. I was wrong. "Kiss Kiss" sounds like every other rap or R&B song being sold today. Why do people listen to this stuff?


Which brings me to my point. I cant change the fact that everyone likes this stuff that passes for music. However, the least you can do is check out some other genres or artists. There's a place for mainstream artist with little skill and a big paycheck, and there's a place for musically brilliant people that put emotion and feeling into their pieces.