Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture

“We get it – you’re hip, you’re cool, whatever. You can’t spell.”

As most of you could probably guess, we here at STF aren’t so much into Rap music and the whole Hip Hop scene. Personally, I hate it. I hate the music because I think it’s only slightly musical to begin with, but what I really hate about it is the whole culture that surrounds it.

Perhaps I could explain my point best by using examples. Take the “Making the Band” finale that’s on TV right now. Some dude Yung Joc just performed, and even while typing this sentence I realize things I begin to hate, as my spell checker underlined his name, thinking that what I meant to say was “Young Jock,” which is how it’s pronounced. Is this necessary? Does breaking the laws of spelling give this guy more “street cred”? Is it part of some initiation process of whatever coast he claims to be part of? We get it – you’re hip, you’re cool, whatever. You can’t spell. Or perhaps you can, but enjoy coming off as some uneducated dumb sh!t. Which brings me to my next point:

Why do these guys represent themselves as these uneducated thugs? Not even in their music do they show any sort of intelligence – as I’m typing this our hero is rapping about some coffee shop and some shoes he got. I realize that not all songs have to be so deep that they drown the listener in thought or emotion (i.e. Mötley Crüe’s Girls, Girls, Girls) but sometimes I think a little bit of meaning would be nice (in sticking to the Crüe, listen to Kickstart My Heart). But a lot of times in rap music these clown don’t just rap about coffee shops and shoes, they’re constantly talking about subjects that degrade women and black people, making them appear even more uneducated and stupid than many of them actually are. Another point about representation is the 30 pound gold rope chain and gigantic “H” pendant this guy is wearing. Is this really necessary? What is he trying to prove, that by shouting rhymes into a cordless microphone one can get rich and buy golden props from Sesame Street? Who knows if the “H” even stands for anything; after seeing already how this guy spells I suppose it could mean just about anything.

Unfortunately, this whole “rap culture” goes beyond just the artists. As I’m sure all of you have seen, you get people emulating these stars, doing what they rap about, dressing how they dress, and living up to the stereotype that their idols represent. Are they proud of this? Personally, I wouldn’t want to be part of a stereotype that glorifies crime, drugs, gangs, prostitution, and rape. The sad part is that most of these rap artists live in their plush Beverly Hills mansions driving their blinged-out $120,000 car and lost all sense of “the hood” they ever knew, providing they ever knew it to begin with.

Yung Joc’s album, “New Joc City”

Next, we have the musical aspect. What musical aspect? You’ve got some DJ scratching a record with a computer beat behind it that these people just rhyme over top of, no real solid pitch or key needed. And if they do need some sort of melodic loop, they just have backup singers do it for them while they stand there, bob their head, wave their arm and say “yeah. what? uuhh.” No wonder it’s all the morons that become hip hop stars – no talent is required and ANYBODY can get successful at it. Try picking up a damn instrument and learning some music theory. Even the worst bands out there can play a few power chords or a simple 1-3 bass 2-4 snare beat.

Let’s also look at how these people get famous – they have one song that sucks, but for some reason (my guess is payola, which is illegal) gets played every ten minutes on the radio and is used in every MTV show for a few months, and is a number 1 hit for a few weeks until it’s completely played out and everyone hates it. It’s got nothing to do with quality, it’s whatever computer-altered tagline they can come up with and sell to people. No wonder every song gets so huge – they play so few new songs everyone is just glad to hear something new.

I also know that a lot of this music is simply about “fun.” A lot of music is, which there’s nothing wrong with. It is entertainment, afterall. But if they’re rapping about coffee shops, shoes, suicide, and umbrellas, all of which isn’t particularly fun-sounding to me, I’ll pass thanks. This music is pure crap, and it turns the performers into gaudy thugs who always look ridiculous wearing their chains and colored sunglasses indoors and their ironed jeans and one-time-use shoes. And it turns the people who listen to it into something worse – posers of these performers. Stupid.

Now where did I put my Nirvana CDs?