If you didnt like rap before, you will now

[fabulouslyghetto]

RIP Fabulouslyghetto
Sunrise: July 27, 1985
Sunset: February 22, 2022

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

This has to be in contention

I dunno, Krispy Kreme is legit a bop. bonus points for the runny nose and trail of snot down to his lip, I respect and also fear a man who just doesn't give a fuck.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Um, duh? If you can't see where you veered right when you should've made a hard left I dunno what to tell you. It's a cultural difference. If we don't like something we politely decline or scroll past, we don't say anything especially if we aren't the target audience. The comment section for heavy metal or country music videos isn't full of black people going "UGH WHAT IS THIS NOISE" "WHERE DA BEAT AT YO" "THIS MUSIC IS REALLY DEPRESSING" yet almost every rap video has a group of white guys high-fiving each other in the comments while insulting the genre. as a friend i'm obligated to inform you that this trend doesn't do favors for the likability of your demographic which, as it stands, seems to be at critical levels with a lot of people.

But c'est la vie. you and i were overdue for a quarrel we've never gotten along for this amount of time.

The history of rap and hip hop would look very different without Peter Rosenberg, the good NYC Jewish boy with the big mouth, who never stops talking long enough to listen!
In the late 90's, Peter Rosenberg hosted a late-night underground radio show from the campus of the University of Maryland. He featured on his show all the area rappers who made themselves known during the Clinton presidency years.

Peter Rosenberg was key to getting mainstream media to take rap/hip hop seriously - Peter was a one-man promo, selling rap to media owners and DJ's who were clueless to the changing music landscape that was happening all around them.
By the early 2000's Peter was hired by WQHT, "HOT-97" FM, where he showcased some of the newest rappers around the east coast. Peter pushed for hip hop when other stations tried to ignore the whole rap scene altogether.

It was around 2010 when Peter became famous over a fight that broke out at a Hip Hop Summer Concert in Brooklyn. Some of the rappers objected to "white trash" at "their" event.
Concert promoters announced that "FYI - Peter is one of the Sponsors of the Concert"!
Peter made things worse when he shot back, "not only am I a sponsor, I'm a DJ/talent promoter and some of The Best rap/hip hop is coming from Women - you guys Suck!".

My respect for Peter grew after that because he went national on talk radio and television to spread the word that "The Ladies of Hip Hop" are at the top of their game, and are the key to mainstream success.

But there's no denying, Peter is a dick:

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

so he's the guy who usurped our art and sold it to corporate america? i remember clear as day no one wanted to touch hip hop in the early days, now you got guys rappin in commercials about mcnuggets and laundry detergent. it's like a friend who won the lottery and is suddenly too busy hanging with celebrities to take your call. that guy might've single-handedly destroyed rap. if wypipo didn't know how profitable it was it would still be ours. video is bookmarked, i'm spending some quality time with the tv at the moment.

 

[DepravedMuscleFTL]

ummmm - that's the thing - you are so RAPPED (pun) up in defending your black cause that you jump to conclusions... I in no way insinuated that Kem was sub-par - (re-read my post) what I said was that Haiti Babii had not laid out any legacy that should threaten the likes of Kendrick or Tupac -

and while I am all ready to give credits to black musicians for elevating the art of guitar playing - and am a firm believer that Hendrix was THEE greatest guitar player EVER - it was psychedelic - not metal - and ALL experts on the subject clearly give credit to the birth and influence of METAL to the city of Birmingham (and that is NOT Alabama)

The Birth of Heavy Metal

Just as physicists point to the Big Bang as the origin of our universe, so too can we pinpoint the exact moment and location when heavy metal burst forth onto the scene. That place and time? England’s West Midlands, Birmingham to be exact, in 1968. What happens when you have a generation come of age in an economically depressed industrial town during an era of lost innocence? Well, Black Sabbath happens. The quartet forged a sound that recalled the clamor of the steel mills that dominated landscape of their hometown. In the process, they unleashed a sonic revolution. Compared to the hard rock acts of the late 1960's, Sabbath's compositions and performances were minimalistic in form and execution. Yet, what they lacked in complexity, Black Sabbath compensated for in terms of power and intensity. Nevertheless, Black Sabbath set the standard as the first proper heavy metal band.

With the musical foundation laid by Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, it was only a matter of time before someone synthesized heavy metal into a complete and proper ethos. Enter Judas Priest. Like Black Sabbath before them, Judas Priest hailed from Birmingham and sounded every bit the part. Featuring the twin-guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing as well as the unworldly vocal ability of Rob Halford, Judas Priest ushered heavy metal into uncharted territory. Capitalizing on their unique talents, Priest ushered in an era of heavy metal that was at once highly rhythmic and melodic that interchanged between breakneck and more reserved tempos (sometimes within one song). However, the lasting legacy of Judas Priest was the introduction of the indelible image of heavy metal: leather and studs. Co-opted from London’s Soho gay club scene, Rob Halford (who is openly gay) incorporated the fashion into Priest’s stage show in the late 1970s. No one could anticipate at the time that the look would become synonymous with heavy metal. Nevertheless, heavy metal now had a look that matched the power and intensity of its sound.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

^Ohhh, I thought you were talking about Kem. Haiti Babii is trash surely you know I was joking about him having any kind of legacy? He's a breed of rapper I call microwave rap. You put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and it's done, a 12 year old could do it. there's no real recipe or soul or attention to the craft, the exact reason he and so many other new rappers can't freestyle is because the audience isn't even listening to the lyrics, there's no pressure to be lyrical because all that matters is that it has a bass-heavy overproduced beat you can twerk to. that freestyle i wrote above as a joke could probably become a #1 hit with the right producer, rap is now just a hodge podge of ghetto cliches tossed in a blender.

"I fucked yo bitch"
"Trappin on da block"
"Nice watch"
"Flippin kilos"
and something about haters. if someone paid me $1 for every song i could find with these exact words, and $0.50 for variations of those phrases, I could afford to take all of you to the Caribbean.

and out of respect, I refuse to even mention Lord Hendrix in the same thread as Haiti Babii. honestly it was kinda disrespectful to mention judas priest, they are soooo far above these goofball rappers. i don't remember which song i heard of theirs but they're tight. maybe now's a good time for me to advocate bringing back music theory to the classroom?

 

[frankfrank]

^ Um...you just DID mention Hendrix in the same thread at Haiti Babii. You liar you. LOL LOL

As for your Post #17 (the rapper live on Power 97), that was FLAWLESS!! I found myself in awe of how he maintained it so well...this was raw, WITHOUT the usual heavy bass beats and other instrumentation that's usually in "official" releases. In other words, nothing there to disguises any slip-ups that he could have made (but really didn't)...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this is a legit freestyle, he was a guest on a popular radio station that regularly features upandcoming artists. on a brighter note if you listen to the freestyle backwards it's a recipe for strawberry cream cheese streudel.

How strange! I played it backwards, and it became a Tedtalk about the uses of yttrium. One of those YMMV things, I guess.

That was actually impressive. The likeness was spot-on. Perfect diction. Each syllable was pronounced. I could tell what the words were. Standing O. By standing O I mean standing orgasm which for some reason is extremely difficult for me to achieve. Gotta be on all fours, straddling or laying flat. Videos of guys standing up cumming are like watching a star being born.

Well then, I guess I shouldn't be expecting you to be one of the small crew providing a bukkake session, then.

That song was probably the worst song I ever heard and I have lived long enough to have heard quite a few songs. Of course that makes me old.

Rickrock, is this a challenge, a dare? I guarantee that I can post a song that's a lot worse. TRUST ME. (Those words are usually used disingenuously. No, when I say "Trust me," I actually MEAN it.)

Here y'go (and, to paraphrase a great movie: "Is this Mars?" "No, it's New Hampshire."):

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Sir Franklin Frankfurt III to what do we owe the grace of your presence this evening, I take it you're not on the road? And how precisely is it that you make me smile simply by showing up and being you? Hugs brother

 

[frankfrank]

My respect for Peter [Rosenberg] grew after that because he went national on talk radio and television to spread the word that "The Ladies of Hip Hop" are at the top of their game, and are the key to mainstream success.

But there's no denying, Peter is a dick

So good to see you here, Edd! Thank you for a fun and educational post. And, talking to you today - that was great, and I can't claim today to be a "wasted day" because I definitely learned some stuff.

Meanwhile, try THIS on for size. It's a novelty record, but I'd say that, in 1968, this recording was most surely about a decade ahead of its time:

I mean, ALL OF THE RAP ELEMENTS ARE THERE. This dude was ALREADY so old, at that time, that he probably had fairly vivid memories of World War I! (which in those days was simply called The Great War, because there was no precedent yet to number World Wars). He was born in 1904! Only several years short of a rapper being born in the 19th Century!

Heck, this guy's name would even work well for a rapper name.

I showed this to Refugiunderground (I miss that guy!) a few years ago - he was still in his 20s I think, then, and did some rapping as a hobby - this COMPLETELY blew him away when I told him when it was from.

 

[frankfrank]

Sir Franklin Frankfurt III to what do we owe the grace of your presence this evening, I take it you're not on the road? And how precisely is it that you make me smile simply by showing up and being you? Hugs brother

Just because...well, because I talked to Edd and he told me about this thread. (I'm a poet, and I know it. So are the rappers, lol lol.) No, I'm tethered in Chicago for probably at least five weeks yet, other than (probably) two routine downstate trips yet to come. (The second trip may actually BECOME the first leg of a massive trip...which could even put me in your territory. I'd enjoy meeting you, man.)

As you know, I'm generally not in HT all that much., You've seen me doing politics much more often...OH, and some hugs back at'cha - there's enough for you to save some AND pay some others forward!

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Just because...well, because I talked to Edd and he told me about this thread. (I'm a poet, and I know it. So are the rappers, lol lol.) No, I'm tethered in Chicago for probably at least five weeks yet, other than (probably) two routine downstate trips yet to come. (The second trip may actually BECOME the first leg of a massive trip...which could even put me in your territory. I'd enjoy meeting you, man.)

As you know, I'm generally not in HT all that much., You've seen me doing politics much more often...OH, and some hugs back at'cha - there's enough for you to save some AND pay some others forward!

I barely see you in CE&P either. To be honest it kinda feels like maybe you're cheating on us with another phorum. If you are just say so, we won't be mad. We just wanna know the truth.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

so he's the guy who usurped our art and sold it to corporate america? i remember clear as day no one wanted to touch hip hop in the early days, now you got guys rappin in commercials about mcnuggets and laundry detergent. it's like a friend who won the lottery and is suddenly too busy hanging with celebrities to take your call. that guy might've single-handedly destroyed rap. if wypipo didn't know how profitable it was it would still be ours. video is bookmarked, i'm spending some quality time with the tv at the moment.

You're absolutely correct, and I first heard of all this back during the formation of NPR Music back in 2007.

There was buzz in the music industry that the history of rap and hip hop go all the way back to the 1970's, if not earlier, and that history had yet to be written!
As soon as NPR Music was formed, host Bob Boilen had to act fast, so he reached out to all his professional contacts to try to reach back to the earliest names in rap before too much time had passed.

The world of music is like a spider's web. Once word spreads that someone wants to document the origins of a music style, that word spreads like a silent alarm.
Not just NPR, but radio stations in LA and NYC were also trying to connect with the roots of rap, and one name kept appearing - Peter Rosenberg.

Love him or hate him, Peter Rosenberg said in an interview, "music is money and everybody is making money except the guys who perform it. Let's get the names of the guys who make this music out there".

Peter is right. During the 70's pop culture was all about disco. The "Saturday Night Fever" crowd had taken over the music industry, all the while rap was taking hold on the streets of NYC and LA.
Mainstream media took no notice, but the kids that became the future of rap sure noticed! What started as music that could only be heard on low-power pirate radio stations grew into the monster that ate popular music today.

I know something the Peter Rosenberg mentions all the time, the streets of NYC are filled with all types of people making music and the clock never stops ticking.
Somebody is going to write the History of Rap Music but, if no one acts quickly that history will be written by people who weren't there, where it all started.

 

[Peloso]

so he's the guy who usurped our art and sold it to corporate america? i remember clear as day no one wanted to touch hip hop in the early days, now you got guys rappin in commercials about mcnuggets and laundry detergent. it's like a friend who won the lottery and is suddenly too busy hanging with celebrities to take your call. that guy might've single-handedly destroyed rap. if wypipo didn't know how profitable it was it would still be ours. video is bookmarked, i'm spending some quality time with the tv at the moment.

Didn't any of the early rappers go the DIY route? It worked for a good fourteen years for the punks. Any band that signed to a major label in the 80's was looked down upon, eviscerated by critics, and lost a chunk of their fan base. The record company execs, with their shiny bald heads and heart attack bellies, tried to appropriate what they could, but most all the time all they got was a wimpy new wave act or a vulgar condemnation in the form of a 90 second b-side track.

Then came the 90's. Between Nirvana and the appearance of white boys driving around in their daddy's car blasting rap while the scent of ivory soap waifed off their soft skin, not just punk but all rock was effectively dead.

Money. Always. Wins.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

That's what fascinates me about all music.

I love the artistry of music, but it's the business of music that brings new artists to my attention.
There are great musicians who are happy to only perform for friends and families, no interest in becoming "famous".

But here's the old problem, do you like living in a house, or in your car? Do you have a car?
Sooner or later music talent is called upon to pay the bills - or you may end up living-off friends and families!

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Didn't any of the early rappers go the DIY route? It worked for a good fourteen years for the punks. Any band that signed to a major label in the 80's was looked down upon, eviscerated by critics, and lost a chunk of their fan base. The record company execs, with their shiny bald heads and heart attack bellies, tried to appropriate what they could, but most all the time all they got was a wimpy new wave act or a vulgar condemnation in the form of a 90 second b-side track.

Then came the 90's. Between Nirvana and the appearance of white boys driving around in their daddy's car blasting rap while the scent of ivory soap waifed off their soft skin, not just punk but all rock was effectively dead.

Money. Always. Wins.

Different dynamics. The white bands probably came mostly from the suburbs, music was a hobby for them, for rappers living in poverty a record deal, like a sports contract, was dangled over their heads like a steak as a ticket out of an environment most Americans don't even feel comfortable driving through. It's complicated because technically these are sellouts, they handed our culture to a racist institution on a silver platter, but I can't hold it against them that they did what they had to do to make sure their kids don't grow up ducking gunshots on the way to the bus stop. I can't say I wouldn't have done the same if we didn't escape the ghetto when I was a toddler.

Through redlining job discrimination Jim Crow and domestic terrorism we were coralled into the ghettoes and before the dust settled and we could figure a way out of the hole we were placed in, shiny towncars showed up scouting our neighborhoods for people willing to get rich by glorifying and romanticizing this environment (THAT is going into my deepthought notebook). A lot of the (homo) thug rap from Atlanta is from affluent blacks who marketed themselves as "got it out the mud" working class but they grew up in gated communities and walked right through the door into Hollywood cuz their parents could afford studio time and fancy equipment and had connections to the industry.

 

[Peloso]

Different dynamics. The white bands probably came mostly from the suburbs, music was a hobby for them, for rappers living in poverty a record deal, like a sports contract, was dangled over their heads like a steak as a ticket out of an environment most Americans don't even feel comfortable driving through. It's complicated because technically these are sellouts, they handed our culture to a racist institution on a silver platter, but I can't hold it against them that they did what they had to do to make sure their kids don't grow up ducking gunshots on the way to the bus stop. I can't say I wouldn't have done the same if we didn't escape the ghetto when I was a toddler.

Through redlining job discrimination Jim Crow and domestic terrorism we were coralled into the ghettoes and before the dust settled and we could figure a way out of the hole we were placed in, shiny towncars showed up scouting our neighborhoods for people willing to get rich by glorifying and romanticizing this environment (THAT is going into my deepthought notebook). A lot of the (homo) thug rap from Atlanta is from affluent blacks who marketed themselves as "got it out the mud" working class but they grew up in gated communities and walked right through the door into Hollywood cuz their parents could afford studio time and fancy equipment and had connections to the industry.

I see now. Thanks.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

That's what fascinates me about all music.

I love the artistry of music, but it's the business of music that brings new artists to my attention.
There are great musicians who are happy to only perform for friends and families, no interest in becoming "famous".

But here's the old problem, do you like living in a house, or in your car? Do you have a car?
Sooner or later music talent is called upon to pay the bills - or you may end up living-off friends and families!

Ah the life of a starving artist. Before just now I saw most mainstream rappers as sellouts but in hindsight, as I said in my most recent post, they were only trying to feed their families. You're right, this is a conundrum "Do I starve and die with my integrity intact or survive as a corporate-sponsored artist?" In that light I have to soften my criticisms of the early rappers who sold out. I never had to make that choice, by pre-k we lived in a neighborhood where nobody locked doors, I had both parents and the fridge was never empty, as kids we just went outside and roamed the neighborhood til whenever cuz there were no gangs or drug dealers/addicts. Art was a hobby for me because we survived regardless.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

I see now. Thanks.

No, thankyou for listening.

 

[frankfrank]

by pre-k we lived in a neighborhood where nobody locked doors, I had both parents and the fridge was never empty, as kids we just went outside and roamed the neighborhood til whenever cuz there were no gangs or drug dealers/addicts. Art was a hobby for me because we survived regardless.

Was this still in Chicago-or-suburbs, or had your family already moved entirely away from Illinois? Because you say that you had left the ghetto even before pre-K, I'm curious...do you have any memory of it at all? I don't even necessarily mean the neighborhood itself...you might have memories of something like a scary basement, or a nice cat that died while you were still there, or some really fun place you'd be taken to that had yummy hot dogs and ice cream.

I have few event memories before I was seven years old, but before that I remember PLENTY of music! I can still remember the approximate layout of the place that we moved out of, just barely after I turned seven, including the coal bin* in front next to the sidewalk. Yeah, we used to burn ROCKS to heat the place...

*Oops, my age is showing, lol.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Was this still in Chicago-or-suburbs, or had your family already moved entirely away from Illinois? Because you say that you had left the ghetto even before pre-K, I'm curious...do you have any memory of it at all? I don't even necessarily mean the neighborhood itself...you might have memories of something like a scary basement, or a nice cat that died while you were still there, or some really fun place you'd be taken to that had yummy hot dogs and ice cream.

I have few event memories before I was seven years old, but before that I remember PLENTY of music! I can still remember the approximate layout of the place that we moved out of, just barely after I turned seven, including the coal bin* in front next to the sidewalk. Yeah, we used to burn ROCKS to heat the place...

*Oops, my age is showing, lol.

It was a pretty rapid progression, I was born in a neighborhood where was was siphoned out of my grandfather's van by the time i was walking we were in the lower upper middle class suburbs outside chicago. thank god i didn't leave illinois til I was 18 cuz I needed that culture from the midwest to prepare me for the antithesis of culture which is the south-- we moved to north carolina in 2004 and I've stayed since cuz my fam here and they're practically giving houses away compared to illinois. but i will go back and stay put, the guilt my family places on me about being available is wearing thin, i've served my time south of the mason dixie i'se ready to be free. and no i don't remember the hood at all only heard stories. my only memory prior to pre-k is when i fell out the window. although the memory is of geese dressed in doctor's coats with stethoscopes circled around me it was probably a delusion or whatever from the fall cuz I don't think birds were allowed in medical school at that time, this was the 80s we were pretty closed minded.