Ignorance

[nairi]

Just a little addition: even if you heard every single rap song that was ever made, released for public or not, and you still concluded that there is not a single interesting rapper out there who sings what you would like them to sing, I wonder: would you appreciate rap if the lyrics and the manner of articulation were the opposite of what you said above?

[winoman]

Great post Nairi - I totally agree. I like some rap - Ice T, Run DMC, Public Enemy, Snoop (heh OK -I'm mostly old school - I'm an olde guy remember - but I like some of the newer stuff too...just no posers...)

Remember where this critique is coming from (and give it its just due...that is don't let the extremly pathologically narrowminded dictate to you or anyone what is "good" and what is not). This is from a guy who repeatedly bitterly whined and complained and called (100% of) the music I played in the car while we were in Turkey trash. This music included: Santana, Frank Zappa, Muddy Waters, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Prince, Taj Mahal, SOAD, Todd Rundgren, and oh yes - Grandmaster Flash! We all got a great laugh at the time and after seeing him and recalling him holding both hands up to his ears for literally hours as he could not tolerate (and that is the word...) what we were playing (incredibly varied I might add)...I also should add that I repeatedly offered him the selection from about 30-40 CDs I had brought along - from nearly all genres - and he 100% refused to select anything - because aparently he only listens to chamber music or some such...and as much as I like good chamber music as well as pre-renaissance material such a Gregorian chants and the like - I don't normally consider it to be good (high speed) driving music - and, well , we did have some miles to cover and pedal to the floor was the word...

[sad_eyes]

He looks as if he is about to dance. OMPA!

[winoman]

Grandmaster Flash - the message

Broken glass everywhere
People pissing on the stairs, you know they just don't care
I can't take the smell, I can't take the noise
Got no money to move out, I guess I got no choice
Rats in the front room, roaches in the back
Junkie's in the alley with a baseball bat
I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far
Cause the man with the tow-truck repossessed my car

Chorus:
Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to loose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under

Standing on the front stoop, hangin' out the window
Watching all the cars go by, roaring as the breezes blow
Crazy lady, livin' in a bag
Eating out of garbage piles, used to be a xxx-hag
Search and test a tango, skips the life and then go
To search a prince to see the last of senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got so so so ditty
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own

Chorus:
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from goin' under

My brother's doing fast on my mother's T.V.
Says she watches to much, is just not healthy
All my children in the daytime, Dallas at night
Can't even see the game or the Sugar Ray fight
Bill collectors they ring my phone
And scare my wife when I'm not home
Got a bum education, double-digit inflation
Can't take the train to the job, there's a strike at the station
Me on King Kong standin' on my back
Can't stop to turn around, broke my sacroiliac
Midrange, migrained, cancered membrane
Sometimes I think I'm going insane, I swear I might hijack a plane!

Chorus:

My son said daddy I don't wanna go to school
Cause the teacher's a jerk, he must think I'm a fool
And all the kids smoke reefer, I think it'd be cheaper
If I just got a job, learned to be a street sweeper
I dance to the beat, shuffle my feet
Wear a shirt and tie and run with the creeps
Cause it's all about money, ain't a damn thing funny
You got to have a con in this land of milk and honey
They push that girl in front of a train
Took her to a doctor, sowed the arm on again
Stabbed that man, right in his heart
Gave him a transplant before a brand new start
I can't walk through the park, cause it's crazy after the dark
Keep my hand on the gun, cause they got me on the run
I feel like an outlaw, broke my last fast jaw
Hear them say you want some more, livin' on a seasaw

Chorus:

A child was born, wih no state of mind
Blind to the ways of mankind
Got a smile on you with these burning tooth
Cause only god knows what you go through
You grow in the ghetto, living second rate
And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate
The places you play and where you stay
Looks like one great big alley way
You'll admire all the numberbook takers
Dogpitchers, pushers and the big money makers
Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens
And you wanna grow up to be just like them
Smuygglers, scrambles, burglars, gamblers
Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers
You say I'm cool, I'm no fool
But then you wind up dropping out of highschool
Now you're unemployed, all null 'n' void
Walking around like you're pretty boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you done did
Got send up for a eight year bid
Now your man is took and you're a Maytag
Spend the next two years as an undercover xxx
Being used and abused, and served like hell
Till one day you was find hung dead in a cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young

[winoman]

Grandmaster Flash - New York New York

(bombastic, shallow, consumerist, egotistical, and self-centred) ?

New York New York, big city of dreams

And everything in New York ain't always what it seems

You might get fooled if you come from out of town

But I'm down by law and I know my way around



Too much, too many people, too much (aha-ha)

Too much, too many people, too much, Raaah!



A castle in the sky, one mile high

Built to shelter the rich and greedy

Rows of eyes, disguised as windows

Looking down on the poor and the needy

Miles of people, marching up the avenue

Doin' what they gotta do, just to get by

I'm living in the land of plenty and many

But I'm damn sure poor and I don't know why



Too much, too many people, too much

Too much, too many people, too much!



A man's on a ledge, says he's gonna jump

People gather round, said, "He won't he's just a chump"

'Cause he lost his job, then he got robbed

His mortgage is due and his marriage is through

He says he ain't gonna pay no child support

Because the xxxxx left him without a second thought

He got nothing to eat, no shoes on his feet

She even left his clothes out in the street

He keeps hearing noises when he's at home

He always hears voices when he's all alone

His wife took the kids, the car and the crib

In this man's world, so much for Women's Lib



New York New York big city of dreams

But everything in New York ain't always what it seems

You might get fooled if you come from out of town

But I'm down by law, and I know my way around



Down in the Village, you might think I'm silly

But you can't tell the women from the men sometimes

They're sugar and spice and everything nice

But when you get ‘em home ain't no telling what you find

Right next door is a little old man

I seen him eating dog food out of a can

He says, "I got to eat, when I can't afford meat

I barely can stand, on my own two feet

I got a bad habit and I just can't break it

Something's on my mind and I just can't shake it

I need some time, and I want some space

I gotta get away from the human race?



Too much, too many people, too much (aha-ha)

Too much, too many people, too much! Raaah!



Staring at a skyscraper reaching into heaven

When over in the ghetto I'm livin in hell

Just play ball or be an entertainer

'Cause niggaz like me can't read too well

Nobody loves me, nobody cares

I dreamed about a life but I'm livin in a nightmare

Paranoid schizo, set back, snowbound

Bad news psycho, heart attack, breakdown!



Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh

Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh

Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh

Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, Huh, Hee, HUH!



If only I could sleep just ten more minutes

I might find the strength to make another day

If I didn't have to get up and do my thing

I would probably sleep my whole life away

I messed up a nice dream, somethin' bout ice cream

Whipped cream, fruits and a cherry on top

Now I gotta get up and face the world, huh

The pressure is on, It ain't never gonna stop

I sho' gotta learn to use my mind

I don't wanna be kissing nobody's behind

Just standin' on line lookin' like a jerk

Gotta get off my butt and do a full day's work

I ran into a pothole, got into a car crash

Should'a been thinking and tried to fake whiplash

A crowd gathered round, they're callin' me fat

Who you lookin at with a face like that?



New York New York big city of dreams

Everything in New York ain't always what it seems

You might get fooled if you come from out of town

But I'm down by law and I know my way around



On 42nd Street, lookin for some action

Women standing on the corner selling satisfaction

One young punk just leaning on the fence

Tryin' to make a dollar out of fifteen cents

Really is a prankster, tried to be a gangster

Real big wheel when a gun is in his hands

Just did a stick-up, just got picked up

One dead punk, killed by the man



New York New York big city of dreams

And everything in New York ain't always what it seem

You might get fooled if you come from out of town

But I'm down by law and I know my way around



Too much, too many people, too much (haha ha ha)

Too much, too many people, too much!Huh!



A baby cries and a mother dies

And the tears fall from the doctor's eyes

Because in this room, on this day

The Good Lord has giveth, and taketh away, huh!

The gift of life really means a lot

And in the ghetto your life is all you got

So you take to the streets, trying to exist

In the trash and slime of a world like this

What you watch on TV tells you what life is supposed to be

But when you look outside the only thing you see

Is the poverty stricken reality, Heh!

Abandoned places, angry faces

Much hate and hunger throughout the races

You say, "I'm grown and I'm on my own

So why don't everybody just leave me alone!"

Now you stay at home, talking on the phone

Doin ninety miles an hour in the fifty mile zone

They never took the time to tell you ‘bout sex

So you had to learn about it in the discotheques

Nine months later, the baby is there

And the Nigga that did it said, "I don't care!"

You don't have enough money to help feed two

So you have to choose between the baby and you

The sky was crying, rain and hail

When you put your baby in the garbage pail

Then you kissed the kid and put down the lid

And you tried to forget what you just did, Huh!

The muffled screams of a dying baby

Was enough to drive the young mother crazy

So she ran in the rain trying to ease the pain

Huh huh, And she drove herself insane



New York New York big city of dreams

But everything in New York ain't always what it seem

You might get fooled if you come from out of town

But I'm down by law and I know my way around



Too much, too many people, too much (haha ha ha)

Too much, too many people, too much! HUH!



New York New York big city of dreams

But everything in New York ain't always what it seem

You might get fooled if you come from out of town

But I'm down by law and I know my way around



Too much, too many people, too much (haha ha ha)

Too much, too many people, too much

[One-Way]

It's all an opinion. I'm not trying to say rappers have a greater amount of talent- I'm just saying most of you hate them without listening to the real rap songs.

[nunechka]

rap isnt bad it is an aqcuired taste - AND! REAL rap music is awesome... the garbage of some of the poprap music that is out today is not rap...

[One-Way]

^ That sums up the whole thread.

When you listen to real rappers who make real hip-hop- that's what rap is. Basically everyone hates rap because of commercial rap. They think everyone talks about the money-lifestyle and their cars but when you get deeper into it, you'll see the real meaning of it.

There's so many of them out right now, just check their music. And if you don't like "Underground" type of rap- just check out the ones who are mainstream but still provide honesty in lyrics.

[bell-the-cat]

Great post Nairi - I totally agree. I like some rap - Ice T, Run DMC, Public Enemy, Snoop (heh OK -I'm mostly old school - I'm an olde guy remember - but I like some of the newer stuff too...just no posers...)

Remember where this critique is coming from (and give it its just due...that is don't let the extremly pathologically narrowminded dictate to you or anyone what is "good" and what is not). This is from a guy who repeatedly bitterly whined and complained and called (100% of) the music I played in the car while we were in Turkey trash. This music included: Santana, Frank Zappa, Muddy Waters, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Prince, Taj Mahal, SOAD, Todd Rundgren, and oh yes - Grandmaster Flash! We all got a great laugh at the time and after seeing him and recalling him holding both hands up to his ears for literally hours as he could not tolerate (and that is the word...) what we were playing (incredibly varied I might add)...I also should add that I repeatedly offered him the selection from about 30-40 CDs I had brought along - from nearly all genres - and he 100% refused to select anything - because aparently he only listens to chamber music or some such...and as much as I like good chamber music as well as pre-renaissance material such a Gregorian chants and the like - I don't normally consider it to be good (high speed) driving music - and, well , we did have some miles to cover and pedal to the floor was the word...

Yes, he had such amusement, such fun, that vomit-inducing creature. For him it was "Santana" all through the killing fields of Malatya; it was "Grandmaster Flash" past the massacre sites at Harput (me to him - "doesn't the name Harput mean anything to you? Him to me, "I don't know, I think I've come across the name somewhere before"); it was "Todd Rundgren" all along the once bloody plain of Mush; it was "Frank Zappa" past those blood soaked fields of Van's suburbs. And then, the climax and the true reason for his trip, adultery at Van itself, at the heart of the only successful resistance to the Genocide.

The genre I like is the genre of dignified behaviour and respect for the occasion and the location and the horrible things that had happened there.

[bell-the-cat]

^ That sums up the whole thread.

What sums up this whole "Ignorance" thread is to say that it is ignorant to even bring up the subject of peoples' musical tastes. It's best for us all to stay on less important and less controversial subjects, such as religion, or the Genocide.