As for surreal, I’m still waiting for Chumpsky to check in and link rap and the neo-economic crypto-facist western industrial war machine.
MOL, lets see if this helps
There is no good music or bad music, see? It’s what we call subjective, which means nobody is right or wrong. As hard as you are trying to convince us that Kalib is so talented, someone else feels the same about Nelly. Different people interpret music, differently!. Now that we got that straight, let’s touch on something else.
I’ve worked in the music industry, I write and produce tons of music, hip-hop included, and I know this little kernel of knowledge…
The music industry has nothing to do about music!
Yes you heard me correctly, music has surprising little to do with an artists success. Let me backpedal a bit, it used to have something to do with it, but since MTV that’s not the case. These days a person can have very little skill and be successful, because anything can be done with sound editing. Image and looks are just as important these days, if not more. I’d rather be a good looking person with little talent, then an amazing singer who is butt ugly, because it will get you a lot further. I’ve taken rappers that couldn’t rhyme longer then 20 seconds, and splice it together so they sound 10 times faster then Busta, and you would never know.
As far as lyrical content goes, people don’t really give a shit about politics, or insightful lyrics and messages, they just want to get their collective groove on. People these days don’t seem to be interested in anything that provokes thought, and that’s reflected in what’s popular today. Insipid formulaic movies, TV shows plots that are rehashed ad nauseum, and music that is uninspired and simplistic at best. I just haven’t figured out if they are making people like it, or if they are responding to the tastes of idiots. (an animated Adam Sandler movie comes to mind)
The older hip hop had all the things you mentioned, then someone started talking about raping bitches and shooting cops up in the head, blah blah etc, and it sold. The record companies said, hmmmmmmm, lets find more of this stuff, people like it. Eventually it will get saturated, some label will take a chance on a new artist with a different style, and then the cycle will begin again. What was once fresh and new (umm say Nirvana), eventually becomes old and tired (say The Vines), it happens with everything, Michael Jordan, The Macarena, and the dancing baby included.
One day you’ll be saying “what is this shit? I remember back in the day when we had good music like Slipknot and Lil Bow wow, this stuff nowadays isn’t even music, bah!”