If you’re like me, you’ve spent most of this month staring out the window wondering to yourself, “if Houston Rockets F Ron Artest was quizzed by a Chinese hip hop website about the state of the genre, what sort of insights might he share?” Thanks to the research of You Been Blinded, said daydreaming can come to a merciful end.
Hip hop has been heavily watered down and knocked off course by the big money makers. There are many artists who are scared to make music for themselves and they cater to the boss with grey hair or light skin who never ever been caught in a cross fire, or been racially profiled, or cut in the face, or been face to face with multiple crack heads. The hip hop I™m accustomed to is Rakim. Rakim should be able to say what™s hip hop and what™s not. And give the other good music a different genre. Hip hop is also influenced by God, meaning artists like Run DMC and positive hip hop. I think gangster rap is a fake. I think it should be labeled pain music.
It is not hard to sell music. I think people who buy music are not stupid. When 50 put out œCurtis he tried to fool people and his fans wanted that real 50. Same with Nas and œNastradomus and Jay with the œOne album he had that was unsuccessful. The A&R these days are not that good, with the exception of a few. People don™t want to hear lies, they want pure hearted music.
Of course, it doesn’t get much more pure hearted than Alan McGee‘s favorite band.