i've had a lot of topics to scream about lately, but for some reason, i haven't brought too many of them here. maybe i felt like my posts are too long usually, but hey, i'm a wordy person. my posts are just going to be long. so here's what i have to shout about today:
once upon a time, black music seemed to have a lot to say about the real political injustices in the world, and lately, i haven't heard so much as a peep from any major rap artist about the situation at hand. ok, sure, nas wrote a song about the diamond industry; or more accurately, wrote a song that had some vague connection to diamonds and their detrimental effect on a continent, but mainly, i've seen nothing about the war coming from the rap genre.
i will be ecstatic to stand corrected if you guys pull out all sorts of (lucid and purposeful) rap songs about how stupid it is for us to be at war, but i think that unless you happen to be a fan of some sub-sub-genre of rap that no one listens to, you're going to have a hard time with it.
the punk bands i listen to are all screaming out about how the nation has been lied to and taken advantage of by our leaders, and they always have. but missy elliot wants to talk about her new chrysler product, i seem to recall the topic of conversation a few years ago to be who had a midget hanging from their necklace. it's irresponsible and i can think of a time when america's black artists had something to say about "what's going on."
i don't expect any top 40 performer (performers are not necessarily artists) to have anything relevant to say because let's face it, they don't even write their own songs. they're the equivalent of cheerleaders. i can understand why country singers might feel like they have a right to their cowardice after what happened to the dixie chicks when they spoke out. let's face it, there was only one man in black. but shoot, even system of a down pulled their heads out of their asses long enough to wonder why we "always send the poor." you may think i'm full of it, but i think a lot of similarities can be drawn between punk and rap. so why are the punks opening their mouths while the rappers stay mum?
it just seems that lately, rock and punk are where it's at as far as speaking out against the lies that have been told goes, and i think that missy elliot could do just as good a job at saying something meaningful, while making it sound good, as mark unseen can.
so, from now on, i think every day i'm going to include a quote from one of my daily listens that has to do with the political situation at hand. i know song lyrics never hold their meaning as well when printed, but i've spared you guys most of my need to spread my favorite songs around.
i hate it when people post entire songs, so since sometimes every word is so relevant that not even one word can be edited, i'll just put different verses on different days. and i will welcome quotes from rappers, or black artists in general that are relevant in the comments.
today's quote:
What do you think your country needs
when she calls on the youth of today?
It means she wants you to fight for her;
a reason to blow us away.
You may think we are the important ones,
new faces to run this place.
Our leaders don't think we're worth too much;
the fact of the matter is:
Tomorrow Belongs To Us
(The Casualties, "Tomorrow Belongs To Us")
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7 comments:
I don't listen to rap so I can't give you any musical similarities between the two, however there is such a thing as independent rap music! Most of these Independent lablels push and market these cd's themselves, usually by painting up a Hummer with some dude with a gold grill making some sort of tough guy pose! Usually the cd has thug or hardcore in it's title somewhere! Just thought you might want to know since I see it all the time here in south central!
Fucking hippies.
I'd expect you of all people to not get swayed by the belief of your preferred musician.
I mean honestly, there is nothing keeping you guys in this country. If the guv'munt is treating you sooo badly. So badly infact, that your main life problem right now isn't if you will be living in a house next month or not. But which house you decide to live in. The one with all the land, or the nice big one in the burbs, or the little one in the nice city? The man is so damn bad Biff lives off him(for the sake of argument), and still has enough cash to start his own business.
You do seem to be awfully taken advantage of?
There's a reason punk died in the 70's. There's a reason rappers don't have anything to bitch about anymore. All you guys are just the younger siblings or children of the people who actually had the problems. And get angsty that you don't have anything to bitch about. So you bitch about an administration that's really does a pretty decent job with a horrible streak of bad luck.
and here comes the third reich calling people hippies again. i guess there's two sorts of people in the world...hippies and nazis.
there's a reason you only listen to disco and industrial. people like you like to make a big deal about how they're so hardcore and say things to shock people. you just go the extra mile by actually believing in all that "kill everyone who's stupid enough to not be me" nonsense.
just because you think that having metal in parts of your body makes you punk rock doesn't make you right.
by the way, since when have you started reading my blog? i thought you quit blogs when you started your forum. and if i wanted to know el doctor's, i mean, your political opinion's, i'd have posted this on your forum, which i still do frequent, even though i don't have anything to say to a bunch of strangers. don't blame me, your wife doesn't care what any of them think either.
"a pretty decent job with a horrible streak of bad luck?" wake up chance. this president is the worst thing to happen to this country since the last president. and just because i happened to be born into the privileged class in society and didn't have the option to fail, and didn't need to sign myself up to get out of my desperate economic situation doesn't mean that i can't see that it's bad for working class kids to get sent to die unnecessarily. sure, you can respond with some kind of "i'm such a badass, i think all working class kids should die" b.s., everyone's tired of it. you should try a new tack, that one's tired. you have never had any sense when it comes to morality and you proudly boast about that very fact, so don't let the fact that i like you make you think that i think your hardcore act is always cute. sure, sometimes it is, sometimes i think it's funny. not when i just got home for the first time since 4:30 AM.
and just because once upon a time, you owned a rancid patch and know who minor threat is, doesn't make you cool, or punk rock, and doesn't mean you really know anything about it, so go listen to icp and shut up about it.
and there's a difference between being swayed by your music, and letting your opinions sway your choice of music.
and i'll add that in my nice, clean, priviledged upper middle class private school, i never once saw a recruiter. the only people in my school who joined were those who had family traditions to uphold, or who couldn't get into college because of their bad temperaments coupled with severe a.d.d. just because you're all for swearing to defend any old jackass who gets elected doesn't mean we were all that dumb or impoverished.
by the way, if my husband who has 1 year and 9 months left in the inactive reserves gets drafted and killed by our "good but unlucky" president, i think i will consider myself to be awfully taken advantage of. but since i'm just not as cool as you, i can see that what has befallen others, but not yet me, sucks and shouldn't happen if it doesn't have to. i suppose that means i'm some kind of hippie.
but on the positive side, i suppose your spelling has improved a bit. you must have proofread this one 5 times so i couldn't pick on you for being dumb.
Why do musicians have to be political luminaries? It seems like there are plenty of other, more direct, ways to gain political insight. Music is just another artform (like poetry, or visual art) that from time to time, makes a political point. There isn't always a "message" to be extracted; sometimes artists do stuff because it's fun, and sometimes we enjoy it because it's fun. I didn't get into punk music for political enlightenment; I got into it because I like the sound of loud distorted guitars in simple musical arrangements. Does that make me less of a punk?
How do you justify the success of bands that have fairly non-political viewpoints, like the Ramones? Black Flag wasn't overly political. Quite a bit of early rap music doesn't really have any message other than tales of going to parties or having lots of money or similar things. Rappers just did it because they thought it sounded cool.
Certainly, there have been musicians, or at least song lyricists, that have been inspired by political injustice, but why should I only pay attention to those artists? It seems pretty limiting.
another post is coming, but for the meantime, i'll keep it short by saying this: sean, i'm never going to accuse anyone but chance of being less punk.
christina: please give us some quotes, that's kind of why i started this topic.
oh, p.s., thanks jorge, i knew you'd have something good to add.
Ok, this is an old one so I am not sure if you'll see it. I agree with your comments but I am a true believer in the black community starting everything and the white man making his take in it. Punk music has reggae roots. Reggae, the hard core stuff talked about inequity and political issues of the time. The styles are the same as far as basic rhythms. Reggae begat ska and ska begat punk etc. We have learned most of our music and dance from the black cultures of the world. We have taken everything that they have done and made it ours. There are very few celebrities, artist, musicians etc that put forth a political message. Even System of a Down is in it for the money. There are even fewer that do more than just sing about it. Going back to black culture I think that it is sad that they do not have any positive role models. Oprah would be one but anytime a black person is successful and intelligent (not to mention speaks English correctly) they are deemed to be white in a derogatory sense. I just think they are the only ones keeping them down. What this country needs is a riot. And in partial response to Chances post...yes we are fortunate to live in a county where our lives aren't in immediate danger but a supply man in the Navy has little to worry about. It isn't his life that I need to worry over it is the thousands of ground troops that are actually put in harms way. I know they enlisted like he did and by that accepted the consequences but getting shot at changes a persons perspective. Getting shot at for false reasons, lies and corruption tends to sour ones opinions of how great this nation is. It was built on the backs of many others and will fall much like the Romans due to unquestioning behavior, selfishness and ignorance.
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