People are always asking me what I think about certain albums & mixtapes and I thought instead of having to give the answer 20 different times, I could just post reviews on the stuff I actually listen to. But instead of doing the typical review, I thought I would give my first impressions after my first listen straight through & then after I've had some time to really listen give a more thought out review. With Oxymoron by ScHoolboy Q just dropping yesterday, I figured that would be a great place to start. The format will probably change with time as I figure out the best way to do it but for now, I'm just gonna give my first impressions of each song.
First, let me start by saying I GET IT. Every time I turn the radio on, I hear yet another song about drugs, misogyny, money, cars, clothes, etc. Literally EVERY time. & even fans of the music can admit that everything they're hearing is definitely formulaic. But I don't think it's fair that Macklemore, who I think is dope, is being hailed as "the return of positive hip-hop" (actually saw an article with this title for the record).
My inspiration for writing this comes from the second verse on the song Thieves In The Night by Black Star, written by Mos Def in 1997 (for context purposes that was 17 years ago) about what he saw as an attempt by the powers that be to control the messages in our music with the promise of success, fame and money. If you never heard the song or haven't in a long time, for the purposes of understanding what I'm saying (and because in MY opinion it's one of the best verses ever written) you should hear it.
The hook, which comes from the book The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, just details some of the constraints on our communities & Mos Def relates it to the music industry & hip-hop particularly. I could break down the verse line for line but that would turn into something totally different (I'll probably write a separate article) but the point is that even back in 1997, artists were aware of the fact that the messages made available to the public weren't controlled by the artists themselves but by label heads who had their own agendas & that if mainstream success was your goal then some piece of your integrity had to be lost. This was a look forward as back then, I think there was somewhat of a balance between music strictly for entertainment (see "modern-day cooning") & music with a purpose but NOW? Outside of DJ mixes and off-peak times, music with ANY kind of substance is definitely the exception rather than the rule.
These are all points that I'm sure most people are aware of but I'm not sure that everyone understands how that affects their perception of the music genre. Because, and only because, the labels are controlling the music made mainstream to advertise and monetize by attempting to convince people they should be living like these artists (again, another article for another time), people always assume rap is, as my girlfriend loves to say, "shoot 'em up, bang-bang" music. People like me (#NotSoHumbleBrag) who listen to and study hip-hop all the time know that the genre is MUCH deeper than the radio, to the point that we don't even listen to the radio anymore (I literally ride in silence if I forget to bring my iPod with me) but people outside of this subgroup don't really understand this point. Sure, everyone knows about "underground rap" or "conscious rap" but even that has a bad reputation of being "boring" or "preachy" (which I'm sure the label heads had a hand in) that keeps the messages we need to hear from being heard.
Whole point of the article is this: Macklemore is one of, if not the biggest names in hip-hop today (race definitely plays a part but regardless) and yes, his music does have positive messages. But he isn't the exception everyone is trying to make him out to be.
For anyone interested in some "conscious" rappers to check out:
Ab-Soul
Shad
Black Star
Blu
Co$$
... nobody would read further than this so if you want more, just ask.
Well first, it has to be said that I don't like this song at all, or the L.A.S.E.R.S. album aside from a few songs. But the fact that Lupe made a song with Trey Songz AND a video says a lot about the state of hip-hop at this moment in time. It's been said a thousand times before but fans of REAL music have got to stop downloading albums that these artists are putting out through major labels and BUY their CDs.
He killed this joint! QuESt has been one of my favorite artists for years now. But it's not favoritism when I saw that he just may have outdone Kendrick Lamar on this one. Check it out.
