Rap

Earlier today I was thinking about what I'd talk about in this week's post while listening to my boi Kanye West. I like rap, and I listen to it quite often, but I realized that I didn't know the lyrics to the song I was listening to. I started the track over, and paid attention to the lyrics this time. I was surprised. It's not like I expected the lyrics to be deep and meaningful, but I was shocked at just how empty they were.

Back in the days when hip-hop was still young, before I was even alive, rap was much different. Back then, rappers, more often called MC's, were poets, just reading their rhymes to a beat.

Take this line, for example, from Tupac's "Only God Can Judge Me":
    And they say its the white man i should fear
    Buts its my own kind doing all the killin' here

Here's a verse from Talib Kaweli's "Ghetto Afterlife":
    These n****z ain't thugs, the real thugs is the government.
    Don't matter if you Independent, Democrat, or Republican,
    N****z politickin' the street, get into beef,
    Start blastin'... now a new cat is executive chief.

And here's a verse from Nas' "Heaven":
    It's hard taking this 

    Racist planet where they take another brother in a handcuff
    Even if he innocent nicca get on the car put your motherf*****g hands up
    Thinking I'm a lose it
    My mom's in chemo
    Three times a week, yo keep trying but people
    Is hard and God your young soldier's not so bold
    But needs you
    This world's my home but world I would leave you.

These lyrics resonate with me as being poetry. They are not, at least in my mind, "commercial" writing. They are examining the world, making observations, and inspiring the listener to think about things. I think that's one of the main differences between old school rap and the newer stuff.

At this point, I was planning on taking a few lyrics from some rap songs that my peers might be more familiar with. But, honestly, the commercialized stuff that's produced nowadays isn't quotable. There just isn't any lyric that defines just how hollow and fake the rap game has become.

I don't mean to imply that there is no longer any conscious rap (which is what deeper rap is called).

Here's a verse from Bun B's "So Close, So Far", released in 2010:
     Wouldn't it be nice if life was sort of like a dream,
     And everything wasn’t really what it seemed?

     What if everything you ever wished for was in reach,
     And you could learn everything your school didn’t teach?
     Wouldn't it be nice if the banks didn’t f*** up the loans,
     And people ain’t have to move out they homes?
     With no GM or AIG…and for that matter no cancer or A-I-D?

However, rappers nowadays seem to be (in general!) a lot more focused on getting a good product that people will like and buy, instead of being focused on really affecting people.

I think the words of KRS-One's "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Seen)" sum this up pretty well:
     Rappers spit rhymes that are mostly illegal,
     MC's spit rhymes to uplift their people.










Here's a link to some really deep and powerful Tupac lyrics: http://www.alleyezonme.com/poetry/