Is 50 Cent a 21st century Uncle Tom?

[In Bloom]

totally diss

Please tell me you are not seriously using the phrase "totally diss"

 

[gabe2]

Supporting rap/hip-hop/heavy metal in terms of musical attributes is indefensible. Call them all for what they are - distant relatives of primal grunts and screams. There must soon be a point where this kind of
expression is so bad that only the injection of some kind of melody and/or
morality will redeem it.

 

[kakuma]

all bitches is hoes

even my stinkin ass mom

 

[In Bloom]

Call them all for what they are - distant relatives of primal grunts and screams.

Since when was that a bad thing?

Though its only true of rap and hip hop to the extent that it is of all music, unless you're trying to say something about the people who do rap and hip hop (I do wonder whatever that might be).

 

[nino_savatte]

Supporting rap/hip-hop/heavy metal in terms of musical attributes is indefensible. Call them all for what they are - distant relatives of primal grunts and screams. There must soon be a point where this kind of
expression is so bad that only the injection of some kind of melody and/or
morality will redeem it.

You are Theodor Adorno and I claim my £5.

 

[gabe2]

No ambigiuity in my remarks above.
Performance characterized by heavily distorted guitar sound, unrelenting crashing percussion and vocals performed at intense screaming levels is noise.
Barely intelligible rythmic chants that espouse gun crime, misogyny, ammorality and bling-bling do not music make. Heavy metal/rap/hip-hop are all of one piece. Frickin' NOISE.

 

[trashpony]

No ambigiuity in my remarks above.
Performance characterized by heavily distorted guitar sound, unrelenting crashing percussion and vocals performed at intense screaming levels is noise.
Barely intelligible rythmic chants that espouse gun crime, misogyny, ammorality and bling-bling do not music make. Heavy metal/rap/hip-hop are all of one piece. Frickin' NOISE.

You're my dad aren't you?

 

[kyser_soze]

When Titanic is the most popular film ever in that bastion of high culture France, it tells you how far ahead Hollywood is of everyone one else.

Nah, just shows the power of a true Universal Story with hero/heroine archetypes and a situation that talks to pretty much anyone on the planet.

Another good example of this is Baywatch - one of the most successful TV shows EVER, largely because, underneath the swimsuits, steroids and silicon, there is a universally appreciated story - people saving people's lives, clearly defined good/bad characters, and a clear moral story at the end. Powerful storytelling stuff, esp in cultures that can be described as part-modern.

 

[kakuma]

Nah, just shows the power of a true Universal Story with hero/heroine archetypes and a situation that talks to pretty much anyone on the planet.

Another good example of this is Baywatch - one of the most successful TV shows EVER, largely because, underneath the swimsuits, steroids and silicon, there is a universally appreciated story - people saving people's lives, clearly defined good/bad characters, and a clear moral story at the end. Powerful storytelling stuff, esp in cultures that can be described as part-modern.

although it may be a universal story blah blah blah, the real reason US films are more popular in europe than european films is cos the cinemas are owned by the companies who make and distribute US films

and baywatch wa so popular cos of unversal appreciation of semi naked beautiful people running up and down a beach

 

[kyser_soze]

Baywatch was popular in countries where, as a rule, such displays of naked flesh would be considered intolerable on TV, but were broadcast because of the moral content so no, it wasn't just down to the semi-nekkid peeps...

 

[kakuma]

it would be even more succesful if they werent allowed to show flesh normally cos of the flesh tho surely??

 

[kyser_soze]

What I mean is that the censors of some countries allowed Baywatch because of the moral character of the stories.

Repressive state censors generally would keep such stuff for themselves while 'protecting' the rest of the population - and that lots of that population would feel the same way about seeing such things on TV. You're assuming that everyone is as lacivious as you Ninj

 

[kakuma]

What I mean is that the censors of some countries allowed Baywatch because of the moral character of the stories.

Repressive state censors generally would keep such stuff for themselves while 'protecting' the rest of the population - and that lots of that population would feel the same way about seeing such things on TV. You're assuming that everyone is as lacivious as you Ninj

spose you got me on the last point

agree to disagree on this one.....

*goes off to download baywatch*

 

[kyser_soze]

spose you got me on the last point

agree to disagree on this one.....

*goes off to download baywatch*

'Run Yasmeen!! Run like the wind!!!'

 

[gabe2]

oh right...play the 'age' card...I'm old so whatever I say
has just got to be wrong or uncool....

 

[kakuma]

oh right...play the 'age' card...I'm old so whatever I say
has just got to be wrong or uncool....

fuck off grandad

 

[kakuma]

what the fuck is this doing in politics btw????

 

[gabe2]

uhh - wipe off the puke from your face - it's too much like your opinion

 

[kakuma]

 

[Streathamite]

Supporting rap/hip-hop/heavy metal in terms of musical attributes is indefensible. Call them all for what they are - distant relatives of primal grunts and screams. There must soon be a point where this kind of
expression is so bad that only the injection of some kind of melody and/or
morality will redeem it.

never heard of public enemy then?

 

[teqniq]

Michael Franti? Consolidated?

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The biggest movie industry in the world is in India and at present the only reason it's not the dominant movie-making force on the planet is because of the massive size of the internal market - US films are released there and are popular but nowhere near that of the indigenous film industry. Same applies to the PRC and Japan - US music and films are popular but they still don't do as well as local acts (and anyone who crticises teen bands in the US and Europe should check out Idoru girlgroups in Japan for vacuousness and disposability!!)

Anytime a country exports it's culture it will export bad and good stuff - yes the mainstream commercial stuff is shite and negative, but you can say the same about the mysogny and homophobia of ragga, which comes from a culture that has developed it's own form of brutally violent gangsterism.

To say that 'nothing competes with Hollywood or the US Corporate Music scene' is simply incorrect and not a true reflection of what the world is like.

There is also this assumption that the export of culture is one-way.

At the moment the fastest growing entertainment venue in the US is Mexican professional wrestling. If there was ever a cultural import I could send back it to its home, it would be fake wrestling.

I'm also seeing a lot of Bollywood stuff floating around. Every one I've seen is a plot of: guy meets girl, guy loses girl, guy gets girl back. Then, they dance.

But, in the long run, the different cultural influences are a good thing. Culture can become too staid and static.

 

[Jonti]

Ah, murderously violent song lyrics combined with mysogyny.

Remember this, anyone?

Of course, we were far too cool to take it seriously.
Unlike that lot wot buys Two Cents' records, I guess.

*irony warning!*

 

[Julie]

50 Cent continues a tradition that was alive back in the time of big-lip-smaking, grinning black Minstrel shows.

Whites are more comfortable with caricatures of blacks, instead of fully-human blacks trying to relate on the same level, the same playing field as whites.

Rappers are super horny, violent, dialect-talking things that prance and caper about. Might as well be Stepin Fetchit up there. It's what whites think blacks are, and they're comfortable when those near-men are entertaining them with their sort-of poetry with the heavy beat. That's what blacks do.

Just like they play football good, or jump real high in basketball, because of their overdeveloped quads, probably something to do with the jungle.

Black men are those guys in the videos, and black women are those women in bikinis with the big butts in the videos. If you show them like Cosby did, ie the Huxtables, well, that's just funny. It's a comedy.

This may seem confrontational and it's not my intent. I have highlighted the aforementioned words because I'm confused. If you're black, as you say, why are you referring to blacks as them, they, etc?

**************

As to the topic, I don't perceive 50 Cent as an 'Uncle Tom'. However, I do believe that plenty of African American rap/hip hop artists could be more vocal politically (in their music), as to the disenfranchised status of so many African Americans, and write/perform less of the gangsta/bling/women-as-playthings kind of songs. Yep, they're "living large", while at the same time providing massive ammunition to white supremacists: those who loudly and proudly declare themselves as such, as well as those much more covert (e.g. certain newsmen/women on Fox).

Thus, Arrested Development are a 90s band that spring to mind that wrote/performed intelligent, honest, articulate songs that had the potential to empower African Americans. Mary J. Blige is another artist, as is Alicia Keyes, Brownstone, Angie Stone, amongst others.

Just my 2 p

 

[vogonity]

This may seem confrontational and it's not my intent. I have highlighted the aforementioned words because I'm confused. If you're black, as you say, why are you referring to blacks as them, they, etc?
QUOTE]
I think JC2 was impersonating the voice of such an onlooker, rather than speaking his own opinion.

 

[Julie]

Okay

 

[Fruitloop]

The thing about Hey Joe is that it doesn't exactly glamorise the violence. Joe found his women messing around and shot her, and now he has to run for it before the posse catches up with him and hangs him. It's not quite 'pop a cap in yo ass and then go back to my limo-bitches' is it.

 

[warren]

Double Post

 

[warren]

Fuck you prick.

Hes entitled to his opinion, and I'm entitled to mine that he is some sort of Reactionary. I criticesed his veiws, I never said he's not allowed to have em, the thought never occured to me.

"ban all music but dusty old jazz..." it's not that I dislike Jazz, or Bethoven, rather that (as you say) his line of thinking means the only legitimate music must be very old and dusty indeed or it's just young-uptsart noise. In fact the word "jazz" used to mean rubbish.

anyway you're a cunt, a dick-spittle and a knob-gobbet, don't talk to me, cunt.

I am certainly one of the biggest reactionary Hip Hop fans in existence. I cant stand the production 'these days' which I believe ( I may be wrong on this) originated from a combination of Gangsta Rap, Dirty South & Fruity Loops (the producing program anyone can stick on their PC)

Rap music particularly Thug style rap has become and is one of the most influencial and important aspects of youth culture, so to dismiss it as crap is being reactionary but so what IMHO it is of a poorer quality than 'golden era' rap.

Most US rap today whether it is underground or commercial incorporate a thug style of rapping. It isnt being an uncle tom its, every (and I mean every single one on the face of this earth) young males dreams to live an Hedonistic life of beautiful females, shit loads of money, flash cars & diamond studded watches.

And I dont know about millions of talented artists but there are at least several hundred including:

Rakim, Lord Finesse, Chuck D, Big Daddy Kane, Big L, KRS ONE, Kool Keith, Nas, Masta Ace Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, Eric B. & Rakim, Gang Starr, Showbiz & A.G.Boogie Down Productions, The U.M.C.s, Double X Posse, EPMD, Black Sheep, Nice & Smooth, Smif-n-Wessun Main Source, Public Enemy,Run DMC, Wu-Tang Clan, De La Soul, Run D.M.C., Brand Nubian, Black Moon KMD, Freestyle Fellowship.

 

[Julie]

It isnt being an uncle tom its, every (and I mean every single one on the face of this earth) young males dreams to live an Hedonistic life of beautiful females, shit loads of money, flash cars & diamond studded watches.

I know a young, very good looking bloke, who loves rap and hip hop but laughs his guts up at the videos depicting what he supposedly wants in life. And what those videos depict? Is not what he wants.

And no, he's not gay.

So you might need to change your position from 'every young male' to 'every young male except that bloke Julie knows'