Hip-hop, Society........and The Entrepreneur

Hip hop, Society and….. The Entrepreneur

For reasons unknown (a famous song in a entirely different context) but for now we shall use it for this title, the reason for the said title is the plethora of difference between what we associate with hip-hop, society and business (for this instance we’ll use the entrepreneur) since the republican ramshackles of Bush and Reagan(nomics) and present day liberalisation which has seen public angst against prejudice turn into a popularity contest on MTV on who shall reach number 1 (less we forget over sampled beats).

Parties on all sides have noted the vulgarity of which hip-hop has been cited, lyrics at a time were seen to be merely provocative and merely suggestive has turned into being blatant and overly obscene in my opinion. To use a quote ‘Music videos have become machismo fairy tales that have more "ogre and ass" scenes than the Shrek trilogy’. But the problem is for what demographic (which in all intents and purposes are not supposed to purchase ‘read the extreme lyrics tab in black and white) are picking up the latest album by what we call today’s hip-hop stars.

Now I’m no person supporting a cause for anything (that’ll be judged by the 22 people that will brush across this and form an opinion, lets just say not enough for a revolution….or a pay cheque for that matter!), but I look back to hip-hop in the 80’s and early 90’s especially in the USA where a new spark was being lit, music that had been underground since the black panther movement was starting to surface, to this we look at the revelation of N.W.A, Grandmaster flash, Public Enemy, Rakim, early producers like Marley Mal and for business the ‘Don’ shall we say that was and still is Russell Simmons and co-founder and uber producer Rick Rubin.

Now with this we had a message that spread the problems in inner city America (and lets be honest not the most clean cut of lyrics) but it gave people a voice not just of problems but also opportunity in a society for people

Now that being looked at we have heard a voice and people (I say people not to typecast an overriding sense to a particular race). This voice being heard gave power, new opportunity and a new sense of hope and posterity to new voices wanting to spread this message.

I say this but looking at hip-hop nowadays watching Chris Rock who in one of his comedy shows stated that ‘Women don’t give a fuck about the song, as long as the beat is good, she’s gonna dance!’ (then went on to give his version of such a song, something along the lines of something in ears and eyes), but this although funny statement does bring about the sense of what hip-hop means to people nowadays and what it means to artists.

‘I’m reporting from the streets’ is the common argument for hip-hop artists these days and it appears it always has been but I get more and more critical when reporting from the streets gives credence to a continuous stream of pointless lyrics that pertain to a diamond necklace, a Bentley, a lady’s ass or how she gave good felacio last night.

Now this is not a problem for me(my opinion SHALL BE HEARD! In this Google blogger!), for the millions of dollars companies are willing to pay and media which strives for a celebrity story it seems the norm nowadays, but from what hip hop was about to what it is now it’s a sad indictment of what is means to people.

The power used to be with the artist also, this new sense of excitement gave a wheel to the entrepreneur, lets talk Suge Knight at Deathrow Records (granted a very power hungry individual who had since paid his dues), Damon Dash, Shawn Carter and Kareem ‘Biggs’ Burke who started Roca-a-Fella records in 1996, Irv Gotti with Murder Inc Records, Master P with No Limit Records, with many more artists getting their share of power (all of which started in the early to mid 90’s).

This doesn’t happen anymore and its quite sad that the message being spread is not one of being smart, being entrepreneurial and mixing this with talent, but with artists these days I feel its basically you’ve got one or the other not all 3, what started off with artists having all 3 has been blinded by media spotlight giving a sense of one or the other to an artist and never all three.

For this we can call upon the greed of record labels, the greed of the artists, the greed of the media to have a story…..or we can look at a foundation that began as a movement and gave people a voice being lost in the wind, can we get this back? Who knows but with hip-hop at the moment the same message which has been spread (be interesting to see what you think that is) since the dawn of high media interest, as many artists say ‘we don’t give a fuck’, well maybe you should and ask yourself what your genre used to represent.

P.S The first ever hip-hop song I listened to properly was Deep Cover in 1991 by Dr Dre and his young mentor Snoop Doggy Dogg.