mahe17

[mahe17]

Hip Pop?

This week I didn’t want to talk about Eminem since I’ve mostly talked about him in the rest of my posts and to be honest it will be a very short post. 

What will be interesting to focus on for this last post will be the current place of hip hop in the world. Hip Hop is considered as the most genre listened with R&B in the USA but also worldwide. (i.e : Beyoncé with contemporain R&B). 

  By the way, at the beginning the hip hop’s audience was mainly men from 18 but when women like Nicki Minaj came into the game, it increased a female audience (from 18 too). 

“Hi men!”

  Still, even when we try to identify which genre is the most listened, we cross the correlation between hip hop and pop.

Spotify has done a survey proving that hip hop is the most listened genre. Plus, they’ve created a live map which allows anyone to check what are the most popular songs in over 1,000 cities in the world. 

   However, I think hip hop is very very popular but also Pop is majorly listened in California for example. I found another map stipulating that in California the genre which is listened the most is Pop. 

The map might interest some of you because other genres are represented too (hard metal, rock and so on) and maybe you can react to this because personally, concerning hip hop I was shocked because it says that: “Rap/Hip-Hop didn’t make the rankings” ... Speechless...

My point here is to lead you toward the idea that pop music and rap music have an actual link. A lot of artists are told to be pop and rap at the same time or rappers being more pop than rap (Drake). 

The question now is could we consider this “new” form of rap as a sub-genre form of hip hop? Or is it now belonging to the pop genre? 

Isn’t it just the mix of both?

Map 1 (spotify) : https://www.complex.com/music/2015/07/hip-hop-most-listened-genre-on-spotify-study

Map 2: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/03/01/the-most-popular-music-genre-in-every-u-s-state/

[mahe17]

 Hello people!

 For this week post, I wanted to extent on Eminem’s attacks upon people but not only politicians such as President Bush or President Trump but also other artists (here especially rappers) like, Lil Pump, or Drake and so on.

 This “unkind” artist dissed so many people, I chose to focus on those he did in his latest album “Kamikaze” surprisingly released in 2018.

 In the song “The Ringer”, Lil Yachty, Vice-President Mike Pence and MGK, Iggy Azalea, Lil Pump, Lil Xan are the names mentioned.

 I felt uncomfortable with all of his critics so, I wonder if it was justified.

   Well, I first thought he only acts such a way to get more attention and so more popular because doing so, people will talk about him (as he used to be). He managed to target more and more people in order to be a subject of discussion and debate.

 But then, I questioned myself again.  Wasn’t he criticizing the rappers like Lil Pump imitating Lil Wayne as a way by extent, to critic the industry in general.

In fact, in this special rap song, he opposed himself to “everyone else in the music industry” and mentioned the names above gathering the artists in the same box, playing the same game, being into the industry.

One more time, all for the purpose of money and success. Even Eminem charges himself to tell them that they won’t succeed.

 Eminem has a very particular personality, he doesn’t care if people love him or hate him as I already said in my latest posts and neither to be different, and I mean here to be the exception being the one not playing at their game which he clearly denounces.  

I’ll finally end this post sharing with you my favorite song from this album: Venom 

Enjoy :) 

[mahe17]

Hi everyone! 

Since in last class there was a question about the difference between Hip Hop and rap, I made advanced researches and here is what I’ve found.

One thing we’ve understood is that the difference is actually ambiguous. 

When I made my very first researches about rap music, I focused on its origins and I remembered reading something like: rap comes from hip hop such as breakdancing and DJing and Graffiti do. Thanks to these first researches, I’ve succeeded to distinguish them as Hip Hop to be a culture and rap to be one of its compositions. 

However, with extensive researches, I found another way to distinguish both concepts.

  To start with, Flav claimed that some singers’ songs became more pop than rap. Some characteristics of rap are less noticeable, it could be the rhythmic pattern or the “throw your hand in the air” formula. This can be justify by the fact that labels have in fact asked their best-selling artists to mix rap with other genres such as pop or R&B because rap songs’ selling has decreased and doing such a way would insure its future. 

  Then, we will simply divide MCs on one first side and rappers (some) on the other one. 

MCs promote the culture (hip hop culture), the art of it, whereas rappers keeps interest only about money, so they rather keep focus on their products taking care of improving even if it means not following the exact characteristic of a rap song so that they’ll earn more. 

-I’m not talking about every rapper, I think some only adjust the genre, rap genre with who they are.-

  One example of a rapper recording a “no so rap song” is Nicki Minaj. “Starfish” is considered to be more pop music than rap (even though at some point the rhythm and the dance are present).

I don’t know if you still following me but what I’ve said above illustrates the fact that rap is actually changing, evolving if you prefer and consequently that made it even more difficult to consider what I’ll call “modern” rap as part of the hip hop culture. So, what is best to do is to say that there is no huge difference between rap and hip hop but rather between MCs and rappers. How each of them use it and for what purposes. MCs kept that free styling on a particular rhythm so this is a “real” rap genre, or at least the original one, whereas rappers’ works are less recognizable as belonging to the hip hop genre. To sum it up, there is on one side the Hip Hop culture and on the other side the Record Business. 

Do you have any example of a rap song not so reflecting hip hop culture? 

[mahe17]

Eminem and Politics

  Eminem had to do with the government on several occasions. Through this post, I’ll share with you a very short list of some of his political songs. 

  When he noticed that his lyrics had a prominent world-wide impact, the “King of the rap” decided to use it against the Government and attacks directly the leaders of the country. 

  Eminem has been a big trouble for the Government and a lot of his songs has been censored. To take an example, his original Album “Encore” had been censored because of the violence references and the sexual contents it had. “Encore” then was finally published with “modifications” and that album contain one interesting song, “Mosh”. “Mosh” was released in 2004 and through his lyrics, the rap singer denounces Bush and the wars America was in (e.i Iraq war).

Here are  some extracts: 

 “f*** Bush” 

 “Look in his eyes it's all lies” 

“Strap him with an AK-47”

  Eminem is known to be forthright, he says in a direct way what he thinks and he doesn’t care about the problems he will encounter.

  Another example of one of his political songs is “White America” released in 2006 which basically sums up what I just said above: 

“‘Cause Congress keep tellin' me I ain't causin' nothin' but problems

And now they're sayin' I'm in trouble with the government

I'm lovin' it, I shoveled shit all my life, and now I'm dumpin' it on”

By the way, through this song, with political critics is joined the idea that the artist had a bad influence upon the youth (cf last post). 

Finally, “The Strom” is also a great political song to my mind. Actually, Shady, in freestyle criticizes this time President TRUMP and his policies. He doesn’t hesitate to end up his lyrics with:

 “F*ck you!

The rest of America stand up!

We love our military, and we love our country

But we f*cking hate Trump!”

“The Storm” is not the only freestyle track, another one is “Campaign Speech”. 

In interviews, the singer claimed that he likes Obama but Trump... . Well these two freestyle tracks are indications about how he felt about President Trump.

  Finally, Eminem is one of the biggest trouble American leaders had to face to from the moment he devoted some of his lyrics to critic his country’s politics. His controversial and forthright lyrics denounce negative subjects America had known such as war and president policies (Trump). The way he attacks them is direct and he wants to raise awareness above his people, Americans.

[mahe17]

Are females able to rap?

For this week’s post, we won’t talk about Eminem but here we remain in the same genre but with the opposed gender, the female one. 

 In fact, some women also know how to handle a mic and they do it very well don’t you think? At least, some of them have succeeded and became famous. Let’s focus on one in particular, Cardi B of course!

I’ve read a very interesting article about Cardi B and the controversy she created claiming that she gave hope to women and that she influenced them. The young female rapper clarifies what she has said because people misunderstood her. Here is the most interesting part, she highlights the fact that music industry didn’t have faith in females and so she was the piece that changed it. Is she right? Well, at least, we may agree on one point: Cardi B isn’t really humble huh? 

Several internauts say that “Cardi B doesn’t know how to rap at all”. Shall we talk about the “Cardi B’s language” then?

You’ve probably seen once or even used it yourself, words like “okuuuurtt”. Well that’s one of Cardi B’s creation if I may say. Here is the link of an article that lists some of it calling it the “cardi-ctionnary”. Such words as “okuurrtt” is nowadays very very used in everyday life by everyone. Could we say so that Cardi B became famous only because of the words she uses? 

Let’s discuss it in the comments maybe… 

[mahe17]

Parental advisory needed?

Hellooo there! 

So, last week’s article (link) claim an interesting thing: “industry respect and street credibility” So I looked for more details about Eminem lyrics and what he was denouncing and I found out that yes for several internauts, Eminem’s success is also due to his truthfulness. The fact that he raps with his own style, he just does in his own way, and doesn’t care if it’s decent or not or if people would like it or not and he was actually more and more appreciate for that and therefore has sell much more record. To cut a long story short, his honesty and frankness are on of the reasons why he has so much impact on the industry and that’s pretty... different. 

  What I also wanted to add linked to my latest post, is that Eminem also makes whites interested into hip-hop culture or just bring them closer to it.

 Still, his impact on music industry is quite noticeable but it seems like I’ve said enough thing about industry and I wanted to focus (yes on a sudden) rather on his impact on the society.

What about the people?

 For some, Eminem was seen as a threat to the younger generation (link) encouraging violence. Sure, Marshall Mathers was one big influencer of his time but it doesn’t imply he prompted violence. On the contrary, if I may say, he denounces through his lyrics as the article says, the government’s lack of actions vis-a-vis black people living in ghettos.

  Plus, he represents hope for some, an example to follow.

“He has succeeded so I can to”.

“Lose yourself” is one of my favorite Eminem’s song because I used it to motivate myself not only thanks to the lyrics but also thanks to the rhythm…I don’t know if you can feel it but I do.

Well, while some might consider Eminem as a none appropriate singer for their children, some may consider him as a motivation, just as I do. 

So Eminem has open opportunities and what’s interesting is that it wasn’t his main goal at all either to sell that much albums. It seems that Eminem uses rap as a way to denounce what was going on in the society.

 Today, Eminem is still respected. He has in a way changed the world...

[mahe17]

A white rapper?

Hi people! 

Eminem (= M&Ms, not for the candy here but for Marshall Bruce Mathers III in case you didn’t know) is considered as the most influenceable rapper in all time, although I think that 2pac Shakur is one too. In fact, Tupac actually gave an image to hip-hop culture, you know that one with a thug who is tattooed and who is wearing a bandana? 

The singer received tons of awards and is in America the best selling music artist (Impact on music industry? Let’s studied this in another post) but he doesn’t owe that success to anyone (or not really). What I want to say is that Marshall Mathers hasn’t had a very happy childhood and yet look where and who he became. In fact, he has been “abandoned” by his father, his mother was a toxicomane, he failed at school (9th grade), he has been discriminated and beaten at school too, his wife cheat on him -they divorced 2 times- and his best friend died...what a life huh? Today EMINƎM is so called the king of the rap (while Tupac is considered as the god of the rap).  

The artist received critics from the beginning of his career because of the colour of his skin (and not only) which didn’t “match” with the genre of music he was producing. We’ve studied in class that black people didn’t want whites to do like them because they’ve seen it as a threat like “do not steal our identity, that’s what black people do not whites” but Eminem didn’t care (of course). Whites actually couldn’t be able to do what black did, that was people’s mind and Eminem prove them wrong and I think it’s one more reason that makes him famous. That was one big change in the society, a white could rap and he was actually talented even though too much people didn’t believe in him. Except Dr Dre with whom Eminem has signed with. 

In 1999 was Eminem beginning into celebrity due to the “Slim Shady” including the song “The Real Slim Shady” (you might know it) in which Eminem basically takes his pleasure answering to all critics he received. Here is the link, I highly recommend you to listen to it even if you know the song. 

I finally want to end that post saying that even though I look very impressed by that artist because he is my favorite rapper well Eminem has also been criticized for what he says in many of his songs like his critics about black women for example and was blamed for that. 

Which artist hasn’t been blame? I’m wondering... 

[mahe17]

Let’s rap!

Hi everyone!

I would like to reflect on rap music and especially on how it is used and for what purposes, how people react to that and to what entent it has been criticized.

Rap has first been used by African-American (also in Jamaica) and from American rap derived other kinds like Francophone rap. Most of the time people associate rap with Graffiti and break dancing. In fact, as you may know, rap is a part of hip hop culture which arisen into ghettos in New York (Bronx). It’s besides, the reason why most rap singers are actually people from a low social class (and also one reason rap has been downgraded).

Well, in my point of view, rap is deep. It is a vocal technique mostly used to convey a message. It is a mix of a poetic genre, critics (from the singer) and emotions which combines rhymes and rhythms and forms up a song. In some cases, rappers use it to demonstrate the issues they have to face to as poor people living in bad conditions or simply to express themselves concerning rough times they have been trough. To be more formal, hip hop culture was created as a way to express. 

Well music itself is a way to express isn’t it? 

Some say that rap music is coarse, very vulgar and hip hop culture is not decent. Rappers or even rap listeners are told to be nothing else but thug. However, I will say that it only shows the artist’s honesty and implication in his or her lyrics, that she or he assumes what she or he says without fear critics.

To conclude, rap can be a form of social discrimination. In other words, people would classified you depending on the music you are listening to. They would decide that you belong to that part of the society because you listen to that kind of music. 

What do you think about it? Is there anyone who dislike rap or who like it? 

By the way, for this class I will probably research on one or both of my favorite rap singers : Eminem & Tupac and how they have been criticized and how they changed music industry.

[mahe17]

Music’s effects on souls