Give Me Honest Rap Music Instead of the Rhetoric and Hyperbole that is Often Inherent in Hip-hop

There is nothing more refreshing than a dumbed down rap song showing you how to do the latest dance. Sure it can be repetitive and at times even obnoxious but it is honest, which is more than I can say about commercial hip-hop artists. Too many of these artists want to tell me how screwed up my music is but they are con artists assuming consciousness that they really aren't subscribing to and don't truly believe in. The real conscious hip-hop artists stay underground and rarely get a chance to shine, but I would much rather listen to Jadakiss, who can flex his wordplay without preaching to me about what the next guy is doing than hear rhetoric from Jay-Z about the Death of Autotune or Nas tell me what a n*gg*r is as though I don't already know.

How many conscientious hip-hop artists do you know that are just as much of an ignorant n*gg*r as the next person? Does that make you any more thorough because you use big words, or can spit complex rhetoric built off of simple concepts? I mean honestly I am a bit offended at some of these artists trying to tell me they are the voice of God or from a higher calling when they are as materialistic as I am. Give me a break; Busta Rhymes is the only backpacker that keeps it real that is still in the game and that is the reason why I continue to listen to him even when he is hard pressed to sell 20,000 records of the latest single.

You know artists that want to reference everyone else or talk slick that aren't really saying anything but try to front like they are because their rhymes are complex. Give me a break Tupac Shakur was the only one thorough in that way everyone else has fallen off since then and needs to up their game. Don't attack recording industry trends or studio tactics and don't give me gimmicks and empty rhetoric to differentiate yourself from the competition come correct on some real old fashioned *ish like you used to when you were hungry and wanted to sell some records. Do not think that the veteran listeners do not know the difference. Artists that keep it real were able to easily translate that talent in the movie industry because they were artists that just happened to be rappers, not rappers that were looking for a way to catapult their career. Fake rappers that were looking to be part of high society got their feelings hurt when their careers did not go the way in which they thought it would once they made the jump from music into television and cinema. You can be "soft" yet "hard" at the same time pundits want to attack other artists who they feel aren't keeping it "real" but if you look at the context in which they deliver the rhymes and the way the video is executed it is more real than any of the supern*gg*r rhetoric we hear from the streets; as though we don't have any vulnerability and are any less human stop lying to the misinformed public.

They're keeping their fingers crossed hoping that you're not smart enough to take into consideration the context of where that mainstream artist is coming from. We used to have a good time for what it was worth and musicians would continue to play the instruments for a good 15 minutes after the lyrics were sung it wasn't always as serious as some of these hip-hop artists would like to make things out to be. That hasn't changed in our culture, so if you want to dance then feel free; everyone wants to kick back now and then I don't care how hard they are trying to act at the moment or tell you that they are. It is rare that you have such an artist trying to come across as though they are a true lyricist anyway. What I don't understand is why New York and California wants Atlanta to be the North or the West when it never will. Let New York artists do what they do Atlanta has a scene of which dance music is an integral part of the culture sort of like GoGo music is in Washington DC and that will never change not in a million years. Miami has its scene; I would hate to think that artists from around the country are trying to live up to a New York standard of lyricism when the thought process and culture in those cities will never be exactly what it is in New York. There is enough room in hip-hop for a lot of these artists anyway, or should be by now.

You ever listen to dance music from Baltimore, New Jersey or Detroit and then compare that to the sweet sugary melodic sounds you hear from down South they don't even party the same way up North everything is fast paced and frenetic the cultures are just completely different. This is why someone like Swizz Beatz produces beats that are like a musical articulation of the misanthropy that New York is known for. If there isn't anything pretentious or fake about these songs then why attack them, in particular when they aren't attacking you? Perhaps they do not feel the need to attack you because they are selling records and you aren't, but at the same time attacking people who aren't looking for intellectual depth in their music who just want to have a good time is no way to expand your fan base. Some of you have been down that road of selling out artistically anyway and were at the crossroads of which audience you wanted to sell records to so why this all of the sudden? Some of it is because radio is not playing you but a lot of it is because you aren't coming with it the way that you used to either and entirely too many of you are on fire on those mix tapes but come weak with the actual studio release I'll never understand it ...