Hip-Hop Music

[Deleted]

While normally I'm okay with hip-hop, I must comment on the thorough lack of creativity on the part of Mr. Cent.

Mr. Cent, you are guilty of plagiarizing the beats and background music off your own songs. Your latest hits, Mr. Cent, include Disco Inferno and Candyshop. However, I must say that Disco Inferno is almost the exact same song as Lloyd Banks' On Fire sans the Lloyd Banks, and Candyshop is the exact same song as "Magic Stick", right down to the euphemisms for the phallus. You are in danger of losing your alleged "freshness" within the first 3 years of your career. Please go see your supervisors, Dr. Dre and Mr. Mathers, on how to stay "fresh". Actually, just go to Dr. Dre. Mr. Mathers has also lost his "freshness" with the advent of his latest album. Thank you.

In the meantime, I'll be over here listening to The Pharcyde and Black Star.

[LurkerNan]

...I think to him, producing means going into your mom's old records, taking a perfectly good 80's R&B song, adding bass, and allowing a shitty rapper to talk over it.

And that's what bugs me about some Hip Hop. I want to hear fresh beats and music, not something easily identifiable as something I heard 20 years ago. When I hear somthign like this, I find myself thinking more about whether the artist who wrote the original song got a cut of the profit for the "sample" than about the new song.

[gloworm]

Gloworm said:

Common, BE, has leaked.

I'm sorry ...this is Kanye West feat. Common.

[underjoyed]

While normally I'm okay with hip-hop, I must comment on the thorough lack of creativity on the part of Mr. Cent.

The most recent Fiddy-related irritant to be driving me right fucking insane is How We Do ("Fifty - ungh! Bentley - Ungh!") It's being played on MTV Europe almost constantly. Either that or they somehow know when I'm about to turn on the TV and are deliberately trying to take away my will to live. All I know is: it burns.

[foxfair]

Any truth to the rumours that Mr Cent is flat out lying about his record, and the supposed number of bullets that have entered his body? The UK Sun called him out over a year ago - said he did time for possession, not dealing, and marijuana, not crack, and at a minimum security joint not a maximum security fuck-me-in-the-ass prison (I forget what move that line is from). Also, the article ended with something along the lines of: "You've been shot 9 times? Lift up yer shirt and show us the scars".

I remember his crew were recently in trouble for some kind of "gunfight" that was hyped in the media as a shootout between rival gangs and ended up eventually being revealed as Mr Cent and Co. shooting their weapons off in an empty parking lot - many speculated it was specifically so the cops would show up and they could make media hay of it.

He's such a 5 year old girl with his make-up and his abs just-so. Bleh.

[underjoyed]

Any truth to the rumours that Mr Cent is flat out lying about his record, and the supposed number of bullets that have entered his body?

Although I've only heard the rumours myself, I would not be at all surprised. I'm no anatomist, but I always found it improbable (not impossible) to believe that someone could get shot nine times with no apparent lasting damage. No severed nerves, no wheelchairs, no limp, nothing. Still dancin' and singin' (okay, sloping and mumbling, but you know what I'm getting at). I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but Mr. Cent is either phenomenally lucky or full of shit. I'm going for option two.


Topic? I agree that P. Diddy has alot to answer for regarding the current state of mainstream hip-hop. But...and as much as it pains me...people buy it! That's what amazes me. It's trite and uninventive and generally stagnant but it seems to sell. *sigh* On the other hand, while I firmly believe that P. Diddy has been attempting for far too long now to dig a grave for the genre, I'm disheartened by the increasing numbers who seem more than ready to stand around with hammers waiting to nail the coffin shut.

Also? I think I may have overdosed on The Neptunes.

[gloworm]

Although I've only heard the rumours myself, I would not be at all surprised. I'm no anatomist, but I always found it improbable (not impossible) to believe that someone could get shot nine times with no apparent lasting damage. No severed nerves, no wheelchairs, no limp, nothing. Still dancin' and singin' (okay, sloping and mumbling, but you know what I'm getting at).

You know...I've never thought about that. Are there any scars on him anywhere? (I can't say that I've really looked at any closeups of the man's body....and I'm female, guess that marketing plan failed)
There aren't too many places on the body where a bullet can enter and not cause some sort of lasting damage. (I watched "er" a few times...I'm qualified.)

Fans should demand refunds if the 9 shots story is fake.

[underjoyed]

You know...I've never thought about that. Are there any scars on him anywhere? (I can't say that I've really looked at any closeups of the man's body....and I'm female, guess that marketing plan failed)

Yes, mercifully he doesn't seem to take his shirt off that much (either that or I've repressed it). I think he was shirtless in his first video, In Da Club, but I couldn't tell. I don't even know precisely where he claims to have been shot.

Come to think of it, I'm presuming he's claimed to have been shot by a hand gun, right? I mean, if he'd only just said "shot nine times" but not actually specified that the weapon in question had, in fact, been a potato gun, he wouldn't technically be lying, would he? It would also explain the apparent lack of residual damage. Hmm....

I'm curious, though, as to why this is a marketing ploy in the first place - and I guess I'd be curious regardless of the truth. Does this really sell more records? Is this what people require of their music? ("His music sucks, but dude, he's been shot nine times!") Hype has always been a part of hip-hop. Hype and drama and bravado, and I think in some ways it's enhanced the genre, but it seems to be outweighing the actual music, allowing untalented self-promoters (helloooo, Mr. Diddy) to flourish despite having no apparent ability or originality.

[gloworm]

Folks want to buy an image.

Do you hate the person with the image or the folks who seek it out?
I'm kinda wondering about the people seeking it out. Of course, a musician is going to do what sells (well, a majority will).

[underjoyed]

Do you hate the person with the image or the folks who seek it out?

Neither really, I s'pose. It's more a kind of idle curiosity (based on the fact that I've clearly given this way too much thought than is healthy). I would suspect that for many of the (white, middle-class) folks who seek it out, the attraction is that it's as close as they're ever going to get to the "ghetto", so they get to skirt around the edges of a dangerous reality without ever falling in - hardcore by association. They get to buy an image, but they never have to try it on for real. For the industry or musician, who are aware that this kind of by-proxy danger is titillating, it makes sense to promote and market it. It does provide a medium for the Diddy's to flourish, and that kinda depresses me, though. On the other hand, I stand by my assertion in my very first post evah in this topic that there is more to hip-hop than what gets played on the radio.