Talk:Hip-hop

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KevinR1990, it's ironic that Ready to Die was released 20 years ago yesterday, yet you mention Sean Combs (derisively) as among the new generation of rappers in the "sellout years" reacting to "gangsta" rappers after Biggie and Tupak's deaths. He was a producer on Biggie's first record (along with DJ Premier, who is so important it's strange not to see Gang Starr mentioned). Combs' first successful single was on the charts at the same time as Biggie tracks from the second record, on which Combs also had production credits. Combs wasn't a gangsta (he came from a middle class family), but he also has never been a sellout or poppy. If you've ever listened to a gangsta or mafioso record, you'd know that they're basically all about street life, partying, sex, drugs, crime, family, etc., yet you're saying "lyrics about partying and getting rich" are somehow part of a reactionary sellout genre that you apparently don't like. I guess if you'd say what you did about Combs and Jay Z, you'd say it about Raekwon the Chef, Ghostface Killah, the GZA, and WuTang, for example, who are credited with making some of the most important records in the history of hip hop. Good on you if you're going to continue working on this. If not, it belongs in your userspace. I don't know enough about hip hop to contribute anything of value that isn't covered better by Wikipedia, Vibe, the Source, etc., and I doubt anyone else does either. I also doubt anyone in the world is interested in reading about hip hop on RW, except perhaps about the political (and religious) responses you do refer to. I think discussing it in that context would be of great interest here, and you seem to have something to say about it. My 2 cents. But let's wait for one of the deletionists to tell us how it is. Good stuff. Nutty Roux (talk) 19:48, 14 September 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointers. I've actually heard it suggested that Biggie himself marked the beginning of the "glam" wave in rap music, and you're right — there definitely is a good deal of continuity between gangsta rap and party rap. I tried to allude to that when I mentioned how, even at the height of the "gangsta" era, there were people accusing many of them of giving a whitewashed image of "the streets" as being about the Scarface ideal (money, power, women, respect, machismo) rather than about actual struggles. That said, you're also absolutely correct that a lot of great music came out of the "gangsta" era, warts and all. I do believe that a good RW article about hip-hop could cover a lot of ground on racial and class issues as well as censorship, so I do intend to keep working on this. KevinR1990 (talk) 04:41, 19 September 2014 (UTC)


No mention of the tape recorders in schools (and prisons)? Anyone could use a tape with pre-made music and sing over it, record it, etc. It was music piracy, technically, but considering that the piracy ended up giving the record companies solid gold jets, it's kind of ironic. CorruptUser (talk) 13:49, 19 March 2015 (UTC)

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