Back in da day I was a club jock. I was spinnin' disco, R&B and
funk long without having my ass hang out of my pants. I started in '78
and still do to some degree. My music tastes are wide and varied. I
don't poo-poo pop music because if you remember The Stones, Zeppelin
and others were all pop at one time before they became classic rock. To
say the Backstreet Boys, Nsync and others "suck" is to say you're a
miserable prick. Their music ain't aimed at you, it's aimed at kids and
soccer moms. Let them enjoy it. Just because there's nothing ignorant,
negative or degrading about it doesn't mean it's not pleasing for them
to listen to. That's what old timers said about The Beatles, The
Monkees and others.
I was a fan of many styles of music
because I took such pride in exposing people to it. I was a mix show DJ
at a radio station where house music was born and seldom poo-poo'd
music but today's music, for the most part isn't about music, it's
about imaging and the more negative the image the more it sells. The
more bizarre and whacked out the Artist is the more publicity they get.
That's not the industry's fault, that's the public's fault.
As
an ol' skooler, I'm very glad to have been able to participate in the
History of Radio and music history. Back in the early 80s I was doing
mixes for a radio station that, as I look back, was truly unique. WBMX
FM in Chicago is where house music was born. It's where mix shows were
redefined via "The Hot Mix 5". It's where great music ranging from The
Talking Heads to Teddy Pendergrass was heard and it 's where black
people, white people and Hispanics worked without ever once saying
"that black guy" or "that white woman". We saw each other, not color.
Everyone spoke properly and no one on air dare speak down with
unintelligable streetisms - it wasn't professional.
The "BMX"
part stood for "Black Music Experience," but 48% of their listening
audience were white people 18-34. It always amazed me that back then
the CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio A/K/A Top 40) radio stations acted as
if the only thing white people listened to was Springsteen [the
almighty whitey savior], Cabaret Voltaire and Bon Jovi. It was to their
loss. Sometimes it seems as if people sit around and wait for someone
to come around and tell them something is wonderful in order for them
to like it. (See Marlon Brando & George C. Scott's "The Formula" to
understand that one.)
Back then you couldn't get a white station
to play a rap song. Now? You can't get 'em to stop. It's become awfully
boring listening to someone rant on in "thuganese" about the merits of
some chick sucking him off in his hotel room because he's got money and
a bottle of "Cris". I can remember when a bottle of Boone's Farm or Mad
Dog did the trick.
How did this all come about? Thank Tipper
Gore. Back in 1984 the Two Live Crew was known only in the clubs and
underground scene for their song "We Want Some Pussy". Us Billboard
Reporting Club/Mix Show Jocks figured it would just be like a 'flash in
the pan' kind of thing - hot in a few clubs and then we'll never hear
from them again. A few years later they sampled Mass Production's
"Firecracker" and some dialogue from the movie Full Metal Jacket to
make the song "Me So Horny". At that time Tipper Gore must've been
confused because she became an ultra-right wing conservative and drew
more attention to it than the label could ever hope for. It was her and
the PMRC that ultimately gave Two Live Crew and others like them a
ticket to ride [so to speak]. From there, white kids went nuts to buy
the song because they "swore" in it. Childish? Yup. But then we're all
allowed to be childish when we're kids. Hell, being a club jock, we
figured they were already washed up until Tipper made an issue of Two
Live Crew and before you knew it... it was now cool to swear and be
ignorant on record. It was cool for a while but we're going on about 15
years now and it's kind of played out.[BB]
I laugh when I see
the label bosses talk about how it's a "culture thing". That's the
"spin" they put on it to mainstream it and justify it. It's funny
though, that's the part of the culture most displayed on radio today
and yet it's disproportionate to the "entire culture" of the people
these artists claim to be speaking for - so in my eyes, it's all
bullshit. It's all about the money, so can we just call it like it is
please?
Back in the day rappers like Heavy D, Whodini, Kurtis
Blow and others were pioneers who entertained without having to be a
thug-maggot-low-life dirt bag. You'd be hard pressed to find that
anymore. Even worse is that there's no BANDS from the R&B side of
music anymore. At least none that are mainstream. There's no Gap Band,
no Con Funk Shun, no Starpoint, no Parliament (granted Outkast comes
close to that) or other great black artists making great MUSIC. Why?
There are many reasons and I don't have all day to list them.
I
have many likes in music but when I have to watch some freak go on a
marketing blitz to sell his reasons why I need to like his music I
wanna puke. I have diverse tastes in music as you'd
see on my website.
I'm not some stuffy ol' prick but listening to crap passed off as rock
or R&B and having some moron go on a marketing campaign to twist
minds into accepting it is pathetic.
I have to learn to speak
"thuganese" to understand what the hell some ex-felon turned rapper is
saying. [Also note I include Aryian brother WWWIII looking survivors]
Once I find out what the hell they're all rapping about I find that
IT'S ALL THE SAME; "I'm bad, I got doves, I got money, let's hump all
night cause you wanna get with me". At least ol' skooler "Blowfly" was
funny and I could understand what the hell he was saying!
Watching
Russell Simmons talk about how "hip-hop" is a "culture thing" leads me
to believe he's been "white-o-fied". The NAACP and other reverse
discrimination groups would say that's the way whitey thinks. He's
completely lost it. If that's the culture he wants the masses to see
then the perception being marketed is thug, sex and being ignorant for
money and in essence that's what they're promoting because perception
is reality according to the thought patrol PC'ers.
Those dudes
got all the right in the world to say and do what they want in music.
If the label they're on can spin them just right they'll be a star - at
any cost. Now we got that out of the way so can we stop the bullshit
and get to the fact that it's all done for money, not to expose people
to a "culture", not to show people a "side" of something, not to better
anyone, not to save a tree or whatever bullshit they claim - IT'S FOR
THE MONEY! I don't have a problem with that either but just stop
bullshitting people about it, it insults our intelligence. For Simmons,
the line Gordon Gekko used in 'Wall Street' fits. "What's worth doing
is worth doing for money" - just add the phrase - "at any cost".
To
listen to fantasy is one thing but to try and legitimize the ignorance,
stupidity and outrageous lyrics as something that has value in society
is a stretch beyond compare. The gangsta rap is all about making big
dough and carrying a nice shiny weapon so you can get big props for
runnin' a b'ness on the street where they're all keepin' it real. Lemme
put that in English. "I wanna big car, I want people to respect me, I
want the ladies to bow at my feet and I want to treat others the way I
want whether they like it or not and if you don't let me have what I
want I'll put a cap in your ass. Some may say thats harsh; thats the
un-PC version of it all and as you know I'm not one to bullshit myself
or anyone else. I dont have a problem dealing with the reality of why
things are the way they are.
I sometimes wonder why Al Capone
didn't become a rapper. He could've been idolized by millions including
the mayor of Atlanta [ala Ludacris] while selling his "products" to
Marion Barry in DC.
The Ol Skool didn't worship ghettoism, drugs
and drinking expensive champagne to get laid. It didn't make heroes out
of ignorant pieces of shit. If you want to talk about what was
"culture" and what was "social commentary" then the man who said it
best was Marvin Gaye's The truest social commentary set to music came
from Marvin Gaye on his 1971 "What's Goin' On" LP. That was a work of
art. That was a tapestry of a culture. It was done with class, tact and
etiqutte NOT ignorance and illiterate slang. It wasn't one song after
another about driving benz', being a gigolo spending lots of dough
looking for some bimbo to satisfy my sexual needs. It didn't need all
the hate, violence and made-up slang words to get it's message across.
That album was social issues set to music and it exposed people to the
pain and suffering without being rude and ignorant. That was "social
commentary".
The "commentary" and "message" in the music of
supergroups like The Isley Brothers, The Ohio Players, The Stylistics,
Earth, Wind & Fire and others never contained inflammatory, rude or
ignorant, degrading messages. They were about a variety of things that
didn't require a class in thuganese to understand.
Now it could
be said that the Ohio Players had their own issues in life with drugs
and alcohol but it was never the only thing you heard about them and
certainly nothing that would've made them marketable the way those
things make someone marketable today. They won airplay on the merit of
their songs like Who'd She Coo, Sweet Sticky Thing, Funky Worm, Love
Rollercoaster, Fire and others. Few of those crossed over [into the
mainstream Top 40]. Only in time would people [not privy to black
radio] hear their music. The culture portrayed in the music of that
time wasn't constantly one of having material possessions to get
chicks. Perception is everything and if you look at the pop charts
today that's pretty much all there is.
To coin a phrase,
"don't believe the hype". If today's hip hoppers are all so down with
the movement the least they could do is to know the heritage of the
song and the artist they're about to sample. Most of them as well as
those listening to it have no idea they're listening to either some
obscure R&B track or hit from the past. They're smart enough to
know an incredible groove (see Dr. Dre's sample of Leon Haywood's "I
want'a do somethin' freaky to you used for his "Next Episode" single
for example) and know that they're going to make big dough from it.
Listening to samples in Ewok played backwards to a Truth Hurts record
is nuisance enough - to pawn it off as if it's their song when it's BT
Express's makes it even worse. At least pay respect to those who
enabled you to bastardize their song.[BB]
I find it ironic
that the very songs that white people would never listen to back in the
70s and 80s (because they weren't marketed to them for a variety of
reasons) now listen to them as samples of some rappers looping of those
very songs. Does that say that people need to be marketed something in
order to like it? You be the judge of that.
I'm well aware of
where it all came from and what it came from. Most of the hip-hop comes
from records I played when they were new. Bands and R&B artists
like Lakeside, Doug E. Fresh, Con Funk Shun, Slave, Shalamar, Phyllis
Hyman, Whodini, Maze, LTD, The Gap Band, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane
and more were the Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly, Missy Elliot and J-Kwon's of
their day. The difference being that folks today seem to tolerate the
tasteless and classless as opposed to thoughtful, tasteful and
talented. It's to today's artist's advantage that the shit is rammed
down our throats on every radio station and TV show 24 hours a day so
our resistance level to it breaks down after a while.
And to
show you that I'm an equal opportunity offender... today's rock n roll
blows too. There's some bands I can tolerate but for the most part I
listen to more than two or three songs and I'm ready to rip off my arm
and beat the shit out of myself. I fail to see the logic of wanting to
listen to Artists/Activists preaching their 'save the trees and hump a
whale agendas because they've been too stoned to think much of anything
out.
For me music ain't been the same since Milli Vanilli
broke up. Everyone got all flustered and pissed off because they didn't
really sing their songs. So what! Their manager was smart, he knew they
couldn't sing so he did what most music moguls do today. He created a
gimmick and bullshitted his way. Maybe more people with limited talent
should hire others to sing for them.
Today's rock n roll is
more like an anger management session set to music. You know what the
record labels do? They go out, they look for some freak band that looks
like they came out of a Mad Max movie. They feed the anger [via
marketing] to a bunch of other whiny, misinformed mass of mindless
people who are looking for some kind of light in the tunnel of all that
screaming and yelling over the one chord the guitarist knows how to
play REALLY REALLY BAD. The label then hopes that the band has kind of
genetic dysfunction that'll cause them to do outrageous things while
they're signed so that the label will be able to have enough material
for the label's CABLE CHANNEL DIVISION [thank you Mr. Clinton for that
wonderfully hideous 1996 De-Reg act) to pass on for a "behind the
music" special (when the band's dead or washed up) so that the entire
CORPORATION can continually profit off the band of misfits. If the band
has all that... THEY'RE STARS! Then people look at these bands and
wonder why the band makes more money than the man who works for a
living. Maybe they should look in the mirror for that answer.
Many
of these bands all scream and yell about how mad they are about the
world in which they live and how hard the lives of people like them
are. Gimme a break! What the hell do these people have to be upset
about? They get laid much earlier in life than when I was a kid, they
all had cars earlier than we ever did, they get to hear swear words on
TV and radio more now than ever before, they get to drink pop more than
just on Sundays, they get condoms in school, they got more than just
Magnavox's Odyssey video game system to play with, they don't have to
look between the squiggly lines on TV anymore to see boobies and chicks
dig chicks regularly, so that's a big plus for any guy. Thanks to music
and TV, I accept all of that now as cool.
I know when I was a
kid my grandparents were the ones who should've been angry - hell, they
sacrificed. I often wonder what this generation of tattooed and pierced
Beyond-The-Thunderdome looking generation will tell their grandchildren
about the pain and sacrifice they had to make when they were kids. I
imagine it would be something like "When I was a kid, we used to have
to dial up to use the internet". Oh, the humanity!
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