"It's Mr. Crazy Flow
Jumpin' like a Bungi no rope
even in a dungeon I glow
even if it aint sunny, I glow
If it aint about money I go
nowhere ... I'm nailed to the flo"
Jumpin' like a Bungi no rope
even in a dungeon I glow
even if it aint sunny, I glow
If it aint about money I go
nowhere ... I'm nailed to the flo"
28 comments:
We can do this however you want. Lyrics to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGSMiGDjJGw
KP
Aight Aight Aight.
I hear ya K.
That's cool.
"My name is Black Thought.
The definition of raw.
I was born in South Philly.
On a cement floor."
OK. OK.
I hear dude.
There's a place for that hardship rap.
I get it.
But there's a whole bunch of cats who can do that.
Shit. I can do that.
I don't know nobody else can do Weezy.
I don't know nobody can do Biggie.
crack numbers, rate per verse, new orleans hardship, white girl analogies to coke, your girl... there's nothing groundbreaking in that.
What I was hoping you'd notice is that Black's acapella is quite similar in content and machismo without DIRECT references to street hustle, gunplay and someone else's woman. He mentions all of that in a wholistic fashion so your "hardship rap" label is a function of your inept crate digging.
Your research is suspect. Plucking two of the top earners in recent history and riding them for years isn't hard to do. You can pick up Rolling Stone for that BS.
KP
"Money, money, money
get a dollar in the club
Weezey that crack homeboy get your fix
Got money out tha a@&
but I ain’t no homo"
And that money rap is profound? There's a whole bunch of cats out there today doing that.
iCan. uCan. Anybody who's ever dropped a verse on DV.net can do that. Easy.
It aint really that deep, Bra.
Actually you missed it Kay Dub.
"Weezy that crack homeboy get your fix".
What you think that means?
"Get money out the ass. No homo."
What you think that means?
OK.
Now take whatever you think that means and divide it by how he said it.
Take the sum of what you think he said with the product of how he said it and multiply it by the square of the money power metaphor.
Take that number and multiply it by 2.2 million.
That number will tell you how many more records Lil Wayne will sell from prison than Black Thought sold in his life.
Nah Bra, you can't apply your subjective formula plus commercial success and produce a skewed equation like it were some universal, objective truth.
But okay, let's take your li'l equation of appreciation and apply it to Black Thought - what result does it produce? No bias.
You put Black Thought and Lil Wayne in a room with 10,000 people.
In 30 minutes 9,900 people are going to be lined up to hear Lil Wayne spit.
In 3 hours Lil Wayne will have sold them all tickets at $40 a pop and netted $400 G's.
In 3 days half the people will love Lil Wayne. Half of them will hate them.
They will all be fond of Black Thought, but he will have neither distributed a meaningful and lasting meme nor made a dollar.
Play the two videos again.
It's a really good rapper vs. a super star.
It's one hell of a horn player vs. Miles Davis.
It's a very good painter vs. Pablo Picasso.
Great artists are rarely appreciated by their contemporaries.
Lil Wayne is doing things between the notes in that little verse that transcend the literal.
"Even Gwen Stefani said she couldn't doubt me
Muthafucka I say life ain't shit without me
Chrome lips pokin out the coupe look like it's poutin
I do what I do and u do what u can't do about it
Bitch I can turn a crack rock into a mountain
Damn dat
Don't u compare me cause there ain't nobody near me They don't see but they hear me
They don't feel me but they feel me I'm ILLIE"
Muthafucka I say life ain't shit without me
Muthafucka I say life ain't shit without me
Muthafucka I say life ain't shit without me
Muthafucka I say life ain't shit without me
LOL. I'm putting that on my tombstone.
"They don't feel me but they feel me I'm ILLIE"
correction, it's actually: "They don't feel me, but they FEAR me, I'm Illy"
Stylistic M Effffffffffffffff!
You right.
"They don't feel me, but they FEAR me, I'm Illy"
You spend so much time analyzing and criticizing the social engineering in this culture and what it produces in terms of the median citizen then you celebrate who would get mobbed by 10k people in a room as if thats a victory? How many of them are your "plantation negroes" DV?
There's a reason bruh. Run to Wayne with em if you want.
KP
An MC must move the crowd.
If he aint moving the crowd, he's talking to himself.
Wayne moves people.
His poetry is meaningful.
It's deep.
It is memetic mastery.
It defies definition.
It's unapologetically black.
It's the opposite of Plantation Negro.
It's Hustle.
It is UN-FUCKING-VICTIM.
It's exactly what black people need.
Ya'll cats taking shit on the surface going to have to step your games up.
KP. I didn't expect your analysis to be surface.
DV
No doubt Wayne is a gr8 artist, but a 'superstar', really? What is that? His greatness defined in terms of popularity and commercial success is a Plantation definition of success.
Money is not a marker of true artistic genius. For me he's not Picasso on the mic, he doesn't reach the creative heights of such a description.
That wasn't his gr8est freestyle either, it was a li'l trite in places. Same with Black Thought, I never liked that performance. The last link KP posted before, was on point!
Of those 9 900 people that will buy his concert tix:
How many cld Weezy wean off Ciroc and hip 'em to drinking Water?
From having/being groupies to GetAChick/Man?
From conspicuous consumption to intelligent consumption?
To understanding the importance of establishing bloodlines not sowing seeds indiscriminately.
Zero.
Because he doesn't represent none of that. The anti-conformist, unapologetic statement of Blackness you believe Weezey conveys, is a reflection of your intellectual and emotional investment in his music.
Step closer to the mirror, you are a fan. Sorry.
lol. That's cute Kay.
Superstar?
Yeah.
Dude's a star.
His greatness is defined by him.
I don't think you got that the first time. Let me drop it on you again:
His greatness is defined by him.
Which is the exact opposite of Plantation Negros constantly seeking external affirmation.
Creatively?
lol. You know me. Fuuuug all the arguing back and forth and accusations of fandom.
Just drop a better link.
______________________ ?
Wayne says, "Fuck You...Pay Me"
America says, "oh, the audacity! Fuggit, go ahead and pay the man."
...cause this argument definitely isn't about lyrics. Lil Wayne, just like Floyd Mayweather, make "civilized Americans" uncomfortable...so how is it that these motherfuckers make so much gotdam money??? People live out their bizarre and unsettling fantasies out through these dudes; what they represent is what America doesn't want represented to the rest of the world...while they do the same shit. Plus the fact that young Black kids aren't the largest consumers...they'll listen, but they ain't paying for the shit; whole bunch of n!ggas walking around talking about "number 10 is bangin'" because there's no tracklisting to accompany the dub on a Staples CD. So now the white kids are affected and America can't take that shit either. A young Black male on The View talking about sizurp and weed with an attitude of "yeah...so???" And still makin' money hand over fist??? N!ggas like Wayne do what the fuck they want to do...regardless of whether you like it or not and regardless of whether you SHOULD like it or not.
And that sounds like something hip hop would do...even though Wayne's music itself has nothing to do with hip hop except the fact he makes words rhyme.
However real hip hop from an MC perspective is about lyrical skill and content...not just making words rhyme and cashin' checks. Therefore line for line homeboy's the butt.
This cat right here would stop a mudhole in Wayne's ass lyrically (Jay Electronica "Exhibit A" and Jay (first verse) w/SA-RA and Ta'Raach "Love Czars II":
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=cHiWrvGWeUU
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=wb8PKyqJVQw
See DV?
"The IMF/Federal Reserve
Can't stop my MySpace from spreadin' the word..."
You know you fuck with that more than "got money, got money, got money." You respect the slap in the face hustle...but you ain't a fan...
...at least I hope not, shit.
...and if it really was about lyrics this would have taken place already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=-qOQkSmdyZk
Good shit D!
Good shit. Thank you. Those are some great points.
Where you been Bra?
These squares had me surrounded.
lol.
Glad to read a cat who can analyze a lyric beyond its definition.
Thank you.
Whatever happened to metaphor and symbolism?
Why is the money symbol important?
Weezy, Jigga, Big were smart enough to understand that THE ONLY THING PLANTATION NEGROS RESPECT ... IS ... MONEY.
Even the supposedly educated Afro-Centric Negros with bones in their noses and Kinte cloth car seats ... at the end of the day ...ONLY respect money.
Broke Negros might as well be mutes.
No one listens.
The Greatest Rappers play the money game and play it well.
They see through the sometimey loyalty of cats who claim they want "conscious" rap ... but wouldn't recognize Talib Kwali if he came to fix their cable television.
Money = put or shut up.
Money IS validation in this culture.
Now. That said. The measure of art is not what it says ... but how it makes you feel.
Say what you want but money makes everyone FEEL something.
It doesn't surprise me that the MOST CULTURALLY relevant artists of this era adopted the Hustler ethos and reject anachronistic accoutrements of the broke political agitator whining about "White Supremacy".
Wow, KDub
I never thought I'd UTTERLY disagree with you on so much as a matter of fact, all your previous points except DV being a fan...LOL thats Obvious BUT that doesn't diminish the reasoning behind his fandom you see KW....oops can't blog...simply put you're wrong... but being that I can't engage in intellectual discourse in good conscience until winter, ill will have to relent....Shot out to GEECHEE regarding the X clan stuff. You're right bruh, BUT I could put up a good argument that most of their stuff was image based as opposed to content, BUT they had more than enough content to annhilate my argument so kudos g child. I had to reply...
I meant to post this comment on this thread.
What makes Lil' Wayne more relevant than Oprah Winfrey or Darius Rucker? What Negroes or Latinos in America need to be taught money is relevant. I think they understand that when they driving around without insurance and get a $260.00 ticket with a -$260.00 account balance. Oprah talking getting paid. She shows she gets paid by giving her audience cars. Who's getting paid like that? Then she takes on hip-hop and says it ain't sh!t and don't give an eff how many Negroes get there Heckle & Jeckle feathers ruffled.
DSmith
Thank you 4 dropping that explaination, I'd gone to bed thinking my man was a fan but you cleared that rite up. Ok, iCan dig that about Weezy and def co-sign, this goes beyond the music.
And yes lyrically, JayElec is a beast. JayElec takes out TS Eliot and I dig some of his poetry. As for Weezey's rhymes - on words alone, only fans would argue against the genius of an Aztec Lion, Asiatic Black Man from Zion. ; )
Illy
Sorry had to delete cos I hadn't gotcha properly.
LOL. The same amt of words that you used to write all that, you could have said 'Kaaay, I don't feel ya'. Unless you have reasons other than time holding you back from engaging till winter; an opinion doesn't need to be four-page letta. If you think I'm waaay off base y'can easily say so and why in a paragraph. iGot no probs recognizing and conceding if iGots ta ; )
...peace
DSmith
Can I ask y'sumthin controversial; what's the difference btwn Weezey's audacity and rockband's like Oasis and Jarvis Cocker doing wateva they like.
They may not splash money and dress like the std Brit dude - but as different as their behaviours are, is radical not the norm of rappers and rockers? People feel Oasis albeit differently but they feel them.
In both Wayne and Liam Gallagher, there's a Plantation expectation that a rapper or rocker will behave in a certain way.
Whatchu think?
There you go Kay Dub.
Now you talking.
That's a very astute observation.
Look at the artistic license readily afforded white rock stars.
Their eccentricity, gestures of nonconformity and rejection of bourgeois convention are looked upon as an extension of their art.
They tear up hotel rooms, get addicted to drugs, have sex with groupies, appear on 60 minutes and sell out stadiums at 60 years old.
Plantation Negros react to black artists as if they are violating some Unwritten Negro rule the moment they stop playing the Jackie Robinson (I'm So Grateful For This Oppotunity) routine.
Struggling to 'represent their race' in as nonthreatening a manner as possible.
What Floyd Mawyeather & Little Wayne do so wonderfully ... and the lesson so sadly missed by most Goody Two Shoe Negros ... is they demonstrate the power of Playing Both sides of the fence.
Love me or Hate me.
Doesn't matter.
I'm going to get paid.
I don't need your approval to self-actualize.
I consider that a powerful political message.
The measure of a meme is not how you feel about it, but how you respond to it.
Plantation Negros crippled by the intellectual baggage of the Civil Rights era secretly yearn to be "liked" by white folks.
Thennnnnn ... the "Dream" will be realized.
(Ask a Plantation Negro how the world would look differently if we woke up tomorrow and racism had disappeared. How would we know? ... That blank stare is a bitch.)
The noble spirit of the black men and women of that era who already affirmed themselves and were actually putting themselves in a position to prosper, was coopted and corrupted in an intellectual movement which sought to legislate (beg) for empowerment.
The hustler. The gangster. The drug dealer. The Outlaw. The pimp.
Are intellectual escapees from the psychological addiction of white patronage.
Negros trained to be employees deeply resent cats conditioned not to be.
Lil Wayne has set a better example for young black children on how to overcome racism than the entire Congressional Black Caucus combined.
"Fuck begging them for equality ... Make them muhfuggas customers!"
I straight up feel you DV. Girls Gone Wild ain't causing town hall meetings in the white community. Black folks gotta gather around to apologize for their actions.
Just like the thread that pulled me into this blog. The Columbine "terrorist-hate crime" (I like to use their sh!t), the parents and family members didn't have to apologize and explain how their religion is peaceful etc, etc, etc. Yet some Muslim or any other ethnicity run to explain their existence as well as their loyalties and how they shouldn't all be seen as bad. That's like a black person on television saying "We aren't all criminals."
"All muslims aren't terrorists."
White people don't have to say, "we aren't all ____________ (fill in the blank."
I completely understand that. That's why I was pissed that Hakeem Olajuwon allowed the press to ask him about Mike Tyson's action.
"Oh since he came out of prison Muslim, perhaps you can apologize for the "black Muslim's" existence since we can't get that ungrateful nigger to do it."
I FEEL YOU.
KW:
I'm not familiar with the folks you mentioned, so I'll have to check them out later this evening. But check this out:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/mar/17/whenlilwaynecouldnthandlelondon
This may indicate that a lot of it is because of the consumer. Young, white (from a consumer standpoint), impressionable American kids are given Wayne and a few others and are then left obligated to pick one as "the greatest"; their decision is based on the Plantation standard of who makes more money; they're too stupid and lazy from drinking that tap water and high fructose corn syrup to search for anything else. They'll listen to what they're given just like they'll eat and believe what is "Massah approved". I used to have this same argument in the "MC" Hammer era; n!ggas would agree he was wack, "but he makin' money though" is the argument they would push. As the link shows, cats in the UK don't give a shit about how much money you make: they want real hip hop and appreciate an MC's lyrical prowess for lyrics' sake...not a bank statement. I've heard numerous accounts from artists in the same vein as Thought who state their music is much more appreciated overseas than right in here in their own cities.
You can find me listening to anything from Bad Brains and Black Flag to The Roots and Company Flow to Mtume and Ahmad Jamal. In reference to Bad Brains, Black Flag, and rock in general, it's either written off as "noise" without any real examination of lyrical content (Youth of Today for example spoke on a lot of what DV talks about regarding natural foods and lifestyle in the mid-80's)...or is given some sort of pass like it's suppposed to be rude and obnoxious. And although heavy metal videos can be argued to the pre-cursor to rap's visual infatuation with fast cars and faster women, the monetary "greatness" isn't portrayed as much. DV is right: if it ain't about money in America, it ain't about nothing unfortunately. When the fortune isn't evident and/or glamorized, there's no threat. Cuz in America, I ain't saying we some golddiggers, but we ain't listenin' to no broke, broke...(And that's "we" in a general sense).
Remember that "Party Like Rockstar" nonsense that was getting airplay a few years ago? N!ggas is stealing their shit back and Massah ain't having it...we still created all that. Rock groups disguised as rock groups is okay...n!ggas disguised as rock stars is a threat. "These monkies are making ALL our lily white, angelic, can't-do-no-wrong boys and girls drink up all the gotdam Robitussin!" That's what some white woman clutching her purse is saying right about now. I know it ain't really Robitussin and I know it ain't just a black/white thing...but has there been any real reincarnation of Delores C. Tucker lately...even with all this pill and pussy poppin' that's been going on recently?
But KW I'm always down for some new music...I'll check Oasis and these other cats when I get off work. PEACE
But...continuing my post...
Lil' Wayne goes to jail. He serves his time like a good rap Negro. What does that say? Is "making an example" being played out?
He has money. With his tats and jewelry exerting access that the layman doesn't possess. He was doing shows. Yet, there is still a power to can say, "we don't honor nigger money."
I checked out the names you mentioned, never heard of most of 'em. Black Flag is a li'l much for, iLike rock music but not heavy metal. It's too heavy.
Mtume - LOL. Didn't know that was his name, but know some songs. Me no likey. 80s RnB is one thing to be kept *faaar* away from me.
Company Flow - never heard o'them, but they're cool like that.
Regarding the link Weezey just shoulda been cool and played along with the dude. In the UK, there's always bound to be a crazy person who jumps on stage, no use sense in fronting. I've not seen him in concert, but one of my girls saw him and said he wasn't all that. His performance was std and Kano a grime rapper, actually stole the show.
The problem with some artists is that they think praise is automatic, because they're record sales have gone global, but one still has to earn their respect in everytown they perform. That's prolly why JayZ and Fiddy are loved so much in the UK - on radio and in concert.
For Jay to strightup diss Noel Gallagher (of Oasis) for trying to stop him from performing at Glastonbury was an unexpected audacity. He wasn't 'staying in his place' like good Black man should.
Jay rocked a guitar and played a riff from an Oasis track - he's keeping 'em musically relevant today.
When Oasis go trash a hotel room and refuse to pay the bill its called rockstar partying, its the norm. When Jay says I'm performing at Glastonbury, folks get all shookup and can't respond to such boldness.
Bigups to BBC Radio1 tho' they told the crickets to shut it.
This relates to Weezey too and other rappers; there's a different standard because they're rappers subliminally perceived as more of a threat.
But then it works both ways, while its empowering for Weezey to assert himself, showing up late to a gig with a 30+ plus entourage and performing for 30mins gets a pass from the cult of cool. I guess DV would say he does it because he can and whilst I appreciate that and co-sign, iCant fully feel it. Artistic licence must be directional, the man aint 4 me.
Oasis - really??? C'mon, I'm sure you know their music, y'just dunno the name of the band. Also checkout The Thirst as well, still widely unknown in the UK, but they're on the rise.
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