Haha listening to Sun Ra or Ornette Coleman was such a sensory overload to me. I'm definitely going to see a free jazz show just to completely take it in in a live setting, apparently it's mind blowing.
Can't say that I've ever seen a free jazz show either. It's not something I'd have on my daily rotation, but the mood crops up from time to time. I'm partial to any type of music that rewards multiple listens. Plus, a guy like Sun Ra is just too damn eccentric not to be fascinating. Haha
Ladies, ladies, ladies. It all boils down to brain cells. Those who listen to rap, don't have many of them. Their senses are numbed from a lack of exposure. Sure you can paint it with a _________ and call rap art, but so is hitting the bullseye above a urinal cake. Look merrick, he's 6 feet out. Moving in to 5 feet, 6 inches. Commencing throttle, and there he goes! Look at that trajectory, it's simply impeccable. Oh what wonderful form! Minimum splash. Throw in a few cuss words, and you have a rap masterpiece. Nuanced art like cubism and picasso are sensory overloads because they require a lot of brain cells. Most art can be understood by those with an average amount. But rap is only praised by those with very few. It's not that me and my friends don't understand it, we actually understand it more than everyone in here! But we know what true art is and feel sorry for those who have to settle for less. The real point here , though, is that it promotes aggressive and hostile feelings in the youth. It creates a racial divide and is directly responsible for the Trayvon backlash, art or not. John Zimmerman was not a racist, anyone with a job can tell that. But when your culture breeds insecurity because you have to be "hard" by thugging, violence, owning guns and selling guns, being dumb and hating as the only way to get out of poverty... it will be all too predictable. Checkmate, Honey Bear.
Rap leads to violence and drug use. Heavy metal leads to violence and drug use. House music leads to drug use (mollies and alcohol). R&B leads to babies made. Music can influence a weak-minded person. BFD
Ethnomusicologists praise rap music for what it stood for when it came along, and since you understand you would know that it was a tool of not just entertainment for kids with limited access to musical instruments but also as a medium to commentate on social issues and every day lives of (originally) African Americans. Sure rap has taken a different route and became mainstream for other reasons since the 90s, but you could take and analyze certain rap songs using just as much brain cells as you would analyze a Picasso, obviously not in the same way but with just as much conviction. To dismiss something just because you think "oh you throw in cuss words and it's a masterpiece" doesn't cut it in the ethnomusicology world. Much like how we study other forms of music that would be deemed primitive or "not art", just remember what the definition of art is. If poetry and even bad poetry can be considered art, there's no reason why rap couldn't be. Due to the direction rap has taken your point that it promotes violence amongst other things can be true, but that's just like saying video games make people shoot up schools. Remember that back in the 50s parents of America tried to ban Rock and Roll because it was "over-sexualized" with Elvis' gyrating hips and incited violence through riots at a rock and roll show in response to event managers prohibiting teenagers from dancing and rushing the stage.
I'd love to see his response to this... I wondered if he was doing his usual trolling thing and he confirms it much more so with every post he makes.
Which way did he go. Which way did he go. Durr... I can't find him, he must be a twool. Typical rapper response. Spoiler Yes, it's a poorly conducted study with a huge error margin, but it tells us what we already know. Hip hop and rap are appreciated most by the dimwitted. Although they're helped out by the fact that they have catchy production and play in mainstream clubs where white kids (who are in a mode of escapism) are looking to hook up. So they serve some nostalgic value.
Ashi, Ashi, Ashii. What you and sammy fail to understand is CONTEXT. Context is everything. Elvis wasn't swinging his hips in inner city ghetto's where kids had no choice but to listen to his message as gospel. As the truth. It was a form of entertainment, not a lifestyle. And listeners had enough empathical intelligence to understand that. I think there's respectable forms of rap out there. Nas, I've only heard one of his songs, but I knew it was a form of art. But let's look at context. If I'm a little boy in the hood, and I listen to Nas instead of 50 cent talking about ho's and bubs in the club, I'm gonna be a pariah. I'm gonna be beaten up for not acting hard. For actually being... real. That's what the state of rap is. It's either eat, or be eaten. There's no middle ground, which is the true definition of art. And while suburban kids see it as a fun way to party and escape for a little while, poor kids treat it like the Bible. It's their religion in the ghetto, or the trailer park, and daddy's never home to tell them otherwise because he listens to it as well! Can't you see the inevitable cycle of destruction caused by this epidemic?! There's no relation whatsoever to the CONTEXT in which rock, pop and other genre's you might consider substandard are listened to. Call rap art if you want, I won't stop you, but don't play ignorant and ignore the effects it has on black culture and the Trayvon incident. Checkmate, Honey Bear. Absolute dominance.
The adults might have understood that, but the youth of America certainly didn't. Rock and Roll was a new medium for teenagers to express themselves in ways that the popular music of it's time (big band, swing) did not permit them to. Remember that it was after the record labels found out that caucasian kids were listening to rhythm & blues in the first place that they thought of marketing "race music" aka rock and roll to white teenagers by crossing Elvis Presley over to the rock and roll genre. His then offending movements and his "cat" image influenced kids and was said to promote delinquency. Leather jackets and jeans became a lifestyle to the youth. So no it wasn't completely seen as entertainment, it was a lifestyle. Try again.
That study has HUGE error margin for obvious reasons so it really tells us nothing except that some people who listen to Beethoven score higher than pretty much everyone else...and it doesn't even say that those people that listen to Beethoven listen to him exclusively so what's the point?
LOL! Earlier you claimed to 'Know Rap' better than anyone else and yet have only listened to ONE Nas song? Do you know how silly that is? That's like saying you're a movie aficionado but have never seen Godfather. Also, I've never heard of someone being accused of being weak or anything for listening to Nas. So I'm not sure where that is coming from, just another outlandish trollish claim. I've never seen two guys fight over rap....especially Nas vs 50 Cent...if you bring up that argument almost any where most people realize that Nas work is more respected than 50 Cents.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/25/justice/zimmerman-juror-b29-interview/index.html?hpt=hp_t1 I snipped all the filler and the quotes from the mother as they don't add much to the story. All that's left are the quotes from the latest juror and the background on her.
Again, urban areas were like that before rap music. Rap music just introduced the world to that environment. This is something you keep ignoring. There is no cycle when crime rates have dropped, unemployment decreased (until the recession), and education has increased since "gangster rap" was introduced to the world in the early 1990s. You saying rap is the problem is oversimplifying many of the problems in these communities and frankly is just plain dumb.
I think she described what many Martin supporters feel. Most of us recognize the Jury came to the right conclusion based on the facts presented. Most of us recognize that given the law, and lack of good evidence, it was going to be difficult to convict GZ. And murder 2 should have never gone to trial, as the only case they potentially had was manslaughter.
