Last week in my Spanish class, we spent the day listening to Mexican rap...when the conversation took a turn into the history of rap in general. What I learned was that rap when it first started had a lot more meaning in its lyrics than it does today. It was a form of rebellion and protest against the government. For example, the CD above is from one of the original rap groups called N.W.A or Niggas with Attitude. Even their name is a form of rebellion aimed to show that they are treated differently in society than other races. One of their top songs was "Fuck the Police" where the lyrics described how police target innocent black males for crimes. These songs were aimed to have political and social meanings.
However, nowadays, rappers usually just sing about money, girls, cars, and jelewry. Although most of us would think that "rap is garbage" and has no meaning... my Spanish teacher proposed a different point of view. He said that a lot of these rappers grew up in the ghettos, horrible towns, high crime rates, failing schools, and so forth. Their chance of "making it" was next to none. And when they finally did "make it," they want to show off their well-earned status and how they beat the odds. So when we listen to songs about rappers having money and "sipping Grey Goose," its their way of showing the world that they broke their cycle of poverty and worked hard to become successful, unlike their friends who probably joined gangs or were forced to work minimum wage jobs.
Although rap is not entirely about politics anymore, it still has some sort of meaning. In a way, it is motivational and can motivate a person to want to work hard and make something of their lives.
I think that there can still be a lot of meaning in rap, but as you stated I also feel that the genre has become far too commercialized and most of the time lacks a coherent message. N.W.A was such an awesome group because they talked about things that really mattered in their lives. The stuff that they put out nowadays I guess has some basic sort of meaning, but I would rather hear a dude talk about where they came from than how many Bentley's they have in their garage. Country music has largely the same issue, with singers talking about the latest gun they bought, instead of artists like Johnny Cash who spoke about his experiences growing up poor in Depression-era Arkansas.
ReplyDeleteIt cool to see how rap has evolved. I love that song "Straight Outta Compton" This is when rap meant something else. Everything was more provocative in the style of music. It was less music and more rap. Some of the stuff from back then is hard to listen to because of all the profanity but some stuff has some nice beats like "Straight Outta Compton"
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