But, as much as I don't really want to stand up for the shell of Kanye that's out there embarrassing himself these days … well I kind had to...

I had to push back against some of the nonsense
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211214699

It's okay to not like some types of music, I can name like 4 country songs I like...but ignorance is no excuse. College Dropout was a big deal. Original, surprising, (yeah there are samples but they're intelligently done) Several themes going on in each track, and he was strong lyrically.. and his laid back style allowed you to really focus on what he's trying to say.

I know what to expect from him, and I don't listen to him for anything super deep - musicians aren't my main go-to for deep insights about life in the first place. I don't know what to make of him today, maybe this is who he's always been. Maybe he hasn't dealt with shit handed to him all that well in his life. His "slavery was a choice" fooleries is enough to get him a FuckOffForever card but he did say something that made me think..

When he said "Trump wants black people to like him like they did in the 90's", it was laughed at but where's the lie? And it's not just black people or should I say "celebrities" so even then Kanye was on shit.. still the point remains: Trump's celebrity blinded a lot of people to his ugliness. He was laughed at, made fun of, but still considered relatively harmless. He was just a showman, after all, a real estate tycoon with media mojo whose crassness didn't stop people wanting to be seen with him. It didn't matter then that he put out an ad slandering the central park 5. People still lined up. The rich white dude was still given all the room in the world to be flawed yet loved until he became a monster and the stench too great to ignore.

There was a guy on that thread who has this lovely one sentence history of hip hop:

"Once there was Sean Colmes (a/k/a Puffy, Diddy. Puff Daddy). Then there was Kanye. Waiting for his replacement."


I wanted to reply with this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/16/arts/music/kendrick-lamar-pulitzer-prize-damn.html

If you take the time to delve deep.

But for a lot of people, they only appreciate if it's derivative nonsense by an artist they don't expect.

When Rap started - And I really liked Rapper's delight because it had a good skate (slide slide dip slide dip slide slide) rhythm and it was long so I could stay on the floor.

I thought the lines were funny as well (ever go to friends house and the food just ain't no good?) so I stated to listen.

Whodidni was next in my memory - There was not much hip hop going on in the Pittsburgh area so I don't know the links in the chain between "Rapper's Delight" and "One Love"

So while I wasn't a B-Boy or anything I was open to and listened to Hip Hop.

Then shit got great. Late 80 to the mid 90s brought groups and performesr that just smashed everything that came before - That was my Golden age.


Now it's everywhere and most of it is crap. But Kendrick is a damn genius

Must have been an amazing time. The "conscious" period of hiphop was some sweet times too. There's a lot of good shit out there even today but it doesn't get heard.