Hip Hop and Morrissey fans

[Tour Jacket With Detachable Sleeves]

Dismiss hip hop at your peril. Sometimes the narrow focus of Morrissey/Smiths fans leaves me frustrated. Back in the mid 1980s, alongside my Smiths/JAMC/Fall/Half Man Half Biscuit LPs I bought plenty stuff on the Street Beats label; KRS-1 and Scott La Rock.Eric B & Rakim. All great records. Etc.

In the 1990s, we got the aforementioned Kool Keith, Jeru The Damaja, Common, Gang Starr, Public Enemy (still), Mobb Deep and Quannum. Plus plenty more.

Hip hop isnt all about sexism and violence; there's a lot of innovative and creative artists out there. Forget the mindless MTV-promoted rubbish and look deeper.

Unfortunately, some people are too narrow-minded and blindly dismiss it. Especially some of the 'sensitive, cardigan pulled over their sleeves' Morrissey fans. Expand your horizons and please remember that "Burn down the disco/hang the blessed DJ" was Morrissey's most ill-informed and inflammatory lyric. Don't be swayed by your saviour, make up your own mind.

 

[jawn]

> please remember that "Burn down the disco/hang the blessed
> DJ" was Morrissey's most ill-informed and inflammatory
> lyric. Don't be swayed by your saviour, make up your own mind.

don't you mean Morrissey's most clever and insightful lyric?

i will not put down an entire genre of music; there are no doubt, some wonderful songs that fall under the hip-hop label. but let's face it: hip-hop, at least in the mainstream sense, is filled with misogynist notions and unintelligent words that should say nothing to YOU about YOUR life.

 

[Wild ea Wake]

Re: We're Morrissey fans!

> Dismiss hip hop at your peril.

Dismissed without any apparent peril to my well-being.

 

[Lifeguard Keepin' It Real, y'knowwhatI'mSayin'?]

Look, Sleeves - can I call you Sleeves?
Just because one doesn't fancy rap music, it does NOT mean that we're all "narrow-minded," insular creatures. I've heard it; I don't like it. I'm not guilty about it.

> ...please remember that "Burn down the disco/hang the blessed
> DJ" was Morrissey's most ill-informed and inflammatory
> lyric. Don't be swayed by your saviour, make up your own mind.

Please allow me to be nit-picky for a moment: the aforementioned Morrissey lyrics were NOT in reference to dance music; they were, as stated by the man, himself, aimed toward a certain English disc jockey who played a Wham song after just getting through reporting about the Chernobyl disaster. They (he and Johnny) felt it was tacky and insensitive.

 

[unknown]

hip-hop, at least in the mainstream sense, is
> filled with misogynist notions and unintelligent words that
> should say nothing to YOU about YOUR life.

AT LEAST IN THE MAINSTREAM. Exactly. Just like pop music IN THE MAINSTREAM is utter drivel. Brittney Spears and Matchbox 20 are not representative of pop's possibilities. Puff Daddy and similar trash are not the apex of rap, either. You've got Lauryn Hill and the Beastie Boys on the charts, and the rest of the good stuff is hidden on small labels. if you don't like the sound, fine. But don't dismiss it until you've heard how GOOD it can be.

 

[Joey S.]

No no no! Generally, it's music for mindless people. It's boring!!! NOT EXCITING! Even the not-so-known stuff. Not even worth digging. The sampling is all too often inexcusable. No one says much, really, I've been around hip-hop a few times. If they are saying something important, I've already heard it. Chuck D said something like "hip-hop is CNN for black youth". THAT is scary!! The way so many people have accepted hip-hop now days is scary. I'm really scared for future generations that grow up on hip-hop and relate to it. Like 99 percent of hip-hop sold promotes one or more of the following:

racism
murder
homophobia
thug life crap
ego type crap like 'worship me, I'm god'
money is everything
sex is everything
ebonics crap
sexism
and on and on, we know it all by now

So I own a few hip-hop CDs and some I have to try to ignore the lyrics but they don't get much play anyways and you can bet that I probably won't be buying a hip-hop CD again in my life. If I like a song, I'll just download it because the whole album would be a waste of time.

The rise of hip-hop indicates lower IQ and emotional levels in people. Hmm, the only explaination I can think of for that is maybe the world is getting big so fast there aren't enough ready souls to fill human bodies so we are getting a lot of humans that were bugs in their previous lives.

I pray that more people will ask for more out of their music very soon. No more teeny bop and hip hop. Don't people have emotions anymore (other than I want to kill you, I want to screw you, I want money, etc) or original innovative ideas? Where did imagination and (civil) sincerity go?

So take this somewhere else.

 

[Henrik Rydéhn]

You've got a point, but what if the music just doesn't fit one (it surely doesn't seem to fit me)?

 

[Levi Stubb's Tears]

Hip Hop: Some interesting points there for me to tear asunder, Joey S.

Well, your point said hip hop included the following

> racism
I hate white South Africans (white supremacist bastards with an ugly sounding language thrown in) but who doesn't?

> murder
A glamourous pastime: our heroes Ian Brady and the Yorkshire Ripper

> homophobia
Hmmm, difficult to support this one: but I dislike camp TV chefs

> thug life crap
Fuelled-up football anger: lets bash those Man Utd scumbags

> ego type crap like 'worship me, I'm god'
Ask yourself: how many Morrissey fans think he is God? Quite a few misguided souls, I would imagine

> money is everything
It buys vinyl and therefore happiness

> sex is everything
Well we do think of it constantly.."a double bed and a stalwart lover for sure". Who could want more?

> ebonics crap
I'm baffled and there is no dictionary at hand

> sexism
Come on: both sexes think that they are superior (whether they reveal it or not)

> and on and on, we know it all by now
Let me guess. You have never been oppressed?

 

[Bengali]

Does hip-hop music disturb you so much? Why is this so? There is
plenty of drivel, why does this one form get to you so dearly?
Is it saying something that dis-eases your imperial ease?
It is a beautiful art form, and I should expect those of us on this site, of all people, to realize that.

 

[excited]

> No no no! Generally, it's music for mindless people. It's
> boring!!! NOT EXCITING! Even the not-so-known stuff.

Have you ever SEEN the Beastie Boys play live? They are EXCITING! They are LOUD! They make INCREDIBLE, INNOVATIVE MUSIC! They are more exciting than 99% of all the other acts out there, hip hop or not. Also do yourself a favour and check out Kool Keith. He is the Black Elvis!

 

[Henrik Rydéhn]

It doesn't disturbe me, and it never has (well, sometimes I've felt that all the sampling can be irritating, but that's not just a problem with hiphop nowadays). I just feel that the music isn't what I want to hear. There's not a lot more to it than that. I don't like the music, I've got nothing against the lyrics, I'm not a rascist, I'm not extremely selective against different genres, I'm just not hooked on the music? Okay? I think it's pretty irritating to be considered a fascist as soon as you mention that you don't listen to black music.

 

[Wild ea Wake]

> Does hip-hop music disturb you so much? Why is this so? There is
> plenty of drivel, why does this one form get to you so dearly?
> Is it saying something that dis-eases your imperial ease?
> It is a beautiful art form, and I should expect those of us on
> this site, of all people, to realize that.

I prefer singing, not talking. That is what I define as a song.

 

[Veeringcliffhuxtablewards]

> I prefer singing, not talking. That is what I define as a song.

Sort of like saying, "I dismiss Anne Sexton because she's not a
good singer."

 

[Henrik Rydéhn]

I thought he/she said "as a song"? I also thought Anne Sexton was a more "traditional" poet (not that I have any claim to knowledge). It doesn't have to be more complicated than that some people want to hear human voices and some want to hear human voices sing.

 

[Paula]

> Does hip-hop music disturb you so much? Why is this so? There is
> plenty of drivel, why does this one form get to you so dearly?
> Is it saying something that dis-eases your imperial ease?
> It is a beautiful art form, and I should expect those of us on
> this site, of all people, to realize that.

If it just doesn't do it for you, than it just doesn't do it for you.I'm surley not going to go out hunting for it. I don't think anyone should be made to apologize for what music they like. I don't think anyone should have to have a detailed explaination as to why they don't like a certain style of music.

 

[Consumer Monkey]

Quality is really the only measure of any art object's value ( including pop music ) - this has to be independent of genre. Quality always transcends our ability to like something.
Our personal opinions are irrelevent.

> If it just doesn't do it for you, than it just doesn't do it for
> you.I'm surley not going to go out hunting for it. I don't think
> anyone should be made to apologize for what music they like. I
> don't think anyone should have to have a detailed explaination
> as to why they don't like a certain style of music.

 

[Henrik Rydéhn]

Talking of quality, where did you get that image from? I like it.

 

[Consumer Monkey]

It's a drawing by Frank Auerbach, called portrait of EOW, and can be seen at the Whitworth art gallery, in Manchester.

> Talking of quality, where did you get that image from? I like
> it.