Uh, nothing like an educated rapper weighing in on imporant matters to enhance the quality of political discourse. I yearn for the day when this thugs-producing subculture will vanish so that the American culture might put breaks on its downward spiral towards utter debasement.

Y'all gonna make me act the fool up in here.

I think it was Tom Wolfe that said Rap culture is the lowest form of culture on the planet today, or something to that effect. Couldn't agree more with him. Modern rap music is misogyinistic, racist, repetitive, boredom.

I'd say less than 5% of TNR readers listen to it. And if you do listen to it - then you're retarded. I'm sorry but we can't have any grey areas on this one. You're either with us or against us.

Goddammit, DMX's endorsement was supposed to finally end this absurdly drawn-out primary!

Absoeffinglutely

"That ain’t no f*ckin’ name, yo"

Unlike the stately DMX name, which has a long and storied tradition dating back to the Derbyshire DMX's of yore.

I don't know what the big deal is. DMX endorsed Hillary in November, just after he heard that 50 Cent had endorsed Edwards.

what a moron!!

This bit's good:

"What were you doing in between—from the last album to this one, that whole time? What have you been up to?

Life. I been up to that. It’s been crazy. Fuckin’ police keep on fuckin’ raiding my house and shit for nothing. They took all my fuckin’ guns. All they did is take is take my guns. All they fuckin’ do is fuck my house up and take my guns. That’s all they did. Straight robbed me—that’s what they did."

Yeah.

Pretty much the white conservative fringe take on weapons regulation, I'd say.

he is just fucking around, there is no way he doesn't know about Barack. I love this line best though:

But Bush pretty much…

DMX: You think Bush is making fuckin’ decisions?

He did, yeah, he fucked up the country.

DMX: He act like he making decisions. He could barely speak! He could barely fuckin’ speak!

Can’t be serious. He ain’t making no damn decisions.

It is damn scary that DMX can criticize how Bush speaks.

Actually 50 cent endorsed Hillary (I'm serious).

www.huffingtonpost.com/.../50-cent-endorses-hillary-_n_85120.html

it should also be mentioned he has been in a number of Hollywood productions as well as an actor, making movies and tv shows is incredibly demanding, you can't be as ignorant as he portrays himself to be and last ten minutes.

This whole thing is a put on and a way to make money.

How do you feel about the digital—like, everything going through the Internet as far as…

I don’t even think about it. I don’t even think about it.

The music business is pretty much going in that direction.

I don’t know. That’s just… that’s probably not… People want the actual CDs not no shit that’s disposable.

Awesome.  Just awesome.

irony, in my experience as usually the only liberal at the shooting range, there is indeed an ironic tension among white gun enthusiasts. On the one hand, they see any gun regulations whatsoever as tantamount to "grabbing" their guns, disarming the populace, and putting Hitler into power. On the other hand, they celebrate the memory of historical figures like Wild Bill Cody and the lawmen of the West, whose law-enforcement policies boiled down to banning guns in town. And of course they would regard police harassment of a (black) rapper, up to and including seizing his guns, as a Very Good Thing.

The best examples of individual Americans using firearms to defend their liberty are post-Reconstruction blacks in the South arming themselves against white vigilante gangs. Funny how white NRA types rarely cite those examples when arguing over the Second Amendment.

it's a schtick.

I sure hope you are right blackton.  DMX can't possibly be so ignorant.  It sure is funny as hell though!

The Ignorant Populist -- Come on man!  It's the Rap beat that we like!  Not the freakin ignorant lyrics.  Obviously you don't dance or groove to music my friend.  I love the beat in DMX and Jay-Z songs but the lyrics are mostly reprehensible from a socio-political standpoint.

Amusingly, honky buys the nigga's ingorant talk line, hook and sinker, and bemoans the end of 'Murcan culture in the meantime.

A wee bit of scepticism, folks.  Not all you read is true.  

Yes Ignorant Populist...we should all heed the words of taste-maker extraordinare Tom Wolfe. A man who hasn't changed his "white suit" schtick in 20+ years. As for all "Modern rap music is misogyinistic, racist, repetitive, boredom." obviously you must be in that 5% of TNR listeners who listen to rap to have become a doyenne of pop-music taste. And there IS a grey area. Check out Danger Mouse's Grey Album...an artistic mash-up of Jay-Z's Black lp and the Beatles White album. But then with all things...music is matter of taste.

But I digress...I suspect you might be a fan of this little ditty and those smart lyrics!

www.youtube.com/watch

I read all of it.

Damn you Crowley!

No, he is that ignorant. Sorry Black but he's a crack head. Or to let the man speak for himself: "I ain't thinking about that"

Woland - please, I'm trying to restrain myself. Yea, some of the tracks are well produced and have beats, and no I don't get my groove onto the lyrics. I can assure you that my dancing exploits are legendary. I won best dancer in the Parish hall after beating Currage Mc Nulty in the final.

Now I'm going to say this in the most eloquent, intelligent way I can - modern rap music bores the f*cking sh*t out of me.

Single, it's not a white man hating black music thing. My grandmother...wait, too much Obamarama last week.

I love black music, I love old hip hop, old rap, I love blues most of all. I dance like a thieving gypsy on glue. People travel from far and away to watch me get my groove on.

The modern rap music is desperate stuff. It's composed by a database, a SQL server churning out horrors that degrade us and lower the standards of human existence.

If you listen to it - you have severe psychological problems and I'll light a candle in the church for you.

It's so blantantly commercial, lowest common denominator tripe. It's not street, it's Wall Street manufactured cultural puss. I'm becoming increasingly convinced the CIA are behind it.

It's the New Kids on the Block but repackaged. In short PLAY FROM YOUR F*CKING HEART or kill yourself.

See here for further explanation: www.youtube.com/watch

Ig-Pop...I don't disagree that "commercial" rap isn't drivel. I don't listen to DMX or Jay-Z or pretty much any thing commercial let alone major label 'cos they pretty much suck. And No...I'm no hipster listening to bands that don't exist yet but when it comes to rap I'm selective to what I listen to and like a self-informed, educated listener I have to DIG for the good shit! You sound like like an old-timer lamenting for the days when "they used to make music like they used to with moogs and fretless electric bass."

As for old school stuff...there was some good shit and there was some bad shit. Just like everything else. But Blow-fly wasn't known for his lyrical heaviness but damn if that beat didn't help! www.youtube.com/watch

But you shoot yourself in the foot about mediocrity if you're linking to Bill Hicks. I mean...if I want screaming I'll go to Kinison. www.youtube.com/watch

And I think I spy Ice-T in the house of Kinison!

The Ignorant Populist --

You crack me up!  ROFL!  I grok you.

woland:  ". . . but the lyrics are mostly reprehensible from a socio-political standpoint."

Isn't that a bitch!  I remember somebody once saying the same thing about the Horst-Wessel Lied.

Rhubarbs -- a great vignette of the white gun mentality.  I had a sudden vision of blacks in the South forming their own NRA and using exactly that Reconstruction history as their pitch.

DMX is from Philly yo'. It's timely.

A lot rap/hip hop has devolved into a minstrel show, here's Taibbi with an articulate explanation (through the lens of the Imus affair).

www.smirkingchimp.com/.../6918

Finally, 'who we be' is fucking great:

youtube.com/watch

What's ROFL and I grok you mean woland?

U see that "Who we be" track has a repetitive in your face beat and is mildly engaging. Fine. But am I going to listen to it when I can a real, heart felt, sincere, addictive scream of anguish:  www.youtube.com/watch. And not a whoe in sight.

Single, I haven't seen much of Kinson. That clip was somewhat amusing. I'll have to look into him further....did you just say Hick's was mediocre? Are you all right? Do you need to talk to someone? That's like saying American "sport" is entertaining.

Iggy, I am part of that 5% and not just artsy Grey Album stuff, but Notorious B.I.G. (Blasting "Gimme tha Loot" is sure to send shivers up the spine of Barack Obama's grandmother.)

To be fair though, Joy Division (one of my favorite bands too, by the way) got their very name from a rather tasteless reference to the Nazis' system of sex slavery and like many punk/post-punk bands of the time flirted with a fascist aesthetic.

Musician's socio-political value should be taken with a grain of salt when judging their output, says I.

I'm also part of the 5%.  I love The Roots and Common, especially.  Stating that all rap and hip hop caters to the lowest common denominator is unfair and simplistic.  There is a lot of great music out there, you just need to look for it.

ROFL = Rolls on Floor Laughing.  It's text shorthand.

Grok  = To understand something in the most full and complete way possible.  From Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land."  An excellent read, btw.

btw = by the way

All those lumping rap into one mysognistic basket might appreciate the following lyrics, taken from Eric B & Rakim's 1991 album "Don't Sweat the Technique". The last clip is particularly prescient (remember, this was written about the FIRST Gulf War).

The entire, uncut lyric delves into some very disturbing territory, regarding a solider murdering his own platoon in order to come home. As Huck might say, not defending the content, but presenting the lyrics as a very different kind of rap from the "typical" being discussed here.

And yes, Grey Album is fantastic.

www.seeklyrics.com/.../Casualties-Of-War.html

President Bush said attack

Flashback to Nam, I might not make it back

Missile hits the area, screams wake me up

from a war of dreams, heat up the M-16

Basic training, trained for torture

Take no prisoners, and I just caught ya

Me and my platoon make a boom wherever we go

But what are we here for? Who's on the other side of the wall?

Somebody give the President a call

The war is over, for now at least

Just because they lost it don't mean it's peace

It's a long way home, it's a lot to think about

Whole generation, left in doubt

Innocent families killed in the midst

It'll be more dead people after this

Cause it ain't no way I'm going back to war

when I don't know who or what I'm fighting for

So I wait for terrorists to attack

Every time a truck backfires I fire back

I look for shelter when a plane is over me

Remember Pearl Harbor? New York could be over, G

Kamikaze, strapped with bombs

No peace in the East, they want revenge for Saddam

Here look. I'm no militant; there's some great rap out there. I think K West is clearly talented and the Dogg is a genuine artist. Even if they're both retarded simpletons (apart from the Dogg who gets a pass because...well he's the Dogg).

But in general, most of the stuff is truly shocking. They keep breaking new lows. Has anyone seen that "whoa Superman go" type tune with some young fellas in diamonds and pyjamas? If only they knew how humiliating their "art" really is.

Woland, why thank you. I grok you. I like that. That shall be used. I always wondered what BTW meant. Seriously, while I'm confessing. What does IIMO mean. I keep seeing it on this site.

Charles, you might be interested in this: www.youtube.com/watch

Out in May.