It’s Just the Beats
Dec 11th, 2005 by Alex
Hip-hop music isn’t all bad. Despite how bad the lyrics are, we still listen. It hasn’t turned us into thugs yet. It must be the beats… or is it?
In a 29 August Time article by Josh Tyrangiel entitled “Why You Can’t Ignore Kanye,” it is written that the “[hip-hop] market is mired in thuggery” and that Kanye West is a welcome change within the business. It is true that a lot of today’s hip-hop/rap acts are pure garbage. To see a somewhat educated man making halfway decent albums is refreshing. The Time article exposes that a fair lot of today’s rappers started out dealing crack. Why is it such a shock to some that these same individuals are now providing questionable entertainment?
The rap artists’ mixers and engineers have more talent, an oddity that’s leaves me with the conclusion that audio engineers are just following the money. That’s fine by me. I don’t really care if the artist survived a drive-by. I happen to be fond of their beats, loops and hooks.
Older readers of Time probably accept its articles as THE way things are going on in the world. I don’t think that the article gets it all, though. It’s not just our parent’s lack of understanding the lyrics, the “I can’t understand a word they’re saying” attitude. I can digest the lyrics, not to say that they’re any good. The lyrics of hip-hop acts these days is predominantly junk, and I don’t think that I can identify with them much. Yet we listen anyways, drawn in by something.
From the article:
“Statistics consistently show that 70% of hip-hop is consumed by young white audiences, but a century of anecdotal evidence is similarly irrefutable: white kids think it’s cool to be black, which means the other 30% sets the trends and runs the show.”
I’ve had a good upbringing in suburban America. So have my associates. I’ve got a Bachelor of Science. I’m not on wellfare. I’ve never seen a food stamp, and I doubt any of my friends have. We’re part of that 70% though. We listen to hip-hop on the radio, and it’s doubful that we agree with the sentiments or can relate. It’s mostly because it’s got the best beats. If the likes of Tiesto or Oakenfold were on the airwaves, we’ve listen to them instead. Or perhaps we secretly wish that we were more hardcore. We can’t be James Bond, so why not a street thug?
Yet if you listen to our conversations on a weekly basis, you’d hear a lot on similar topics. Fast cars. Guns. Cash. And while we were all single… women. You’d think we were discussing the latest rap album, but it fact we’re talking about our lives. So what’s so different? Are we aspiring to be thugs? or are these typical interests for kids these days?
It’s the beats. Really.
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