Scarface Says Hip Hop Is Intentionally Being Dumbed Down

[Lab Baby]

But just as long as the beat is hot, the hook is catchy, and it makes bitches shake their asses. Nothing else matters. Hip hop is still recovering from the damage the ringtone era did to hip hop in the mid to late 2000's.

you right but hip hop isnt recovering from that. its just living with the effects of it. its like the ringtones are gone but the whack ass music is still around.

I think there has been a slow transition to lyricism in hip hop again. The dumb shit really isn't as prevalent as before IMO.

True, but the transition is too slow, and these new cats are gonna fizzle out before they make a real difference. A lot of these new niggas are just as dumbed down as the ringtone rappers, but they just say shit faster with more words. Kendrick, Drake, Wale and Cole are the only true multifaceted lyricists in the mainstream. Four dudes out of the dozens of other mufuckas with a record deal. Facemob may have a point come to think about it.

hell naw... and u said Drake was a multifaceted lyricist lol foh

He sure ain't doin no Laffy Taffy shit. He does speak on different subjects and has a point, regardless if we like it or not. Mind you, I'm comparing them to ringtone rappers, which isn't hard to beat anyway.

 

[SneakDZA]

INB4 he's a bitter old nigga and doesn't know what he talking about

They tend to only do that if it's a NY artist. It's some kind of residual regional inferiority complex or something.

 

[nujerz84]

looking at the comments on the hiphopdx article...white boys feeling brave behind a keyboard

 

[5th Letter]

But just as long as the beat is hot, the hook is catchy, and it makes bitches shake their asses. Nothing else matters. Hip hop is still recovering from the damage the ringtone era did to hip hop in the mid to late 2000's.

you right but hip hop isnt recovering from that. its just living with the effects of it. its like the ringtones are gone but the whack ass music is still around.

I think there has been a slow transition to lyricism in hip hop again. The dumb shit really isn't as prevalent as before IMO.

True, but the transition is too slow, and these new cats are gonna fizzle out before they make a real difference. A lot of these new niggas are just as dumbed down as the ringtone rappers, but they just say shit faster with more words. Kendrick, Drake, Wale and Cole are the only true multifaceted lyricists in the mainstream. Four dudes out of the dozens of other mufuckas with a record deal. Facemob may have a point come to think about it.

I'd take this slow burn approach over that mid 2000's ringtone garbage.

There are more rappers than those 4 that can spit. You look at Meek, Wiz, Krit, ASAP Rocky, Troy Ave, Big Sean etc.

 

[Lab Baby]

But just as long as the beat is hot, the hook is catchy, and it makes bitches shake their asses. Nothing else matters. Hip hop is still recovering from the damage the ringtone era did to hip hop in the mid to late 2000's.

you right but hip hop isnt recovering from that. its just living with the effects of it. its like the ringtones are gone but the whack ass music is still around.

I think there has been a slow transition to lyricism in hip hop again. The dumb shit really isn't as prevalent as before IMO.

True, but the transition is too slow, and these new cats are gonna fizzle out before they make a real difference. A lot of these new niggas are just as dumbed down as the ringtone rappers, but they just say shit faster with more words. Kendrick, Drake, Wale and Cole are the only true multifaceted lyricists in the mainstream. Four dudes out of the dozens of other mufuckas with a record deal. Facemob may have a point come to think about it.

I'd take this slow burn approach over that mid 2000's ringtone garbage.

There are more rappers than those 4 that can spit. You look at Meek, Wiz, Krit, ASAP Rocky, Troy Ave, Big Sean etc.

I'm talkin mainstream, those that sell records. Granted, that's not the basis of lyricism, but record sales means that the people are listening to your music. None of them dudes you mentioned cracked platinum or are talked about in the mainstream like that. Hip hop is in a great place in the underground, prolly one of the best eras the underground has ever had. But the mainstream still needs a lot of work.

 

[smokelahoma]

But just as long as the beat is hot, the hook is catchy, and it makes bitches shake their asses. Nothing else matters. Hip hop is still recovering from the damage the ringtone era did to hip hop in the mid to late 2000's.

you right but hip hop isnt recovering from that. its just living with the effects of it. its like the ringtones are gone but the whack ass music is still around.

I think there has been a slow transition to lyricism in hip hop again. The dumb shit really isn't as prevalent as before IMO.

True, but the transition is too slow, and these new cats are gonna fizzle out before they make a real difference. A lot of these new niggas are just as dumbed down as the ringtone rappers, but they just say shit faster with more words. Kendrick, Drake, Wale and Cole are the only true multifaceted lyricists in the mainstream. Four dudes out of the dozens of other mufuckas with a record deal. Facemob may have a point come to think about it.

hell naw... and u said Drake was a multifaceted lyricist lol foh

He sure ain't doin no Laffy Taffy shit. He does speak on different subjects and has a point, regardless if we like it or not. Mind you, I'm comparing them to ringtone rappers, which isn't hard to beat anyway.

nah he doin that Ja Rule sing for a slut bitch yet try to act hard at the same time routine... shit is equally as whack

 

[themadlionsfan]

Method Man was saying the same exact shit two years ago....and the Southern Hip Hop Defense Force pushed that thread to about 15 pages.....Scarface comes and says the same thing and they are nowhere to be found.....interesting

 

[Soloman_The_Wise]

INB4 he's a bitter old nigga and doesn't know what he talking about

They tend to only do that if it's a NY artist. It's some kind of residual regional inferiority complex or something.

well here is a conundrum for them Brad Jordan was Born In Jersey and has now Moved to New York as he has stated in the interview. So technically at this point he is east coast born NYC artist...

 

[T. Sanford]

I wonder why he move from Houston to New York

 

[GunTown]

Not sure about that but i do feel hip hop made a transition into accepting more and more suburban raised rappers though that shouldn't matter if there is talnt, Wiz Khalifa is that but he real dope

 

[SnuffDaddy]

Not sure about that but i do feel hip hop made a transition into accepting more and more suburban raised rappers though that shouldn't matter if there is talnt, Wiz Khalifa is that but he real dope

I think u missed it. Im sure he has no problem with suburban raised rappers but i think he was saying suburban as in white, to be diplomatic as he said. His whole point was synanamous with the Elvis & Rock saga.

 

[DOPEdweebz]

Only read the title. I thought this was known.

 

[MarcusGarvey]

Excerpt from Slate article

It’s a huge pendulum swing in less than a decade: In 2004, literally every song that topped the Hot 100 was by a person of color. This year, black artists had only featured roles. As Ann mentioned, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were supported by Wanz on “Thrift Shop” and Ray Dalton on “Can’t Hold Us”; rapper T.I. and 2013 MVP Pharrell supported Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”; and Barbadian pop queen Rihanna is supporting Eminem on our current No. 1, “The Monster.” We should place an asterisk next to half-Filipino, half–Puerto Rican Bruno Mars, who topped the big chart twice this year, with “Locked Out of Heaven” and “When I Was Your Man”—but neither one was an R&B/hip-hop radio hit. (While we’re discussing R&B appropriation and the monoculture, Bruno’s all-around best 2013 single—the Top Five hit “Treasure”—was a direct homage to the sound and even the look of “P.Y.T.”-era Michael Jackson.)

That’s just the track record of African-Americans on the all-genre Hot 100; in a way, the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart is even more surreal: It was topped by white acts 44 out of 52 weeks this year. In large part, that’s due to a controversial change Billboard made to the R&B/hip-hop chart at the end of 2012 that essentially makes it a condensed version of the Hot 100, rendering the chart near-useless to hardcore fans of black music. The fact that Billboard, in essence, gave up on tracking the core R&B/hip-hop audience speaks volumes about the industry’s priorities in the digital era.

So that leaves the question: Why? Why is there this drift away from black visibility in our music? Not to be too grand about it, but my honest opinion is that it’s of a piece with what Ta-Nehisi Coates would call the myth of a post-racial America. Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color—we’re cool with the idea that authentic rhythmic music can now come from anyone, and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...lboard_hot_100_where_were_the_black_acts.html

I dunno what to make of it. Hip Hop is being dumb down but I'm fearful history is repeating itself

 

[trilladelic]

this is old, right? doesnt make it any less true. just saying.

 

[Lab Baby]

Excerpt from Slate article

It’s a huge pendulum swing in less than a decade: In 2004, literally every song that topped the Hot 100 was by a person of color. This year, black artists had only featured roles. As Ann mentioned, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were supported by Wanz on “Thrift Shop” and Ray Dalton on “Can’t Hold Us”; rapper T.I. and 2013 MVP Pharrell supported Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”; and Barbadian pop queen Rihanna is supporting Eminem on our current No. 1, “The Monster.” We should place an asterisk next to half-Filipino, half–Puerto Rican Bruno Mars, who topped the big chart twice this year, with “Locked Out of Heaven” and “When I Was Your Man”—but neither one was an R&B/hip-hop radio hit. (While we’re discussing R&B appropriation and the monoculture, Bruno’s all-around best 2013 single—the Top Five hit “Treasure”—was a direct homage to the sound and even the look of “P.Y.T.”-era Michael Jackson.)

That’s just the track record of African-Americans on the all-genre Hot 100; in a way, the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart is even more surreal: It was topped by white acts 44 out of 52 weeks this year. In large part, that’s due to a controversial change Billboard made to the R&B/hip-hop chart at the end of 2012 that essentially makes it a condensed version of the Hot 100, rendering the chart near-useless to hardcore fans of black music. The fact that Billboard, in essence, gave up on tracking the core R&B/hip-hop audience speaks volumes about the industry’s priorities in the digital era.

So that leaves the question: Why? Why is there this drift away from black visibility in our music? Not to be too grand about it, but my honest opinion is that it’s of a piece with what Ta-Nehisi Coates would call the myth of a post-racial America. Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color—we’re cool with the idea that authentic rhythmic music can now come from anyone, and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...lboard_hot_100_where_were_the_black_acts.html

I dunno what to make of it. Hip Hop is being dumb down but I'm fearful history is repeating itself

I think people that think like this are thinking way too much into it. Not saying that I don't see a pattern, but it's not doomsday. I said this a few times on here, but Elvis isn't solely responsible for white people taking rock n roll. It was a slow decade and a half process, which culminated when Jimi Hendrix died. He was the greatest rock artist of that time, possibly ever. Imagine the moves he would've made if he was alive.

As far as hip hop and Black people in music are concerned, we gotta get on our job. White people "taking over" isn't anything new. Celine Dion was shittin on the charts for like 10 years straight in a hip hop dominated world... and still didn't have shit on Whitney Houston. Labels have particular plans for particular artists, and what you see is those plans coming to fruition. Phyllis Hyman could've been Whitney Houston, but she turned it down cuz she knew what time it was. She'd be too restricted from her own sound. Hip hop artists don't really plan shit out like that, they just follow templates. They restrict themselves to club songs, girl songs, or street songs. That only gives you like a 4-5 year shelf life unless you decide to think outside the box.

2004 looked like that cuz hip hop was dominant that year. But now hip hop is run by spineless niggas that would do anything for a check. It's not being taken over by white people, it's being taken over by greedy people who just happen to be mostly white. Puff is the true cancer of hip hop if there is one, and he already set the groundwork for the fuckery in 97, so his job is done. The question shouldn't be "how can Black people be dominant again?". we automatically lose if we think like that. We should be focusing on how to shift the power to the people's hands. We know more than the labels anyway.

106 and Park and TRL was pretty much an exact replica of Billboard. If they didn't vote you on any of those shows, fuck your life and music. Now, even with Twitter and the internet, the labels don't know shit cuz they're too busy fucking artists in the ass to actually sit down and talk to people. As much as cats on here say they don't wanna hear that rappity rap shit... there's a reason why Macklemore, K Dot, Jay, Drake and Em sell, but dudes like French, Future, Chief Keef and these dudes can be all over mainstream media and radio, and not be able to sell a million records combined. They fucking suck at rapping.

Hip hop is coming back, it's just a matter of when and who's gonna be a part of it. Articles like this shows a lack of faith in some people. That mentality is gonna leave people shut out from infinite possibilities we already have. People don't understand that hip hop is moving in a different direction, away from mainstream influence. Joey Badass and them are platinum in the streets with barely a record deal. These dudes are being listened to, they're just not getting paid for their music or advertised by the media. If money and attention is what you want from this game, then yeah... be VERY afraid of white people taking over. But very soon there will be no representation of hip hop in the mainstream, and corporate America and those people writing these articles and predicting a doomsday will be talking to themselves while everyone else is partaking in something they no longer have control of. Hip hop lives in the underground, and from the lyricists to the party starters to the social commentators, it's doing great.

 

[StillFaggyAF]

Not sure about that but i do feel hip hop made a transition into accepting more and more suburban raised rappers though that shouldn't matter if there is talnt, Wiz Khalifa is that but he real dope

suburban rappers been around since the beginning

 

[Like Water]

Excerpt from Slate article

It’s a huge pendulum swing in less than a decade: In 2004, literally every song that topped the Hot 100 was by a person of color. This year, black artists had only featured roles. As Ann mentioned, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were supported by Wanz on “Thrift Shop” and Ray Dalton on “Can’t Hold Us”; rapper T.I. and 2013 MVP Pharrell supported Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”; and Barbadian pop queen Rihanna is supporting Eminem on our current No. 1, “The Monster.” We should place an asterisk next to half-Filipino, half–Puerto Rican Bruno Mars, who topped the big chart twice this year, with “Locked Out of Heaven” and “When I Was Your Man”—but neither one was an R&B/hip-hop radio hit. (While we’re discussing R&B appropriation and the monoculture, Bruno’s all-around best 2013 single—the Top Five hit “Treasure”—was a direct homage to the sound and even the look of “P.Y.T.”-era Michael Jackson.)

That’s just the track record of African-Americans on the all-genre Hot 100; in a way, the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart is even more surreal: It was topped by white acts 44 out of 52 weeks this year. In large part, that’s due to a controversial change Billboard made to the R&B/hip-hop chart at the end of 2012 that essentially makes it a condensed version of the Hot 100, rendering the chart near-useless to hardcore fans of black music. The fact that Billboard, in essence, gave up on tracking the core R&B/hip-hop audience speaks volumes about the industry’s priorities in the digital era.

So that leaves the question: Why? Why is there this drift away from black visibility in our music? Not to be too grand about it, but my honest opinion is that it’s of a piece with what Ta-Nehisi Coates would call the myth of a post-racial America. Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color—we’re cool with the idea that authentic rhythmic music can now come from anyone, and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...lboard_hot_100_where_were_the_black_acts.html

I dunno what to make of it. Hip Hop is being dumb down but I'm fearful history is repeating itself

I think people that think like this are thinking way too much into it. Not saying that I don't see a pattern, but it's not doomsday. I said this a few times on here, but Elvis isn't solely responsible for white people taking rock n roll. It was a slow decade and a half process, which culminated when Jimi Hendrix died. He was the greatest rock artist of that time, possibly ever. Imagine the moves he would've made if he was alive.

As far as hip hop and Black people in music are concerned, we gotta get on our job. White people "taking over" isn't anything new. Celine Dion was shittin on the charts for like 10 years straight in a hip hop dominated world... and still didn't have shit on Whitney Houston. Labels have particular plans for particular artists, and what you see is those plans coming to fruition. Phyllis Hyman could've been Whitney Houston, but she turned it down cuz she knew what time it was. She'd be too restricted from her own sound. Hip hop artists don't really plan shit out like that, they just follow templates. They restrict themselves to club songs, girl songs, or street songs. That only gives you like a 4-5 year shelf life unless you decide to think outside the box.

2004 looked like that cuz hip hop was dominant that year. But now hip hop is run by spineless niggas that would do anything for a check. It's not being taken over by white people, it's being taken over by greedy people who just happen to be mostly white. Puff is the true cancer of hip hop if there is one, and he already set the groundwork for the fuckery in 97, so his job is done. The question shouldn't be "how can Black people be dominant again?". we automatically lose if we think like that. We should be focusing on how to shift the power to the people's hands. We know more than the labels anyway.

106 and Park and TRL was pretty much an exact replica of Billboard. If they didn't vote you on any of those shows, fuck your life and music. Now, even with Twitter and the internet, the labels don't know shit cuz they're too busy fucking artists in the ass to actually sit down and talk to people. As much as cats on here say they don't wanna hear that rappity rap shit... there's a reason why Macklemore, K Dot, Jay, Drake and Em sell, but dudes like French, Future, Chief Keef and these dudes can be all over mainstream media and radio, and not be able to sell a million records combined. They fucking suck at rapping.

Hip hop is coming back, it's just a matter of when and who's gonna be a part of it. Articles like this shows a lack of faith in some people. That mentality is gonna leave people shut out from infinite possibilities we already have. People don't understand that hip hop is moving in a different direction, away from mainstream influence. Joey Badass and them are platinum in the streets with barely a record deal. These dudes are being listened to, they're just not getting paid for their music or advertised by the media. If money and attention is what you want from this game, then yeah... be VERY afraid of white people taking over. But very soon there will be no representation of hip hop in the mainstream, and corporate America and those people writing these articles and predicting a doomsday will be talking to themselves while everyone else is partaking in something they no longer have control of. Hip hop lives in the underground, and from the lyricists to the party starters to the social commentators, it's doing great.

This is one of the most well written things I've ever read on here. And also one of truest.

Salute to you sir.

 

[Ol' Fred]

co-sizzle to mah nigga face!

 

[rip.dilla]

Because the dumbest shit I ever heard is on the radio right now..

To paint the picture that I’m trying to paint to you guys is it seems like all our shit is sounding really stupid and really, really dumb. Really, really corny ..

True words but the way he said them is hilarious ..

 

[Lustchyld]

Excerpt from Slate article

It’s a huge pendulum swing in less than a decade: In 2004, literally every song that topped the Hot 100 was by a person of color. This year, black artists had only featured roles. As Ann mentioned, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis were supported by Wanz on “Thrift Shop” and Ray Dalton on “Can’t Hold Us”; rapper T.I. and 2013 MVP Pharrell supported Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”; and Barbadian pop queen Rihanna is supporting Eminem on our current No. 1, “The Monster.” We should place an asterisk next to half-Filipino, half–Puerto Rican Bruno Mars, who topped the big chart twice this year, with “Locked Out of Heaven” and “When I Was Your Man”—but neither one was an R&B/hip-hop radio hit. (While we’re discussing R&B appropriation and the monoculture, Bruno’s all-around best 2013 single—the Top Five hit “Treasure”—was a direct homage to the sound and even the look of “P.Y.T.”-era Michael Jackson.)

That’s just the track record of African-Americans on the all-genre Hot 100; in a way, the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart is even more surreal: It was topped by white acts 44 out of 52 weeks this year. In large part, that’s due to a controversial change Billboard made to the R&B/hip-hop chart at the end of 2012 that essentially makes it a condensed version of the Hot 100, rendering the chart near-useless to hardcore fans of black music. The fact that Billboard, in essence, gave up on tracking the core R&B/hip-hop audience speaks volumes about the industry’s priorities in the digital era.

So that leaves the question: Why? Why is there this drift away from black visibility in our music? Not to be too grand about it, but my honest opinion is that it’s of a piece with what Ta-Nehisi Coates would call the myth of a post-racial America. Music fans are playing out an unironic version of Stephen Colbert’s joke about not seeing color—we’re cool with the idea that authentic rhythmic music can now come from anyone, and yet somehow, when the data is compiled about what we’re all buying and streaming, the Timberlakes and Matherses and Macklemores keep winding up atop the stack, ahead of the Miguels and J. Coles.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...lboard_hot_100_where_were_the_black_acts.html

I dunno what to make of it. Hip Hop is being dumb down but I'm fearful history is repeating itself

I think people that think like this are thinking way too much into it. Not saying that I don't see a pattern, but it's not doomsday. I said this a few times on here, but Elvis isn't solely responsible for white people taking rock n roll. It was a slow decade and a half process, which culminated when Jimi Hendrix died. He was the greatest rock artist of that time, possibly ever. Imagine the moves he would've made if he was alive.

As far as hip hop and Black people in music are concerned, we gotta get on our job. White people "taking over" isn't anything new. Celine Dion was shittin on the charts for like 10 years straight in a hip hop dominated world... and still didn't have shit on Whitney Houston. Labels have particular plans for particular artists, and what you see is those plans coming to fruition. Phyllis Hyman could've been Whitney Houston, but she turned it down cuz she knew what time it was. She'd be too restricted from her own sound. Hip hop artists don't really plan shit out like that, they just follow templates. They restrict themselves to club songs, girl songs, or street songs. That only gives you like a 4-5 year shelf life unless you decide to think outside the box.

2004 looked like that cuz hip hop was dominant that year. But now hip hop is run by spineless niggas that would do anything for a check. It's not being taken over by white people, it's being taken over by greedy people who just happen to be mostly white. Puff is the true cancer of hip hop if there is one, and he already set the groundwork for the fuckery in 97, so his job is done. The question shouldn't be "how can Black people be dominant again?". we automatically lose if we think like that. We should be focusing on how to shift the power to the people's hands. We know more than the labels anyway.

106 and Park and TRL was pretty much an exact replica of Billboard. If they didn't vote you on any of those shows, fuck your life and music. Now, even with Twitter and the internet, the labels don't know shit cuz they're too busy fucking artists in the ass to actually sit down and talk to people. As much as cats on here say they don't wanna hear that rappity rap shit... there's a reason why Macklemore, K Dot, Jay, Drake and Em sell, but dudes like French, Future, Chief Keef and these dudes can be all over mainstream media and radio, and not be able to sell a million records combined. They fucking suck at rapping.

Hip hop is coming back, it's just a matter of when and who's gonna be a part of it. Articles like this shows a lack of faith in some people. That mentality is gonna leave people shut out from infinite possibilities we already have. People don't understand that hip hop is moving in a different direction, away from mainstream influence. Joey Badass and them are platinum in the streets with barely a record deal. These dudes are being listened to, they're just not getting paid for their music or advertised by the media. If money and attention is what you want from this game, then yeah... be VERY afraid of white people taking over. But very soon there will be no representation of hip hop in the mainstream, and corporate America and those people writing these articles and predicting a doomsday will be talking to themselves while everyone else is partaking in something they no longer have control of. Hip hop lives in the underground, and from the lyricists to the party starters to the social commentators, it's doing great.

Great post