Grouch & Eligh - Say G&E!
From Say G&E!
Produced by Eligh
West coast underground staples of the Living Legends crew.
Superb beat.
Yasiin Bey - Niggas in Poorest
These devils out here lying
Acting like the people ain’t dying
They silver and they gold
Ain’t never saved a soul.
Iron Galaxy by Cannibal Ox
From The Cold Vein
Produced by El-P
Released in 2001
One of the best albums of the 2000’s. No question. Non-stop flows, El-P’s genius production. So many hip hop quotables.
R.I.P. Definitive Jux.
Deception by Blackalicious
from Nia
Produced by Chief Xcel
Now the moral of the story is that some go
“Why would money make the inner vision crumble?”
So if you’re blessed with a talent, utilize it to the fullest, be true to yourself and stay humble.
Don’t let money change yaaaa
Hip hop is not owned by major record labels, radio conglomerates, or Viacom. It never was and never will be. Stop kidding yourself and wake up.
Style Wars. A beautiful film about the graffiti scene in New York in the early 80s. A must-watch for any hip hop head.
A Call.
Most of you who know me very well would label me as a pessimist. I tend to find what’s bad in everything, rather than see the good in it. I’m thought of as a glass half-empty type of person. Possibly true, but there’s a reason for my ways…
Recently, this past weekend, I had a surreal moment. I was at the bar for a friend’s birthday. It’s a dance club-type bar on the weekends, and the dancefloor was packed with college kids. A song I had heard before but never really listened to came on. It’s called “Dance (A$$)” by Big Sean feat. Nicki Minaj. For those of you who haven’t heard it, I envy your ears.
“Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass….Now let that motherfucker bounce…go stupid, go stupid, go stupid, go stupid…” It’s a chart-topping song these days.
Sitting on a couch behind the dancefloor seeing multitudes of people dancing passionately to a song with lyrics as simplistic as those that even go so fa ras to call its listeners “stupid” put me in a quandary. Are the people dancing, bobbing their heads along to this song, and singing its lyrics aware that they are being called stuipid? Do they even care? Is Big Sean playing a joke? I don’t know the answers, but it put me into deep thought…
It reminded me of a scene from a movie called Idiocracy starring Luke Wilson, created by Mike Judge. The movie takes place in the distant future. We all envision the future to be well, futuristic, with flying cars, robots, etc. Mike Judge’s vision is a total opposite. Due to the fact that the stupid people of the world reproduce at a much more frequent rate than the intellectuals of the world, stupid people inhabit the world in the future. This leads to a totally degenerated human race where no one has one ounce of intelligence, except Luke Wilson and his co-star Maya Rudolph, who are cryogenically frozen in a military experiment and emerge in the future as the smartest people on earth.
OK, enough set up of the movie. Here’s the scene I was reminded of from my experience at the bar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMkrJOOTjj4
Fast forward to the clip at 19:32 to 20:00.
“And the number one movie in the country was called “Ass”. And that’s all it was. For 90 minutes. It won eight Oscars that year, including best screenplay.”
Now take my experience at the bar out of context. Everyone on the dancefloor is dancing to a song whose lyrics go “Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass, ass….Now let that motherfucker bounce…go stupid, go stupid, go stupid, go stupid…” I witnessed a scene that could be inserted intoIdiocracy. Is the song that calls you stupid and tells you to dance all that different from a movie called “Ass” with an ass that farts for 90 minutes? I really don’t think so. It should insult your intelligence.
Our media and entertainment industry has become a total oligopoly, a handful of companies producing a large majority of the product. Television, for the most part, has always been a barren wasteland, totally void of quality programming from its inception. However, the music and film industry have been on a steady decline for years now. Almost everything made by the music and film industry is mass-produced. This has led to its lack of quality. I am arguing that songs like “Dance (A$$)” and movies like Kevin James’ Zookeeper are downgrading our intelligence as a society.
We have become desensitized to our media. We more or less accept everything that is released. Everyone loves every song that’s played at the bar. No one has tastes in things anymore. We all like the same music, all watch the same movies, etc. We pick whatever Hollywood releases and whatever the record labels put out. That is our pool of entertainment to choose from.
But what if it’s all a load of crap? What do you do? Luckily, we have the internet to blur these lines. We have access to everything with the internet, but few of us use it as a resource to bypass our mainstream media and entertainment outlets.
Think about this. If there were no radio playing music for you, no Youtube’s VEVO advertising a new music video, no Billboard charts telling you what the best music was, would “Dance (A$$)” still be a chart-topping hit? Would Big Sean even be a celebrity among us? What makes him so special?
Part of this, I believe, is a societal groupthink mentality, a want of belonging, a want of conformity. We dance to this song because everyone else is dancing to it. If no one else is dancing to it, you won’t dance to it either. If the dancefloor is empty and this song plays, you will not dance to it. As more people get on the dancefloor, more people dance to it, until it becomes a total dance party where everyone dances to it. The allure of the dancefloor pulls you in because all you want to do is dance, no matter what the song is. This Big Sean song has been labeled as “dance music” and is therefore appropriate to play in a dance-club-type scene because it conforms to the standards of the dance music genre. However, it’s a no-brainer that of course when you go to the club, you expect to hear dance music, otherwise you would not dance.
But everyone loves every song that is played. There is almost no disdain for any song. You would give props to the DJ, but the DJ isn’t doing anything special. He is playing songs from the radio, songs from VEVO, songs that top Billboard charts. This leads me to believe that people are developing less and less taste in things and becoming more accepting and adherent to the entertainment that they encounter, which is produced by an oligopoly.
Today, we have just three major record labels: Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group. They produce just about every single song you hear on your radio and are tops on the Billboard charts. If you watch music videos on Youtube’s VEVO, you will see advertisements for only songs made by these three record labels.
Our radio industry is run by two companies that own almost every radio station on the airwaves. They are the Emmis Corporation and Clear Channel Communications. They play the music produced by the four major record labels.
How can we develop a taste in music when we all hear the same music and like every song? Where is our individualism? Our tastes are limited because we don’t have that much to choose from.
We don’t do anything about it, either. We accept our entertainment as is, and we don’t strive for something better. Just think, is your favorite song “such and such” because it truly is amazing, or is it because it’s the best song that’s been fed to you by the four major record labels and the two major radio conglomerates?
Do we even think to reject such entertainment? I used to love mainstream hip hop. I thought 50 Cent was amazing. Then I realized I only thought he was amazing because MTV played his ass all day as did the radio. He was the trend. Everyone was down with 50 Cent’s music, not because it was so fantastically great, but because it was played ALL THE TIME through every mainstream music outlet. I only liked 50 Cent because everyone else was down with 50 Cent, and that’s because the music oligopoly hailed him. There was a common bond between everyone with 50 Cent. We all knew 50 Cent. If you didn’t like 50 Cent, there was something wrong with you, because everyone liked 50 Cent. He consumed everyone’s music intake.
I stopped liking 50 Cent when I realized he was a puppet of the music oligopoly. My taste in music was being created by major record labels, and not by my own self.
When we all have a similar limited access to a certain media and an apathy towards having a disdain for something, we all end up with the same general tastes. Our individualism and uniqueness is removed.
We have accepted the music and movie industry without any criticism towards it for its total decline in quality. Society does not think to care that their music and movies could be better than “Dance (A$$)” or The Zookeeper. Not only do we not reject these products, we consume them.
I’d like to point to two of my heroes, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park.
In the episode, “You’re Getting Old”, Stan turns ten, and realizes he actually doesn’t like the new trend of music that everyone else likes. His tastes have changed and he’s labeled as a cynical asshole, a “hater” if you will.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/388737/rated-arg-for-pirates
The second movie trailer in this clip says a lot: “It’s Jim Carrey in, Whatever You’ll Pay to Go See It, Fuck You!”
Matt and Trey are pointing out that the entertainment industry recognizes society’s lack of standard for quality entertainment. Instead, society regards the industry as its sole disseminator of entertainment, with complete acceptance, and no backlash. The industry, then in turn, produces anything with a total lack of ingenuity, artistry, or creativity, because these things are not in demand. The movies make profit, the sole goal of the movie industry.
When was the last time we had a song like John Lennon’s “Imagine” become a chart-topping hit? Do you think you’d listen to it? If the radio played a song of equal weight, would you like it? Why do you like what you like? Have you chosen it, or just taken what’s given? There’s a huge difference.
Are you actually really satisfied with the entertainment that the oligopoly produces for you? Do you think it needs vast improvement? I know I do. But if you accept songs like “Dance (A$$)” and movies like The Zookeeper, these industries are just going to cut even more corners. At what point do we reject? Do we ever reject? The mentality of our society seems to say no. Until we reject this media and entertainment oligopoly, the quality of our entertainment will not improve, and our tastes will be entirely homogenized. Our individualism will totally disappear if we don’t ignite our sensors and show disdain and enthusiasm towards the mass-production of entertainment goods distributed by our oligopolistic media and entertainment industry. Do something about it.
Two cents.
