It’s been long enough since the album came out, so I decided to write this because I don’t feel like studying for my midterm (it’s next week I got time) and also I’m mad at white people.
But Way, you’re always mad at white people.
Lol well yeah, but this time is particular because I was going through Boulder’s snapchat
Bad move.
I know, but listen, click click click and this mother is playing a TPAB song on his fucking ukulele.
Fucking, seriously? This moment? It encapsulates the entirety of my problem with TPAB.
TBAP is shit because it’s a product of a movement while distancing itself from it. It’s a fake-ass album for fake-ass white hipsters that want to be “down” with the movement that they have no understanding of and no interest in fixing. It’s diet-race-realization. It’s for the moderate that tut-tutted at Black Lives Matter protests from the comfort of their homes while getting hyped at Blacker the Berry. To be fair, I was hyped about it too, until I realized the last line is more fucking ‘it’s black people’s fault’ bullshit that I expect from Common, not Kendrick.
But it’s cool, Kendrick’s dead to me. If he wasn’t dead to me when TPAB came out and I listened to it for a few weeks, he was DEFINITELY fucking dead to me when he featured on a Taylor Swift song.
Believe it or not, Kendrick’s fanbase is like, ENTIRELY white. But this makes sense, considering the modern music industry has been plastering his smug-ass face on every single magazine in existence. Time, Rolling Stone, GQ, the Guardian, 24/7 coverage from Pitchfork — for real, it ain’t no wonder. So there’s something VAGUELY uncomfortable about listening to a dude strum his piece of shit four-string not-instrument while cooing “I don’t want you monkey mouth motherfuckers sittin’ in my throne again” on Snapchat in some dorm-room.
Now I got white dudes all OVER hip-hop forums trying to explain to me what the “Black struggle” fucking is, I shit you not! I remember someone wanted me to express my opinion on hubski when it came out, and I refrained for that reason (and also the fact that it was out for like a week and somebody called it a classic). I was going to save this for year 2 of “My hip-hop of the year” posts, but I’m maaaaaad.
I’m mad because TPAB is middle-class hip-hop. I knew this, but it was cemented in my brain when I hopped into my boy Rick’s car and this album started fucking playing. Now I love Rick. He’s been my buddy since 6th grade. But this motherfucker has never listened to hip-hop in his life. This shit is not a coincidence. Rick loves apple pie and baseball (seriously), not Dynamic Certified and Public Enemy. The hell did this album come from on his part?
And of course you don’t have to be black to appreciate hip-hop. That’s not what I’m saying here. What I’m saying is that TPAB is fucking manufactured for middle-class white people to eat up. It’s the fucking hand-job of protest music — “you know what I really want.” It lets white people feel good about themselves and think they understand shit about the struggle, but then go off to work in their fucking Priuses where they can listen to K-dot say shit like "When we don't respect ourselves how can we expect them to respect us”, and then they nod and go “yeah this makes sense.” Then Azealia Banks puts him on blast for his bullshit and all of a sudden she’s an “angry black bitch that needs to shut the fuck up."
REASON BEING! Azalea’s point — and subsequently mine — is not the point that white people wanna get down with. We’re supposed to shuck and jive for y’all the way you want, not have a fucking opinion.
So CONGRATULATIONS Kenny — you made some white money and all of a sudden "black people don’t respect themselves", while you ride the wave of black-unrest to a pool of even more middle-class money. And speaking of, where the fuck was this “conscious” bullshit in 2012? Too busy fucking Sherane? Nothing about your album is nuanced or poetic, it’s just a bunch of flimsy “2deep4me” lyrics overlaid with basic jazz samples that white dudes on RapGenius will cream their pants annotating.
Fuck To Pimp a Butterfly.
So sorry, young man. You're 25 years late. I recognize that "Public Enemy" is to you what "The Who" is to me - something older than you whose influences you recognize that occupies a place of legend where things aren't real and dynamic. But fuckin' A, holmes, I had Yo Bum Rush the Show on tape. And here's the thing: I put this together to Rock the bells of those that Boost the dose Of lack a lack And those that sell to Black Shame on a brother when he dealin' The same block where my 98 be wheelin' And everybody know Another kilo From a corner from a brother to keep another, Below Stop illin' and killin' Stop grillin' Yo, black, yo (we are willin') Flava Flav was a comic foil deliberately designed to be the "jester" to Chuck D's most-decidedly political leanings. You joke with it so that you don't wear the audience with your constant nagging but holy fuck - "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back" has the racial, socioeconomic challenge in the goddamn title. And it's not like Public Enemy was the only political rap band: But the money didn't go that way. N W A's fuckin' up tha program And then you realize we don't care We don't just say no, we to busy sayin' yeah! About drinkin' straight out the eight bottle Do I look like a mutha fuckin role model? To a kid lookin' up ta me Life ain't nothin but bitches and money Cause I'm tha type o' nigga that's built ta last If ya fuck wit me I'll put a foot in ya ass See I don't give a fuck cause I keep bailin' Yo, what the fuck are they yellin' Easy E? Yeah, he wasn't a "comic foil." He was a stereotype. Los Angeles took that New York Political Anger and turned it into frontin'. And it's been downhill from there. Here's the thing: White kidz? "Yeah, I'm badass. Yeah, I scare everybody. Yeah, drugs are cool. Yeah, violence is cool." She Watch Channel Zero? "Bitch, that's my afternoon, fuck off." You could tell it was over when the Fugees hit the scene. If you want to get young black men enlisted in improving their lot, throwing Enya behind it is not the way. Wanna get your shit played at The Gap? Well... You been co-opted, son. You were co-opted before you were born. Travel torn path, swung as pendulum Now my thread of life's come undone Remember back when Uzi's weighed a ton? Now ever kid's got one. Dipped in platinum bathed in aggression Succumb to last temptation Lost all my patience Peace to last bastion: Afrika... Zulu nation. Remember days of cardboard, fat lace, and krylon? Microphones and twelves, tools we all relied on Niggas dropped a verse, the thought was one to die on I remember hip hop, that's my Mt. Zion. There is no truth behind this link. There can't be. The numbers don't add up. But it feels true. Go ahead. Tell me that video was made for black kids.
I would just like to throw these out there. Rap as a genre isn't completely ruined. Lil Jon is trap music not rap.
Fucking, seriously?I know, but listen, click click click and this mother is playing a TPAB song on his fucking ukulele.
Cause the ukes rock bro. ;) Nah. I think I feel your pain. I don't know anything about hip hop, but if I had to imagine it's similar to college kids going to a honky tonk bar to gawk at the rednecks and think they're with it because they listen to Mumford and Sons.
I couldn't get into it. Way to many people (white people) told me how jazzy it was. "It's just sooooo jazzy!, you like jazz! Your going to looooove it!" repeat that 20 times and I was ready to give it a try. I'm over autobiographical hip-hop as it is and didn't give two shits about Kendrick as despite being told that I was a fool because he was the greatest ever about a million times. Some of the "jazzyness" was decent, a lot of it sounded like garage band samples, or what it would sound like if a scene from a cop drama took place in a jazz club. As far as jazzy hip hop goes Kendrick isn't as jazzy as the sweat on Madlib's ball sack. As far as social commentary I don't feel qualified to give an opinion. I only gave the album one hard listen before going back to Gill Scott, Kurtis Blow, The Furious Five and The Last Poets.
I think you're wrong man. There's clearly a lot of sweat put into this album, and I don't think Kendrick is clowning around for white people. There's real soul in Wesley's Theory and You Ain't Gotta Lie, there's real anger in Blacker the Berry, there's a subtle power in Momma, and there's the classic banger Alright that brings it all home. OK. Fuck King Kunta. But the rest of TPAB is real. As for, Take a listen to the two separate poems that are read out– no rapping or music– during this record. He spends the entire album slowly unveiling a poem, a theme and explanation to the whole concept of the album, line by line at the end of each song. All the shit you're talking about with Black Lives Matter and whatever social "impact" this might have had, it's all irrelevant to the album and what Kendrick did in TPAB. White kids that don't know hip-hop eating it up came after the fact, after the album leaked a week early and every die-hard fan was waiting there and taking it like a money shot. TPAB was a fuckin' musical orgasm man. Damn.What I’m saying is that TPAB is fucking manufactured for middle-class white people to eat up.
Nothing about your album is nuanced or poetic,
Bruh. You cannot say the shit you just said and then say the shit you said before. Choose one. Fucking come on man. You're doing it right now.All the shit you're talking about with Black Lives Matter and whatever social "impact" this might have had, it's all irrelevant to the album and what Kendrick did in TPAB.
Empowering to blacks and black Americans by intent and before all else, but somehow empowering to many other listeners. I mean it makes me proud (and angry, and sad) to be African American, and I definitely am not.
Right, clearly I've taken on a slightly different perspective. I felt empowered by the album because it was powerful, I can't see how you would think it's artificial or some sort of middle-class bait.
But WHY did you think it was powerful? We're footsing right now and I only do that shit in Smash. Also: Is not true. The white kids who ate it up day one are the same ones that ate it up after the fact. Check any hiphopheads thread, lol. Look. TBAP isn't special for being an album manufactured for middle class white peeps. Most hip-hop is, nowadays. Drake, Kanye, Childish, whoever. The reason why I take issue with THIS middle-class based hip-hop album specifically is because it claims to be some deep, poetic, introspective shit about the struggle when it's fake as hell. It was lyrically weak. I'm not going to separate the art from the artist when the artist is telling me that I need to respect myself more. Fuck that. Dude's a fucking Uncle Tom that's making some sales on a post-Ferguson world. But considering K-dizzy's pallin around with fucking Dr. Dre, professional woman-beater and the guy that gave us Eminem, I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised. e: it's also completely unsurprising that it's always always always white dudes coming to bat to defend this piece of shit and his piece of shit album. Please let somebody tell you that you don't respect yourself enough, then be told "but what about the black on black crime? That's what Kendrick's talking about!" and then tell me that you'd still be cool with them and their body of work. But oh wait, the only reason you still vibe with it nowaypablo is because he didn't say that shit to you.White kids that don't know hip-hop eating it up came after the fact
Shared for the unpopular opinion. I like TPAB. But I'm a white dude (half Hispanic specifically). I love How Much A Dollar Cost and These Walls. And I like the album as a whole. I wouldn't ever feign to say I know how it makes black people feel, though, or that it's a good thing for the black community or anything. I just like the music. On the hand, I love Killer Mike, too, but he's more aligned to my politics. But Mike and Kendrick seem to respect each other just fine, even though Mike is more aggressive.
What is your opinion on Run the Jewels? I noticed you don't seem to dislike RTJ, so I was wondering if there are any differences in between the two? I see some parallels between the argument you've made here and the career arc of Run the Jewels. As in, RTJ's music appeals to a middle class, white audience and their lyrics decry African-American's position in our society.
Bruh RTJ is my mothafuckin jam. But again, most hip-hop is like that. But Killer Mike doesn't go around telling black people to respect themselves when he's not on the mic. Dude's WAY more educated on the black experience from an academic standpoint - twice as much K-dot. That's really what it comes down to. Hip-hop, I would say more than any other genre, is the type of music that makes what you say in AND outside of the music important. It's a genre that's entrenched in Black history and culture, so when you fuck it up by saying stupid shit like that, you fuck it up. I dunno. It's ten times more annoying when the message comes across as disingenuous - which is the feeling I get listening to TPAB.
Hmmm, I see what you're saying. I've listened to TPAB (and liked it) and didn't get the feeling it was disingenuous. Then again, as a white middle class man I'm in no position to comment, nor am I informed enough about the situation anyways. I DID get the feeling that the whole album was almost unbearably pretentious. Only some good tunes saved the whole thing.
This is pretty fascinating to read. I know nothing about the race relations in America. I have no idea what Kendrick Lamar is making his music for, I kinda just presumed he wanted to make some shit and it got popular - and things progressed from there. I gotta say, I am happy I don't have the connection you do with these artists; I like reading what you think of them, but for me - I just like the music. Ignorance is kinda bliss in this instance I guess.
Aye. I have a good friend who's degree was in Audio Engineering and he said he doesn't "look" at music the same way, knowing what he does now. And I guess it could be similar for you - you have a different knowledge base to me, deeper and broader, and a different perspective on the music you listen to as a result. I consume, whereas you consume and deliberate on what you've consumed.
Hey. I love apple pie, baseball, AND Public Enemy :(Rick loves apple pie and baseball (seriously), not Dynamic Certified and Public Enemy
Uhm aren't they the same person and don't you mean The Throne.