S
I'm a little bored before i start my new job so i thought i would give my 2 cents on the situation - I listened to Tre-8's diss on doc, and i read drawmuh's stuff and listened to his music, old and new - read drawmuh's opinion on selling out - also i'm getting bored of harrassing ppl on other forums so let me give a little background on myself
- I've been at the siccness since it opened under different nicknames, and I've been banned 6-7 times, i would be banned more but i took time off to get a job. I got banned from the BART board twice as well when it was up. I'm proud of this because I view 97% of the population as being idiots and anytime I can alienate myself from them - i'm happy. Plus i dig negative attention.
- I come from a family of musicians and it runs in my genetics - my ear is keen for hits and 99.9% of the time when i hear music before it is released, i know if it will be a "Hit" or not. My mother sang opera, my aunt plays 4 instruments and sings, my grandmother sang in theatre (before she was put in a japanese internment camp in WWII). I was never classically trained but i play keys by ear.
- I'm not conceited, I have no self esteem nor any self confidence and I like it that way - because i hate arrogant pricks. I'm tired of hearing ppl say "I got heat" or "I spit fire" when they're either clones of somebody, or they're just plain bullshit. I think hip hop has reached the peak in 2000 in creativity and it will come and go in popularity and cycles from the point forward. I think it used to be a form of urban expression and reality payed because it was fresh - now it's all recycled and the executives have polluted the genre where it's just another commercially dominated form of pop music.
- I believe in spite of that - that i am one of 5 ultimate artists in the genre today - i believe with my combination of lyrical wordlplay, meaningful poignant lyrics, and poetic validity that I am in the top 4-5 MCs in the world - and with my ear for catchy melodies, my beats are definitely top notch tho not near true greatness. If you want to debate me or battle me on it - then I'll just concede you're better so Don't ask me to prove any of this because
- It takes me forever to make songs because I've in effect given up on my dreams of being famous - I just ceased caring, I don't "battle rap" or "freestyle" because truth be told - the key to that is to just put the most clever insults into a verse, memorize it - and spit it as if you're making it up off of the top of your head (ever wonder why "mix tape freestyles" show up recycled on different beats?). I make music when i feel like and how i feel like it express what i want to express - i try to make it perfect ...but usually i get bored and stop caring - there's probably ppl who are more talented than me, but i can't think of any off of the top of my head, if i ever put 100% effort into anything it would be a timeless masterpiece - be that as it may i just don't care enough - why would I? i hate the very people i sell my records to - i think "thugs" are just unintelligent, degenerate, hopeless/goal-less street trash, i think suburban white ppl who buy pop rap are spoiled closet homosexuals who have no clue or appreciation of anything so fuck them too...just ask Heresy about me, he'll tell you what i just told you.
- In all my years of composing music - i've never 100% completed and mixed a single song, because usually 50-95% through, I just delete the track because i figure nobody will ever like it, even if they did they won't appreciate it, and i'll never make any money off any of it because I hate clubs and bars and ppl who frequent them (whores/man-whores/idiots) so i don't network at all.
that being said - i feel i'm qualified to make the following statements:
1) drama has a point in that he's just trying to get paid and street rap doesn't really do that anymore (unless you go underground, get the streets to feel you and go platinum off of trunk sales ala the LOX). I mean ppl work in supermarkets wearing fucked up clothes, and mcdonalds and offices wearing ape suits and kissing ass for money all day - you don't call it selling out because you need to do it for money, to survive - it's just making a living. I cannot hate drama for making a living.
however...
i believe that once you abandon expression, and focus only on saying what you need to say to get paid - you have abandoned your status as an ARTIST - you can be an MC, lyricist, writer, baller, whatever - but you are no longer an artist because you're no longer producing EXPRESSIVE ART - just to be totally real about it i do not consider nelly, ja rule, nas on his nastradamus album, and especially on his All Eyez on Me album - Tupac Shakur - to be artists. Do what you have to in order to get paid and see wealth, but in exchange for your fat paydays, you've definitely sold your art OUT...and it's very tough to buy it back once you've sold it (ala Nas trying desparately to earn respect once again but not being able to).
I think commercial rap or rock or techno albums are junk because they have no depth - Ice Cube's first 3 albums, PE's first 4 albums, NWA's efil4zaggin, Stillmatic, Reasonable doubt from jay-z, Esham's mid career albums to an extent - had NO songs made specifically for singles - all songs on those albums had a message, a theme, and linked to the story of the album. The albums were so good because they were making songs to be COMPOSITIONS and urban/street POETRY/EXPRESSION - it was storytelling, even the battle rap songs had a place on the albums - and the execs managed to find singles off of the albums in spite of this - I think that's the way to make music, that way you have a quality album with continuity and quality singles.
If you make every song to be a top 40 hit, with radio friendly (i.e. generic, not saying anything or not too deep so you have to think) lyrics - you might get 1 hit, or 2 if you're lucky - but you buy the album and it's UTTER SHIT because you have to deal with songs which weren't hit material and say nothing. At least on the classic albums - songs which weren't hits had something to say, salvaging their listenability -
Tre-8 I respect you, I'd like to be a part of what you're doing, I think you should holler at Heresy and myself- that supposed "flow" which was so "horrible" as people put it - was different and just didn't fit the beat - I think it was a problem of the beat you chose and not your flow ...but those street lyrics may be real - but they're outdated...you need more of a message reather than "I'll kill you" - I've found talking about the causes and roots of my anger and frustration makes for great songs nobody's ever heard of.
I have heard of your street rep all the way out on the east coast ironically enough, i believe you're true to your raps - but as it is, you sound like you're just talking shit like some famous artists on this board who are fake but rap about "sicc" shit. holler at me
that's my 2 cents
- I've been at the siccness since it opened under different nicknames, and I've been banned 6-7 times, i would be banned more but i took time off to get a job. I got banned from the BART board twice as well when it was up. I'm proud of this because I view 97% of the population as being idiots and anytime I can alienate myself from them - i'm happy. Plus i dig negative attention.
- I come from a family of musicians and it runs in my genetics - my ear is keen for hits and 99.9% of the time when i hear music before it is released, i know if it will be a "Hit" or not. My mother sang opera, my aunt plays 4 instruments and sings, my grandmother sang in theatre (before she was put in a japanese internment camp in WWII). I was never classically trained but i play keys by ear.
- I'm not conceited, I have no self esteem nor any self confidence and I like it that way - because i hate arrogant pricks. I'm tired of hearing ppl say "I got heat" or "I spit fire" when they're either clones of somebody, or they're just plain bullshit. I think hip hop has reached the peak in 2000 in creativity and it will come and go in popularity and cycles from the point forward. I think it used to be a form of urban expression and reality payed because it was fresh - now it's all recycled and the executives have polluted the genre where it's just another commercially dominated form of pop music.
- I believe in spite of that - that i am one of 5 ultimate artists in the genre today - i believe with my combination of lyrical wordlplay, meaningful poignant lyrics, and poetic validity that I am in the top 4-5 MCs in the world - and with my ear for catchy melodies, my beats are definitely top notch tho not near true greatness. If you want to debate me or battle me on it - then I'll just concede you're better so Don't ask me to prove any of this because
- It takes me forever to make songs because I've in effect given up on my dreams of being famous - I just ceased caring, I don't "battle rap" or "freestyle" because truth be told - the key to that is to just put the most clever insults into a verse, memorize it - and spit it as if you're making it up off of the top of your head (ever wonder why "mix tape freestyles" show up recycled on different beats?). I make music when i feel like and how i feel like it express what i want to express - i try to make it perfect ...but usually i get bored and stop caring - there's probably ppl who are more talented than me, but i can't think of any off of the top of my head, if i ever put 100% effort into anything it would be a timeless masterpiece - be that as it may i just don't care enough - why would I? i hate the very people i sell my records to - i think "thugs" are just unintelligent, degenerate, hopeless/goal-less street trash, i think suburban white ppl who buy pop rap are spoiled closet homosexuals who have no clue or appreciation of anything so fuck them too...just ask Heresy about me, he'll tell you what i just told you.
- In all my years of composing music - i've never 100% completed and mixed a single song, because usually 50-95% through, I just delete the track because i figure nobody will ever like it, even if they did they won't appreciate it, and i'll never make any money off any of it because I hate clubs and bars and ppl who frequent them (whores/man-whores/idiots) so i don't network at all.
that being said - i feel i'm qualified to make the following statements:
1) drama has a point in that he's just trying to get paid and street rap doesn't really do that anymore (unless you go underground, get the streets to feel you and go platinum off of trunk sales ala the LOX). I mean ppl work in supermarkets wearing fucked up clothes, and mcdonalds and offices wearing ape suits and kissing ass for money all day - you don't call it selling out because you need to do it for money, to survive - it's just making a living. I cannot hate drama for making a living.
however...
i believe that once you abandon expression, and focus only on saying what you need to say to get paid - you have abandoned your status as an ARTIST - you can be an MC, lyricist, writer, baller, whatever - but you are no longer an artist because you're no longer producing EXPRESSIVE ART - just to be totally real about it i do not consider nelly, ja rule, nas on his nastradamus album, and especially on his All Eyez on Me album - Tupac Shakur - to be artists. Do what you have to in order to get paid and see wealth, but in exchange for your fat paydays, you've definitely sold your art OUT...and it's very tough to buy it back once you've sold it (ala Nas trying desparately to earn respect once again but not being able to).
I think commercial rap or rock or techno albums are junk because they have no depth - Ice Cube's first 3 albums, PE's first 4 albums, NWA's efil4zaggin, Stillmatic, Reasonable doubt from jay-z, Esham's mid career albums to an extent - had NO songs made specifically for singles - all songs on those albums had a message, a theme, and linked to the story of the album. The albums were so good because they were making songs to be COMPOSITIONS and urban/street POETRY/EXPRESSION - it was storytelling, even the battle rap songs had a place on the albums - and the execs managed to find singles off of the albums in spite of this - I think that's the way to make music, that way you have a quality album with continuity and quality singles.
If you make every song to be a top 40 hit, with radio friendly (i.e. generic, not saying anything or not too deep so you have to think) lyrics - you might get 1 hit, or 2 if you're lucky - but you buy the album and it's UTTER SHIT because you have to deal with songs which weren't hit material and say nothing. At least on the classic albums - songs which weren't hits had something to say, salvaging their listenability -
Tre-8 I respect you, I'd like to be a part of what you're doing, I think you should holler at Heresy and myself- that supposed "flow" which was so "horrible" as people put it - was different and just didn't fit the beat - I think it was a problem of the beat you chose and not your flow ...but those street lyrics may be real - but they're outdated...you need more of a message reather than "I'll kill you" - I've found talking about the causes and roots of my anger and frustration makes for great songs nobody's ever heard of.
I have heard of your street rep all the way out on the east coast ironically enough, i believe you're true to your raps - but as it is, you sound like you're just talking shit like some famous artists on this board who are fake but rap about "sicc" shit. holler at me
that's my 2 cents