Does The Northwest Ever Feel Disrespected By Cali?
- Thread starter The Evil Genius
- Start date
Why should the NW feel disrespected by Cali? Sure there's cultural differences and it's green but the west coast stretches from Dago to Seattle. Rappers in the Bay have more in common w/P.O. rappers than L. A. but that's the Mecca of gangster rap so no fuckin zhit there's more artists in Socal. Hella not even worried about someone else's grind unless it's fuckin w/mine.
I have stayed out of this topic because for
1. I am not an artist.
2. I don't think its about the NW being disrespected by anyone except itself.
The NW has had it moments to shine from artists such as Jimi Hedrix to Shock to Quarterflash to Nu Shooz to Sir Mix-A-Lot to Nirvana. Sure this has been over many yrs and different genres of music but the NW is rich in history as far as music goes in my books. Jimi changed the game, Shock was funky with "Let's Get It Crackin" (Malcom Noble still performs with Cool Breeze & Terrance performs with On Que both bands are giggin), Nu Shooz (Gary Fontaine still giggin around town with his brother Eddie with Sumo)was ahead the times when "I Can't Wait" was released.
I think for the most part all the artists that have made it also had a distinct sound of their own and wasn't no cookie cutter music. Why would people want to listen to music emulating another region and/or artist when you can turn on the radio and hear music that is being emulated. It goes for being out on the road such as a Cool Nutz and gets around & out the NW and does his thang.
Anyways just my .02 for what its worth.
1. I am not an artist.
2. I don't think its about the NW being disrespected by anyone except itself.
The NW has had it moments to shine from artists such as Jimi Hedrix to Shock to Quarterflash to Nu Shooz to Sir Mix-A-Lot to Nirvana. Sure this has been over many yrs and different genres of music but the NW is rich in history as far as music goes in my books. Jimi changed the game, Shock was funky with "Let's Get It Crackin" (Malcom Noble still performs with Cool Breeze & Terrance performs with On Que both bands are giggin), Nu Shooz (Gary Fontaine still giggin around town with his brother Eddie with Sumo)was ahead the times when "I Can't Wait" was released.
I think for the most part all the artists that have made it also had a distinct sound of their own and wasn't no cookie cutter music. Why would people want to listen to music emulating another region and/or artist when you can turn on the radio and hear music that is being emulated. It goes for being out on the road such as a Cool Nutz and gets around & out the NW and does his thang.
Anyways just my .02 for what its worth.
im from chicago where way different than here in portland you real gang banging on there here in portland the gang bangers knowns not real bloods and crips in chicago 2 of the largest street gangs in the midwest vice- loards and folks you dont get killings every nite all day that just dont happen in portland
People shouldn't take this demographic determanism thing too far. I know I am one of the people who started that conversation and I bring it up from time to time because I do think it's relavent.
BUT
Folks are taking it way too far. True, there is nothing in the NW that closely resembles Compton (or Richmond, or certain pockets of Oakland & LA). But it is also true that the overwhelming majority of California rap is not coming from these places. There's nothing going on elsewhere in California that isn't going on in the Northwest in similar concentrations and on similar scales.
So if you're a gangster rapper from 28th & Jackson, somebody could truthfully say "hey wait a minute, aren't there white ladies out walking their dogs at 9pm in your neighborhood these days?" or "isn't there a Starbucks 5 blocks away?" But reality is, outside of these small pockets, California ain't no different. This criticism of the reality you're rapping about isn't necessarily invalid, but the exact same criticisms could be extended towards 90% of the rap from California. So you'd better be from very specific parts of Cali to have my respect if you're going to try and construct your upbringing/existence to be tougher than ours up here in the NW.
BUT
Folks are taking it way too far. True, there is nothing in the NW that closely resembles Compton (or Richmond, or certain pockets of Oakland & LA). But it is also true that the overwhelming majority of California rap is not coming from these places. There's nothing going on elsewhere in California that isn't going on in the Northwest in similar concentrations and on similar scales.
So if you're a gangster rapper from 28th & Jackson, somebody could truthfully say "hey wait a minute, aren't there white ladies out walking their dogs at 9pm in your neighborhood these days?" or "isn't there a Starbucks 5 blocks away?" But reality is, outside of these small pockets, California ain't no different. This criticism of the reality you're rapping about isn't necessarily invalid, but the exact same criticisms could be extended towards 90% of the rap from California. So you'd better be from very specific parts of Cali to have my respect if you're going to try and construct your upbringing/existence to be tougher than ours up here in the NW.
You also have to remember that 1 murder in Portland = 6 murders in Chicago b/c Portland is 1/6 Chicago's size. And if you want to talk specifically about black on black crime and it's effect on the community, then 1 black on black murder in Portland = 28 black on black murders in Chicago b/c Chicago's got 28x more black people than Portland.
Now you're right about one thing, even looking at rate data, Chicago's murder rate is about 3-4x as big as Portland's. And yes, there is nothing in Portland that resembles for example, the Englewood area of Chicago (the 60621 zip code is home to 50,000 people at 98% black with 42% poverty, Portland has nothing close to that).
But the fact that "there's murders everyday in Chicago" isn't the reason for any of this, that's more because of the city's size. Gary, Indiana, one of the hardest cities in America only has a murder about once a week, but there are 80,000 people living there so that's an astronomical rate.
Now you're right about one thing, even looking at rate data, Chicago's murder rate is about 3-4x as big as Portland's. And yes, there is nothing in Portland that resembles for example, the Englewood area of Chicago (the 60621 zip code is home to 50,000 people at 98% black with 42% poverty, Portland has nothing close to that).
But the fact that "there's murders everyday in Chicago" isn't the reason for any of this, that's more because of the city's size. Gary, Indiana, one of the hardest cities in America only has a murder about once a week, but there are 80,000 people living there so that's an astronomical rate.
15.4% of families in Lompoc are below poverty level. It's definatly not the "surfer" town you're thinking. It's not the most gangster city in the country but it shouldn't be list like it's a safe city. Not sure how accurate this site is but you can compare crime stats of two citys and Lompoc seems alot worse than most of the places you listed above.http://lompoc.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=Lompoc&s1=CA&c2=monterey&s2=CA
Bruh thers thugs n goons all ova the map, it dont really matter, but its rainin game in northern california and yall kinda got a drought up here, i just heard this song from some dude in spokane, its called just stand, i hope someone here has heard that shit cuz it is straight garbage and thats the only NW music i heard playin on yalls radio station, 96.9 where Im at
B/C of the respective populations of each place.
If on a given day 1 person is killed in Portland and 5 people are killed in Chicago, a greater percentage of Portland was killed than Chicago.
Would you rather live in a town of 500 people where every year 5 people are killed or a town of 100,000 where every year 20 people are killed? That's a real extreme example, but it just illustrates the math well.
If on a given day 1 person is killed in Portland and 5 people are killed in Chicago, a greater percentage of Portland was killed than Chicago.
Would you rather live in a town of 500 people where every year 5 people are killed or a town of 100,000 where every year 20 people are killed? That's a real extreme example, but it just illustrates the math well.
Im from Cali born and raised in the Bay Area but moved here to Tacoma in 2000. Since I been here I noticed that the whiteboys up here got skillz. Ive also noticed that most folks arent into the local scene at all but they do love mainstream hip hop from down south and the east. Guess Im more the underground knocker cause I like the local scene. As for respect from Cali theres actually a few folks who venture up this way for talent one being E40 himself. Its not really a lack of respect its a lack of spotlight. Folks still thinking Sir Mix Alot when Seattle gets brought up Im thinking F.T.S., Redhead Steve, Jay Barz, Scrooge etc etc.
LAME...AND TELL ME WHERE IN S.F.OAKLAND.SAC,RICHMOND,STOCKTON,E. PAL ALTO(THE HOODS NOT WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW IS HOOD BECUZ OF A MAP) WHERE OLD WHITE LADIES ARE WALKING DOGS AT 9PM DRINKIN LATTES YOU SQUARE, GET OFF THE FUCKIN GOOGLE MAPS AND WALK YOUR DOG DRINKIN A LATTE AND YOUR MR COOL OUT FIT ON AND SEE WHAT THE BIZZNESS IS...
I don’t know why the NW would even care what we think anyway.
We haven’t put out a quality album in a LONG time. Maybe So Cal has…but definitely not the Bay. I don’t listen to a whole lot of So Cal albums though.
I’ve bought quite a few albums from the NW…and they are all hands down a lot better than what’s going on out here.
We’re on this dumb ass thizz hyphy shit right now…not my thing.
We haven’t put out a quality album in a LONG time. Maybe So Cal has…but definitely not the Bay. I don’t listen to a whole lot of So Cal albums though.
I’ve bought quite a few albums from the NW…and they are all hands down a lot better than what’s going on out here.
We’re on this dumb ass thizz hyphy shit right now…not my thing.