(Real) Music

So just a quick update, I officially have no roommate anymore! It’s like having an apartment (kind of but not really)! Even though I’m deathly ill, I’m still going to enjoy all this space. I kind of want to get a sofa but that might be pushing it. But the second bed is kind of like a sofa! But enough about all my new lovely space, on to what the next 900 words of my blog are going to be about....music & the weather?
I just listened to the blueprint 3 & it was really good. It wasn’t jay-z’s best album but it was really good compared to the other crap that some artists put out today (example-Soulja boy). The music on the market now really bothers me. When artists like Soulja Boy market themselves as hip hop artists, it gives hip hop a bad name. Soulja Boy is a rapper but he is NOT a hip hop artist. And yes there IS a difference. People who aren’t familiar with hip hop or rap music think that artists like him are what hip hop is. That’s why people have the impression that all the guys wear baggy jeans & the girls wear tight booty shorts. Which is not how it is-that’s so what the media has transformed it to be, which is completely not true. It’s about community & coming from nothing to something & speaking about something more than guns and hoes. It really is a culture and it is so hard for me to define it. But it’s more than where you came from or what you’ve now become. It’s a culture but that does not mean everybody in it has similar beliefs. I guess the common thing between everybody in the hip hop community is a love of good music. And not necessarily hip hop music but anything that sounds good & takes real talent to make. None of this auto tuned stuff that has been hitting the airwaves recently. It’s such a stupid fad and it has gotten on my nerves from day one! Why should people who are talentless make millions in the music business? I could be a big superstar without having any talent. It’s ridiculous! This is another thing that’s responsible for the decline in real music. Jay-Z has a whole song dedicated to how stupid auto tune is (even though later on in the album he has a song with kanye west that has an auto tuned chorus…let down!). Death of auto tune, the song by Jay-Z has a beat that uses real instruments and it has a message that is relevant to society. When I first heard this song I was at my breaking point with auto tuned stuff. I felt like if I heard one more song that was auto tuned, I was just going to turn my radio off & never turn it back on. He even says in the song “this aint for iTunes.” This means that he isn’t trying to please anybody, he’s just trying to be real about it. And that’s what the hip hop/rap is missing these days. I don’t think people should support artists who don’t know what they’re talking about and are only out there to make a profit. I feel that music that makes the biggest impact is music that comes from the heart and expresses a message. In 20 years when our children talk about what kind of music we listened to in the “olden days,” I don’t want them to think that auto tuned or senseless rap music is representative of the music from our generation because it most definitely is not. And that’s another problem. I think artists are just making records to make money and not thinking about their impact on listeners. They may say that they’re trying to rap about where they came from and that’s all fine & dandy, but spin that into a positive message about how you made it out of the ghetto. Every single song does not have to be about how you carry a gun, just got out of jail, or have so many hoes. They glamorize that lifestyle but it is not a good lifestyle to live in at all. Thankfully, I have never experienced it but I have family members and friends who did. And it’s nothing to take lightly. Some people are struggling to eat and can’t find work. And here these rappers in their million dollar homes and hundred thousand dollar cars are bragging about how hood they are & how great it is. No-that’s just b.s. These people have left the hood many years ago & never looked back. It’s just so disrespectful to me. People are choosing to live this lifestyle because they somehow think it is cool. I don’t understand. IT IS NOT COOL TO STRUGGLE!!!! It is good to be settled down & life & to be able to provide for your family. That is what these rappers have done so I don’t understand why they promote this type of lifestyle, it is just so hypocritical. I feel like real hip hop artists talk about real things and are actually inspirational. It’s ok to have good music to dance to & to have fun music. But the problem here is when people actually start to take this moment seriously. For example right now I’m listening to Nas (one of the best rappers of all time, he is seriously a lyrical genius). His music makes me bob my head and think about something. This particular song is about paying tribute to those who are going through a hard time. It is like a thank you song, it has a soft beat & it just sounds like real music. I wish more of this type of music would actually make it on the radio. Some radio stations don’t play music like this because it is not popular right now. Does that not make it good music? I think some of the best music never makes it to the radio. How sad is that?


P.S.-I have illmatic as my pic this weke because i think it is one of the greatest albums of all time!!!