This has been on Apple Music for at least a month now.
Wait, what? How where? How can I find this on the iOS Music app? Or is it only via Apple Music?
DMX had a meteoric rise and downfall. I loved his skills and craft in the rap game and he's well respected, yet shunned due to his crashing fall. Watching the interview of him crying to re-engage with his son ... made me cry hurtfully - so glad drugs didn't affect me.
Love these so much. Real nostalgia trips
Hells yeah!
The "dog eat dog" meme implied here is not exactly what the world needs right now, is it? Just sayin'. That's what popped in my head, when I first saw the graphic.
Rap, like Funk and Disco (real disco not that pop-Abba junk) has ALWAYS been like that. It separated the chaff, kept real MC's real producers in the game and rewarded their ingenuity and creativity with riches and longevity that was well deserved. Today unfortunately we have artists like screamo and mumble rappers (ahem Takeshi 6Nine, uggh). They get the spotlight as kids cannot appreciate real artists just what's in the news and getting lots of talk = fame. Maybe the simplicity has hurt the industry.
Gone are dancers (pop dancers, but you see them here and there)
Gone are the breakdancers, graffiti artists using Burners. (I think of Rakim's track New York mentioning of this).
Gone are DJ's that can really scratch/transform.
We do see some GREAT collaborations - something feared in Rap in the golden era until we saw the first cross-over (Rakim & Jody Whatley "Friends" yes I was a kid back then)
Rap battles -- we see those trying their craft up & coming to get signed and it's great! The creativity and themes off the battles is really incredible!
For a long time I worried we'd not see knowledgeable and positive influential artists like KRS-One (born in the rap battle, evolved to teach kids in the community away from the gang-life and strive to be better). Yet with what's been happen south of the border we hear tracks like Lil Baby's The Bigger Picture.
I still yet to see an incredible skilled female rapper that can spit hot fire without talking about how many guys she's banged, or how sweet her nether regions are or how many guys want her and she can pick and choose. Like Queen Latifah or Mishee Mee or more like MC Lyte! (Man she really had skills and could freestyle like nobodies business. Took over a decade to see any female hit fame with even half her skills but we here).
Again the dog eat dog was there for a reason, this challenged lyricists to hone their skills, be creative and think quick on their minds ~ the whole craft of rapping in the first place, not the reason but it was the basic skill set needed (and it still should be). I'm glad artists like Eminem are still honing their skills still challenging the standard quo in rap!
PS: All great commentary
