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Only A Rap 'Artist' Could Be This Thick

I often get Ice T and Ice Cube confused.
 
There are no shortage of intelligent rappers and incisive rap songs, but I watched an interview with Lil Wayne (about whom I know nothing at all) and he was illiterate beyond belief. He could scarcely talk in cogent terms about himself or his music, and when he was asked a few questions about race relations in the U.S. and the tactics of Black Lives Matter, he kept on gibbering about how there was no problem as he was a 'Rich Nigga' with white employees who do exactly what he says.
 
Krepostnoi said:
Shout-out to Ted Nugent, representing the intellectual wing of rock music.
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He was always daft but he has become a parody of himself. I don't mind his music at all, but all you need to know about his politics is the fact that this die-hard conservative pooped his pants and didn't wash for days to get a medical deferment for the Vietnam draft.
 
Yithian said:
There are no shortage of intelligent rappers and incisive rap songs, but I watched an interview with Lil Wayne (about whom I know nothing at all) and he was illiterate beyond belief. He could scarcely talk in cogent terms about himself or his music, and when he was asked a few questions about race relations in the U.S. and the tactics of Black Lives Matter, he kept on gibbering about how there was no problem as he was a 'Rich Nigga' with white employees who do exactly what he says.
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He's done so many drugs, it's burned him out. Best not to ask him for an opinion.
 
i know a couple of people who actually are illiterate, but they are not unintelligent nor out of touch
 
lordmongrove said:
Rap 'artist' tries to raise a million dollars to prove the earth is flat because he has never see the curve. Not only can these guys not sing or play music, it appears they have shit for brains.
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Sometimes that does appear to be the case.

 
Yithian said:
There are no shortage of intelligent rappers and incisive rap songs, but I watched an interview with Lil Wayne (about whom I know nothing at all) and he was illiterate beyond belief. He could scarcely talk in cogent terms about himself or his music, and when he was asked a few questions about race relations in the U.S. and the tactics of Black Lives Matter, he kept on gibbering about how there was no problem as he was a 'Rich Nigga' with white employees who do exactly what he says.
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What's the point of bring him up exactly?
Beyond "there are intelligent people of x group but this one's an idiot?"
 
Because people were discussing the intelligence of rappers and he seemed to be an extreme example--there was no big point I was trying to make.
 
I did some research years ago into the influence of rap and gang culture in popular media on teens: when they're in the early stages of their career such artists have to adhere to a relatively narrow image and behaviour set, a generic hard-man, brotherhood & ghetto image where authority of any kind (education, law, social norms) doesn't apply to them. It's effectively a studied ignorance, which in many cases does belie intelligence, imagination and a wide scope of view - many, such as Ice T, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg (Lion?) etc once they became established allowed their actual talents and personalities to come through, branching into different kinds of music, writing, acting etc, at which point they're described by many of their genre fans as "sell-outs".

The basic rapper image is one of self- and group-empowerment among people from an otherwise disenfranchised demographic. It gives them a sense of self-worth and belonging, which is what many young males especially crave: and the generic image of hostility to authority and disrespect towards/disregarding societal norms outside of their own group identity is a powerful one, to which all who identify with the culture must adhere quite closely. It doesn't preclude articulacy at all, but what they actually say has to be within surprisingly narrow margins. It's not just rappers of course: the same applied to punk. Watch early Sex Pistols and try to reconcile that with what Lydon was turning out 10 years later. Only the voice remains the same.
 
A few years ago I read a biography of Bob Marley and it struck me that a lot of cliches of rap and gang culture appear to originate from Jamaica. Sound systems used to battle each other to make a bigger sound with more bass. I may have the wrong person, but it may have been Coxsone Dodd who used to fire guns at sound system events. If you were young, angry and black perhaps Jamaica and reggae added to the mix of influences.
 
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Mythopoeika said:
I often get Ice T and Ice Cube confused.
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Ice t was a real gangster and ice cube is just a fake gangster and That's a picture of ice cube in 1987.
 
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when you say "just a fake gangster" do you mean as inferior to "a real gangster" ???
 
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Mythopoeika said:
I often get Ice T and Ice Cube confused.
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turns out ive been mixing them up as well, npi

but as to the legitimacy of their gangster status, both are in the entertainment industry ... arguably a true gangster would avoid the limelight ... perhaps its a matter of which has the more effective act
 
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I recall on an early spoken word performance Henry Rollins calling out Ice cube / Ice T (can't recall which it was). He said along the lines of 'put the gun down and its you and me on the car park. That man is going down'. I think that he may have mellowed a bit now.
 
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