I have worried about the state of hip hop for some time now. The vapid lyrics about shopping, chains, shopping for chains, sex, Escalades, stripper poles and sex on water beds. Remember when hip hop used to be about guns, violence, ghetto life, retaliation and jacuzzi sex? What happened to the authenticity of those songs and artists? Well, some of those artists were shot, some abandoned music for reality shows and rehab, but I blame much of it on the gentrification of traditional hip hop hotbeds.
Recently I have received invites to hip shindigs in East LA, Boyle Heights and Long Beach. At best, the current climate in these neighborhoods would inspire raps about comic book stores, record stores and vintage clothing. Or maybe verses about purchasing a loft with an equally-artistic significant other, and making plans to co-pen a play about the artistic differences of post-modernistic British rockers. Apparently fed up with this hipster snobbery, the new hip hop crop moved on to the mall and went waterbed shopping.
I am happy that today's rappers seem to be enjoying themselves more, you know, getting out. I certainly prefer this to violence, but I was just wondering if we could get you to step out of the mall, stop blaming things on the alcohol and maybe just be cool. Jay-Z seems to have it figured out. Call Hype Williams, ask him what to do.
Kisses,
Heidi
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