Your place for discussion about RPGs, gaming, music, movies, anime, computers, sports, and any other stuff we care to talk about...
Ok...I just finished the last of the original Star Wars movies...my personal rankings:
- Your favorite band sucks, and you have terrible taste in movies.
<div style='font: 11pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light"; text-align: left; '>I don't hate psychs; just stereotypical psychs. But, it's kinda hard not to be stereotypical in a profession where you're talking to hundreds of people a month.</div>
Rosalina: But you didn't.
Robert: But I DON'T.
Rosalina: You sure that's right?
Robert: I was going to HAVE told you they'd come?
Rosalina: No.
Robert: The subjunctive?
Rosalina: That's not the subjunctive.
Robert: I don't think the syntax has been invented yet.
Rosalina: It would have had to have had been.
Robert: Had to have...had...been? That can't be right.
Robert: But I DON'T.
Rosalina: You sure that's right?
Robert: I was going to HAVE told you they'd come?
Rosalina: No.
Robert: The subjunctive?
Rosalina: That's not the subjunctive.
Robert: I don't think the syntax has been invented yet.
Rosalina: It would have had to have had been.
Robert: Had to have...had...been? That can't be right.
<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Speaking of which, I KNOW I have insecurities...right now I'm very insecure, more than at any other time in my life...doesn't mean I still don't hate a lot of hip-hop (see under: P. Diddy, Nelly, Mase, Usher + more.)
Originally, there was a lot in hip-hop about making it big, about getting on top, along with a lot about getting out of the fucked-up shit in the ghetto...which is an understandable sentiment, if you've grown up in the ghetto I can see how you'd want nothing more than just to rap all day and get paid for it...and the message resonated, it was real, so it blew up...I like a lot of the earlier gangsta stuff better than I like what's out now even if it is mysogynstic and violent as fuck, because I think it's more real. (NWA, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, etc)
But the message got changed around into just staying on top, living the high life, playing women, and just in general having as much to "represent" with as possible. And suburban-ass spoiled kids, talented as hell but still suburban, started making it big by just rapping about wanting to live that kind of lifestyle, or living it once they got it, without ever having had an ounce of hardness in them (see especially P. Diddy, I think he's a badass producer but not a badass rapper...). So it became about living the good life without ever having lived the bad, about hustling and playing women, about being hard without ever having gone through shit. But everyone wants to live out the fantasy, so people buy the music...or else they think Nelly is just the absolute shit, so they buy his music...must be that they think that, because he doesn't really rap about anything besides himself and the lifestyle he lives.
So now we have a generation of white (and black, and latino, whoever) kids who want to live out the fantasy of being Nelly and buying his albums...or thinking he's the shit and buying his albums...but the only reason he's the shit is because he's blown up (he is a good rapper and has flow, but I don't think that's why people look up to him) and is supported by a bunch of kids who think he's the shit...so it's a self-perpetuating cycle.
Besides which, if you hustle somebody's gotta get hustled...and if you play someone's gonna get played...so for every person who makes it in the world that hip-hop's describing now, there's two or three others who are gonna come out on the wrong side of the equation. You can't have a perpetuating system by doing that...eventually you're gonna use up the people who make you who you are.
So that's why I don't like some rap and hip-hop. It's a closed system, money feeding stars who rap about money which makes more money that feeds them, I personally don't give a fuck about Nelly and get pissed at the idea of giving him money to listen to him rap about himself...it's also lost touch with the real world. And it describes getting on top and getting what you want by hustling and playing people...which makes some sense if you're poor as hell and doing whatever you can to get on top...less sense if you are on top and keep doing it just to be a hustler. Not everyone can be a playa...and pretty soon the people getting played are gonna lose interest, and it'll just be the playas...but there won't be anyone left to play.
Notice that I said SOME rap and hip-hop. You all know the stuff I'm talking about. There's a lot of good stuff out there. But that's right, I'm saying that Nelly (I only listen to the radio airplay, but I haven't heard a song I liked yet, if I'm wrong I stand ready to be corrected) and the type of music he represents have shit messages and meaning. I love the flow, like the beats, think the message is a fucking bubble. You can go off about music not being about the message if you want...but why have the message in the first place then...
So there you go. If you have responses, I'll read 'em up, and maybe we'll even get some debate going.</div>
Originally, there was a lot in hip-hop about making it big, about getting on top, along with a lot about getting out of the fucked-up shit in the ghetto...which is an understandable sentiment, if you've grown up in the ghetto I can see how you'd want nothing more than just to rap all day and get paid for it...and the message resonated, it was real, so it blew up...I like a lot of the earlier gangsta stuff better than I like what's out now even if it is mysogynstic and violent as fuck, because I think it's more real. (NWA, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, etc)
But the message got changed around into just staying on top, living the high life, playing women, and just in general having as much to "represent" with as possible. And suburban-ass spoiled kids, talented as hell but still suburban, started making it big by just rapping about wanting to live that kind of lifestyle, or living it once they got it, without ever having had an ounce of hardness in them (see especially P. Diddy, I think he's a badass producer but not a badass rapper...). So it became about living the good life without ever having lived the bad, about hustling and playing women, about being hard without ever having gone through shit. But everyone wants to live out the fantasy, so people buy the music...or else they think Nelly is just the absolute shit, so they buy his music...must be that they think that, because he doesn't really rap about anything besides himself and the lifestyle he lives.
So now we have a generation of white (and black, and latino, whoever) kids who want to live out the fantasy of being Nelly and buying his albums...or thinking he's the shit and buying his albums...but the only reason he's the shit is because he's blown up (he is a good rapper and has flow, but I don't think that's why people look up to him) and is supported by a bunch of kids who think he's the shit...so it's a self-perpetuating cycle.
Besides which, if you hustle somebody's gotta get hustled...and if you play someone's gonna get played...so for every person who makes it in the world that hip-hop's describing now, there's two or three others who are gonna come out on the wrong side of the equation. You can't have a perpetuating system by doing that...eventually you're gonna use up the people who make you who you are.
So that's why I don't like some rap and hip-hop. It's a closed system, money feeding stars who rap about money which makes more money that feeds them, I personally don't give a fuck about Nelly and get pissed at the idea of giving him money to listen to him rap about himself...it's also lost touch with the real world. And it describes getting on top and getting what you want by hustling and playing people...which makes some sense if you're poor as hell and doing whatever you can to get on top...less sense if you are on top and keep doing it just to be a hustler. Not everyone can be a playa...and pretty soon the people getting played are gonna lose interest, and it'll just be the playas...but there won't be anyone left to play.
Notice that I said SOME rap and hip-hop. You all know the stuff I'm talking about. There's a lot of good stuff out there. But that's right, I'm saying that Nelly (I only listen to the radio airplay, but I haven't heard a song I liked yet, if I'm wrong I stand ready to be corrected) and the type of music he represents have shit messages and meaning. I love the flow, like the beats, think the message is a fucking bubble. You can go off about music not being about the message if you want...but why have the message in the first place then...
So there you go. If you have responses, I'll read 'em up, and maybe we'll even get some debate going.</div>