Monday, June 30, 2008

Swagger and flow are the steroids of rap, beats the B12 shot that keeps you going

I am a big hip hop fan. And my biggest problem with the genre isn't necessarily the artists, but the listeners.

Why do I say this? Because Weezy F baby is allowed to say he is the best rapper alive and get away with it. Admittedly, I am a fan. But I listen to, and a fan of a variety of other rappers ranging from talentless and celebrated (Jeezy) to extremely talented and grossly underrated (Joe Budden) which gives me a lot of insight. Wayne is talented yes, but it’s only marginally better than other above average rappers. Case and point Barry Bonds off of Kanye West's Graduation.
Here's his lyrics (edited):

And me I'm Mr Weezy baby...yea I'm so bright not shady, my teeth and my ice so white like shady, ice in my teeth so refrigerated, I'm so **** in good like I'm sleepin' with Megan, I'm all about my Franklin's.. Lincolns and Regan's
Whenever they make them..i shall hayve (Not at typo) them, oops I meant have them, im so crazy, but if u play crazy you'll be sleepin' with daises, its such a habeet (again not a typo just bad lyrics), oops I meant habit, and my drink still pinker than the Easter rabbit, and I'm still cole(cold) like Keiyshia's family, stole on my waist turn beef to patties, and I ate it cuz I'm so at it, and I don't front, and I don't go backwards, and I don't practice, and I don't lack it, and u can get buried ****

Decent. But not great. Basically the story of Wayne's career. Like I can figure that out the first time I hear it.... there's not really anything of substance or is even above the wit you can find on the street. And half of it is swagger and flow nothing actually lyrically based.

Its super annoying that he lets it be known that he doesn't practice because clearly he should, and his influence on all of these wanna be d-boys/rappers is going to be the death of the game. And the theme of the song is another hit....the saddest thing about it is that it takes a hot beat and 15 minutes in the studio and a little swagger to make another hit....Barry Bonds. Swagger is the steroids of rap! Well its one kind. Pump your raps with swagger, flow, "style" and spit it over a good beat and you've got one of these new school steroid rappers who outshines the traditional emcees doing it the right way with lyrical content, wordplay, varied structure, multi-syllabic rhymes, creativity, etc.

It must be said that the reason I made this post was because on this Fabolous mixtape of DJ Drama's there is this posse cut with Freck Billionaire, Paul Cain, and Red Cafe where Fab makes a reference to the four rappers as the 4 Horsemen of wrestling fame. I was trying to verify the lyrics that connected the metaphor to the punchline so I could quote it to a friend who said that Fab has fallen off. When I Googled the lyrics, EVERY single site that had the lyrics screwed up the reference. The original 4 Horsemen were Are and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard and of course Ric Flair, but whoever got the lyrics must not have known that and had some ridiculous combination of words that made no sense....but was probably hot to their stupid little mind.

What does that have to do with anything?

Well one, it shows people aren't listening and two it proves the whole rap being non-lyrically based. That wasn't the only lyric that was messed up in that track, which is considered one of the best on the mixtape and if people don't know what they are hearing then they really aren't respecting the lyrics and two the flow and swagger (combined with the beat) carry the song to where people actually like it.

I know when you go to the club, you would rather hear about lollipops than how blacks have been oppressed and forgotten achievements like some of Nas' lyrics suggest. Even something a metaphor calling you people Clinton, HillBilly mofos (get it Hillary Bill Clinton lol), isn't something you want to hear at the club. But let's not call the rapper with the most commercial appeal or the easiest, slightly clever lyrics to decipher the best rapper alive. Please. I beg you!

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