I give you exhibit a: Soulja Boy. The poster boy of what hip-ho
p has become. And the prototype for all popular rappers today. (Flo-Rida, T-Pain, Unk, Plies. Crap like that) All show, no lyrics or flow. He has absolutely no skills as an emcee. He can't write, you can hardly understand what he says, and when you can understand him, you wish you couldn't. "What are you talking about Jason? Soulja Boy's hot. He's the shiznit, he's poppin!" And while the fact that he's popular may be true, it doesn't mean he's a good rapper. It simply means his fan base is even dumber than he is. Let me show you some lyrics, if you can call them that.Soulja Boy-Crank That Soulja Boy
From the album Souljaboytellem.com
Soulja Boy Off In This Hoe
Watch Me Crank It
Watch Me Roll
Watch Me Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Then Super Man Dat Hoe
Now Watch Me yua
Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Now Watch Me yua!
Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Now Watch Me yua!
Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Now Watch Me yua!
Crank Dat Soulja Boy
Soulja Boy Off In This Hoe
Watch Me Lean And Watch Me Rock
Super Man Dat Hoe
Then Watch Me Crank Dat Robocop
Super Fresh, Now Watch Me Jock
Jocking On Them Haterz Man
When I Do Dat Soulja Boy
I Lean To The Left And Crank Dat thing
Now Yua!
I'm Jocking On Yo Bitch Ass
And If We Get The Fightin
Then I'm Cocking On Your Bitch ass
You Catch Me At Yo Local Party
Yes I Crank It Everyday
Haterz Get Mad Cuz
"I got me some bapes today"
I'm speechless. I really do not know what to say after reading that. If I said that I can understand how this 13 year old illiterate kid is making millions of dollars selling this crap, then I would be lying. I guess in reality, the only people to blame are the idiots buying his records. (Which contain many more songs just as intelligently written as "Crank That".) So here's my question to those of you who like Soulja Boy, and the many "artists" like him that crowd the top of today's hip-hop charts;
What the hell is wrong with you? I don't mean to sound rude, but do you people have brains? "Crank That" sounds like the old, "Eeny meeny miny moe, catch a tiger by the toe..." thing, with a beat to it. Yes, it was written as skillfully as a child's song.
Now let me show you what I consider to be good hip-hop:
Lupe Fiasco-Kick Push II
From the album "Food & Liquor"
When the cops didn't find him for grindin' though
They kinda blew the vibe, figured it was time to go
Plus, he had to at home a long time ago
And he had made like ten dollars off the sign he wrote
It read: "A little hungry, and need a little money, it's for my little sister, and her little tummy."
Wasn't lyin' though didn't go buy hydro
Went to the restaurant and bought two gyros
'Cause he knew they wasn't cooking where he lived
Da-kook-akook-akook's now took him to the crib
A little hurt from the rail he took into the ribs
Right past the pushers who couldn't underdig
"What's the use of pushin' if you ain't pushin' none of this"
If i kick it with y'all I'm just pushin' for a bit
But, what was on his mind had pushed him to the lid
They best customer wasn't cooking for a kid
So he kick, push
Over his shoulders he swore he'd never look
'Cause wasn't nothin' back there but the blackness
Life wasn't too attractive
And so he kick, push
Over his shoulders he swore he'd never look
'Cause wasn't nothin' back there but the blackness
Life wasn't too attractive
That song is actually about something. (It goes on about his crack head mother and abusive father and how he finds a group of friends who he skates with, yada yada yada.) Nonetheless, a great song. It has a great flow, a cool beat, and oh my God! The lines actually rhyme, and relate to each other! I get it, he's telling a story, ok. Forgot about the whole poetry aspect of rap there for a second.
Apparently so did everybody else. I mean sure, all these dance songs have catchy beats and are easy to sing along to. (Most of them have three verses that are all the same with the exception of one or two words). But what is rap without poetry? It's just rhythm...it's just... RA. You need the poetry in order to make RAP. (Rhythm and poetry is what rap stands for, in case you missed that memo.)
All of these rappers today, like Soulja Boy, have no merit to what they're saying. If they're saying anything at all that is. There's no poetry behind what they're doing. There's no skill. There's no artistry. What happened to writing lyrics? Aren't the lyrics kind of important? I mean, that is what you listen to music for right? It's not like the old days when people went to the concert hall to hear classical instrumental music. In reality, nobody is going to listen to a rock song with no lyrics, right? SO WHY WOULD YOU LISTEN TO A RAP SONG THAT MIGHT AS WELL HAVE NO LYRICS?
I guess I don't get why so many people like this absolute garbage. As you may have already noticed. And I probably never will. This just seems obvious to me though. If there is no poetry, then it simply can NOT be rap. Literally. It's just "ra" then. So you people can have your "ra" music, I like rap just fine thank you very much.
picture courtesy: http://www.bboy.org/forums/bboy-news/
