Commercial Vs. Underground

[bigCASH]

I've been doing a lot of reading here and one of the things i've noticed is the common dislike of commercial rap and i use the word dislike loosely. A lot of you go as far as to say that commercial rap is fake and the rappers are sellouts, but what some of you might not know is that most of the rappers are coming from welfare or low income housing projects and they believe that any situation is better than the one that they're already in and i bet if any one of you went 75% of your lives with nothing and somebody came along and offered you a recording contract it would be extremely hard to pass it up and also most of these underground rappers who are "keeping it real" who are rapping just for the love of it if they were given a chance to make millions and millions of dollars i can almost promise you that they would jump at the opportunity. A lot of you might consider going commercial selling out...i don't...i would call it creating a more diverse fan base and making a hell of a lot of money doing it. Another thing i've noticed was that a lot of you say a lot of negitive things about "wack" rappers such as Chingy, Nelly etc. saying that they shouldn't have any place in rap. I'm not judging any of your opinions you have the right to listnen or not listnen to who ever you want to. I personally do not care for there music at all but just because you don't like the music a certain rapper makes doesn't necessarily mean that they're wack...i'm positive there's alot of people out there who didn't like the music tupac was making or BIG L or whoever that doesn't mean that they were wack because we all know that they weren't wack...one of the biggest things i love about hip hop is the freedom of expression...to speak about whatever you want to talk about however you want to say it and everybody may not agree with what you have to say but you still have the right to say it and you shouldn't knock another person for speaking what's on their mind. Maybe an artist wants to rap about women and going to the club and maybe another artist wants to rap about how tough the streets he grew up on was but that is the essence of rap showing who you are and where you come from through song...to me wack would be Nelly rapping like he was some cold hearted killer or Chingy rapping like he came up from being a drug kingpin selling crack and herion...so you may not like their misic and you may not support what they stand for but the fact is many people do and if they were truly "wack" as a lot of you say...the truth is they wouldn't sell records point blank...i'm not here to kick knowledge to a bunch of people i've never met and probaly never will meet but i just wanted to say you don't have to love their music you don't have to like them but don't hate them for doing their thang

holla!

 

[S. Fourteen]

good post but I must comment on one thing

"to me wack would be Nelly rapping like he was some cold hearted killer or Chingy rapping like he came up from being a drug kingpin selling crack and herion"

I see the point but what if Nelly or Chingy comes out saying 'this is whats happening in the hood' 'this lifestyle is what young kids today are living by'... 'I'm just here to tell the story and let people know'.

Where do you draw the line there?

 

[2Pax]

I don't like Nelly or Chingy because their music is classed as hip hop when in fact most of the time it's closer to pop. Don't get me wrong I liked Country Grammer, I had that album when I was young and wasn't into hip hop as much.

 

[Hurts]

young lol 3 years ago...

but I agree with you nelly and chingy make music that comes closer to pop...but ok they have the right to make it...cuz they are entertainers...but its not my type of hiphop

 

[Lok]

most of these underground rappers who are "keeping it real" who are rapping just for the love of it if they were given a chance to make millions and millions of dollars i can almost promise you that they would jump at the opportunity.

Most of these artists who have been "keeping it real" been "keeping it real" for years & years, sticking to their own style & not allowing the latest soundm fashion or trend to dictate their music. So i would have to disagree with you on that one in.

And for the record, I don't hate commercial rap.

 

[Hurts]

I dont think ne 1 hates commercial rap...i mean i think ppl just prefer underground rap....and yeah sum are tryna go mainstream..talib kweli rite....?

when ppl say I hate commercial rap they usually say it to upset the ppl that listen to it..and by upsetting them they catch their attention and start talking about underground..rap..sum ignore it..im always open for new shit...so please keep talking my friends...

 

[Tito]

Its all the same to me. Backpack, big willie, gansta, whatever. If it is good music, it is good music.

 

[Cown]

Commercial/Underground... I don't really care, just as long they spitting some real shit and got a messege I'll bumb it

 

[bigCASH]

good lookin

good lookin to everybody who took the time to read and reply to my post.

Quote: posted by saltynuts:
"I see the point but what if Nelly or Chingy comes out saying 'this is whats happening in the hood' 'this lifestyle is what young kids today are living by'... 'I'm just here to tell the story and let people know'.

Where do you draw the line there?"

i don't see any problems with that if they came from a life of poverty there's nothing wrong with rapping about the issuses that they had to face and the problems that their communities have to deal with but if they came up from an upper or middle class lifestyle...they can't capture the pains and struggles of ghetto children unless they were forced to live through it themselves

Quote: poated by 2Pax:
"I don't like Nelly or Chingy because their music is classed as hip hop when in fact most of the time it's closer to pop."

Really the majority of rap is pop music...When most people think of pop music they think of the N sync's the backstreet boys the Britney Spears etc. and yes...the Back Street Boys and N sync do fall under the category of pop music but pop music is just short for popular music. Now if you think about it Tupac made pop music so did biggie and so does every other famous rapper. Rap is a billion dollar industry it is the most influential genre of music today and it's taking over the world...now i would call that "pop" music