Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Larehip
Rap is mainstream. It hauls in BILLIONS of dollars a year. Guys like Jay Z and Li'l Wayne are so rich they have to portray themselves as pimps and drug dealers to justify their bank accounts and mansions so that their fans won't think they lost touch with the streets.
|
Anything mainstream is mainstream. A whole genre isn't mainstream, there are still people working underground. I don't think you know quite enough about the genre to say every aspect of it is mainstream. There are rappers past and present as punk or more so than a lot of punk. Example:
In a relation of ethos. But more obviously (and currently):
And as Urban mentioned earlier:
It's got a confined feeling, it's tempo is relentless, it's a little tongue in cheek and self aware and extremely angry. How is this not in some way parallel to Punk? It was bred in the same exact city, just borroughs apart, and they were well aware of each others' existence. Hell, the Beastie Boys were originally a bunch of Punks, really into Bad Brains, before making the switch to Hip Hop, and they still fit Punk songs on their albums seamlessly. If the last example wasn't enough, there's always this classic:
You can say the mainstream sucks all you want, and you might be right to that extent, but to say
all Hip Hop sucks for it is pretty off, considering that the mainstream version of
any genre is likely to not be as satisfying as deeper stuff.