Or rather, when did this become the general consensus amongst popular culture fans/artists?
I like "gangsta music" (in moderation) as well as other shit, so I'm not partial to any singular aesthetic.
But, why is "conscious" a dirty word, today?

ideas of politically advanced/informed behaviors/activities.

So, "conscious" rap doesn't seem real. Sort of like a hope-pie in the sky-thing, compared to what seems "real" in the ghetto.

to get headwrap hoes.

Rappin for da bitches won!!
________
Big PEMFin H & z's
█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

OKP gets into real vs. Real, black vs. Black often enough so I don't think it's worth breaking down in THIS thread one more 'gain, but in the digital, everything's fucked and worthless age we live in, it can feel supremely corny to hear Superstar Quamallah take a break from his professorial pursuits to cut a rap album about eating right and being nice to your friends (while clarifying he's a better rapper than you and your friends, because he's a rapper).


There is also not an idealism around which like-minded artists can rally anymore. 1017, MMG, CTE and Duct Tape can all eat from the same plates because they're all perpetuating each other. But there isn't that constant, "unavoidable" barrage of eating your greens and respecting neighborhood leaders like there was in the late-90s, so there's no center mass for it. The most "conscious" rappers of any consequence that even come to mind for me these days would be, like...


Skyzoo
Saigon
Big KRIT
Kendrick Lamar
CunninLynguists
Roots
Stalley

I mean I'd throw G-Side in there, but they broke up. And NONE of these artists sound like stereotypical conscious, few of them seem to interact regularly.


Or more succinctly, 'conscious' is sort of dead as a term because it's dead as an identifiable genre. These guys are rapping over the same thudding 808s, for the most part, as everyone else.



And Waka Flocka is taking them to school anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5Ka7jQMyE



~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." © Jay Bilas
"I don't read pages of rap lyrics, I listen to rap music." © Bombastic
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

they call it fake or pretentious. Basically, folks don't believe there are negros out here who
care about their environment and think beyond sex with every woman with big ass and titties...
black people whose self esteem isn't connected to what material things they own.

We exist though. There's nothing pretentious about maturity.

soul artists "grew up in the church."
country artists grew up "south of bakersfield."
rap artists have "street cred."

a lot of it is marketing, to a degree.

it's a way to make the fans have some kinda solidarity,
and it is a way for the gate keepers on the genre to ensure "authenticity."


some of it is bullshit,
some of it is real.

that's show business.