But it was more a vote for "I don't think any artist should censor themselves" than "I prefer profanity to no profanity". If the music and lyrics are good I don't *need* profanity but it isn't a hard and fast rule either way.
obv sometimes you want to hear some cursing to increase the aggression factor, but for the most part, theres nothing you cant say without a swear word. or at least theres nothing you cant say with LESS swearing. run DMC and PE did okay without cursing. plus these days its just in there cos people expect it. id feel better about listening to hip hop if it had less cursing. how does every other genre get by without cursing, while hip hop needs to have it all the time? i get that it makes it more honest, but its also a pain, cos you cant listen to it (or SHOULDNT IMO) in certain company cos of the language. also i hate that hip hop has made certain words so acceptable. its lowered the tone.
4. "I'm leaning toward no, but not really..." In response to Reply # 0
I'm at a stage where I care mostly about the quality and fit of the rhyme. If a curse is the natural and organic fit, then it's okay. At times it does seem like there are curses just to have a curse word there, like that makes the song harder. I'm not into that. I've almost aged out of rap music altogether, and so I just don't like a whole lot of cursing.
I also think that if you use to many curses, the words lose meaning. The whole point of using curses is to show an advanced degree, and the overuse of the words decreases that degree.
You're such pests...now, what is it you want? In your depths of your ignorance, what is it you want? Well, whatever it is you want, I can't deliver because I just don't see it. - Orson Welles
But to some level I pretty much agree with the comments above me.
I used to buy edited CDs, but I stopped because sometimes they a) take out "offensive" or controversial words and phrases that aren't necessarily profane, b) shorten songs for reasons totally unrelated to profane language and c) leave out whole songs.
The language can be kinda grating to me, but as an "art person", it bothers me even more if I can't experience a piece of art or music the way the artist intended.
7. "I bought Illmatic on tape at Walmart when it came out" In response to Reply # 5
and I got home and realized I bought the censored version by mistake. I put it in and it was actually the uncensored version, apparently the pressers made a batch of tapes with the wrong recording and that was one of them.
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
10. "Man I figured I'd just rock it to see how it sounded" In response to Reply # 8
since I already had the plastic off (days of reading liner notes before you listen to something). Couldn't take it back so I just put it in to see if the edits were too distracting. I wish I still had that thing, quite the conversation piece.
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
9. "I bought Missy's first album from Walmart." In response to Reply # 7
I didn't even notice for a while, but it came down to feeling like a seasoning was missing. I went to Sam Goody the next month and scanned the CD there, and was blown away.
11. "That album had the PA label on it, right?" In response to Reply # 9
I didn't own it but I've heard it enough in a friend's car that listened to it constantly.
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
13. "Oh right, I remember seeing those on albums" In response to Reply # 12
especially CDs. I've actually seen those slide off on the shelves.
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
22. "because I still like buying albums." In response to Reply # 21
It's not like there's that many that are clean, but if it's available, I'll cop it. I can get the explicit version of whatever for free if I want, so it's not that big of a deal.
>BUT > >i cant listen to rap with cusses that have been edited out.
Spotify is actually infuriating because 60% of the time the first result in an album search is the edited version. I have ended up adding a bunch of edited bullshit to playlists I've tried to make and it drives me fucking insane.
16. "RE: you like your Rap with Profanity?" In response to Reply # 0
>where you stand on Profanity in Rap? also do you feel more >classic rap songs didn't have much Profanity base songs and >still hit?
"Profanity" as a social concept holds no currency in an artform. i cant believe anyone would think there should never be "curse words" in rap, since there are in real life.
Also, buying edited albums makes no sense to me. are you afraid of words? madness.
17. "RE: you like your Rap with Profanity?" In response to Reply # 16
>>where you stand on Profanity in Rap? also do you feel more >>classic rap songs didn't have much Profanity base songs and >>still hit? > >"Profanity" as a social concept holds no currency in an >artform. i cant believe anyone would think there should never >be "curse words" in rap, since there are in real life. > >Also, buying edited albums makes no sense to me. are you >afraid of words? madness. >
I don't like cheese. Cheese exists in real life, sure. I still don't want it on my food though. Cheese isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I myself am not afraid of cheese. If I'm at a restaurant, and a burger looks real good, but comes with cheese, I order it without. If I'm in a situation where it's a hassle to have my food made with no cheese, I either pick it off or just eat something else. It's just one of many things that I prefer to consume sparingly or not at all (but there's no need to throw the burger out with the cheese).
24. "RE: you like your Rap with Profanity?" In response to Reply # 16
>"Profanity" as a social concept holds no currency in an >artform. i cant believe anyone would think there should never >be "curse words" in rap, since there are in real life.
I haven't seen anyone suggest that there shouldn't be any cursing in rap. You're building a straw man there. You're right to point out that profanity is a social construct, but so are all words and the range of meanings we attribute to them. Yet if we can critique linguistic arts at all - whether novels or poetry or rap - we have to be able to critique the word choice. Someone believing that gratuitous profanity *can* contribute to the lessening of a given product's worth is hardly absurd - it's like believing that too many descriptors or convoluted grammar can ruin a good sentence. Don't essentialize the critique by reducing it to some sort of crude moralism.
>Also, buying edited albums makes no sense to me. are you >afraid of words? madness.
lol - you think you're pointing out the naivete of others, but you're really just highlighting your own... you can't think of *any* reason, not even plain old practical reasons, that someone would want a clean copy of something. Say, for playing in the car when kids or parents or people whose preferences you don't know are around?
19. "I don't mind it from anyone, with the exception of Wayne" In response to Reply # 0
That dude can say some shit sometimes that I'm like "Ew, gross dude." It'd be different if every bar didn't have some nasty shit in it.
Mind you, this is coming from the guy who has two songs that work so blue, I've been shut down mid show and banned from venues. I think it's just that it's coming from him.
23. "I got into rap almost solely due to The Chronic" In response to Reply # 0
So, probably not hard to figure out where I stand. Funny thing is, it's not the lyrics that caught my attention, but the music and the general menacing-but-funky vibe. What they were talking about was a bit of an afterthought. But I got so used to hearing those subjects and words that it became sort of the ultimate rap template in my brain. I still gravitate to either gangsta rap or at least very hard-edged battle rap over any other kind, though obviously my horizons have broadened by a lot.
27. "parents only allowed clean versions when I was younger" In response to Reply # 0
I was into all southern rap when Lil Jon, Ying Yang, TI, and Ludacris were making it big, but because of my young age at the time I had to buy the clean versions (kings of crunk was nearly all instrumental believe me)
In england this was the longest task... only american sites had them available so had to buy and ship them from there.
I could only do that for so long so I started looking for rappers with clean lyrics, which opened a whole new world of older hip hop... especially most albums from the native tongues.
Most of the older hip hop I came across are still my favourites now, so I'm going for 'no'
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