Eminem once esteemed top cop for enforcing hip hop pedagogy while being marketed with pop acts, in hind sight, now that we've seen Recovery and heard all this new bullshit, pretty safe to say he was pop all along.

Now I got no beef if you're pop and you do you, there will always be a mainstream hip hop for you, and there will always be critics about who is faking the funk for their time, so I get this is nothing new. But I feel like the new generations of fans and acts are so over some of the stigmas in judgement that our hip hop forefathers had instilled in most 80's and 90's fans.

For instance, Drake. I feel like his blueprint was to go the 8 Mile route... first two albums lay out all the bullshit that people would dis you for, and when they hate out the gate, call yourself a revolutionary for being emotional. 3rd album however, you can play up the facade because your already here, and being a rapper gives you license to hold guns in your video about coming home. Toronto.

Another example would be Mackelmore and the newly outed Flo-Rida. These are some pop-corn ass rappers, but they getting mad money, and so in this industry climate they get respect from people who 20 years if Mackelmore or Flo-Rida was their peer, I mean would Ice Cube have had that?

I get this is more or less a petty thing, but if other people have had a point in their lives where the old sensibilities are not evolving quite as rapidly as the market and it's caused for introspection, I'd like to hear about it...

let the music do the talking, that's all I ask

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CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!!
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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

What Flo-Rida "outing" do you speak of?

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
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twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

every genre has authenticity games.

r&b artists grew up in the church.
country artists grew up south of Bakersfield.
etc.


but the real key is to sell your persona convincingly.
that's why Madonna can always switch it up and be fine
but nobody believed beyonce was Sasha Fierce.

ppl will suspend all disbelief if you sell it.
it just has to feel like it's coming from a real place.

if an artist has that, folks won't care as long as the music hits.

that you are speaking of is going to catch up with these types.

Not just music, all media.

"Reality" TV, Celeb gossip, all of this hyperreal shit is going to face a new dawn one day.

I have this feeling that because trends are cyclical, and people are always wanting the opposite, or at least a large departure from what was largely accepted as "cool" at a certain time. Maybe thats why Disco faded out, why overly thug rappers have been met if not replaced with more "hipster" or at least introspective ones, and why the top songs of the year where not necessarily the EDM-plasticy that have been dominating the airwaves but at least more organic sounding hits like "Royals", "Get Lucky', "Blurred Lines" & "Suit & Tie".

When I walk around NYC and see some ads for bullshit like "Real Husbands of Hollywood" "Real Shahs of Sunset" not only do I throw up a little in my mouth, but I feel like these corporate panderers are just fooling themselves if they think that this amount of exploitation won't catch up with them. Because the truth is, even if the average majority is a slave/sheep to this content, the younger generation is WAY more clever and resourceful than anyone gives them credit for. When 12 year old girls are creating their own content and legit youtube followings, they know what it takes to create content, and they will NOT be satisfied with what is being sold to them.

Sorry for this tangent, been thinking a lot about this kind of thing today and I think that your question about authenticity is a core facet of my point. Being genuine, and authentic is something that no one can take away from you and everyone must respect. Its the only timeless thing that anyone can really contribute, because the shimmerly glitter stuff that seems popular now, will be a regrettable facepalm when we look back in the rearview. And I see it changing, I see these opposite forces colliding, and I have so much faith that Good is going to triumph over bullshit.

Again, sorry for the rant, the like 2 eople who read this, if you could just give a headnod or a headshake that'd be greatttttttttt.

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village.fm/okayplayer | @delajoo
"Whether you're a rock star or a garbage man, if you think about yourself all the time, you won't be very good at what you do." - Frusciante